There's been a bit of discussion as to what the 'purpose' of this blog is, and whether we want to have political discussions within it. I have an idea about this I'd like to put forward.
First, however, I'd like to point out that I'm not editing this web log: any of the authors are free to post whatever they want, subject to the caveat that anything that starts getting me in trouble as a host will probably be deleted.
Secondly, I'd like to propose that I create a 'politics' and 'non-politics' version of this blog, such that people who want to read about how President Bush is whittling away our rights to hard-won veganism, or how the left-wing media is giving a walleye'd version of the truth to the gullible masses can talk to their heart's content, whilst giving an option to filter it out for those who want restaurant reviews, worries about exams, and other concerns. It wouldn't make life any more difficult for authors (it's the same blog with two views), but would allow those who didn't want politics to avoid it.
The rest of this post (click the link below) will explain how this would work. I've already implemented the technology for this: you can see what it would look like at The No Politics Index Page.
At the moment, CC2006B authors have the option of assigning 'categories' to postings, but they don't do much because I haven't implemented them. However, it would be simple enough to create a 'Politics' category into which political issues could be placed.
When you arrived at the Columbia weblog, by default you would see all entries. However, a link at the top right would say, 'Don't want to read the political discussions? Click here.' This would lead to the same page, except all entries related to the 'Politics' category would be removed. On that page, there would be a link saying, 'You're viewing this weblog without the political stories: Click here to see what we're saying about political events.'
This is fairly easy to implement (it'll take me a couple of hours), and mean that politics is an open topic for discussion--but it can be avoided by those who find it contentious. Sound fair?
Posted by Anthony at June 14, 2003 12:30 PMMy initial reaction was, "this is a law school blog, politics are out of place."
I think my initial reaction is wrong. Much of what we'll be studying over the next few years is intimately and inseparably related to the political situation around us; it seems like a mistake to try to draw a line in the sand and say "these things are appropriate, these things aren't." This distinction seems too precise to draw accurately.
A post like "the Russians are out of line in Chechnya" might seem to clearly fall into the realm of politics, but what about "Today in International Law, we discussed how the Russians are out of line in Chechnya"? Politics and law are heavily intertwined.
That said, I personally would prefer to see this blog focus on issues that relate to Columbia in some way.
Posted by: Arie at June 14, 2003 02:36 PMWell, if we do it this way (and it's about 10 minutes work--I overestimated), then those who want it can have it, those who don't, don't have to.
When it comes to blogging, I'm of the opinion that volume really matters--having more people posting more stuff, especially in the early days, increases traffic greatly. So I'm loathe to say, 'Don't write about this.' I'd much rather say, 'Hey, guys, let's make it so that everyone can use it.'
I'm sure the occasional author would say, 'That's not politics' and not categorise his post as such--but for the most part I think it's a workable solution.
Posted by: Anthony Rickey at June 14, 2003 02:42 PMAnthony,
My original reason for posting a political post was just to see what type of thing was acceptable to people and to generally increase traffic to get the blog going. I think your solution is good, and I think that I have succeeded at least in getting a few more posts.
Anthony, I think this is a terrific solution. I'm a bit of a political junkie myself and I think I'd have a hard time completely omitting politics from my thoughts and observations about law school. Moreover, I'm not comfortable with the idea of limiting what people can or can't say. But I think it's great to have the option to skip the political posts for those who aren't interested, and to emphasize that this is first and foremost a website about our experiences as Columbia Law students.
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