Was That An Asteroid? [Dan Collins]
Several things relating to the PJM Recovery Act.
First, it appears that what we are witnessing is a kind of mass extinction event, to borrow an analogy. Insty, who’s well positioned to know, says that the ad revenue model has failed. And fair enough. Lots of other bloggers, including Rusty, Ace, The Anchoress, have received their walking papers.
Jeff’s particular beef isn’t exactly with being a victim of belt-tightening measures. He’s upset (legitimately, in my view) that he wasn’t utilized when he offered his services–for the Democratic Convention in Denver, principally, but not solely–and wasn’t ever told why he’d been marginalized in effect. Or if that’s not the case, then Jeff can set me straight.
As The Ever-Temperate Anchoress and others point out, challenge also brings opportunity, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that blog-space abhors a vacuum. It’s just that there’s no “conservative” equivalent of a Sorosugardaddy to fund the media on “our side.” I’m not saying that lefty sites such as the HuffPo won’t suffer, too; as Glenn surmises to me in an email, their burn-rate is probably extraordinary. And I don’t want to whack Roger too much while he’s scrambling to do what he thinks best, but as with many of the commenters here, and Althouse, I don’t think that the streaming video format is a good bet.
In the big picture, apart from the myriad ways this collapse affects the lives of people whom we know and admire in the ‘sphere, this crisis (subliminal Rahm) is related to the whole issue of The Fairness Doctrine. I know that you can do the math. So, the question becomes one of pie.
I’ve had some interesting conversations about these matters with commenters here at PW, since my spider sense has been tingling for awhile, as it often does with paranoid psychotics. I posted yesterday’s Objectivity Fedora snipe before anyone got the message, with my usual crowd-pleasing sense of hahahahaha timing. Below the fold is an email from JHoward that represents an attempt to grapple with the issue of where to go now. Consider it a heuristic, at this point, from which you might derive your own jumping-point. Mind you, you may not agree with everything or even the direction, but it embodies the sort of concrete thinking that we can use right now, so please be respectful.
Hi Dan,
This is my new email addy in SW Florida – I was in Reno until Oct 08. (Only one ground rule which is that I should stay incognito – my industry won’t understand Teh Conservative, and the snark, well…)
In short, my premise goes like this: Classical Liberalism/Conservatism faces disenfranchisement for many reasons (and the late Conservative movement is honored in wakes all over the country to this day, not to mention how out of touch the Republicans have become) not least of which the enormous dumbing down of common sense. Sounds counterintuitive but taking into account PJM’s meandering and sloth, Insty’s general apathy to anything substantive, and NRO’s isolation from the mainstream (not their fault; they’re a fine operation) we’re fragmented. Moreover, we’re w/o platform — as a movement, we don’t even know what we think.
My proposal: Engage the elements of (1) needing to develop a formative program, (2) needing an actual, stated political platform, or at least a place to hammer stuff to the wall, debate it, and have it stick (3) the tremendous power of the electronic broadsheet, (4) free stuff that serves the above, and (5) the many and wonderful minds that have been known to populate the PW phenomenon.
From there, I’d be willing to publish and a host a Classical Liberal Wiki
The Right needs to get its shit together, and perhaps even to influence a national candidate. That latter’s a lofty ideal from such humble origins as I propose, but if not us, then who? If we had ten Ric Lockes and ten Dan Collins each influencing ten apiece and so on, you can see that while this would take the next two presidential terms to develop, it’d still at some point grow to great substance. I continue to insist that the Left can have no such organic intellectual basis because it is based on parasitic theory and action and cannot therefore reveal itself, assuming it’s even self-conscious enough to do so, which is clearly debatable.
I maintain that only the classic Right can pin it’s anti-government, anti-corruption message to proven theoretical, moral, political, and even human principles. The Left is just where liars and thieves go. We need to take advantage of this.
The real challenge, of course, is marketing: If we were to host the thing in conjunction w/PW, could we get those other guys to buy in? It would give us essential added credibility. Would the NRO staff writers contribute? Surely they should, as they have the brain trust on such matters. Regardless, to make a go at it, we must gain acceptance — Ace would be in, and you know twenty other bloggers who would be too; could we gain critical mass?
It’d run me $150 to set up plus monthly hosting to publish this thing. I can have it skinned with the PW theme. It’d take a couple weeks, and we could include a tip jar with the basis being that everything gained, once having offset operations, would go into marketing the thing.
I have no idea how this would go over, Dan, but it strikes me that if we were to make it, they’d come. The Classical Liberal has the very unique advantage of being able to actually write a theoretical basis of organization and principles that would be completely served by then etching each point into stone. We have the historicity, the theory, and originalism all on our side. I say we take advantage of the power of the PC and start developing a widespread, community-based repository of the terms, conditions, points, principles, values and benefits of our political perspective.
Should this strike you favorably, please keep it between us but privately approach like minds and let me know the response. Again, I’ll stay off-record. Wikipedia’s material on the subject of Classical Liberalism, as I understand it, is in uncopyrighted open-source form and could be copied verbatim into ours to get us going. The rest is all independent writer contributions and discussions (note the tab structure in the link for discussions). The rest would be simple guerrilla marketing through our existing technology channel and to Jeff’s substantial existing audience. Costs are negligible.
If this were to come off the way it should, we’d literally be writing a political platform, something the Left simply cannot do. It strikes me that this could be the modern metaphor for the conversations that produced this country. Why not give it a new national home?
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In other words, “Hey, Iknow! I’ll make a website, dude!”
Thanks for that, Sphynx. Suggestions?
“The Daily Brief” (www.ncobrief.com) also got our walking papers – but at least, I hadn’t gotten any income stream for years, due to low traffic, so I am not out any income. Still… bummer.
