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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

I Just Want to Say This About That

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I am sitting here with my father giving him the skinny on the current state of this whole bloggy thing and I just want to say this about that:

Thank you, Mooses.

By having the opportunity this morning to run through the progression of the evolution of Homo Blogosapiens and the current state of the species I have also had a chance to compare what has been created here with what has Darwinianly emerged among other tribes in the ecosphere.  As Dave so famously told Hal9000, “Something wonderful” has happened here.

I have yet to sit down and dissertate on all of the specific reasons for this, but as I think about Netroots Nation this August (which I now think I may have to attend) it occurs to me that it is worth compiling and collating this information.  The forward evolution of Blogsapiens is a critical-path item for the rest of the Sapiens family – in my humble opinion – so capturing the positive mutations and fostering them into the larger population is a more than worthy activity.

So, Mooses, let me ask for your input on topic.  What do you think has happened in the Moose Herd that has made it such a fundamentally different subgroup?  What is it that we are doing right that allows us to converse diversely when it seems most/all others are either echoing or shouting?

What, my Mooses, have you done?

[Bonus Moosey Content]


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 35 Comments

35 comments

  1. Bill Blask

    Since I’m the Dad in Chris’s article, I feel empowered to comment. My current incarnation is as a usability geek for corporate America, namely CSC. Corporately we’re climbing on the bandwagon of wiki-hood, creating a wiki that corporate hopes will involve hordes of our customers and open communications and, eventually, engender trust between vendor and customer. Good luck to us.

    What I see here, though not a wikipedic compendium of information and information sources, is by my lights a wonderful information boiling pot. I look instinctively at layout first: space, position, color, reference cues, and so on. The founding 25 or so Moosies have created a blog that I can only hope to aspire to corporately.

    So thank you to all, both founders and all others whose ideas and opinions make their way to these pages. Far from what Little Bush famously said in claiming his “base” (a room full of very well-to-do, very politically and corporately powerful people), this is the base of our democracy. Long may it blog!

    Best wishes,

    Bill Blask

    Dad

  4. anna shane

    I like it cause you like me, and are nice.  When I write a diary that gets front-paged, there is a joke picture added to go with it.  Is that cool or what?

    Along with humor, there are observations from across the pond, no one tells me I have to provide a link to well-known facts, that’s way cool.  I only got picked on and misrepresented once, and then it got made all better, bloggers who aren’t always right, who’d have thunk it?

    There are opinion pieces and real reporting pieces, and serious comments and goofy ones, and it’s all okay.  

    I feel bad for people who can’t blog here, whoever they, maybe.    

  5. spacemanspiff

    Long ass post here ….

    I think this blog is all about progress without having illusions about how much actual impact we directly have through the Moose. We might not help settle a close Senate race or help define policy (all great things) but we do have the ability to impact society in a different matter. We try to help each other shape our views. Which will then do when debating IRL. Which will then continue on in a small but effective snowball going downhill effect. For instance, I remember when Indie wrote his awesome Gay Rights story and what he mentioned in that diary about seeing things differently. I won’t even get into all this place has helped reinforce or change in my line of thought and how I view the world now. Let’s see how I can explain this.

    The Motley Moose is a blog which actually reflects what society in general is and feels like. We all know hardcore conservatives whose opinion and thought we appreciate in real life. Fathers, brothers, partners, offspring, neighbors. The  list is endless. Why then do we shun and shout down those who think differently than us when they mean well on blogs? I’m not talking about positions we all share ( racism, sexism, ect.ism). I’m talking about peeps with an opinion which although different is brought forward in a positive, constructive, and respectful manner. I understand why other websites will do this, especially when their purpose is getting Democrats elected and helping change policy. This is not a knock on them. This is what they are. This is not what the Moose is about. It’s hard to compare this place with other blogs with similiar backgrounds because the Moose has become something else. Not better or worse just different.

    When we read the majority of comments and diaries it is about that this site is def dominated by a large margin by very left libs. Why then does it seem to have a centerish tilt to it? I think it’s the fact that as long as opinions are presented in a coherent and respectful manner people will engage in the same manner even when disagreeing viciously. Just a look through our I/P diaries more than proves what I’m talking about.

    I think it was Reaper who said it in the simplest and best way.

    Attack the argument NOT the person making the argument.

    The fact that we have such heavily moderated blog means we never have to moderate!.

    I think it was blasky who said just having the ban stick and no fear in using it is enough for people to behave like they usually do in the real world.

    Other can obviously expand on what I’m writing. Just throwing stuff out there.

    …. and of course …

    The concept of the community blog and what it really means. Every single person who has ever been part of the Moose. From those who got this place started to those who joined later is just as important. We’ve obviously got people who help run this place in the technical stuff and other but when it comes to content and opinion nobody above anybody. Bill Blask just commented for the first time here and any thing he has to say is given the same attention and importance as anything The Blasklord Jr. says. Instead of relying on the b.s. seniority/ low UID number cop out we encourage and want those who comment here to feel welcome and wanted.

    I’m talking to you lurkers!

    I’ll stop now but that’s more or less where I’m at. Other stuff too but those are some of the things I really love about this place.

  6. John Allen

    I think what makes the Moose different is the diversity. Most sites (blogs) are echo chambers. Not here on the Moose. We have hardcore liberals presenting valid arguments against merit pay for teachers. We have independents (me) arguing against too much gun control. As spacey said, we have people on all sides of the Israeli/Palestinian issue. No one gets shouted down. Everyone gets a chance to present their opinions. That is as it should be. How else can we truly explore an issue if we only see one side of it?

  9. Chris Blask

    Look how much bigger that moose is than him…  Kinda scary now that I look at it, the moose could sneeze the guy into the next block (and the guy doesn’t look like a lightweight).  That has to be a domesticated moose, or the guy is way too drunk.

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