You’ll get an idea of why I am asking this question before too much longer, but I am curious to know how long you have been reading Booman Tribune. If you want to share more information, that’d be cool. Like, do you remember how you originally found this place?
Serious Question
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I heard of BT via Daily Kos. It was an attractive alternative to Daily Kos, especially after the infamous pie fight. The Froggy Bottom Cafe, foto flogs, Welcome Wagon Wednesday, etc. gave this place a real down-home feel. There was even a Friday Night Jazz Jam series for a while in the beginning. I think I set up my initial account sometime in 2005. I dropped out for a bit in 2009 and returned under my current nom de plume. We’ve sometimes had our differences, but the sort of down-home vibe that existed here for those first years and your… Read more »
My current nom de plume in 2010. Yeah, I’ve been here a long while in one form or another.
Wait people left after the pie fight?
This site probably doubled or tripled in size during the Pie Fight. I could check the numbers on that if people are curious.
Yes.
I’m curious.
AG
Markos posted his pie fight article on June 5th, 2005.
That morning I had 1015 users.
The next day I added 27 users.
By the end the 7th, we new at 1303.
By the end of the 8th, we were at 1399.
By the end of the month, we were 1719.
By the end of the next month were were at 1926.
So, I guess we didn’t quite double, but it sure seemed like it. It totally changed the site.
I left Kos because of the “sanctimonious women’s studies set” pie fight remark, despite being a high school drop out I recognize misogyny when my nose is rubbed in it.
I am confronted with misogyny in my daily life, I do not need to go looking for it on political blogs when there are plenty of smart people saying smart things without the male dominance dance.
I can’t even imagine the shitstorm if he said that today. Honestly Kos seems more and more a dinosaur these days
That period in DK history definitely alienated some folks. Markos’ referral of critics of that ad on his site as “sanctimonious women’s studies set” really did not help DK’s cause. The frogpond, by contrast looked considerably more inviting. The numbers Booman provides downthread are a good indicator that the frogpond got some DK refugees in the aftermath.
Hello BooMan, I’ve been lurking too long and occasionally commenting. I get pestered by the New York Times all the time after clicking on their articles that friends put up on Facebook. Click the article, and they announce “Two Free Articles This Month Left For You!” Like Soup Nazi, “No Free Content For You! Why not subscribe at a dollar a week? ” Long and short of it is I’d rather pass on dough to you. Could you provide that P.O. Box number with address again? I have a pilfered beer glass of twenty dollar bills left over from bar… Read more »
That’s sounds great and thanks for thinking of me.
I’m setting something new up so I’ll hold off on making any asks for the moment, but don’t forget about me 😉
I recall you mentioning a need to migrate the frog pond at some point. Hoping whatever it is will manage to keep the vibe of this joint.
I know that I’ve been reading here for more than 10 years, probably closer to 14 years and got steered here from Daily Kos, along about the time their blog design was similar to this one.
June 12, 2012 is the day you finally made an account. You probably lurked for a long time before that.
Thanks for providing that. I know I was here long before.
I came onboard in either 2007 or 2008 when I was volunteering on the Obama campaign. Can’t remember how I found the site, but it, along with Al Giordano’s site, were the two places I went to most for thoughtful well written political analysis and “Chicken Little” prevention.
Me too, I think. About then. With Al Giordano and Nate (what was he called then? Pablano?) You must know when we registered.
I have spent most of my adult life living and working outside the US (working on the environment and climate change in developing countries). This included all but the last few years so I discovered this site only three years ago. Pretty sure it was from a tweet I stumbled on by our illustrious host but I’m not sure. I’m also a Washington Monthly subscriber.
I’m not exactly sure when I started frequenting this site, but it had to be at least since I worked on Obama’s first campaign. Yours is the first site I check every day after the NYT and the WaPo sites, and I pass on, and recommend, many of your posts. In addition, I pick up the Washington Monthly from my local book store on a regular basis.
I’m guessing that I found this site when it was referenced elsewhere, but that has been lost in the mists of time.
Don’t know when you started reading but you opened an account on May 30, 2008.
Last time this came up you were able to pinpoint mine so I think you’d know more than me as to when. Probably from DKos. I dont think Marshall or Drum would have linked to you back then.
You opened an account on January 8, 2008.
I have been reading you since the mid-90s, I think. I found your site from the Mahablog.