Well, that . . . that . . . that is an upside, I suppose. I’m sorry, SGT Mom.
Did you read the second to last par? There is a lot that is good about this idea but leveraging it off PW seems sort of challenging I think. Also I’m not very manifesto oriented. Baracky is teh dirty socialist suck. If you remember, I was willing to vote for John McCain just cause it seemed like it might be the only possible salvation for my poor little country what was falling falling falling into the redistributionist abyss. Ok not really just falling. The media pushed it. But anyway. Mostly I just want Jeff to post. It’s sort of a sine qua non. I’m not sure we’ve fully explored the way of the outlaw just yet and outlaws do very well in unstructured environments.
Did you know that Pajamas is sponsoring bloggers row at CPAC? Now, I’ve never been invited before — and this year is no exception — but essentially, that means Pajamas gets to control who covers a conservative event, and so who comes to count as conservative.
– Which is fine by me. I’m still classically liberal, and Mike Huckabee is still about as conservative as a rubber gimp suit.
NTTAWWT
I’m not sure about the premise with respect to some better ground for conservatives. The website stuff is a business, putting politics aside. Yes, it’s a business within a political realm, but it’s still subject to the same traffic, click-through, advertiser needs, rate charts and economic concerns of every other web business.
As far as the right banding together like a ball of snow, forget it. You wind up with too many unprofessional bloggers in your group who bring down the average. The whole thing needs coherence. And frequent posts are the best way to get the clicks the site needs.
Personally, I think PW and Ace of Spades are very similar in their outlook, with PW a bit more cerebral and AoS a bit more cutting. Merge these two sites, maybe bring in Iowahawk or someone like that and sign up with another ad service. You’re telling me there aren’t hundreds of titty bars and gun dealers who want to advertise to your readers? Fie, I say!
Now there’s some clear thinking. Tits are recession-proof.
I mean the natural variety.
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“It’s just that there’s no “conservative†equivalent of a Sorosugardaddy to fund the media on “our side.—
You mean like Robert Perry or T. Boone Pickens?
That could be another ‘strawman’. Could it be that market forces
are at work? Does this thinning of the field reduce the concept of
‘ad revenue’ for Blogs to a failed experiment, or is it just a business cycle which must be endured? It’s an asteroid winter for the dinosaurs.
sure, interesting enough.
PW burned through the VC cash and is on to the next next thing.
JHoward’s idea is fascinating, and i do mean that, not least of all because classical liberalism needs some promotion and exploration.
the wiki idea does ensure that some will be left out as it speaks to theory and platforms, as opposed to debate and commentary.
and lets face it, the laughs and outrage are why we hang at PW.
good luck to all.
I somewhat doubt Jeff Goldstein will end up like Al Goldstein
While I am sure there is a market for a quality Kosher style deli in the greater Denver area–there is also a market for good writen style blogging.
That Classical Values guy is an intriguing person. Eric something I think. I should read him more. But what I don’t think has been said yet is that PW and the Pajama orphans are all in the same sort of happy situation that that Mr. Limbaugh guy what Baracky hates is in. People very very soon will be very very hungry for cogent voices what resist the depredations of Baracky Soros Chavez and Harry & Nancy & Rahm. There’s a rising tide what will lift your classically liberal boat but you have to put it in the water and paddle happily about for a little while first I think. *
PJM is paying a few of its contributors an enormous sum. An army of Davids needs its generals. The rest of us are like nines in Stratego.
Didn’t Al Goldstein get reduced to clerking a cigar store in Midtown where he was fired for shoplifting? I don’t think I’m making this up. New York Blue, right?
A wiki is a good idea, although I might be saying so as shouldn’t. I don’t think it’s the complete answer.
MediaWiki is a powerful tool for democratic content generation and distribution, but doesn’t really facilitate nuanced discussions. The talk pages are fairly primitive (no threading, e.g.).
I’d suggest that it be only one arrow in the quiver.
Other tools worthy of consideration (approximate decreasing order of server load/bandwidth requirements):
OpenSim (Second Life clone)
OSTube (German YouTube clone)
DimDim (live audio and video conferencing, including the dreaded PowerPoint capability)
Mahara (easily build individual sites with rich media content)
Moodle (very, very good course management system – perfect for delivery of formal online courses. Even includes PayPal module)
WordPress Multiuser (already in use here on the Pub… but could probably use an upgrade).
All of these are free software, and other than DimDim, OpenSim, and OSTube, should run fine on a basic $11/month Hosting Matters account for the early stages of deployment (obviously they’d need an account upgrade if usage took off). DimDim requires a Java application server. OpenSim requires a dedicated server with Mono installed. OSTube would run fine on HM, but the bandwidth demands would undoubtedly need an account with more oomph for anything other than casual use.
It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so to get MediaWiki up and running on a hosting account (at least that’s how long it’s taken me in the past, and I’ve done a lot of MediaWiki installs).
For the more bandwidth intensive components, or the ones which require a dedicated machine, I’d recommend deploying on Amazon EC2. Although the cost per hour/byte/whatever is slightly higher than with your own dedicated servers, it has a big advantage in up-front capital requirements. No deposits or monthly contracts — you rent the servers by the hour, and you can scale up or down instantly. Also, you’re on Amazon’s network infrastructure, so you don’t have to worry about running out of bandwidth.
Speaking of email, Dan, did you get the one I sent you the other day?
“It’s just that there’s no “conservative†equivalent of a Sorosugardaddy to fund the media on “our side.†”
Heritage, CATO, Hoover, AEI, CEI, Manhatton, Hudson Scaife, Coors, Bradley – the right has a whole *suite* of sugar daddies.
All this shows it is a good idea to stock up on ammo, guns, and food for the coming end times. There are well fed folks out there who will do what it takes to stay that way.
