Times and Seasons: The First Year

Ten years is a long time, even in the real world. When Adam put up the first Times and Seasons post on Nov. 19, 2003, there was no WordPress. There was no Bloggernacle. There were just six T&S permabloggers (Nate, Matt, Adam, Kaimi, Greg, and Gordon) and a handful of commenters. Those were the days. Below are links to fifteen or twenty representative posts from the first year, with a few commenter names thrown in to give credit to the early followers of the blog.

• Nov. 2003 – Kaimi posts Nephites, Lamanites, and Native Americans and a follow-up post Nephites and Lamanites Redux. Commenters included annegb, Dave (me), Blake, and Mark B.
• Dec. 2003 – Among the 113 posts in December 2003 was Gordon’s Mormon Doctrine: The Legacy. Commenters included Ben S. (now a perm), Clark, Kristine, and Jim (now a T&S emeritus).
• Jan. 2004 – Claudia Bushman, one of our first guest bloggers, posted 158 Years Ago, recounting the 1846 voyage from New York to San Francisco of roughly 230 LDS ocean pioneers under the leadership of Samuel Brannan.
• Feb. 2004 – Kristine, another guest blogger, posted What I did over summer vacation (she was a Summer Fellow at Smith Institute at BYU). Commenters included Melissa, Karen, and William Morris.
• Mar. 2004 – Julie Smith’s first post at T&S, as a guest blogger: The Talk I’ve Never Given. Commenters included Bob and Logan, and Lyle. Of special note in March 2004 was the post The Nameless Mormon Blogosphere, with Grasshopper suggesting “Bloggernacle Choir” in the third comment and Nate shortening it to “The Bloggernacle” at comment 5.
• Apr. 2004 – Permablogger Greg Call hosted our first 12 Questions feature with guest Armand Mauss (Part 1 and Part 2). By the end of April, new permabloggers included Jim F., Russell, Kristine, and Julie.
• May 2004 – Guest blogger Ben Huff posted Theology on the Model of Kuhnian Science. Commenters included Kingsley, Mark Butler, Ivan Wolfe, and Kevin Christensen.
• June 2004 – Nate posted How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Elder McConkie. Commenters included danithew, Aaron Brown, Davis Bell, Ethesis, and Floyd the Wonder Dog.
• July 2004 – Guest blogger Taylor Petray posted Mormonism and Theories of Religion: Tylor and Frazer. Sheesh, I didn’t think Taylor Petray was even out of high school back in 2004.
• Aug. 2004 – Lots of new faces. Frank McIntyre posted A Few Facts on Religion in America. Guest Jeff Lindsay posted What Evidences Really Matter in a Testimony? Matt Evans hosted 12 Answers! for Ken Jennings, Part 1 and Part 2.
• Sept. 2004 – Jim F. posted Difference, Disagreement, and Contention. Commenters included John Mansfield, Jonathan Green, Wilfried, and John Fowles.
• Oct. 2004 – Wilfried posted Primitive Church, recounting his conversion in Belgium in 1964 and his impressions of the small branch he first attended. Commenters included Geoff B., Kevin Barney, and J. Stapley.

Wow. We covered a lot of ground that first year. (I say “we” even though I did not put up my first post at T&S until June 2007.) And I didn’t even get to the guest posts that first year by Richard Bushman and Steve Evans. And Dan Peterson and Bryce Inouye.

Two final items. First, a sincere thank you to all the readers and commenters who have followed and contributed to T&S over the last ten years — it wouldn’t be much fun without you!

Second … I wonder what T&S will be like in ten more years? Will there even be blogs in 2023?