This is my 500th post since the beginning of the blog on July 11, which is, I suppose, milestone enough these days for a look back. The first thing I notice is that in the same three-and-a-half-month period, I've probably written fewer than 200 pieces for the editorial page. The pace required for blogging can be daunting sometimes. I'm generally pleased with the mix of posts -- long ones and short ones, frivolous ones and serious ones, on a good variety of personal, local, state and national issues. The number of people viewing the site has grown slowly but steadily, as has the number of people commenting on the posts (and I've felt compelled to remove only one comment that went over the line). The one goal I set that I haven't met yet is to open up the editorial process and talk some about how we make some of the decisions on the editorial page.
Since this blog debuted, Fort Wayne has developed the beginnings of a real blogosphere. There are three other blogs I check every day -- Fort Wayne Observed and Tracy Warner's site, which got online before me, and Indiana Parley, the newest kid on the block -- and quite I few I look in on regularly (not to mention a growing number of Indiana blogs that I find myself quoting and linking to). Some real back-and-forth conversations are taking place, and news is beginning to be broken on blogs.
There's a danger that, in our rush to be first and break news, we will let speed, rather than depth, be our guiding principle. But so far, at least, it looks like the blogging community is making an effort to provide perspective as well as immediacy.
