I’ve been completely out of the loop on the drama and goings-on over at MusicCityBloggers.com, which I say in part to apologize to those for whom I’ve not been able to be supportive and in part to claim that I take no part in the madness. The mess is expansive and the scars are starting to look like they run pretty deep.

While I wasn’t completely naive about the possibility it might blow up, I really had a very optimistic outlook for it in the beginning. But I and many other contributors have never been nearly active enough to spread the workload out evenly enough, and possibly as a consequence, the voices have become too much of a shrill monotone.

So much of the nay-saying about MCB seems to pertain to a lack of balance in political opinion, which I find unfortunate. I have found that blog, at times, to be a great source of reasoned debate between people of differing viewpoints. I don’t blog often about politics, per se, but like most people, the majority of my opinions can be taken at some level as an indicator of my political leanings. After all, you don’t meet all that many vegan (well, mostly vegan), child-free, atheist, bisexual… conservative Republicans. I’m not saying it’s a foregone conclusion from my writings that I’m a liberal/progressive/Green/what-have-you, but I think the overlap between my lifestyle/preferences and political viewpoint is easy to spot.

What’s my point? I guess it’s that I don’t think a community blog need necessarily be overtly about politics, and I don’t think politics need necessarily be a policy discussion every time in order to be meaningful. But it’s often the topics that do deal directly with policy that turn the most vicious — or maybe that’s because those discussions somehow attract the most vicious commenters.

I don’t have any answers; I just find it unfortunate and I hope that the next era of MCB corrects course and is stronger for the growing pains.

MCB = Much Crazy Bullshit? But maybe it can still be better

7 thoughts on “MCB = Much Crazy Bullshit? But maybe it can still be better

  • January 6, 2008 at 11:17 am
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    I agree with you. I skip over all of the political stuff and enjoy it more for the community aspect of it.

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  • January 6, 2008 at 11:22 am
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    That was a wonderful post.
    I’m with Chez. I like the community part and said that over there but I think politics are relevant and part of the online discussion.
    Hell, I love politics.
    I made a joke over there I shouldn’t have made, but all of this has been very trying.
    Blogging should be fun.
    I think your idea on RSS feeds is absolutely inspired.

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  • January 6, 2008 at 12:01 pm
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    That’s all very well and good, but how do you feel about Canola Oil?

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  • January 6, 2008 at 12:07 pm
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    That’s all very well and good, but how do you feel about Canola Oil?

    Ha! I know, right? We’ve definitely seen this process once or twice before.

    In answer to your question, though, it’s dihydrogen monoxide I’m really concerned about.

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  • January 6, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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    That’s all very well and good, but how do you feel about Canola Oil?

    Ha! I know, right? We’ve definitely seen this process once or twice before.
    In answer to your question, though, it’s dihydrogen monoxide I’m really concerned about.

    I share your concern, and Canola oil is at least DHMO free.

    Reply
  • January 7, 2008 at 9:46 am
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    My relationship with MCB lasted, like, two weeks.

    I just can’t keep up the pace of writing things for them and also writing things for me (and I’m not allowed to use the same posts for both). Besides, I tire of people who get outraged with me over a post about scents of deodorant. I have no beef with them; I just prefer to keep my madness on LiveJournal.

    Reply

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