BlogPac Thoughts From Across the Nation
What to do with the blogpac stuff...what to do, what to do?
Well, I've had a bit of pressure on my back since Friday when I wrote my post about blogpac. Once again, I'm having this conversation with y'all, and disclosing everything, in the interest of transparency. When it comes down to it, I think trust and credibility in the blogosphere are paramount. This is the sort of thing blogs have an obligation to disclose to their readers ...if I weren't an admin here, I'd want to know about it as a reader. No matter where I land on this decision, I hope this blog retains the trust that's been built up over the past year.
Friday's post made it around the tubes pretty quickly...here are a few comments from other blogs throughout the nation on the topic. Interestingly enough, the Ohio 'sphere is coming down in a bit of a different spot than folks nationally (Em Dash made it blatantly...and a little rudely...obvious on that one).
From BlueMassGroup (MA's Community Site)
Hi Jerid, and thanks for stopping by. Just for the record, we at BMG were offered and accepted one of the BlogPac grants. Frankly, it never entered my mind that someone might question our "independence" on the basis of that little grant. If the MyDD gang that's spearheading the BlogPac effort (Kos has no involvement, AFAIK) wants to try calling the shots here at BMG, they're welcome to make the effort, but it's not going to go well -- and they have made absolutely no moves in that direction, nor do I think they have any interest in doing so. I just don't think independence is much of an issue. And I think it's worthwhile to support an organization that's trying to raise the profile (and the fundraising prowess) for the local lefty blogs. My $.02!
[-David, the administrator of BlueMassGroup]
From Square State (Colorado's Community Site)
Leave it to the Ohioans to fiddle while the Cuyahoga burns.
I speak only for myself as someone who has feet firmly planted in both state and national blogging. I do not, however, represent the derivisely-termed "big box blogs".Having said that, the Ohio bloggers have no one to blame but themselves for casting their lot in political Siberia. How? By picking needlesss fights among one another, serving as distractions to the positive work being attempted by grassroots groups, and aligning themselves with self-annoited local political operatives with bad reputations ...
Impuning the motives of those who seek to help grow the movement, as BlogPac is, simply reconfirms for me that Buckeye Blog will spend much more time in the political wilderness dry humping themselves into a frenzy over the next glamour candidate. Ego-laden blogging is a boring and ineffective as ego-laden politics.
I hope that there are others who can and will take up the mantle of serving Ohio's much-needed and long overdue online progressive movement. They will find many allies among us.
em dash
former 30 year resident of Ohio
em dash outs herself! Take that NRO!
I'll reserve comment on Em on that one...
From Skippy (A Generally Progressive Site)
the gang over at the buckeye state blog are musing aloud about the advisability of throwing their lot in with the "kingmakers" of blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase).
in blogpac and the kos crew want to sponsor the ohio 'sphere, jerid weighs the pros and kos about accepting $$$ from blogpac, and the ramifications that come along with such a move:
...we like that sentence in the middle paragraph: "there have been allegations, some originating at this site, that the national 'sphere is motivated by the profit margin more than local communities like bsb." gee, d'ya think?
And from the comments at MarisaCat (A Kos-Critical Site)
- 26. D. Throat - 17 February 2007
-
ooo thanks for taht! DT
I know that the Boyz, THE BOYZ, burned the ground in Ohio. I was rece3ving Ohio print media op/ed pieces, one in particular on Jerome Armstrong with a lot of detail published on his previous MO … Sherrod called a halt to both his being paid staff and blogging (I mean doing both concurrently) shortly after that op/ed.
They way they operated in Ohio has not been forgotten. And that is the GROUP: MyDD, Dkos SSP and the little machine that rolls into town.
I am not suprised that BlogPAC is being told to go suck a Philly/East BAY/DC egg
I'll have my decision up tonight. Feel free to email me your last minute thoughts.
With a fair, temperate comment. So I want to ask you, because I know I just don't get it and you seem to be able to write in a tone I can hear: why is it so important to "integrate te great Ohio sphere better into the national scene"?
First, Blogpac is only seeking to integrate via two blogs, BSB and As Ohio Goes. As Jerid keeps maintaining, those two alone do not constitute "the great Ohio sphere."
Second - why? Why is this integration into the national scene so important to people? I am completely missing that. And I'm not being facetious. What does integration of the great Ohio sphere into the national scene accomplish - for the national scene and for the great Ohio sphere? If it's so great, why does it NEED to be integrated?
Sincerely, why?
I think the most important thing for a local blogosphere is to demand the attention of those within the state -- a standard by which Ohio has proven a leader.<p>
My real focus is to get the great ideas and tactics used by one state redeployed by other states. But when it comes to the big picture, I think the blogosphere as a whole benefits from BSB getting more play nationwide. There are a lot of people outside of Ohio who know the dynamics of many states better than one of the most crucial states.<p>
As for the benefits to Ohio from integration with the national blogs, I think a good relationship is very important. Take Jon Tester, his <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/16/12325/388">name was getting national play</a> in December 2004 because of this dynamic.
More importantly, I think you should be commended for posting the RBF video. I love that song and CD, but hadn't listened to it for some time. Now, I'll have to dig it out later tonight.
It's almost getting to the point where either decision will be less divisive than this debate is. When I read the first post I really didn't like the idea but I've given it some thought since then.
