Shreveport Times

Web log Meetup group searches for members
Local blog lover hopes others will join.
January 21, 2005

By Candice Leone

Charles Stricklin began keeping a blog about two years. A blog, short for "Web log," basically is a journal kept via the Internet.

"It's like a diary, but anyone can read it," said Stricklin, 44. The systems engineer for a local financial service company said blogging used to be just one of his hobbies but has become his only hobby.

"I'd rather blog than talk on the phone," he said. "I'll blog four or five entries a weekend. I'll just sit there watching movies or listening to music and spend about 10 hours (blogging). Just whenever the mood strikes me."

Stricklin has a hunch that others in the area share his passion of blogging. Using the site www.meetup.com, he hopes to form an informal group of fellow blog lovers at 4 p.m. Saturday at P.J.'s Coffee and Tea, 8510 Youree Drive in Shreveport.

"We've got grandmothers, military people and truckers blogging," he said. "It's just a way to express yourself and to gravitate toward what you are interested in."

Stricklin thinks there is a large, untapped group of bloggers in the area, particularly college students, who just are unaware of each other.

"There's really no certain age group (that blogs). College students would probably be most interested in it because they're more interested in technology. That's why I'm doing all this."

Stricklin hopes to find enough people to form two clubs -- one dedicated to blogging, another to WordPress, a computer software program used to create blogs.

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