A Personal Milestone

[poliphilo]

I began this blog on March 7, 2004. Ten years ago.

I took Poliphilo from a book I was reading at the time. His name means lover of all things. The book is called Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. which I roughly translate as Poliphilo's Eroticdreambattle. It's an Italian Book-  late 15th century. Poliphilo is journeying in search of his truelove, through a landscape full of impossible buildings and Botticelli maidens. it's weird. It could well be the weirdest book ever written.

The author was probably a man called Francesco Colonna- who was a monk. The Hypnerotomachia isn't a monkish book, but then a lot of monks weren't monkish either.
-
I forget why I chose Livejournal as my blogging venue. I don't believe it was recommended to me. I think I just happened on it- either by chance or by asking Google to find me a free blogging site. After a while- after I realized I was serious about blogging- I put down the money for a permanent account.

My first posts were exercises in creative writing. Nobody read them.

Ten years ago Livejournal was at the frontier of something. Then the frontier moved, as it always does. ,The cattle barons with their rolls of barbed wire will always win- if you can call it winning.

Billy, they don't like you to be so free.

But I've hung around. A lot of people went elsewhere. To Twitter and Facebook. Or to other blogging sites. But I was hardly even tempted. Livejournal suits me. I like how it's both a social networking site and a place where serious blogging happens.

Ten years. That's almost a sixth of my life.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. I'm very glad you're still here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

This is my home from home.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

LJ is still my home, too.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I was about to say. :-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Happy anniversary!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

You are central to the whole thing! If you wanted your work to have a bigger readership, you could link to it from twitter and facebook.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Do I want a bigger readership? I'm not sure. I've been on Facebook and I really didn't like it.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I celebrated my 10 years last June. And yes, this still is the place where I go when I want to write stuff I will want to remember. All the other places are just. window dressing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No other site has quite the same ambience.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

LJ beats other sites hands down for its flexibility, I feel. You can really make what you want out of it.

And congratulations! I am glad you are here.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I like that flexibility too. I feel as if I can post anything I want here- one-liners, mini-essays, reviews, poems, pictures- and have them find an audience.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

Likewise. I put plenty of stuff here that's humdrum, but *everything* I put elsewhere is that.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Happy anniversary. I like it on LJ - it feels more sheltered and more amenable to proper discussions.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Yes, you can pretty much rely on LJers to be thoughtful and well-behaved.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about how I found LJ and for a while I couldn't remember - then I did. There was a dating website called OutinAmerica, and a guy named Andre had a link on his profile to his LJ. That's how it started, 10 years ago exactly a month from now. Andre is long gone.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Very few of the people I knew in the early days are still around. Some have left, some have gone silent, and some have died....

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

One of mine killed himself, and mentioned me in his suicide post (posted by his wife after the fact).

The biggest difference I see is that LJ doesn't have communities anymore. They used to be so active, I think they have moved to FB, which is a good venue for them, I think.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's harsh.

I as never a great one for communities. I started an Ingmar Bergman Community but it quickly sputtered and died.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

No doubt.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

It's good that you are here and it's good to be here when it'll let me, but LJ is in a slow motion collapse, sadly and that's why I base and post on DW now.

In the latest piece of stupidity, their editing suite is no longer fully functional for those of us who use IE- as ever, they make excuses, but they provide no solutions.

Sigh :o(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's not what it was, but it's been good to me and I owe it my loyalty.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I'm up to eleven years now, I think, and it's hard to imagine life without LJ. It's a wonderful record of my last decade.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and well done, you!

LJ is important to me. It has enriched my life enormously.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

My 10 year mark happened last year in September. Lj suits me perfectly despite the ups and downs. I've never even been tempted to be unfaithful to it.

So, congratulations! We have known each other here for a good part of our respective 10 years and I am very glad you're still here.

It has been good to read through the comments and see quite a few others whose loyalties haven't wavered.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And I'm glad you're still around too. There's no other site quite like LJ.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. I ran my own blog for years, before they were actually blogs that did the work for you and a person had to write their own HTML, but I've been quite happy at LJ. Joined about six years ago. Nothing else will do for those of us who like writing at length.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

10 years ago I was looking for a site that would make blogging easy (there was no way I was going to learn to write HTML) and LJ was it.

[basefinder.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your first decade on LJ. I will hit that mark this summer.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[sovay]

But I've hung around.

I'm very glad you have.

Happy ten years!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

I read your fiction about the young girl who became immortal. I loved that story.

I don't know how long I've been on livejournal, but it has been a while.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

It makes me happy that you remember Purchas. :)

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

And I am glad you did stay because I enjoy your posts.
Many happy returns. ;-)

[raakone.livejournal.com]

Nice retrospective. One nitpick, I think Poliphilio would mean "lover of MANY things"....Panphilio would mean "lover of ALL things." But Poliphilio sounds way better!

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

>> His name means lover of all things

Lover of many things. Lover of *all* things is Panphilo.

He who cannot approach Pan approaches Proteus in vain. :D