(Cross-posted to MyDD, dKos and My Left Wing. - promoted by SFBrianCL)
With the recent launch of the California Majority Report, I returned to the idea of what the meaning of what it really means to have a blog, to write a blog, and to be part of a group blog. What is a progressive blog? But more generally, what is a political blog? To me a political blog has a purpose more than just to inform. It has a goal in mind of moving political goals forward. Some are focused on plain and simple electioneering, some on issues, but they have a purpose because they have a somewhat consistent message. This is even true of the Daily Kos, where there are a wealth of different opinions. dKos is attempting to further Dem politics by building and motivating grassroots activists. It's a model that can be successful for a blog because there are so many grassroots activists out there that it can appeal to. It's the model that I based Calitics on precisely because I wanted to help develop progressive grassroots infrastructure in California.
But let's digress into some of the specifics of this new site, the California Majority Report. First, the technical aspects. First of all, it appears to be based off of a WordPress install. However, somehow they managed to mangle WordPress so badly that it's a ridiculous pain in the ass to leave a comment. It took me about 7 hours to set my user name up. What can a computer do in 7 hours that it can't do in 7 minutes, or 7 seconds? Who knows, but that's how long it took me because the email took that long to arrive. And even when I got my password, the site seemed to have some problems logging me in. Oops! Additionally, I don't want to harp on the design itself, but I will point out the fact that it's amongst the ugliest WordPress blogs that I've ever seen. Oh wait, that's harping isn't it? My Bad.
I ask the question that is in the title of this post because the "contributors" of the California Majority Report seem to be working at cross purposes. To flesh this out let's compare this site to several others on the Internet. Follow me to the flip...
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