This site is now EIGHT years old, which is 56 in dog years, or 2,349 in blog years.
Some stats:
Registered users: 242,193
Trolls banned: 8,123
Registered current or former members of Congress: ~40
Registered current or former governors: 9 10
Registered current or former presidents: 2
Front page stories: 47,092 (16/day)
Diaries (Launched October 14, 2003): 618,698 (256/day)
Diary recommends (since August 31, 2004): 16,489,224 (17,257/day)
Comments (since October 14, 2003): 36,135,560 (14,957/day)
Comment ratings: 145,124,608 (60,068/day)
Sharks jumped, fridges nuked: 17-ish (~2/year)
Epic flame wars: pie, fraudsters, Dean v Clark, Clinton v Obama, the "strike", MSOC, "Screw 'em", LIHOP/MIHOP (1/year)
So when did I know that this little blog would become something incredible?
In the early days of Daily Kos, when I was writing for dozens, maybe hundreds of people, I wrote mostly for myself. There was no expectation that Daily Kos or any other blog was more than just a side diversion for other, weightier matters.
When reporters ask me when I first started thinking Daily Kos would become something more important, I tell them about the Dean campaign, or about the traffic explosion during the run-up and start of the Iraq War.
But that's pretty much bullshit. Because the reality is much more mundane, much less sexy --
It was the arrival on the site's comment boards of two people -- Meteor Blades and Steve Gilliard.
They were a real revelation to me -- I couldn't believe that people like them, so brilliant, so insightful, so talented, would spend time at my little corner of the world. They inspired me to keep writing, keep building this place. Because if nothing else, I needed to make sure they had a platform upon which to speak.
I may have been the shirtless dancing guy (click this link if you've never seen this), but Gilliard and MB (and Billmon and Steve Soto and so on) were the sparks that made the fire.
And the rest of you built a movement.