Today, Ellee Seymour (the inspiration for this post) has commented on how LabourHome seems to be asleep in reacting to the press, especially given that today it's all about the Labour senior ranks, and the possibility of David Milliband being the heir to Prescott.For anyone who doesn't know, LabourHome was launched a few weeks ago. The site was set up by the blogger also known as Recess Monkey, Alex Hilton. It's purpose, according to Hilton, was to provide a simlar forum for the Labour grassroots as Tim Montgomerie's ConservativeHome has provided the tory grassroots for some time now.
Ellee is absolutely right to pick this up about LabourHome. I've been hanging around there quite a bit recently and I think they have a fundamental problem. It is unbelievably easy to have a flame war there. There is the threat of moderation but you rarely see it happen - possibly because Hilton is stretched running both Recess Monkey and LabourHome? The result is this mass of voices that lack any serious editorial structure.
What Tim has got right at ConservativeHome is his routine. Each day there is a news review round-up, and then during the day there are updates. Blogs, are linked from the main page in an unobstrusive manner and there is a visible editorial presence in the comments section. Importantly, there is not a free-for-all policy towards user submission and publication.
In comparison, LabourHome is almost like a pretty graphical version of alt.politics.blah (that's on Usenet for those that don't know), and until the editor starts editing it properly it will remain a messy disorganised rabble. Arguably, Charles Clarke's criticism that Blair lacks direction and purpose applies equally to LabourHome. It's future is in Alex Hilton's hands.
Posted from Almeria, Spain
7 comments:
Dizzy, welcome back to blogsphere. I'm glad you feel the same way as me and have added some additional views on this.
I think some of the differences you outline are both positive and negative. You're right about the flame war thing, though wouldn't you describe yourself as one of the perpetrators?
So far I have only banned one user for being seriously abusive and I'm starting off with a relaxed moderation policy to see if the flamers calm down or start to engage in an interesting way. I have lots of moderation tools at my disposal if I want to use them, but we'll see if that becomes necessary.
Tim Montgomerie has done an outstanding job with ConservativeHome, but you have to compare his well-funded operation with Labourhome, which is costing money to run. We will get into providing regular tools like the opinion poll watch and the news analysis as we get more volunteers but it's better do do things when we can do them well rather than running before we can walk.
Anyway, I hope this is a fair response to your critique and I hope you'll enjoy hanging around the site some more
Truth be known Alex, the original draft of this post had a bit where I admitted I just couldn't resist a bit of a flame (Usenet was my stomping ground back in the earli 90s!). So yes, I do count myself in it, of course.
Feel free to moderate me, and thanks for responding to my post.
And let's be honest, the occasional contrarian in the comments is rather fun - Al-Amin at Cranmer's place livens it up no end, and the ridiculous Gary Elsby at Iain's and elsewhere is a constant source of amusement.
Not to mention Chad Noble - everywhere
Hey dizzy... put me in the lefties!! I'm linked with a real bunch of Thatcherite wasters there.
I'm glad you had a detailed response from Alex, mine was very brief and I wasn't sure what point he was making.
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