by This morning, at 2:55am Eastern, as I was waiting for the Apple Store to open at 3:01am — a lovely notification popped up in my WordPress.com admin area telling me today, September 20, 2013 — was my eighth year anniversary on WordPress.com!
Now that is a milestone to celebrate!
I remember I was one of the super-early adopters here on WordPress.com and I was the in the early 500s as a registered user number — there are now over 80 million WordPress blogs in the world. I loved the idea of Matt Mullenweg‘s WordPress.com right from the start: An excellent publishing platform that was dead-simple to use all day every single day of your life!
That eight-year anniversary was added to the new WordPress.com “Trophy Case” that now appears to be part of our accounts.
Eight years may seem like a long time, but it certainly doesn’t feel like one. Winning Freshly Pressed twice is still a great honor that never stops stinging with delight.
Writing is all about setting a routine and stepping up to meet a time-crunched deadline of where expectation and experience meet: In a published WordPress.com post.
There’s no hiding from the pressure of becoming who you are meant to be — and writing on WordPress.com is a great tool to help you divine the promise of your life. Are you living up to the bones of your dedication?
Looking back over these last eight years, I realize blogging has changed. With the horrible rise of Twitter and Facebook and “microblogging” platforms like Tumblr — the almighty longform writing that WordPress.com was made to celebrate is getting lost in the cacophony of “me first” micro-vomits into the world.
In that rush to publish every little blurp and un-subtle suggestive, intention is miscast, and we become more about the moment than the multiple granular movements of thought leading up to a single, learned, shared, experience.
Over the last eight years here on Boles Blogs, we’ve averaged 650 new posts a year, over 7,500 comments a year and 1,500 new tags, too! That’s a lot of work and words and wonderment packed into a tiny timeframe.
We thank you for your participation, love and support.
We also look forward to the next eight years with you — and with WordPress.com! — because everything changes while everything stays the same.
Our ongoing moral duty here is to mark flexible grand passages of time and infinite space with specific, hard-won, thoughts that mean something to the all of us beyond the smallness of a single idea alone in the screaming wilds.
We will continue to record the truth.
We thank you.
Congrats! I’m still here and sort of awake. 8 years is a long time. You never gave it up.
I’m glad you’re still awake! Can’t go back to sleep after all the iPhone 5s ordering fun, eh? SMILE!
Eight years is a fine milestone. It shows us where we’ve been and leads us into knowing just how much farther we have to go. We will never give up, and I thank you for joining me on this journey.
It has been fun watching things change and people come and go and come back again.
I am still a little buzzed on getting the new iPhone 5s. Been a long time with the old phone.
In many ways, I owe my life, and reputation, and work to WordPress.com — it’s a terrific platform and launching pad — and it gives us all the opportunity to attempt to dare to touch our greatness.
Well earned congratulations for being there , staying there and having such consistent quality
Hi Nicola!
I thank you for your good thoughts and kind wishes — and this success is just as much yours as mine.
You have been a part of the house for a long time, and I am grateful for your friendship and thankful for you sharing your wonderful mind and excellent writing with us all these fine years!
Congratulations! Yours is one of the best out there. Here’s to many more anniversaries!
Thank you, my dear friend!
I never would have met you without this blog and it is my joy to know you!
Congratulations! A lot of hard work went into this blog and it shows! 🙂
Definitely a lot of hard work all around for many years!