As the big man would say, boilk.

A pleasure as ever, sir.

Arseblog was the first online social network thingummy I got involved with. It was pretty special to watch it grow from the (usually hung over, always funny) blog of an Irish Arsenal fan in Barcelona in 2002, to the inception of the ‘arses’ community through the blog’s comments (which now regulary top 500 a day), before the creation of a full blown forum with its own initiation and member selection process and some of the sharpest, funniest photoshopping I’ve seen.

I’ve met some fantastic people through arseblog, with so much more in common than just supporting the same football team. It really turned me on to the power of online social networking to bring people from all over the world with one common interest together. I still fondly look back on the first EwA meeting (Everyone who’s Anyone - you had to be there), and love being around to witness from the outside other online communities meet for the first time - that nervous approach of strangers in pubs and how warmly and happily people put faces to names. Some time ago it was a Bob Dylan fan club in the back room of the (sadly missed) Purple pub in Brixton before a gig at the Academy. On Saturday it was Routemaster owners at the Ace Cafe London, (pics to follow).

It’s hardly an original insight, but the interweb is great.