Couple of points:
Any such effort (referring to my mail to Dan) is for the very long term benefit of pounding some ideological skates into the ground to center things politically. It won’t be fast, easy, or profitable. It could, however, be unique, not to mention of reference character, at least as I see it. Sure, I’m optimistic, perhaps naive, but I can’t think of anything not served by designing such new architecture.
As far as PW’s concerned, Jeff permitting, I’d contribute this to keep the band together and focused, albeit to what extent remains to be seen. The name of this game is traffic and while #1 misses that, s/he’s broken clock-correct in that at a time of declining page views, carving out more pie is smart.
Lastly, Jeff, you have my email. I have a background in ad sales and can point you (or whomever) to a few alternatives to the usual advertising suspects. No idea how they and you would see one another, but it’s an option.
The reason the PJM model is being questioned is because web traffic is down. Tee election’s over and the economy’s hurting. More pie, a more competitive ad provider, and, primarily, more trademark Goldstein content is the best way through I can propose.
You mean like Robert Perry or T. Boone Pickens?
What blogs are they supporting?
Precisely.
“What blogs are they supporting?”
FYATHYRIO
If Jeff did video, I’d hope that it would look something like Je suis Henri.
And we wonder why Marxism is starting to have legs again? And no Jeff I am not calling you a Marxist. PJM decision is not greedy, it is short sighted. You are right, PJM should be using you and Ace more, to rev up traffic.
Advertising revenues are down because every one is cutting back right now and the first budget item to often get cut is advertising–the blogosphere included. It has nothing to do with traffic on internet sites. I suspect that this new PJM TV business model will also not work out, and will likely fail in a much more spectacular way.
Plus you and Ace work relatively cheap. None of those Glenn Reynold’s Aspenesque entourages!
I dunno, between Ace’s hobo-hunting sherpas and that damn armadillo, they’ve got a plenty expensive entourage.
That Classical Values guy is an intriguing person. Eric something I think.
Yeah, he does good stuff. I mentioned his co-blogger M. Simon last night. Good engineering content on Simon’s site.
Dan:
You gotta be kidding. I mean. Really. There’s no rich right-wing Republicans-slash-conservatives-slash-libertarians? Granted, there are a few less than there used to be, thanks to Sheldon Adleman’s bankruptcy and all, but still … you don’t really mean there’s no Sugar Daddies. What you mean is, there’s no Sugar Daddies willing to give you money.
So go do a little Golddigging and quit whining.
On the plus side, the armadillo can learn to drink Valu-Rite and like it. The bourgeois little snob.
Jeff, Dan, Spies, et al, you guys up for a few beers in Denver some time?
Thanks, I will endeavor to whine less and golddig more.
What y’all are talking about is a 21st Century Federalist.
The problem is, I don’t see blogging as such as making money for any extended period. It’s said that opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one. That’s too limiting. Opinions are like turds. Any asshole in reasonable shape can squeeze one out. The supply is, for all practical purposes, infinite, and the demand is finite. Any reasonable economic theory would then yield a value of zero.
The writers of the Federalist Papers didn’t make a living doing that. I don’t see this sort of effort making a living for anybody just on its own revenue generation capability. Until and unless a Right-Soros can be discovered, it will have to be a labor of love for those who can afford it.
Regards,
Ric
JHoward, I’m trying to watch my carbon assprint, but perhaps. I will run it past the pursestringer.
Yeah, the problem is those last five words, Ric.
I console myself and sleep better at night knowing that even as conservative blogs dry up that at least my president apologizes to terrorist supporters in the Iranian regime and has to call up Hu Jin Tao to personally apologize for the insanity in his own stimulus bill. That is how I get through the day.
Back when I blogged, I did just fine with Blogads, and even better with the casual “con blogger” network that John Hawkins put together. PJM is really more of an ego-media conglomerate similar to HuffPo than it is a business model.
How about some place more central? I think Jeff mentioned that he was going to be visiting Chicago sometime in the near future.
Whatever.
Dan’s post inferred there would be pie.
Now who do I have to shoot?
In an age of Obama and Pelosi, bloggers anywhere right of center should be taking their seratonin and getting ready to swarm.
Alternatively, you could turn Protein Wisdom into something like this.
I’m tired already of talking about PJM. It’s not the future, and it feels mean to keep bopping it on its little head. Also I feel bad cause people are working very hard over there on that PJTV thing even if it’s uncompelling and it’s always sad to see that. It’s like when you still owe episodes after your show is canceled. Not that anyone’s mailing the Pajamas people peanuts or anything.
correction! When i said PW, I meant PJM……..im really sorry.
what a dope.
i apologize to dan and to Jeff most of all, and to all.
I’m off to get Aidan’s blood drawn. Be back in a couple of hours.
Pajamas original premise, which it has never fulfilled, is that it would aggregate not navel-gazers, but reporters. You’re now talking Bob Owens and Joe the Plumber as the sum total of that effort. Pretty lame.
While Ric is correct, in the short-run there is still money to be made. Squeeze out the worthless blogs and funnel traffic the better ones. I’m constantly re-sorting and culling the list of blogs I visit, which has gone from like 20 or so down to about five on a daily basis. I’m sure I’m not alone. Don’t confuse tactics with strategy. You need to goal first, then the structure that gets you there. Forget about getting people elected. Feed yourselves first, then change the world.
oh. I knew what you meant Mr. mcgruder. What else is that someone should link your comment from the other day. This one. Someone should link that.
Chicago’s better for me…
A great Althouse reader comment on this whole mess.
