As a leader of Chattanooga’s blogging community, Josiah Q. Roe is like the spider at the center of the Scenic City’s online scene.

His free local blogging Web site, chattablogs.com, became operational in 2003 and is now host to about 500 writers discussing issues of personal, local and national import.

Mr. Roe’s own blog, Irresponsible Journalism, is the most popular by far, drawing 4,000-5,000 unique visits daily at its peak.

Mr. Roe moved to Chattanooga from Northern California in 1999 to attend Covenant College on Lookout Mountain, where he promptly fell hard for the city.

During the day, Mr. Roe is the president of the local web design firm Coptix, but during his free time, he uses his blogging site to spread his interests to others.

“I love Chattanooga. It’s my third love behind my wife and my work,” he said. “I think that makes people feel like they’re a part of what’s happening and they share those stories with other people. I think that’s how people come to identify themselves with a city.”

From mayoral elections and news of the St. Elmo neighborhood to unique architecture on River Street, Irresponsible Journalism has covered a range of topics throughout more than 1,700 posts during the past five years.

Mr. Roe said he typically posts once every couple of days or whenever he notes something interesting. Sometimes, his observations fill gaps left by local media coverage, he said.

“Things that should be paid attention to aren’t, and I feel like I do that,” he said. “People appreciate hearing about good things that are happening in the city that no one is covering.”

For its readers, chattablogs provides a forum for discussion of events and topics relevant to Chattanoogans that might not otherwise be discussed. In a way, the blogging medium is a morning diner and interactive community bulletin board rolled into one, he said.

“Most of the time, people are really interested in what’s going on and are glad to engage and post their story,” he said. “People will go into my blog where I’ve posted about an event, and ... next thing you know, your blog becomes the place where people are posting about their events for the next couple of weeks.”

With about 10,000 reader comments to his blog posts, Irresponsible Journalism may have the most devoted following, but other authors in the chattablogs community provide alternative outlooks, he said.

“It’s been interesting to get people’s perspective of the city,” he said. “I’ve approached the city from one neighborhood, one vantage point, and somebody else might approach it from a different perspective, and it’s interesting to see how those interact.”

Despite his blog’s popularity, Mr. Roe said he sees it more as a service to his readers than a way to make his mark on the city.

“I’m not looking to grow it or make it huge,” Mr. Roe said. “I write for myself and the city, that’s about it. It’s a way for me to see something that’s cool that I would tell the person next to me about and write about it.”

Tech Talk