it is just part of life

and more about TL’s focussed approach to blogging, and Corrente’s more ’free-wheeling’ approach.

The people that go to TL now want to talk about politics and criminal justice. Corrente isn’t focussed like TL is… you don’t get gardening tips and pictures of Texas scenery at TL. You click on their homepage, and you see two or three political topics on your screen — and while you may have gone there to discuss one topic, you stay because other topics of interest are being discussed. They don’t have to scroll down through pictures.

Its not the nature of the comments here — they are quite good, IMHO. However, the linear nature of the comments section means that you have to look at each comment to see if its interesting — the nested comment structure used at TL allows you to ignore the discussions that arise in response to “Obots”.

So don’t change — 2:53 is quite good, IMHO. In fact, I liked it better here when it was a ’C-List’ blog. Now its a solid B list blog, moving up to B+ status…

Next thing I know, Lambert will show up at Bloggingheads, and all hope will have been lost.

Start from the second: every post at Talkleft has millions of comments. People squabble with each other and talk and talk and talk. If you want to participate you must read volumes and it takes time.

Jeralyn and BTD post frequently. BTD is a phenomenon in the political blog world. He understands Obama’s 3 billion flaws but still supports him. It’s fascinating to watch his circus acts required to do that.

… per request (I think).

The relations were always there in the system, it’s just that threading has so many weird display issues, what with going off the side of the page when there are too many. I just felt that simpler was better. But let’s try it out. We can always change them back.

here.

AND I love this blog. I’ve got no idea how much time I spend here, but I come here at least as often as TalkLeft.

Also? It feels more personal.

But, maybe it’s just my secret crush….

its a very nice touch — however, because the status quo is to just go to the bottom and add a new comment here, ’threading’ doesn’t help.

(in other words, it might be a good idea to force people to click on “reply” to SOMEONE to force threads to happen, at least for a while until people get used to replying to specific comments.)

i left talk left about a year ago. i had not returned until the last month when i ran across one of armando’s (big tent democrat) posts on the clinton-obama struggle.

i think btd is a superb analyst.

i personally like and admire jeralyn merritt very much.

but i came to call her “mom” on that webblog. she had a very annoying habit of deleting comments that has already been posted which i did not think were especially offensive.

in my opinion she was MUCH too much involved in determining what was acceptable speech, especially for a lawyer.

she was also very strict about cuss words. as i recall she was worried that library filters in schools would block her weblog.

when she took down one of my posted comments, a wacky, sarcastic, irritated criticism of another commenter, a frequent and, perversely, well-loved, moron at talk left,

i left and did not go back until last month.

there are way too many other fine blogs for me to sit around wondering if a comment i made would offend “mom”.

it’s her weblog, she makes up the rules.

it’s my web browser, i make up the rules.

i would strongly suggest that you not waste time blocking comments, particularly from folks that comment regularly, which was my beef with “mom”.

there are occasional vile or cruel comments that need to be deep-sixed and no harm done.

and there are ip addresses which spew out crap repeatedly, where blocking might be appropriate to conserve resources.

personally, i find the comments here much more interesting than those at talk left, even today, even with btd’s fine analysis.

quality in comments -thoughtfulness and humor/playfulness - count very high for me.

on another matter, i hate nesting and nested comments. they are nearly impossible to follow if there is any traffic around the “seed” comment.

that is one reason why, long before zuniga became a propagandists, that i never read comments at the great orange satan.

nor have i ever commented there, though i have left thousands of my droppings elsewhere throughout the weblog world.

This blog is still human-sized and I really enjoy the small community. It’s getting bigger but slowly enough that we kinda get acquainted with each other.

Not to mention that the quality of the writing by Lambert, Vl (miss him already), PLuk is what attracted me here in the first place and has kept me here since.

And like KB, I have crush on Lambert. :-)

quality in comments -thoughtfulness and humor/playfulness - count very high for me.

I personally think that there is an inversse correlation between the quantity of comments and quality of a comments section.

I think this is because in smaller blogs, you wind up with one conversation that everyone can follow — and where every comment adds something to the discussion. As comments become more numerous, the conversation fragments, and that fragnemtation results in a whole lot of repetitive comments.

********
PS to frenchdoc! thanx, and back atcha doubled — you can actually WRITE, and its always a pleasure to read your stuff.

thank you.

— though now I suppose it’s not so secret! As with BTD, I’m impressed by the quantity of quality posts.

I love TalkLeft but can seldom make my way through all of the comments.

I love Corrente just because it is more relaxed and more humorous. But the comments are no less incisive. The quality of the comments is unique here.

And I feel as though I know people. It’s like the difference between a huge university and a small but excellent liberal arts college.

has a more free form structure in it’s physical set up as well as in the writing. This encourages relaxed, personal discussions much like the secret crush thing going on here. I’m not sure you’d find that kind of fun as often at TalkLeft.

I do like TalkLeft’s nifty link to previous or next posts at the bottom of a current post. ON the other hand I find the comment section overwhelming and unwieldy.

You guys are great, we’re lucky to have you. Now I’m going to hang around for 5:25 minutes….

between the 7 minutes that folks spend at talk left

and the 3 minutes folks spend here?

people at correntewire read faster.

(couldn’t resist - forgive this sinner, talk lefters).

I think. The other blogs’ interfaces don’t intrude so much on the content.

Personally i find the commentary here to be frequently fresh and engrossing but the interface drives me nuts.

Sorry.

Typing text into a box — what could be nicer?

Maybe if I have better data, KateNC, I can improve things.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

to have the new comments marked as “new” in red bold, like at TL. It would be easier to spot ’em.

The interface is the way the page looks.

Clean, uncluttered and mostly white is way better.

If the width of the content column were wider (if your software allows it) and you dropped the users currently on line plus latest comments, which are generally unnecessary, it would help. Also, a lot of people comment without reading everything and latest comments just makes it easier for them.

Making the vertical bar at the right a pale color so there isn’t such a hard stop at the end of each line of comment would also help.

I agree that replies in long threads get really skinny but that’s usually because of all the repetitious comments.

The whole point being to get the reader to read the post and then maybe go back later and re-read to see additional commentary. They need to get into the post and thread not just skim latest comments.

Suck them into the community.

Because your posts are so interesting I’d like to see updates as you find additional information or come up with additional thoughts. Updates are great to get readers into the conversation but the word “Update” must be at the bottom of the portion of the post on the front page so readers know that there is one or more of them.

Sorry to be so opinionated about technical matters.

Anglachel, Calculated Risk, icasualties, and, I hate to admit it but Orange Satan all have clean interfaces.