Room Eight unceremoniously celebrated its second birthday last week. Recently I asked the editors (Gur Tsabar and Ben Smith) to tell me what their vision was for this site; I am still waiting for that conversation to begin. Look, don’t get me wrong here, both of these individuals have been people I admire and respect; I still do. They are both pioneers. The idea of a political-blog writer’s colony that they implemented here two years ago is something many still praise. But there comes a time when we all have to introspect, and I believe the time is here for these two to reflect on where Room8 goes now.
We have failed to recruit, attract or hold on to high-quality writers, willing to supplement those already here. We have failed to outline for our writers exactly what our objectives are. Some of us who write here diligently struggle to keep NYC bloggers politically and socially informed; we try to analyze situations, issues, personalities and events, in order to educate those who are interested in the politics of this state and beyond. Like everything else, the site has good and bad days. The biggest problems come with the comment section.
I have called for registration for those who comment. I have called for some type of system that will make commenters responsible for their words. I do not like anonymous comments. I have never condoned it or encouraged it. I think these anons are mostly troublemakers and player haters. Some are serious in their commentary but too many others are not. A few bad apples are spoiling the whole bale.
I think the time is now for R8 to take our level of discourse to a higher plain. If we force people to register before commenting here we will force them to be more responsible. It will end ad-hominem attacks. It will raise the quality of the discourse on the threads. We could have a tracking system that could flush out those who only come up here to cause trouble. I defended my writings for a long time until I recognized the troublemakers, and since then I have decided to pick and choose who I respond to; and when I respond to them. Granted that this isn’t always the best way to go, I chose this for myself given the unique situation I face here on Room Eight. Sometimes I punch back out of sheer anger and frustration; this hasn’t helped; in fact it has made the situation worse and made me look bad too. Lately I have started to wonder if there are not racial undertones to all these attacks on me; after all, I am the only black writing as often as I do on the NYC blogs. These attacks on me are three years old; Room Eight is only two years old. The attacks started on the “Politicker”, spilled over to the “N.Y. Daily News Blog” and have now ensconced themselves on this site (Room Eight). Some of the “culpricks” are the same; some culprits are new. Same difference; new days same shit; new columns, same crap: I have a bull’s eye on the back my columns. They become target practice for fools. It is so friggin silly it isn’t funny.
As much as I hate to close my comment section, I feel as though this is becoming the only option for me again beyond quitting. I have said many times that I will stop writing here on my terms, and not on others. I will be here until the presidential elections are over at least; and then I will decide if I continue or not. And I refuse to be forced out of something that I invested a lot of time, effort and energy in developing. I won’t be bullied. Already I send out many columns to an esoteric e-mail list of almost three hundred readers; most of them tell me that they hardly come on this site anymore, and mainly because of the drama in the threads of my columns. That’s unfortunate, since the site has so much more to offer. And so many links that are valid and worthy.
Some of my columns never make it to any of the blog sites that I write on, because I anticipate too much drama and controversy; and as such I usually limit them to this quiet group. Still, I feel handcuffed and I hate that feeling. I have introduced hundreds of people to the blogs (especially to five specific sites) and as such I do think that I have a responsibility to stay here on Room Eight, in my quest to help further inform people who are willing to play a part in the political process. We need to have more New Yorkers involved in politics; that’s why I pull so many students to this site (and others). I bring highschoolers and college/university students; I bring old-timers and youngsters too.
I think the editors should review their policy on anonymous commenters before we get to another birthday. In the meantime, I do wish all associated with this site a happy second birthday and good luck in the future. And that includes Wonk, JP, Wallner and Gatemouth (who is just a prankster at heart, but possessive of a mean streak). Finally; another thing is we should do is advertise this site in various mainstream mediums or vehicles; that way we can increase readership; especially when we highlight the success of our regular in-house writers.
Stay tuned-in.