A quick note to say, "Yay, I broke the top 100." Woo. I've planned on writing something about the rating/ranking system on the site, but haven't spent the time sitting down, researching all the particulars, gathering anecdotal evidence, comparing rankings, putting my thoughts on "paper"... Perhaps soon. I feel pretty good about it, though, as I haven't done a whole lot of ++ing, meaningless comments, articles devoid of content. In fact, this is possibly the least relevent thing I've writ...

I don't know if anyone has checked out his site yet (you should have), but SGT Hook (linked on the right) had recently lost his website hosting. Apparently, he got back up this weekend, and will be blogging again. SGT Hook is inactuality the 1SG of a US Army Aviation Maintenance Company: he's in charge of a bunch of guys who work on helicopters and keep them in working order. He blogs a fair bit, which is great, as he is currently in Afghanistan, having deployed there from Hawaii with his ...

ARMOR GEDDON - I was directed to this site through Citizen Smash, and while I haven't had a chance to read a lot of it, the author's description of ground combat and chasing insurgents in Iraq was riveting in the article I did read. CBFTW - For all intents and purposes, CB is no longer updating his site. A soldier with a Stryker Brigade operating out of Mosul, he took some flak (not literally) for some perceived OPSEC issues. Pulling down most of his articles, he seemingly sulked in Iraq...

Here on JoeUser, there is a points system, which "rewards" participants for number of articles, numer of times viewed and number of responses. Assuming that a higher point value is better (anyone want to argue that?), and that a "good" (popular) blogger will have more points than a "bad" blogger... why do people insist on "pushing" those they consider trolls? By clicking on those whose blogs you consider inferior, you're giving them points. By clicking on those inflammatory article titl...

Although he has been sitting in my "Iraqi Blogs" link section off to the right, I hadn't been checking in on "Iraq the Model" for awhle. I'm making a greater effort to go through all my blog "favorites" lately, and was very pleased to see this insightful article on that site Link "Most of the arab and Muslim government were against toppling Saddam, and that was certainly not because they liked him or his regime. They were afraid and still are of the consequences of this regime change in...

I'm not sure from which blog I stumbled upon his, but later I saw mention of it on some Iraqis' blogs. The man, CBFTW Link , is an Army Infantry soldier currently deployed to Iraq. He seems to have pretty consistent internet access from a nearby internet cafe that charges $2/hour. He reads a lot, when not on OPs (a term he explains a couple of times for his less initiated readers), and he has a good narrative style. His grammar and punctuation are shit, but I can forgive a combat soldier...

JoeUser is a bit schizophrenic in its layout. The default posting of articles is both on a personal blog and in the JU public forums (and sometimes other possibly reltated forums, to the consternation of those forums' regulars). While this gets the information a wider audience (I have, what, 4 regular readers?), it seems to have some drawbacks as well. I believe others have noted this, but the "Blacklist" function seems to block only comments on the "blog" side of JU. Blacklisted users ...

Apparently my JU "birthday" was 3 years and 2 days ago, May Day 2004. I didn't even realize it except I just noticed while I was checking my account status. 348 articles. Huh.

I'm so glad they're back. Let me look at them... chiprj - Still good for a laugh and a good (long) story. Smash - Enjoy his news recaps. EL - Love ya, babe! greywar - Wish I could visit more. HW - Congrats on your 6 (which I wouldn't've realized was going on if it weren't for life happens) NBS - Wish he had actually done that countdown... Singrdave - Moved on, but not forgotten. Good luck with the house. Talisein - Back to posting friends only. I suppose I'll have t...