October 14, 2004

• Previously posted here, but it's mysteriously disappeared. Word to supporting Devoter.
• I was on there for a while, but it doesn't seem to be attracting people: jca practically posts every single item. I also absolutely hate the atrocious markup. The MoFi/MeFi system of using HTML-fragments is not only better, but also easier to implement! Do we really need another home-grown markup language? Also I would really appreciate alternate stylesheets; I can't stand the default low-contrast colour scheme for many reasons, not the least of which is that my astigmatism makes anything other than 18pt black-on-white text very hard to read after I get my contacts out in the evenings. Sorry to complain so much, jca, if you're reading this. I still think it is a good resource with good potential, but right now it adds nothing that I cannot get by simply aggregating the major blogs.
• Where's the disclaimer about Devoter being an American political site? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I can't help feeling a bit left out. That or tempted to post some Canadian political commentary, but dissuaded by the American flags at the top of the page.
• Er, wasn't the concensus on self link, "Er... no"? And agreed with calimehtar's point, even though I'm american myself. Thirdly, yes, devoter is good, and I check it daily.
• Wait, which one is the self-link?
• My ears are burning! :) Seriously, I appreciate the plug jb and welcome any and all MoFi's to visit/post to Devoter.com. Devoter simply began as a response to my own AskMeFi post about a political MeFi clone -- I know there is a deadly catch-22 with regards to attracting posts and maintaining community weblogs, but I'm trying to do the best job I can at the moment. fuyugare: True, I'm doing the majority of the posting at the moment. As I've said in other forums/threads, I hope this doesn't remain the case, since I'm only representing one liberal view, as opposed to a more centrist and balanced cross-section ideal for a community weblog about politics. As for the markup, I'm sorry it isn't to your liking. Unfortunately, it's a fact of life when considering the weblog is open membership at the moment, and the software used to power the weblog is better at dealing with the bracket [url] markup style rather than HTML. I guess I didn't notice it as being as much of a problem since it's essentially BBcode, which is so popular in forums, like the one we run over at Adtunes.com. My girlfriend also agrees with you about the light-on-dark color schemes. ;) calimehtar: Well, the initial focus has been American politics, but I've always encouraged posts covering international issues. It goes back to the previous catch-22 problem -- they'll be more posts outside the realm of US politics when someone chooses to post them. We see a few mentions of overseas issues here and there, but definitely need a broader range of content. You mentioned being turned off by "American flags" at the top of the page -- does it really come across as some flag waving pro-American site? The only "flag" in our mastehead isn't a flag at all, it's a stylized red/white/blue triangle with burned edges -- what can we infer from the burned edges? :) (The Get out the Vote button is from a voter registration site, not of my own design.) And our whole logo/theme is the road signs leading up to Washington, which seem to be pointing in circles. Have I failed at designing graphics that both invoke and question the road to U.S. politics? :) Regardless, I welcome more readers and posters, covering a broader range of views and venues of politics. Thanks again for the kind words -- much appreciated.
• I think you're doing a great job jca, keep up the good work.
• Thanks mfpb. :)
• You mentioned being turned off by "American flags" at the top of the page -- does it really come across as some flag waving pro-American site? No, I don't think it does. However, it does come off as a site about American politics. What with all the stars and stripes and star bullets and whatnot, it just looks like a site geared to American politics. Paridoxically, the text billing it as a site talking about politics in general only intensifies this effect. It rather makes it sound, please forgive me, as if it's one of those sites where the author has kind of forgotten that there is politics outside the US, or that the Internet is an international place.
• It rather makes it sound, please forgive me, as if it's one of those sites where the author has kind of forgotte
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  ?litics outside the US, or that the Internet is an international place. Well I look forward to you personally posting at Devoter about politics outside the US to correct what you say this author has "kind of forgotten".
• jca - do you think you might change some of the design, especially after the election? I had posted this thinking the site was suposed to be about just American politics, because of the flag, but also because you have three pictures of an American political building (the capitol building?). If you really intend it to be international, maybe you could replace two of them with pictures of important buildings from elsewhere - perhaps where the EU parliament meets, and Canada's Parliament Hill. (Last being most important, of course :) I know that your intentions are to be open, but symbols do mean a lot, and I know that I would feel less welcome to post on a site with so many symbols of American politics, and nary a maple leaf in sight. Images of the UN, of the EU, of the Commonwealth, or just from a random selection of countries, might go a long way to opening up the debates and interest in Devoter. (Also - I'm curious about the name, how did you come to it?)
• politics-blog-filter. Seriously, I think this is cool.
• does it really come across as some flag waving pro-American site? 'Fraid so, yes. Otherwise, what Dreadnought and jb said.
• does it really come across as some flag waving pro-American site? I didn't see it as "pro-American flag waving". It did strike me as a American site geared towards American politics. I thought the same thing as jb when I first saw it back in August, it wasn't so much the flag in the left corner but the whole banner at the top using the Congress building, the "register to vote", "who are you voting for" poll on the right side and the content of the pages. It doesn't "advertise" itself as being "international".
• I'm sorry, jca, I didn't actually mean to imply that you yourself had 'forgotten' about international poltics. I just wanted to point out the paradoxical effect that text saying 'about all aspects of politics' along with visuals strongly denoting only US politics makes the site seem more, rather than less, US focussed. One might think that the opposite would be true, that a visitor to the site would think 'ah, right, well the owner of the site is American, but the text says all politics'. However the actuall effect is to make the reader think 'oh, I guess this is so American that the owner of the site doesn't even feel the need to specify the country'. I agree that 'forgotton' is an unfortunate choise of words, and I apologise.
• Does anybody still read devoter?
• I do in my RSS feed, but he has gone downhill as of late.
• Eh, my bad. I thought this was a thread about Defamer. No, I stopped reading devoter on about Oct. 31st.
• Devoter is still cool. I still like it, anyway.