Sad to learn that one of my favorite blogs, Polipundit – a right-of-center political blog that had grown from one blogger to a group of five – suffered a mass defection this week with the amicable departures of fellow bloggers Lorie Byrd, Alexander McClure, and DJ Drummond, leaving only one other blogger besides Poli to handle the blogging chores. Apparently the split resulted from Poli’s strong feelings about illegal immigration and his unwillingness to allow bloggers who did not share his views to continue blogging on his site. More’s the pity.
Of course, as site owner, Poli has every right to pick and choose whomever he wants to give blogging privileges to, but his decision seems a little rash to me. If either Lorie, Alexander, or DJ had posted items that tested the bounds of impropriety, tastelessness or illegality, that would be one thing; to break up the team over something as petty as a divergent political viewpoint on an aguably-emotional issue smacks of blog suicide. After all, as Loie mentioned in her farewell post, Polipundit’s readership had been averaging somewhere around 15,000 visitors a day. What does he think made his blog so popular? Why would someone want to mess with success?
To me, what makes the blogsphere interesting to me is its diversity. When a particular site features several bloggers, those are the sites I find myself visiting, especially when time constraints prevent me from checking out all my favorites. That why blogs like Polipundit, Hugh Hewitt, National Review’s Corner, Powerline, to name just a few), are the first ones I typically visit each day, for I respect and appreciate the multiple voices and writing styles they present.
The idea of group-blogging at this site is something I’ve been interested in and trying to cultivate from day one, and something I will continue to pursue. I’ve tried to encourage one or two of my fellow Goodboys to join me, but so far have gotten no takers, although I have not given up hope! If you or anyone you know has an interest in politics, sports, world events, or popular culture, and are interested in using Goodboys Nation as a vehicle for your creative writing abilities, please drop me a line at darichard@att.net and we can talk.
CrabAppleLane was originally intended as a group blog and a few of my friends and family still have posting privileges. I’ve also occasionally opened the blog up for guest bloggers giving them the opportunity to express themselves to a different audience, see how Movable Type works if they’re a WordPress, LiveJournal, or Blogger users, see what blogging is about if they’re thinking about taking the plunge, and I encouraged current bloggers to shamelessly plug their own sites to the CrabAppleLane readers. I appreciated every one of their contributions.
Comment by Rob — May 20, 2006 @ 6:15 pm
Thanks Rob for the insight. I appreciate the info!
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 21, 2006 @ 11:17 pm