I don’t kmow when it was but I remember when you told DKos about it. 2005? It was so long ago, seems like right before the pie fight. I still read here most days though I rarely sign in.
I log in so infrequently that I keep having to reset my password. I think it was before the Pie fight for me. I would comment on Bill Maher’s old message boards a ton. However, I wanted more analysis, not just reaction. And, I wanted it to be from real people, not talking head NYT types who thought Liberalism was a bad word and Joe Lieberman and John McCain were the best politicians we could hope for. Someone recommended Daily Kos during a comment. From there I checked out the recommended Blogs from Kos and settled on this one, Steve… Read more »
We’ve been around we even get the `thrill run up my leg’ reference.
Geeze, that’s what, 12 years ago?
That’s forever in Internet years.
.
Probably 5 years. I actually joined much more recently, but have ponied up on the PayPal requests for a while. I am guessing I came from DailyKos or Mahablog, but I have seen links other places too. Also I only read Booman, though I am vaguely aware there are other posts here. To me it’s just the Booman blog. I read it every day.
I got disgusted at Huffingtonpost and went looking around. Found Eschaton – saw and clicked the Booman Tribune link. And you’ve been stuck with me ever since. I’d be interested to know when that was.
Now if I could only remember how I found What Would Jack Do…
You signed up August 3, 2012.
I started reading BooMan Tribune up in 2007.
I honestly don’t know. I imagine I came here from one your “also available in green” links from the GOS and eventually just stayed here. I remember the Pie Fight as a peripheral event because I’d long stopped reading DKos on a more than biweekly/monthly basis by that time and barely noticed. I have a user # in the 2700s so I’m a relative old-timer, I suppose, but I probably didn’t register an account until the minute I wanted to post a comment. If you’re coming up with a subscription offering, I’ve noted before I’d sign up when… Read more »
I joined the European Tribune on Wed Nov 28th. 2007 . Since then, I have written 500 diaries for them, many of which I cross-post here if I think they may be of some interest in the USA. Very occasionally I’ve written specifically for the Booman Tribune, but for the most part I don’t consider myself qualified to comment on US affairs, except perhaps to give a perspective on how they look from a European or Irish stand-point. I liked Carter, Bill Clinton, and Obama from a personal perspective, but the domestic political realities and perspectives with which they had… Read more »
I continue to appreciate your perspective. Just from my own personal perspective, visiting EU nations periodically and having friends and professional acquaintances in the EU is a poor substitute for actually living within the EU. I really need to do more than just periodically lurk on ET. Part of that is I haven’t really quite sorted out how I might fit in there. I am a bit more hopeful now about the US than I might have been a few months ago, but we’re far from out of the woods (and undoing the damage post-Individual 1 is going to be… Read more »
I’m not sure when I joined.
Probably just after the July 4th massacre at dKos.
AG
I don’t remember the July 4th Massacre as such but I might with some gentle (memory) prodding. You were here already when I started reading the comments. That much I know.
First Obama election, but not 2007. Was sometime in 2008, probably from either an Al Giordano link directing me here (found him first), or from a link in the Facebook group “One Million Strong For Barack Obama”. Too bad Giordano has gone a bit crazy since the 2016 primary, but you kept your head 🙂
I don’t even read blogs anymore, Twitter does enough curating that’s made them somewhat obsolete, but I still read this one multiple times a day.
I probably came here from Kos but it could have been Balloon-Juice. My nym originated at Kos. I’ve been reading, but not commenting much, these blogs for a long time. Eschaton and Aravosis not so much anymore, Kos some, Juan Cole pretty regularly, B-J, Digby, and Booman every damn day. I miss Gilliard!
No idea when I first visited but it was likely near the time I signed up for an account. Booman’s analysis of the nuts and bolts of political sausage making is what attracted my interest. I’m guessing I found the site from the balloon juice blogroll. I’d never spent any time on dKos because I found the community to be a toxic stew of cranks and loons obsessed with narcissistic performative purity signalling rather than policy or politics.
Couldn’t really say. I try a lot of places, some of them stick and some don’t. This one stuck because it seems to have more insight onto the mechanics of Congress and government in general,
UID 623, so many years. Followed you over from the great orange satan. But it took me a few weeks to set up an account.
I rarely comment but I read the site every day. probably found it through Kos or Atrios way back in the dark ages but I didn’t make an account for some time. guessing I started reading in 2005 or 2006, but my account was created in February 2007. keep up the good work!
