Five years and counting

February 25, 2008

Over the weekend, we officially passed the fifth anniversary of the creation of The Carpetbagger Report, so I thought I’d take a moment to offer a quick note of thanks to readers. (I generally avoid navel-gazing posts; consider it a once-a-year-indulgence. Besides, as far as the blogosphere goes, five years seems like a fairly significant milestone.)

To borrow a presidential cliche, the State of the Blog is strong. Over the last year, traffic has grown at a surprisingly fast clip, and the comments section has flourished into a spirited community. The relative success of the blog has led to a variety of other terrific opportunities for me over the last year, including, much to my surprise, a short film. We also unveiled a redesigned home page over the last year, which has not only improved the look and feel of the site, but which seems to have been met with near-universal approval from readers.

As for major changes for The Carpetbagger Report as we enter Year Six … I don’t plan on making any. I sometimes wonder what, if anything, I should consider to take the blog “to the next level” — diaries? videos? partnerships with other bloggers? — but in general, I’m pretty satisfied. To be sure, if a major media outlet asked me to write an in-house blog (a la Drum, Sullivan, Greenwald, Yglesias), I’d welcome the opportunity, but in the meantime, I’m not going anywhere. If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

And to reiterate a point I emphasize every year about this time, I’d also like to take a moment to thank all of you for being here. Whether you’ve been reading for five years or five days, it’s a real honor.

I appreciate your interest, support, and encouragement, and I’m grateful that so many of you are willing to peruse my daily tirades.

And now, back to the news….

Congratulations on all the fine work, Steve.

  • Congratulations Steve!

    This is my favorite Blog. There’s a decency and balance to it. It’s as informative as Glenn Greenwald without his trademark bitterness, as biting as Marc Cooper without his crotchetiness, and as jovial as Andrew Sullivan without his Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

  • This seems like an appropriate time to offer my feedback on the blog. I was a regular reader a few years ago. But I decided I needed to cut down on the amount of time I spent reading blogs and yours was one I cut because I felt like I rarely read anything here that I hadn’t also read somewhere else, and usually with more interesting analysis. A few moths ago, I decided to rethink how I consume blogs and in the process I thought I’d give you another shot. I’ve been very happy with that decision. I’m not sure if it’s you or me that changed, but in any event I’m back and here to stay. I especially appreciate that you summarize the videos you include — no other blogs I read do that. Keep up the good work.

  • Congrats on 5 great years….readers will be happy to know that you now feel secure enough in your Vermont digs that you actually bought some furniture for your house!!

  • I seldom comment, but read daily. I like the simplicity of your site. I enjoy the readers comments. I can usually get in and out w/o my boss wondering what I am up to. šŸ™‚ Thanks, and keep on keeping on.

  • The CB Report is also my favorite blog. Steve, your thoughtful posts sets the tone for the many intelligent comments I read here, so thanks to all.

  • I’m on of those who has been along for most of the ride, I want to offer heartfelt thanks and congratulations on an ongoing achievement.

    Living, as I do, in a red state, it’s a big help to have a community of intelligent communicators from whom to garner input. I’ve meandered through, lurked, and otherwise perused a lot of ‘progressive’ blogs in the past 5 years, and The Carpetbagger Report is the one that sits consistently at the top of my personal blogroll.

    At the risk of sounding syncophantic, TCR and Countdown are political life support in the vacuum of Bush administration space.

    Keep the faith, Steve.

  • Happy Anniversary!

    And please don’t change a thing or go corporate on us. This is my and my wife’s favorite blog by far, and you singlehandedly keep us talking (ok, just kinding). But practically very day when we get home from work its “so did you see that article on TCR?”

  • Thanks for being the only political blog I read everyday! The main thing I enjoy is that I don’t see your posts as rants, rather attempts to get actual information into the hands of the people.

  • “…five years seems like a fairly significant milestone.” – Mr. CB

    You and Mrs. CB have persevered and carved out a very impressive spot for yourselves in the network of progressive voices. And that is shown not just by the increasingly lengthy and diverse comment threads but by the increasing frequency with which TCR shows up on some of the most respected blogrolls.

    You seem to thrive on putting out the quality and number of posts that you do but it’s still an impressive amount of straight up work and reading the results is a standard part of my day going back several years now.

    Congrats on everything accomplished thus far and good luck with future goals both basic and lofty.

  • Congrats!

    Although I do take exception to this:

    … and Iā€™m grateful that so many of you are willing to peruse my daily tirades.

    Tirades? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

    You are, easily, the one of the — if not the — most level-headed, logical, reasonable, even-keeled bloggers I’ve ever read. Not a profanity to be found in your posts, facts to back up everything, and you’re never one to jump all over something without pausing to reflect and making sure you have all the facts.

