Category: Meta

now we ARE talking… that is fabulous…

okay.. ready to launch

Just a quick note to those of you who have begun signing up. Feel free to write essays or to comment. The meta you see is intentionally being done in the open, and we welcome opinions. Some of this will be a work in progress. Those who are lurking, please go ahead and sign in.

As Buhdy says: be excellent to each other; and as I say: including to those with whom you have had previous disagreements (or just ignore them). We welcome you and look forward to hearing from you.

As people begin to drift in, I think we should establish a policy on usernames. Otherwise, we might end up with some of the games being played at peeder’s place. I think we should say, up front, in our Faq or whatever we come up with, that people who have established UIDs on other sites should be given the presumptive right to use them, here; and that if anyone takes the UID of someone well-known on other sites, they should make clear on their user page that they are not that person. I realize this is another subtle meta issue, but it’s another that I think needs clarification, before people start using UIDs to abuse their previous enemies. And they will. And it could create another type of headache that would disrupt the site’s smooth flow.

Thoughts?

Admins and editors who haven’t signed in to docudharmaadmin, please do. And check it, every day. Ek has put up a weekly schedule, so you can see which slots are taken, and which are open. Once we go live, it will be important that everyone keep track of where they can fit their front page posts, so we aren’t stepping on each other, and aren’t leaving any dead slots.

Meditations on Punishment

Now that word of our existence is starting to trickle out, I thought it would be a good time to post another sort of mission statement. Of course, absolutely none of this should be taken as absolute.

We are taking a very different approach, with this site. We are pursuing a discussion that is based more on issues and ideology, which means we happily invite people who would, on other sites, be considered purity trolls. Some of us may stretch our purity wings, and some of us may argue against such, but I believe that the overall goal of all of us, and of most who will find here an online home or vacation home, is to push the political center of this country to the left. Much to the left! To some of us, that will mean, primarily, trying to help destroy the current extremist version of the Republican Party. To some, it will mean trying to destroy the current capitulating Democratic Party. To some, it will mean trying to save the Democratic Party by remaking it. But it will also mean much much more than any of that.

Some of us are more of the ranter type, and some are more intensely cerebral. Most of us are a mix of the two. But we won’t be spending as much time on horse-race politics. Not that most of us have anything against such, but Daily Kos serves that function very ably. Those of us who continue to participate in Daily Kos do so because we appreciate it for what it is. But, again, we will be more focused on issues and ideology. And as the name of the site suggests, we will also be trying to reawaken a non-denominational, areligious and irreligious spiritual core, that may, at times, involve aspects of different religions, and often won’t. Liberal idealism is, by its very nature, spiritual. Even those who consider themselves atheists, agnostics, and/or secular humanists do so with a great deal of spiritual idealism and passion. We want to touch on all of that. We want to explore the arts as well as the sciences. We want to discuss philosophy and literary criticism. We want to discuss how to help our species evolve in such a way that a more principled and just society evolves with it. If there are still, in the world, Thomas Paines and Walt Whitmans, we hope to lure some of them in here.

I think we are all here because we all believe sincerely that, no matter how much we disagree, and man do we ever disagree, everyone here respects the fact that we all are committed to positive, even progressive change for our country and world.

I believe that I have had a serious policy disagreement with everyone on the planet so it should comes as no surprise that I have had huge disagreements with every poster here and will no doubt have a hell of a lot more of them going forward.

So why am I here? Simple – having disagreed on issues, large and small, with Buhdy, OPOL, Turkana, EK, etc. – I have found that they and I could dust ourselves off and still have fun, respect each other, fight again, and then fight again. And then have some more fun, respect each other and so on.

When Buhdy told me about this site I wanted in. Hell, I insisted on being in. Why? Because it brings back what used to be a staple at daily kos – a community that could fight together, fight each other and play together.

I miss that as much as I miss anything in blogging. I could not get that at Daily Kos for a long time. I know I’ll get it here.

So we will discuss important ideas and issues, organize for important fights, fight important fights amongst each other, but also have fun together. Be a real blogging community. And I have a real confidence that Buhdy, the Zen Dictator, will keep it that way. So I’ll be around a lot. To discuss. To fight. To play. To bond. But mostly to regain that old feeling that I miss, the feeling of being a part of something special – a real political blogging community.

I can’t wait.

I am not sure if the late night slot has been taken yet, but that’s where I do my best work. Since I really think all the people involved in politics are complete and utter assholes, I think it’s best if I stick with meta and late night conservations had in shady catinas or smokey French coffee houses.

So if the late night slot is still open, I’d like to have it Monday – Thursday (I am extremely unreliable on the weekends, life and all.) I plan to post some meta fictionalized reality surrealism piece that might or might not have a point.

Working title: Midnight Cowboying with Pinche Tejano