The current issue of .net celebrates the magazine’s tenth anniversary, together with the tenth anniversary of the World Wide Web as we know it. It’s also an anniversary for me: the sixth anniversary of my first ever article for .net, which was also my first ever bit of published journalism. Amusingly, the article was a look at the world of online diaries (the ancestors of blogs); six years on, I’m writing an online diary about it. How very post-modern.

I’ve got a real soft spot for .net, and not just because it gave me my break into journalism, or because many of the people who’ve worked on the magazine over the years have become firm friends. I can honestly say that .net changed my life: as a shy, bored twentysomething stuck in a small town, .net opened my eyes to the new-fangled super electric internet – something that eventually led to my leaving a job I hated and finding a career that I genuinely love. And without fail, it made me laugh like a drain every month – an effect it still has. On the downside, it’s also contributed to my RSI and resulted in a few scary run-ins with some of the net’s more dangerous inhabitants. But that’s been interesting too.

So, happy birthday to .net and best wishes to everyone who works on it, writes for it, puts it together and most importantly of all, reads it.