Blogging in 1994 was a lot different than it is today. But some things never change.

We were young, naiive and quivvered at the sound of the 9600b modem as it screamed it’s way into the local bulletin board system (BBS). We posted and responded to others feverishly, stopping only when the time on our accounts ran out, or to spin the propellers on our geek hats. We wanted to be heard and if the BBS was a part of Usenet, our thoughts were made available to the world.

The boards were really simple ways to publish stuff we wanted to say. Only a few of our peers in our tight knit little groups ever read them but we didn’t care. At least we were being heard and that’s all that mattered at the time.

Personal publishing has evolved a lot since then. However, the principles are still the same. We still want to be heard and blogging gives us our voice.

It’s not until recently that we’ve actually been heard by the masses.

Bloggers are no longer viewed as oily faced nerds spinning left wing opinions on flickering monitors in the corners of dank basements at 3am (even though in some cases that may be true). Big business, market researchers, mainstream media and the highest levels of government now see the blogosphere as the most up to date barometer of popular opinion on the net.

Our numbers are in the millions and our ranks include the very people who snubbed us in the not so distant past. Yahoo! and Google have recently added their voices to the blogosphere. Gawker Media publishes 7 online magazines based on Movabletype’s Blogging and CMS platforms, as does this very site - Lockergnome.com.

Rumor has it that even Bill Gates is considering his own blog. I wonder if he’ll have his comments enabled!

Whether Bill joins us or not, we’re here to stay and it’s about time people started listening to us. Because we have a lot of important things to say.