A Follow Up

I found Mel’s post pretty interesting in a macabre way and I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Also, it helped that I couldn’t sleep last night and around 2AM the following post hit me.

While I have no doubt that Twitter is siphoning off readership from the blogs, I think the Dem/lefty blog scene in Georgia at least, started declining before Twitter’s advent.

I’d be loathe to put a date or even timeframe on it but there is a simpler explanation, IMO.

That is: most of the best posters left. MelGX is the most recent casualty but before then, Decaturguy stopped (probably the only blogger in GA who can claim credit for derailing a legitimate statewide candidate), Flack isn’t on the scene, Creative Loafing’s team is just different, Huttman isn’t doing as much as he did, the Politics 101 girls are gone (except when they have a candidate), Grift Drift stopped (sorry dude to lump you in), when he was one of us Andre was always good for creating–ahem–discussion and I think really unfortunately Mel’s last BforD experiment never took off. Even BforD’s commentors aren’t the same, many have moved but for example Trackboy1 killed it during 07/08 for example and just isn’t around.

I’ve left many folks off the list and I’m not trying to denigrate the new folks on the scene but damn…what we lost was a ridiculously strong blogging scene and no one has filled any of those slots.

Looking at the non-Dem crew, we suffered some strong hits there too. Tom Baxter left the AJC, Peach Pundit was awful for a long time and I think in many ways, as goes Peach Pundit so goes the rest of the Georgia blogosphere. Now PP is pretty much back to where it was a few years ago. I could go on…

We’re also scarred from MT/CC. Bruises are still sore and I think that was a real coming out party for Dem bloggers. Since then, we haven’t had a vibrant primary. 2008 there was one for Senate but that was really kind of a dud in the end. Otherwise we were focused on the POTUS race which had a different brand of crazy and wasn’t really Georgia-centric. In 2010, sorry but there was no fight.

Most damningly for us is we’re at our nadir politically, there is no doubt. It is kind of hard to get motivated on the blogs when there isn’t too much going for us in the state, other than some Pollyanna that we’ll be competitive within the decade. Ennui is kind of understandable.

So it isn’t so much that Twitter is the reason fewer people are tuning in, I think we’ve just had a less strong scene for years now and it is finally catching up to us, combined with a terrible political landscape this is largely a reflection of the world we are in.

I have no idea what will, ought, or could happen nor should this be interpreted as a death knell, it is just my opinion.

The following jam should pump you up if you are down.


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