18 years ago today, I uploaded a bunch of files I’d written in a text editor, confirmed that the blogging software I’d installed was working, and I pressed publish on wilwheaton.net. It wasn’t the fanciest website in the world, but I went from knowing nothing about HTML and scripting, to launch of the website in just six weeks, and I built it entirely by myself (with some PHP and CSS guidance from a couple of guys I’ve since lost touch with). I enjoyed writing in my blog (powered by Greymatter!), and I felt like, for the first time in my life, I could speak for myself. My voice, which had only been heard through the filter of teen magazines, or vapid entertainment press, a voice which had been tightly controlled by the adults in my life, could finally have a chance to speak on its own truth.
It’s been a little over 6500 days, and hundreds of thousands of words, since I started writing a public journal and random people online started to give a shit about what I was doing. It’s so weird to think about how much smaller the Internet felt back then, how different our interactions were.
28 year-old me was struggling so much, in those days. He was trying so hard to be a good husband and stepfather with pretty much no support from his narcissist parents who weren’t thrilled about him marrying a woman with children. He struggled with undiagnosed depression, Anne’s vindictive and destructive ex-husband, and not meeting the extremely high expectations he had for himself. He has some real painful days ahead, but he gets through them with the love and support of his phenomenal wife, who he still can’t believe picked him, out of all the humans on the planet. He doesn’t know it, yet, but writing this blog is going to change his life, save his life, and make it possible for him to find his own dream, instead of trying (and failing) to live someone else’s.
So on this day, in 2019, as I look back on the early days of my life as a blogger, I have a lot of feelings, and I want to say thank you to everyone who has been around for all or some of this journey of mine. Because you’ve been an audience for me to speak to, entertain, challenge, and inspire, you’ve given me the unconditional support I never had to find my voice, and live my dream of being a writer and storyteller.
NB: This linked post from exactly 19 years ago is technically from the Blogger install I had at Geocities. I wouldn’t make a proper post at WWdN for another full day, but today is the actual anniversary of when I pressed the big red button to activate index.php, and since my website is actually old enough to go to a strip club, I thought I should mark the occasion.
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I’m glad you found your voice and you’re living out your writing dreams. Keep doing YOU! The world needs you, Wil. 🙂
There was an AMA about six months ago(?) and I asked a question that didn’t get answered. I thought “maybe it was outside the bounds of AMA (if that’s possible)” or maybe you missed in the scroll or life or the dog needed letting out or whatever. Life happens. The question was, “What do you get out of writing the blog?” Thank you very much for sharing all this time honestly. This answers my question.
Although the medium feels one-way, you publish we read, it is good to hear that you/the author is benefiting. I hope that the next 6584 days will provide something positive as well.
Oh, and since your website can go to the strip club, get it some 1s and 0s so it can make it rain 1s and 0s. Get it? Bits, dollars?? Terrible joke but it felt right, like this blog. 🙂
Thank you, Wil, for sharing your journey through life with the world. It’s great to see the man behind the characters you have portrayed.
Thank you for your courage in showing your vulnerabilities to the world. You make it a little easier for others to do the same.
I have enjoyed your blog and your honesty and most of all your compassion for many years, Wil. Bravo!
This made me smile. I’m so happy you found your voice, and that I’ve been privileged to listen for a little while. How thankful I am to have been able to see more of who you really are, separate from the teen magazines and entertainment press. I feel really blessed by your blog. Your sincerity always inspires me to hope. Happy 18th Anniversary!
This post got me to wondering exactly when I started blogging. My first blog is no longer around (although I still have the domain), but thanks to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, I tracked down my very first blog post, and…it was 18 YEARS AGO YESTERDAY. Crazy!
It was about a year later that a friend of mine said, “Hey, you remember Wil Wheaton from Stand by Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation? He’s got a blog and he’s really funny. You should read it.” A year after that, when I was a regular reader of your blog and active on your forum (The Soapbox?), I used your blog as an example for a class I was taking in library school. I emailed you to verify you did everything on the website yourself, and you wrote back:
“Hi Josh,
Yeah, WWdN is designed maintained and written only by me, your pal, that guy who used to be on TV.
Except for the RARE time that I let my dog do the writing, but I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it between us, okay?
Good luck with your assignment,
Wil”
It’s been a treat and a privilege to go along with you on your journey, see “my step-sons” become “my sons”, get to know Anne (and meet you both in person), watch you get more and more open about both the good and bad things in life, and ZOMFG HAS IT REALLY BEEN THIS LONG? DAMN!
Happy Blogiversary, Wil! Here’s to personal growth and writing a whole lot on the internet!
Does the strip club of the internet have dancers with names like Gooey and Peer2Peer? Do you get to wondering if her code is real or a Deepfake? I don’t know, but I think I know how you tip the figments… Bitcoin.
Bon anniversaire, Wil.
