On this day twenty years ago, yes twenty years, I wrote my first blog post.
I thought I had lost any record of it because of a mess when moving domain names back in the early days. But a few years ago I tried finding it on The Internet Archive. Initially I had no success but I then remembered that Ev Williams (one of the founders of Blogger and later Twitter) made me a “blog of note” on his blog way back in the early days and this link had been spidered and stored in The Internet Archive.
So here it is – my very first blog post.
It is odd to think that without this tentative beginning I wouldn’t have got to travel the world, met so many wonderful people, and had a book published.
And perhaps more remarkably I am still blogging after all these years, and in fact increasingly doing so in preference to spending much time on social platforms. So if you want to keep in touch you can always find me here.
The Obvious? 
That’s a great achievement Euan! I’m a newcomer to your blog after listening to a local podcast from when you visited Gippsland :).
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Aha. I’d wondered how we were connected. Thanks for reading!
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Well, now, that’s a nostalgia blast. I’d forgotten that initially Blogger published to your own hosting, and that Blogspot only came later…
Congratulations on your perseverance!.
I’ll hit my own 20th anniversary later this year. I started on Livejournal in late 2001, before starting OM&HB on Blogger in 2003.
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Hiya, Euan! My goodness! That’s what I call an anniversary and quite an achievement altogether! Big congrats on making it thus far and also for making it possible for us to have been enjoying glimpses of your world throughout the years! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Here is an additional request I have got for you for whenever you have got a minute. I did check the screen shot of your first blog post and read it. Did you re-read it yourself as well as you were writing today’s blog post? If so, what were your thoughts & memories from back then?
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I did read it and thought how little changes – apart from giving up drinking!
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That’s what I figured RE: little changes, and, yet, I suspect so much has changed altogether, right? 😅
Either way, here’s to another 20 years in good health, Euan, and many thanks, once more, for allowing us to keep enjoying these glimpses into your world, and ours for that matter! 🙌🏻🙌🏻
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Happy anniversary Euan!
It has been an honor and a privilege to know you and read you these past twenty years!
Whiskey River
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And what an honour to have you turn up in the comments on my blog!
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Hello Euan and happy birthday to your blog. What a pleasure it has been to read your posts over the years. All the best!
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Thanks Margaret.
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It was 20 years ago today
Euan Semple taught the world to blog
Social Media has been going in and out of style
But it’s guaranteed to raise a smile
Congratulations Euan, and keep on bloggin’ .
Les
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Thanks Les
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It’s an immense achievement. I value your insights so much, I downloaded WordPress app on phone so I can better follow your posts and interact more easily now that you are refocusing away from other social media. Happy bloggybirthday!
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Gosh, thanks Martyn, and I love it when people comment here.
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Well, here’s another comment. I was thinking that Dave Winer and you could have an excellent podcast about long term blogging. There must be others who fall in the category too.
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Like a bunch of old codgers reminiscing about the past…. 🙂
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Hi Euan. That inspired me to look up my start date – October 1996. I started doing incremental updates in a conversational format not long after. Seems so long ago, and like yesterday. I rarely post now. No one seems to bother reading it. Like many of the things I used to love about the Internet and social media, times seem to have moved on. Glad you’re still at it. If I had an RSS reader, I’d probably stop by more often! 😉
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