I kind of agree. I think the problem was that I didn't actually finish setting up the "pages". I couldn't comment either. This may be telling us that blogger may indeed be too complicated for most people to use. If one can't set it up easily and transparently (ie, without too much trouble and with just a few clicks) then most people will get discouraged. You already have a blog and know your way around, but like you say, it's a bit complicated for those who never had a blogspot. There is a bit of learning curve there, probably because of all the fancy improvements they introduced.
This is one reason an ultra simple site like FriendFeed is easier. There it really takes seconds to set up a feed. Problem is that even though Sean is happy with the interface, I am not. For someone like me who often strings together long posts (sorry, it's one of those features of my programming that cannot be easily unraveled), not having the option for paragraphs is really a detriment. There are options for dealing with that but to me they may not be satisfactory for the purpose we were discussing - at least not for many.
DANAA- Responding to your comment on my blogspot and the one on your blogspot, I think the complication arises only for those who don’t have a google account. I think a gmail account would suffice, and many have those. On my blogspot, even that is unnecessary due to the anonymous option (include name in the text for ID). Having said that, I question the demand out there for this. Since I posted my idea on “Our New Look,” only you and Sean have commented on my blogspot, only me on yours. My page views did shoot up, 50 or 60 in two days, curiously the majority from Sean’s link on FriendFeed.
As for people’s lack of involvement, I agree, which is one of the reasons I have an interest in social organizational dynamics (political economy). Most of my mini essays deal with some aspect social organization and control. I have concluded that when the logic of social mythology conflicts with empirical reality, most will support the mythology and the group. Lord knows that applies to Zionists who have trouble sleeping at night worrying that the Palestinians are going to destroy Israel and throw the Jews into the sea. An extreme example to be sure, but many Americans have difficulty truly believing the nastiness of empire. I am personally more or less inactive because nothing I see indicates that my fellow Americans possess even the minimum rationality and desire to work for social change. And then there is the sad reality that the global means of social control have expanded to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine effective resistance. Lately, I have difficulty avoiding the descent into gloom and doom.
The bottom line to this is that my original idea seems less workable or desirable than when I originally conceived it. Oh well, an interesting experiment.
I understand your doubts about the demand out there and second it. Sean's FF account really only has like 6 people commenting on it, and perhaps 20 that ever did. Out of those 20 5 were highly problematic and have now formed their own group - but Sean still has to delete their comments manually since one can't ban commenters unless the group is taken "private" which really beats its purpose. For me, seeing him struggle with these individuals who obviously had agendas and may or may not have been provocateurs, kind of took the shine off the simple FF interface.
The one time there was an influx of more commenters is when the great "banings" on MW were going on. But then that kind of pittered out in time. I am very glad he keeps his little group up and running, since it can act as a kind of "insurance" in case MW goes "dark", something I kind of worry about (worrying about potential events is something I do especially well. An occupational hazard of sorts). Sean is bit of a "missionary" for the new on-line simple interfaces and I have fun arguing with him the pros and cons of ta world gone Twitter (I'm obviously "con". Could I ever put a single thought of mine into 10 words?). Together with Chu they have also started loking into ways of collecting and displaying "lists" of connections for neocon-world. I like the idea and may participate, though I have my own agenda - mostly I have this textural-idea overlay - which I hope to some day flush out.
In that respect your essays (I read some of them - very well put - I wish you got more mileage out of them - they deserve a much larger readership, IMO) will come in handy. I kind of want to lay out the empire "tentacles" in a visual form, which can be readily grasped. Then have each little "tentacle" link to a "sub world" , where it can reach out - subterranially - to other concepts and percepts. My imagery that I have in my head is a voracious species of ivy, something more plant-like than a virus (which I also thought of). Neoliberalism is one such tentacle - it's very virus-like and can be so described, I'm sure, but I still see that darn ivy (there is such a species but I forgot the name).
Please don't sink into inactivity - though I understand the temptation, seeing the passivity of our fellow humans. No wonder humans have been such good hosts for any number of parasitic constructs, empires, neoliberalism, zionism and religious fundamentalism being a few of the more obvious constructs (OK, there's another option for my imagery - a parasitic fungal-like infection that's preying on the "ivy" which itself reaches far and wide, covering every human and institution within reach). How does one fight the parasite infected ivy without killing the hosts? there's the conundrum.
For some comfort, I've been reading The vineyard of the Saker blog (vineyard.blogpost.com) which you surely know about. Lots of good translated material from Russian and other languages. From the huge support the site gets and the many comments (from all over the world especially about Ukraine situation) one gets a feel that there is resistance out there, that it's growing and that once in a while the "good guys" can get their licks in. I can also mention the Moon of Alabama which attracts quite a few thoughtful commenters.
As for the original idea about the blogspot, I still think it's a good one. I'll see if I can enable the "annymous" feature - it could just be I didn't give much time for getting familiar with the features. For now, the demand may not be there, but it can all change in an instant, you know. In the meantime I can comment to you off MW sometimes on OT matters - by itself a benefit. Plus it got me to look a bit into blogspot and I can have more ammunition for my interminable debates with Sean, the Big Data man.
Now that I am signed in to google, I guess that I can re-submit a comment. Without the "anonymous" option, this is much too complicated for comments.
