Home » Users » Imn2Paine » Blog » There is only one person responsible...
Democracy for America personal blog for Imn2Paine
There is only one person responsible for what is happening with the community @ BFA
Linked to groups: Blog For America, blog for America Test and Poll Group, DFA Blog Network, Netroots Activism!, Blogs United
Arshad Hasan, Excecutive Director of DFA
And I and the bfg community had nothing to do with creating it or naming it what so ever. YOU and your boss had the power of that choice.
- btw, My husband and I do contribute to this site and organization on a regular basis. And I ask other folks to do the same.
By Susan Rowe on Aug 5, 2008 7:26 PM EDTPlease join the blog for America Repair Fund
- I'm not sure what is meant by this statement cited below.
By Susan Rowe on Aug 5, 2008 8:14 PM EDT'Community is never about just one person.'
But what I do know is that Howard Dean is always first at the blog for America.
When things happen in an organization, one person is ultimately responsible.
'Community is never about just one person.'
I grant that, although it seems assumed.
I do think the "community" shares with what is and has been happening here.
I am not so confident that this will be said in the future, which is troubling the group to an unacknowledged degree IMHO. Someone posted that HQ responds to the negative, and isn't constructive.
I hope you all up there in Burlington, and the folks around the country like me, find a better place, soon (or a bit longer if it takes that).
I would respectfully disagree Charles. We longtime bloggers were given Zero say in the changes around here and have not been given the rationale behind some of the changes that we have repeatedly said we hate, such as the name Water Cooler, and the no empty bodies and the limit of 1K bytes in a post. I see no real difference btw the management and communication of this place within the last month and that of the WH. Just imo. No offense.
Also, with all due respect I would like to see some evidence on recommended posts -- how many have recommended and maybe even who. It certainly seems from here that some posts that we've rec'd never make the rec list, while some posts we haven't rec'd do -- it would be interesting to see who is and how many are doing the recommending. JMO.
I don't really understand what you are accusing us of? Are you suggesting that when you recommend something, that someone at DFA HQ then removes your recommendation? That is not something that we would want to do or ever have the time to do even if we did.
Why is it that so many commenters here almost always immediately assume the worst of intentions from DFA staff?
- Then why don't we see all recommended posts front paged
By Denise in San Mateo County on Aug 6, 2008 4:56 PM EDTif no one is controlling what goes up there? What kind of system do you have in place to move these posts onto the front page?
I don't think Anni was accusing HQ of anything, just asking a question. If you were I kid I would think you might be acting this way out of some kind of guilt? But you say you're innocent, so I believe you. But look at how you reacted to this!!
Kos, as well as a number of his offshoots who have recommend functions, it's transparent both as to the numbers and the names. If it's NOT transparent, then there will always be the question of "why not?" And that is without making any insult, at all.
DFA staff has repeatedly posted responses to these questions.
Why the name the Watercooler? Because the Watercooler is the gathering place at offices around the country where co-workers meet and chat about the stuff that matters to them.
Why no empty bodies? Because if someone is commenting there should be a comment not an empty space.
Why the limit of 1K bytes in a post? Because 1000 characters ought to be enough for any comment. If not then the commenter is probably hogging the thread and should just write a blog post instead.
As someone who is a fulltime staffer of a progressive organization who works everyday to elect progressives up and down the ballot and reform the Democratic Party from the bottom up, of course I am offended to be compared to the Bush White House administration. But I think you knew that and that's why you said "no offense." So I guess, no offense taken?
- Watercoolers don't even exist anymore in corporate america
By Denise in San Mateo County on Aug 6, 2008 5:05 PM EDTPeople comment with words, whether they are short in a subject line or more than 1000 characters. 1000 is not enough.
One question for you, Mr. Progressive - why was our community not brought into a discussion about the blog changes? You never answer that question Charles. Why not?
You may not be the Bush White House but you are certainly acting like them. No return phone calls. No return emails (I sent one to you a few days ago, no response from you). No "hearing" of what we've been saying. Just plow ahead and do it YOUR way at HQ. That's how Bush runs his administration, sorry if the truth is not to your liking.
No offense, but the users of the 'watercooler' have protested loudly and long at the name and we've said why -- that it connotes slacking off. Is there some special reason why HQ can't consider calling it Open Thread? Although we are also very fond of The Great American Conversation. Thanks.
Empty Body - sometimes all we need is a brief response in the 'subject' line followed by N/T if we decide on that convention. We are just putting spaces in the bodies which is easy enough but is rather silly just to satisfy an arbitrary rule.
1000K bytes - once again - sometimes we have more to say. When we do, we just use 'cont'd' and use two posts, which is once again easy enough but looks a little silly from here.
I am not trying to offend or attack in any way, just discuss some of the issues that are bothering us out here.
...without control within the format, i won't take responsibility for the overall outcome...liberty, the mere expression of freedom in all of its forms, is lacking...location, movement, and energy...look it up...
