A friend Googled “ilind.net” today and alerted me to the importance of the date.
The domain, iLind.net, was created on January 27, 2000, according to public domain records.
So today is its 12th birthday, anniversary, whatever.
I started in mid-September 1999, when the old Star-Bulletin was targeted for closure. For the first several months, I was blogging–well, it was really before blogging–I was writing online using a bit of web space provided with our home Roadrunner account.
Once it because clear there was going to be a protracted battle over the future of the newspaper, I set up a new site with its own name.
iLind. It seemed simple enough. There was the iMac. Soon to be an iPod, and iPhone. But the name has never really worked. People see and hear “island,” causing endless confusion. I really should choose a less confusing name, but I somehow never get around to it.
Happy Birthday!
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Hau’oli la Hanau! Sure doesn’t seem like 12 years. I also don’t remember how or when I stumbled on your blog but it’s been the first thing I read every morning since at least 2003 or 2004. And I also like iLind! Mahalo for all of your hard work and all of the entertainment, education, and enlightenment. And to your clowder of cats also!
Speaking of titles, your blog achieves the main objective embodied in Civil Beat’s title, which is to spark a civil conversation which would be at least as informed as the articles. Civil Beat has good articles (unlike some “newspapers” in this town), but the comment section is still lacking (to put it diplomatically). So if I were Pierre Omydiar, I would go to Costco and buy Ian Lind a ten-year supply of kitty litter. I’m just trying to show some love here, man.
iLind is a great blog name. The whole point of a blog is a diary for others. It’s personal and also local. I mean, you can get almost all the factual material found in blogs in wikipedia. But a blog tells us about an actual experience of, say, being a recovering alcoholic in Dublin.
Romantic escapism is a big part of the appeal of the locality of the blog. The following blog is one of the most popular in the world; the woman who publishes it makes millions of dollars each year. http://thepioneerwoman.com/
Of course, you’ve got Kaaawa on your side, and some of the ol’ Hawaiian sensibility toward the aina. So “iLind” is perfect in that sense, both personal and local. This site gives me blog envy.
But it seems to me that your interest (and the original purpose of the blog) is a commentary on local journalism and its evolution — kind of a meta-local journalism. Maybe your site could be “iLind’s meta-local journalism”. Yeah, that’s awkward.
I think that if you could comment daily on at least one of CB’s articles, there’d be a huge response, since so many readers of CB seem turned off by the CB’s comment section. Even better, if you could co-write this blog with other grizzled veteran reporters, you could teach a thing or two to the young cubs at CB when you comment on their articles. Just an idea.
I have always stated that you were Hawaii’s Best Blogger. If you roll over your name on my blog roll it even states that.
You have inspired many of us!
Keep up the good work!