Isn’t it Project Petaling Street‘s birthday today? Why is it that I only saw one post(hey Simon!) sending in his warmest wishes?
I remember there was a whole hoo-hah last year fretting about the venue for the next bash, bogged with the expectation of a large turn up for the third bash. But then again, Aiz, you did a good job organising last year’s. It makes sense to take a break for this year’s. 🙂 Those of you who missed last year’s biggest blogosphere event, can refer to Mud Pond’s One Stop Bash Pings.
Before PPS(B.PPS), the only blogs I knew how to stalk were Suckball.com(there was once when I saw Louis at a coffeeshop in SS15 and grabbed Barry and said, “OHMIGOD IT’S SUCKBALL LOUIS!!!!!!” and continued to starecock at him. I went to his tagborad and he told me he noticed but he thought I was staring at him like he killed my dog or something. Woops.) and from Suckball.com I discovered Xiaxue. I sat in front of my computer for nearly 7 hours reading through Xiaxue’s posts. I was a fan throughout 2004 to the end of 2005. Was a fan.
B. PSS, I would stalk all my friends blogs(I still do okay!) and a few friends whom I made online (YO SLINKY!) and because of my Douglas-Lim-daily-googling habits, I came across absolutely-fuzzy.com and midnitelily.com(yes woman i’ve been reading you wayyyyy before I started pinging.:)).
I came into the portal as a wide eyed youngish blogger back in September 2004, intrigued by all these big shot bloggers. It was the era of Loopymeals,Ireneq, Sashi, Buaya69,Mei, Quesarah,(who was also a senior from school!), Jasonmumbles, Narrowband, Liz Tai, Jenn Tai, Fishtail, AlwaysWow, MichaelOoi, Louyau, Reta, Dr.Liew.. at least those names became the ones I usually equated with as the widely read bloggers in PPS. I would read about their blog meets and think about how fun it would be if I could join them!
I remember seeing their links repeated throughout the blogs in the blogosphere and would sigh wistfully to myself about how nice it would be to be listed among those bloggers. 🙂
I would trawl the portal daily, generating a healthier amount of traffic. I was addicted to PPS!
I remember on the morning of 26th December 2004, I saw pings with the titles that went, “My room shook”, “Is there a ghost?”, “My apartment has been evacuated due to earthquakes.”, “What’s happening? The earth is moving!!” and many more similiar posts.
And at the time it was only 9am, more or less an hour away from the tsunami tragedy. The Penang bloggers blogged in detail about feeling tremors and after the tsunami, you should have seen the flooding of pings. It keeps you informed like that.
Throughout the years alot of us have made friends with each other, made pseudo celebrities out of each other, launched wars against each other, attacked each other from behind, pimped each other, defamed each other, fed each other’s egos, listened to each other’s problems and offered the kindest words of sympathy…
…ah. The wondeful world of Project Petaling Street.
The bloggers of this portal gathering together to form a colourful variety has been a new and lovely experience for me.
From journalists to graphic design students to accountants to pharmacists to ex editors to professional photographers to celebrity professional photographers to celebrities to car enthusiasts to voice over for their own cars to biotechnologists to medical students to housewives to real estate agents to (previously)secondary school students to engineers to lecturers to casanovas to anonymous journalists to journalists extraordinaire to hilarious artistic gay guys to thespians to expatriates to movie directors to future movie directors…the list is endless.
I thank you, PPS, for opening my life to these people.
PPS has also made household names out of the likes of Kennysia, Minishorts, ShaolinTiger, Peter Tan, Jeff Ooi, Mack, Suanie, Simontalks, Jason Mumbles, Kimberlycun, Sixthseal, Lainie, Jay, FireAngel, Smashpop, Hustler Diaries, LilianChan, Rojaks, Datin Diaries….just to name a few. I’d name KinkyBlueFairy too but she didn’t need PPS to boost her traffic. She did it her own way and I really respect that alot. Suet Li, you’re on your way to become the next KinkyBlueFairy, not because you have the same style, but because you did not need PPS to elevate your traffic and all it took was linkages by interested readers.
Some of the mentioned bloggers have dimmed away from the lime light because you cannot be at the top forever. But a famous blogger will always be remembered as a famous blogger regardless of their consequent entries. At least to me. 🙂
PPS was in its glorious moments before its big birthday bash back June 2005. The blogosphere was buzzing with activities daily, we even had a forum and even an IRC channel of our own. After it got the recognition it deserved, the portal was tainted with horrible lack-lustre posts. Copy+paste clones, horrid advertisers looking to make a quick buck, weird symbols among the pings(my computer cannot read chinese).. I was dissapointed by the quality.
Thank goodness with a fresh breath of newer bloggers infiltrating the blogosphere in 2006, the portal has reached a healthier equilibrium. I’ve even pin pointed many new bloggers to stalk! 🙂 Forgive me if you’ve been pinging long before this but I only came to know about people like Smashpop, Cheng Sim, Calvin Tay, Yee Hou, Leng Mou, Kyels, S-Kay, Kampungkai, Jennifer and et cetera in 2006.
Actually I’m thinking of a proper category to fit Albert in, but I think I’ll just give you your own special mention. I can’t seem to place a blogger whom I’ve known as a ‘my X-fresh articles approver’ from way back in 2001 and someone who is friends with almost everybody. 🙂 Here’s to the 6th year of our online friendship, dude!
In all other entity, I’m also happy to see a number of my real life friends trying out this weird thing called “pinging”. Here’s a shoutout to Barry(whose blog has died, Barry! How could you! You were one of the few who got me into blogging!), Hsin(the one woman who got me into whole blogging phenomenon), Liss, Elaine, Brenda Weng Lum and Kyle. Even my brother Mervyn has tried pinging once or twice. Did I miss out anyone?
I’m sure the voices of the anonymous blogs such as the likes of Fashion Asia, Michael Ooi, Dr.Liew, Eyeris, Simontalks, Diarygirl, Hustler Diaries, Wingz, Buaya69Â would like to say a big thank you for the veil of anonymity that PPS has provided yet feeding them with a healthy number of fans. Though some veils are quite see through…..*ahem ahem nudge nudge some other bloggers*. 😉
Lastly, here’s a final happy birthday shout out to Project Petaling Street. Long live the portal where people rant, bitch and rave. 🙂
Thank you PPS!