Two Years of TommyWonk
It has now been two years since I started TommyWonk, which opened to almost universal indifference with this post about a clever conceptual art parody. (I didn’t get started in earnest until March of 2005, the same month that Dana started Delaware Watch.)
Since then blogging in Delaware has flourished. The Friday “Around the Horn” tradition at Delawareliberal has helped to foster the mostly virtual community of Delaware bloggers, as has the remarkable, if not unique, habit that righty and lefty blogs have of linking to each other.
Coincidently, Sanjay at karmically speaking celebrates his first anniversary as a blogger today, which brings to mind an early lesson on statistics I learned as a schoolboy: If you take a room of 30 students, chances are two of those students will share a birthday. It’s counterintuitive but true. So given the growth of worthwhile blogs in Delaware, it wouldn’t be surprising that two blogs started on the same day (if a year apart).
Blogging has opened up the political discourse throughout the country and here in Delaware. It used to be that the only opinions available were those of usual suspects: a few News Journal columnists, the venerable panel of old hands on Channel 12’s Delaware Tonight and a few talk show hosts. Now if you care enough, can write well and have something interesting to say, you too can attract a small, but knowledgeable following of readers. I don’t kid myself about the size of my readership; even the most widely read blogs attract only a fraction of the audience that listens to talk radio or reads newspapers. But it’s gratifying to know that my readers include a few elected officials, mainstream journalists and political activists.
For me, TommyWonk is a success if I manage to offer interesting, informative, relevant, well-considered and well-written postings that draw an appreciative readership. If I can shape the political discourse in some small way, that would be wonderful. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope that you come away from my blog with a little more clarity of thought on issues that matter.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Keep coming back.
Since then blogging in Delaware has flourished. The Friday “Around the Horn” tradition at Delawareliberal has helped to foster the mostly virtual community of Delaware bloggers, as has the remarkable, if not unique, habit that righty and lefty blogs have of linking to each other.
Coincidently, Sanjay at karmically speaking celebrates his first anniversary as a blogger today, which brings to mind an early lesson on statistics I learned as a schoolboy: If you take a room of 30 students, chances are two of those students will share a birthday. It’s counterintuitive but true. So given the growth of worthwhile blogs in Delaware, it wouldn’t be surprising that two blogs started on the same day (if a year apart).
Blogging has opened up the political discourse throughout the country and here in Delaware. It used to be that the only opinions available were those of usual suspects: a few News Journal columnists, the venerable panel of old hands on Channel 12’s Delaware Tonight and a few talk show hosts. Now if you care enough, can write well and have something interesting to say, you too can attract a small, but knowledgeable following of readers. I don’t kid myself about the size of my readership; even the most widely read blogs attract only a fraction of the audience that listens to talk radio or reads newspapers. But it’s gratifying to know that my readers include a few elected officials, mainstream journalists and political activists.
For me, TommyWonk is a success if I manage to offer interesting, informative, relevant, well-considered and well-written postings that draw an appreciative readership. If I can shape the political discourse in some small way, that would be wonderful. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope that you come away from my blog with a little more clarity of thought on issues that matter.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. Keep coming back.
posted by Tom Noyes at 7:47 AM
7 Comments:
Congratulations on two years! We'll be comin' back for more.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday to your blog. Sometime at your leisure, I would be interested in whether over the past two years, you have seen different growth cycles or trends that blogs go through as they age and mature?
You are a terrible two. Good work, and I hope this means that you'll start hitting the shrill button a little more this year.
Congrats on two years, Tommy! Yours will continue to be one of the few that I never miss reading!
Thanks all. I'll check to see that the shrill button is in good working order.
Ha, you and Sanjay have the same blog B'day!
Tom, you are the best blogger but you lack of sensationalism (in general) keeps your low key blog low key, no worries.
Happy Blogday to you
(cha-cha-cha)
Happy Blogday to you
(cha-cha-cha)
Happy Blogday dear Tommywonk
Happy blogday to you
(cha-cha-cha)
Way to go bro. It is a huge commitment to keep it going, much more like a wedding anniversary than a birthday. That would make this your cotton birthday. Buy your blog a T-shirt.
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