A Piece Of Internet History

The following screenshot marks the end of a period of Internet history, and I think the end of the influence of dailyKos on the left-blogosfero. I think that enormous group blog will now be divided up in a way that the previous vital cacophony will die down, groups will be isolated, and ultimately, it will feel and look a lot like Left Coast Facebook^TM:

I, as I said before, will not follow the masses to the new format/platform, because I am not providing big sites with any more free content.

Sorry, Ariana and Markos, No More Free Content For You

I know all too much about writing for free. I do it here all the time. It's a labor of love. I've been at it for more than 900 blog posts and more than 5 years. I know about writing without being paid for it. Despite that, and despite my understanding that when I post at group blogs I know I won't get paid, I am absolutely furious about the AOL-Huffington Post Deal. Why? Because the writers are getting screwed, and they're not going to get a cent out of the deal. Not a sou.

The news this morning-- I'm sure you haven't missed it-- was that that beleaguered, dinosaur of dial up AOL has bought Huffington Post and made that doyenne of self promotion and faux progressive politics, Arianna, an AOL executive. Here's the essence of the story from the New York Times:

The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock. It will be the company's largest acquisition since it was separated from Time Warner in 2009.
The deal will allow AOL to greatly expand its news gathering and original content creation, areas that its chief executive, Tim Armstrong, views as vital to reversing a decade-long decline.

Arianna Huffington, the cable talk show pundit, author and doyenne of the political left, will take control of all of AOL's editorial content as president and editor in chief of a newly created Huffington Post Media Group. The arrangement will give her oversight not only of AOL's national, local and financial news operations, but also of the company's other media enterprises like MapQuest and Moviefone.

Meanwhile, the bloggers at HuffPo, the ones who provide the "original content creation", that was just sold for $315,000,000.00 get, wait for it, nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. And in an email this morning to bloggers, Ariana told them not to worry, no te preocupes, they could still churn out "original content creation", just like before, and well, continue to get the same nothing for it:

The HuffPost blog team will continue to operate as it always has. Arianna will become editor-in-chief not only of HuffPost but of the newly formed Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all of AOL's content sites, including Patch, Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, PopEater, MapQuest, Black Voices, and Moviefone.

Together, our companies will have a combined base of 117 million unique U.S. visitors a month -- and 250 million around the world -- so your posts will have an even bigger impact on the national and global conversation. That's the only real change you'll notice -- more people reading what you wrote.

Far from changing the Huffington Post's editorial approach, our culture, or our mission, it will be like stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet. We're still traveling toward the same destination, with the same people at the wheel, and with the same goals, but we're now going to get there much, much faster.

When I first read this, I was furious. I quickly penned an essay, which I published at dailyKos in which I argued that the bloggers, the writers at HuffPo were being screwed because they weren't getting a cent out of the $315 million dollar deal.

To my amazement, many of the comments to that essay told me that I was off base. Did I write for free and publish my writing at daily Kos? Yes. Didn't I do that because it would expose me to a wide audience? Yes. Didn't I write it all for free, without hope of money? Yes. Didn't I? I did. What kind of loon (I'm paraphrasing here) would think that he should write hundreds of diaries for free and that when the platform was sold, he should receive something? You've already received something, it was argued, you got the exposure and a larger audience for your writing. You don't, it was argued, deserve anything more. You get bupkis from the $315 million deal; you don't deserve more than that.

That just may be so. I never posted an essay or a comment at HuffPo. So I don't deserve any of the $315,000,000 Ariana and her investors are being paid. I figure that if Ariana put 1% of the deal up and gave it to the writers, there would be $3.15 million to distribute. How many writers could there be? If there were 1,000, they could each be given $3,150. They could be told, "Thank you for writing for free. Because your writing helped me make a bundle, I've decided to send you this small check as a token of my appreciation. Your writing is worth far more than this amount, but this is something I want you to have as a token of my gratitude. It's not pay. It's a gift. You helped me make a big score, and I want to thank you for that."

MSNBC is reporting that HuffPo had 6,000 free bloggers writing for it (last sentence of linked article). If that's so, the 1% gratuity would come to about $500 per person. And the number of people who wrote so that Ariana could be well paid would be enormouse.

