No - I'm not about to take sides. Earlier in the month, the Palincentric blog, Palingates, had a parting of the ways between Regina - on one hand - and Patrick & Kathleen - on the other hand. One Alaska blog certainly took sides. This one isn't. Not yet, probably not ever. I've had great relationships with Patrick, Kathleen and Regina.
Palingates remains on the blogroll as an "honorary AK blog." I'll wait a couple of weeks to see how Politicalgates, Patrick and Kathleen's new blogspot niche works. I wish them, as well as Regina, all the luck and positive vibes in the world.
Meanwhile - traffic since the breakup:
Palingates:
January 31:
Arctic with Bruce Parry vs Sarah Palin's Alaska.... - 81 comments
January 30:
Open thread - Sunday - 141 comments
Sarah Palin - 311 comments
January 29:
Open thread - Saturday - 381 comments
SarahPAC 4th Quarter 2010... [great article!] - 335 comments
Housekeeping - 103 comments
January 28:
Open thread - Friday - 528 comments
Things I need to say - 461 comments
January 27:
Brace yourselves - 2,628 comments
Politicalgates (new blog):
January 30:
Sarah Palin: "Mr. Caribou has to take one .... - 849 comments
January 29:
Civil unrest continues in Egypt - Will there be..... - 465 comments
January 28:
Welcome to Politicalgates! - 1,566 comments
As one can see, both blogs are getting high traffic and very many comments.
12 comments:
Thank you Phil!
Both sites are excellent. The break-up has given me two sites to enjoy all day instead of just one. I hope both groups all the success in the world in spreading the truth about the lying quitter AKA Sarah Palin
Also, too I feel certain you will give the same honorarium to politicalgates. I would imagine it was partly due to the many posts and incredible research by Patrick and Kathleen that motivated you to bestow the honor on palingates.
We commenters have not taken sides. We are adults by and large and not game players like Sarah.
I started posting with Patrick and Kathleen to give them support at their start, and will continue.
I also post at Palingates and will continue to post there.
Two excellent blogs, with one purpose.
Thanks Phil for staying above the fray.
Sadly, quite a few commenters have indeed taken sides, as if sides needed to be taken. Childish nonsense, frankly. But I would not, and have not, judged a blog by the comments. It is the content that matters to me, though it is a bonus if the comments are informative and insightful.
You are always a quality blog, even when I disagree, because your positions are both passionate and informed - a rare combination indeed!
Rob
Thanks Phil, for staying above the fray. Rob, you stated well, what I think many of us feel.
I'm not sure how the number of comments are relevant here. It's not a metric to be used for quality of a blog, and it's childish. I do give you props for not officially taking sides, because it's disappointing that at least one blog has, and many posters are snarkily posting their preference and already starting crap like whose "intellectual property" a guest post is. If you own a blog, and something is written specifically for your blog, you own what's on your pages. If I was contracted to write a piece for Time, for example, I couldn't turn around and sell it to Newsweek in exactly the same format. I don't know what is going through some people's heads. I guess it's more important to take a side to some.
Good attitude!
Vinnie
I love both blogs.
The number of comments mean nothing when one third of them are "LOL!" "Good job!" "Love your avi!" "How do you get an avi?" "Who is that on your avi?" "LOL, I agree!" "You better get an avi or we won't believe anything you say!" "The OTHER blog doesn't have as many posts as ours!" "Do you like my avi?"
Pages and pages of that to wade through...often the only goal being to up their personal post total. Most of us gleefully left high school & its silliness behind, like we're supposed to.
Many posters do not feel the need to write our graffiti all over the Internet just to make our mark. My favorite blogs are full of great posts and interesting commenters - the quantity of comments means absolutely nothing to me.
That said, it's awesome that the two styles found their own niche - it always is! I am much happier when people find their comfort zone which reflects increased thoughtfulness and better behaviour on a blog by commenters. I hope we come away from this experience with some lessons learned in civility, and how to open our minds to change.
Each blog has its own blogger personality, focus, tone and guidelines which those should be respected and enjoyed by all who want to contribute.
I will check back in on all of them after enjoying my time away from all things Palin. Maybe the others will have solved the Palin disaster by then, if so - I will dance in the streets and thank every single one of them. If not, I've had a restorative vacation at the very least and a whole lot more time with my family and life.
Best wishes to all for the smart, thorough and dogged inspection of the Grisly Grannie in all of her imagined glory. I appreciate you all!
No LOL's will ever appear in a comment I make, LOL!
Re the relevance of # of comments - I agree that in many ways that isn't assurance of quality, and a long string of LOL's and ROFLMAO's does not reflect any quality upon the essay they inspired. This blog doesn't get a lot of comments usually. Nor does Down With Tyranny! one of the more influential political blogs on the left, and the one that inspired me to start mine.
I listed them next to the article titles because it was a quick way to show that both blogs are getting a decent number of comments, and that Politicalgates is creating a new community, right out of the starting gate.
I've been too busy with work, watching events in Egypt (and elsewhere) unfold, and writing new music to be played in Unalaska to keep up with this subject since the breakup happened, so this was my way of honoring all - Pstrick, Regina and Kathleen - before I jump back into other activities.
Thanks for the good comments and lack of LOL's, gang.
genius, anonymous 4:05, pure genius.
sadly, the endlessly clucking hens simply ruined pg with their needlessly incessant chatter; which, to my mind, speaks less of an impulse to mark one's territory, so much as profound loneliness and social isolation.
of far greater concern, however, is the rapidly—if not rabidly—devolving cult of patrick. for mysterious reasons i've yet to divine, magical thinking has sown its way into the community and resulted in the presumption that he possesses unique talents and a special skill set. i see little to no evidence to support such self-delusion.
finally, if a loved one ever caught me using an emoticon, i would hope—with the utmost sincerity—that they'd euthanize me then and there.
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