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Democracy for America personal blog for Annilow
Open Letter to DFA Staff (Freaking Open Thread Darn It)
Linked to groups: DFA Blog Network, Blog For America, blog for America Test and Poll Group
You have no idea the wrath you incur when you move posts. It's just irritating. Have you ever gotten a ticket from a cop for something inane? That's what this feels like. The worst part is when you're trying to follow a dialog (like about Karl Rove getting fing arrested) and half the conversation disappears.
Actually it feels like seventh grade. In seventh grade we had this drill sargeant for a teacher who had a copy of Mein Kampf on his desk lol. When we did something wrong (prolly like talking OFF TOPIC) we had to do deep knee bends till he told us to stop. Now seventh graders are the most miserable of humans -- children's brains and emotions with these emerging adult bodies. Who would ever want to be a seventh grader again -- I feel for all of them.
And I feel for us. We teachers and world travellers and writers and lawyers and dairy farmers and event planners are being made to feel like children. Why don't you tell us WHY? Why don't you give us some evidence from people who complained? Why don't the people who complain ever comment? Your most valuable contributors -- JudyforDean, Monica Smith, possibly Pat from Colorado, Seashell, Phil even I are considering leaving our blog of many years.
You are going to be left with a bunch of mediocre, sophomore level writers and thinkers and zero commenters here.
Are you going to DemFest? Bring armor.
Yes - the list is long - didn't mean to leave anyone out - just folks I know have bailed or are threatening. I know I saw listener over there and Denise posts at both and rdorgan still posts here. But Sitka - I miss Sitka and Michael Ellis and Bearse!! where is Bearse! There are so many we have lost just in the past couple of weeks it seems like!
And that I'm an event planner. The other Denise that posts here as well, from southern California, is awesome as well.
I still do not follow exactly why it is wrong to want on topic, good quality discussion on the front page posts.
Go look at any "community" on the web that has an open forum or blog and a good number of active community members. Every single one of them has an "off-topic" area that is just as open and just as accessible as the rest of the site. What help create these communities and what sustains these communities is the original niche topic that brought people in in the first place. Moving off topic discussion to another area other then the main landing page allows new visitors to come for what they are looking for, discussion on this niche topic. It also encourages them to participate, state their opinion and feel good enough about it to come back again. The off topic areas are still clearly marked and accessible and they may then opt to join into that as well.
I know about arguing on the internet and I know this statement will do little if anything, but this is where DFA is coming from. We want to continue to grow the blog and grow the organization while remaining true to everyone that help build it.
Thanks for listening.
- Every single one of them has an "off-topic" area that is just as open and just as accessible as the rest of the site.
By Phil Specht on Jul 29, 2008 5:54 PM EDTIf this were true there would be no problem.
You must not have a blog that works like the rest of us. If I post at your alternative the watercooler I get kicked off that page as soon as it says comment was sucessfully posted. Take some time and read and think about Rich's post if you don't have time to read Trippi's book. People click on the comments section of a blog expecting to see a conversation happening within a community. We had that here before you tried to turn it into a forum. anyone that is still here as part of the Dean community has put up with a lot of malfunctions and glitches and works through to a solution. notice we have created our own open threads rather than the broken watercooler
Important subjects deserve more than a couple of hours of real time attention.
Open threads now are archived as the wc wasn't.
Looks like progress to me.
You're destroying the blog. There should be a continuous open thread on the main page, period.
Put all the "niche" topics on the sidebar, so that those who are interested can comment.
The strength of this blog (until recently) has been in the creatively chaotic give and take.
It's gone with your sophomoric, moronic rules
I counted three the past month. Why do we need to be like every other "community?"
You and the rest of HQ broke something that was working well. If I did that at work I'd be fired.
Tim, this blog is sooooooooooooooooooo dying. Are you happy? WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO STAY TOGETHER ON ONE THREAD.
fORGet what the other blogs are doing and LISTEN TO
I truely don't follow.
A year ago..
http://democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts?pg=163
A page of YouTube videos and Dilbert cartoons. 1 out of the 10 posts was a non DFA staffer.
Not a single item had to do with DFA groups or endorsed candidates.
Today is a different.. all posts are on message and all are from non DFA staffers. It seems magnitudes better to me.
- Tried responding but the response box has a greyed out "Submit Comment" field
By puddle on Jul 29, 2008 6:25 PM EDTLast year, this was a NATIONAL blog -- read the top thread of the page you referenced: the conversation was mostly about what was going on politically that day. With a few Hi's, etc's.
Now we're getting poorly written local area pleas and observations. With NO WAY to stay on topic unless you're from that area. . . . How many times is it possible to say: thank you for the nice post? What kind of NATIONAL conversation does that equal?
Perhaps if you gave us an example of the *wonderful blogs* you're getting your concepts from we could respond better.
