Why No Righty Kos? (More Navel Gazing and Free Republic Bashing)

TownHall.com ^ | Saturday, September 8, 2007 | Patrick Ruffini

[kristinn]

Liberaltarian ex-Daily Kos diarist David Weigel and Newsbusters are engaged in a debate over why there is no right-wing Daily Kos.

My answer, as articulated here is that there is a conservative Daily Kos, that’s it’s Free Republic, but that it doesn’t really “count” since it’s not a blog, and more critically, it won’t play nicely with the rest of the movement and it doesn’t worship candidates like Kos does.

There are vast architectural differences between FR and Kos, as critics of this comparison are wont to point out. Most of them are points in Kos’s favor. But fundamentally they were founded to fill the same gap. At the end of the day, they are both vast communities for mid-level activists. Though Kos is more blog-based and tolerant of editorializing, Weigel is perceptive enough to distinguish it from “a blog” a la Power Line or HughHewitt.com, in which the voice of the blogger dominates and others comment (or don’t, in the case of some big conservative bloggers). Daily Kos is simply a different beast than anything else in the liberal blogosphere, in much the same way that Free Republic is a different beast than anything else in the conservative blogosphere. But in terms of traffic and community, it’s still the biggest. The same item that will get a handful of comments at my personal blog and 30 to 40 on HughHewitt.com, will get upwards of 100 responses when posted to Free Republic. FR may be primitive in its architecture, but I don’t think it can be ipso facto excluded from discussions about the size and extent of conservative community online, for the sheer fact of its size.

Part of the reason that there is no “conservative Daily Kos” is that the broader conservative movement isn’t really lacking for a huge online community in the same way the left was in 2002 (DU was, and is, a joke). That community may not be the healthiest one around, but it’s still a community.

The second fact is that conservative blogs, excluding Free Republic/Lucianne/etc. for a moment, serve a fundamentally different audience than the netroots. They’re more elite, focused on policy, and interested in the execution of the war. What was going on when conservative blogs first boomed? 9/11 and the American response to it. And discussions of the size of the conservative blogosphere (strictly defined) should take into account the fact that there are only so many people who can digest the kind of almost-scholarly analysis that happens in places like Power Line, Captain’s Quarters, and Red State. The conservative blogosphere today is what the liberal blogosphere would have been if elite bloggers like Kevin Drum and Matthew Yglesias had remained the dominant voices.

This is not meant to be self-congratulatory. In fact, I think it’s probably a serious limitation in the size of our blogosphere, to the extent that’s a concern. If you want to be bigger, you’re not necessarily going to like the people you have to let in to make it happen. If and when that were to happen, the elite flavor of many leading conservative blogs today would give way to more freewheeling Daily Kos and Free Republic-like sites and comment areas.

I think it’s probably worth paying that price if we can get people acting like true activists. Conservatives have paid a price for being inattentive to candidate recruitment and what’s actually going on at the county committee level. In effect, we allowed the unchecked rise of machine operators like Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, and John Doolittle who sacrificed conservative principle for back-scratching enrichment. One of the big reasons why Larry Craig won’t be missed is that he was uninspiring career politician (and porker) with no discernible ideological moorings (beyond the political leanings of his state). It’s those kinds of machine pols that always seem to the problem, and we let them flourish by being pundits on the sidelines.

I also think conservative blogosphere has misread the marketplace. To make a crass overgeneralization here, policy is boring and politics is interesting. By blogging about policy, you choose to be boring (and that’s ok). There is probably a much bigger marketplace for people focused on elections, especially in even numbered years. (And this is Kos’s primary purpose.) Why is it that we start talking about Presidential elections two years ahead of time? Because it sells newspapers. The blogosphere overall is stagnating, but if you want to start a new blog that will get read, your best bet is 1) obsessively cover 2008 and be good at it, and 2) fill a niche, especially one covering local politics.

