We in the Gulf Watchers community have been discussing for some time how best to go forward now that the well has been declared effectively dead and the ROV activity has all but ceased. This diary attempts to be an amalgamation of viewpoints on that issue culled from the last dozen or so ROVs, which are the liveblog, nonrecommendable babies of what we call our Mothership. The Mothership is both commendable and recommendable.
We would appreciate commentary from more Daily Kos readers as to how the Gulf Watcher series can best meet the needs of the wider community and the needs of all those affected by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. If you have comments about our future format, frequency, content, please put them here.
Be kind to those with bandwidth issues and do not post videos or images, although though links are welcome.
Kudos to the Gulf Watchers who have worked so long and hard to keep accurate information available. We honor the eleven men who died in the disaster, and extend our best wishes to their families for peace and healing.
The "why" of Gulf Watchers
In BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership #118, one of our community explained our purpose to a not particularly supportive inquiry as to why we don’t get over ourselves. Here is her comment, with her gracious permission.
FYI, Gulf Watchers was watching oil seep from the well head weeks ago when Thad Allen was declaring that no oil was leaking. As of last night [September 19] there were still hydrates forming around the HC connector. This should not be happening.
The purpose of Gulf Watchers up to this point has been to provide the most extensive eyewitness documentation of this disaster by knowledgeable observers who have dedicated themselves to ensure the information we get is as accurate as possible, and to provide a library of related information and materials to those who wish to further read about the DWH disaster.
Every so often someone drops by the Mothership to question WHY we continue to do so. We do so because this is the worst environmental disaster to ever hit happen to the United States and if we do not learn from this disaster, it could easily happen again. If nothing else, we have learned that they (the oil companies) may the technology for drilling in water this deep, but they do not have adequate safeguards to prevent disasters like this one, nor do they have the technology to adequately stop a runaway blowout such as this one.
Knowledge is power. One of the main reasons for Gulf Watchers was to provide a clearing house of technical information regarding this disaster, deep water drilling in general, regulation and legal issues, and the economic and environmental impacts of this disaster.
by gulfgal98 on Mon Sep 20, 2010 at 09:14:04 AM MDT
When to start our new format
It has been suggested (I heartily agree) that Mothership #125 should be our last. (We are currently at Mothership #122.)
The ROVs attached the Mothership #125 will end with ROV #400. The body text will be changed to solicit recommendations for the ROV itself. Each ROV will retain a link to the last Mothership (#125) and to the GW digest. The ROVs up to and including #400 will continue with the current titling convention and sequence: - DK GW ROV ### - Title - BP's GC. I assume that after that we are abandoning the term ROV, but as widely agreed, keeping the Gulf Watchers title. I am not married to any of the other names I use below.
If I understand Peraspera correctly (9/23 post) she is willing to post the first few diaries after final ROV #400 at 5:00 am when the community at large expects to see our daily appearance...Gulf Watchers Morning Edition, or whatever. As noted above, the text of each diary would request recs. She suggests this might help reduce confusion while we discuss plans going forward. Those early editions of our new format could also be used to solicit volunteers for the next few Evening Editions, should we choose to have them (see below).
These early post-ROV diaries might also, in the body of the text, ask readers to comment on their dream of what Gulf Watchers could become, how it can best serve the Daily Kos community as a whole, what issues are dearest to them, and in what way they feel best able to contribute.
Content
It is widely agreed we need to focus more on substance, with less light stuff than we have now in order to attract more of the greater Kos community (and perhaps galaxies beyond) with our relevance. God knows there is enough to be substantive about. Some of the issues we’ve concentrated on so far are:
What went wrong at Macondo 252, who did what when, commissions, investigations
Various aspects of offshore drilling
Human health and safety
Effects on wildlife and environment
Cleanup operations (in general, a euphemism)
Action items (who needs help, how to get it to them)
Federal and local actions, inactions
Legislation and regulations
Compensation for those harmed
Litigation
Ethical issues
Election issues
Economic impacts
Links to coverage by MSM and local media, federal agencies, other relevant blogs
There is also a consensus that we Gulf Watchers want to continue to nurture the sense of family we have developed over the last few wrenching months. We’ve shared music, poetry, personal problems and histories, family stories, recipes, and strings of silliness that had me running for my Depends. Yasuragi and David PA have offered to host a once a week GW social diary so that we can air the neighborly stuff there. (I am keen on this myself, being given to fits of frivolity.) We should chose a specific day for this and remind people in the prior day’s substantive diary, and it can run with continuing comments until the next week’s fresh social diary.
Frequency
Aye, there’s the rub. Over at least the last dozen ROVs, we’ve discussed everything from once a week to twice a day. We’ve had 2 polls. The first had a total of 35 responders, 3 of whom wanted 2/day. The second had a total of 29 responders, 5 of whom wanted 2/day. No other frequencies were offered in the polls, and we’re still going back and forth. It’s time to fish or cut bait.
Compromise? Let’s have a Gulf Watchers Morning Edition posted at, say, 5 am Eastern. It would contain Peraspera’s inimitable news summary in the body of the diary as long as she wants to do it. She has pointed out that the news summary can be a pain because of untested html. However, if the summary is included in the body of the diary, the diarist can publish the diary without the news summary if there are errors, in which case single news items can be posted one at a time as updates in order to simplify locating the html errors. (Hope I got that right, as I have no idea what I’m talking about.)
Let’s also have a Gulf Watchers Evening Edition posted at, say, 5 pm Eastern. We could limit it to weekdays, and one of the weekday evening editions would be the social one.
With elections coming up, some feel this will be too many diaries. Time will tell in pretty short order. If we’re making a mistake, let’s make it and learn from it and move on. That's my opinion. Dear readers, please let us have yours.
Items Not Addressed Here
DKos4, tags, searchability, digests, eKos, SUs, the idea of email alerts for action items. I do not do technical stuff, and several loyal Gulf Watchers are already at work on this.
Summary of Summary
- Mothership #125 will be our last.
- Accept Peraspera’s offer to post the first few morning diaries after final ROV #400.
- Schedule volunteers for subsequent morning diaries.
- Schedule volunteers for evening diaries of substance on 4 weekdays.
- Accept the offers to host one evening diary of GW community fun (does not preclude substance).
Let ‘er rip!