3652 days later…

So, while I'm putting together the last few things I need to take to PAX, I realized I forgot to mention something: ten years ago yesterday, I started my blog at WWdN*. Ten years ago today, Metafilter declared that it was "lame,"** and most of the Internet was really shitty to me about the whole thing***. I was so sad and hurt by how cruel people were to me back then, I almost gave up before I'd even started… but for some reason, I was stubborn and just kept going.

I'm glad I made it across what Ira Glass calls The Gap, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be going to PAX (or doing any of the wonderful things I get to do these days) if I hadn't. Thank you to everyone who has shared the journey with me; I hope to continue earning your time and support for the next ten years.

*I'm going back there, eventually. I'm just, uh, kind of busy at the moment and haven't gotten around to it.

**In fairness to MeFi of ten years ago, it was kind of lame … but we all have to start somewhere, and I recall being judged not on the merits of whatever I was doing then, but on what I had been told to do in 1987. It seemed unfair to me. And holy fuck the haters were everywhere. When I was an insecure 29 year-old, struggling to make ends meet, that stuff really got to me.

***Thanks to a reader, who I'll keep anonymous, for reminding me. I'd completely forgotten.

76 thoughts on “3652 days later…”

  2. Big fat CONGRATS on the big 10! Love your writing. Have several of your books. Check your blog OBSESSIVELY (right after TPM). Awaiting your Clash of the Titans write up with breath that is bated 🙂
    Mazel Tov again on turning 10

  3. ***Holy cow, hope that wasn’t me. In the mean time, while I search the database to see if it was, I’m shocked to realize that I was there in the beginning! I was looking around on StarTrek.com because we were rewatching TNG and I saw a link for your blog. I went over and got hooked (except for that 6 yrs or so that i stopped reading for some reason i don’t remember now) because of your ability to say what you think and only halfway apologize for it later (something I can now do thanks to you! it’s only gotten me fired from my jobs twice. bosses don’t want to be told that treating people like crap isn’t right and making others do your work for you makes you lazy and being a raging bitch means that no one likes you. they don’t like that for some reason). I assumed that you had had a blog for years by that time.
    Anyway, very cool. Congratulations.

  4. Happy anniversary Wil! I started reading WWDN way back in September 2002, way, way back when you had message boards. Yes, I am that old school. And yep, I was part of Wil’s Posse, a term that has apparently gone out of style in recent years. (That actually kinda makes me sad.)
    During the past 9 years, you’ve introduced me to Fark, Wootstock, and John Scalzi, to name a few. (I think Scalzi owes you a few beers–I own every one of his books and have bought several as gifts for other people.)
    Thanks for hanging out with us, Wil. It’s been fun. 🙂

  6. I just bought the audiobook of Just A Geek a couple of days ago, and was listening to it in my car when the section played where you mention the founding of WWdN, and I realised I was hearing the story of the blog 10 years to the day after it began. It’s so great that it’s still going strong, and you’re still a visible voice for our geeky slice of society that is so often misunderstood.
    I’m happy to say I’m a fan of yours – not in the “OMG that’s Wesley! Eeeek!!”, crazy Trekkie way, but in the “Hey, that’s Wil. He’s a cool guy. He plays D&D, reads sci-fi, and is just a geek (pardon the quote) like me and my friends”, kinda way.
    In your books you talk about not taking anything for granted anymore. Well, I hope you know that we don’t take you for granted either.
    Congratulations and thanks for 10 years of much appreciated entertainment.

  7. 10 Years, man! I guess that means it’s been about 9 for me. I caught up by reading a full year’s worth of your posts while working at a temp job right out of school and have been reading ever since. Congratulations & Happy Blog-Day!

  8. You Rock. So many people want to be “cool,” so portray themselves in ways THEY think OTHER people think are cool… and end up being so not cool 🙂 Actual cool people portray themselves as they actually are, publicly like the things they actually like, and embrace their actual passions. Authenticity, Wil. It’s so refreshing.
    So glad you stuck it out. Sad to hear you had a painful ride, though. Kudos for choosing to let it strengthen you. You are the epitome of COOL for so many people now 🙂 But, more importantly, your enormous decency is apparent in everything that you do.
    – Sarah

  9. 10 years?? Wow. I am reading your blog since before you went “in exile” but it took me a long time to comment after that. Congrats and Wil, I think we have to thank you for sharing your thoughts in this blog. It is always fun to read and I love coming here. Keep going! 🙂