    That’s what makes this place a daily read, and one I simply cannot stop coming back to time and again.

    Keep up the outstanding work!

  • Thank you, Steve, and thank you to the community of readers for putting up with this Floridian’s inane comments.
    Wow, five years is a whole generation on the internets (the tubes to you Ted Stevens fans). You should be proud, Mr, CB.

  • Here’s you wishing you limited success. I like your current relatively barebones format. Would hate to see you go corporate.

  • Before you get bored reading all the ‘congratulations’, I want to offer mine as well.

    I enjoy reading your blog postings, as well as your guest posters, when you’re recovering from slips and falls or any other reason.

    I agree ‘someBrad’ regarding the summaries you offer for the videos. I don’t listen to the videos when my wife is in the room, she already thinks I’m too much involved with reading politics. šŸ™‚ So it is nice not to miss a beat and keeping the political truce in our family.

    I enjoy the fact that you have your blog reading area ‘wider’ than some other blogs. It certainly makes it more enjoyable and easier reading. Adding a comment is uncomplicated, which enhances the experience as well.

    Keep up the good work. the way you’re going, I can easily see you accepting an offer to run a blog for a prominent media outlet. Just don’t forget about your daily readers here on your blog. We may prefer to keep reading you here instead of somewhere else.

    Take care of your wrist and stay in good health.

  • Congratulations, Steve. Hope you can keep up the pace – you are one of the most prolific writers in Blogistan.

    Changes for 2008? Hmm. Friday ferretblogging? An award series (like Duncan’s “Wanker of the Day”)? There’s interesting trolls here sometimes, maybe we could award them, as in “Best Trolling on Behalf of a Doomed Candidate” for our loyal Paulbots, or “The Al Award” for silliest exposition of transparently false GOP talking points.

  • Thanks for your good work and though I rarely comment, this is my go-to site for the most concise and well-written info on the latest in the political circus.
    I like the format and the writing and you do a great job of cutting though the junk to the heart of the matters.
    Congrats on 5 years!

  • Congratulations and thanks for all of your great work making this such an interesting place to keep coming back to.

  • Wow, I must have started reading near the beginning then, since it was before the disastrous election of ought four. How time does fly.

    Well, thanks for the consistently good read, and here’s to another 5 (or more) years!

    (Although you won’t have as much to write about when a Democratic controlled government, right?) šŸ˜‰

  • Congratulations on the 5-year anniversary! I’ve been reading TCR for about 1-2 years now and it is currently the first blog I peruse, then I jump over to some of the other blogs I like (which, conveniently enough, are on your blogroll… must say something about your good taste considering that your blogroll isn’t as overdone as some other sites). I also second the previous commenter who mentioned that it is much appreciated that you summarize videos or include transcripts of dialogue, I can read much faster. Furthermore, I am deaf and the majority of online videos are not captioned. So it is much appreciated to be able to fully understand the rank awfulness of the GOP. šŸ˜‰

    The 5th anniversary traditionally means wood and silverware… perhaps your readership (including myself, of course) needs to diligently work on getting you Blog-of-the-Year honors. Unless the trophy or plaque is made of crystal, in which case we’d be 10 years too early…

  • Congratulations and thank you for five informative years. Just to let you know how vastly superior your blog is to others, my conservative father got tired of hearing me counter his arguments with information obtained on your site. He finally asked me where I was getting my information. I sat him down at his computer, went to TheCarpetBaggerReport.com and let him read a few posts. I then showed him how to jump to links providing background material. He has been a daily reader now for the past two years and become much more informed. I won’t say he’s adopted my liberal positions but when one of his buddies sends an email purporting some left-wing scandal or such he goes to CB reads about it, follows the embedded links for verification and sends the link back to his uninformed friend. I have hope for him as a result of becoming an avid reader of your blog. Thanks again.

  • Well, I can’t stay away from this occasion, having been around for 3/5th of the existence of CBR.

    Congrats and thanks, Steve, for all of the hard work you and the Mrs. put in to help keep the left informed and well-armed with relevant, cogent, interesting information, and for running such a user-friendly, prolific and resilient blog. Don’t change a thing (if you get any more popular, the growing pains will get worse!)

  • First blog I look at each day. Fresh, thoughtful, knowledgeable, grounded in fact, completely trustworthy. Just outstanding! Thanks, Steve. It’s great to know, without doubt, you’ll keep up the good work.

  • All the above, Steve, from me, too.

    The thing I like about the blog, aside from the content, is the PHYSICAL form. It’s just so easy to read. I like the way you write part of your piece, and, if it’s long, you put the rest inside. Too many other blogs just print the whole damn piece on the front page, which is really distracting and takes up too much room on the page.

