Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette
	Bloggers Eric Williams, left, of Squirrel Hill, and Rob Carr of Pleasant Hills get acquainted during BlogFest III, the third annual convention of the Pittsburgh blogging community yesterday at Finnegan's Wake bar on the North Side.

Things started quietly at the third semiannual meeting of Pittsburgh's blogging community, which makes perfect sense for a group accustomed to speaking to each other through computer keystrokes sent off into the Internet void.

Writers fumbled with scribbled name tags, which had to be jammed with their blog names, pen names and real names. Eric Williams, a 28-year-old student from Squirrel Hill, wore a typical one: It listed his given name, his screen name, "Funky Dung" -- from a Pink Floyd song -- and the name of his blog, "Ales Rarus," which itself is a Latin play on words, having to do with weird, sooth-saying birds.

"Latin is already nerdy to the extreme," Williams said, granting that the name of his blog is "super-nerdy."

But after much tag-squinting and the dependable introduction of beer, the party gathered steam and the group, meeting at a North Shore bar, got loud. No one writes a blog -- basically a personal Web page filled with writings or links to other Web pages the blogger thinks are interesting -- without having something to say.

It also helps that blogging is going strong in Pittsburgh, as it is everywhere else. When Pghbloggers.org -- the online gathering place for the city's bloggers, which gets more than 15,000 visitors per month -- had their last get-together in the fall, 60 local pages were linked to the site. As of Friday, there were 250, said one of the group's organizers, Mike Woycheck, of Ross, and there are likely many more local blogs unaffiliated with the site.

But introducing to that growing community to each other in person -- instead of online -- still has its challenges.

"There are a lot of people I know here, and I have no idea who they are," said Rob Carr, 47, a freelance writer and former city paramedic who writes the "UnSpace" blog.

Blog writing and reading has grown exponentially since they began in earnest in 1999, with about 50 million U.S. Internet users visiting blogs in the first quarter of 2005 alone, according to a study released this month by Comscore Networks, an Internet research firm.

The most visited blog -- by far -- is the Drudge Report, which got more than 44 million hits during the first three months of the year. Other popular sites include Fark, a list of notable news stories; Gawker, a New York-based gossip sheet; and FreeRepublic, a conservative activist site.

Political blogs greatly outnumber other kinds, which is fitting for a genre that got a heavy dose of hype during the run-up to last year's presidential election. Pittsburgh-based blogs were also obsessed with the election last year, before turning to the Steelers' playoff run.

An "aggregator" on the Pghbloggers site lists the most recent posts to Pittsburgh-based blogs, where visitors "can really see the flow of conversation in Pittsburgh," Woycheck said. Last week it was all over the place, with links to local news stories, talk about the Supreme Court, talk show host Fred Honsberger and, of course, the Steelers.

Many of the roughly 30 bloggers at Thursday's "Blogfest" at Finnigan's Wake bar said they have steered clear of politics lately -- writing about it often provokes a burst of brutally negative responses from one side or another, which are no fun to get.

"I never write about politics -- the conflict gets a little too hot," said Robert, who did not want his last name used. Rather, on his new blog "Gclectic," he writes a lot about engineering and geek culture.

"I have an academic and geek-oriented bias to everything I write, because I'm a geek," the 41-year-old researcher said.

Other sites, such as "Pittsburghdish," are like online newspapers, listing restaurant reviews, original articles and such. At "My Brilliant Mistake," another Pghbloggers founder, Cynthia Closkey, keeps diary-like notes on tv shows, the news and music, while linking to her Web design business.

Professors from Pitt and Duquesne contribute on other blogs, and elsewhere a young couple named Erik and Kelly Dahl have an audio version of the blog, or podcast, where they record things going on in their lives. At Thursday's party Erik Dahl had a mike clipped to his polo shirt, recording his conversations with other bloggers.

One of the most interesting sites in the city is Williams' "Ales Rarus" blog, where the grad student in intelligent systems at Pitt, and a convert to Catholicism, posts his witty and fresh takes on everything from religion to Howard Stern to stem cell research, while never seeming to have a preordained opinion.

A beer in hand, Williams talked about the unique site, where discussions about labor practices at Wal-Mart share space with an encyclical by Pope Paul VI.

"One of the things that keep me going is I don't go in for the cookie-cutter vibe of blogosphere," Williams said.