2004 from the Perspective of 2024…
By 
2004 was, obviously, a big year for the blog. We got to watch a the old Sitemeter clicker moved from the single digits to the dozens to the low hundreds… then back down to the dozens after the November election. We got into brawls, we got noticed, and we found our feet as bloggers. I remember November 2, 2004 more clearly than I should, in large part because we were all blogging it and everyone who knew us was following the blog as we slowly transitioned from wild optimism to deep depression. I remember all of this more than I should because the very oldest posts from LGM didn’t make it through the transition to wordpress, so I had to manually repost all of them in 2014 or so. It was remarkable then to revisit what blogging was like in 2004; now the entire experience seems almost alien.
How did we survive when so many other blogs failed? I think that we benefitted immensely from this enormous stroke of good fortune, which helped convince our friends, neighbors, and students to start reading the blog on only its second day of existence:
“Professor Farley,” a student says.
“Yes?”
“I was wondering. . . My dad is driving Joseph Wilson around today, and he’s going to be on University Avenue, and he said that he would be willing to give a short talk in your class. Would that be okay?”
“Joseph Wilson. Ambassador Joseph Wilson?”
“Yes. He’s in town for a talk he’s giving tonight.”
“Joseph Wilson wants to talk to my class. Hmm. I think, yes. Yes, I would like to have Ambassador Joseph Wilson come talk to my 321 class. You can make this happen?”
“I just have to call. . .”
“You are allowed to use your cell phone in class today. Bring me Joseph Wilson.”
The idea that I could prevent students from using their cell phones in class seems altogether quaint today… Anyway, this helped provide us an audience beyond our immediate friends and family, and having an audience is one of the most important things to motivate a writer. People (faculty!) in our department were talking about this blog post for the rest of the week. Screaming into the void is satisfying to a point but there are rapidly diminishing returns. It also provided us with a sense, however small, that we were part of a much larger conversation.
Lots of other stuff happened in our first year and I don’t remember most of it. It feels like about half of the output of LGM in its first annum was rants against either Ralph Nader or Mickey Kaus. The other bit post that I remember we got some notice for was naming Kim Du Toit the World’s Worst Blogger, which inspired what I believe was our first link from Glenn Reynolds himself as well as a bevy of ancillary links from other sites wanting to contribute to the question. Damn shame we let that series wither on the vine, although I suppose it would have died of its own accord at some point.
Here are some facts about the world of May 31, 2004:
- Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator, and also the Democratic nominee for the 2004 Illinois election for US Senate.
- Donald Trump had just completed the first season of the Apprentice, opening a new career for the failed New York real estate developer.
- Joe Biden passed up the chance to run for the 2004 Democratic nomination for President, deciding instead to focus his preparations on 2008, when he would still be a plausibly young 66 years of age.
- Shrek 2 was the top grossing film, followed by Spiderman 2.
- A 13-year old Mike Trout dominated his local Little League as both pitcher and shortstop.
- The Facebook was three months old, and localized to Harvard.
- The Iraq War continued to rage, as an insurgency spread across the country. The US occupation of Afghanistan remained relatively quiet.
- Massachusetts had just recently become the first state to legalize same sex marriage.
- “Friends” had just ended after a long, successful network run.
Recollect that there’s still time…