Happy Birthday Blog Oklahoma
Twenty-two years ago today, I started this hobby known as Blog Oklahoma.
On July 25, 2003, I launched the Blog Oklahoma web ring. A web ring was a way to link websites together under a common topic or community. You could find webrings for almost anything in the day, except, at the time, Oklahoma bloggers. So set up a webring. It was open to anyone who blogged in or about Oklahoma.
I first used a service called RingSurf, but later wrote my own web ring code and migrated everyone to blogoklahoma.com. It wasn't long until the webring grew into a diverse and interesting community of Oklahoma bloggers.
However, as with anything in the internet age, all good things must come to an end. On February 1, 2021, I sunset the webring. Social media had pretty much taken over the blog by then. So many Oklahoma blogs had gone dark or disappeared entirely.
If you’re interested, I’ve archived the final webring data on GitHub. It would be an interesting project to review the list and see who is still actively blogging. That would have to be for another time. Too many projects as it is. Ha!
Blog Oklahoma continues today. So instead of a resource of Oklahoma bloggers, I, in a small way, have turned it into a resource for Oklahoma bloggers. You’ll find links for Oklahoma news, weather, government, and history. I started a newsletter, and I hope to return to podcasting eventually.
So happy birthday, Blog Oklahoma. Here’s too many more.
Through The Years
Thanks to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, here's a look at blogoklahoma.com over the ages.