I don't pay the bills and therefore can't really say just how much the money is needed. If Jerid or whoever does pay them feels that taking the money would ultimately be the best choice that's their decision to make.
So far Jerid has been pretty open about about this offer. He probably could have just taken the money and it might never have been noticed. Sure there has been some controversy but he still wants to hear what people think.
If Jerid feels that he can except this money while maintaining his independence and credibility I will support his decision long enough to see how it goes. If all does go well than I'll applaud him for making the right choice and if it turns out to be the wrong decision I have faith that the Ohio blogosphere will continue on, with or without BSB.
Have you guys lost the urge to start digging when it comes to stuff like this? It's not that hard.
The $180 grant happens to match exactly the one-year hosting fees of Soapblox, a blog platform. 11 of the 12 current BlogPac grantees use Soapblox. Who are the BlogPac grantees? Many of them are Kos front pagers. Duh.
So why all this Soapbloxing? Well, if Blogpac gets 45 of the 50 states onto Soapblox, money starts to add up for Mr. Soapblox. If Soapblox starts serving ads across the entire network, money starts to pile up.....for Mr. Soapblox.
Who runs Soapblox? A guy named pacified, who, of course, leaps to the defense of these grants at one of the blogs he is paid to host. Who is Mr. pacified? Why does all this webhosting go to him? What is his connection to the Blogpac grantee decisionmakers? These are questions that should be asked before taking money from what appears to be a closed circle of someone's own personal venture capital slush fund - oh, i'm sorry, i meant clean-as-the-driven-snow-kumbaya BlogPac. Love! Peace! Progressive networking nationally!!
If BSB takes this money, watch for BSB's hosting to be outsourced - wouldn't that be ironic.
Why all the SoapBloxing? Well, it's because SoapBlox is a fast, simple, easy-to-use blog platform that gives you all the "community" features a la DailyKos without having to have a degree in Computer Science, like you do with Scoop.
Next, the money doesn't go to me, but to the company SoapBlox Network, Inc.
Why does the web hosting go to SoapBlox Network, Inc? Well, because we run the servers. We created the software the sites run on and are constantly updating and improving the software.
What is my connection to BlogPAC? I got an email saying "hey, we want to give grants to these blogs that are currently your customers".
And before you go talking about some theoretical gravy train, let's take your scenario to the fullest. 45 out of the 50 states on SoapBlox is $8,100 for an entire year of hosting keeping servers up and running 24X7X365. Forgive me if I don't quit my day job.
I'd also add that all of these 11 blogs were already SoapBlox Network, Inc. customers, who found me all on their own and independently chose to move their blogs on to the SoapBlox platform long before BlogPAC came around.
Thanks for impugning my integrity though and that of my company. Funny you say others should dig further, when you have obviously failed to do your due diligence.
no one impugned your integrity, Mr. Pacified, all i did was ask some pretty obvious questions, which are questions that arise almost every time some big initiative is rolled out by these yuks. you chose to do business with these folks, the questions are gonna arise and are completely, totally reasonable, given the history of your clients' activities in this state's blogosphere.
of course you're going to leap to the defense of a program that gives money to your employer, your Soapbloxer, or whoever the hell you're representing here anonymously. i'd do the same thing.
Here's the deal. If they wanted "integration" or to "reach out", then Jerome could have shown up to Rootscamp here and sat down with virtually all the bloggers in the state and figured out how to get more national attention to what we are doing here. I personally invited him and got no reply. That kind of effort is much more important in terms of building bridges than some Soapblox hosting fee offset. He and I both sat in on a session in DC talking about how state and national blogs could work better together - which lead to my inviting him. All I heard was that Ohio "had issues" (not from him to be fair, but it was a theme).
I mean hell, people had to bombard them to add BSB to the blogroll. You'd think if they paid cursory attention they'd figure out what blog(s) to link to in-state.
The grant does no real harm in my mind. As Jason has said somewhere before, if the coverage gets slanted Ohio 'spherians will certainly be the first to call bullshit.
The real issue is whether or not this is about getting a better relationship between the B3 and the statewides. Actions speak louder than words or grants in this case.
I've been following the backlash that started with the so-called "Blogroll Amnesty Day", so when I see that an "offer" has been made to BSB and AOG, I know a bit of what came before. Atrios was the first to declare B.A.D. and other big boys of blogging followed suit. Kos, may have taken that as an opportunity to do something he was planning to do anyway. *Lots* of blogs were dumped off of one or more "big time" blogrolls, thus hurting their own rankings because they lost the linkage. As liberalamerican noted:
The final piece of this may be the most interesting. Given that kos is a business, this latest move is what public relations people call repositioning. Daily Kos is repositioning itself as the central place for local blogs supporting political candidates. It is a brilliant business move with an election coming up. If the local bloggers buy into this, kos becomes in one stroke a major voice in the Democratic Party.
So, the Ohio blogs in question may stand to benefit, but a lot of bloggers lost out in this move. It doesn't sit right with me.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, but lack the time/focus to write them out before the decision is made. I just got home from work and am pretty tired, so just know that I wouldn't be commenting at all right now if this weren't a pretty important issue to me. But I would like to explore a way to form an independent blogger coalition, and started posting some thoughts about that here.
Mcat your “Big Box Blogs” are as famous as Skippy’s “Blogtopia”…. you gotta check this out … they are telling Kos to keep his stinkin money!!!!!