I did a post last month reporting that the hits on this blog in August had increased 54 percent from the monthly total at start of the year. Well, that’s nothing. WE Blog had 161,127 hits in September. That’s up 92 percent from the start of the year — and a 25 percent increase from the August total. What’s more, based on the increased traffic during the last half of September, I expect the total to jump significantly again in October.
Thanks to all those who visit and those who post their own comments.
P.S.: I have asked whether WE Blog has surpassed Dave Barry’s humor blog at the Miami Herald in the number of reader comments. I don’t have a report yet. But I do know that WE Blog gets the most traffic and most comments of any political blog in our newspaper chain — which includes several very large markets.
P.S.S.: JR made a good suggestion in my previous post about publishing more comment excerpts in the printed newspaper. Sorry about not doing that more; we’ll try to do better. There are excerpts in today’s Opinion pages about the Bombardier strike and the downtown arena. Thanks again to all who joined those discussions.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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35 Comments
Interesting. What makes this blog, and Wichita, different? I have no idea. Suggestions?
I love blogs, but I’d sure love to see more moderation, more adherence to the policies that are written and ignored. I’d also like to see at least SOME moderation of the Kansas.com discussion boards. The trolls ran everyone worth a spit off of there.
See that you all?
I got “ed. cred.”.
Seriously, thank you Phillip. I am far from the best of the posters to your blog. (I’ve yet to go see if I made the “cut” from what you did print from us) I am honored you take my suggestion to give our fine posters here a wider “hearing” in the print pages. We can bring readers and posters much better than an ad that says “come read”.And the forum you give us can make a difference as it did with the “Fox” threads. Let’s all of us posters be mindful. We have readers. Let’s do our best AND worst for them.:)
See that you all?
I got “ed. cred.”.
Seriously, thank you Phillip. I am far from the best of the posters to your blog. (I’ve yet to go see if I made the “cut” from what you did print from us) I am honored you take my suggestion to give our fine posters here a wider “hearing” in the print pages. We can bring readers and posters much better than an ad that says “come read”.And the forum you give us can make a difference as it did with the “Fox” threads.
Moderation is badly needed. There are too many people that are far too rude, if not crude. Does that reflect well on Wichita? Or does anyone care?
I think, JR, that you give yourself way too much credit.
I can see how in your mind that you make a difference, and perhaps you do to the 12 or so posters who probably make up 98% of the its here.
But those 12 are just as narrow-minded as you.
we32000000009,But most of us “narrow-minded” posters write something substantial. You’ve written????
Oh yes, this is the blog about the blog section. Here’s my entry then.
I think part of the “success” is that the WE editors have a real knack for throwing out red meat threads that have the potential to erupt into a free-for-alls. Given that ability, I tend to think that they read the comments here more than they let on.
It’s like with the why many people go to auto races, not just to see fast cars, but an exciting wreck is appreciated, too.
Being respectful to KSM (see I can do it), sometimes people are rude here. I have also noticed that sometimes Wichita drivers are rude, too. It is part of life and something most people can deal with.
Yes, this place can get pretty unruly. But aside from the reasons Steven gave (which IMHO are correct), I think it’s the realtime commentary aspect of it that increases the volume the posts. One also sees that at, say, Daily Kos (or is it Atrios–I get them confused!), but the number of gratuitous “me toos” gets a little old.
That said, this place also has a number of established characters (yes, I used the word deliberately! ;-). I expect some people check it out for the sheer entertainment value. But one would hope they’re also learning a thing or too. This is a fairly well-spoken, educated, group, and when you check out the blogs and message boards at the Internet-at-large, you quickly find how rare that is.
Nothing like religion to fire up the bloggers.
You can do real time posts and still moderate. You could make the passwords and sign-ins more strict. You could ban posters who are repetitively obnoxious.
Or, you could put everyone on moderated status, and take turns who gets to approve the messages.
We do a pretty good job of regulating ourselves. I would not like to see much of anything changed about that. No one would want to put much real effort into a post if they were not sure if it would be posted. What you would get is shorter bullet like “throw away” posts. Any sort of moderator would have to be TOTALLY neutral, which is almost impossible. Otherwise one side or the other would no doubt be discriminated against.
I don’t trust ANYONE here to moderate posts, expecially capn’bolshevik! Everything should be fair game, except for threats and slander, of course.
V.L.R.B!!
Ian is example number 1 of why we need a moderator.
For KSM and those who think there are too many rude posts, have you tried the Yahoo! boards? Now THOSE people are insane.
Or maybe try a Yahoo! politcal chat room. Nasty is as nasty does, but I’ve met some good people there.
Come on, PM, when you talk about MODERATION you really mean censorship! Talk straight!!
V.L.R.B!!