  10. I’ve only been here a year or so but I always look forward to reading your posts and love the positive vibe that your site has. I even went back and listened to each and every one of your RFB shows when I first joined which took some time, let me tell you. But it was worth it. 🙂
    Congrats on 10 years of geeky goodness…and here’s to many more!
    P.S. Notice that I didn’t ask when the next RFB is coming ou…oh wait…crap…never mind! 😛

  13. Cripes, ten years ago, I wasn’t even a blog reader. I don’t think I’d even tried to write a blog yet at at that point (but I was writing my fair share of what basically amounts to online collaborative storytelling fanfiction-ish stuff in the Star Wars universe with our own characters… up until somewhat recently). Way to go, Wil! Keep on keepin’ on.

  14. Happy anniversary, Wil! I’ve learned that a lot of assholes seem to grow great balls o’ steel when they’re speaking through a computer, kinda like when driving. They experience shrinkage when face to face. Glad you stuck with it and look forward to more from you in the future, especially Memories of the Future: Vol. II! (How’s that for a segue?)

  15. Happy anniversary, Wil!!
    also, thanks for those little footnotes. as a struggling 28-in-a-few-days-yr-old, it’s really inspirational to see how much you’ve been able to accomplish in the past ten years. your drive and creativity always impress me, and it’s really reassuring to know that maybe everything hasn’t always gone perfectly smoothly for you, but that you’ve made it ok anyway.
    <3

  16. That is one hell of a legacy and I congratulate you for it.
    Fuck Trolldom.
    People really were awful to you back in the day, and I want you to know I was never in that camp. Between us, I was positive there was going to be a spin-off from Wesley going off with the warp guy dude. I thought for sure they’d use it in one of the movies.
    And hey, maybe with the reboot, maybe Wesley learned to cross parallel universes too. Shit I think that would kick ass. Seriously? “Wes” fucking “Crusher”? With a fucking beard? All bad ass and shit? Fuck yeah!
    What I can tell you is that I’ve taken you on as a bit of a role model. Now I just need to figure out how to become a child star in my forties.
    The best is yet to come. Pretty sure of that.
    For you, I mean. Well, maybe me too. I’ll take a few more inspirational cues from you and see what happens.
    Honestly, I feel an idiot for deciding I was too cool for D & D now.

  17. Congrats Wil!
    I’ve only been reading for about a year, but I hope to be able to check in with you for years to come!
    Also- Any chance of you talking Felecia Day into conning some Avengers news out of Joss? Maybe she can sneak you onto set so you can share some news with us! Sorry, I’m really excited… there’s no way I’m making it to May!

  20. Belatedly, Happy Blog Birthday. Also, thank you for not giving up. If you hadn’t gotten past the gap, I wouldn’t be enjoying the heck out of TeamParrish this season, nor would I have made good on a 25 year old promise to ‘get a picture taken with that awesome dreamy wil wheaton guy’ and inflict you with game science dice and skittish fangirldom. 🙂
    More importantly, so many of us would not be inspired to get excited and make things of our own, knowing that success can be achieved through perseverance and skill. Mostly, of course, skill.

  22. I just finished reading the entire MetaFilter thread and it looks like this:
    $thread_originator: “Will Wheaton and his little blog suck!”
    $almost_everybody_els: “No they don’t. He’s cool and his little blog is kinda cute”.
    So, congratulations on your anniversary. But methinks the haters were elsewhere.

  24. I’ve been reading your blog for 10 years! I can’t think of many things I’ve done for 10 years. Where did that decade go?
    Here’s to the next 10 years!
    Julian

  25. As I came up for air today, I realized that I had missed about a month or so of your blogs. I am in school getting my bachelors degree in computer science. I have read your blog off and on for the many years you have posted. I wanted to let you know that I enjoy them immensely. I feel as though I know you and your wife. I may never meet either of you in real life but I do thank you for lightening my load from time to time.
    Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary!

  26. Way late on saying congrats! I wasn’t here in the beginning…a friend told me about your blog when we were talking about favorite Star Trek (all versions) episodes. I finally got to finding your blog and the first one I read was one about your sinuses. I laughed so hard that day…not because of your pain but because the way you wrote it was something that could have been discussed around my family’s dinner table. That and I was having a ridiculously hard time IRL, that it just helped me out.
    So, here’s hoping you keep writing and speaking for another 10 years, and continue to get more awesome as you age.

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