Of course, my piece from Monday wouldn't be complete without a look-back at My Ass is a Weblog, the first pooh-poohing of the fad of weblogging from 11/99:
But how can you not boggle at the level of self-delusion, of self-infatuation, it takes to declare that weblogs are going kill off traditional journalism? That the concept will be alive and well a decade from now? That weblog readership will increase a hundred-fold in that time? That they're an art form?
The strange thing about that piece, upon re-reading, is that Greg mentions some of the same fads I mentioned, and he even refers to "the fireworks" that surrounded them. Odd. I didn't read his article (again) until after I wrote mine. I wonder if somehow those ideas were buried in the recesses of my mind from when I first read it in 1999? Maybe that's how plagiarism happens, you just lose track of where all the bits come from and the thoughts seem original when they're not. Or maybe we're both just brilliant and great minds think alike [note for the humor impaired: that's a joke.]? I did think my fireworks analogy was a bit cheesy though, it was just the only thing I could come up with at the time.