I beg to differ PM. Ian deserves to be heard. However, I WOULD like to see ‘imposter posts’ deleted as they constitute fraud.
I’d like to see a couple of pages dedicated to the blog, opinion line and letters to the editor in the print edition of the paper…
Moderate my ass. This is the wild west, and if your gun ain’t loaded you need to stay indorrs.
Wow, 161 thousand hits in September . . . I wonder how many of those were Bush spies looking for “terrorists?”
Well said J M Walker.
Poli mom I know you have been the victim of a particularly nasty troll. We have ways of dealing with nasty trolls. We don’t need a “big brother”.
We do, JR?
We yell at them.
Oh boy, that puts the fear of nothing into them . . .
JR and others are correct about the wild west meme.This blog owes it’s poopularity to the wide open format with the ability to post instantly.Try commenting on the other blogs where you’re always waiting on some unknown moderator. It destroys any kind of real time discussion, which is what people want.As for the tone and tenor of the comments here, well most people police themselves after having a few sets of over the top comments removed. As for the people advocating troll blocking, etc,..have you ever tried to do that?Nearly impossible. You can block IP addresses all day long, and a determined troll will find a way to comment.This is a microcosm of society at large, and the comments here fairly well reflect that.I personally do not want anyone banned, Ian included.Just as in the world, people will form their own opinions about others, and decide whether to engage in conversation with them or not.If you find my writing style of in-your-face sarcasm offensive, PLEASE, just scroll by my comments and enjoy a discussion with someone you feel more comfortable with. PLease, by all means.If you come in with attitude and insults, you can generally expect that in return. No need to turn this into a rate the comment blog.This really seems to be working.DON’T FIX IT!Keep it free and open.When you start down the ‘other’ path, this will disintegrate into another cult of personalities.
And what’s wrong with name calling?I LIKE NAME CALLING!!We could call it creative salutations if ya’ think it sounds better.
Many people who come in complaining about civility tend to stay and adapt.
SO meadowpoop gets his little feelings hurt?
Then why come back here over, and over and over and over ad nauseum?
We see how well the Sal journal blog works. Nada. Same with the hays daily ass wipe.
SO, you just want to drag this blog down to YOUR levels of participation?
hehehehee. I guess if you cant build something of your own, you can always tear down something that is successful for someone else.
Must be a repuke!
It would be nice to stop impersonators, but there are ways to kinda-sorta do that even with registration (e.g. easy-to-overlook misspellings or special characters–the above example is DELIBERATELY visible). I’ve come out in favor of EASY registration in the past–but typepad sure ain’t it.
Rage
Above? Uhm, try below, as in “Posted by.” Oops.
Quick, there’s another one!
KA BAM!
Oooh, head shot . . . now that’s satisfying . . .
*****
Always check for the typepad . . . accept no substitutes.
Was that an actual post by Rage?
Oops, sorry. Getting trigger happy.
Good thing there’re VIRTUAL bullets . . .
*****
BTW, what’s so hard about TypeKey (other than all my information and links seem to be gone)
It takes too long. Someone who wants to shoot off a quick post won’t even bother with the first screen.
The blog used to say “sign in to typepad.” I mistakenly thought that meant mandatory registration, and blew it off. I don’t like even small wastes of time when I can help it (then why am I here? hehe!). I eventually figured out differently, but not ’til November ‘05.
Oops–that one was sheer accident!
Sorry, Capn.
Rage, that was a VERY interesting group of posts.
I’ve had the pleasure of being here from the beginning along with JR, Nathan, Hank, Capn (in another incarnation, lol!), and others. Seems to me this blog was pretty busy even in the beginning.
I used to spend some time on some of the political blogs, but you can’t be heard over the din and BS. Here, you get heard and mostly, responded to. Sometimes you get responded to for days. I’m with Tracy. I think the openness has a lot to do with the popularity of this blog. Has anybody noticed that almost nothing gets removed anymore? Either we’ve mellowed out (NOT), or the editors are getting a lot freer about what gets left up. And I think it says a lot for the editors that folks like Ian and Ed can post without getting pulled. Ed has his moments and Ian cracks me up. I’ve always thought Ian is having us on. Next time he posts, think “Pavlov”.They’re both entitled to their opinions.
I don’t know which thread it was, but somebody made a remark about the same dozen posters. I take that as a compliment. If there’s just a dozen of us or so, I find it highly gratifying that 161,127 people think we’re worth reading.
Well said X.
I saw that post about “the same dozen posters here”. I’ve no aliases. For the same dozen posters deal, we would all have to have several. Here lately we are getting MANY new posters on both sides. I’ll take this opportunity to welcome them. Those on my side I wish happy blogging. The others? I gladly help welcome to the infernal region!