We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Happy Birthday to Samizdata Today is our blogiversary…Samizdata crawled out of the primordial ooze of the blogosphere on Friday, November 02, 2001.
Our name was a wee bit longer then but like some vestigial tail, it eventually dropped off once we learned to walk upright… and it took us a while for our flippers to evolve into feet… but here we are all those years later, still blathering on about the things that irk or amuse us.
13,315 articles and 226,617 comments later…
…Blimey, where did all those years go?
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Happy anniversary!
I read so many blogs (in Google Reader I have 22 just in my “Politics” folder) and Samizdata is the one I look forward to seeing new updates from the most.
Jeff
Congratulations! I hit my decade of blogging tomorrow, and I agree that those years have gone astonishingly fast…
Sincere congratulations.
Best regards
Congratulations, not many blogs make it to a decade, especially ones that have changed so little.
I will hit my decade of blogging in a few weeks. Doesn’t feel like a decade does it?
Samizdata changed my life in so many ways. I didn’t know what an individualist was and had never heard of most of the philosophers I’ve read since 2003, but I identified so much with what I read. I’d never before had a name for my core beliefs, and found it difficult to articulate them in a world that only seemed to recognize Democrats and Republicans or Tories, Labourites and Lib Dems. Finding Samizdata, a light went off and I finally had a metacontextual home.
Then I met you all in person, and things REALLY got good. 🙂
Thank you for being a true haven and carrying on in the great tradition of samizdat. I can only imagine how many others in the world have been changed by Samizdata, too.
Sending much love from NYC! xx
Many happy returns!
Yes, Happy Anniversary Perry et al.
I will definately second Jackie D above. I had no idea what I was until I discovered Samizdata, except that I was not a party political animal, but with an innate sense that ALL the bastard politicians were lying to meI
I now know that I am some kind of Libertarian. This site has been a revelation and an inspiration to me, drawing in, as it does, some of the sharpest minds on the planet (not mine unfortunately! but you have kindly put up with my little quips over the years) 🙂
Now I do a little blogging myself over at CCIZ, and every one of our writers started out as commenters here.
Your children are spreading the word Samizdata, we are spreading the word!
Congratulations. Your efforts are appreciated.
Well done and thank you
Hats off!
Let me add congrats.
The first decade is the hardest…
Many happy returns all and I’m still proud to say that of your 13,315 articles, one of them was mine.
Happy Birthday! Keep printing that illicit literature. Best wishes.
I only just got here………what have I missed?
🙂
I’ll third what Jackie D and RAB said. I remember I read the Guardian largely because they had the best web presence but so much of what they said repulsed me. I knew I most definitely wasn’t a Labourite but neither was I a Tory.
Then one day their was a Guardian article on this new up and coming thing called blogging. And amongst their links to many different blogs their was a link to Samizdata. And lo the clouds cleared and I discovered the sunny uplands of a philosophy called Libertarianism.
So happy birthday, and a big thank you to all the many great writer and commenters at Samizdata. Always remember, no matter how bad things seem, you are at least doing some good.
It has been a long strange trip… and it has only just begun. I hope I will one day carry out some of my editorial duties and posting from off world. I am sure there are some on the left who would be even happier if I left the solar system entirely. 😉
Congratulations to all at Samizdata for some thought-provoking posts. The next ten years will be even more interesting…
Thank you for your many courtesies, and especially for providing a safe haven for a cranky, opinionated old man.
Samizdata has been a stop on my daily blog patrol almost since the beginning when I followed a link over from Instapundit (of course). The writing has always been excellent and thought-provoking, and I include most of the regular commenters in that too. I’ve learned a lot from my visits here and I’ll be sure to keep coming back.
Happy Birthday, Samizdata! (Soon you’ll be old enough to drive and then watch out world!)
Happy blogiversary, Perry, and more of the same in the next 10 years please!
Happy Birthday Samizdata,
Maybe it is time for the Samizdatas to have a ‘facemeet’ to those who are mere followers.
