Überblogger

I've been running this blog for around a year now, and in that time I have been amazed by how kind and helpful the majority of bloggers are. The mainstream media call it "The Blogosphere", with ill-concealed disdain, but it's where I go every day to read about stuff that the MSM can't be bothered with, or feel is 'off-message', or just ignore. There are some areas of debate (three that come to mind are Euroscepticism, Libertarianism/small-state thinking, and - stunningly - Climategate) where the blogosphere is the submerged nine-tenths of the iceberg; the tiny representation that these topics get in the press and the broadcast media belies the huge amount of comment, debate and analysis going on by interested people sitting at their own computers in their own homes. Paid by no-one, beholden to no-one, and yet free to express the most radical, surprising, unorthodox or batshit mental viewpoints as they please. That is what a democracy, and 'freedom of speech' ought to be about, but sadly there is little enough of that in the mainstream media.

Tonight, I contacted one of the best-known Top Ten Libertarian bloggers, known to the Internet as Anna Raccoon, over a small matter of displaying an avatar in the comments on her site. Her site is highly productive, with two or three big posts every day (and when I have made posts here that have made a significant point rather than just gossip and trivia, I have learned just how long that takes and what effort it involves), and not only did I get a reply within the hour, but I got a friendly and well-thought out guide to what I should do, and the offer that she would do it herself if I was unable.

That such a big fish should devote so much attention to a minnow like me says a lot about Anna herself, but also about the friendliness and mutual support of bloggers.