Ric, advertisers come in three basic types: Bigass network advertiser consolidators who pay maybe $1CPM and tailor their ad serves to your page content and keywords, the mid-level guys who specialize in specific demographics and do a better job thereby paying a few bucks per thousand ads, and the actual advertisers who bypass those networks, come straight to you, and deliver CPM’s from $5 to $100, provided you have the content type, the demographic, the brand, and the traffic to get their interest. I suspect pw’s soon to be former provider fell somewhere in the middle, and split the diff to each blog in the network.
The key is page views and a keen eye to who you’re advertising and getting your check from. But mostly page views.
“You’re now talking Bob Owens and Joe the Plumber as the sum total of that effort. Pretty lame……….. Forget about getting people elected. Feed yourselves first, then change the world.”
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ibid the Ace/Jeff G. Parallax – they did work together on talk internet radio.
Right Talk Radio, RIP, was the wrong format for the two to work together, plus factor in the production values, et cetera, it was the right team, just the wrong forum – sort of like Martin and Lewis tag-team wrestling, or something.
fwiw, I thought/think that Michelle Catalano would be a good addition to a venture that included Jeff and Ace. I have no earthly idea whether she would like that idea. But were Jeff going to wrangle some co-writers to make a go of a for-profit site, she should be high up on a list.
As far as marketing a site – while Jeff is a classic liberal mostly due of a marble fetish he developed during a fifth grade field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I’d venture that a fair number of people return to the site for teh funny, funny imbued with classic liberalism, but funny none-the-less. Funny which Dan has ruthlessly been trying to expunge during his interregnum. j/k…mostly.
The underlying business problem is that I can just click on PW, Ace, Instapundit — DailyKos, FiredogLake, Drudge, Althouse — as the mood strikes. The content I care about isn’t restricted to a PJM service.
The brand “Pajamas Media” doesn’t really mean anything. I’ll click on links to follow a story, and if I like the story, I may read more of the blog. But I’m not clicking down through a PJM list of bloggers because of the brain-trust at PJM decided that these bloggers were good.
As far as traffic, all politics/social commentary all the time gets a bit numbing. Given their shared interests I think Jeff and Ace could expand what is a good, marketable product by going back to some golden oldies – movie reviews and/or cinema commentary. Personally I enjoy both done by either.
I don’t subscribe to Popular Mechanics because Glenn does periodic reviews for them. I would, however, subscribe to a PW/Ace/other blog. Rather than make it a NYTSelect service – simply give subscribers fancier blog-comment options, the use of a sig or an avatar, … you’d get the trolls to pay so that their comments would be noticed.
Or you could go PBS and have a fund-drive where you give armadillo topped bottle stops for a contribution of $50-
http://www.petpro.com/index.php?p=product&id=13698&parent=287
.
and, SPB, thanks for the info.
…”Jeff mentioned that he was going to be visiting Chicago sometime in the near future.”
Just in time for The Valentine Day Massacre.
Apropos to this whole friggin mess, I figure.
Tommy Guns should still be legal.
Just my opinion.
One of the problems here is that the (so-far vaguely defined) goals are not compatible with one another.
One goal is to Get the Message Out. Another goal is to elect conservative (usually Republican) officials. CPAC seems to be hiring PJM for the latter, and has chosen the wrong tool for the job; nobody seems to be tackling the first.
And nobody can do both. If the goal is to Get the Message Out, what’s needed is a sugar daddy or two in the hope that ad revenue will follow and fill in the cracks. Essays and arguments can then be provided, with pie (in the form of humor, T&A, or whatever draws the page hits) to sweeten the deal. If the goal is to elect politicians, something much more activist is required, and it won’t mix with the Message.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Semanticleo on 1/31 @ 10:32 am #
Do you speak English?
Chicago April 10-12. Seminar at Tony C’s gym. You guys should come: we can talk, drink, and — bonus! — we’ll teach you how to kill people what needs them some hurtin.’
Will there be tommy guns?
I know Tony C rocks the Casbah, but I don’t wanna learn a “side control to omoplata” if I can just fucking shoot the guy.
I’m lazy like that.
“It’s just that there’s no “conservative†equivalent of a Sorosugardaddy to fund the media on “our side.—
Moon’s been doing this for years — everyone talks about how the NYT and LA times don’t make much money, but Moon’s been keeping the washington times afloat forever. See also how Heritage and other groups stay afloat — Coors, etc…
But I have a question — how much funding is needed? Can’t you just blog at a free platform? Jeff said the other day he’d have to shutdown without the PJ money. Whats the expenses involved?
As someone who out ranks him in engineering credentials, I have to say that he’s a smart guy, and usually right, but that Polywell stuff is probably crackpot. The worst offender in the techie area, IMO, is Glenn Reynolds. He puts every tekkie article he can get his mitts on up without any real idea of what’s real and what’s crackpot, and what’s just plain commercial promotion.
My advice to anyone dabbling in technology: don’t. You just end up looking ridiculous if you aren’t really sure what’s real, good stuff and what isn’t.
Dan. I’m game. I wrote something similar to this in a comment on PW a couple of months ago. I think there are real possibilities. I’ve done no blogging since before the election. But I’m getting the itch back, and have been practically diaretic in emails of late. So I may have something to contribute.
Jeff’s POV on Classical Liberalism is an absolute bedrock for this conversation, and he needs to have the right to opt out, if he so chooses.
Email me. I might even be able to kick in a little (and I mean little!) lucre.
-greg
“Whats the expenses involved?”
Time = Money, meya.
With Obama paying your rent/mortgage, gas money & health care, I can see how that time/money concept might not exactly resonate.
He’s paying that stuff, right?
I mean he promised.
After the Flea Market christ debts your kids for a couple of $trillion, we’ll talk about personal responsibility.
