State of the blogdom address

It's been a hell of a year for the blogosphere. What started out in 2004 as a somewhat niche web trend exploded into an all new game that has the mainstream media's attention. Blog is even the word of the year. Much of this was spurned on by an especially passionate presidential election, and the next few months help begin to sharpen our view of what the blogosphere's future is.

Bush's victory will no doubt be a continued boon for the lefty blogs. It is much easier for most people to write when they have a belly full of fire, and it is much easier to have a belly full of fire when "the other party's guy" is in the Oval Office. Unfortunately for the lefty blogs, their are a lot of popular loony left blogs which taint their names a bit. It is going to be interesting to see what happens in the world of right leaning blogs, however. This area really began to take off this year as Republicans and Conservatives felt slighted by the MSM, and as they rallied to Bush's defense. Posting frequency and traffic to many of these 2nd tier and lower blogs has dropped off in the last month, and we are going to learn a lot about the resiliency of these sites between now and the election. Logic would dictate that momentum will be on the side of lefty blogs for a little while as conservative and Republican blogs refashion themselves.

2004 also saw the introduction of my favorite little corner of the web, Jiblog. It has been an enjoyable, frustrating, maddening learning experience. While Jiblog did not receive any "Instalanches", it did receive a "Hughicane" right before the election, when Hugh Hewitt linked to my post on Curly's Curse (which, by the way, stood up, although I think I could have written about the curse much more clearly than I did). It also received a mention at Salon's blog, which made the way for some damn interesting comments. I've also had the displeasure of the hangover that occurs after a massive spike in traffic, when your traffic quickly dips down to previous levels. I've been very happy with certain pieces I've written, and a little disappointed in others. All in all, I look at Jiblog as it stands right now and I'm pleased with the results from its rookie year, but I also want to take it to some new levels in 2005. Between now and Inauguration Day, I'm going to be looking long and hard at where I want this site to go and how to get it there. I know one goal right off the bat: I want this site nominated for a Weblog Award in 2005 (and not by myself this time), and I want it to be a finalist. A lofty goal, yes, but why set goals that are easy to obtain?

One of the great things about this site has been the interaction with many intelligent and funny individuals. I cannot thank everyone, but a few stick out. J. Rice, thank you for being Jiblog's first regular, and for doing a lot of commenting. It made the place look inhabited in the early days. RPM, thank you for being Jiblog's first regular opposition voice. The place is a lot more fun when there is a little debate going on. Geoblackwl, you and dawniebean are a "hoot", to quote one of my newest colleagues at work. Keep posting at your sites, your material is always very fun. Drew at Darn Floor, you did a great job covering the Sawyer County murders. I slacked off on it a bit because you took the wind out of my sails by saying what I wanted to say before I could some days. Col. Ollie, thanks for the assistance as the election heated up, and I hope you continue to post here. You do some of the best satire around, but you are free to write about whatever you damn well choose. I also need to thank Blogs for Bush and their Blogroll for Bush. It was gratifying to see that people actually came to the site once Jiblog became part of the blogroll. I also need to thank everyone who has visited, who has commented, and who has emailed me. Those three things make this worthwhile for me, even if you disagree with me. If I missed anyone, I apologize. If you pop in a dream or nightmare of mine tonight, I'll be sure to update this post.

One final thing for tonight. I have decided that I am going to roll out a very basic "Badger Blogger Alliance", and I'm going to do it sooner rather than later. Do not get to excited about it right off the bat, because I see this as something that will grow with time, but it will be a nice way for Wisconsin Blogs to tie together, share some traffic, and give Wisconsin blog readers a place to go to get a local fix. I'll have more details in the coming days.