Suggestion: if you’re going to start a new group blog, look at the group blogs that are most popular (like Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Bleacher Report, etc.) and think about copying them. My suspicion is that the LW “shame them in to maintaining quality” model sucks, and instead you’re better off encouraging the production of lots of content and then building filter mechanisms on top of that.
I’ve been underwhelmed with the comments at Huffington Post. I used to think (partly as a result of being NPR junkie and partly from being exposed to left-wing self-image) that liberals were reliably intelligent. HP comments proved I was wrong.
This doesn’t mean I think typical right-wing comments are better.
Edited to add: Two other places which gave me a good impression of left-wing intelligence: Making Light and Alas, a Blog.
To be fair, Huffington Post is hardly one thing. Are there blogs there anyone would recommend as having good commenting communities?
Nowhere is going to be at the level of Making Light, because TNH is an outlier in comment moderation.
Obsidian Wings and Crooked Timber sometimes-but-not-always have non-pointless comment sections. The League of Ordinary Gentlemen also falls in the sometimes-but-not-always high quality category. (Technically LOOG is more like 45/45/10 Liberal/Libertarians/Conservatives)
It’s not just that TNH is an extraordinary moderator and chooser of moderators. Making Light built on rasfw news groups, and they* built on the long tradition of in-print sf fanwriting. Once upon a time, fanwriting was mostly personal essays rather than fiction—this isn’t a swat at fanfic, just an effort to counter availability bias.
I’ve never really observed that. Actually, my impression has always been that there’s a profusion of firehose-style group blogs like Huffington Post or the Daily Kos (with LessWrong being an unusually successful version of these), but that slow, thoughtful, non-instant-response, essay-format content like More Right’s present lineup can be hard to find. The only thing I’d suggest regarding content volume is that regular, frequent updates would be helpful.
Suggestion: if you’re going to start a new group blog, look at the group blogs that are most popular (like Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Bleacher Report, etc.) and think about copying them. My suspicion is that the LW “shame them in to maintaining quality” model sucks, and instead you’re better off encouraging the production of lots of content and then building filter mechanisms on top of that.
I’ve been underwhelmed with the comments at Huffington Post. I used to think (partly as a result of being NPR junkie and partly from being exposed to left-wing self-image) that liberals were reliably intelligent. HP comments proved I was wrong.
This doesn’t mean I think typical right-wing comments are better.
Edited to add: Two other places which gave me a good impression of left-wing intelligence: Making Light and Alas, a Blog.
To be fair, Huffington Post is hardly one thing. Are there blogs there anyone would recommend as having good commenting communities?
Nowhere is going to be at the level of Making Light, because TNH is an outlier in comment moderation.
Obsidian Wings and Crooked Timber sometimes-but-not-always have non-pointless comment sections. The League of Ordinary Gentlemen also falls in the sometimes-but-not-always high quality category. (Technically LOOG is more like 45/45/10 Liberal/Libertarians/Conservatives)
It’s not just that TNH is an extraordinary moderator and chooser of moderators. Making Light built on rasfw news groups, and they* built on the long tradition of in-print sf fanwriting. Once upon a time, fanwriting was mostly personal essays rather than fiction—this isn’t a swat at fanfic, just an effort to counter availability bias.
I’ve never really observed that. Actually, my impression has always been that there’s a profusion of firehose-style group blogs like Huffington Post or the Daily Kos (with LessWrong being an unusually successful version of these), but that slow, thoughtful, non-instant-response, essay-format content like More Right’s present lineup can be hard to find. The only thing I’d suggest regarding content volume is that regular, frequent updates would be helpful.
Good point, this is something to investigate.