Five years ago, to the day, a (very) small bunch of geeks sidled up to each other outside WHSmith at Kings Cross station, muttering “Got blog?” before repairing to a local hostelry for beer, cosmopolitans, odd conversation about the noise cotton wool makes and other such essential trivia.
Over the subsequent months of 2000, the geeks became collectively known as bloggers (although some grumbled about it) and, more specifically, UKBloggers. Aided by a listserv (and later, an alternative one) and a site (now departed), they somehow coordinated themselves and each other sufficiently to enjoy a succession of hazy evenings spent in random London pubs discussing the contents of a Cider Armadillo, the rules of gurning, and the sound effect of a shell-suit combusting (Vuhk’um, IIRC).
There were many photos taken, many vodka jellies imbibed and many backs slapped in a wanky sort of way (if contemporary coverage is to be believed).
In celebration of FIVE YEARS of UK blogmeets, we thought it might be sort of fun to get together a bunch of the people who attended those very first few random events back in 2000.
And so we did.
Five years is a long time.
Some things change: Since that first boozing session in a grubby Kings Cross bar, we’ve clocked up between us two babies, two weddings (and two more, imminent), three graduations, dozens of job changes and all manner of geeky gadgetry.
Some things stay the same: it was good to meet again if only to remember that what helped us become friends five years ago was not the technology we used to update our websites, but the human factors. Geekery. Humour. Passion. All that.
That’s what I have liked all this time about blogging: the human connections. The silly conversations. The geeking about in random pubs with people with clue (mostly). The enthusiastic waving of hands in conversation. The sharing of nibbles and boisterous cameraderie. We’ve got more in common than technology.
Mind you, you know things have moved on a bit when the happyslapping craze infiltrates the blog world: Short .avi of Tom “Plasticbag” Coates being happyslapped.
