I was randomly trying to remember when I first* came across Sean Kleefeld — an old school comics blogger (among many other things) I’ve known for a while — and stumbled upon the Blogaround Challenge from… [does math]… 20 years ago?!?
The Challenge explicitly, um, challenged participants to check out comics blogs they weren’t already familiar with. Here’s how it was framed by Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog back in August 2005 (and which is miraculously still accessible!):
Here’s what you gotta do. Go to the Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000 and click through to at least ten comic book blogs. You can do more, but ten is the minimum. I would also stick with blogs that have been updated within the last couple of weeks, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. As another loose rule, go for blogs you haven’t visited before, if you can. The goal of this challenge is to meet new bloggers and see new stuff.
Visit each blog. Look at it. Form an impression about it. Then write a short bit about it. Then repeat until you have ten. Be sure to link to the blog when you talk about it. Positive, or at least constructive, thoughts are encouraged. If you don’t like the blog, don’t include it, go on to another one.
Cynics might consider this engagement bait nowadays, but this was pre-social media (as we currently know it), when blogs were peaking, but mostly discovered via other blogs, Google’s long-dead Blog Search tool, and of course, the amazing-for-its-time Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000. And unlike modern social media, the focus was squarely on discovering and engaging with other blogs, not chasing attention for your own — although most people knew the value of good backlinks, too.
I updated all of the links in my posts via the Wayback Machine, and was as surprised by how many of the blogs are still accessible (albeit very few still active) as I was disappointed by how many have disappeared except for whatever the Wayback Machine was able to preserve. I even had to use it for one of my own links, a resource page from one of my short-lived spinoffs that I missed when importing the old posts here.
As the Internet continues to be purposefully fragmented into a handful of walled gardens mediated by inscrutable algorithms, I’ve been heartened to see more blogs being revived and/or launched (even if some of y’all want to call them newsletters) and have settled in with Inoreader as my primary RSS feed reader to keep up with them. I even added an old school blogroll here with some (but not all!) of my current favorites, including a few related to comics:
(If you’re on Bluesky, I have a Comics list there with media and people I follow, some of whom also have blogs that I don’t follow directly.)
I wonder if you could you even pull off a Blogaround Challenge today? How would people find blogs they’re not already familiar with and following? Would it just become an ephemeral hashtag, forgotten three months later, never mind after 20 years? Or worse, a useless Follow Friday plea for follow-backs?
Post-Twitter, I’ve actually discovered some new-to-me blogs via Mastodon and Bluesky — and even a few via comments on blog posts! — some of which have become regular check-ins, but it’s sporadic and serendipitous, and none have been comics-specific yet.
Blogging is still one of the best ways we can exert some control over our individual online presence (even if you want to call it a newsletter, as long as it’s not on Substack) and connect with people who have similar interests. I would love to find more people who are blogging about things they’re passionate about, and if you’re sitting on a dormant blog of your own, the best time to revive it is today!
* re: Kleefeld, it seems like we go back at least as far as 2007, when he participated in, and won, my own twist on the Blogaround Challenge that year.
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
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Back in those days, I started a service called Bloggapedia, which would highlight blogs and also categorize them – so there’d be “book” blogs and “food” blogs and “parenting” blogs. It was a great way of organizing what was becoming a firehose, and surfacing good content in the process.
It’s funny – I’m getting a ton of satisfaction now from blogging, and I love being exposed to others as well. It’s all writing! It’s all a way of telling a story, even if it’s business-oriented. Narratives are what makes us human, and I think the blog as a form of expression remains important!
Bloggapedia sounds great! When are you relaunching it? ?
Seriously, though, it’s been great to see you jump back into blogging, and I’m glad to hear you’re finding satisfaction with it. This is the way.
I found blogging around the same time this was happening, albeit in a different corner of the internet; Although I was resistant to start my own for years, this was the time when blogs where the biggest thing to read about whatever your niche interest was, and that a good chunk of commenters had their own blogs, so you would constantly discover new cool people and places to follow along with whatever they were doing.
(I feel so very old right now)
Maybe the biggest downside to blogging for a long time is having an archive that reminds you how much older you’re getting? LOLsob!
I’ve never been a traditional journaler, so I’m always glad I have this log of thoughts that’s almost as old as my two kids.
Findability is a big problem in podcasting, so I definitely see the appeal of something like the Blogaround!
Funny, I’ve been debating adding a podcast section to my own Blogroll but haven’t done it yet. Having slept on the Blogaround idea, I’m tempted to try and coordinate something,l myself, even if it’s just among the handful of bloggers I know to start.
“…the focus was squarely on discovering and engaging with other blogs, not chasing attention for your own…” sounds like the internet I want to live with. People are so creative and it’s good to hear about fun solutions that really did work. I blog mainly about books and always look forward to November when a small group of passionate souls start up some linky-linker tool and bloggers from around the world, start posting based on weekly non-fiction bookish themes. I’ve found some worthwhile reads there for sure.
I remember those posts! It was a cool project; seemed like a similar idea with a different theme.