When Slate was born, we were mere middle schoolers, typing over IM with one friend while three way calling the other (duh, we were always little gossips) and trying to find a reason to email (our summer camp crush).

But, we have since grown — and so has Slate. It was during our uber liberal college years that we first came across Slate, and reveled in its irreverent tone and natural confidence in taking on media. Now celebrating its 10th birthday (ancient by Internet timeline) Slate gives itself the platform to brag about its many accomplishment. We're happy to hear they adore themselves as much as we do!

Slate has little use for such journalistic crutches as sources, quotations, fact-checking, neutrality, objectivity, balance, the Chinese walling-off of fact from opinion, or the semicolon (which our founder, Michael Kinsley, deems "pretentious"). It's not that we reject all such conventions in principle—we are often the first to complain when newspapers depart from them.

Oh, also, they would like to take this opportunity to plug their book. So, Happy Birthday, Slate … here is our gift to you:

This article is adapted from the introduction to The Best of Slate: A 10th Anniversary Anthology. Click here to buy the book.

What Makes Slate Slatey? [Jacob Weisberg, Slate]