UrbanHonking just may have successfully created the ultimate blogging community.

Based out of Portland, Ore., UrbanHonking, lovingly referred to as UrHo, is a site that hosts over 89 blogs and 116 authors. It’s a place for people to not only write but share art, photos, music and movies.

Since its start in 2001, it has become a venue for like-minded people interested in creating and sharing content with other bloggers, artists and friends. After visiting its website once, one is immediately captured by the charm, hip design aesthetic and the atmosphere of ideas floating all around.

It began as an online version of a traditional magazine started by the three former roommates. Mike Merrill, Jona Bechtolt and Steve Schroeder asked their friends to write on a number of subjects, upload them at the same time and create an issue. After three or four issues it became difficult for their friends to write in such a format.

The site lay stagnant for a bit, until the rise of the blogosphere. Some of their friends were still interested in contributing, so they installed blogging software and pioneered one of the first blogging collectives.

In the typical fashion of the hipster crowd of Portland, the three met because of a band. Before UrHo, Merrill, originally from Alaska, says he dabbled in “movies, party-throwing and exploring Portland.” Always full of ideas to jot down in notebook upon notebook, UrHo for him was a way to help focus his attention and finally accomplish some of those ideas.

Now boasting over 14,000 blog entries, UrHo adds new bloggers all the time. “Typically, we discover some interesting person, we look for their blog, and when we can’t find it we say, ‘Hey! You should blog! We’ll set it up for you!’”

The site has one main goal: to create compelling content. “I think that is the one thing that has stayed the same through all the changes, we still want to produce interesting content,” says Merrill.

Since the site produces no revenue and does not pay its bloggers, it has created a unique community of people dedicated solely to the publishing and sharing of creative ideas. The site produces no salary for the founders, so they each still have their own day job.

Merrill, who has his own blog on UrHo, works on Panic.com, a Mac software company. Bechtolt produces records under the name “YACHT.” Schroeder spends most of his time running States Rights Records, a music label dedicated to “presenting a unified and collective vision of rad music.”

Meanwhile, UrHo remains ever popular. People keep coming back, joining and staying involved. The site is not only entertaining, but has a certain real-ness, say many of its fans. Merrill says: “It’s a combination of quality and integrity and community.”