I'm semi-retired and write in my spare time. Bekkie In Wonderland is my oldest and very first website it's very special to me. I met lot's of wonderful people here through the years I'm still friends with today and I am writing with a group of such people every Sunday.
This website has a long history. If you look at the Counter it doesn't tell the true story because this blog was not always on Blogger. I used to have a separate counter that had the full count from both networks and it was well over what it is now. This site has a large history and here’s a little of it.
Bekkie In Wonderland started out on Windows Live Spaces as a "Space" around the year 2004. I remember thinking Spaces were high tech the first time I saw one. Of course, it was my very first attempt at a website and blog.
The Windows Live Spaces template was very simple and had a section for photos, blogging, and a Guestbook all in one. You couldn't change it much but you could put up a real website and it was just the beginning...primitive as it was.
My first social network was AOL and it gave me a lot of experience by the time “social networks” started gaining their niche on the internet. AOL was not a bad place to start they gave you 5 profiles, email, and chat. I can still hear; “You got mail!” in that voice to this day and still use it on my cell phone.
AOL was the best to start out on there wasn't much to choose from then. Chat rooms had already been worn out and Instant Messaging was just taking hold along with webcam popularity. It was hot.
Sites like Tagged and Facebook were offering something called “blogging” so I tried it. The story went under my regular profile (no website or blog) but the bug caught and I was hooked. It was perfect for my stories, art and I was learning about HTML and embedding.
I looked around before settling on MSN and Windows Live. Their network ideas and the thought of my own Space online to design was thrilling! Not many social networks at the time offered this. It was the right choice and led me to everything I do online now.
I'm a big Lewis Carroll fan so I named my Space and first website Bekkie In Wonderland and have been happily blogging away since. I was very happy with that site although it was ugly and obsolete by the time MSN dropped them it was a great start.
Windows Live made a bad decision around 20008 and decided to drop the social part of their network keeping Spaces, it didn't make any sense at the time. Right after that, they announced closing Spaces. Spaces being the thing that kept most of us using Windows Live we all scrambled looking for other places to have a free website.
Google had the idea for Google+ but Facebook was the only big name then. I think if MSN would have updated themselves, being first in many things other networks use now, they could have been one of the big names now instead of floundering against Android and the big boys. They had Messenger (one of my favorite chat applications) that had emoticons and more before anyone else but let themselves get outdated and just quit. Their loss.
Just recently (2013) I found out that MSN dropped Windows Live Writer (their old blogging editor/publisher.) I'm having to use Blogger's editor and it's not the same. WLW was one of the first to use HTML editing and gave total control over editing, the size of images, etc. and I miss it.
Bekkie In Wonderland has a place in my heart after all these years just like the people I met through having it. It taught me about the internet, networking online, using HTML and much more. I'm still friends with many people I met on Live Spaces. Like I've been saying all these years, “Keep On Bloggin’!”
<-----This is my blog badge the “Frustrated Blogger.” Feel free to use it.
