By the time this article arrives in print, its online equivalents will have been archived. Now old news in the blogosphere, the first EschaCon was a gathering of "Atriots," members of the community of Eschaton, the progressive political blog written by Philadelphia's Atrios, aka Duncan Black, considered one of the most influential political bloggers.

The blog-based convention started with a reception and a concert on Friday and turned from social to constructive on Saturday, with the panel "Potential for Progressive Blogging" and a strategy session for the '06 elections, both at Center City's Marriott Courtyard.

For a Saturday morning event during Labor Day weekend, it was surprisingly attended by more than just middle-aged media junkies wearing Chuck Taylors, Nixon shirts and ponytailed beards, and although the crowd of about 75 was comprised mostly of the aforementioned, the con drew local and out-of-state politicians, representatives from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), a Benedictine monk, and New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman, described by con-organizer Mary Donnelly as "a rock star in our midst."

Mirroring their medium, the community of bloggers almost immediately abandoned the "Progressive Blogging" topic to vent about hurricane relief efforts. Donnelly was originally worried by conventioneers' appetite for digression: "I was listening in and I kept thinking, "You guys have to get off the hurricane,' but they hit all of the topics they planned to hit, just in this different way. It was remarkably like reading a thread."

Unfortunately, the discussion never reached the title topic, the significance of which was later explained by Atrios: "It's great that we have some politicians and candidates here, because hopefully it would be nice to get them to understand that there's additional opportunities to expand the kind of retail politics — the meet-and-greet, the get-to-know-your-potential-voters-or-constituents — rather than simply spending all their time raising money to buy more television ads."

This kind of possibility is what incites the political bloggers, some of whom half-facetiously refer to themselves as "parajournalists" and "news concierges," to insist upon their collective legitimacy almost as ardently as they post the latest pundit faux pas. So, during the strategy session, when U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) ended her litany of grievances against the Bush administration with, "The next thing you know, they're going to give the contract to rebuild New Orleans to Halliburton," and nearly everyone quickly yelled back, in unison, "They already did!" it seemed as though a small amount of credence was lent to a pastime that boasts of immediacy and accuracy.

Blogger/panelist N. Todd Pritsky hopes that instances like this will convince politicians to take more than just financial stock in the increasing influence of blog culture. "To them, netroots and all this stuff is about raising money and maybe getting talking points to people. I think what this conference represents is that it's more than just a cash machine. It's not an ATM. I think it's people with common interests getting together and talking about, "What can we do?'"

As the panels neared their end, representatives from the DNC and DCCC discussed the possibility of a strong Democratic showing in '06 with the implored help of the crowd, many of whom were still busy updating the very blogs that made "something like this possible," says Pritsky. "I mean, shit, we were really just thinking of having a party."