Blogabarbara's Status
In the last post I started questioning whether to continue BlogaBarbara and the general consensus seems to be for it to continue as this last election stretched me to my limits in terms of time and being patient with some of the rancor -- you can put your two cents in here.
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 6/19/2006 12:13:00 PM
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more private Name/URL option when making comments. Comments using "Anonymous" will not be published. For more info, see choosing an identity.
26 Comments:
The DELETE key works quite fast. Just use it freely.
If more or fewer mean or nutty or irrelevant comments are for or against any particular political candidate, that is more a reflection on the number of substantive comments posted in the first place. i.e., if backers of a particular candidate cannot write something worth reading and it gets cut by the Blog host, then that is their problem of the writer of the comment, not any bias of Blogabarbara.
Hopefully by now, "Mike Pinto" and the ilk will have figured out what makes the cut and what does not.
Mike Pinto says..
If you quit then the SBNP has a free pass to distort all the news. This blog provides a service to the entire activist community. This blog also let me spread my message of taking direct action against the SBNP. It would be a shame to stop now.
Please keep it, we promise we will be nice. Okay we can't keep to that promise but your forum for our rediculous theories and rants is too valuable. Besides I know at least 20 people who look at your blog as part of their daily internet routine. Have you considered advertising, maybe make this generate some income for you?
Definitely keep it up!
Please address what is happening with Travis Armstrong's DUI!
I have no idea what's happening with the DUI -- I'm loathe to make more of an issue of it as it's gotta suck for him.
Mike Pinto says...
It also sucked for Das to be attacked by Travis every day. Maybe if he doesnt want his private life to be public he shouldnt try to be a public figure.
Sara re your 2:42. PM...compassion and staying away from personal attacks. We like it.
I agree that a good number of comments (both recent and in the past) were either mean-spirited or crossed over the threshhold of discussion into the realm of free advertising or blind advocacy. At times, I thought you were wrong to leave in comments that were sumbitted as jokes, but then I realized that the writers were serious. (Sorry, Mike Pinto, but your comments got to that level for me.)
I would understand if some people had that opinion of my comments on various issues. The point to be made here is that it comes with the territory. People blog to express themselves. Based on the comments I saw before you moderated the blog, I think you're doing a very good job of editing out the stupid, classless, and vulgar comments while remaining neutral in allowing all sides to get their opinions out. Unlike some others, I think it's fine if you have a personal point of view; it doesn't seem to alter what you delete or print.
I think the problem may be that you take the criticism too hard. Anonymous people say things that are much stronger than they might if they had to stand behind them.
I hope you maintain the blog. I look forward to reading it and commenting. Now that elections are over, maybe there will be topics that are less personal and emotional. And I think you might feel better if you actually let more of your personality into your comments. You can be neutral about the range of comments you print and still express your own opinions.
The 2:36 post indicates why you should just drop it. If peole could stick to issues rather than silly attacks on people it would be worhtwhile. But history shows that's not possible.
Blogabarbara can be where news actually is published for the first time in any venue. Also knows as "Triple-Drunk Armstrong" in a posting a couple of weeks ago, which was breaking news here on Blogabarbara, this is the news brief in SB Indy this week:
“WRONG WAY” ARMSTRONG SENTENCED:
By Indy Staff, June 15, 2006
Travis Armstrong, the contentious voice of the NewsPress editorial pages, was fined $1,600 and sentenced to four days behind bars for driving the wrong way down Santa Barbara Street one Saturday night four weeks ago; at the time, his blood alcohol level was 0.23, which is nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08. Armstrong was placed on three years probation and has been required to sign up for a nine-month stint in a school for drunk drivers. In addition, Armstrong’s driver’s license was suspended for four months. Although Armstrong was sentenced to four days in jail, he has the option to serve that time doing community service. Prosecutors stressed that Armstrong received no special consideration because of his political prominence as a prominent columnist and editor of the NewsPress editorials.
This last election was only a primary. If it stretched you to your "limits" wait until the general election. You're right--turn out the lights and leave the building...
Don't listen to 6:05 - leave the lights on!
Sara DLG: I'm a blog-world newbie, but after just a few months of Blogabarbara I find myself logging on each morning (after reading the SBNP and LA Times) to see what the SB blog world is saying. Addiction may be just around the corner. I try to not take the comments as representative of widely-held views or even as a well thought out perspective by the writer. But, many of the comments both informative and entertaining.