It will be a short talk.
that Polywell stuff is probably crackpot
I think “crackpot” is a little strong. “Long shot”, maybe, but not “crackpot”. IMO, it’s worth spending the money to check it out. Small risk, potentially very high reward.
LYBD,
I have met Jeff and Tony – I am more than happy to leave the hand-to-hand to them! There are much more bad-guy-hurty-with-martial-arts-fury than I could even imagine myself ever having been (or becoming).
I’m with you – where is my M-4?
I could use some writers. If anyone’s interested. I can’t pay you, yet. But It’d be nice to have some help. It’s of the “giggle giggle he he” stuff here, more serious political opinion. But, it’s somewhere to write. Plus, you can plug the shit out of your blog too. :)
Wiki manifestos, we don’t need no stinkin’ manifestos.
Ugh… Make that NOT OF…. Ect…ect… More coffee…
While at the beginning I had high hopes for PJM, they really became so bland as to be not worth a daily look. I look at NRO more often.
It is rather unfortunate, but part of the nature of Classical Liberals/Libertarians/Conservatives that we just don’t group over ideology… it’s kinda like herding cats. The vast majority of us consider politics as hobby not religion, so rather than huge congregations marching down the street with giant paper mache puppets, we individually show up on the sidewalks to mock the marchers. We tend to come together for events then go back to our lives.
And we are much more socially tolerant of those not in our ideological sphere. Not one of us would disinvite someone we found was funny and entertaining from a cocktail party if we discovered they were a Democrat. That is not true of the reverse (so explains Noonan and Frum).
What do HuffPo, dKos, Weekly Standard and NRO have in common? Not only do they have large readerships, but they have a cross-over media appeal with some individuals who ARE interesting on camera or radio (Markos makes me giggle everytime I’ve seen him … though not in the way he’s appreciate).
Also, Huffpo and dKos feature on their main page, sub-diaries. Again, it is a great “buy in” by readership that they are featured writers/articles PLUS reader input with the carrot that maybe the diary might get recommended. Redstate is doing a pretty good job (Technorati rank 175)… but their design is “eh”, and they tend to be more “Republican” then merely “right of center”.
(BTW PW’s Tech. rank is 703…NOT shabby)
A few random thoughts:
I think it depends on what you want to do. The left doesn’t have to create a media arm because it has that already in the MSM. That frees up a lot to go to the political boss/organizer model.
The end of the latest election cycle, and the likely successful end of the Iraq campaign is going to leave a lot at loose-ends – it is leaving a lot at loose ends right now. 9/11 is eight and a half years ago, George W. Bush is no longer president.
The style of the site would need to be put together with a particular sponsor or goal in mind. A think-tank is much more academically oriented and would want to have a site that would be oriented that way; a media group would want a site to run current events pieces that way, etc. Ecletic/eccentric posting styles and myriad topics wouldn’t interest them so much.
I admit I am not the person to answer these kinds of questions, but I can raise questions, and maybe that will help someone come up with an answer.
“The left doesn’t have to create a media arm because it has that already in the MSM. That frees up a lot to go to the political boss/organizer model.”
Like mediamatters.
“Redstate is doing a pretty good job (Technorati rank 175)… but their design is “ehâ€Â, and they tend to be more “Republican†then merely “right of centerâ€Â.”
And they have an “army.” Seems like a great idea to create a nice top-down hierarchy.
“Time = Money, meya.”
So Jeff spends less time on the blog. But does that mean it shuts down?
“With Obama paying your rent/mortgage, gas money & health care, I can see how that time/money concept might not exactly resonate.”
Its not Obama yo, its actually you and your kids paying it!
MAJ John,
That’s why I love the US Military. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Tunisian turban guy pulls out his Saracen Sword, backs up the crowd, and puts on a big show….
…and then Indy just friggin shoots him dead.
I can goddamn-guarantee there was a US Military adviser on that set.
All I can say it Thank God for Rush Limbaugh.
NRO has terrific writers however they do a lousy job of yelling stop; this is one reason Rush is leading Conservatism/Classical Liberalism/Libertarianism (ie anything not Collectivist) rather than National Review (the publication founded by WF Buckley)
I’m in, for what Ric so aptly described as a 21st century “Federalist”…
Let me know how I can be of help. With the cost of living in NYC, I can’t afford a whole lotta cash at this time, that will change in a few months. My sense is that there are folks here that already know far more about the platform issues than I could learn quickly. I’m not in the same league as many of the contributors here, and have not tried my hand at the pub, but I would be willing to take on topics and contribute essays if that would help…
I’d be happy to help, or participate, in any way I can.
You can contact me at RocketmanBob1960 at yahoo dot com, if you wish. Folks that have access to the details of those posting here have an att address that I also keep; one that I’m reluctant to publicly publish…
Not what we do. More like side control to head and arm so we can keep an eye out for the guy’s friends, then ripping as entry into an arm break or dislocation, or something even worse.
What we do can be used as sport. But we don’t see it that way. No refs on the street, and no tapouts. Snap, no tap.
We do disarms and the like, but mostly it’s violent and quick, so people who have guns best not hesitate.
Of course, I’d rather be carrying a gun myself. But realistically, a lot can happen even if you are carrying one if you aren’t used to having to bring it out quickly.
Besides: we’re providing pizza!
Plus, it’s a chance to hang out with me and other PWers, if you want. We’ve been talking about a get together. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
One reason why the Classical Liberal (aka Conservative) blogosphere has no leader is due to the fact that influential writers in Conservative circles waste far too much time attacking influential voices in the Conservative movement. In other words, when we see NRO writers going after Rush Limbaugh it is safe to say writers are more concern with puffing up their ego than they are concerned about energizing Conservatism (aka Classical Liberalism):
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/01/29/234642.aspx
No doubt Noonan, Parker, Buckley Jr are in the midst of blowing their minds out with regret.
