Blogospherics---giving folks their due

Orac is celebrating his 4th blogiversary today, and folks are giving him his props over at his place. I was about to give him congrats over there, but I figured this deserved a post of its own.

I started blogging seriously in May of 07. I had been attracted to the crankosphere via the cesspit of inanity that is Conservapedia. A small cabal of folks set up a parallel site called rationalwiki to refute the hate-filled lies at the other site. I ended up writing a number of medical pieces over there, and eventually decided I needed to write pieces less consistent with what a wiki requires, so I started up WhiteCoat Underground at wordpress. Originally, I was going to write a lot more medical anecdotes, but I was seduced by the need to refute ridiculous medical claims, and finally stumbled on the term "woo". Trying to hunt down this term, I came upon Respectful Insolence (and from there, the rest of scienceblogs.com).

I wrote prolifically, if not always well, and found ideas here at Sb to riff on. After sharing some cross-traffic from Orac, I emailed him for blog advice, and was surprised to receive a prompt and helpful response. This is not what I expected.

He was kind enough to link to me a number of times, sending my little blog's traffic up from several dozen hits per day to several hundred per day. Following his lead, I posted to and hosted blog carnivals, commented on blogs I liked, and kept increasing my blogospheric profile. And then one day, MarkH contacted me to see if I'd be interested in coming her to denialism blog, an offer I accepted without reservation, as I was a regular reader, and found it difficult to turn down the huge stipend, private jet, and free booze. That was March, which is like, what? a couple of years in blog years? Since then Orac has recruited me to work on other projects that I love, and in a way that still allows me to write here with the Hoofs.

The blogosphere is an interesting place. For those of us obsessed with writing and communication, it's a nearly perfect medium. I was fortunate enough to have an early mentor who helped some guy he didn't know move up a bit in the world.

So what I'm trying to say is congrats, and thank you Orac. I owe you a beer, and when things settle down, I'll make good on the offer.