Last month marked the ninth anniversary of me starting this blog, more or less continuously updating since then. As I begin my tenth year here on dashes.com, I’ve made a few changes around the site.

First and foremost, there’s a new look to the blog. My incredibly talented coworker Jim Ramsey created the basic theme, which I made a little bit uglier and naturally added some purple to. (Movable Type users can grab the Mid-Century template set upon which it’s based.) I also owe a debt to Joi Ito for taking the original photo from which my little icon is based. There are more changes to come, but even at this half-complete stage, feedback is welcome.

Second, I finished something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, two new listings:

• Most Popular
• Best Of

Both of these archives are exactly what you’d expect, with the Best Of featuring a number of my posts that I’ve been most proud of over the years, including some that were less popular but that I thought were worth featuring. There’s also a more extensive list of all archives, organized into a calendar or by tag.

I’ve brought back the Action Streams that I had on the site earlier, and will be doing more to incorporate my various online presences into my site here. I don’t plan to just dump my Twitter updates and my bookmarks and crap into the stream of posts here unless you folks think I should. (I’m guessing not.) There’s also different ads on the site. I’ve experimented with a number of different advertising ideas over the years without much objection, so I’ll likely continue to do so. Unsurprisingly, the ads are provided by SIx Apart Media.

I’ll be doing more with giving folks the chance to vote on things on the site, as well. Coming up with my own list of my best blog posts seems a little ridiculous, even for someone who’s as shameless as I am about self-promotion. I’d love to hear more from readers about what posts were interesting, or what I should write more about.

But that brings me to the most important point: Thank you! Over the years, I’ve seen my technical skills decline, my writing skills improve, my frequency of posting drop, and yet somehow the number of readers has consistently increased. Writing for this site is one of the most satisfying hobbies, most rewarding intellectual pursuits, and most unlikely passions that I’ve had in my life, and the biggest reason why is thanks to the relationships I’ve formed with people who’ve read what I write here.

So, I hope you’ll take a minute or two to look over the best or at least most popular things I’ve written, to see if any of it strikes a chord. And I hope we’re all still here having this conversation nine years from now.