Comments on: How long can volunteers sustain community blogs?

By: Capitol Offense: Is the Progressive Netroots In Trouble? » Florida Progressive Coalition Blog -

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:20:57 +0000

[...] what if it’s something else. Scholars and Rogues discussed this same issue last week. How do we continue to provide information and commentary when [...]

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:03:30 +0000

1) lose interest, 2) lose access to reliable, verifiable information produced by journalists, 3) lose equal access to the Web as politicians favor corporate control of the Internet or 4) just need to spend more time at the day job in a bad economy to make ends meet?

You’ve pinpointed exactly the effects of a failing newspaper industry, and, by extension, the weak economy on the Internet. I hadn’t seen the issue expressed this way before. Post needs to be widely disseminated.

By: Dan Van Riper

Dan Van Riper — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:03:16 +0000

I’ve been blogging locally for about three and a half years. Sure it takes up my time, it’s an unpaid second job. But I also know that my posts are being read and re-read, used as a collective memory for reference.

What’s in it for me personally, why would I continue to blog? First, it gives me a chance to write and be published. Second, it relieves my intense frustration at not being able to express myself and be heard.

Third, without any effort or desire on my part I find myself being taken seriously by political and activist circles in my community. This third item snuck up on me and came as a surprise. Believe me, I’m delighted that important people now care about my personal opinion.

When I get tired of servicing these three desires I’ll quit blogging. Until then, I’ll keep digging up local issues and causing the authorities consternation… which is also gratifying.

By: Posts about Huffington Post as of June 3, 2009 » The Daily Parr

Posts about Huffington Post as of June 3, 2009 » The Daily Parr — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:37:10 +0000

[...] faith” and thus he is allowed to maintain them,” the Huffington Post reports.The How long can volunteers sustain community blogs? – scholarsandrogues.com 06/03/2009 Over the past nearly four years, nearly 2,600 posts have [...]

By: John Statler

John Statler — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:51:33 +0000

I would like the opportunity to make partial pay for a local journalist, via subscription, to research local stories that are selected in participation with other subscribers (but not totally at the subscribers’ whim). I would hope that such a journalist would have the foresight and time to devote to larger community news groups like S&R.

I’m considering making some outreach efforts to the local Democratic Party members and some smaller parties in the hopes of getting a significant number of “I’ll pay $50 a month for good news” kinds of people.

What’s holding me back is simply inertia. The local paper, “Mail Tribune”, is falling apart quickly…smaller, lots of fluff pieces, they don’t want to disturb the few advertisers they have now.

By: Brian Angliss

Brian Angliss — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:30:04 +0000

It’s a huge problem, to be sure. Governments at all levels and corporations putting stuff up on the web makes some kinds of research much easier (like the kind of stuff that I do with climate/energy, for example, and IRS/SEC information) for volunteers to do investigative pieces. But ultimately, the vast majority of volunteers simply don’t have the time to devote days or weeks to chasing a story, no matter how compelling it may be.

I keep hoping that groups like ProPublica will take off, and maybe they will – ProPublica is so new that it’s hard to predict how it’ll do over the long run. But while that helps, we’d need a hundred or a thousand ProPublicas to replace what’s being lost as newspapers go under.

The Web and blogging is an equaling force, but sometimes I worry that it’s equalizing by turning everything into chaff instead of helping the wheat rise to the surface. Signal is much, much less than noise, and there’s just not that many good filters.

By: Dr. Slammy

Dr. Slammy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:22:00 +0000

I worry about this (as you know) for a variety of reasons. The one that should be of the greatest concern (that is, America’s problem, not just Sam’s) is this: what happens when democracy and journalism become hobbies? What happens when the foundations of our system become things that may or may not get done in somebody’s spare time?

I’m beyond worried.

By: Brian Angliss

Brian Angliss — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:59:28 +0000

Wait, you get 8 hours of sleep a night? How do you manage that? Oh, wait a sec – you don’t have kids.

Never mind.