“Its not Obama yo, its actually you and your kids paying it!”
Thanks for the “yo.” Would have been lost otherwise.
“Oh Stewardess?…I speak jive.”
So, what? You’re moving to Canada meya? No?
Oh, ok. So I should have to raise my kids like loan-sharks, huh? They have to come find your worthless generational ilk in a Obama funded nursing home (dungeon), and, what? Take a ball bat to your collective knees until you cough up $3 trillion dollars?
Take a good long look at your W-2 this year.
So you can remember what freedom was like.
The problem is, I don’t see blogging as such as making money for any extended period. It’s said that opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one. That’s too limiting. Opinions are like turds. Any asshole in reasonable shape can squeeze one out. The supply is, for all practical purposes, infinite, and the demand is finite. Any reasonable economic theory would then yield a value of zero.
The value, if any, is in attracting a big enough audience for ad revenue to be significant. You do that by being consistently entertaining, something that’s always in short supply. Without it, you’ve got opinions plus a loyal community of commenters, no more a profit center than Usenet.
That’s it exactly Lamont. It’s horrifying and almost incomprehensibly sad. Baracky wants Americans poor and hating and envying and hectoring each other. On purpose he wants this. He’s a sick sick sick and evil man.
I’ll be honest and say I’m still not seeing anything here that looks like an answer to the dilemma. What bothers me more is that I have no idea what it is I’m looking for, or whether I would know it when I see it.
The trillions of samolians I rake in from my website must surely make that an astounding admission, but there you are.
I just wanted to use “omoplata” in a sentence. It’s as close as you can come to saying “oompa-loompa” in polite company (and still break a bone).
“Why not kill two birds with one stone?”
I feel better about this whole PJM travesty just knowing you’re thinking, “kill.”
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“He’s a sick sick sick and evil man.”
But…but, he has a Commemorative Plate.
I saw it in Walgreens day before yesterday!
“…and then Indy just friggin shoots him dead.
I can goddamn-guarantee there was a US Military adviser on that set.”
I can’t remember who I was watching: Ford, Lucas of Spielberg, but one of them told the story of this scene.
Apparently, the sword wielder and the “Indy” character were scheduled to have a big fight. However, Ford was very tired from all the day’s filming, and so just pulled his pistol and pretended to shoot the guy. The guy played along with the improv, hence the shot…
Lamont, you bad person! You made me choke on a stale piece of leftover Christmas candy.
…and then Indy just friggin shoots him dead.
I believe that was becaause Harrison Ford had diarrhea that day and couldn’t do the scripted sword fight without shitting himself.
Jeff,
If I’m still employed, I should be in Chicagoland that week. Maybe I can stay over an extra night.
I think the advisor on that set was dysentary. Harrison Ford was too sick to do the big scene, so a better scene was filmed.
Shades of Omdurman.
From IMDB:
“The infamous scene in which Indy shoots a marauding and flamboyant swordsman was not in the original script. Harrison Ford was supposed to use his whip to get the swords out of his attacker’s hands, but the food poisoning he and the rest of the crew had gotten made him too sick to perform the stunt. After several unsuccessful tries, someone made the off-handed remark, “Why doesn’t he just shoot him and get it done and over with?” Steven Spielberg immediately took up the idea and the scene was successfully filmed.”
#34 Ric Locke:
The federalist papers were a goal-oriented project. That goal was (as I know you know) to get the new federal Constitution ratified, and that was on a timeline, it wasn’t ongoing. Before doing such a thing again a goal and a timeline would have to be set.
Of course, that leaves the question: what is to be done next. I am not saying this to discourage any action, but to answer the inevitable ‘do something’ with ‘do what, and why, and for how long?’.
#68 meya:
Media Matters? That is the sheep-dog; the sheep are already there, it just helps keep them headed the way they were already headed. It doesn’t try to make a new flock.
“I believe”…
No one cares what you believe.
Yes, and that’s reason to put up an electronic position paper — an entire platform under public development.
Until it’s defined (and debated in order to be so; in the case of what I’m proposing, wiki’s have debate boards per each entry) conservatism remains subjective when it’s really a relatively defined ideology: Remember the left lamenting fragmentation not far back? Heck, they don’t have anything to agree on but envy and how to legislate it into theft, and today they have both houses and the oval office.
Thanks to Spies’ offer, a few bucks and this is another asset to mine, one the other side cannot pull off. How would they lend theory to racism, envy, and taking other folk’s shit? I mean, when mighty thor fears it, it’s worth exploring.
Classical liberalism
The only “big picture” here is that Roger Simon is not and never was a conservative; he is at best a Jewish neo-con. He is also a dumbass. He is not the sort you want to put at the helm of a project like this.
Say it with me: Dennis was right.
It looks like a good place to have a fight.
Can you be more specific about “Jewish neocon”? Do you mean that he’s in it for the ZIONISM?
I think it’s possible to overthink Roger Simon.
Isn’t “Jewish neo-con” redundant, according to the people who see neo-cons under every bed?
“Lamont, you bad person”
It says that exact thing on my Driver’s License.
I think Nan is the only one paying attention at Homeland Security.
“Do you mean that he’s in it for the ZIONISM?”
No, no. Those Zionist guys are cool, and have kosher bar-b-q’s every Sunday.
It’s not them. But, seriously. Try the ribs.
Awesome.
The idea of “Jewish Neo-Cons” is a farcical myth.
Like smart progressives.
Or parsnip’s penis.
You can rummage through that closet all fucking day, and you still won’t find Narnia.
I love that what you said about Narnia. I will have to steal that.
