I was attracted here originally because Jerome provided a European perspective on things that was missing from dkos. As others in Europe started to contribute as well this added to the value of the site.
My biggest complaint is that we don't have more such people, especially from Asia and the Americas. I suppose their may be a language barrier, plus those searching in their home language won't tend to find this site even if they are bilingual.
I tend not to look at the free form front page diaries, including the klatch and the open thread, but I think that they provide something for others, judging by the traffic they generate. I prefer to go directly to sites which deal with issues I like to follow and use RSS for much of this. Free form threads have a low signal to noise ratio and require too much time to find the gems. As I said others don't agree.
I recently took a couple of pop psychology personality tests and scored low on the dimension which measures interest with social relationships, but high on the analytic dimension. I guess this is why I went into physics and not psychiatry.
Others will be the reverse and the human interest blogs will be the ones they prefer. Unlike printed media there is room for all!
So, I guess I would echo Jerome's point, those who mostly lurk should overcome their shyness and contribute more. If you are not up to a full diary than a few comments will be appreciated. Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
The quality of commentary on this site always makes me think twice about commenting because I am afraid I'll say something stupid. That, and I've been in a self-imposed hiatus because of one mistake I made posting to another site under a different username. As comments, go, it wasn't really that egregious, just a lame joke attempt made in very poor taste that got deleted almost immediately by the site admin (thank goodness). That's been at least a year now, so maybe I can trust myself again...
I appreciate everyone's invitations and will make some renewed efforts to comment and maybe even post a diary from time to time.
And though I can't help out with the European or worldwide geographic distribution, I am from a lightly represented porion of the U.S., namely the Deep South.
AND, lest I leave an impression that I take ET for granted: thanks to everyone who participates here in any way, you all make this a unique and unusually informative blog. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead
I certainly would love to read diaries about or from the Deep South, even if they are not written in suthen di'lect... ;-) "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
As for diaries in the su'then dialect, I don't much do 'em. If you just read my comments with a characteristic extra long and and open-mouthed "i-i-i" sound whenever you encounter a long "i" in a word, you'll pretty much get the i-i-dea about how a lot of southerners speak, even when we speak "the King's English". Most other American dialects use an "ah-ee" sound when encountering a long "i".
You are much more likely to catch me doing a diary on some currently relevant science topic, or a heart-felt plea in support of a particular idea or issue. I'm not prolific, but I try to be thorough. I guess I'm something of a perfectionist and don't like to declare anything "finished" enough to let it go... Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead
"The quality of commentary on this site always makes me think twice about commenting because I am afraid I'll say something stupid. That, and I've been in a self-imposed hiatus because of one mistake I made posting to another site under a different username. As comments, go, it wasn't really that egregious, just a lame joke attempt made in very poor taste that got deleted almost immediately by the site admin (thank goodness). That's been at least a year now, so maybe I can trust myself again..."
This sums up my feeling as well and I couldn't have said it better. I've mentioned it a couple of times to Jerome and he always calls BS on it, encouraging me to participate more. I don't know, I just feel like I have more input on topics on dKos, probably because I feel more comfortable and informed on US topics. On the other hand I am becoming more unsettled about the lack of Obama criticism over there, I don't think that is healthy for that site, IMHO.
I guess this is as good a time as any to announce that I finally made it to Jena and have started my PhD research at the Friedrich Schiller Universität. My relationship ended in October and in November I was literally homeless, staying with a friend for awhile but it was the best thing to motivate me to move from that horrible little town in Sauerland and to get on with my life.
That said, without any social network, it's pretty lonely here so far. But there is a fairly large Die Linke representation here in Jena and I've already spoken with one of the politicos about volunteer work, especially in the upcoming elections. That will help educate me on the functioning of the political system here in Germany and the EU as well as give me an opportunity to get out and make new friends. It might even give me something that I feel comfortable writing about here.
Lastly, I have one suggestion for a series here. It would be a lot of work, granted, for someone else here with the expertise. But my thought would be a series of EU Politics for Dummies. I mean a basic outline of institutions, their functioning and relationships to one another, much like you would expect in a basic civics course. Something what every EU citizen should understand about the government(s) and how it affects daily life. Much like in US politics - "...this is the 3rd branch of government, the Congress. It is composed of two Houses ..." as so on. I think that would generate discussion and eventually informed opinion for a few people because when I read diaries, a lot of times I have no clue about the entities discussed and/or criticized. My 2 cents, cheers. "Schiller sprach zu Goethe, Steck in dem Arsch die Flöte! Goethe sagte zu Schiller, Mein Arsch ist kein Triller!"
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
It's an interactive map with v. short descriptions that appear on mouse rollover, and more comprehensive text appears if you click. I'm trying to get it down to 3000 neutral words total - but feels like its going to be over 5k. (Already too much for the wide audience it is aimed at).
I'm doing it for a social liberal party in Finland, after persuading them of the benefits of shoestring supporting such an endeavour, as part of a rather large 'rebranding' of the party. As such, I can't share the texts yet, but there will be a beta version up in a few weeks that I will need feedback on. I'd be happy to give access to interested people when the time comes. You can't be me, I'm taken
It's good to hear that you are continuing your education and volunteering. Those are two things you should feel very good about. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead
Or, write about Jena, what it's like, what you're doing. Yes, I know that's not lofty and rarified, but you could make it very informative. Use the journalism model of going from specific to general to discuss an issue particular to the time and place.
OK, /editor.