- You have no idea what a community is - but you're a good warden
By Denise in San Mateo County on Aug 5, 2008 11:17 PM EDTMaybe that's the kind of community you are used to. Authoritarian, rude, ignorant - and what the hell is Arshad doing as far as supporting us? NOT A DAMN THING
leverage,adaptabilty,ease of mastery,reliability,and transferability are the attributes of a generative internet structure
- Point of fact: BFA no longer exists except to shunt hits to DFA
By puddle on Aug 5, 2008 6:29 PM EDTIt is now: democracyforamerica.com: blog_posts, or watercooler or whatever.
We have the coloring book, we issue the crayons. . . . If you don't like it: the door is open. . . .
how come it shows me joining the blog in 2006! I was here way before that.
Charles , why are YOU attacking people? Some are trying to have a discussion and find out what is happening.
You sent a letter saying I was attacking the staff!! I never did , I merely asked a question.
I wish you could come down to Democracyfest and have a talk.
I wish you had put up my Democracyfest article. I am just trying to help here.
And all my written threads that were in "MY BLOG" are gone. I worked really hard on most of them so can you find them????
First of all, re: empty body posts -- I have a very old Mac b/c it's what I can currently afford. If I try to respond to a specific post, all I get is a subject line, so I can't fill in a body area I can't access. In all fairness, the new blog works fairly well considering how esoteric my OS has become, but still...
Second of all, IMO DFA in general is busy losing what made it unique in the first place. When Howard's presidential campaign ended, the emphasis was that members of DFA should run for local offices, right down to school board. And for awhile we did this but if your local group was similar to mine, we had more losses than wins and before long were just one more branch of our local Democratic party, doing the same gutwork and cash shelling out most of us had been doing long before we ever heard of Howard (in my case, since the Carter administration).
I, personally, had hoped for something much bigger. Something that wasn't about gotcha politics against GOPs, but was actually about sourcing people with great and surprising ideas to run in whichever party they wanted to. I would like to see a nonpartisan group actively work to bring the GOP back to a more moderate stance so we Dems wouldn't have to move quite so far right just to be perceived as "centrist". A group that would change the political geography of the whole nation.
Locally, we are beaten and dispirited. We haven't met in two months, are currently leaderless and no one, including me, wants to step into the breach. This is because we have no function we couldn't have just by working directly with our local county party.
The blog troubles are minor, IMO, compared to the larger trouble that DFA has lost its uniqueness, which is its total reason for being.
-- volney
First of all, re: empty body posts -- I have a very old Mac b/c it's what I can currently afford. If I try to respond to a specific post, all I get is a subject line, so I can't fill in a body area I can't access. In all fairness, the new blog works fairly well considering how esoteric my OS has become, but still...
Second of all, IMO DFA in general is busy losing what made it unique in the first place. When Howard's presidential campaign ended, the emphasis was that members of DFA should run for local offices, right down to school board. And for awhile we did this but if your local group was similar to mine, we had more losses than wins and before long were just one more branch of our local Democratic party, doing the same gruntwork and cash shelling out most of us had been doing long before we ever heard of Howard (in my case, since the Carter administration).
I, personally, had hoped for something much bigger. Something that wasn't about gotcha politics against GOPs, but was actually about sourcing people with great and surprising ideas to run in whichever party they wanted to. I would like to see a nonpartisan group actively work to bring the GOP back to a more moderate stance so we Dems wouldn't have to move quite so far right just to be perceived as "centrist". A group that would change the political geography of the whole nation.
Locally, we are beaten and dispirited. We haven't met in two months, are currently leaderless and no one, including me, wants to step into the breach. This is because we have no function we couldn't have just by working directly with our local county party.
The blog troubles are minor, IMO, compared to the larger trouble that DFA has lost its uniqueness, which is its total reason for being.
-- volney
Please kill the first of my repeated posts. My bad.
Please kill the first of my repeated posts. My bad.
Add your comment
(to reply directly to a comment, click the reply icon for that comment)Post closed to commenting
 |
|
 |
My DFA |
|
Members |
|
Groups |
|
Events |
|
Candidates |
 |
|
Blog for America
-
Still Waiting
By Dave Santucci on Dec 1, 2008 4:49 PM EST -
Death at Wal-Mart--True Meaning of the Holidays
By Thomas Janowski on Nov 29, 2008 8:00 AM EST -
My better nature coming through
By Jack Bucci on Nov 26, 2008 10:21 AM EST -
Action Alerts
By Kenneth Quinnell on Nov 23, 2008 2:20 PM EST -
The Cheney Legacy:
By Jeff Morris-Saugerties, N.Y.- De on Nov 22, 2008 1:40 AM EST
Recent Blog Posts
-
On Traffic Checkpoints, Part One, Or, Freedom? That's So...Inefficient
By fake consultant on Dec 1, 2008 9:44 PM EST -
Still Waiting
By Dave Santucci on Dec 1, 2008 4:49 PM EST -
Wal-Mart danger a DANGER ZONE
By Gloria L on Dec 1, 2008 1:45 PM EST -
Monday articles
By Gerry L on Dec 1, 2008 8:12 AM EST -
Bob Gulack's Letter to the Editor
By Paul Eisenman on Nov 30, 2008 1:23 PM EST
- Not actually true.
By Charles Chamberlain on Aug 5, 2008 3:46 PM EDTYou and everyone else who posts or comments at BFA is at least as responsible for what is happening with the community @ BFA. Community is never about just one person.