Post 101. And what have i just realised? I've never told you of how this blog came into being!
 
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So, we cast our minds back, back through the dark recesses of time. Back to a time when, this blog, and the blogs to which it links, were but a glimmer in the minds of one person. His one MSN conversation, would change life forever.
 
Let us go back to that conversation. Two people sit hunched over their keyboards. One, Megatrobe. The other, Dickybod...
 
(For legal reasons, the following dialog is typed by actors)
 
Jon : Hey, have you seen this site? www.blogger.com
Richard : No, what's this?
Jon : It's sort of like an online diary.
Richard : Hmm, i'll check it out.
 
A day later, the one named Richard had made his account. Previously dismissing it as a pointless waste of time, he writes his first post on Monday the 16th of February, 2004.
 
Here follows the original post of the then titled : "The Incredibly Dull Life of Dickybod"
 
"Well, here is my life. As the name implies it is incredibly dull. I was reccommended to this site by a friend of mine, who would be described in CS circles as l337. Aaaaanyway. Well, me. DickyBod is what most people call me, since that is a derivative of the name Richard and a word apparantly meaning "intelligent." Either way, thats me. Well, i have no idea whats meant to go in this box, so as you can probably tell im just waffling. Hopefully il work out exactly what i should be doing in due course, so my later musings will be more interesting."
 
While a crude post, it showed the informal style of writing and lack of correct spelling that would come to be trademark of the blog. We drafted in a blog expert to give his interpretations.
 
"Yes, well as you can see, the author clearly shows his characteristic lack of self esteem, straight from the word go. He refers vaguely to Megatrobe, whom directed him to his blog, using a very crude acknowledgement. He goes on to explain the origins of his name, which i find rather interesting."
 
And why is that?
 
"Well, we know from later blogs that, while his original readers where simply his schoolfriends, we are now aware of the huge amount of people that have read the blog since. The fact that he seems to feel the need to explain his nickname to his audience shows that he was well aware of the massive fanbase that the blog had the potential of knowing."
 
But it was his tenth post, on the 21st of February that truly began to show the beginnings of the current format of the blog, and also showed the first major use of Richard's primary skill: Humour. His over the top writing and surreal post was only a taste of the wit that was to come.
 
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While the Dickybod took shape over the weeks, other blogs were simultaneously growing alongside it. The same day as the DickyBlog's first post, TeraDud posted for the first time, with the original blogger Megatrobe posting the previous day. Thursday, February the 19th saw Nonnesuch begin his rantings On the 21st of February, Deutsches Dave posted the first of his many posts focusing on anger, and hatred toward the world. With each new blog, a new link appeared on the growing sidebar of the blog. Currently, 16 blogs hold a place in the links section of the sidebar, a number expected to grow as time continues.
 
With blog posts becoming more sophisticated and lengthy, the blog began to really make it's mark. The posts of February 22nd showing not only a brief stint into the rant culture the blogs had taken, but also marked one of the longest posts in the blog's history, only to be beaten 3 days later with a recitation of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven'.
 
The next major addition to the blog's sidebar was the counter, currently at just over 2500 hits, and a MIDI file, both added on March 10th. March however showed signs that the author was eakening in the demand for more posts. gaps of almost a week between posts, these long gaps rocked the blogging world with the possibility that the blog could dwindle into nothingness.
 
"I was worried. The blog had been an entertaining read from it's first day. Every day i would see no new post, and, yeh i panicked. I cried some nights, I'm not ashamed to admit it" - Taken from Bloggers Monthly April
 
Posts were seemingly becoming nothing but a few sentences or a meaningless list, and the blog began to lose some of it's fanbase.
 
"I just thought he woz gettin' lay zee, innit, cos like e wernet postin at all and it was all crap really"
 
This trend however did not seem to be confined to the DickyBlog however. On March the 28th he posted his frustration at his friends for not posting on their blogs:
 
"OK, a short post now. GUYS BLOG!! The best maintained blog i have seen is Stompp's, who has posted every day of his blog! Come on guys, he already overtaken Nonnesuch!!These people MUST post in the next 48 hours, or they shall be brutally bished:
 
Megatrobe
Teradud (who must also shut that bloodt cantina up, before i send ETA there)
Nonnesuch
Wendy
 
GO GO GO!!!"
 
When it was pointed out to him that he had himself been neglecting his blog, it shocked him:
 
(Speaking in April)
 
"Yeh, it really did open my eyes to my failings. I re read my entire blog, and saw how hypocritical i had been. I knew i needed a post. A LONG post"
 
The next day he posted one of the longest posts of the blog. It reestablished his original wit, and showed the first use of spontaneity in a post. This trend would continue over the months.
 
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By this time more and more blogs had been added to the sidebar: Stompp's on the 17th of March, Electricity's on the 8th of April, and Wendy's on the 10th of March. We managed to secure an interview with Stompp (author of one helluva good blog!) regarding the DickyBlog:

When did you first hear of the DickyBlog?

I  first heard of the DickyBlog whilst riding through the vast expanses of haunted beauty that is the online world. As I stared out of the cybernetic window, I cought a brief glimpse of a fair haired lad calling to me. Waving. Smiling. Blood gushing from my partners wounds I saw no other choice but to abandon ship, and I decided to brave the depths of blog land and actually read the damn thing.

Why were you so drawn to reading it?

I was so drawn to reading it because I have been hypnotised. I must be quick folks, for the hypnotics will kick back in soon, but don't read it, it's all a conspiracy, and ... and... and really the fact that it's so well written, with such superb quips and witicisms that it caught my eye. There are few blogs written with such fine and loving attention to miniscule detail as the DickyBlog.

Why did you eventually make your own?

I eventually made my own because I was planning to do it sooner and forgot. I made the damn thing because I believe there are things that just have to be said. Are you one of the many members of society ill-informed as to the various forms of spuds? Then take a gander at my blog, and listen to my music while you're at it dammit..[Mutley-esque growls and muffles of evil plans followed by Copyrighted (TM) laugh...]

(Many thanks to Stompp)

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Thus, we come to the end of our exploration of one of the most remarkable blogs in the history of the site. At 101 posts, 2661 hits, 25 exterior links, 82 comments, 4 average posts a week, 95 profile views, 33630 words, and two fiction blogs, the DickyBlog will be around for a while.

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Why do I feel like crying? Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! Thanks to TeraDud who consistently bugged me to blog, thanks to fpoole for being the only one behind Da Croo, thanks to Megatrobe for introducing me to the blogging world and help with the HTML, thanks to mum for spreading it like a virus around her workplace, thanks to Sarah for plagerising my name and  reading my blog when she should have been revising, thanks to Electricity for letting me screw up her other blog with my crap fiction, thanks to Wendy for that Beckham joke, thanks to Chris and JAJ for being the critical people they are, while still being sheep and blogging too, thanks to mum and dad for combining their chromosomes and making me what i am, thanks to my mind for thinking up half of these posts and making me the wierd person i am, thanks to Microsoft for Windows Media Player, MSN and Internet Explorer, without which this would be impossible to write, thanks to Stompp for waiting for over an hour and a half for this post, thanks also to him for the track he's sending me and the interview above, thanks to uk.playstation.com's Shadow for the signature idea and thanks to blogger.com for providing one hell of a service and not shutting me down, and thanks to all the insane people who have commented.

Whoever you are, if you're reading this, thank you,  God bless, dont stop reading this! I'm doing this for you guys! Thanks for giving me something to do with myself!!

THANK YOU!!!

DickyBod/'Chard/Richard