An Ordinary Anniversary

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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37 Responses

  1. North says:

    I found my way here Via Sullivan who was linking to Freddie. Nowhere near as early as you showed up but not terribly late to the party. It’s been a wonderful decade.Report

  2. greginak says:

    Well this should be fun and weird. It feels sort of like a HS reunion though that would suggest i avoid the whole thing since it makes me feel like a shy dorkwad teenager. I will find all the music i used to listen to years ago while i read the posts to complete the experience. King Crimson was all the rage with the kids when this started right?Report

  3. LeeEsq says:

    The League/Ordinary Times had to be one of the few blogs that changed a lot over the years but still manages to exist. The early commentators were all over the political map but the readership was mainly right-leaning or libertarian. By the time I joined, it was more liberal-leaning place with relatively more mainstream politics.Report

    • Trumwill in reply to LeeEsq says:

      There really has been a lot of change over the years. I started to write a paragraph on that before deciding it would take too many words. But that’s about right. It started off ideologically balanced but then shifted right. When Positive Liberty folded into it that brought a lot of libertarians on the front page and some collaboration with Balloon Juice brought leftward commenters over.

      Trump kind of scrambled everything. Or maybe clarified it. Not a lot of support for him, to say the least, though not a lot of consensus on what the biggest problem with him is.Report

      • LeeEsq in reply to Trumwill says:

        Most of the more right-leaning commentators or stricter libertarians seemed to have left around the 2012 Presidential election, so a bit before Trump came along.Report

    • Murali in reply to LeeEsq says:

      The early commenters seem to be right leaning or libertarian only because you came in after Positive Liberty, a libertarian blog (consisting of James Hanley, Jason Kuznicki, Jonathan Rowe, Jim Babka and DA Ridgely) collapsed. Three of those people joined the masthead over here following that collapse and pulled a number of commenters from there (including myself) to the league. Prior to that, the league was more centrist with lots of people who combined left and right-ish views in very odd ways. If I remember correctly, you found us just as the libertarian influence was waning.Report

    • Murali in reply to LeeEsq says:

      Ship of Theseus, this isReport

  4. Scott Davies says:

    I had no idea Ordinary Times/League of Ordinary Gentleman was 10 years old! I haven’t been here anywhere near as long as many commenters here (I first stumbled upon this site on Twitter maybe a year and a half ago). It’s interesting reading the comments of old-school posters and contributors to find out just how much this site has changed in its time.Report

  5. Anne says:

    Space Awesome! Happy anniversary everyone. I know I found the LoOG from Andrew’s site I believe one of Jason’s post. Probably in 2010 can’t remember. I want to thank the commetariat and especially all those behind the scenes that make this such a great place to hang out.Report

  6. Zac Black says:

    I wasn’t here right from the beginning, but I don’t think it was too long after; it was back when Barrett Brown was still a regular commenter. Like North I came here thanks to a link from the Dish, though I lurked for years before I ever started commenting. Should be interesting to see former Leaguers stopping back in.Report

  7. Patrick says:

    MetalReport

  8. Road Scholar says:

    I found this place via the blogroll on BHL, which had just popped up randomly on my FB feed about seven or so years ago. So FB >> BHL >>OG. Really appreciate the atmosphere of generally respectful discourse between disparate political angles. Been hooked ever since. Really it’s the only site I regularly visit apart from FB and lately Twitter. FWIW, it’s also the only place on the internet I’ve ever had any scribbles published, so that happened. Happy Anniversary!!Report

  9. aaron david says:

    I found it via The American Scene. That was dying, a someone had mentioned this place. I popped in and found it was pretty seriously ideologically balanced. I liked that, as it made real discussion possible.

    We were so young.Report

  10. Jaybird says:

    I came here after Culture 11 blowed up and after I got banned from Redstate in 2008. (The earliest comment I could find was this one back from March 2009. I was yelling at Freddie. Sigh.) But I *LURKED* for a couple of weeks before taking a deep breath and commenting.

    Since, even then, the site felt like it had been around forever, I feel like “The New Guy”.

    Ten years. Golly.Report

  11. 10 years later, this remains the only site on the Internet that I consistently get pleasure from reading.

    I’m sorry my contributions have been few and far between over these last few years. There’s a strong likelihood I can start consistently contributing again starting sometime this year.Report

  12. b-psycho says:

    I remember many arguments, many political, a surprising amount about food and drink.

