alternative hippopotamus

How to Be a Better Blogger

10 Responses to “How to Be a Better Blogger”

1. madamab Says:
   November 12th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

   Thanks for quoting me completely out of context.

   The mindless bit of drivel was not “judge not, lest ye be judged.” It was the notion that the election of Barack Obama would somehow help the cause of gay rights, when Obama himself is openly against gay marriage and his supporters overwhelmingly voted for Proposition 8.

   It strikes me that when lecturing to other people on how to be a better blogger, it’s rather hypocritical to misrepresent what other bloggers say in order to make your point.

2. AltHippo Says:
   November 12th, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   Oh, please. Your post was terribly judgemental. If you said that everything Etheridge said in the quote was drivel except “Judge not unless ye be judged” then maybe you’d have a point. But to do that, you would have to note the judgement in your own voice.

3. dcblogger Says:
   November 13th, 2008 at 1:47 am

   “But they’re great examples of how to alienate people. “

   Actually there are great examples of how people blog once they have been alienated from a movement they were once part of. It is just human nature to react that way.

   Now some of us our doing our part to build a new movement, without any illusions about our “mighty blog powers”, just what else is there for us to do?

   It is sad really, but it seem that liberal blogosphere will continue to fracture.

4. AltHippo Says:
   November 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am

   Thanks for that, dcblogger.

   I think the same principles apply to PB 2.0, if that’s what you mean by a new movement. What I’ve seen since the Dem primary is that Corrente has been pushing people out who don’t agree that Obama cheated, and has been consistently negative towards the new presidency. Not skeptical, just negative. Instead of being divisive, Corrente will need to build alliances, and create some aims that get groups of bloggers to work together.

   Now, you say that people have been alienated from a movement they were once part of. Do you mean GOS? Markos doesn’t hold the only keys to the kingdom. If you’re referring to riverdaughter’s history, she was ejected from Cheetopia by eliding Obama with Muslim theocracy. And, just between you and me, I think she may have an anger management problem.

   I’ll add by the way that when I’ve dealt with Markos on DL-related issues, I found him to be personable and very easy to work with. The gangs at TPM, FDL, and OpenLeft have also been great.

   Perhaps you feel that certain bloggers have been alienated for other reasons? I’d be interested in knowing more.

5. dcblogger Says:
   November 13th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

   It is not just the Orange Frat House, some of us feel alienated from lefty blogosphere generally. Corrente is for liberals who don’t like Obama. It is also for people who want single payer. Fortunately for the single payer movement, Corrente is just a small part of that.

   Some of us were alienated from the Orange Frat House years ago. He could be nice personally, so is Lieberman, what of it?

   Whoever kidnapped JMM is a disgusting individual and I pray to God that Greg Sargent never has a daughter. Open Left and FDL do good work but as a whole, I have ceased to care about either lefty blogosphere or the Democratic party. I say that with no exaggerated notion of my importance. It is just a fact, I have ceased to care.

   But I am mildly curious, will DC Drinking Liberally ever care about the closing of the Franklin Shelter, the increased over crowding of DC public schools, or even the fact that Elenor Holmes Norton STILL doesn’t have a vote? Or is DC too small beer for DCDL?

6. AltHippo Says:
   November 14th, 2008 at 12:11 am

   dcblogger, thanks again.

   I understand that Corrente currently isn’t 100% Obama-friendly. I also read Leah’s posts (who got me started on the issue of ANWR). I went to the 2005 anti-war protest in DC with Riggs Veda. Chicago Dyke lived here in DC at one point, and would sometimes come to DCDL. Those were happier days.

   The issue of DC voting is near and dear to me. I’ve spoken to VoteDC during previous votes, and we’ll try to schedule something when we get closer to a House vote. Or, co-organize an event with DC4D, who we work closely with. I’ve also had the DC Sierra Club come in to talk about public transportation in DC. Most of the people that I’ve had come in are authors that live locally. Others approach me, or come in through the DL national organization, or through grass roots organizers that I know.