Another site I contribute to (The Motley Fool) does this about once a quarter, but obviously has a larger base from which to work.
Whereas those of a Libertarian aspect are pretty few and far between in these cold and lonely collectivist climes.
I’m sure I could be tempted to buy a round of Bolly or two. I might even take off my John Galt mask – now that might surprise one or two.
Have fun.
Congratulations.
You inspired me.
Cheers.
Many happy returns!
It has been an honour to be involved over the past decade. Thanks for the kind words. They mean a lot and I am sure other contributors agree.
Hearty congratulations!
I won’t reach my own blog-decade until next April, but your blog was one of the first I read (via a link from Instapundit or Andrew Sullivan, I don’t remember which) and still scan fairly regularly. Samizdata always provides a stimulating read – keep up the good work.
Best regards
Bill
The fight goes on, even more important now that the wreckage of warfarism is clear. We are going to have to wound Leviathan even harder.
It is the BBC’s 75th round about now, a start would be assuring that it doesn’t reach an 80th
Congratulations on lasting this long.
I think you should have waited until the fifth of november. the symbolism would have meant so much!
Congratulations Perry & co. You have created an interesting little place to pop into now and again. Best wishes for the future.
-Hmm
Many happy returns all and I’m still proud to say that of your 13,315 articles, one of them was mine.
I echo these sentiments, as I was technically the author of one — a Samizdata Quote of the Day back in May 2004.
Relief was my strongest emotion when I found Samizdata. Realizing that I wasn’t alone and I wasn’t crazy. Well, at least no crazier than the descriptions in the “who are we?” at the right side of the front page. That’s a big enough tent to allow for some very interesting personalities.
There hasn’t been but a few days since then that I haven’t managed to at least read the articles, and usually to read all of the comments as well. Although some of the cricket threads I do admit to skimming rather lightly. Samizdata is one of the most enlightening, enjoyable and educational forums imaginable.
Because of the internet and Samizdata, my circle of friends with whom I share the most values, and the most thoughtful conversations, is scattered all over the world.
I had to write a tribute post. With much love: http://jackiedanicki.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/samizdata-turns-10-years-old/
I can only echo Midwesterner. Unlike some others, I already knew, or suspected, I was a libertarian. I’d heard the word anyway, and had a good idea of what it meant. But until I found Samizdata I’d no idea there were so many, some of whom believed in these ideas a damn sight more strongly than I did. And here in Britain, too! That was, as Mid says. a huge relief. Maybe we aren’t all screwed after all (although, looking at coverage of OWS on TV as I type, I still wonder).
Congratulations on your decade, and here’s to many more. Still wish I’d thought of the name first though…
Happy Blogiversary to my favorite librarians.
Congratulations, Samizdata.
I’m not sure that 10 years ago I even knew what a blog was!
Anyway, thank you for the gracious hospitality, the stimulating discussions, and for making the last decade a little nicer.
I discovered the blogosphere in 2003 and, while dozens have come and gone, Samizdata is the only blog besides Instapundit I’ve been reading regularly since.
Thank you for what you all do for liberty and against the coercive elements of the powers that be.
Here’s to many more years.
Funny, summer of 2001 was when my libertarian side started to solidify. I had swung left-and-right before then but it was when I finally started to realise that the underlying principle was away from statism.
OK, now I know that you’re screwing with me. My congratulatory post was smited!
Oh foul descent! That I, who erst contended
With Gods to sit at the highest, am now constrained
Into a beast, and, mixed with beastial slime,
This essence to incarnate and imbrute,
That to the height of deity aspired!
Happy Anniversary Perry et al.
This blog is an excellent example of what the medium can achieve; free exchange of ideas and philosophies.
May you have many more!
Perry, and honorable Samizdatistas,
From a reader who’s been with you since very early days, many happy returns on your blogiversary.