    This is the only site other than C4SS (an anarchist think tank project of sorts) that has requested more than one guest post from me. I really don’t write anymore (life stuff and mental health — sitting thinking about the world and how much is utterly wrong imo and should be changed long enough to write columns about it makes me want to drink more and throw stuff) tho, just tweet.

    It was good to come here and get into actual *discussions*, really never got that outside of the old days of forums. Glad this site is still around.Report

    • JoeSal in reply to b-psycho says:

      I wish you would write more. If i recall correctly you where well centered between the left and right at a very low y-axis point on the political compass.

      I have a theory, that if we have a shot of self governing and a possible lasting peace, it will come from a vantage point very close to where you are.

      The reason you are likely frustrated is because the world has gone mad, and you are the only one holding the sanity meter.Report

  13. atomickristin says:

    Cool! Happy anniversary! So happy to be a part of OT. 🙂 (with a million thanks to Will)Report

  14. jason says:

    I want to say it was 2010 or ’11 that I started lurking here. Regardless of how much I comment, this is one site that I consistently return to. I’m glad the site’s still going strong. Congratulations!Report

  15. Marchmaine says:

    I can’t remember when I started imposing my will on everyone here… maybe ’14-ish…because I definitely lurked for about two years, not wanting to interrupt the liberal interplay – which is why I came in the first place: to see what smart liberals think and why. Of course, I’m a bit idiosyncratic on the political spectrum… so when I hear you folks talking about the liberals and the libertarians it sounds to me like you are distinguishing between your brother Daryl and your other brother Daryl.

    I’ll echo what others have said; the commentariate is why I come here (sorry content generators… grist for the grist god*). I’ll add also that it isn’t simply a good comment here or there (of course there are those) but the continuity of the commentors… I’m genuinely curious about so-and-so’s take on such-and-such as the comments have context and the avatars (to me at least) have a little bit of substance behind the pixels. For that I’m grateful.

    * I certainly appreciate the (usually) thoughtful essays posted to prompt the daily demarcation… and I especially appreciate when the authors participate in the comments – that’s an increasingly rare gift.Report

  16. James K says:

    I came in with the Positive Liberty crowd. While I don’t comment as much as I once did, I still really enjoy this place. I’m looking forward to seeing some old faces.Report

  17. Roland Dodds says:

    This is a great idea. Although I wasn’t on board with OT for some time after its inception, I was on one of Erik’s earlier websites before his change of heart politically. I think I was first pulled into OT in a spat with Freddie about intervention.

    I look forward to seeing some of its founders and big names return for this celebration!

    In addition, if anyone is interested in doing a live event in the Bay Area, I would be more than happy to set something up. Getting to meet other OT contributors at one of the past summer events was an awesome experience, and while I can’t put on quite the same performance, I would definitely make sure we could have a meal and drink in the greater SF region.Report

  18. Michael Cain says:

    As best I recall, I encountered the site during the summer between two legislative sessions in Colorado, although I don’t remember which two. Could only lurk briefly, then went back to the 60-hour weeks when internet access was restricted to strictly job-related information mining. Bookmarked, though, so I could find it again. Couldn’t comment — staff positions were non-partisan, enforced to such a degree that I wouldn’t trust any sort of anonymizing tech available at the time.Report

  19. Kolohe says:

    Happy anniversary. I also found this place via positive liberty, via one of the bloggers who was a frequent commentator on reason’s hit n run and a regular on another long running libertarian(ish) message board.Report

  20. Saul Degraw says:

    I thought you guys were older honestly.Report

  21. I found this place via Sully and became an occasional and then regular commenter. While the posts and comments were well above the norm for political blogs, there was a real dearth of puns, which I felt duty-bound to address.Report

  22. Kolohe says:

    Apropos of a conversation elsewhere, I should add that this site has the best comments culture of any ‘open’ site on the internet. And that is the most difficult thing to both obtain and maintain.Report

    • Road Scholar in reply to Kolohe says:

      Absolutely. It seems to be a function of having a fairly tight group — maybe a couple dozen? — regulars that have all been here a while and generally treat each other with respect. Usually anyway, lol. I have no idea how you would intentionally cultivate that sort of thing. The cesspools are much larger, more anonymous, and lots of drive-by trolls.

      As good aa the articles are, I wouldn’t hang out here were it not for the community culture.Report

  23. Jason Kuznicki says:

    Thanks everyone for the opportunity. I missed this place more than I’d realized.Report

  24. Dave says:

    Wow. Now I feel old.Report

  25. Chris says:

    Long ago in a galaxy far away…Report