The ‘08 blogs like Race 4 2008 and Eye on ‘08 will probably be in five figures in daily traffic by early next year. To give you a sense of the insane community that is building around a focused group blog like Race, take a look at their 700 comment thread during the debate. There is a market there. And a lot of passion too.

So let’s follow it.

[Cymbaline]

...And, I wish we had the ability to edit our posts after we submit them!

[rabidralph]

Welcome, to FR!

[CyberAnt]

Major difference between Kos and FR - on Kos you will find more than 7000 “F-— U” references. On FR YOU WILL NOT FIND EVEN ONE!!

Jealousy is a terrible thing.

[gitmo]

I was unaware DailyKos was almost twice FR size. I just browsed their site (my first visit there). The architecture is a bit busy, and their response time was pitiful. The blogs were more articualate and civil than DU.

The FR architecture beats others hands-down. And most FReepers are tops.

[Lancey Howard]

Free Republic is a "blog" for any freeper who wants to make it one. Personally, I have written a couple of lengthy "articles"/"editorials" (for example GO NUCLEAR! (Response to NRO Editorial) 136 replies · 2,405+ views) and posted them (they count as "vanities") and received hundreds of replies and thousands of views - - far more than any individual blog would generate. Frankly, I'm not sure why any conservative would need their own individual blog when they can access Free Republic?

[pacelvi]

Since I’m a member of Townhall I left this comment there:

I’m a long-time member of FR.. mostly lurking.

To me, FR is more of a news clearing-house. It’s a place to refer to news published elsewhere and to comment about it.

They actively fire-wall blog postings away from their main forum.

I complained about this on this thread there

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880584/posts

I said:

“I think the “wall” between Blogs and News is arbitrary and counterproductive. Some of the best journalists run their own blogs (Michael Yon... Roggio of 4th Rail.. Michael Totten... Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, etc)

We all complain about the MSM.. about its bias and omissions and then yet we exalt them as something special to keep the bloggers from polluting.

When I try to share important Iraq news that comes from a blog, some busy body will immediately banish it to the “Blogs” category and then no one sees it.

Tell me.. what is the advantage of this?”

They Said: “The desire is to maintain a good signal to noise ratio. Bloggers can always find FR threads related to their latest rant, and post some of their entry on that thread along with a link. That way, the blog post is put in context of the news story, and blog threads don’t overwhelm the news threads.”

I said: “So in other words something isn’t news unless it appears in the New York Times?”

They said:

“Hardly.

However, there are, what, a few million bloggers now? Do you want any blogger who feels like it to start threads on FR? It’s about signal-to-noise. FR is still working out ways to let in the bloggers who add to the news signal while filtering those who just add their opinion (which can be added in the comments section of threads without creating a gazillion new threads).”

This is why, in my opinion, they fail.

[disrgr]

Welcome, to FR!

Thank you kindly!

Sincerely,

d

[disrgr]

That said, I still wish FR had a true HTML editor. I hate having to type in all the formatting codes all the time.

If you use Mozilla Firefox, there are two little extensions you can use to help out. One is bbCodeXtra/htmlExtra, and the other is Insert Signature. The first one lets you chooses a variety of html or bbCode tags from a context menu with a click of your mouse. The second lets you input any characters you like so you can choose them from the context menu, with your mouse. For instance, one of mine is the < p > tag; I select it from the menu, click on it, and it prints on the screen. Used together, you don't have to type in tags over and over.

Sincerely,

d

[Mr. Silverback]

Written by a man who seems to be unaware our thread with a pantload more than 700 comments (2132 to be precise).

The Saturday Night Massacre thread had a post total in the 5 figure range.

[GeronL]

we don't write FU to each other because we have imagination and vocabulary.

we'd write something more like: You pathetic peice of dried up frog spawn.

[Theresawithanh]

"...And, I wish we had the ability to edit our posts after we submit them!"

Me, too!!! FRs still one of the easiest sites to get around in, especially if you're as tech-challenged as I am.

