I follow links to anything that looks remotely interesting. You never know when you'll find something way cool, you know?

So I followed an (uncool) link to the story of the girl who went missing from her parents' holiday apartment this past summer. The link led to a blog which happened to have something I haven't seen on many blogs, a little chat widget. People could live chat with one another about their theories or their worries about "poor wee Maddie" and so forth. I admit it, I read some of the chat stuff. And it had a history! Pages and pages and pages and pages of this live chat history. In the beginning, there were a lot of theories and arguments about theories.

Then as the pages came closer to the present, I noticed something happening: people were not just talking about "dear Maddie" any more. There were lines like: "sorry I'm late tonight, any new news?" "No, nothing. How's Lindsay? Is she still running that fever?" "No, she's feeling better -- she's into everything again! LOL." The people in the chat weren't strangers anymore. "Where's Suz? Has anyone seen Suz?"

Like life, communities WILL happen. Drop a rock into a pond, or a chat widget onto a blog, and around it will grow more and more complex life forms until the essential miracle happens.