JHoward
I agree that the Wiki thing with more/less theory, position papers and debate is vital. But I don’t know if it can stand-alone. It would be more resource oriented, but the fast-paced give-take plus surprises one finds on high traffic blogs won’t be evident there.
Why not use conservapedia and avoid the liberal bias of wikipedia?
“Wikipedia’s material on the subject of Classical Liberalism, as I understand it, is in uncopyrighted open-source form and could be copied verbatim into ours to get us going.”
Not quite uncopyrighted:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License
Wikipedia
Blech.
Slow-roll zombies.
I don’t want a “conservative” version.
I’m just fine with my Michelle Malkin sexual fantasies, thank you very much.
wikipedia is not the format for anything controversial. Too many idiot partisans to have a controversial subject dealt with.
A biography of Henry Clay? Yes; a current political/cultural kerfluffle? No.
I don’t think it’s wikipedia, Mike. It uses the platform, but it’s more specific to a given idea or group of ideas.
I’m not sure that I understand in anything more than a very amorphous sense what the purpose of the proposed wiki is. A wiki is a means, not an end; a tool for the accomplishment of… What? I take that to be the point of hte very first comment, above; if the plan is (1) found a website * * * (99) retake Congress and the White House, what is the general outline of the intervening steps?
“I don’t think it’s wikipedia, Mike.”
Oh, ok. Go ahead and champion fast-zombies Dan.
See how that plays out.
Have you read McCarthy’s “The Road?”
That’s all because of Wikipedia.
Or not.
Maybe.
Wiki is evil…
….you heard it here first.
Not that anything but pure substance extends in O!bama’s wake, huh meya?
So to put it.
Other than it beiong offline at the moment, probably this part:
conservapedia I think was funded by the left to embarrass conservatives. There’s no other explanation.
Here is a picture of a baby monkey.
Of course. So then functionally uncopywritten, as in, as I believe I put it, “could be copied verbatim into ours to get us going.â€Â
You’re a peach, meya.
Self-hating Boomer on 1/31 @ 11:56 am
Polywell is not crackpot. It has been funded by the Navy for over a decade and currently Bussard’s last experiment is being replicated with the following announced results: “no show stoppers”. Will it work as a net energy producer? That is as yet unknown. Does the Polywell or similar devices produce fusion? Yes. Have been since 1959.
Why hasn’t Polywell Fusion been funded by the Obama administration?
IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained
Seems to me the nut of the question of this idea is … are the bloggers the jump off point or are the topics the jump off point? A site with bloggers listed is going to be just a repository of links with blurbs to each blogger rehashing the same story.
If the topic/story of the day is the jump off point, with the stories as the focus (and new subject matter being added as the news of the day unfolds) and a group of bloggers (and a diary type area for those who want to post occasionally) contributing to each story with links to the subdiscussions on individual blogs as they want, it seems to me, it has more functionality and serves a true pupose.
As some one above said, I don’t go to PJM, but I definitely visit individual bloggers who are PJM, so why do I need more than bookmarks on firefox…
If however, the goal is a central jumping off point to blogs that adds value and a reason to the stop there first, it will need to
a) get the central stories that are relevant to the movement out b) resolve the “if Ace posted I have to make a post and comment on the same subject, too” duplicity problems solved.
The problem is that there are lots of conservative sites, but each is a rehash of the same stories of the day. Kinda like living in Sim World with 300K newspapers all reporting on the same traffic accident. It’s just that each blog has developed a flavor and culture that makes you choose blog a over blog b to add your voice to the wilderness…
The important stories that are found each day, should be the focus of the main site, and the commentary can take differing slants on the information for dissemination. Each new potential jump off for commentary is the seed and as each blogger adds a link/post the story is developed and newer information is added to the original bullet.
In addition, the main platforms of the movement should have pages and main links that take you to blogger’s pages/websites that flesh out (through posts/comments) the ideas and put more meat on the bones through an understanding of what that platform entails. We are anti-PC is a platform, but what does it mean? Details…. As those are defined, the main site could develop a central platform page that would have a wiki feel to it with the movement’s platforms voted upon (through membership) for inclusion in the overall mission statements.
Agree/disagree?
Your organizational model sounds fascinating Stephanie; and logical also…
I especially like that the individual stories themselves are the “seeds” of each particular thread; where you can link to each particular writers take on the story-should they choose to write one about that topic.
Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/31 @ 12:07 pm #,
Your position is rational, and I agree. Even if something is “probably crackpot”, with that kind of cost/benefit ratio, it’s like a penny stock – it’s a longshot, but it’s worth pursuing.
I just don’t like it when things are hyped without proper disclaiming. Too many of Reynolds’ links are promising the next great coming thing, without talking about the negatives. This nonotech this and nanotech that stuff and solarwind powered cars, and yadda gets tedious.
One of the problems on the Right is the necessity of individuality – a recognition that individualism must have free play. That is disruptive to large-scale communal efforts as there needs to be long-standing agreements about having some beliefs in common to build upon. Currently, no one does that: puts out a set of beliefs, ideological statements or other formulation and then asks others who agree/disagree to clearly state that while cross-linking to individuals who are also part of the larger network.
This does not lend itself to a centralization concept of ‘one place for all of your needs’ but, instead, a way to find interesting posts and material (audio/video/images) that are cross-linked based on a common and agreed-upon set of ideological links. By distributing this through all participating sites (perhaps as a sidebar, running update, or other eye-catching schema) the entire network then takes part in a set of conversations within those bounds for that material while allowing non-networked material to be at each individual’s site.
