Archives for 2010

I owe Megan McArdle an apology.

Actually, I’ve already offered it on the offending post, but as that snippet is now buried behind the front page, that seems insufficient.

So here it is:

In yesterday’s snark on McArdle’s item about the Washington Post’s arithmetical errors, I said “she actually writes…” about a Post mistake that converted millions into hundreds.

She did not write what followed.  Rather, she was quoting without comment (other than her headline) from a piece by the Post’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander.

As readers of my own place know, I’ve taken second place to no one in the ferocity with which I’ve argued against what seem to me to be consequential failures of argument and reporting by Megan McArdle.  This post wasn’t one of those.  It was  an attempt to have a quick bit of fun, and I made the kind of mistake I’ve teed off on in others.

Which leads me to something I find hard to write, but must.

To Megan McArdle:  I’m sorry for the error that you — very mildly, considering the provocation — noted on the offending post.

And, of course, to the BJers who read this, my apologies as well.  I try to provide high grade stuff, and this wasn’t.

Ah well.  Live by the snark, and sometimes, die by it too, I guess.

Image:  Henri Decaisne “Failure of a Military Operation,”  1826.

Boy Do I Hate Doing This…But I GottaPost + Comments (38)

I honestly don’t know what to make of this:

So the main complaint given in DougJ’s circle-jerk post (wherein the advent of more dispute on the front page of this blog has somehow been labeled as an ‘Atlantic style circle-jerk’) is that too much of the argument is occurring in posts rather than comments. I guess I’m confused. Why is one more circle-jerkish than the other? And is this a blog or a forum? Some people come here to comment. Others come to read posts and don’t comment. Why should the commenters get to decide how the arguments take place? This smacks of readership capture. I say, if a blogger wants to argue in post-format vs comment-format, well that’s good for the thousands of non-commenting readers who come here. If not, hooray for the commenters. And why should it really matter? This seems like a complaint very unique to Balloon Juice.

It strikes me that commenters are what make a blog, which is why I have always had comments, always let people speak their mind (within reason- I will delete odious stuff, but the number of people banned here in ten years is still under a dozen, and some of that number are people who have been banned multiple times- Brick Oven Bill, take a bow), and if people want to talk about something or mention something interesting in the comments, I put up a post about it. I don’t understand what readership capture is supposed to mean, to be honest.

I’m not going to do everything readers suggest or want, and to be quite honest take a great amount of joy in telling you all to go to hell every now and then, but I will do what I can to accommodate as many commenters as is reasonable and possible. In my mind, a blog without readers and commenters isn’t a blog, it is a diary. If I wanted a diary, I’d get a leather bound journal with heavy-bond pages and buy some tea and listen to emo music. I want a blog, where people are free to say what they want, argue with each other, insult each other, and make each other laugh.

I do understand how several posts on one topic could be tedious, and I will encourage everyone to respond to each other more in the comments, rather than making front page posts, but I fail to understand how this place is becoming an Atlantic style circle-jerk. If anything, we are the anti-Atlantic. All of our front page posts have been attacking each other and our ideas, not heaping praise and doing the faux-courtesy thing. If anything, I thought I was too drippingly sarcastic with ED, not overly deferential in the least. My only real complaint is I wish he would respond more in the comments to people. Throw a damned elbow back, ED.

And btw- that is why I like having ED around. We agree on a number of things, and we disagree on many more, and I like arguing with him. I like having variety. Now that he has outed himself as more of a centrist libertarian than a Republican, I’m actually looking for a front page poster who is a honest broker and Republican. I’m also trying to hit the lottery, lose weight, and trying to figure out how to get Yvonne Strahovsky in bed.

Ehh. Whatever. I’m rambling. More coffee.

BTW- first snow here today. Rosie tore out into and went all “BWAWWAWAWA” spastic and ran around like a lunatic, while Lily went out, stepped in it daintily, and then looked at me with the wounded “Why? Why are you doing this to me? Why are me feet cold and wet and why do they feel funny? Why must it be so cold when I potty? Why do you hate me so?” I really need to make a videotape of her walking in the snow. Each step she acts like she is being forced to walk on razors.

Re: Readership CapturePost + Comments (115)