First Anniversary

Today is the first anniversary of this blog.

At number 351 it means I haven't missed many days.
The main beneficiary has been myself. My format and content have helped me have a main focus thought each day in line with my statement below the title "Dulverton Ramblings". I blog in one other place using a different style. This is on My Telegraph where I set out to provoke as much comment as possible to gather in a variety of views on a given topic. There I am trying to keep religious, Christian, views afloat amidst the general mix.

The Story of Blogger

Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom. But we were not exactly a VC-funded, party-throwing, football-in-the-lobby-playing, free-beer-drinking outfit. (Unless it was other people's free beer.)

We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, trying to make our own grand entrance onto the Internet landscape. What we were originally trying to do does not matter so much now. But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim and thought — Hmmm...this is interesting.

Blogger took off, in a small way, and eventually a bigger way, over a couple years. We raised a little money (but stayed small). And then the bust happened, and we ran out of money, and our fun little journey got less fun. We narrowly survived, not all in one piece, but kept the service going the whole time (most days) and started building it back up.

Things were going well again in 2002. We had hundreds of thousands of users, though still just a few people. And then, something unexpected happened: Google wanted to buy us. Yes, that Google

We liked Google a lot. And they liked blogs. So we were amenable to the idea. And it worked out nicely.

Now we are a small (but slightly bigger than before) team in Google focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organising the world's information from the personal perspective. Which has pretty much always been our whole deal.

The Blogger Help group

An unmoderated forum for discussion about Blogger. We encourage you to search for answers, ask questions, and maybe even share your own advice. While this forum is intended as a place for Blogger users to assist one another, from time to time Google representatives, nicknamed Blogger Employee, Blogger Employee Helper and Blogger Buzzer will post tips and clarifications. These are the only Google representatives that post to the group and their messages will appear with a badge. Note: only posts marked with a Google badge are approved by Google.

To make the most of your experience in the Blogger Help Group, follow these discussion guidelines and tips for using our forum service:

Discussion Guidelines

1. Keep it safe. Remember, your posts can be read by users around the world. Don't make the mistake of posting personal information of any kind, especially your passwords, phone number or credit card number. No Google representative will ever ask for this information in a group post.

2. Keep it clean. These groups are for users of all ages, so do your part to keep a lid on the foul language and grouchy attitudes.

3. Keep it on-topic. We reserve the right to delete messages that are intentionally off-topic -- like commercial advertisements or other promotional material, spamming/excessive multi-posting, chain letters, and binary (non-text) postings.

4. Be nice to newbies. Many Blogger users turn to this group for advice. Remember to be patient and courteous with all users seeking help, especially those who are just getting started.

Tips for Using Google Groups

1. Before you post a new question, search or browse for the answer in the Blogger Help group,as well as the Blogger Help Center [ http://help.blogger.com ]. There's a fair chance your question has been asked and answered before.

2. Signatures are generally unnecessary when posting to Groups. As you'll notice, signatures can become repetitive and make the thread hard to read. If you need to use a signature, keep it short and sweet.

3. In the same spirit, try to keep the quoting of previous posts to a minimum. Wading through multiple copies of the same post, in the same thread, can be exasperating.

4. If you need help using Google Groups, just click on the "Help" link at the top of any page.

A Few Last Words:

1. Please be certain to read the Google Groups Terms of Service, available at http://groups.google.com/intl/en/googlegroups/terms_of_service.html , as these are the guidelines under which Blogger Help will run.

2. We believe that this diverse group of people with a strong common interest will naturally build a safe and productive community, without the need for formal moderation. However, should you see a post in the forum which you feel is counter to the health of your community, please be aware of how you may take action, as outlined on this page: http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7900

3. Enjoy yourself, build a great community, have your questions answered, and be helpful in turn!