Your voice helps. You’ve brightened multiple days of mine with your honesty and your caring – and seeing how much time and effort you’ve put in for your mental health and your dreams, and how it’s working, gives me hope my time & effort pays off in the future, too.
☺️👍🍇
Happy webiversary Wil. It’s quite a journey you’ve been on!
I feel like we’re in similar boats – in that I like to blog for the satisfaction of knowing I can talk about whatever I like.
Good on you! You inspire me.
I’ve been reading your blog for 15 of your 18 years. 🙂 I appreciate your perspective and most enjoy the posts where you notice the little, easily missed wonders that float around and through our daily lives. It’s nice to be reminded to get out of our own heads and pay attention to the details around us.
I also appreciate how open you’ve been about the challenges and insecurities that come with mental health issues. I know many of us in your audience can relate, and it’s helpful (to me, anyway) to read the words of someone who just gets it. I’m always finding little nuggets of wisdom that I carry around with me.
So, happy anniversary! And thank you, sincerely, for sharing your thoughts and your unique point of view with us. Your stories have affected lives and made a difference, in big and small ways. And that’s pretty awesome. Internet high five to you!
Cheers, my frie…. uh, guy on the internet whose writing I enjoy and it seems like I know but I really don’t. 🙂
Congratulations! I have enjoyed reading your blog for most of these 18 years (took a bit to find it). Reading about your struggles and victories have helped me with mine. I look forward to another 18 years of reading!
Glad to be along for the ride.
Happy birthday, Wil’s blog!
Wil, today is River Phoenix’s birthday too.
: (
Happy birthday, baby blog.
Wil, I’ve been a fan of your work since I was a teenager and continued through college to today – two decades later! I appreciate your talent and skill and most importantly your honesty in the difficulty of being a human. It’s helped a lot in dealing with my own mental health to hear about someone I admire and their struggles. Please keep writing, please keep being your genuine self, and thank you.
That’s amazing. The passage of time just keeps getting weirder. I found your blog via fark sometime around 2007-2008? I loved your writing, your storytelling. I followed a handful of blogs at the time, and I’m down to two.
I still love your writing and storytelling but you have also have been really, really fun to know. Thank you!
So much has changed over the years… New house, new car, new job, new Claire (at camp this week!), twins (still can’t believe that one). Same best husband!
I’m so proud of the person you are today! Through the good years and the bad months. I’m sorry about the struggles, especially with your parents but in the end it’s the best thing for you. Take care of you and keep on writing, ok?
Well done. You’ve come a long way and have a lot to be proud of.
Glad for you Wil, I truly am. It’s not too often that we look back at our victories. We always seem to be looking at our next battles. I hope you have more victories in the future. Always remember the wins, because the losses can seem to block them out.
Congrats from Indonesia!!! Truly glad you do what you do. Always great when you find an outlet for a talent which you very much have… Regards always Gary
Happy Anniversary then ,
Thank you, Wil. You have been the one to not only own your voice, but refuse to let all the trolls and hate groups take it away. Happy Anniversary!
I, and many, many others, are so glad you did this! You, sir, are awesome!
Within that next month or so, 18 years ago, I found your blog, and have been reading ever since. (Well… except for a bit of time ~13 years ago when I had a toddler and a newborn, and just couldn’t care as much as you did about Poker Stars…I took a break)
I haven’t said much… this may be my first comment…. but you’ve been a part of my life, through your blog.
I can’t begin to count all the things you’ve introduced me to… XKCD, back in the day (I think it was the SUDO one. I know just enough Linux to find it funny) and Gmail (remember when you had to get an invite? Crazy.), for starters. You had a lot of strongly worded things to say, back when we were headed into the Iraq War… I used to share them with my husband. One Saturday night, he asked whether you’d had anything new to say. Without missing a beat, I was all “Nah, the kids are at their dad’s this weekend, so he and Anne are away for the weekend.” As though we were actual people in each other’s lives. As though we were friends.
Thank you for sharing your words and your thoughts and your life for so long. Thank you for the words you say now, about your struggles with anxiety and depression. It’s been kind of amazing watching your evolution.
Here’s to what comes next /raises glass… er… hypothetical mug of coffee. because it’s late here, dammit, and I need to sleep soon./
Your friend,
Jen
Your blog is meaningful to me. I was gonna say I’ve enjoyed reading it, but that’s not all. I struggle with many of the same things you do, and it’s been a source of contact with another human experience like mine that has enriched my life.
Now, having said that, I, too, am also here to make a stupid joke about the blog going to a strip club. Does it, like, sit there while “View Source” gets clicked on other blogs?
Congratulations on the persistance! I went through archive.org to find out when I joined and I can rememeber that I “found” you on the internet during my apprenticeship as an IT Salesman between 2002 and 2006. I can remember that you had to change the site to “WWdN: In Exile” due to migration errors.
Well its been over ten years now. So thank you for sharing. And caring.