At any rate, you'd expect some acknowledgment of the bloggers and writers. You wouldn't expect anything less from a progressive. When somebody at the race track gives you a tip, and you bet the horse, and it wins, you always give the tipper some of the winning. When a football quarterback wins a big game, he takes the linemen out to dinner and drinks. You have gratitude for those who make it possible to win. When someone in business helps you out and you have gratitude, you send flowers or wine or a fruit basket. Or you pay for a meal. These are expressions of gratitude for help. They are always appreciated, especially if your original deal was that you wouldn't be paid.

Is Ariana going to get out her check book and write a check, or is she going to sit on it? Probably the latter. So I won't be signing up to write at HuffPo at any time soon. And I'll support Al Giordano and others who have decided to take down their writing from the site.

Which brings me to Markos and dailyKos. I have loved writing for dailyKos over the years. But if today's events tell me anything, it's that dailyKos might well be the next group web site to be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's the same as HuffPo in this: there are many, many talented people writing diaries there. There is some brilliant writing. That writing is the value of the site. And that writing is being given to the site and its readership for free. And when the site is ultimately acquired by the capitalists with the big check books and they write Markos a gigantic check, what then? Same story, different day. I'll be told that I agreed to write for free, that I had a large audience, and that is all. I got what I deserve; I will get nothing more. Things will be the same with the new corporate master. Why, I wonder, should I or anyone else contribute our writing, increase the value of the site, and then, poof, have it be sold while we receive nothing?

As America's former poet laureate tried to say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So, no, I'm done. I will not be moving to DK4 when the site changes over this week. I will not be publishing any further diaries at dailyKos. I am not willing to continue to provide value to dailyKos that will eventually be sold without any payment of any kind to me. No. I'm done. I'll stick to my blog and to the Writers Port Alliance. You can join me there or at the other Writers Port Alliance sites (all listed at the top of this blog)

The Little Blog That Could

What a riot this is. The Little Engine That Could, the classic 1930's story, reprinted in 1954 with the above cover and new illustrations, is described in a Wiki:

In the tale, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. Various larger engines, treated anthropomorphically, are asked to pull the train; for various reasons they refuse. The request is sent to a small engine, who agrees to try. The engine succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating its motto: "I-think-I-can".

To think of hard things and say, "I can't" is sure to mean "Nothing done." To refuse to be daunted and insist on saying, "I think I can," is to make sure of being able to say triumphantly by and by, "I thought I could, I thought I could."

Yes, by and by. Not immediately, but by and by. Which brings me to this, The Dream Antilles, the little blog that could.

Some blogs are big, group, political blogs. They look this this:



They are strong, big, powerful, mechanical, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, capable, brash, industrial, driven. This is what dKos looks like. Robust and headstrong and muscular. If you wanted to receive a box car full of strong, similar opinions in a big hurry, that's where you'd go. There would be a warehouse full of whatever you wanted and it would be delivered with astonishing alacrity.

But over here, here in Literary Blogsylvania, things are much, much smaller. The blog is feminine (even if the bloguero is not a bloguera). And somewhat anonymous and unimportant, unlike the important freight and passenger trains of the story. In fact, the little engine that could didn't even have a name until the 1991 movie version, when it was finally dubbed "Tillie." This blog is like that. It's name is not well known. It tries hard even though it's so much smaller and doesn't get more than a couple dozen hits a day. It savors the rare attention of each of the hits. And it whispers to itself, "I think I can." I think I can say this well. I think I can draw this conclusion. I think I can talk about something you won't find elsewhere. I think I can entertain a new reader or two. And despite that optimistic thinking, this blog is nevertheless privately amazed when it gets to say, "I thought I could, I thought I could." That's why this is the little blog that could. And why I'm happy you're reading this.

A Wonderful Review of The Dream Antilles

Wow. A special thanks goes out to cfk for this excellent review of The Dream Antilles, that appeared on daily Kos on September 26, 2007.

It is a special treat for me when people read my book and enjoy it. I'm delighted when my book pleases, and I'm especially happy when readers and reviewers say nice things about it.

Did I mention that you should buy The Dream Antilles?

Stopping Anger Writing

I posted the following at daily Kos yesterday, because I've decided to take a respite from writing and posting political arguments. The diaries and comments I'm referring to are here. I've been writing and posting these kinds of things at daily Kos for about seven months. The post:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

I'm not saying Adios or even farewell. It's more like "see you after a while." I'm just going for a while to the woodshed:

To lock oneself away with a musical instrument and practice, either a particular piece or in general, until the player has improved greatly or can perfectly play the piece he has been practicing.

