On this day in 2004, I started this blog.
At the time, I was driven to write by the impending identity cards act so beloved of David Blunkett. Yet here we are sixteen years later and the Tories – our allies back then – have brought in the kind of draconian measures that he could only have dreamed of. And they did it all with the stroke of a pen.
In the past sixteen years, I have had my share of trolls. Who can forget Dickie Doubleday aka Rickie who tried it on and lost? He pretty much left me alone after I exposed him despite his hiding behind anonymous proxies. Although he spent a couple of years needling from other blogs, his reign of idiocy pretty much came to an end when Anna Raccoon rocked up on his doorstep. We also had an Irish troll going by the moniker Bane or Patroller. Unlike Dickie Doubleday, he was a simple matter to track down. In most cases, his rants were simply a consequence of too much booze or drugs after kicking out time – incoherent threats and swearing. He tried intimidation too, I received a direct threat to shut me down with his army of trolls. Where is he now? Yet I am here and that army of trolls never did materialise.
And, yes, I have had someone try to shut me down for speech they didn’t like. How did that work out? Oh, yeah, I’m still standing. Longrider, 1 – Javid Ahmed, 0.
If you had asked me back in 2004 if I would still be writing this blog, I would probably not believed it likely. I saw at the time a relatively immediate threat, yet that threat has persisted and grown worse and I have been motivated to continue to write.
Leggy even prompted me to get up and start writing fiction again.
I’ve seen other bloggers come and go and in some cases they have died – Captain Ranty, Raedwald and Anna Raccoon, for example. We also lost a regular contributor to the blogging comments, Nisakiman. And in 2018, I lost my wife to cancer.
The world is a little sadder for their passing but the fight goes on, I guess. It always does.
Strange, I also started my blog for the same reasons. It’s dormant now, as it got to a point where I was just repeating myself and had nothing fresh to offer.
I’ve noticed there are a lot less blogs now than there were back in the day. I think too many people have moved over to Twitter
At least there’s still a few good daily reads left 🙂
I must have been following and commenting for at least ten years now. I wonder how I found you, it is so long ago that I really can’t remember. I probably followed a link from somewhere else.
LR, I came a bit late to your blog, having first learned of it only a few years ago, via Samizdata, I think. It’s a daily port of call, without fail.
I’m glad you’re planning to press on. I prefer the longer, and hence more meaningful and considered, posts which are possible with a true blog. Anyway, wouldn’t go anywhere near Tw*tter, even with several barge poles welded rigidly end to end.
Keep up the sterling work.
Regards
I always regarded Twitter as a waste of time right from the beginning. A 140 character limit meant that you couldn’t discuss an issue with any semblance of nuance. Purely for the hard of thinking. As it turned out, also for the nasty, judgemental wokerati on steroids. A latter day mob.
Discovered you via Scriblerus. A lovely bunch of bloggers each with good blog rolls.
By the way ‘n’ that I see what you did there. How do you pronounce “fugit”.
A minced oath newly minted.
Blog on.
Doonhamer: How do you pronounce “fugit”
Classical Latin would be foo – git – hard G, as in, well, git!
Mediaeval Latin softens the G – so foo – jit – or possibly few – jit, if you like,
(Latin O-level, 1979)
I tend to use the latter.
Well done that man!
Thanks for all your work over the years. I’m not much of a commenter, but always a reader.
By the time the next 14 years are up, I reckon we’ll have an answer to all these questions, one way or the other.
Discovered this blog through my brother, who is a regular reader. Very glad to have done so, too. Happy anniversary Longrider.
I can’t remember when, but I found Longrider and others through Newgate News. I like to read everyone’s offerings – blogs and comments – and try to be relevant when I comment. I wouldn’t want to use electricity unnecessarily – saving the planet, don’chaknow!
I first came across your blog in 2009 LR, via Captain Ranty’s Awkward Sods list. More of a lurker at the time, I was slowly having my eyes opened by reading various blogs on that list, and through them all, yours was/still is one of the voices of reason, and a fellow biker to boot. Congratulations on coming this far and here’s hoping for another 16 years at least. We need people like you.
It was Captain Ranty who infected me with Dickie Doubleday, of course. And look where that led.
Yes, happy days… you certainly didn’t mess around with the guy and knowing the damage he already did on other blogs I applauded you for that. I think he infested almost every blog on Ranty’s list.
It had the effect of making sure he never left a comment here again.
Yes, happy anniversary. I discovered you through Tim Worstall years ago. Keep up the good work.