    I also like your Comments section the best of any blog I visit. It’s NOT “nested”, which makes it immeasurably easier to read than other blogs’ comment’s sections.

    Two suggestions. We cat-lovers NEVER tire of Kevin Drum’s Catblogging on Fridays with his two beautiful beasts. Why not just out-right copy his idea and make a Catblog here, maybe on Tuesdays?

    Also, please change your anti-spam question. We KNOW it’s “orange”. Why not try mixing up the question? I suppose it might screw up the poster known as “the answer is orange”, but what the hell, EVERYONE needs a change now and again.

    But, most of all, just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s great.

  • Oh, and I started coming here after Steve Gilliard got sick last year and had to quit his blogging. Your analysis of issues is every bit as good as his, but he had more catholic tastes and wrote about history, the Mets, and food, as well as politics.

    The column that came on as his “successor”, written by long-time fans, is one of those that has long, long, long posts on the front page, which makes it really hard to read. They really should follow YOUR idea, and tuck most of the content “inside”.

  • I started reading this blog 2-3 years ago (I don’t remember exactly when, and it quickly became my favorite. The posts are highly intelligent, and the commenting crowd is unsurpassed anywhere that I have seen. (I miss Anne though, and if she’s lurking out there and sees this, please start commenting here again.)

    CB, I hope that a couple of slow weekend days gave you time to recover fully from your bout with the flu. I missed “This Week in God” on Saturday, which probably was collateral damage from your flu. God may be dead, but the foolishness that surrounds his noodly appendages is not.

    And to Morbo: I hope that wrist is healing well. I missed you on Saturday, too.

  • Congratulations, and thanks so much for the dedication you show to the site.

    I truly appreciate the positive changes to our country that you are creating every day with your analysis and commentary.

    You and Josh Marshall should be required reading for all Americans.

    Also, I LOVE bloggers who post a lot, and you are one of the most prolific out there.

  • THANKS! The Carpetbagger Report has bee my blog of choice for over three years now, and it has only gotten better! Keep up the good work.

  • Congrats. I’ve been reading since Lord knows when — Drum linked here, I guess?

    I have to echo the thoughts about the current format. Just right, easy to read and sharper than the last incarnation.

  • Yes thanks for everything Steve. This is my go to blog, first I read and the one I return to most often to during the day. You are clear, concise, and amazingly prolific especially for a news and political junkie like me. And I always read the comments sectio. We’ve got some of the best online. So here’s to many more blogiversarys, and to Morbo’s quick recovery. Wave to Zetgeist upstream, and I also miss Anne.

  • Here’s a suggeston.
    Replies.
    Sometimes I’m curious what other readers might have to say about my comments.
    Some type of alert that a reply has been made would be rather nice.

    This might have a downside, of course as some of my posts might be less than stellar, but how else to learn?

  • Five years and I’m still reading. I think I was there pretty much from the beginning. Probably due to a link from TPM.

    There are a lot of blogs that I no longer check out. You’re still on the list of favorites.

  • Thanks, Steve. You’re the only blog I make sure to read every day.

    If you ever get the chance to upgrade the comments section so that people can directly respond to other comments, that would be good for the blog, I think.

  • My favorite site, the one I go to first. Congrats and still I’m in awe at the amount of dedication you pump into this site, normally posting as fast as I can read them. Missed this Week in God sat and Marboro posting. Always interesting but I must admit I’ll be glad when the nomination process is over.
    AT&T is listening for future reference and round up so thanks for the show.

  • Amen to every positive comment on this thread. Keep up the good work, Steve, and don’t change a thing. It’s perfect just the way it is. šŸ™‚

  • Has it already been five years? I first started coming here during the 2004 election cycle when I thought the entire nation was insane for wanting to reelect Bush and came to the web to find some voices of sanity. The first political blog I ever found was the Carpetbagger Report and I found the sanity I as looking for.

    Thanks for not only building a great blog but for building such a high level of trust. That has to be earned with every post and that’s what keep us all coming back. That and the community you’ve attracted to your site which, despite the trolls that come with popularity, enrich the content posted here.

    See you back here in another Carpetbagger Unit to celebrate the 10th anniversary!

  • Your posts are pithy and unpretentious. Your knowledge and opinions are shared not bestowed. I always look below the fold and am seldom disappointed.

  • Can’t think of a single thing to add/change. I’ve been making a daily stop here for almost 4 years.

    Thank you for your input on the world.

    ( Hope I got the anti-spam question right.)

