Via Cam Riley, an interesting article on the connection between liberal blogs’ rise to prominence in the US and their fostering of community as compared to the authoritarian op/ed preaching of many conservative blogs:
Anyone who spends a significant amount of time on Scoop blogs should not have any difficulty figuring out why this is the case. Because of Scoop’s diary feature, it is possible to become at least a semi-famous blogger without having a blog of your own. An entire generation of popular liberal bloggers grew out of the Dailykos diaries and comments: Billmon, Steve Soto, Steve Gillard, Melanie, DemfromCT, DhinMI, Theoria, Tom Schaller, Meteor Blades, DavidNYC, myself, SusanHu, Jerome a Paris, lapin, Maryscott O’Conner, NYCO, Mariascat, and many, many more. I believe that the wave of new talent and fresh voices that the comments and dairy options bring to a blog has been the key factor in the liberal blogosphere outpacing the growth of the right wing blogosphere. Every day brings more reasons to read the highly trafficked liberal blogs. Every two weeks or so brings a new liberal blog from someone who has already become famous as a diarist. Community moderated blogging platforms such as Scoop have provided us with an excellent means of finding new voices, and these are the voices that are generating the accelerated growth in the liberal and progressive blogosphere when compared to the right-wing blogosphere.
By comparison, right-wing blogs have pretty much only one means of finding a new voice in the blogosphere: when someone starts a new blog. The inability to operate within a community must be the primary reason behind the large number of conservative blogs in the second, third and fourth quintiles of the Blogads traffic rankings. In fact, of these 120 blogs, 77 of them are openly conservative / libertarian. There are swarms of new conservative voices looking to breakout in the right-wing blogosphere, but they are not even allowed to comment, much less post a diary and gain a following, on the high traffic conservative blogs. Instead, without any fanfare, they are forced to start their own blogs. However, because of the top-down nature of right-wing blogs, new conservative blogs remain almost entirely dependent upon the untouchable high traffic blogs for visitors. In short, the anti-community nature of right-wing blogs has resulted in a stagnant aristocracy within the conservative blogosphere that prevents the emergence of new voices and, as a result, new reasons for people to visit conservative blogs.
Unless right-wing blogs decide to open up and allow their readers to have a greater voice, I expect that the liberal and progressive blogosphere will continue its unborken twenty-month rise in relative traffic. Conservative bloggers continue to act as though they are simply a supplement to the existing pundit class, without any need to converse with those operating outside of a small social bubble or any need to engage people within the new structure of the public sphere. In the formulation of Stirling Newberry, they view themselves existing on top of a pyramid rather than in the middle of a sphere. At least when it comes to the national blogosphere, liberals are leaving conservatives in the dust. By comparison, conservatives seem all too happy to continue to cogitate from atop their lofty and increasingly irrelevant perch. That’s fine by me. I hope some things never change.
Elsewhere: Suzoz has a couple of interesting posts on blogging and gender.
It is the salon atmosphere that brings us all back, Mark. At least, the atmosphere of a salon in which three corners are civilised but one corner is covered in bloody sawdust, stale beer and discarded ideology.
When are you going to scoop? Let me guess, upon submission?
On blogging and gender, today is “What Women (Bloggers) Want” day. Head to your favourite woman blogger’s site, read what they want, and follow the links at the bottom to find some new blogs to bookmark.
Unless right-wing blogs decide to open up and allow their readers to have a greater voice, I expect that the liberal and progressive blogosphere will continue its…bla bla bla…
Authoritarian op/ed preaching anyone?
Yours is more like homiletics, C.L.
Happy What Women Bloggers Want Day! I know what I want…
Let me guess, upon submission?
My oral defence is on 22/8.
I want Miss P. to post more regularly.
There are currently 17 female bloggers on my blogroll, not counting group blogs which include women bloggers. Some male bloggers who link to similar blogs only include a few of these. I also like the fact that we get a much larger number of female commenters here at LP than some other blogs, and that 3 of the guest bloggers are women. I also think LP is one of the few political blogs that regularly highlights gender and sexuality issues in posts.
But I want more good links to women bloggers! Please submit your own or nominate some you like!
I came out of the kuro5hin diary ghetto. South Sea Republic is scoop based.
I rekon several of the more highly trafficked Auian sites should make the transition to scoop based community site. Like LP, Catallaxy and Troppo.
Blog software doesn’t scale that well beyond twenty or so commenters and a couple of authors.Which is fine in most cases but can inhibit growth in others.
What a load of bollocks . . . “but they are not even allowed to comment” – there are plenty of other blogs to comment at if one doesn’t let you.
The Right don’t need lots because they’ve got quality. Right wings blogs are accused of being a force in the election victories of Bush and Howard and have got the scalp of the Dan “Fake but True” Rather, among others. I can’t see much actual success from the left side of the blogosphere.
I believe it is much the same as protesting – left wingers are attracted to lifestyles and employment that enables them the opportunity to go to useless rallies. Right wingers are generally working hard to better themselves and have better things to do with their time.
One problem with these left-wing “community” sites is that they ruthlessly suppress anyone who steps outside the groupthink.
So I question their utility.
Right wingers are generally working hard to better themselves and have better things to do with their time.
Very hard to believe that, Razor, since our resident rightwingers such as EP and observa seem to have all the time in the world to comment on blogs all day 24/7. Us lefties have to go off and earn a living sometimes, by contrast.
You post a lot more words on this blog than Observa or I do, Kim.
EP, Tribalist advocacy sites do these kind of things. Deal with it.
I comment here between shifts and never when I’m at work.
Thanks, Cameron. That example of a right-wing community site pretty much skewers the argument in the initial post.