What this does, via the individuals posting their generic outlook on something (ex. Nationalism, Westphalianism, democracy, representative democracy, rebublics, Law of Nations, etc.) is to have links that then have a general given outlook for those adding new materials to a wider conversation across multiple sites. This is not a ‘mandatory post’ system, beyond the start-up and basic statements on that given network set of topics for conversation, but one that is contributed to across the network. Anyone coming upon the network can quickly identify topics, number of posts on that topic and general attitude per post. Throw in a slashdot form of feedback (+/-) for those who read such topics and are reader-participants (not necessarily bloggers or people posting) and people can do simple removal of posts that a number of people didn’t like or use a weighted system with preferences given to readers that any individual tends to find good posts and/or commentary within the network.
Trying to garner revenue from ads has been a major problem for sites: the ability to remove ads via software in browsers (ex. Firefox, Avant), use a proxy to filter material out (ex. Privoxy) or just plain ignore the ads points to a problem for committed revenue streams. What can be added in, however, are topic links within the network on consumer goods or other items, recommended per site with individuals garnering some minimal amount on anyone going from their site to a purchase site (this is the concept behind the original Epinions save that it is concentrated at a single site, not distributed).
The basic problem is that individualism requires a common majority basis of agreement on any project, and a way to dissent from the majority without getting uncivil amongst people on such a network. Conformity and authoritarian ways work well at Left sites, because that is the mentality. Communitarian sites (ex. MySpace, Friendster, Twitter) works well for common social groups and cliques, and those are often insular to differences of opinion. The classical Rights of Man as Individual has not been well addressed outside of free-form blogging and all the early attempts at link networks that were and are generally passive. It is hard going through a number of sites looking for topical material when there is no cross-index of material amongst sites to go by. Getting that common index together so that one can cross-index is one of the major keys to organizing information that is overlooked in the internet: no one group or set of groups does this activity which allows added value to be generated by individuals cross-linking ideas through topics to generate new links amongst them and generate new ideas. It is very strange that the most powerful mental tool available in any indexed book is not widely supported by common interest groups on the ‘net. Once started the value comes from the diversity of topics and interlinked ability to see how information inter-relates amongst topics. And new ideas found within the group can then become an agreed-upon basis to add new topics (either by majority for all sites participating or by an ability to have linked sub-topics under a main one that then spawn into a new main topic).
Any such system needs minimal overhead (passing metadata amongst all participating sites outward to end-users), simple to implement across a number of media platforms, and easy for individual sites/participants to add the agreed-upon topical links for the network which are separate from those within a given site (although linking there would also help, so that other ideas around a main one not put into the general area would be found by readers/viewers arriving at a site for a different topic). This gets an emergently complex system that has simple to understand basis, ability to interact amongst disparate sites and yet cooperative help via linking and cross-linking which makes the entire network more valuable as more material is added to it.
Thanks Bob… it’s what I do for a living (when I’m on a contract). The disjointedness of the CLC side o the blogosphere is a pain in the ass. Jumping from site to site to see if anyone has picked up a kernel of info on a story that advances it past the initial info is stupid. Some have added new info some are stale, but you can’t tell til you click through. And the story is not fluid.
I’m sure no expert, but why can’t you just advance the OUTLAW platform and go from there? It’s edgy, fluid, and a shiny thing. God knows, in this economy, people will latch onto anything that grabs their imagination.
Currently, no one does that: puts out a set of beliefs, ideological statements or other formulation and then asks others who agree/disagree…
I think we can move past that now. With dirty socialists ensconced in our White House and our Congress and our academia and our media and our workplaces and in our federal bureaucracy and such, there’s really a lot less pressure I think for ideology to transcend hey you know what? Dirty socialists are teh suck and they are harming our little country a lot egregiously and are destructive of the individual, of which you yes you are one. Or at least you used to be. Wake the fuck up. Meaning, I think cynn has a good point.
Imaginations require work and thinking and things. That is the another problem what needs solving. It’s too easy to just do the cool thing. Til the bills come due.
Imagination is a gut reaction.
Fuck it, port this bad boy over to blogger. It’s free and you can use your own domain. Ugly as shit, but what the hell.
No, cynn. That is gas. Imagination requires more than a flash of brilliance. It requires a beginning, middle, and end. Otherwise it is an underdeveloped concept which, like gas, dissipates into that black hole of “hey I thought of that first.”
I’m willing to sign on to that. Chicago, you say? Deal me in.
Pablo: please cite; I tend to agree. Stephanie: we disagree on definitions. Imagination is a flash to me, while you are describing planning which is a deliberate process. One is sparked, the other smolders.
Have you noticed the marketing coup that the left has just pulled off based on little more message than “George Bush is teh suck”? Did you notice how Barack Obama got elected? Did you see the trillion dollars worth of socialism they’re about to pass off as economic stimulus?
If reason, logic and liberty lose to these avaricious nitwits, it can only be for lack of trying.
I don’t get your point. I must be dense or hardend. Doesn’t matter at this stage.
Then think of it this way, cynn: Worth requires effort.
“Have you noticed the marketing coup that the left has just pulled off based on little more message than “George Bush is teh suckâ€Â? Did you notice how Barack Obama got elected? Did you see the trillion dollars worth of socialism they’re about to pass off as economic stimulus? ”
Truly you need an “electronic position paper” to fight this. Oh the strongly worded letters — I mean, blog comments — you will write!
“Truly you need an “electronic position paper†to fight this.”
That’s so droll.
Really though. I have errands to run before the SuperBowl, and I need gas money.
Where’s Obama?
While I appreciate Granny Pelosi, I don’t have an STD (that I’m aware of) & I don’t need an abortion. I can’t just sit around my ghetto and wait for her “stimulus.”
Just give me the gas money you promised Obama.
Obama?
Hello?
#127
I think Steph means that it’s the desire,uh, commitment to see that inspiration to fruition. Ideas are cheap. Effort costs.
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To complement the branding of target governments as dictatorial, opposition forces are branded as democratic. ,