CelticsBlog is 10 years old today

A decade is a long time to do anything. It is an especially long time to blog, considering that blogs didn't really get mainstream momentum until 2004. Yet here I am, ten years later, still writing about the Celtics and loving every minute of it. I'll humbly ask you to excuse the very non-humble nature of this post. I'm just a little proud of this occasion.

On one hand, you probably don't understand how difficult it is to do this. At times it can be a real grind. Sometimes I have to force creativity, in particular during offseasons and especially during the long lockout. You don't see all the coordination, management, maintenance, logistics, and long term planning that goes on in the background. This went from a hobby to a part time job to a small business over the years and it has forced me to learn and grow with it. There have been some huge headaches and trying times and even a few moments early on when I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep the blog going.

On the other hand, you probably don't understand how lucky I feel to get to do this. You don't understand how thankful I am toward everyone who's ever clicked on this site, never mind read for a long time or contributed to it somehow. I enjoy writing and I'm not afraid to admit that I love the attention (a fundamental truth about all bloggers) but my greatest joy comes from watching the community grow and evolve and grow some more. You people are what make CelticsBlog fun. You are what makes it what it is today. And for that, I thank you with all my heart.

I won't bore you with a rehash of the story of the blog, but I would like to take some time to thank a few people in particular.

- hagrid was my first co-blogger. He and I slogged through the early years ranting about the lack of progress with the team. He had to put the blog aside due to time commitments and job constraints but he'll always be remembered for helping me to start this thing off. (Note: when the archives were transferred over all the stories defaulted to listing me as the author, but hagrid wrote many articles in the early years)

- Master PO was one of the earliest readers and is still here God bless him. We have a favorite analogy we use to describe the growth of the blog. We compare it to a sports bar. In the early years it was Cheers ("everybody knows your name"). I was the owner and PO was the lovable odd-ball. The bar got successful and moved bigger spaces and started attracting huge crowds. He misses the old times when the bar was just a few friends that were like family, but he's also very happy for me and proud of the success I've had. PO may feel like he's lost in the crowd sometimes, but he knows that I've always got his favorite stool waiting for him.

- Roy Hobbs has been the leader of the forums for a long time now and has been instrumental to helping me develop and foster a fantastic community environment on the blog. We share a vision of putting the community first and emphasize respect as the foundation to that community. Just a fantastic asset to the site.

- FLCeltsFan is amazing. Her daily links are the most exhaustive and consistent set of links anywhere and her game-threads are the thing of legend. Her eternal optimism is always encouraging as well.

- Bob Day was the guy that essentially saved the blog from dying from its own inertia. As the traffic increased the server costs skyrocketed and the website constantly crashed. One year during the draft the site was next to useless all night. He revamped everything, put it on stable, scalable servers, and supercharged the back end of the blog.

- Everyone at SBNation has just been so supportive, knowledgeable, and helpful. The skills it takes to make a little blog into a big one are surprisingly different than what it takes to make a big one into a much bigger one. They've been there every step of the way to help me along that path.

- There have been too many former writers to name (else I'll be sure to forget some), but I must tip the hat to Green17, Steve Weinman, Gant, Greg Payne, Gabe Kahn, Tom Bellinger, Tom Halzack, Jimmy Toscano, and Jay King just to name a few. Some have gone on to write for ESPN, the Boston Metro, CSNNE, and one of them even has a job in the Bulls organization now. All of them have a special place in my heart.

- All of the current authors, mods, and contributors. You are becoming too numerous to count but I value and adore each and every one of you. Thank you for continuing the tradition and helping me every day. I literally couldn't do all this without you.

- Most of all, thanks again to all of you readers. If you've read the blog for 10 years or just found it today, I thank you. If you've taken part in the forums, the chat room, the comments, or even just voted on my silly polls, I thank you. If you are one of the bazillion lurkers out there that prefers to stay anonymous, that's fine, I thank you too. You could go any number of other places to read about the Celtics and share your thoughts with other fans, but you do it here and that's about the best compliment you could give us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's to another 10 years!