At this point, what most of us are asking for is a front page open thread. That is NOT what we're getting. The water closet is in NO WAY EQUAL. It's a hole in the ground, difficult to find, and with your dumping from the main threads nearly impossible to have a conversation. Plus, the three hour turnover is way too short. . . .
- Tim, I believe that was before we could make our own posts.
By Susan Rowe on Jul 29, 2008 7:19 PM EDTOnly the Communications Director was able to make posts and promote them back then. We were only allowed to make comments. As a local groups organizer I would send stuff [pictures and notes] into the CD or the ED and they would edit the information and post a report about our group's local activites at the bfa.
How long have you been with DFA? Were you a local group organizer or member before you became a HQ employee? Have you attended a local group meeting or activity? Why is it you don't know this information about the bfa community?
The funnies where normally weekend posts and with some national news show round ups. Any other posts [other than info about our locals groups] normally had to do with a national campaign agenda DFA was working on. We did get some press clippings about DFA and our local groups now and then. And they also posted every national email sent by DFA HQ.
We always got the news about the new or retiring DFA staff/interns. Any new staff and interns were allowed to say hello and info themselves to our bfa community and post their photo. We always welcomed them with open arms and gave them a proper farewells. [Which unfortunately is something the last Communications Director was not allowed to do and our new one has never done.]
- I stopped sending photos and information into the Field Rep(s).
By Susan Rowe on Jul 29, 2008 7:31 PM EDTThey never did anything with them and I was criticized for not have a flicr account. I didn't even know what flicr a account was and when I asked I got no response.
I still don't have a flicr account and I'm not getting one. I used and still use the DFA-Link to post photos.
If possble, please repair my profile page's photo to be it's original size it was at the DFA-Link.
What you don't get, Tim, is that we want an open thread front paged so we can carry on real conversations from one thread to another. Put your very unpopular focus threads alongside ;and get rid of all the garbage at the margins.
Besides, you don't have to get it. In a democracy, majority rules. You're running this like Himmler. I assume you know who Himmler was/is/willbe?
Have you noticed how few people post on the focused front page?
WHO HIRED YOU?
Tim, your job will be up for grabs once DFA folks talk to the powers that be. Come and meet us in person. You'll learn something about relationships, democracy and listening.
kinda mixed message here, sea. comparing one to Himmler and threatening his job coupled with democracy and listening doesn't mesh.
What you say makes sense even though not all here agree. If what you mean by clearly marked open area is the wc, I gotta tell you- it doesn't work on every level imaginable.
The wc can never be our open thread area. It's a trashcan for off topic posts. Kinda like offering a room to stay, then putting them in a corner of your dank basement where the days' refuse is tossed.
these functionality issues are a moot point but posted as an fyi as you may not experience them from an HQ computer - I invite you to go to the library or a friends, open a regular joe id and give it a try. 30 mins may be enough.
after posting to the wc one is thrown back to their dashboard or wherever. Threads last only 3 hrs- we gave it a brief try and the fragmentation is more than annoying. Another problem is that replies posted to comments in past wc threads get tossed onto the current one so there's no continuity. The archives are appreciated and yet imagine searching through them in 3 hr intervals for someone's comment!
We've been posting open threads because we are bloggers here, not garbage. However, the recommend function often doesn't work so even tho there are plenty of recommends attempted, the threads are rolling off...
- The off topic areas are still clearly marked and accessible
By Phil Specht on Jul 29, 2008 6:24 PM EDTI suggest you work on making that a true statement.
and I would add functionally equivalent to the directed comments and presented side by side as a choice.
If you did that you would get your limited number of precise responses and a broader conversation alongside.
If you come to Wisconsin you need to know #4 or in Chicago that the Cubs are in first place. Who would want to have a group of friends that talked about nothing but tax policy?
I thank you for the support and backup. I will leave all further public dicussion to Danny and others. Should anyone have workable solutions or suggestions please use the contact us form and I would be happy to dicuss backchannel.
-tim
- Tim go back a couple of years when the damn thing worked not after we had a broken clock and scrambled posts
By Phil Specht on Jul 29, 2008 6:13 PM EDTThis community has had a running conversation that covered all the news before the networks did, and follow along on the threads where we were raising money for Ciro Rodreiguez in the primary. He wouldn't be a Congressman today were it not for a community that could pitch in together on an "impossible" task like that.(as an example)
most of the work in politics is done by volunteers as much as paid professionals think they are the key, and you can bet when local groups meet, not all discussion are "on topic", the key is building a team around familiarity and trust
The reason the blog membership is small is because the software didn't work, and it would be nice to see a sustained effort to make that happen.
not sure if you saw my reply to your post about possibly not coming to Dfest over on Jessica's thread
and you also know me well enough have correctly judged my mood about these clowns
I did regret my inability on that Pittsfield issue, but not that I tried.