Freshman year of college, which would make it either late 2004 or early 2005. Been a while…hard to believe how much time has elapsed.
If memory serves I came over from The Left Coaster by looking at Steve’s blogroll. Might have been ’07.
Not sure, been viewing the site several times a day for a few years now. I was aware of the site many years before I registered, but rarely checked it back then.
Good question. I think it was linked to by Al’s The Field sometime in ’10 maybe. Or The Obama Diary. Those were the only blogs I was reading then.
It’s been awhile. Probably around the first Bush administration. I’ve stayed with the stalwarts, LG&M, Ballon, Atrios, Hullabaloo, TPM. Shoot, I remember CrookandLiars before they switched from blog to `newsite’. Oddly enough, this is the only site I post on. Some are too clannish (ballonjuice), some too hostile to being wrong (LG&M). There is something about the way the comments are listed here, that I find appealing, and more inclusive. Of course, all of that speaks to the overseer. The front page diaries are on point, without the dramatic flourishes of other places. And it really is one of the… Read more »
And I got here via blog rolls, almost certainly from Hullabaloo or LG&M. I used to methodically click every one.
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Same for me. I’m pretty sure I first came here from Hullabaloo or Pandagon’s blogroll. 2004 at the latest.
I’ve been following you since 2005 when my brother convinced me I should be reading political blogs. He recommended Josh, Eschaton, Digby, Billmon, and Booman particularly.
I still check in here and there with the others (sans Billmon) but I go to you daily because your research, analysis, and prose on a variety of topics are just the best! Hands down, I share more of your posts than those of any other writer or publication.
As with others, I lurked a long time before I registered.
I believe I first found my way here in 2008. Booman’s deep, broad overview was/is unique, refreshing and informative. Commenters have always been thoughtful, serious and informed. If I’m reading your hints accurately, Booman, you’re planning to make changes rather than closing the site. I hope I’m right!
I don’t recall exactly when I started reading or how I came to the site. I have been reading and commenting for several years, and enjoy the commentary. I find it insightful and very informative.
I can’t remember. It feels like forever. Yours is the only blog I check regularly, i.e. daily. I have contributed sometimes with Paypal. I had a few other blogs, but I got disgusted with either their partisanship or low level of analysis at one point or another. I still read dkos, although both points apply there, but you always can find nuggets, because it is so big. Your blog is different, it has a high percentage of enlightening thoughts for me. I find it very refreshing that you try to understand the motives of Trump voters and the calculations of… Read more »
Come to think of it, I may also have come from Al Giordano sometime in 2008? Back then I read him regularly, but in the 2016 primary I found him just partisan, not useful.
You should give Al a fresh look. I think his war with the Bernie Bros (or ones posing at them) shook his equilibrium and it still shows, but he is still a terrific write with very good observations and analysis. It would be a shame if his (over)reaction to the ’16 campaign was due to Russian trolls, and I hope over time, he backs away from his apparent assumption that most of the Bernie Bros phenomenon was true and not fake trolls. Having a severe battle with cancer may also have made the stakes feel even more high and so… Read more »
Thanks for the info. Will check him out again. He did a lot for my sanity back in 2008.
My story is a lot like Don Durito’s. I was a regular at DKOS back when it was the big new thing. I didn’t post much but I read the articles and tried to follow a lot of the threads. It wasn’t long before I followed one of BooMan’s links here and found a home. Back then I was Ignorant Bystander. Still am in a lot of ways. Back then I read a lot of really good diaries by Jerome a Paris about the economics of wind power and renewable energy. I spent most of my career as a tech… Read more »
I have no idea. Maybe if you tell me I can place it. After Firedog, I’m pretty sure.
I’ve been reading since George W. Bush (feh, spit) was preznit. I learned about BMT soon after we met in real life at Philadelphia Drinking Liberally.
It remains my go-to for analysis, and set my head straight about politics when I was susceptible to the charlatans out there.
I found this site through Yastreblyansky or Balloon Juice. This probably would have been 2012 or 2013? I created my account on March 12th, 2018.
Judging from other comments: about 2005. That was pretty far before I registered. Always have Booman Tribune on lock and load. Uncommon insights and in-depth perspective have made Martin must-reading. I have sent support several times. Really miss Billmon.
Yes! Where’s Billmon?
