Friday, October 30, 2026

The Nag According to AI - I Got a Kick Out Of This

I’ve been doing this for a very long time and sometimes I feel like I’m blogging into a void but apparently someone’s been keeping tabs on my feeble efforts. Mark, a follower and occasional commenter on NOTL, decided on a whim to have AI check me out. The question he asked was “Who writes Nag On The Lake?” and this is what came up (I cut out some redundancies):
    Origin & Name (2005)
    Marilyn Bellamy started the blog in while living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (hence the wordplay "Nag on the Lake"). Initially, the blog mixed regional happenings from her "Old Town" neighborhood with interesting tidbits she found online. Over time, the hyper-local updates faded, and the blog fully transitioned into a pure daily link-sharing site. 
  • The Early Years: Bellamy started blogging as a way to compile personal internet discoveries. The site quickly grew a dedicated following among people who loved quirky, thoughtful, and aesthetic media long before algorithmic social feeds took over.
  • The "Nag" Persona: The blog features lighthearted running jokes about the "Nag" persona (Bellamy) and her husband, affectionately dubbed "Mr. Nag". This gave the site a cozy, personal, and highly human touch that set it apart from corporate content aggregators. 
  • Longevity and Community: Over more than two decades online, the blog has built a collaborative community, frequently exchanging links and shout-outs with classic curation mainstays like Neatorama and Everlasting Blort. Today, it remains one of the few surviving independent "link blogs" from the mid-2000s era that still updates daily.
  • The history of Nag on the Lake is closely tied to the golden age of independent internet curation. Launched on Blogspot, it grew from a hyper-local diary into a widely respected hub for global internet oddities. 
The Golden Age Of Link Blogging
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, "link blogging" was a thriving ecosystem. Blogs like Nag on the Lake, Neatorama, The Presurfer, and Everlasting Blort served as human-curated filters for the web before algorithms and social media timelines took over. Bellamy built a reputation for finding deeply fascinating, non-viral content, focusing on: Vintage photography and forgotten historical archives, short independent films and animation, quirky art installations and architecture.

Longevity
While the vast majority of mid-2000s blogs have gone dark or transitioned to social media channels, Nag on the Lake remains entirely active. It stands as one of the longest-running, continuously updated independent link directories on the internet, maintaining its classic Blogspot layout and daily posting schedule for two decades.

4 comments:

  1. Ha! That's pretty accurate.

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    Replies
    1. Hanan, you were one of the first bloggers to repost one of my links. I loved Grow-a-Brain and I was immensely flattered. (I enjoy Tilbage i Danmark as well.)

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  2. Jeff @archivallyme.bsky.social7:47 am

    Being recognized as one of the curatorial survivors of the internet's golden age sounds like a badge of honor to me! Always look forward to reading your insightful and worldly posts!

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  3. It’s a bit overblown, isn’t it? This is why I’m hesitant to believe anything I read online. Thanks for the kind words.

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