The show begins....

Interesting. Lots of pleasant comments and a couple of attempted smacks in the kisser. And the sense that there is something of a community out there - not static of course, but certainly more neighbourly than where I actually live. As to the person (the name escapes me) who was so cross that I can write stuff about myself at midday (instead of 2 am, presumably) all I can say is that it gets worse. My employers ENCOURAGE me to do it. Doesn't it make you sick!

Comments

[Chris]

I have the feeling these comment boxes are going to end in tears.

[Chris]

Ah moderated comments, good idea.

I can hear the wailing from the medialens 'office' already...you corporate sellout fascist scum.

[Sarah]

You're lucky to be able to blog without having to pretend to be doing something else instead, at work, that is. Some of us aren't so lucky...

[Matt Murrell]

Allowing comments (even moderated) is a brave move. Most blogs by professional writers tend to give up on them in the end - there's just too many people out there who view it as a chance to exercise their own personal demons.

Good luck to you though. I'm looking forward to reading future posts.

[Laban Tall]

Ruth Gledhill's already cutting chunks out of my comments - I suppose it won't be long ...

Do you 'moderate' yourself or have a menial to do it ? 'Cos if you do it yourself you may find you have a second full time job.

[Rowan Berkeley]

Definitely no future for David in the cut and thrust of the blogosphere

[alan]

good you keep comments, on mine I have word verification on just in case to stop spam, also best blogs usually have comments

also lucky wish i got paid for blogging, but alas it is not to be

[Jacques Rene' Zammit]

Well, I agree that columnists without a blog are a dying race and that the blogosphere has opened up competition. Seeing that pet cats are a standard it could be that all serious bloggers are witches secretly conjuring up some magic potion of happiness. Good luck with the troll business - you will probably discover that even the blogosphere has its problems on delineating the fine edge of freedom of speech.

One last thing... I find that blogs by newspaper columnists tend to have a 'fake' look - as in they "try" to have a blog but the final effect (especially visual) still remains that of a newspaper columnist who is in a new world that is very much not his own. it will only be a matter of time until one of these columnists will wake up to this anomaly (probably someone at the Guardian) and give his/her blog a design that it deserves.... and name the design after a sausage to boot.

Happy blogging!

[Inna]

Hi David, Glad to see you blogging and getting paid for it but I think I must concur with Jacques--blogs sponsored by newspapers, somehow have a corporate (as opposed to individual) look and "feel" to them. And to some extent that might defeat the purpose. Some people (well, OK me) visit blogs to find out what individuals, rather than corporations think.

Hope you can overcome this sort of "inbuilt" disadvantage and happy blogging.

Best,

Inna

[TC]

Doesn't look much like a blog to me!

[Fancyclown]

For me a blog without comments doesn't qualify as a blog, as it stops the interaction between writer and reader, which is one of the best things about blogs.

[David Vaughan]

"I find that blogs by newspaper columnists tend to have a 'fake' look"

That's easily fixed: You can look like a real blog by peppering your posts with inaccuracies. Then swear a bit.

[j0nz]

>> You can look like a real blog by peppering your posts with inaccuracies. Then swear a bit.

Well I'm guessing here but I think Aavonovitch's blog being hosted on the timesonline domain may inhibit actual swearing. We need to be nice boys & girls methinks...

[Alasdair]

Jacques Rene' Zammit,

"blogosphere"
Aaagh! How I hate that word. It belongs in the dustbin of history with similarly irritating neologisms like 'cyberspace' and 'information superhighway'. I'd have thought we'd grown up from that sort of thing by now.

Apart from that: nice blog here. David Aaronovitch has always been one of my favourite columnists, so I'll be interested to read what he's got to say here that he's not allowed to say in print... let's hope it's a success!

[Tomahawk]

David:

I see that The Guardian's "Norman Johnson" column is having another thinly-veiled go at you: "...I've not found any precedent for a crazy, marathon-running north London columnist with a blogging habit: goes by the name of Norm." Do you have any ideas about who it is that's writing that column?

[David]

I do the moderating myself. As to Norman Johnson, I have no idea, but it started off being done by someone who was very angry with me.

[Ciaran]

It's nasty enough to be Bennett.

[Tomahawk]

"As to Norman Johnson, I have no idea, but it started off being done by someone who was very angry with me."

Now you're just whetting our appetites! Who was it initially - Shameless Milne?

[Peter]

Welcome to the blogosphere! It is good to be able to read your words again -- We Observer-readers miss you!

[Eli]

's great that you're blogging, but please can you get rid of the bloody pop-up advert (probably java script) which actually stops me from reading what you're writing, no matter how many times I click 'close'!!!! (Another advantage of not being hosted by your corporate paymasters, no doubt ;-)