I will say that the site itself, as a forum, can remain "elitist" and still achieve the stated goal of branching out.
The way this occurs is to preserve ET as it is, trying to increase readership but maintain the same decorum whilst encouraging the individual members in their efforts outside of ET and encouraging them to bring that back to the site.
Never confuse an online forum with a real place. The impact of ET will be in what the individuals who are a part of it contribute rather than some kind of collective and branded action of the site. That would inherently require homogenization of ideas and cause more of the friction that is being described. Who speaks for ET? and other questions will consume all of the time formerly devoted to intelligent, free discussion.
I would advise focusing on recruitment more and more, the number of users who understand the current motion of this site can and will increase with effort and that will produce its own fruit. Essentially I say believe that what you have done thus far has been effective and maybe you should continue doing things in the same manner. Fresh blood is needed and welcome, but not for its own sake, rather for what it contributes. How those contributions are measured has already been defined by ET and that which does not fit in has been deemed lacking in its contribution. May they lurk for all eternity!
The big unknown is how to get that public recognition. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I use this site more as a reader than a writer and am always blown away by the quality of commentary and analysis. That does not mean I agree with any of the people who write here - but it is distinctive - as is the ambition of having a working trans-european blog in the 'style' of DKOS.
If you want to get better known and become visible - ask your contributors to each invite 5 of the best bloggers in their territories, and ten of their online contacts - who they imagine would appreciate being invited - to contribute.
Bitter virtual scraps are part and parcel of any attempt at an ideal agora. I come from an indymedia background - a place which pioneered citizens media and know far too much about them for my own good.
What they taught me is that an agora to survive - needs to be controlled by the community - in as dispersed way as possible - if it is to become an agora - rather than become someone elses public house where you can have a smoke and drink if you pay and have to hold your tongue.
You do a fantastic job - you are a very acute writer - you write across the atlantic in an almost unprecedented way. You should trust the community you built and stop taking all the stress of normal problems on yourself. If there werew 20 people in control you could do 1/20th of the worrying.
As we used to say in Indymedia Ireland - "All Power To The Commenteers!"
You do a fantastic job - you are a very acute writer - you write across the atlantic in an almost unprecedented way.
acute is right. ambassadorial in the highest possible sense. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
There is a fair amount of economic expertise already here. Get together, decide on a particular agenda, research the hell out of it, and post, post, post. Become the place to come to for political/economic news and commentary for EU and trans-Atlantic issues.
"Let us be frank. Provoking military-political instability and upper regional conflicts is also a convenient way of deflecting people's attention from mounting social and economic problems. Regrettably, further attempts of this kind cannot be ruled out." Foreign policy Implications of the Global Economic Crisis, quoted by Niall Ferguson in testimony given to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 11 Feb, 2009, Last accessed 18 Feb 2009.
Foreign policy Implications of the Global Economic Crisis, quoted by Niall Ferguson in testimony given to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 11 Feb, 2009, Last accessed 18 Feb 2009.
You don't have to tell me how much work that can be, but some can be delegated, and the core effort can be streamlined. If you decide to go down this road, don't try to go it alone, you don't need to.
I don't know if dkos actually pays some people to blog, but obviously at least some of the front pagers there are those whom you named "insiders." "It Can't Be Just About Us"--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire
