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November 3, 2005

| Culture of Fear >>

730 Days Later

Two interesting things:

One: On precisely this day in 2003, I wrote Snarkmarket’s very first post. In it, I noted Snarkmarket’s origins (as with many smart things, it began with Matt) and promised talk of politics, movies, video games, journalism, and miscellany. No warning was given that the Briefly Noted box would one day reign supreme.

Two: This post — this one right here — is number 1,000!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

To commemorate both milestones, we are rolling out a few new features, all designed to highlight the most transcendently awesome part of Snarkmarket: the comments.

First: Matt, whose CSS skills have somehow become Batman-like over the past two years, has invented a new style for comments on Briefly Noted entries. We were happy with the comment boxes that appear alongside normal entries, and wanted to make Briefly Noted entries sort’ve ‘light up’ in their own way when someone chimes in. You’ll see it below if you scroll down a bit; isn’t that cool?

Second: I, whose RSS skills are the result of typing ‘RSS’ into Google just now, have whipped up a comments feed, so you can keep tabs on the Snark-conversation in the feedreader of your choice. It doesn’t exactly work the way I want it to yet, but it’s functional, so go ahead and subscribe and I’ll keep tweaking it.

Still to come: Revamped Snarkmarks. Plus a secret project.

You know, one of the things that led me into the world-o’-blogs in the first place was the sharp disappointment I felt whenever I’d write a column back in college or sometimes even a feature story at Poynter and not hear a peep from the audience. ‘The audience.’ Exactly.

In contrast, the conversation here at Snarkmarket has exceeded any expectation I ever had for it. It is truly a delight to click my little bookmark every morning and see what’s new and who’s saying what. So thanks, once again, for hanging out with us here.

Now, after the break — the headlines of some of the many draft posts we’ve abandoned unfinished on the server over the past two years!

Cultural Consensus (by me)
The Post-Post-Internet Newspaper (Matt)
Will a Real Mommy Please Stand Up? (Matt)
We’re All Nerds Now (me)
Oh, It’s Okay, They’re Asian (Matt)
The Manchurian Agronomist (me)
Video Game Philosophy (Matt)
Murder in Sudan (Matt)
In Praise of Kristof (me… I wrote this one about eighty-five times subsequently)
Even Better Than Those Little Issue Grids (me)
Urberalism (Matt)
If You Believe in Love at First Sight… (Matt)
To Cogitate and to Solve (me)
I Know You’re Extremely Interested in Bankruptcy Law (me)
Those Kids With Their Pesky Newspapers (Matt)
An Obit Most People Won’t Notice (me)
Ethics from the State of Nature (Matt)

Robin-sig.gif
Posted November 3, 2005 at 7:37 | Comments (3) | Permasnark
File under: About Snarkmarket

Comments

In two years, we've already accrued some pretty awesome Snarktrivia, and this is my favorite piece: The very second post on Snarkmarket was entitled "Present at the Creation." In it, Robin pulls together all the extant wisps of information on the not-yet-formed television channel Al Gore was talking about creating. With that post, Robin created a category, GoreTV, in which he continued documenting all the information he found on this ghost of an idea, and laying out his vision for what the channel could become.

How Robin went from there to being part of Current's first wave of employees is actually one of my favorite stories ever. Please get him to tell it to you sometime. I relate the story all the time to people I encounter because to me it signifies so much. It means, above all, that the things we discuss in these little rarefied spaces may actually have an effect. That the words we share here and in the forums that touch this one may wield power to shape our lives in unexpected ways.

Seriously, these two years have been beyond fun. Thanks to you guys for making it so.

Happy Birthday Snarkmarket!! :-) That's wonderful.

I demand Manchurian Agronomy be resurrected! :-) Also Urberalism.

Congrats, buddy. Once I finally find a way to use a feed reader that doesn't make me ridiculously antsy/nervous, I might actually catch a post the day it's written. For now, you are my only friend who has a blog that isn't exclusively about last night's dinner or what Led Zepplin songs are the best.

Your 1000th blog post marks my first EVER comment on a blog. Snarkmarket has pulled me out of the dark ages.

well done.
-c

Posted by: Conor on November 9, 2005 at 11:13 PM
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