Comments on: Lonely at the Top

By: Battlepanda

Battlepanda — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:31:26 +0000

I have a slightly different take on Kos, Atrios’ rejection of their “gatekeeper” status. Their blogs started off as personal domains with a tight-knit circle of readers. Indeed, even as they become megasites, an integral part of their appeal lies in the distinct character their personality imparts to their blogs. Keeping this distinctness is incompatable with becoming the high priest of lefty blogisphere and being responsible for linking to everything important rather than whatever they’re interested in.

Anyhow, the best way for blogs to grow meaningfully is not to get 2000 hits one day from Atrios — those hits seldom come back. It’s through cultivating a community of frequent readers and a vibrant comment section. And the best way to do that is to link to and have conversations with smaller bloggers.

By: Terrance

Terrance — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:40:56 +0000

I’ll say it again. Less than one tenth of one percent of the political blogs get 99 percent of the traffic. Kos, Atrios, Aravosis, they’re in that one tenth. People approach them to post about stuff because if they post about it lots of people will read it. Lots more than if someone set up a blog themselves, which would fall into the millions of other blogs splitting up one percent of the traffic. In the blogosphere, just because you build it doens’t necessarily mean they’ll come.

Like it or not, they are the gatekeepers, and arbitrary ones at that.

By: upyernoz

upyernoz — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:31:58 +0000

why can’t kos or atrios or john aravosis have whatever kind of blogs they want? i mean, if they do not want to post unsolicited submissions, is there anything wrong with them telling their readers they won’t? if kos doesn’t want to be a gatekeeper is there anything wrong with him saying that?

i’m not saying the big blogs don’t have responsibility to the community, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still run whatever kind of site and play whatever kind of role they want to play.

if one of them says: this site is not for doing X, and you’d rather read a site that does X, then find a site that does it, or try to build one yourself. there’s no sense in shaking your fist in the air over this.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:38:42 +0000

Terrance nailed it — Kos seems to be shucking the responsibility he has to be a leader in the progressive community.

That may change over time, but that’s the impression he’s giving right now.

By: Terrance

Terrance — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 23:56:12 +0000

Responsibility? Seems to me like he’s deying any responsibility.

Anyway, it looks like he already has plenty of support.

By: Maypo

Maypo — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 23:31:00 +0000

Kos may be a bit overwhelmed with all the new success and responsibility. He’ll handle it well in the end. Everyone needs to vent from time to time. Don’t hate, support!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:38:34 +0000

Hearing Kos or Atrios whine about their role as top dogs is a bit nauseating. What they fail to realize is that it’s the smaller blogs that made them what they are — without those thousands of links from the smaller fish, they’d be just another blog with a few hundred readers.

It also ignores the grassroots efforts that will help progressives take back some political power. The smaller blogs (at least from my experience) are read by folks who don’t always check out the bigger ones. It also ignores the fact that smaller ones help create the blogswarms that can truly make a difference — just look at the story of Zach.

Will that change as blogging becomes more mainstream? Will progressives get more organized and focus on the big picture, rather than fighting amongst themselves? Will the big guys (and girls) realize that you can’t trample us little folks?

Wish I had some answers …