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree. I think the problem was that I didn't actually finish setting up the "pages". I couldn't comment either. This may be telling us that blogger may indeed be too complicated for most people to use. If one can't set it up easily and transparently (ie, without too much trouble and with just a few clicks) then most people will get discouraged. You already have a blog and know your way around, but like you say, it's a bit complicated for those who never had a blogspot. There is a bit of learning curve there, probably because of all the fancy improvements they introduced.
DeleteThis is one reason an ultra simple site like FriendFeed is easier. There it really takes seconds to set up a feed. Problem is that even though Sean is happy with the interface, I am not. For someone like me who often strings together long posts (sorry, it's one of those features of my programming that cannot be easily unraveled), not having the option for paragraphs is really a detriment. There are options for dealing with that but to me they may not be satisfactory for the purpose we were discussing - at least not for many.
DANAA- Responding to your comment on my blogspot and the one on your blogspot, I think the complication arises only for those who don’t have a google account. I think a gmail account would suffice, and many have those. On my blogspot, even that is unnecessary due to the anonymous option (include name in the text for ID). Having said that, I question the demand out there for this. Since I posted my idea on “Our New Look,” only you and Sean have commented on my blogspot, only me on yours. My page views did shoot up, 50 or 60 in two days, curiously the majority from Sean’s link on FriendFeed.
ReplyDeleteAs for people’s lack of involvement, I agree, which is one of the reasons I have an interest in social organizational dynamics (political economy). Most of my mini essays deal with some aspect social organization and control. I have concluded that when the logic of social mythology conflicts with empirical reality, most will support the mythology and the group. Lord knows that applies to Zionists who have trouble sleeping at night worrying that the Palestinians are going to destroy Israel and throw the Jews into the sea. An extreme example to be sure, but many Americans have difficulty truly believing the nastiness of empire. I am personally more or less inactive because nothing I see indicates that my fellow Americans possess even the minimum rationality and desire to work for social change. And then there is the sad reality that the global means of social control have expanded to such an extent that it is difficult to imagine effective resistance. Lately, I have difficulty avoiding the descent into gloom and doom.
The bottom line to this is that my original idea seems less workable or desirable than when I originally conceived it. Oh well, an interesting experiment.
I understand your doubts about the demand out there and second it. Sean's FF account really only has like 6 people commenting on it, and perhaps 20 that ever did. Out of those 20 5 were highly problematic and have now formed their own group - but Sean still has to delete their comments manually since one can't ban commenters unless the group is taken "private" which really beats its purpose. For me, seeing him struggle with these individuals who obviously had agendas and may or may not have been provocateurs, kind of took the shine off the simple FF interface.
DeleteThe one time there was an influx of more commenters is when the great "banings" on MW were going on. But then that kind of pittered out in time. I am very glad he keeps his little group up and running, since it can act as a kind of "insurance" in case MW goes "dark", something I kind of worry about (worrying about potential events is something I do especially well. An occupational hazard of sorts). Sean is bit of a "missionary" for the new on-line simple interfaces and I have fun arguing with him the pros and cons of ta world gone Twitter (I'm obviously "con". Could I ever put a single thought of mine into 10 words?). Together with Chu they have also started loking into ways of collecting and displaying "lists" of connections for neocon-world. I like the idea and may participate, though I have my own agenda - mostly I have this textural-idea overlay - which I hope to some day flush out.
In that respect your essays (I read some of them - very well put - I wish you got more mileage out of them - they deserve a much larger readership, IMO) will come in handy. I kind of want to lay out the empire "tentacles" in a visual form, which can be readily grasped. Then have each little "tentacle" link to a "sub world" , where it can reach out - subterranially - to other concepts and percepts. My imagery that I have in my head is a voracious species of ivy, something more plant-like than a virus (which I also thought of). Neoliberalism is one such tentacle - it's very virus-like and can be so described, I'm sure, but I still see that darn ivy (there is such a species but I forgot the name).
Please don't sink into inactivity - though I understand the temptation, seeing the passivity of our fellow humans. No wonder humans have been such good hosts for any number of parasitic constructs, empires, neoliberalism, zionism and religious fundamentalism being a few of the more obvious constructs (OK, there's another option for my imagery - a parasitic fungal-like infection that's preying on the "ivy" which itself reaches far and wide, covering every human and institution within reach). How does one fight the parasite infected ivy without killing the hosts? there's the conundrum.
For some comfort, I've been reading The vineyard of the Saker blog (vineyard.blogpost.com) which you surely know about. Lots of good translated material from Russian and other languages. From the huge support the site gets and the many comments (from all over the world especially about Ukraine situation) one gets a feel that there is resistance out there, that it's growing and that once in a while the "good guys" can get their licks in. I can also mention the Moon of Alabama which attracts quite a few thoughtful commenters.
As for the original idea about the blogspot, I still think it's a good one. I'll see if I can enable the "annymous" feature - it could just be I didn't give much time for getting familiar with the features. For now, the demand may not be there, but it can all change in an instant, you know. In the meantime I can comment to you off MW sometimes on OT matters - by itself a benefit. Plus it got me to look a bit into blogspot and I can have more ammunition for my interminable debates with Sean, the Big Data man.