Post 100

The beatroot is six months and one hundred posts old. I never knew it would be so much fun!

Got an email from expatanchor.net. Apparently the beatroot has been judged as ‘most influential expat blog in Central Europe’ – whatever that means! It was good to see, as well, that two other blogs – Kinuk in Poland and Warsaw Station - got in the top ten as well. I don’t really understand how they have come to this conclusion, but I am not complaining.

Sorry this post is a bit self-indulgent but, what the hell, it’s my blog!

I started the beatroot originally to put things that I had written elsewhere in one place – like a portfolio, or something. But then I soon discovered that there was much, much more to blogging than that!

Since then I have met so many people via other blogs, have learnt loads, and found out which of my arguments are good and which ones are just completely stupid.

Blogging is not like journalism. I have no editor, sub-editor (although many people say that I need one!) advertisers (blogs should not have advertisers!), board of directors, etc. That’s the strength of blogs – they are independent. The weakness of blogging is that there is no editor, sub-editor (although many people say that I need one!) advertisers (blogs should not have advertisers!), board of directors, etc. It means that blogs have none of the usual filters that journalism has.

So the only checks and balances that we bloggers have is through the comments we get from our readers. And I want to thank the many people who pop in to tell me about the things that I have written and express their opinions. I love it when the comments are more interesting than the original post – which is quite often. As far as I can understand one of the criteria for ‘most influencial expat blog’ is the quality of the comments. And I have been lucky to have some real battles going on(see comment section on last post for a good example of this). Two contributors stand out – Michael Farris and Stefanmichnik, who have had some very entertaining battles over the last couple of months, or so.

On the beatroot’s one hundred posts birthday, can I also thank (this is turning into an Oscar type speech – sorry!) all the other blogs who have said nice things about the blog, including EU Referendum blog, Brussels Journal, By Dawn’s Early Light, European Democracy, Around the World in Eighty Days, Bicyclemark.org (who I talked to yesterday on his excellent podcasting blog from Amsterdam) and many more that, to be honest, I can’t remember right now.

So, thanks again and I hope the next 100 posts are as much fun and education for me as the first lot have been.

Peace!

PS. Please visit our collective blog – P3 - that we have set up here in Warsaw. It brings together several individual bloggers under one name and place. Our next p3 meeting is this Saturday, I believe.