  • Happy 5 year anniversary to the indefatigable Steve Benen. I enjoy your blog greatly and appreciate your covering the periods at TPM and WashMonthly.

  • steve, congrats, and as i’ve said before, glad i found your blog; better late than never if you’ve been at it 5 years now. they say opposites attract, but that must only be partially true since your intelligent posts attract an intelligent crowd — half the reason i like coming here. my only suggestion is to add a suggestion box; sometimes there are topics i would like to see you prime the pump on and it’d be nice to have a quick link to submit ideas.

    keep up the great work.

  • Excellent site CB. I love the K.I.S.S. layout, the consistency (I look forward to 12:00 PM and 5:30 PM, Monday through Friday). And of course, the great writing and insight.

    Keep up the great work!

  • Congratulations, CB.
    I have been a regular reader ever since being sent here by Josh Marshall from TPM. I do not know how long ago that was, but at the time you had not yet revealed your Steve Benen identity. I guess this is why I still address you as “Carpetbagger.”

    As others have, I have cut down my daily blog consumption from its peak a few years back. Now CBR, TPM, and Dan Froomkin are pretty much the daily must reads. I do check in on a number of others, but CBR is the only blog that has a comments section in which I find investing my reading time is worthwhile. And I appreciate the opportunity to express myself in the comments, as well.

    In terms of format, I like the format as it is, but I am a “printer” person meaning I often like to print things off the internet to read during lunch away from the monitor. To date, I have been unable to get the comments section to print out (perhaps I am just technologically inept). I like to read the comments and the ability to print them if I want would be, in my mind, an improvement.

    Thanks again for your energy, commitment, and quality work.

  • Congratulations, CB!

    I’ve been reading here for the past 20 months and one of the reasons it’s my favourite “daily bread” is that your postings are NOT “tirades”; they’re well reasoned, well written and spiced with a dose of sense of humour.

    And yes, the format is easy to handle even for a ‘puter-illiterate like myself. Plus you do seem to attract much better sort of commenters than I’ve seen on other blogs (TPM and its spawn and Think Progress)

  • Congratulations and Thank You Steve. I read your site several times a day and have recommended you to many friends.

  • Thanks Steve,
    The ability of you and, (your partner(s)?), to find, condense and report clearly and succinctly what seems to be the most important news of the day is a gift to us who use the internet to keep current. I find the level of discussion and comments to be a very important part of the whole story and the whole site.
    This site along with Common Dreams, Truthout, Daily Kos, Harpers, The New Yorker and finally The Atlantic are gifts, (dare I say National Treasures), to the American information network.
    I hope that you can find a number of willing disciples who can work as hard as you do to continue in your style and with your unique abilities if you ever begin to feel so worn down by the effort you must put into this site that you feel you must slow down. Until then please don’t change a thing and don’t burn yourself out.
    This desire comes from a very selfish motive on my part as I certainly have come to depend upon The Carpetbagger Report.
    I’m 65 now, so do try to keep healthy and cheerful and productive for another 25 years or so.
    Best wishes for a long and healthy life.
    David Chisholm

  • Hi Steve – Love your blog. It’s been first read for about 2 years now. Thanks for your hard work and excellent writing and comprehension, and fine sense of fair play and always right-on humor. Here’s to many more years!

  • As we old folks say, “If it isn’t broken, no need to ‘fix’ it.”
    It ain’t broke, and as far back as I can remember, it never has been. Last year, when I was ill, I didn’t have the energy to scour the blogs obsessively; many days, this was the only blog I read, yet I don’t feel like I missed a thing of any major significance. So take that, you.

  • Steve: Your blog is my daily must-read. Congratulations on producing a high-quality and civil discussion each day. Keep up the good work.

  • Your blog is my go-to spot for liberal commentary. It’s well-written and pleasing to the eye–a combination that’s amazingly hard to come by in Blogland!

    Thanks for helping me to stay informed!

  • One request — no videos, PLEASE! The proliferation of talking head videos on blogs is very annoying. This is essentially a text medium. I generally read while listening to music. This means I skip all the videos on sites like TPM. There’s simply no added value to taking what you wrote and reading it to me in front of a webcam. Just post it and let me read it. Thanks.

  • What pjcamp said… also, some of us old people have very arthritic old computers that won’t even RUN video clips without seizing up, and it’s really frustrating to see your favorite places turn into yutoobathons. We want to SEE stuff, we can go to Crooks & Liars.

  • I am far away from the US, being a Dutchman, but for years, The Carpetbagger Report has been my major source for following the discussions in US politics in detail. You deserve praise for your clear and transparent writing, and strong analysis. So, hereby a feather on your cap from the Netherlands, and please keep up the good work.

    • Comments are closed.