It was somewhere between 2003 and 2005 I think. Maybe a bit before if this was around. I’ve looked on the site to see when you started and can’t find exact dates. But I know it was when I lived in one particular place and not another, so I can date it to back then. Back in the glory days I guess you’d say of the blogosphere. You are the only blogger I regularly visit at this point, and it’s been that way for years, many years. I feel like your unwillingness to cater to nonsense possibly prevented you from… Read more »
Let’s pour one out for Steve Gilliard.
Steve was a great, knowledgeable, generous person and a hell of a fighter. He showed everybody where the conservative movement was and where it was heading.
I have often thought about him, and missed him.
In regard to reading Booman, I’ve been here for 10 or 12 years.
He has his own wing in the blogging Hall of Fame, may he rest in peace.
Thanks for passing the bottle around here.
Hear hear. I miss Steve’s insight. He would have had a field day with Trump, that’s for sure.
Indeed.
At the time of Hurricane Katrina, Steve Gilliard’s coverage and commentary on that catastrophe was about the best I’d seen bar none. He would have undoubtedly ramped up the coverage of the outrageously wretched response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria by Individual-1’s crumbling White House.
At least 10 years, you know when I registered.
I came over from EuroTrib.
Now you, Digby and Crooked Timber are how I start my day.
I followed one of those side bar links from Eachaton. It was a couple of years ago, I think.
In which I discover you can’t edit comments in this system.
‘Tis been a while, At least before Obama’s first campaign I would think – it was from a referral from either Drum, Black, or Marshall. I don’t and have never done Kos after he went Daily. I remember when your hire by WaMo was a REALLY BIG deal.
I discovered this blog early this decade, when BooMan and Steven D were the two authors of front page posts. I recall the blog being criticized by contributors and acolytes for other blogs and online magazines which I used to read more frequently. The TruthOut and Jacobin types declared the BooMan Tribune a centrist site. I think one of them linked to a story in order to help convince their audience of the validity of their critique. I started reading other posts, and it seemed to me that the point of view here was not only more consistently set in… Read more »
At least ten years. I come here for reality based political analysis. You have few peers, Boo.
You,plus TPM,Kevin Drum,Balloon Juice are my dai!y hits.
Been quite a while, but not really sure (ten years?). I can say that you and Josh at TPM are my go-tos every day for a clear, dispassionate, and learned perspective. You scared me that time you said you were about ready to hang up your cleats given the toll it was taking on you. Anyway, you managed to survive that existential experience, and we are all the better for it. Keep it going, please.
IIRC I discovered the blogs September ’05. I might have started at HuffPo, but then found dkos, then started checking out all the others that dkos linked to. I was probably here by early ’06.
When? Years ago, I forget. It took me several years to establish a log-in, I think. The combo of smart politics and the Grateful Dead kept me coming back. How did I find it? Probably someone quoted you. I was never a Kos person, more a Sadly No. I dont know where I stumbled across Nancy LeT either, but it was well before she became a Washington Monthly regular, which is where I most often read you both now.
At least 5 years, maybe more. I think that Yastreblyansky linked to you and when I saw your site I registered. I don’t comment here all that often, but I visit multiple times a week to get your take on things. I genuinely value your insights and those of the folks who comment regularly here. FWIW, I am a lawyer who has been admitted in NJ & PA since 1977. I have practiced immigration law since leaving corporate life in 2001. I had a prior career as an in-house corporate attorney for a defense contractor. I was a national… Read more »
Clicked on a sidebar link over at No More Mister. Lurked for a while before signing up in 2014 (I think).
I followed a link from DKos and thought, “That’s exactly what I wanted to know”. My time sense is awful, but I know it’s been many years.
I can’t remember for sure, but I think I came here after the pie fight at Daily Kos, so when was that? At first I was a bigger fan of Steven’s posts (how is he, btw?) but you grew on me, Martin.
After giving it more thought, I think I might have found BT through Atrios, originally, but not a regular until pie. Lurked for a while, like many others. Not much of a commenter; other people have more enlightened things to say, or think they do.
Hi, I guess I must have started reading in the early to mid W. years. I ran across the site listed on a list of progressive sites at either dKos, Eschaton, or Digby. I haven’t commented much since Trump won because I lost a lot of confidence in my ability to parse American politics. It’s like someone repealed the laws of physics; I have no ideas whats going to happen next. Anyway, I have been coming here for years on a daily basis to gain insights I can’t find anywhere else, from both you and the other commenters. I really… Read more »