As one who's name in on the list of contributers to this blog, who remembers well what it once was, and who considered it's founder, Ductape, a personal friend, I am not ok with letting this blog die a long, lingering, messy death.
This was never intended to be some online back alley where individuals drag each other to beat each other up. It once had the purpose of bringing all of us who didn't "fit well " on the mainstream blogs together, so we could discuss and learn from meta issues and how things are out there for all of us who are not easily accepted elsewhere..(us "others") I followed friends here who had been kicked out of other places, because I valued them so much, (whether I always agreed with them or not) and did not want to lose them, ever.
Thats not what this blog is anymore and it hasn't been that for a long time now. To see it deteriorate as it has feels very disrespectful (in my eyes) to it's absent founder, and to it's original worthy purpose. For me, it's just plain painful to watch this.
James and others have tried to keep it going, but it seems to me Mo Betta has completed the purpose for which it was conceived and it's time to let it go now with some dignity, and maybe even the honor of sharing of some of the good memories of what it's meant to those of us who were here in it's good days, when Ductape was still with us.
I hope those still on the masthead will respond to this, and others who once cared about this blog will share their feelings also, so we can make some kind of shared decision together. To perfectly frank, I have very little hope that we, as a group are likely to be able to work closely enough together to make this blog a viable useful place of discourse at this point.
1 comment:
It seems to me, scribe, that if people want to make this blog work - as you have stated - they should actually be here doing that. When's the last time you were around to try and keep this blog on the right track? The last time I saw anything from you, it was an announcement that you were quitting blogging.
You, super and spider have all shown up this past week decrying what goes on here. What have any of you done but come here and wag your finger while asking "what would Ductape think?" - as if you'd know - as if he's Jesus.
Ductape is not here anymore, for whatever reason, so it's up to those of us who are left to keep this place functioning and I don't accept the idea that we are not up to that job.
It seems that all of you think there were some kind of glory days around here when everyone got along fine. Wrong. Go back and read through the first posts and the comments where, btw, you'll find Ductape in the thick of things as well. He thought some of the disruptive people who showed up here were a joke and was able to laugh them off. He didn't let the craziness get to him and he certainly didn't allow it to make him think this blog should be shut down because of it.
There actually are those of us who've been here all along fighting off the wankers who have decided this is a place for continual fights based on their personal, unrealistic grudges.
There are those of us who've contributed posts that have continually been hijacked by people who'd rather sling name calling, hysterics and lectures about how we're supposedly abusing the site while they're the ones trying to destroy it.
No one is forcing anyone to be here. That's what some people don't seem to get.
I, for one, am not going to let this blog die. There will always be meta issues. There's a damn good reason to talk about places like dkos where operatives like a congressperson's chief of staff (who has never disclosed his real job there) run around and try to beat the party line into everybody else; where members of the townhouse group share talking points in the background about what should and should not be discussed - and that includes MSOC, as much as she tries to distance herself form the boyz and the "acceptable" message - so they can drive blog discussions while thousands have no idea that they are being manipulated; where the very mention of the Israel/ Palestinian issue (which was a major concern of Ductape's) is a cause of such great concern that people like Hunter threaten to ban anyone who's sympathetic to the Palestinians. etc etc etc
A lot of people realized, after the Iraq war funding vote scam by the Dems, that maybe those big blogs aren't all they're cracked up to be. When they complained, they were told by kos to "buck up" - swallow their disgust and keep sending money to the Dems. Maybe some of those people are so bloody tired of being conned that they can find homes on other blogs - including this one - where they are listened to and are not stifled for having an opinion about the Dems that goes counter to the BBB propagandists.
So, no. I'm not in favour of shutting this place down. More, now than ever, there are thousands of "others" who need a place where they can speak and for some that place is not another BBB like MLW or BMT where fealty to the Dems is still very much on parade.
And I, for one, will not let a few shit disturbers who can't let go of months/years long grudges based on fantasies wreck the place. They're the ones who have no respect for the purpose of this blog.
So, what would Ductape think? The same thing he always did - that people need a safe place to vent about meta issues without fear: which we still do here. And, afaic, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem.
I also find it interesting that there was never a call to close this place down when we had absolutely rip-roaring battles going on here. We made it through those days and things have calmed down to a very quiet roar. Yet now, suddenly, it's time to evacuate the building just because some people are having disagreements which definitely do not match the scale of the noise that's gone on here before? That doesn't make any sense to me at all.
And to those who keep trying to stir things up here, just because you seem to think you can, you have access to other blogs where you would probably find people who are more than willing to listen to your complaints - dkos, BMT, MLW, Everybody Comes From Somewhere (which I thought had been set up to strive for that "higher purpose" that you seem to want this place to be) etc etc.
Scribe, you, super and spider all belong to that blog where focusing on the positive is supposed to be what it's all about. That's fine - lofty even - but that's not what MBM is about - nor has it ever been. We talk about controversial things here and there are disagreements which some seem to think is an invitation for personal, unresolved crap. I think perhaps spider and super need to ask themselves why that blog doesn't seem to be enough for them - that they feel they have to come here and raise shit.
Like I said, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem and people need to decide which part they're going to play here but, if you want to be part of the problem, don't expect a friendly reception. That seems pretty simple to me.
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