14 years ago I was a bored teenager in an educational system that gave me a lot of freedom and didn't really challenge me. My secondary school had regular classes, of course, but there was a lot of focus on being independent, make sure you studied for your tests in 3 months time and figuring out in which pace you had to study, basically: not having every piece of lesson or homework spelled out by the teachers.
In practice this meant all 'free' hours could be spent in a computer classroom, yes, this is the pre-iPad era, and our school was quite modern for its time with 20 computers or so to share between pupils.
I found a blogging community
Starting the blog
Looking back I don't know how I even found out about this website. There was no Facebook targeting me with ads, so finding stuff was kind of a random thing, but the website was called 20six (20six.nl) and I signed up. The term 'blogging' was not really big yet in 2004, and so I didn't know exactly what I had started. But I would just type out bits and pieces of my school days and hit a publish button. That piece of text then appeared on 'my' blog page, the newer post would be placed above the last one.
Magic. And as interactive as the web was back then.
[The frontpage of the website I signed up on. I took all the screenshots in this blog post on my 13" Macbook air and decided to not crop the images but leave all the 'empty space' because I find it fun to see how the layout from then compares to screens today. Click image to enlarge it.]
Finding the community
Now, this blogging itself was easy enough. I had no idea who had 'invented' this thing, but it seemed to work and I liked it. I posted little stories about my days a few times a week. The real discovery though was the community I bumped into: a few dozen other people were doing the exact same thing as I was, and we could read each other's posts of that day!
I noticed a few comments appearing on my blogs, and when I clicked their names I would be able to see their latest posts too. And those stories! I was confused for the first few weeks. These people all seemed to be friends, talking to each other like they had known each other for most of their lives!
Who were these people? How did they get to know each other so well? Why didn't I understand the jokes they were making among one another? What was that 'party' they were speaking about and how could I join?
I was confused. But also: determined to know more.
Befriending people on 20six
The whole concept of 'following' as we do nowadays on Twitter, or 'befriending' like we do in Facebook, was in this pre-social-media era pretty much non-existent.
Back then you didn't have a real 'feed' like we have now on Steemit. There was just a sidebar containing the names of the person that had 'recently' posted. So, basically you would have to 'know' the person to click on their name. There would be no way to see the title of the post or the first sentence of the post to inform you what you were about to read...
[Screenshot of frontpage of 20six. In red are my name (first red rectangle) and the one of @r00sj3 (second red rectangle). Yes, we actually met 14 years ago on 20six and are now both active bloggers on Steemit! Click image to enlarge it.]
So basically you would have to just click on a name because you liked that person and would 'hope' that person had written something interesting.
In order to have some other 'measures' for finding out where you were supposed to click on the frontpage also contained multiple lists of most recent, most popular, most commented on posts.
Sounds familiar?
[Whoa, I'm in the 'hot discussion' list!]
[You can get very hot and seriously trending on Steemit too!]
Friendships, meet-ups, marriages...
I felt I had landed in a true rabbit hole. It took me a while to understand it all. But basically because people were sharing their inner thoughts and frustrations on a daily basis they really felt like they knew each other! I, too, couldn't wait until school was over so I could hurry to a nearby computer to check on new posts and comments on my own posts. Because at home we still had 'dial-in' internet I often chose to stay at school a bit longer so I could do some blogging.
I guess the school system in a way paved the way for me to become a true blogger and investor of online communities!
[One of my first attempts to 'upgrade' the layout on 20six and express my individuality. I never had heard of HTML before. I abused the colours and had never heard of colour schemes. Long story short: the end-result was awful. But it was the beginning of me learning - a lot! Click image to enlarge it.]
Meet-ups
The first time I realised these people were even meeting each other it blew my mind.
I can't stretch this enough: this was, in 2004, all still so new! Before I encountered this website the internet felt pretty much static. No 'profile oriented' dating sites, maybe you would be able to write on message boards and forums if you were looking for a partner? I'm not presuming I've done extensive research on what was and what wasn't 'already there', but I know back then I didn't do my homework with the help of Wikipedia, yet.
It was just endless scrolling through homework exchanging forums if you wanted a quick fix for your assignments due the day after.
They got married?!
The next thing I know a couple who met each other on 20six actually GOT MARRIED! I wanted my school day to be over ASAP, because I wanted to log in on my blog and check out the wedding pictures! A few people on 20six attended the wedding, which was not a weird thought anymore since, well, what's special about meeting 'online people' if some of those online people would even spend their whole lives together?
I couldn't believe it.
[Another screenshot from my blog. For people who can read Dutch: this is a cute anekdote. I might translate it on Steemit and compare my writing style then with now. Click image to enlarge it.]
Rewards?
It would take almost a decade before the word blockchain and cryptocurrency would be invented, but there actually were some kind of rewards on 20six! Of course you had the comments and the likes (whoops, I assumed, but on my screenshots I see there were no likes yet! Pre-Facebook!). But... if you wrote something really special you could get 'snoepjes', or, in English: candy!
This candy was nothing more than a red candy icon below the post with a counter next to it showing you how much of those you had received. You would feel extra special if you got 'candy' because, well, they were rare. You only got 5 units of 'candy' per person after signing up and that was it! Most of your posts would get zero 'candy', but if you had lived through a really bad day or a really special celebration (birthday, wedding) (and people cared enough about you!) you would get a few pieces of candy from the community.