[Styria]

What is AJAXy?

[pacelvi]

AJAX = Asynchronous JavaScript and XML

That means that a web browser can interact with a webserver without having to do a postback or reload a page. This gives the webpage the ability to act more like a native computer program and provides some seam-less behavior that previously required the browser to redraw the whole page.

Google Maps is a good example of this.. as your mouse or map reaches the boundry of what is visible, instead of the page reloading from the server to get the images for the bordering space, the page can communicate with the server and get the info seamlessly.

[Shelayne]

The Saturday Night Massacre thread had a post total in the 5 figure range.

Is that what it has been named? LOL. I felt like a voyeur on that thread. I didn't dare post a word, but I could NOT tear myself away from the blasted thing. At 3:00 AM, I think I stopped, only because my head was pounding, and I had to get up in a few hours.

Of course, I was back reading hours later. Last I saw, it had over 18,000 replies.

[George W. Bush]

If you use Mozilla Firefox, there are two little extensions you can use to help out. One is bbCodeXtra/htmlExtra, and the other is Insert Signature.

You might be interested in a Firefox extension that I've been coding called FRstyle for a while. Started as a Stylish script, revamped to Greasemonkey, now a full extension. Only released to a small beta test group (including John Robinson who codes FR's Perl now). Some screenshots at Photobucket (each link opens in a new tab or window).

• 
  thread view
• 
  posting comments view
• 
  embedded YouTube video

Sloppy code, I'm still working on it, testing features, removing stuff I don't like. I like the embedding of YouTubes, the easy editing, the styles that are easier on the eye than black text on white. Well, chances are I'll never release it publicly the way things are now here at FR. Not worth the trouble and interest isn't strong anyway. FR is very largely a crowd of older folk who run the browser that came with their machine (IE on Windows, Safari on Mac).

---

Styria, AJAX is a technique to organize data via standard XML data techniques and using Javascript to manipulate pages and offer features while a web page is loading. This allows for lots of 'live' features, updating only the parts of a page that have changed, integrating with blogs and services like MySpace, Facebook, etc. One of the more obvious applications would be the kind of things I do with Firefox (pics above) but on all browsers. A highly desirable feature would be live updates where your browser would send off a request every so many seconds requesting a page refresh of threads you currently have open, e.g. you have a thread open and the last post is #70 and after 60 seconds, your browser fires off a request telling the FR server the thread URL and post #70 and then it sends back a response with posts 71-80 which have been posted in the last 60 seconds. It would give FR a live feel and eliminate a lot of extra full-page refreshes, save server bandwitdth. You could also include the posting stuff right on the webpage, not take the user to a separate posting page. Again, less bandwidth, fewer clicks, fewer page loads, more immediate responses.

Ajax (programming) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Shelayne]

That is so true. This is the first place I go. I literally run to my keyboard and tap, tap, tap away. When my friend called me with news of the 35W bridge collapse, I actually already had the TV on, but was not paying attention. It had just happened, so there was no video yet—just a local reporter on the phone, but I ran to my computer. Sure enough, there was a thread already started.

This place ROCKS, as far as I am concerned.

[Democratshavenobrains]

Conservative blogs don’t just whine about rich white Christian men, so therefore it won’t get as big an audience as DUh or Huffpo or Kos.

[expatguy]

http://laotze.blogspot.com/2007/08/jihad-from-jakarta-to-whitehouse.html

[disrgr]

Wow, wow, wow! That would be a fantastic addition to the user's toolbox. Don't give up on it--surely there are enough people who would love it. I would, and I'm in my fifties!

Sincerely,

d

[lentulusgracchus]

kos, etc are more like the kids on campus that would stand up on soapboxes reading political statements and manifesto to a small crowd.

Isn't that the classic Leftist political architecture? Doubleplusgood duckspeakers declaiming to the mobiliz(ed/ing) masses?

And a tiny, invisible Politburo hashing out content in a locked room?