When I first found Samizdata, it reminded me of sitting in a small crowded flat in Zizkov, Prague near the end of the Cold War. Reading honest individual voices protesting a corrupt, incompetent and incorrigible permaclass of meddlers . . . pushing where one can, doing one’s bit and waiting for the hammer to drop.
Looking back over the past twenty years, it’s clear to me that this struggle will never be over — although it isn’t lost, either, not so long as we keep living in truth.
So here’s to another ten years, and another, and another, and another.
Congrats and thank you for all the links, thoughts, and torch carrying.
I didn’t start writing for Samizdata until the first half of 2003. I still feel like a Johnny come lately, somehow.
Happy Anniversary, and well done.
Samizdata took the spirit of the LA, and reinvigorated it for the 21st century, with enormous success. It’s one of the very few sites I check every day. Good luck for the next ten years.
Many thanks to Perry for conceiving and birthing the wonderful Samizdata weblog* despite his being male ;>) . And to all of you who contribute the columns; and to the commenters as well. Yer gots a real high-class operation here, with lots of light to go with all the heat.
Happy weblog-iversary!
Julie
*NOT a “blog,” for surely such a thing could only be a slimy bog. Not at all what one finds in the “sunny uplands” of Samizdata!
Congratulations from a long time reader! It was so long ago that I no longer remember when I first surfed on in to these parts, but I do know it got added to my bookmarks instantly. The thought-provoking articles (you even manage to make Cricket sound interesting 🙂 ) are reinforced by a gaggle of maybe the best comment-ers on the web, so unusually even the comments are worth taking the time to read.
Happy Birthday. And I want to reiterate a few of the comments above by saying that before coming to samizdata I did not realise that my political position even had a name. I’ve only been coming to this site for a couple years now and don’t join in on the discussions, but so many of the links posted on this site have opened my mind even further. I’ve use so much info gleaned from here to help change my friends minds about many a tricky topic. Thank you so much. And may the Next 10 years be even brighter
I second what Johnathan Pearce said about how all these good wishes mean a great deal to us regular writers here. I started later than the very first Samizdatistas (Perry, Dale …) but somewhat sooner than Michael J. So that makes me a Johnny come a bit lately. I am sure we are all greatly encouraged by these kind comments, and such things as Guido Fawkes giving us a pat on the back with his mighty organ.
I also second what has been said about our esteemed commentariat. Again and again, I find myself with a question which I don’t don’t know the answer to, but which seems to me worth asking, so I stick up a posting here, asking them. I can’t recall a time when the answers to such postings were not illuminating.
Pretty much what Jackie D said. Eric Raymond taught me what a libertarian is, but Samizdata taught me that these people existed in the UK. I can pinpoint the exact date: 12 November 2002 — you’d been going for just over a year. And here we all still are. Congratulations!
Congrats. And many thanks for all the hard work.
Happy Birthday Samizdata and all the ‘datistas.
Now there’s an idea…
Samiz and the Datistas.
We gotta form that band Dale. Maybe do the first gig from Space like Disaster Area? 🙂
Happy blogoversary! I love coming here and mining the quotes. Congratulations on thriving in the internet food chain, where the market has contracted the formerly wide open spaces to a few big players and everyone else. My own most loyal reader is Googlebot, for example. :/
Here’s to 10 more years of agitating for liberty!
Congrats and thank you.
Many thanks for your hospitality Perry.
Both in your home, and in tolerating my Private Fraser* style comments here down the years.
*Spelling alert – of course.
What Jackie, Mid and Laird said – although personally I wasn’t even aware in exactly what way I was different. It’s called ‘individualism’, silly. It’s been at least six years of daily reading of almost all posts and comments, and even longer for an occasional peek. Thank you guys for helping me better understand the world around me, including myself:-)
I am now spreading the metacontext in my own neck of the woods, so if you ever hear about a velvet revolution in Israel, you have only yourselves to blame!
Paul, your comments are one of the major reasons I and many others keep coming back. Thank you.