So, Matt and I went to the New York Bloggers panel at the Apple store last night. We ran into Sparky, Mike, Andy, Chris, and Matt Jacobs. I was worried about not getting a seat, so I got there about 30 minutes early, only to find that hardly anybody was there yet. I saw Sparky and we wound up sitting in the middle of the front row. By the time the event started, the place was full. Nerd glasses were in abundance, including those worn by me and by most of the people I knew.

There were three panels — a publishing panel, a technology panel, and an editors’ panel, in that order.

I was put off by the publishing panel, because of the focus on money. Jason Calacanis wasn’t my cup of tea — he came off too slick. And I’m kind of annoyed that Nick Denton’s name keeps popping up in connection with so many different blogs/sites (Gawker, Wonkette, Fleshbot, Kinja, and now Defamer), and that he makes money off these blogs without actually writing them. Then again, I’ve never been very business-oriented. Everyone’s got to make a living, I guess.

I enjoyed the technology panel more. Anil and Meg focused on those of us who are among the majority of bloggers. They get blogging — it’s not primarily about making money; it’s about self-expression and connecting with other people. They’ve both been blogging practically since the beginning, and they just seem like cool people; I greatly admire both of them.

The final panel, consisting of Choire, Jen Chung, and Lockhart Steele, was the most fun. Choire was… Choire. I hadn’t seen him in a long time, but he’s as wacky as ever. Jen Chung is so cute and smart, and Lockhart Steele’s a cutie himself.

The whole event (especially hanging out with Sparky for the first time in a long while) made me nostalgic for my early blogging days of 2001 — back when the coterie of New York bloggers was smaller, back when Choire was just a blogger doing East/West with Philo, back when the term “warbloggers” didn’t exist — back when the blogging world more closely resembled the blogging world that Anil and Meg know so well.

Blogging is the most fun when you don’t take yourself, or it, too seriously. I hope it stays that way. Even if it doesn’t stay that way as a whole, however, that’s OK — blogging has never been about the whole. It’s been about these niches, these little groups of people that read each other, write about each other, meet each other, get to know each other, and generally just have a good time. The wonderful thing about blogs is that you can do whatever the hell you want with one.

Still — blogging business models? Bah.