Control Freaks

Chris Bowers from MyDD has this wonderful article and analysis on the differences between progressive and conservative blogging. Bowers argues, as many others have, that lefties embrace an open blogging atmosphere that permits comments and dissent whereas the right-wingnuts, in typical top-down aristocratic fashion, tends to push dissent and difference to the margins. Initially, Bowers concluded that tight control allowed right-wing blogs to be more successful in impacting the mainstream media... but now he finds that left-wing blogs are pulling away in terms of traffic. Why? Community.

Of the twenty-four liberal blogs in the top quintile, Dailykos, TPM Café, Smirking Chimp, Metafilter, BooMan Tribune, MyDD, and Dembloggers are full-fledged community sites where members cannot only comment, but they can also post diaries / articles / polls. By comparison, there are no community sites among the top twenty-four conservative blogs. None, zip, zero, nada

Bowers finds that of the top 5 conservative blogs, only LGF even allows comments (let alone diaries, polls, etc). Contrast this with blogs like DailyKos, Atrios, MyDD, etc. which encourage (indeed, are even based on) full user participation. They thrive on discourse, dialogue, and debate rather than squelching them in the name of "staying on message." It's a struggle mirrored in real-life day-to-day party politics, where the Right maintains a united facade (while fracturing behind the scenes) and the Left openly faces its inner conflicts. I prefer the latter approach (obviously), and I tend to think it will be more effective in the long haul.