I’m glad you did
Bravo Will for those eighteen years! You have been an inspiration.
Your emails pop up in my inbox and are always amusing, provocative and thoughtful. A welcome break from my daily grind. I never fail to read your thoughts and chuckle.
Another eighteen years please! You might just keep me sane.
Well done! I did my first website way back in 2006! Like you with help from a couple of friends I managed to write my own website with CSS and HTML no PHP… all self taught… all I can say though is thank god I found WordPress! As I really can’t do Script at all! Probably because I really don’t get algebra either… I mean two negatives equals a positive!!! not logical at all! I learnt because like you I suffer with depression and also I have ME which I have had since 2004 and haven’t been able to work because of it…but also I have got a degree with the OU in that time as well and doing my second as we speak!
Opps this became about me… sorry… but well done you have done so well and you did find an amazing woman in Anne… Hugs
Congratulations! I’ve been a reader since sometime in that first year, following your ups and downs through your writing. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Know that you have been an incredible inspiration, insight giver, thought provoker, smile and laughter giver to so many. Thank you from me, Will, and congratulations on your 6584 days of sharing your story and being there for us. Love.
Wil, thanks for marking this milestone and letting us share in celebrating it! Having followed your blog since 2004 (with my signed copy of Just a Geek), I’ve really enjoyed seeing you progress as a writer. It was partially your writing about your experiences with depression that gave me the courage to seek therapy and medication for my own anxiety and depression. While you’ve only touched upon it up until today without giving it a label, I can relate as well to your issues with your narcissistic parents. My mom is a big-time narcissist who taught me all about gaslighting before I knew of such a concept. I haven’t spoken to her in over two years, and cutting her out of my life was the best decision I ever made.
Keep sharing your wrings, Wil! You’re an inspiration to us all!
I got a Burrito, if You mind me…..
I launched my blog in Jan 2001 – originally on Blogger but it was so unstable I moved it to Greymatter in summer 2001 – and the blog has been online ever since. There aren’t many of us around that have stuck with it! (Technically I’ve had a website since 12/31/95, but it became a “blog” in 2001.)
I was a latecomer to your blog. But I’ve been a fan since I was 9 so I hope that counts for something. 😁 Thank you for choosing to share your voice all those years ago. Your words have made me feel less alone as I struggled through some very tough years. Happy Blog-aversary! 🎉
Congratulations Wil. Keep up the excellent work for another 18 years. 👍
Happy anniversary, and many more! 🙂
So, I just realized that I have been reading your blog almost since it’s inception. Congratulations. And then I realized, OMG! I’ve been with my partner Barry for 19 years!!! He came into my life first but honestly you two are the two people in my life that I have paid attention to for all these years!
Amazeballs to me if not to you.
Oh, and my best friend from college who is 20 years my junior, and 15 years yours, when he was sixteen he had purple hair and looked just like a goth/punk version of you! I mean he could have been your evil twin.
Cheers and congrats! And keep writing you are truly great at it. See ya on your next acting project!
I love this. I feel like blogging changed my life for the better too. I’m glad you’re here. Happy anniversary!
I am so happy for you to be where you are today and grateful for your words/stories. I started following your blog about a year ago and Instagram shortly thereafter. Thank you for your humor (a perfect companion to mine), your authenticity and most of all, your advocacy for the normalization of mental illnesses. You helped me beyond measure to like myself – as I am – and not be afraid to speak up for self care. You are gracious and in-your-face in the situations that necessitate each. I so appreciate that you share who you are and what you do!
Congratulations! For me, you went from “that guy from TNG” to a brave human being. Sharing your struggles as a human being through your web presence has made a greater/better impact on humanity maybe even than any of your artistic work (so far) and that is an AWESOME achievement to celebrate. Looking forward to more contributions from you and hopefully meeting you someday in person for a fist bump (to avoid con crud for either of us) and buying that novel soon!
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Keep blogging. Please!
Happy Birthday, Wil’s Blog!!! I can not believe it has been that long ago…. Thank you, Wil…. for countless moments of laughter, sadness, joy, grief, Poker nights, helpful stories and other
extremely interesting stuff. Entertainment? Sure… but your Blog was, is and hopefully always will be so much more than that.
I started reading it in late 2002. Never commented until now, but this blog helped me through some dark days; so thanks for that.
Happy Webiversary! I’ve been following YOU for awhile (TNG fan, yes, I’ll say it) but discovered WWdN via Jenny (or was it the other way-round? I don’t remember)… my blog is just a baby compared to yours, as I started it nearish to the time you built Anne’s. I’m happy to read you both, as much as is humanly possible. Keep up the good work, for your sake AND ours!
I have had your blog on my webroll for 11 years! You are my favorite blogger!
In your path to help yourself, find yourself and your words, you’ve helped many others along the way. Thank you for your honesty and commitment to yourself and your family.