And, with the SBNP having a monopoly on daily editorial comment, and using its power to suppress or marginalize other opinions, this blog becomes an important source of balance. (The foregoing is a comment about the editorial page, which has lost touch with the community and generally accepted journalistic standards. The SBNP news side continues to function at a high level.)
Bottom line: This blog site is worth keeping, and you are doing our community a service by keeping it going. Doubtless it's time consuming and personally irritating (even hurtful) at times, but from the perspective of a grateful reader, I hope you will keep on keeping on.
I hope you will continue, primarily so that there will be an outlet for those of us whose point of view is censored by the local media monopoly's refusal to print our letters and columns.
If you continue, you could make your life easier and ours better if you just delete those contributions that are too mean, too long, too NUTS. At least some would get the message that to get published here, one has to be contributing something of substance and civility, not just foaming at the mouth.
However, should you decide to fold up, why not have an essay contest, the winner of which could take over Blogabarbara from you? Just an idea.
Best wishes and remember, there are no monuments to critics. Ignore your critics.
I rather agree with 6:05 about if the primary stretched the limits, wait until the general election! Stupidities and so forth go with the territory of signing as anonymous (say I, being anonymous.)
However, stupidities sometimes have another effect: Mike Pinto's (is that a real person?) rantings have helped turn me off Das.... Who was it who said "you're known by the company you keep?"
I hope the blog continues, not as an attack on the NP but as an alternative to it and to the Indie which, sadly, has become little more than a format for advertising and entertainment plus obituaries/memorials.(Except, strong except, for Nick Welsh and an occasional fine reporter/report.)
Mike Pinto says..
I will not walk quietly into the night away from the cause I support. Every member of class society exists as a member of that given class by the corporate power structure. Therefore we are driven to shake off the yoke of this given distinction by struggle. My choice of struggle was to support Das. The people must go through the process of struggle to change society. By way of this struggle we see ourselves in need of change. Santa Barbara County is a contrast of haves and those who struggle. The haves won this election but the struggle continues. Only those who never supported Das would say my " ranting" turned them off. This blog fosters an robust debate between progressive activists and angry mob reactionaries. Being called names by them only makes me stronger. Let it also make this blog stronger.
Sara---I will say after reading another Mike Pinto rant that perhaps closing up shop will be better for civil discourse
"Mike Pinto":
I supported Das and your ranting definitely turned me off. Take it over to Hoverbike and rant away there.
Hard to tell if you are a "progressive activist" or a "angry mob reactionary".
All the more reason the Blogabarbara moderator needs not to hesitate with the DELETE.
Sara - I've really enjoyed reading your blog and posting. I would hate to see it go, but would fully understand if the viciousness got to be too much.
I hope you keep - I read it every morning after the NP!
dd
Reading this and other blogs I self edit and just do not read the silly, useless and abusive comments. Just like I do not listen and try to avoid people like that.
If we are to change everything we do due to the misbehavior of a few bad people we would never leave our homes.
I say keep the lights on.
Personally, I save keep it!
The better to keep the NewsRepressed somewhere near legitimacy. Oh well, I guess that's impossible, but keep it up anyway.
Besides Mike Pinto's rants crack me up. I haven't heard/read that kind of junk since I was in college in the early 70's.
Mike -- you are taking it in the chin a bit here but I think you can handle it. I appreciate all the comments and support.
Sounds like the votes are in and we'll keep the lights on. Thanks to all of you for your input.
Mike Pinto says..
I can take all they have to give. I am in the right and that knowledge gives me courage. The struggle continues.
Hello friends.
I am glad you are going to keep BB up. It is good debate, and sometimes, entertainment.
For those who are interested but not involved, it is nice to hear a good point being made, or, as is often the case, a good laugh over a ridiculous assertion put forth as fact.
Keep it coming daddy. This stuff is great!
Ben Romo
"Mike Pinto says... I can take all they have to give. I am in the right and that knowledge gives me courage. The struggle continues."
Keep it coming. I lost my Little Red Book so can read those missives from you instead.
But do explain how stealing newspapers and dumping them is "in the right".
Also interesting to read here the return of Romo, by name at least.
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