I got an e-mail requesting I post this as a diary here so...
This is something I've been thinking about that came out in a little burst of inspiration this morning. I'm going to repost it a couple of times in hopes that someone (Matt, Zephyr, Trippi?) in HQ lays eyes on it. Maybe even spark some discussion here -
Being first on this thread, I hereby request HQ (that's you Matt!) to put some serious consideration into updating the blog. To put it tritely, it is so 2003.
The blog needs to evolve just as the campaign needs to evolve. I rarely post here now or read through the comments. For me personally, the blog has a diminished sense of community from what i feel was its peak during the 3rd quarter of last year. DailyKos now fufills the role for me that this blog used to.
I would draw a parellel between the blog serving as a gathering point of ideas and enthusiasm in the same sense as Meetup. But imagine being at MeetUp and having a bunch of Bush supporters or militant Clarkies burst in and start yelling, heckling, and just generally disrupting your meeting. If this happened enough people would stop coming. That is what I compare to the discourse here.
I'll admit there still are some good days, such as the Gore endorsement, where we rush the blog and overwhelm the trolls to the point where they don't even bother. But I feel strongly that we could have good days like that every day if you would just switch to Scoop without diaries.
I sometimes get the feeling that the campaign staff itself is not pushing the envelope anymore, that they are coasting on momentum and playing not to lose the nomination. That they are starting to bank too heavily on a televison strategy.
Why not distribute the Common Sense flyers to hundreds of thousands of Democratic/Independent voters? We have the funds. Why not distribute DVD's (or even cheaper vCDs) of speechs or town halls like the Clark campaign? We have the funds. Why not update the blog? We definately have the funds.
Innovate. Push the envelope.
Yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
Thanks for listening.