Announcing THUNDERDOME! (a potentially useless idea)

I’ve come to believe that there’s only really a market for three community blogs: the one leading the charge in the political arena; the one that provides a completely unmoderated community for the banned or “undesirables;” and the one that tries to strike a middleground between these two, focusing primarily on providing a nourishing community.  Daily Kos has had the first sown up for years, PFF is pretty well established as the second, and the third is a constant battle between, among other sites, BooTrib, MLW, NION, and, yes, Docudharma.

Reductive as it may seem, I think there’s some pretty good evidence for what I’ve just proposed.  Witness, for instance, how the creation of MLW gutted traffic at BooTrib, and how DD has already reduced NION to a hollow shell with hardly any posts.  The major objection would be that sites like MyDD, TalkLeft, and Open Left have continued to flourish as community blogs, driving traffic and cash to their proprietors.  True, but to what extent are these sites actual community blogs?  No one goes to TalkLeft to read anything other than Jeralyn and Armando; no one goes to Open Left to read anyone other than Chris, Matt, and Mike.  MyDD’s seen a stunning decrease of meaningful content on the FP since Chris and Matt’s departure, and it’s basically become a DU-style forum, not a community in any meaningful sense.  And of course there’s space for niche community blogs like my own site and Blue House Diaries (which serves a pre-set community of commenters); however, these sites tend to gravitate toward either the group blog model, with a set stable of writers (mine), or toward a chat room style (BHD).

So…tell me I’m wrong.  Tell me that the “let a hundred flowers bloom” proliferation of community blogs hasn’t resulted in only three healthy plants.