Live blogging the blogger conference....

10:30 - Well that sucks... we've lost the feed. Where previously there was an entertaining shot of a backdrop and some microphones with assorted heavy set people going in and out of the frame, we now have nothing - and just when all the smaller bloggers were about to get up and introduce themselves to their audiences. Have I lost my big chance to see what WestBankMamma really looks like?

10:35 - Ok, the feeds back. Now a blogger I've never heard of is talking about a blog I've never read. I'd link to him, but Google can't find him either.

10:42 - Well that didn't take long. I thought it would be forever and a day before an irreligious, apolitical, non-aliya-plumping blogger appeared, but the second person given the microphone is Yoram, from some music blog with a name I didn't catch.

10:43 - WOO HOO. Rafi, our crack Israel correspondent is now on the screen! Mention dovbear... mention dovbear.... mention dovbear....

10:44 - Ok Rafi's fired. He didn't mention me OR the book. Anyone who'd like to take his spot as DovBear's crack Israel correspondent is welcome to apply.

10:51 - Last two three four five bloggers were RW, pro-aliya, likudniks... and now we're back to form

11:02 - They're starting. Room looks pretty full, with many people carrying media-quality cameras. Lots of different types of Jews appear to be in attendance. According to the speaker, 200 are in the room, with another 600 watching over the Internet. I see plenty of people in daati luemi garb, but quite a few t-shirts, some white button downs, and even a hat or two. No obvious gentiles or Arabs. The seating, alas, is not separate. Some heavily accented Australian is delivering the boring, sure-to-be-ignored opening remarks. Why even bother? (I mean I doubt he's going to mention DovBear.)

11:07 YAWN (the sponsors are being thanked)

11:10 First panel is up. Esther K, wife of Satan, is moderating. Gil's on this panel, too, along with Trep, Jewlicious and some other guy I don't know.

11:15 - Oh kill me now. Gil is delivering a dvar torah attempting to explain why this week's parsha is soooo very perfectly appropriate to a blogger convention. Divine providence! As if he wouldn't have attempted the exact same trick the other 51 weeks of the year. Now he's discussing some Rishon and a dream he once had. Isn't his topic supposed to be blog-building? ...and now he's babbling about how its ok to promote your blog, but not yourself. Huh?

11:38 - Ok, I am going to the continue this in the comment thread (Bibi is up, and he's being funny!)

11:51 - Back with a couple of points (a) Bibi didn't mention me either (b) Trep said bloggers should be "nice" which is a little like Carl Lewis telling other runners they need to be slow, and here's why: Nice = Boring and boring does not grow audiences. The best proof of this is Trep himself != nice (and also not boring). Trep is sharp, and acerbic, and quick with withering putdown. Other times, he is downright vicious. And that's cool. That's blogging. My advice? Don't be "nice" for the sake of being nice. Be yourself. If nice doesn't work for you (as, quite honestly, it doesn't work for Trep ) don't adopt it as a blogging persona. What you put on your blog doesn't have to be the whole entire you (people are multi-faceted after all) but it should be (part of) the REAL you. (c) That audience moron who asked Bibi if the government was planning to monitor and take action against blogs that, pass the smelling salts, say not-nice things about holy and infallible Israel should be sent to a Soviet gulag for 20 years.

12:10 - Bibi has now been hogging the podium for almost 40 minutes. Make him shut up, please. Aside: Arafat has been dead for FOUR YEARS. Why is Bibi wasting our time denouncing Arafat's old, and already discredited lies, and why in the world does he think its necessary to do this in front of a room full of PRO LIKUDNIK BLOGGERS??!?!?!

12:20 - Bibi has finally run out of gas. You know you've hit rock bottom when you have almost an hour to spare for J-bloggers, and they litterally have to drag you off the stage.

12:30 - Gil hits on the head. In response to Batya of ShiloMusing's attention-grabbing non-question ("Hi I'm Batya read my blog, and join my carnival") Gil said, "There's no blogging community. We're too different. Too varied in our opinions. Too much in opposition to each other to call ourselves a "community"" He's right: we're hobbyists. Not a community

12:34 - EyeRoll. Now they're talking about influencing the world, and having an affect on people. Who tries to do that?? This is about fun. I blog for fun.

12:44 - GO ME!! I got a mention!! Now I can retire, and die.

1:03 - DRINK!! FrumSatire mentioned me twice (Rafi, you're so finished) And he mentioned Ed, too, who it seems behaved like a total loser on FrumSatire's blog, too!

1:40 - The politician from the foreign ministry who just finished was quite good (despite being heckled by a brain-dead RWer) and her remarks deserve their own post. Let me pray on it, and see what comes to me.

1:55 - My new best friend Gila just sent it out of the park: "If there's something wrong with this country, I am going to write about it and I don't give a damn if it helps with hasbarah or not!!!!" She continues... "I am doing this for me." Finally, an HONEST person at this conference. Diogenes will be pleased.

2:19 - Is it wrong I've never heard of any of these aliya bloggers? Some of them seem quite good, and I was also pleased to see they aren't all RW loons. Nice, that the secular aliyaniks got a voice and a place at this table. I think I shall start reading Gila and Yael.

2:29 - Ted Belman? Whoever he is, he won a copy of my book (were you aware I wrote a book?)