No sooner do I threaten to write the definitive meta-blogging dismissal of those who would (a.) put down or (b.) try to set rules for this thing we do than more experienced, eloquent comrades do it far better than I could: First radical Rogi tears down link-chain fences and popularity-contest peer pressure, then Jonathon starts and Burningbird continues a declaration of independence from technical and writing advice and newsfeed ranking systems. Bravo. Brava.
What can I add except your humble Weblog's mission statement and manifesto? It's written with all the wisdom of six weeks' experience, but you can read this and decide if you'll want to read anything else:
This Weblog is light on links and mostly my own journal, though I'll sometimes quote cool stuff and maintain a limited, rotating list of pointers to logs by men who write better than I do and women I'd stalk if I were single. I'm usually loath to link to cute content or swell sites that I didn't discover on my own and that you've already seen linked a hundred times, though I will if I really like them.
You think I don't have the right to edit, revise, or remove my own writing? You don't know me, and you don't know what writing is.
This Weblog is maintained with Radio and hosted on UserLand's servers, but one or both of those things may change someday (although the egforexample.com domain is taken, apparently by of all things a British insurance brokerage). I've never met Dave Winer; I'm spectacularly impressed with Radio 8, both for what it does and for its almost unprecedented, as-speedy-as-any-claims-for-open-source evolution and enhancement by both UserLand and third parties; but I don't necessarily share all the company's visions or the bees in Dave's bonnet about spanning both personal Web publishing and more elaborate vistas of RSS subscriptions and Web services. UserLand is into mind bombs; I'm sometimes content with mind firecrackers.
No matter what platform I use, you can be pretty sure this will always be visually one of the homeliest, closest-to-the-newbie-templates Weblogs around.
I can write short and sweet. When I want to.
You think CSS, tables, XML, HTML, Mac OS, Windows, Linux, etc. have different pros and cons for different applications, devices, and users? Welcome aboard; nice talking with you. You think one or more of the above is morally superior and feel the need to convert people who prefer other tools? You're a loser who needs to get a life. I haven't drunk Kool-Aid since I was a kid.
No "Which McDonaldland character / clan tartan / tropical lizard / Clue suspect are you?" personality quizzes. Ever.
I'm a professional writer and editor, but you'd never know it to read this.
9:56:17 PM 
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