I’m finding this blogging thing to be a whole buttload of fun.

And despite our differences, we bloggers in truth have a buttload of things in common, primarily this: we started with nothing but an idea or a concept. We checked out the internet. We found Blogger — or another provider. We were smart enough to make Blogger work (except for me) — or the other provider.

We crafted our sites, checked out templates, rejected templates, changed our look, our style, started writing and hoped to be read by someone other than our Aunt Tilly. And, of course, we had to tell her where to go and give her the damn URL. “Look: everything begins with http. What part of that don’t you get?”

Okay, so we got disgusted with Aunt Tilly because of her computer incompetence and then began playing to the skills of the not-so-disassociated. Our friends at work. Our family. The computer guru for the company. Maybe a local newspaper. Or some Big Time Bloggers like Hugh Hewitt — who to this day has no idea I exist though I sent him 78 e-mails and 59 links to my pisshead blog — the bastard.

Do you remember the first time you saw your blog on the internet? On the actual INTERNET? Right there in front of your face? How satisfying was that?

“Hey. Check this out,” you thought. “This is something I MADE.”

How proud were you? I know I was beaucoup proud. Because you know what? Anyone with any semblance of internet or HTML talent already has their sophisticated website on the WWW. That ain’t you or me or otherwise our asses wouldn’t be on Blogger anyway.

So we learned how to make posts. Then we learned how to link the titles in our posts. Then we learned how to make links within the body of our posts — and I’ll tell you what: after that accomplishment I felt almost invincible. What a WORLD that opened up for me! My blog can actually look like some of the other Big Time blogs I frequent!

But wait; there’s more!

Remember making the discovery about photographs? You didn’t just have to go to the internet; oh no! Blogger now gave you the option of downloading items from your very own personal computer! That is so incredibly fabulous! How invincible were you now?

But wait; there’s more:

Can you remember your first comment? I can. Mine was a piece of spam from a realty company. Then I decided to turn on spam ID and that became an issue of the past.

My first real comment was from a now-known blog goddess, Mahndisa. To this day, I still don’t know how my blog got into the so-called internet mainstream.

Have I hooked you so far?

So I posit these questions:

1. What makes you come back to a blog?
2. Is it philosophy only?
3. Is the “appearance” of the blog a factor?
4. Do you want to check out the blog’s “blog-roll” — how important is a site’s blog-roll? When is it too much? 10 links? 20 links?
5. Are photographs or graphics of any concern — or are you into text only?
6. Do the links make any difference to you? Do they establish credibility?
7. What do you prefer? Frequent posts daily? Posts every couple of days?
8. One post a day?

Quite frankly, I prefer an active site. I like posting at least once a day though, due to issues beyond my immediate control, this does not always occur. If I can post once, twice, maybe three times a day (and I have the time!) I will.

It all depends on tidal pull, sunspots and prevailing trade winds.

Gimme your input! What do you think?