   Update: I read through the links you provided on Josh Marshall and Greg Sargent. Yeah, Greg’s quote does sound over the line. I disagree on the Josh Marshall quote, though. I recall blogging about this at the time. Josh uses the title “Full Firing, Or Just Gelded.” Then, Melissa takes that to mean that JMM was saying that Hillary Clinton was castrating. But, this is pretty standard office language. If anything, “Gelded” is a polite expression for what I’d expect to hear around the water cooler. If someone says “Man, oh Man, X just busted my balls,” that means that you recently experienced an awkward and perhaps ego-deflating conversation with X. Not much more than that.

7. vastleft Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

   DCBlogger, I don’t agree with that characterization:

   “Corrente is for liberals who don’t like Obama.”

   Many of our most active posters are Obama skeptics. But it’s not about liking or not liking Obama. It’s about keeping the pressure on him to back away from his post-partisan promises and to deliver the progressive reform this country needs. Like, y’know, single payer.

8. vastleft Says:
   November 19th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

   AH, “Corrente has been pushing people out…”

   The most recent people we’ve pushed out were those who couldn’t stop flogging baseless Ayers stories.

   We welcome honest progressives of all stripes. We’ve bounced a couple of Pro-Bama trolls (he says, awaiting the inevitable arrival of red-herringmeister DMD76), but we’ve never purged people for having different points of view — just for being lousy writers and/or jerks.

   In the past year, we’ve canceled far more accounts for low-quality, knee-jerk anti-Obama posting than for any other reason, IIRC.

   Now, some folks didn’t and don’t like the frequency of Obama-skeptic posts on Corrente. Oh, well, it’s a big internet. But shaming people for being “divisive,” like adopting Scalia’s cry of “get over it,” as so many lefties have of late, hardly leads to a vibrant progressive discourse.

9. AltHippo Says:
   November 20th, 2008 at 12:27 am

   Vastleft,

   I was thinking of Xan, and I believe it was Shystee who was also pushed out (my memory is failing me on the latter, but I recall that the long term poster requested that all posts be deleted and name removed from the site).

   My perception is that Corrente has become a place where people who don’t like Obama will go to post and comment. Is that very different from your own view? How is that different from a PUMA site?

   I’m interested in your response to the question I asked in the post: “When it comes to an appointment that would critically align with progressive ideals, the Correntians are silent. Is their aim as a blog to discuss why they hate Obama for the next 4 years?”

   I know that you like to put this in terms of being a skeptic, or of holding Obama’s feet to the fire. That’s not how it comes across to me. It seems to me that you don’t like Obama, and you’re not going to say anything positive about him. It’s your right, absolutely, but that’s not much of an aim.

10. vastleft Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 1:52 am

    Xan left and asked that her account be deleted, which it was. That’s not being pushed out. In fact, Fellows including yours truly actively encouraged her to post her opinions, but she chose not to do that on our site. It’s a free country, as they say.

    Shystee is still a Senior Fellow.

    “Don’t like Obama” misses the point.

    Our country cries out for progressive reform, and many progressives felt that Obama was throwing them under the bus, rather than celebrating their ideology the way the “transformative” Ronald Reagan paved the way for a conservative ascendancy.

    Once the Democratic primary narrowed to two candidates, PB1.0 became almost uniformly uncritical of Obama (and comparably addicted to CDS).

    When some of us at Corrente didn’t follow suit, it became something of a hotbed of Obama skepticism. I’m not going to put words in the mouths of Senior Fellows who didn’t post very often during the campaign and/or who left. It was their choice.

    Speaking for me only, my ready refrain was to please post alternative viewpoints and to stay and debate. Outside of literally two or three trolls and one guest who waxes rather prolix at times, I haven’t shied away from any debate, in hopes it can be constructive.

    I am a lifelong Democrat and a dedicated progressive. This year, truthiness came to our side in a big, distressing way, and I stood and stand against it. It doesn’t mean I “don’t like” Obama or that I hope for anything other than his great success as president.

    Differences between Corrente and some PUMA sites (and they aren’t uniform, just like ProBama sites aren’t) include: none of the Senior Fellows could stomach putting a thumb on the scale in favor of John “Military Commissions Act” McCain, “NoBama” was never our creed, and we were skeptical from the get-go about crap issues like the “whitey tape” and Ayers-gate.

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