{"id":28209,"date":"2013-11-24T14:58:02","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T19:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=28209"},"modified":"2013-11-24T14:58:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T19:58:32","slug":"personal-bloggernacle-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2013\/11\/personal-bloggernacle-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal (Bloggernacle) History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PHB1_high1\"<\/a>Sometime in late 2003 or early 2004, Steve Evans<\/a> told me I needed to check out his[fn1] website: rameumptom.blogspot.com<\/a>. At the time, the nascent bloggernacle was so young that By Common Consent didn’t yet have a name (I think the name was voted on sometime during that first year). He may have also pointed me to Times & Seasons, or I may have found it linked on his blog. But I found T&S at approximately the same time.<\/p>\n

In late-2003\/early-2004, blogs were a new thing in the mainstream. The media had finally noticed them<\/a>; Google had just purchased Blogger<\/a>. And blogs were really the state-of-the-art in online discussion: Facebook didn’t happen until February 2004<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was a third-year law student in New York, and Times & Seasons and BCC entered my life at a good time. I’d recently become fascinated by a number of Mormon Studies books from the University of Illinois Press<\/a>. I was starting to Know [My] Religion[fn2] in a deeper, more academic way.<\/p>\n

In the bloggernacle, I encountered incredible people, faithful people who explored their faith, often (though, of course, not always) in a deep, nuanced way. It was fresh and exciting. After reading for a couple years, I felt like I knew some of these people.[fn3] I was introduced to topics in Church history and thought that I was unaware of. I was introduced to books I needed.[fn4] Reading allowed me to engage with my Mormonism every day, at least by fits and snatches, in the cracks between other things I did during the day. The discussion could be franker, could be more contentious, and far more fascinating than what happens on Sundays.[fn5]<\/p>\n

But, perhaps most importantly, I was introduced to questions, important questions that help me figure out my place in the Church and the Church’s place in me.<\/p>\n

I joined Times & Seasons almost two and a half years ago<\/a>. The timing was fortuitous: with Mitt Romney running for President, tax issues and Mormon issues frequently overlapped. (Seriously, who would have thought that Mormon tax blogging could be anything beyond, like, two posts?)<\/p>\n

I read much less of the bloggernacle now than I did 10 years ago. Partly, it’s that what was fresh back then sometimes feels repetitive today. Partly it’s two callings and a real job. Partly it’s the time associated with three kids. But I still frequently find incredible value, insight, and surprise here.<\/p>\n

So happy birthday, T&S! Happy birthday to us!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

[fn1] Note that I don’t remember if he called it\u00a0his<\/em> website; he may have said to check out\u00a0this<\/em> website, or something else entirely.<\/p>\n

[fn2] It’s surprisingly hard, actually, to find a site I can link to for the old Know Your Religion series that my parents used to go to when I was in high school. I assume it doesn’t exist anymore, and, frankly, have know idea if it existed outside of California or was, instead, some sort of stake\/regional initiative.<\/p>\n

[fn3]\u00a0Eventually, I met some of these people IRL.<\/p>\n

[fn4] For which my wife would probably like to sarcastically thank the bloggernacle; I’ve spent too much on LDS- and religiously-themed books, and have far too little space in my apartment for them.<\/p>\n

[fn5]\u00a0I should quickly point out that this isn’t meant to disparage Sundays; the bloggernacle serves a different purpose and a different population. As an opt-in community, members who are uncomfortable with the discourse can not join; not joining the bloggernacle discussion doesn’t impact our membership or participation in the body of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometime in late 2003 or early 2004, Steve Evans told me I needed to check out his[fn1] website: rameumptom.blogspot.com. At the time, the nascent bloggernacle was so young that By Common Consent didn’t yet have a name (I think the name was voted on sometime during that first year). He may have also pointed me to Times & Seasons, or I may have found it linked on his blog. But I found T&S at approximately the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":28210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bloggernacle","category-mormon-life"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/PHB1_high1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28212,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28209\/revisions\/28212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}