The Stageleft Readers’ Guide To Good Political Blogging
Last month the Bunker Research Bureau asked our readers to tell us “What Makes For A Good Political Blog?”
We got great, insightful responses from right across the political spectrum, from Arwen to Zerb and from Robert McLelland to SUZANNE; and the thread itself was a model of civil, thoughtful and productive discussion among smart folks with diverging views but a willingness to listen.
We’re going to take your input and use it as the basis of a very interesting little project (if we do say so ourselves). More on that later. But first, for your interest, here’s a summary of what YOU said makes for a good political blog. We hope we’ve done justice to your thoughts.
What makes a good political blog? It seems to boil down to four criteria.
1. Good Stuff
- Insightful posts, backed by facts, reason, and accurate research, with links provided to credible sources.
- Meaningful topics provocative enought to stimulate lively discussion.
- Original opinions and a unique perspective and insights – not just repetition of party lines or the topic du jour.
- New content added frequently and regularly enough to keep readers coming back.
- A focus on the citizen’s perspective, not the politicians’.
- Occasional forays away from the strictly political into culture, music, art, theatre and personal reflection.
2. Good writin’
- A recognizable voice and style, giving readers a sense of the person behind the blog.
- A sense of humour.
- Participation by the writer in the threads, stimulating, focusing and setting the tone of discussion.
- Avoidance of common rhetorical fallacies and cheap debating tricks.
- A host who acknowledges mistakes, admits their own biases, and periodically shows evidence of willingness and capacity to actually – gasp – change their minds.
3. Good talkin’
- A literate and articulate readership with a wide range of opinions and styles.
- Writers and commenters who are actually interested in exploring ideas, not just in winning arguments.
- Energetic, respectful, intelligent discussion – heat WITH light.
- A stable of regular visitors to create a sense of community and a standard for commentary.
4. Good lookin’
- An attractive, reader-friendly design, occasionally updated.
So sayeth the readers of Stageleft, and so say all of us.
Good summary.
Thanks, SUZANNE. All credit goes to the authors – a great range of comments.
Stay tuned for the next episode.
I wonder about the design, though. A really good design can be timeless. I like what you’ve settled on. It gets the article up in front of you and it frames it with a good sidebar. The main column and one-or-two sidebar arrangements seem to have become quite common in blogging, such that only a decent colour scheme and some good pictures is what separates the good from the bad.
I’d appreciate a critique of the design on my blog. I’ve tinkered with it a few times, but I’ve maintained the same basic look and colour scheme. I’ve been thinking about renovations, but I keep on coming back to what I’ve got. Maybe I need a fresh set of eyes to look at the thing?
James, The commenting system never remembers my details I find. Typepad was never a favourite.
I just monkeyed with my comment system, and changed the spam filter. I would appreciate any insights there too. I would like to improve my paged commenting system, but alas the developer seems to have taken a long holiday, so I may have to revert to no paged system, so if I get a thread over 15 comments, it doesn’t slow down people who comment then read more.
Oh man, do I ever fail this test, ppphhhttttppppp!!!!
Oh well, I’l stick to bad righting, pour spellin and terable grammer
I stick with humour, but I have been updating the look of the Wingnuterer this weekend and Mark has been tweaking some other add ons
I do think that the site should be easy on the eyes. Minimalism rules. People who write white on black don’t hold my attention–too much like work.
Also–and I blush to confess that I stole this idea from a true antagonist, Terry Glavin–an illustration really helps to set the theme. There are a million images on Google Images, and there’s always one that fits really well.
But that’s appearance. What is really a sine qua non is decent writing, real engagement and passion, and a relatively continuous flow of posts.
Oh, and one other thing. Comments should be enabled. Exercise a stern editorial control, by all means–but sites where comments are not enabled are narcissist. They don’t hold my attention either.
good summary. it will be interesting to see this experiment.
Dawg,
Good point regarding the images. I try to include one for every post to, as you say, set the mood, and shake up the block of text. However, I am reticent about using Google Images. Having been burnt before, I want to be a bit more sure of any copyright issues before I post something. Something from the CBC is about as daring as I get (I figure, it’s like a newspaper, and I’m commenting on the news: fair use). More often, I use the Creative Commons pools on Flickr. They pull about 10 million photographs, but searching for what you want is a little harder.
Saskboy, drop me an e-mail. I’ll set you up with an internal account to comment.
Pah. You forgot the ferrets.
I like the idea of using images.
Just one problem I am using W.P and there seems to a default picture size(thumbnail)
I haven’t figured out how to manipulate the size(if its even possible),and the pic placement controls are to basic.Often the text and picture placement mesh poorly ,so it would be nice to be able to tinker with the text placement in relation to the picture and visa versus
Any ideas…?
I’m afraid that with the free wordpress.com site editing CSS doesn’t seem possible dirk…. if it was you could use a service like photobucket and tinker with your css to change image placement (and a bunch of other things).
It looks like that feature is worth $15 per year – guess you have to decide if that’s a reasonable price for what you want
In other words you’ve arrived at the holy grail of blog layouts James….. the one you’re satisfied with, maybe someday I’ll get there as well, probably when I find the elusive DoS layout I keep holding out for