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The Demise of an Institution

Written by: Huron John on Jul 5, 2008 9:35 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Blog For America

As one of the DFA bloggers who began in the summer of 2003, I mourn the passing of this source of fun, information, spirited debate, and spontaneous insights into the state and the mood of the nation and the world.

It's taken a year or more to happen, with the increasing disfunctionality of undated and scrambled posts. That drove away many old-timers. We came back a bit with the new DFA format which although buggy, restored the order and timing of posts, and we began to see the return a few of the people who had simply given up.

Then, "by popular demand", we witnessed the utter destruction of the blog with the institution of the Water Cooler, where posts deemed to be off-topic by HQ were moved. This left us with sterile, one-dimensional, and boring main threads, and a chaotic "water cooler" where every post required coming back in through the main page through a series of buttons.

As I posted on the main thread, I would like to see an interactive main thread in which BFA bloggers are asked to state their opinions of the current arrangement. I seriously doubt if even the bloggers who originally "demanded" the water cooler will be brave enough to support the concept

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Sharon_christmas_angel_119_tinythumb

- Howard Dean is first on this one, baby!

By Phil Specht on Jul 5, 2008 5:29 PM EDT

Pat wrote:

           The Independence Day Massacre:

                or The Day They Killed the Blog
 
            It was a wordacide: they grabbed
            our conversations, tossed them aside
            dumped them into what they called
            a water cooler, but we knew it was
            a trick, a fooler, because they
            deleted everything we said all day.
 
            It was a communityacide. They decided
            they had to get rid of us, and
            the way to do it with the least
            amount of fuss was by saying they
            would make the blog more efficient, would
            bring in new members, dispose of the deficient
 
            in their ability to stay on topic.  "Didn't
            matter," they said, "how few the posters,
            it was the substance of the writing,"
            so said the hosters, Danny in his sincerity,
            which somehow never brought clarity
            and Pompous Charles with his scolding.
 
            So, after five years of knowing
            each other, being inspired, warmed,
            informed, and sometimes heated, the feeling
            is that we've been cheated, our
            membership irrelevant, our wills ignored,
            the community we made insulted and deplored.
 
            It all  happened on July the Fourth
            the day we celebrate the Declaration
            of our rights and liberties, our solidarity,
            yet on Democracy for America, our
            beloved blog, the functionaries
            disposed of us, killed off our community.
Sharon_christmas_angel_119_tinythumb

-

By Phil Specht on Jul 5, 2008 5:34 PM EDT

I've already expressed my views on the subject.

I will add that I have served on Boards making million dollar decisions and one of the rules was "The manager is always right,  ...  sometimes you have to fire the manager."

You trust the decisions of those that have to make them everyday until they violate that trust.

once lost it cannot be easily retrieved

somebody's head should roll

Default_user

- Trust has been violated, indeed!

By JudyforDean on Jul 5, 2008 8:28 PM EDT

It's a sad, sad day for BFA!

L_3980333bcfaad3fa1e01f5991f227c96_tinythumb

-

By kimmy on Jul 6, 2008 1:38 AM EDT

oh. so this is the watercooler.. so ANY post er comment to a blog that is not directly on topic gets moved? I wonder if my blah blah blahs had anything to do with it.. god knows I have my enemies over here! haha Nahhhhh -- who supports this malarkey???

 

 

 

Heyhey_tinythumb

- Sorry this is late ~~ have had company this weekend ~~

By puddle on Jul 6, 2008 9:08 PM EDT

It didn't sound to me as if it were bloggers that complained.  Rather people who claimed they *would* blog if everything were different.  I've seen too often peeps who come here, make a demand or a request for special help, and depart forever.  They never seem to understand that there is a *community* here, which operates like any other community.  That, in fact, seems to be the misunderstanding of HQ, or parts of it.  I think, ironically, that is ISN't a mistake I ever saw Howard make. . . .   He must have been a very good doctor. . . .

Charlie_in_vermont_tinythumb

- The interesting thing here is

By Charles Chamberlain on Jul 13, 2008 8:06 AM EDT

... that is HQ were trying to get rid of anyone... they could. They could delete off-topic comments completely instead of re=posting them to the Watercooler.  They could delete the profiles of people who bad mouth them. But they don't do any of that. Instead HQ came up with an alternate idea that makes it possible to meet everyone's needs. There is no reason why the BFA comments community can't still survive at BFA. On topic post will stay on the front page comment threads. Off-topic ones will be re-posted to the Watercooler rather then be deleted. And The Watercooler will remain a permanent open thread where the BFA community can meet anytime to talk about anything.

And for those wondering, the Watercooler IS being archived already and not a single Watercooler post has been lost. Soon our tech department will make it possible to find the archived posts, but they are there -- just "behind the scenes"

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