Over two weeks ago I had a relatively old, yet new, experience.

For the first time I met bloggers that I had never met in person before.

Now let’s be honest… I’ve attended two TequilaCons, Brittcon, Avitable’s Halloween Party the last two years, I’ve been to a Dave event, a Ren event, and of course I am now madly in love with the first blogger I ever met. So it is a fact that I have indeed met other bloggers face to face before… but there was a difference this time.

This time, sure the other bloggers knew who I was as I knew who they were… but they really didn’t know me just as I really did not know much about them.

I met alot of people. Quite a few of them are people I’ve been reading for years and a few of them are more recently added reads. Everyone was open, friendly, and welcoming. For that matter, I literally shook the hand of someone who I would have classified as my Nemesis in the blogosphere… but he had no idea that it was me nor did I realize it was he until much later in the night. While I did figure out who he was… still not sure if he figured out who I am… which may or may not be a bad thing.

Sure there was talk about blog platforms, search engine optimization, favorite plug-ins. There was talk about favorite smart phone apps, and some specific and common themes and ideas that had found themselves spawned from online discussions. All the talk there were things you can hear at other blogger gatherings.

What was oddly absent was the talk about everything else. There was no talk about our significant others, children, or recent visits to a restaurant we had blogged about. There wasn’t any talk about personal hopes or personal dreams, personal inspirations or personal aspirations. The discussion there was oddly, at least to myself, absent of personal things.

It was the kind of conversation you would have with like minded co-workers.

It wasn’t the kind of conversation you would have with friends.

Was it bad? Not necessarily.

Was it good? Quite possibly.

It was definitely different… and it gave me a new found appreciation for the relationships I have built from this blog.

With that said, I think it’s only fair that I make a statement regarding the future of this blog.

It seems that once again people are closing up shop, changing URLs, looking for a chance to start anew. Some of them have told me where they are going… others have not. I understand this feeling… this need for a fresh start… this need to forget the past… this need to move beyond the current blog and whatever senseless drama may surround it. I understand this… because I have felt that way a few times myself.

With that in mind…