The only other way to show appreciation for a post was by simply leaving a comment - more comments, more engagement, a bigger chance to get in the popularity lists on the front page.
The fun thing is: you could never trade your candy for something 'real' or maybe ever buy anything with them, so why bother collecting them? But I guess people are sensitive to all kinds of measurements of 'status' in life, so even some virtual candies were something to fight over...
Which brings me to:
Cheating a system
I'm not going to make this a political post, but I'm having lots of fun comparing this dinosaur platform 20six I used to blog on and my current Steemit adventures.
On 20six there were no bots involved, but you certainly could 'win' from others if you were a bit proficient in HTML (or knew how to copy-paste from other HTML snippet websites ;-)! You could put codes in the margins of your blog, containing innocent widgets like page view counters, but also more 'aggressive' snippets like pop-ups.
This was one of the things @r00sj3 was very much good at, and she has certainly used her HTML skills to try to win a virtual '20six mayor' competition for example.
[@r00sj3 was way ahead of me with the layout thing and finding and implementing cool scripts. Look at that pretty 20six blog! Click image to enlarge it.]
On Steemit we're handling an entirely different situation where real or if you don't agree with that, tradable money is involved. My practical brain says 'if people do all sorts of things for a virtual candy, what do we expect when money is involved?'
Other examples of how people would try to get ahead on 20six
- The only way to get in the 'recent' list on the frontpage was by posting a new blog. But you would disappear from that page very quickly. And you needed that exposure to get comments, and comments would get you in popularity lists gaining extra exposure. It didn't take long before people found out they could add or delete a symbol or word in their posts to get the same blog on the front page over and over again! The system didn't notice the difference between a new post and an edited post.
- You could attract some attention by adjusting your name that would appear on the front page. Maybe add a few (!) words like 'handing out candy' so people would click on the name and read your blog?
- You could even pretend you were someone else and let their fans come to your blog ;-)
A few notes on community
After letting @r00sj3 read my post before I would share it with you we recovered a few memories. The Dutch community on 20six was small and since Dutch people are very direct to one another we got to know each other quite well, which made us feel very connected although it also led to heated discussions. @r00sj3 also spent some time on the UK/english-speaking version of 20six which was less 'gezellig' as she said, it was bigger and people were less intimate with each other.
There is a reason the Dutch word 'gezellig' is not translatable in other languages :-)
There would be secondary accounts - where you would go incognito and stir things up (all for fun!) in the community and leave people guessing who was behind that account. We would have 'blog sticks' go around the community where a person would say 'I'm IT' and people were allowed to ask that person all kinds of questions. I think I once had to write 60 answers because of one of those 'blog sticks'. There were many many more community efforts like some sort of '20six soap' where a person would write as if 20six were a village and he/she would make up a story about its inhabitants that was based on 'facts' or sentences of actual blog posts of fellow 20six people.
These community games were amazingly fun and very very time-consuming. I have great memories of that period I spent on 20six.
From 20six to Steemit?
[What the 20six frontpage looked like near the time I left the platform. It didn't get better in my opinion... Click image to enlarge it]
I left 20six at some point. 20six changed some aspects of its website which didn't really work for me. A fellow 20six member opened a new initiative with max 10 accounts blogging there, running on Wordpress. Since 20six had seduced me to learn HTML that was a breath of fresh air, I had more freedom to do fun stuff with my blog and make it 'my own'. However, the whole social media era became more pronounced and I feel that started an era where a lot changed: people either stopped blogging on a platform and turn to short 'I just ate lunch' updates on Hyves (Dutch) / MySpace / Facebook, or became the pioneers in 'name branding' where you would gather a following around your name, brand, and individual website.
It felt different but helped me learn build website in PivotX and Wordpress, have my own weblog on my own domain name. But at some point it all died and I became a Twitter and Facebook user.
[This layout I made all from scratch! I was very proud. The background image (photo) and logo were also all created by me. The layout even got features on CSS 'best practice' websites. Click image to enlarge it.]
[Once you clicked on 'weblog' you could start reading my blogs. This layout is from 2009. Click image to enlarge it.]
In conclusion
Ever since I arrived on Steemit, 4,5 months ago, I've been surprised how much and how few has changed since my first experience with blogging. The biggest change: I'm earning money instead of virtual worthless candy! Furthermore it's still a matter of posting, connecting, and trying to get noticed.
I've had a lot of fun on Steemit the last few months and have met some great people and communities within the Steemitsphere. And if you're wondering if we'll ever lose sight of one another: only a few months ago the people from 20six started a Facebook group where we tried to reconnect. It was so much fun to see all the names and faces appear again! So even after 14 years people are still very connected with their blogging past and hadn't forgotten their community.
I know for me this is very real. People appear in my thoughts once I've gotten to know them through Steemit. You might not know it but you're part of my life now.
I'm hoping the people I'm getting to know on Steemit today will still be connected in some way in 15 years time as well.
Return from How I started blogging within a community 14 years ago: 20six versus Steemit to Rosanne's Web3 Blog
