Last night, Lockhart — along with his two business partners (his wife and his brother-in-law) and the social-networking/start-up zine Mashable — hosted a larger event at the Trolley Barn in Inman Park, in advance of Regator’s redesign roll-out next month.

One of the first guys I saw as I came in was Tim Dorr, who personifies the tech community’s vibrancy and quiet enthusiasm. Dorr is founder of A Small Orange, a very service-oriented web-hosting company (I use them), and the partner in FeedScrub (a start-up that, well, scrubs feeds), as well as a web development company and about half-a-dozen other startups. The guy runs his company’s conservatively but always seems to have a new gadget, a new idea and plenty of time to share his knowledge with tech neophytes.

Behind Dorr were desks for two other Atlanta-based cosponsors of the party: Chirbit, which is an audio social-networking application — sort of a Twitter for the ear; Krumlr, which bookmarks and tracks Tweets, and does a whole lot of other things to make networking easier.

Nobody was at the next table. There were a few t-shirts, though. It was for Paste, the smart national music magazine that’s struggling right now because of the print advertising meltdown. Paste, which is doing all kinds interesting things on the web as well as in print, recently sent out an appeal for financial help and is offering up tracks from some fine musicians in exchange for help from donors.

It was kind of a wierd contrast. You go up to these tech guys, and they’ll talk a mile a minute about their application and the infinite ways it can be used by all sorts of people. They’ll cheerfully admit that they have no idea how people actually will end up using it, though. There’s certainly no sure bet they’ll ever make money, but they’re just getting started so they’re optimistic.

Then, there’s the world of traditional media, where I come from. Even though it’s young and hip, and has a good website, Paste falls in that category.

I’m sorry I didn’t catch up to anyone from Paste at the shindig, but I’ve met some of them before. They started the publication with the laudable idea that’s become one of their strengths — to cut through some of the valueless crap that surrounds the world of entertainment and celebrities, and to find the best in popular art and culture in the process. They’re as smart and creative as any techies out there. But it’s even more difficult to see right now how a struggling print publication will make a buck in the future than it is for one of those start-ups.

I don’t mean to write Paste’s epitaph. Like I say, the folks there are smart and resourceful, and it’s certainly a valuable publication. I am kicking myself though: I’m not sure I’ll get another chance to pick up one of their t-shirts.

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