I did tell a lot of people without realising I was doing it, when I started compiling my blogroll. Apparently some or all the blogs thus rolled thereby learned of this blog’s existence. But I haven’t been sending out messages to mere readers yet, e.g. by linking to this blog from Samizdata. This is not because I despise readers. I like readers, mostly. It is because there is still tweaking and tuning to be done, and I am still at the navel gazing stage. I am still mostly blogging about “This blog” rather than doing much in the way of real blogging about culture, education, the Billion Monkeys (concerning whom more anon), etc..
Some people have the trick of getting everything perfect before they start something, but when it comes to blogging I’m a load-fire-take-aim kind of character. I start it up, in a visible but totally unadvertised way that I can’t be blamed for. Some people then pick it up on their radar systems and have a look, and tell other people anyway, and so it starts. And only then does it become clear to me what else needs to be done.
For instance, the bit where it says .COM after BRIAN MICKLETHWAIT in the picture at the top has got to go. As stated here, Brian Micklethwait is title enough. A new picture has been concocted, but the means of getting the blog itself to pay attention to this new picture had not yet been put in place.
The sidebar stuff to the left is okay at the main page and for the archives, but is still the same mess it was to start with when you start commenting or investigating who has tracked back.
And so on. More necessary changes will doubtless become obvious to me as the days and weeks pass.
And of course, by the time I am ready to start telling people about this blog on purpose, everyone who cares will know about it already.