Candles have been blown-out, cake has been eaten, and gifts have been given.

I am now officially twenty-four years old.

I’ve been using the Internet for some time. In that time I’ve built up a fairly long list of people who I’ve met, but never really met. Those of you who blog, tweet, and actually use an RSS Feed reader know what I’m talking about: the Internet friends with whom you chat all the time, and whose “company” you really enjoy, but have never met for a coffee and who may live half-a-world away. I thought I’d take a few minutes and jot down a short, non-comprehensive list of these folks I’ve really enjoyed meeting through the years; hopefully it will help introduce you to someone new.

Kyle Baxter (tightwind.net)

Kyle is a different breed of blogger. Oh, sure, he writes about tech as much as the rest of us—but he also writes about democratic reforms in China, the Fed, and post-American foreign policy. Kyle covers it all, and does so in a surprisingly readable manner. He writes excellent content, not just copy.

But more than that, he takes it a step further: he’s glad to discuss his articles with you further. In fact, that’s the very point:

Of course, feel free to contact me if you want to discuss something I wrote or just have something to say. You can email me, or message me on Twitter.

He means it. I can’t tell you how great it is to get a personal email response from the author of a great piece. If you’re looking for a place where you can read incredibly well thought-out content written by a genuinely nice and very approachable guy, TightWind by Kyle Baxter is it.

Sam Brown (sam.brown.tc)

Sam is another one who, like Kyle, makes his blog incredibly personable. Like most of the bloggers I read he focuses on web-design, blogging, and the like; unlike most of the blogs I read he still allows comments on his pieces. And boy, do people comment. Rare is the moment when I see an entry on his blog that doesn’t have umpteen articulate comments awaiting me.

But the hallmark of Sam Brown is the emails: Sam replies to every comment via email with a personal message. It’s an incredibly personal touch, and it really makes you feel connected to him—despite having never met him in your life.

Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s from Edinburgh—one of my favorite cities on the planet.

Pat Dryburgh (patdryburgh.com)

In the last few months I’ve come to learn that there’s a lot more to Pat than first meets the eye. When I first came upon his blog (then patdryburgh.net) it was as minimalist as can be. Little did I know that he was an incredibly capable and talented graphic and web designer responsible for many of the brilliant Fusion Ads that have opened my wallet these past months.

If you like smart, approachable, down-to-Earth guys you should take a second to get to know Pat. He’s right up there with the best of them.

Jorge Quinteros (jorgeq.com)

Jorge lives my alter-ego: he studied Graphic Design, lives in Brooklyn, takes wonderful photographs, and travels the world (all things I wish I could have done). He seems like he’s always around on Twitter, waiting to answer that question I have or put two-cents towards something I’ve been on the fence about. And you know what? It’s always welcome.

Whenever I have a question about something it seems like he’s already written an entry six months ago that perfectly answers it. He’s outgoing, easy going, and going places (that was too cliché not to write and true, to boot). Get to know him: you’ll be glad you did.

Jasmin Wong (jasminwong.com)

To be entirely honest, I can’t remember how I met Jasmin: but I’m glad that I did. As I’ve followed her from intherain.org, to sootcolumns.org, and ultimately to some.fancypiece.org I’ve come to know Jasmin as a smart, kind, and thoughtful person. In fact, she’s so thoughtful that this past Christmas she sent me a Christmas Card all the way from Australia even though we’d never actually met!

Jasmin is currently stepping up her work as a freelance web designer & photographer, so if you’re in Australia and are in the market you should definitely give her a look. (She has a natural eye for portraits, in my humble opinion.)

Conclusion

The Internet is full of great, great people—and not just the ones you already know. The great magic of the web is that it has the power to connect similar people across great distances, and the people I’ve met along the way have immeasurably improved my life these past years.

When people ask me why I spend to much time and energy with social media, I now have one simple answer to give them: it’s the people. Thanks, to all of you.

When I most recently started blogging again, I enabled comments mostly out of habit. My old blogs (circa 2003 – 2005) had always had comments, and a rather healthy flow of them to boot. However, I soon noticed how many of the blogs I had come to enjoy reading the most (Shawn Blanc, Pat Dryburgh, and Jorge Quinteros come to mind) were comment-free and I started to wonder what value they truly added. I removed them and didn’t look back, largely because of the healthy and vibrant conversations I was having on Twitter.

It wasn’t until I went back and started rereading my old blog entries on Archive.org that I truly realized what great value they added. I came to realize that it was the community that I experienced through those comments that made blogging so enjoyable in the first place. I’ve since restored comments (now powered by Disqus), and while I haven’t yet received one since I’ve found that the mere possibility makes my blog feel—to me—to be more inviting.

An explanation of why I’ve recently added comments to the site, written in response to Sam Brown’s post on the benefits of allowing comments on a blog. I thought it was a story worth sharing.