Oh no! I’ve been memed! I’ve been tagged by Rutty, who’s passing along the “five reasons why you blog” meme. So here are my five.

Friends first

The single biggest reason I blog is because I get so much email, I’m terrible at replying quickly. Blogging means I can demonstrate that I’m still alive and keep in touch with friends, without the trolls and other annoyances that infest messageboards.

Writers have to write

I spend a lot of time writing stuff in exchange for money, but there are stacks of things I  feel ranty about that no right-minded editor would pay real cash money for (and there are loads of things that may be worth paying real cash money for, but I don’t know the editors in those fields). If you’re a writer, you write whether you’re getting paid or not. Although if you’re getting paid you tend to pay attention to things like grammar, making sense, that sort of thing. Heh.

Is it just me, or…

One of my favourite quotes about writing (and shamefully, I don’t remember where it came from) is: “We read to know that we are not alone”. I think that’s true, but also in these web 2.0 days we write, or upload to sites, to know that we are not alone. Blogging is pointless without feedback, good and bad, and IMO flickr is pointless without comments from other flickr users.  One of the great things about the net is that while only a small number of people might think the way you do, it’s never been easier to find and to interact with that small group.

Everybody is smarter than me. Apart from him, him and her.

I know a little bit about a lot of things, and nine times out of ten there are other people who know much, much more, and whose input means I get a little bit smarter as a result of their responses to what I do. Admittedly for every one of them there are another nine people who call me a cock, but hey. You can’t stop your family from finding your website.

Because sometimes, you forget

If I ruled the world, I’d make every internet user re-read the things they said online five years ago – good and bad. It’s easy to become jaded and forget why certain things got you excited, and of course it’s easy to forget how stupid you can be sometimes. Rereading old things can bring that enthusiasm back, and remind you of how dumb you can be sometimes.

I’m not going to tag anyone here, but if you fancy adding your own five then please do leave a link in the comments section.