Blogger Spotter Extraordinaire

A long time ago I wrote about a man typing in Tinderbox with a caps lock on the wrong side of the keyboard. Stephen from O Poor Robinson Crusoe thought it might have been him (I think it was the first time I became aware of his blog).

Today I went into Tinderbox for a coffee before meeting some friends I passed a man with curly hair, writing on his laptop. I had an extended look. He was familiar even though I didn't know him. And eventually I went over and said hello, I recollect a photograph of himself on his blog I think. And it was Stephen.

We had a conversation about blogging and the virtual community. Remarkable always that you can strike up a conversation with a stranger (in old terms) because you have read their words on the internet. It automatically makes them seem like people you know, even though you have never met. He felt that the term vertual community didn't really convey the familiarity of bloggers who read one anothers blogs, and I think he's right. There are people I know, who I barely exchange comments with but who I feel some weird sort of attachment to. There are others, who I have met who I consider to be friends. Some of whom have subsequently stopped blogging and who I miss a great deal. The uncomfortableness of being strangers is overcome because you have read a blogger's words.

Then we talked about the England game.

Sometimes I love blogging. Connections across the world (and the city).