I'm just going to lock myself away for a while.
I'll be back.

I haven't been here for very long. Many of you have been here much longer than I. After all, I have UID 111,172. I've written a fair number of diaries and a bunch of comments. I feel that what I've written has generally been well received. And I believe that I've been fairly treated, even when there have been disagreements. You haven't troll rated me, and you've often complimented me. So it's not about you, dear Kossacks, that I'm writing this. I feel well treated by the community.

No. It's entirely about me. I notice that I'm falling into a rut. And the name of the rut is being consumed by my anger and perpetuating it and spreading it around and recycling it.

To be frank and very brief, I'm disgusted by all three branches of the Government, and I don't trust them. And I intensely dislike politicians, even the ones, maybe it's especially the ones, who purport to be on "my side." I'm sickened by interminable War and widespread killing of Americans and people from other countries and civilians. I'm outraged by blatant, sledgehammer attacks on the Constitution and the nonsensical arguments used to "justify" them. I'm horrified by repeated human rights abuses in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram. And I'm enraged by oppression of immigrants, gays and lesbians and transgender people, women, minorities, people of color, the poor. The list is almost interminable.

You all know this list, this litany, which I've abbreviated here.

And you all know that being a part of the "reality based community" somehow means seeing these things and learning about them and being angry about these things and expressing that anger vehemently.

I'm concerned about this, because I don't think it's good for me as a person to continue to consume and circulate so much anger so much of the time. I feel like the anger is driving out any pleasure I might find in life. I feel like the anger is overwhelming me.

As Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, a hero of mine, has written about anger:

Not only do we nourish our anger with edible food, but also through what we consume with our eyes, ears, and consciousness. The consumption of cultural items is also linked to anger. Therefore, developing a strategy for consuming is very important.

What we read in magazines, what we view on television, can also be toxic. It may also contain anger and frustration. A film is like a piece of beefsteak. It can contain anger. If you consume it, you are eating anger, you are eating frustration. Newspaper articles, and even conversations, can contain a lot of anger.

You may feel lonely sometimes and want to talk to someone. In one hour of conversation, the other person's words may poison you with a lot of toxins. You may ingest a lot of anger, which you will express later on. That is why mindful consumption is very important. When you listen to the news, when you read a newspaper article, when you discuss something with others, are you ingesting the same kind of toxins that you ingest when you eat unmindfully?

And so it is for me with blogging. In short, what I've been thinking and writing and reading and typing is anger. I'm over-consuming and circulating anger. And I think that I have been doing more and more and more of it, and less and less and less of anything else. I see myself becoming addicted to being angry and self righteous, and I don't think this is good for me. I also don't think it's good for my interactions with others.

As Rosh Hashanah approaches and the days of Awe (the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), I think I want to go on an "anger fast" and a "blog fast." I want to turn inward, to practice Teshuva. I want to stop. And I want to take stock. This is the time for that. If I have offended you in my time here, dear Kossacks, in what I have written, especially in my comments, I apologize to you for that.

This is a very good time of the year for such a fast from blogging. So I intend to take a trip to the woodshed for an indeterminate stay. I intend to stop writing politics for a while, I intend to stop commenting. I intend to stop encouraging others to be angry. I intend, of course, to continue writing my lit blog, and working, and writing my second novel. I'm not fasting from writing. I intend to spend the time I would spend here, reading and writing and being angry, on my family.

And I intend to take good care of my anger, and to increase my feelings of compassion toward all sentient beings. That doesn't make the government less assholes. It just means that instead I'm going to notice the warmth of this season, the ragweed blooms, the wasps, and the change of the seasons. I'm going to focus on things that make me happy, things that bring me joy. I'm going to listen to music I love (Vico C), and I'm going to enjoy the out of doors.

Eventually, I will probably come back to dKos. When I do, I hope that I will have more equanimity, that I will be able to bring joy even in these dire and threatening times, and that I will be able to surf anger rather than drown in it.

Thank you for reading this and for all of your support. Hasta proximo.

And also, dear readers of The Dream Antilles, I want to take this opportunity to say that if I have offended you in what I have written here and elsewhere I apologize.