Balkinization: Balkinization's Fifth Anniversary

Balkinization's Fifth Anniversary

Today, January 13th, marks the fifth anniversary of this blog, which began in January 2003. Although Balkinization started as a solo effort, it soon became a group blog, with a group of writers I think are second to none in the legal blogosphere. I am grateful to all of the wonderful people who have contributed to the blog over the years, as well as our many regular readers and commenters, who have helped created an intellectual community. In the past five years, we have had over 3 million visitors, and 4.5 million page views.

Blogging as a medium can be used for many different kinds of writing. Most blogging still remains highly personal, with only a small part of the blogosphere devoted to politics, and an even smaller part devoted to law.

In this blog, we decided early on that we would use the new medium for serious discussions of law and those aspects of politics that are closely connected to law and to the Constitution. Although we don't shy away from occasional satire and humor, we have tried to stick to a fairly serious academic tone, and to provide our audience with thoughtful legal commentary on the events of the day. In this way, over the years, we have found our audience, and our audience, in turn, has found us.

We hope you will continue to be with us in the years to come.

Posted 5:05 PM by JB [link]

Comments:

Congratulations on your longevity, and thanks for the great blogging.

# posted by

sam : 8:19 PM

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to create a blog that is timely, thoughtful and a great resource.

# posted by

sparky : 9:20 PM

I think this site is incredibly valuable. I very much appreciate the efforts of all of you both to provide the commentary and host the discussions. I hope the unanticipated consequences will continue.

# posted by

Mark Field : 11:47 PM

Thank you for your generosity, this blog provides an exceptional service to the entire community.

# posted by

Quim : 6:11 AM

Happy anniversary from your small group!

# posted by

Unknown : 9:57 AM

Happy anniversary to your superb forum. May you continue for many years to come.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 2:56 PM

i will join in the accolades. the infuriating nature of some of the comments is part of the nature and the game of the blogging world, but in a world of so much nonsense and fluff, this blog is a refreshingly sober source of serious and informative discussion. well done jack, marty, sandy, etc.

# posted by

phg : 7:35 AM

It appears this blog has grown quite influential, check for example recent interviews Harman gave to NPR and others. Quite evident that both she and her interviewers were fully aware of the recent commentary on her on these pages. The entire line of questioning appeared colored by what was said here, same with her responses.

Also some specific language that appeared here first had reemerged later on editorial pages of WSJ and even in recent pronouncements by the CIA director Hayden. That's quite an accomplishment for an academic blog.

Congratulations.

# posted by

wg : 7:27 PM

Congratulations on the fifth anniversary of this excellent blog. It is one of the few that I regularly visit. The blogs are interesting, reasonable, often exceptionally well-informed and informative. The comments frequently include very intelligent rebuttal to the blogs, but sometimes, alas, intolerant and intolerable adolescent sniping.

# posted by

Curtis Crawford : 1:16 PM