There are a lot of non-Europeans here too. But I'd guess the majority of our active US members have an understanding and interest in European matters. What happens in Europe also affects the US, and vice versa.
Politically, active ET members could be described as being on the Left, but there is no central ET ideology, as I see it. Probably that expresses the European political condition.
Your diaries have occasionally been interesting within the context I describe above, and I have read them and recommended them. In the ET mix, these diaries have brought a wider acknowledgement of a very important problem, but it is only one of many problems that are discussed. (Which is not to say there is no interlinking of these problems). However, when one subject 'dominates' the diary list, and offers no illumination (the LQD), and when the diarist takes no part in any of the other discussions, I suspect current ingratitude is from a drive-by mentality.
The active core of ET, the core that keeps it running, without the need for ads or other compromise, is a real community. People who respect (though not necessarily agree with) other members of that community. Whether you call it a think tank or consultancy or ginger group or whatever, these names are just other functions of community.
The active team (and founder/s), who run ET on a day to day and year to year basis, have not tried to mould ET in their image. The site has developed/evolved naturally. Little spats like your current one are part of that evolution. So thanks for that. But I do not agree with almost any of your comments in the last 72 hours or so. It's obvious that you never ever entertained the idea of fitting yourself into the community, rather than the other way round. You can't be me, I'm taken
But as I see it the problem isn't IP content, it's the fact that you seem to be here to talk and not to discuss or listen.
There should be no problem with discussing IP content on ET, because with Turkey's involvement IP is the most significant local foreign policy issue for the whole of Europe. It's going to affect the future of NATO and the future shape of the EU. And the humanitarian horror is impossible to ignore.
But C&P from news sources does little to educate or inform. And ET is not a one-topic blog. People's diaries centre around their interests, whatvere they are, but what makes ET interesting is the fact that individual posters participate in the community, rather than preaching to it.
Your diaries seem to have been mostly been preaching, not participation. Preaching isn't a good way to persuade people of the value of a cause, no matter how supportive they may be otherwise.
Having said that, I've found some of the recent personal attacks dispiriting and unnecessary.
But I think you have two choices - you can make more of an effort to fit in by contributing to other threads, or you can create a personal site.
Former regulars have done this, with some success, and if the site is good and interesting it may even get more traffic than ET does.
I don't think anyone here would find that an unwelcome outcome, or would wish such a project ill.
Will you quote something from any diary I put up recently where there is "preaching." That's a new slant I've not heard before. For the most part, my diaries are qualitatively no different than those of FairLeft's and other people interested in the IP area who post here and in the US, at DKos, for example.
As I stated above, for two years I have been posting here, then all of a sudden it pissed someone off, possibly the accelerated pace of covering events surrounding the Gaza Flotilla. I am not a dropby diarist, since no one will deny that I tend to the comments. I also read others' diaries, and enjoy the Eurobiography section, and sometimes the photo features.
As for being part of a community, my estimate is that only about 5% of the daily visitors (2000 at last look at the site meter), the ET regulars, many of whom diary or frontpage, fall into that category. I know others feel differently, but that's my estimate.
As for Eurocentricism, the site description is not so narrowly defined nor is the diary material, although a focus on Europe certainly dominates.
And for overpowering the site or rec list with IP diaries, that has really never happened until the last month or so during the Flotilla crisis. In a good number of cases in the past, my diaries never made the rec list and often no one even commented on or rec them. One cynic asked me why I bothered since no one paid attention to them. But we don't know that since only registered members can comment or rec.
The 5 % is natural dynamic outcome of self-organizing systems: 1% are fully active, 5% are active and 94% are lurkers. This is how dynamic systems work when people are involved. You can't be me, I'm taken