I am serious about not coming simply because going ballistic would be counter productive but I would have to go to a baseball game with rich if no confrontation were to occur
I believe in direct talk.
Most people don't wish to live in a house that is in the constant position of being rennovated. The numbers on this blog were pretty damn good till the renovations began (with Tara). Starting then, and since then, it's been constant downhill movement while the Powers That Be continued to mess with what HAD BEEN a well functioning blog.
BFA has *never* been the creation of the blog masters; it has always been the creation of the bloggers (us -- in contradefinition, by Tara, that the only bloggers are the front page posters).
Jefferson's Monticello was under constant renovation and he did suggest the same for nations as well.
I lived in a house that was renovated the whole ten years I lived there. The house looked marvelous. The marriage didn't survive.
But he did had a slave for his mistress.
His daughter took on the duites of caring for his household when her Mother died.
Jefferson was an architiect. Architiects study the ancients.
It gives me great pain to watch JudyforDeam posting her superb world news dispatches there because she feels so unwelcome here.
The front paged post there is about DeanFest, written by subway. Reminding us that the original idea and creation of that took place HERE, on this blog. Had the water closet been hatched then, DemocracyFest never would have become real.
Howard left this blog intact, unlike the other candidates, who destroyed theirs. It's beyond painful to watch the careless destruction of it now. . . .
I really had to rethink all this through a few more times. Your insight and opinions mean a powerful lot to me as they do to others ~
No reason for regrets, one can be in one place at a time {{{hugs}}}
Actually I was thinking in general - had 'a group going Code Pink' but changed it :-)
Direct talk is good and your input most valued. If anyone can help bring about understanding, it's you. (...direct talk *and* a baseball game would be the tops!)
And ya know, Mike is gonna be there for a Skol moment...
~ ~ ~
Oh yes, thankful for the edit feature. I thought I'd hit reply...
from Rich's thread a couple things...
Some bloggers said they recommended more than once since Rich's thread was falling off the list. If you do that, this is what happens, it removes your first recommendation:
Remove recommendation for: Open Letter to DFA Staff (Freaking Open Thread Darn It)
Second thing mentioned was the fact you had to write something in the Comment body, hence the message: Comment body can not be empty. Per my trial post at 7:33 PM, simply insert a period (.) if you chose not to comment in the body.
Need to realise that their approach:
a) is not working
2) will never work
c)and that to get the people who used to be th heart and soul of this blog back
4)They'll have to listen to our very strong consensus that
e) we have to be able to vent on any damn topic we feel like on any thread that's front paged, whether it's an open thread, or a report of the steering committee for Democracy for Topeka
6) and there shouldn't be an arbitray limit on the length of posts
They post the same lame justifications for their destructive policies, and expect us to lap up the Koolaid.
Einstein on Insanity:
Doing the same dumb thing over and over, and expecting a different result
This thread needs a recommend or two or it will drop off into oblivion. bbl
werk for a lot of peeps. I've recommended it, and I'm sure you have so that's the two it needs, unless the recommend doesn't work????????? (And why would I think that it does, lol!?)
No 1000 character limit without a toolbar.
Even with a toolbar, just putting a space in the Body works. Space is a character!
This is the only blog I have ever used. It was simple to use, informative, combative, sad, happy, even if I disagreed with everything written that day. But it worked and kept people coming back for four years. Then the 'troubles' and the upgrades, and the new people at headquarters who had been on other blogs, and the clock. I hate to say it but every "improvement" has turned a simple operation into what we have today. But in the end we are too small in number and we generate no kick, policy wise or money wise, to HQ. they are there to grow this operation and we are quite frankly... an annoyance to them. Lets be honest. Can you imagine them sitting around laughing at our rants at them?? They all are probably 23 or 24 years old for goodness sakes. In the end it was an unheard of run with consistent and dedicated contributors. Everything, in the end, must pass. Sadly, their intentions appear clear.
ends up as a Blog For America thread immediately where we've been recommending ours all day long and they never get moved up to the main thread!?!
I'll tell you why... the egotists running this thing are a buncha control freaks!!
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- Well said, Annilow.
By Pat in Colorado on Jul 29, 2008 3:18 PM EDTI second your thoughts. Whoops, I just noticed you included me. Thank you. I also think you are one of our most valuable contributors, unique not only in your thoughts but in your offering of music.
There are others: Sitka's wit, Denise' range of experience and knowledge, and common sense; Jo's thoughtfulness and clarity; Subway's work and comments; Audrey's great story of the dandelion painting (won't forget that), Susan's comments and clear thinking, Tom's logic and scrutiny, Huron John's provocative quoting, Joan, and the list goes on and on.
We will lose each other as this blog becomes more artificial, more exclusive, more trivial in content with only brief comments allowed. 1000 characters is about 30 or so words.