I had a long back and forth with a tech reporter recently. One of the things I asked about is why she refers to me as a "blogging pioneer." 

"Because that's what you are," she replied.

Well I am also a former softball player, and a sometime skier. 

I'm a food eater and a bike rider. I walk and ride the subway. I used to drive a car, but don't anymore. I started an underground newspaper when I was in high school. 

We are all lots of things, but how a reporter chooses to characterize you has a lot to do with how they see you, and how readers will view your ideas. You're saying in a few words what the person's point of view is. It's quite important.

She then asked how would I like to be credited.

Well, I'm first and foremost a software developer. So if you refer to me as that I will not have a complaint. It's like saying Sean Penn is an actor and director, or Kristaps Porzingis is a basketball player. Most important is that "software developer" is present tense. It's what I am now. 

I also am a writer, and I think that's important. 

So the simplest, least glamorous way to refer to me is thus: Software developer and blogger. I know saying one is a blogger is pretty commonplace, but I do spend as much time writing on my blog as I do writing software. And as has been pointed out I am a blogging pioneer, and I am still doing it. 

Over on Medium, I was just referred to as a "prominent technologist and sometime media critic." Now I really like that. Prominent! Oh yeah. That means the author respects me, and thinks that other people do as well. 

"Blogging pioneer" sounds so much like "silent film star." 

My blogging pioneer days are in the past. Perhaps after I'm dead if you want to cite my work you could refer to me as that. Or when I hang up the software development thing and retire to a bike farm in Puerto Rico, or to make pottery in Tuscany. Then who can argue that my software work is past tense. But I shipped a lot of software last year, and hope to do the same this year. Part of the reason no one looks, imho, is this idea that my life is over and my work is done. I hear that so often that it's really time to call it out. I am very actively working on the tech I write about. So please, do me a favor, and take that work seriously.