Why here, why now?

So I said I wouldn't get my own blog or journal, because I didn't have anything to say. But more recently I've found that at decreasing intervals, I would want to give my opinion about something, and start composing a comment in my head, and realise that it's too long for a comment box; but I'd see people commenting to say "I talk about this over here (link)". So it might be useful to have my own platform.

Then RaceFail09 occurred. People whose blogs I was reading were involved; after a while they stopped talking about it (in public?) and I thought it was dying down; then in March I found out: no, it just mutated. I discovered the Archivist of the Revolution, and started trying to catch up. This told me I need a better way of keeping track of the conversation.

Meanwhile, the people I've started reading were waxing enthusiastic about Dreamwidth. I followed links.
The diversity statement. (Shinyyyyyyy)
Essays about why advertising on social media is doomed, plus a business plan for making the site profitable without third-party advertising. (Oo! Oo! I want! ... AdBlock Plus is my friend, but it doesn't work on public terminals that only use Internet Exploder)
Staff who talk to people and answer questions. (It's like phoning a company and being answered by a human instead of a computer!)
Separating reading lists from access permissions. (I never got my head around "friends" in the LJ sense. I have friends. "What I want to read" is not the same.)

And, and the longer I lurked around here the more I liked it. So, through the magic of OpenID and launch night invite codes, here I am. I might even say something.