Redstate

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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

That's for sure. And neither is Mitt. And neither is McCain. So it seems we're going to have a good old-fashioned face-off at the OK Corral. That's fine with me. May the best man win.

No matter how much we might like it to be otherwise, I'll make a bet that the number of serious RedState readers around the country is less than 25,000. We're a little teeny tiny island here.

I hope.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Everyone knows that the best thing that can happen for Conservatives in this country is to have someone who really understands how to keep this country competitive economically at the helm. Their fortunes are tied to his fortunes in a direct sense: the well-being of America and all its disparate causes and groups is directly connected to the well-being of its economy.

There isn't any candidate in this field better disposed to help that than Mitt Romney. And on the other things, everyone will have a much easier time lobbying for their pet causes when they have money in their pockets.

There is your *inverse, and your *not. What is going on here? You are actually my *favorite blogger here, and I actually get my personal frustrations out by reading your posts. I would love to know what the heck is up with the alternate identities though... It kind of reminds me of that movie "The Prestige". LOL!

But we all know that it's the same intolerant, right-wing, gun-toting, uncompassionate conservative underneath.

"Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now". -White Goodman

No actually it was very simple. I was embarrassed because C17Wife called me a spoiled child and then I wasn't that embarrassed and now that Thompson has dropped out I don't feel any compunction about being myself again, and supporting Mitt Romney.

So it's me from here on out. I just wasn't feeling like myself for a while there, so I used the alternate username, which all the Editors know. But it's the *same me* and I'm sure Clayton knows from the inbound IP address that it is.

I'm feeling better now that Fred has dropped out of the race. Giuliani is next, and I'll feel even better when he does.

"Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now". -White Goodman

Nobody on RedState should ever have two simultaneous usernames. It's bad etiquette and it makes work for Clayton and the people who manage this site because they have to swat them down like flies and that takes time. However, I chose an alternate username that was almost impossible to screw up, as long as you're a little ambidextrous. And RedState graciously let me get away with it, because they know the IP address is exactly the same.

I thank them for their tolerance of my wierd affectation. Otherwise I think I would have started my own blog a long time ago, and I may still do that.

It won't be a Republican/Conservative blog, and I'm actually thinking about charging a subscription to be a member. It's more like a private club than a traditional blog: if you want to read it or contribute, you have to pay up front.

I realize that I won't get rich doing this, but I'd like to do it anyway. Access will be by invitation only, so keep your comment forms open.

"Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now". -White Goodman

(You are a moderator, right?)

"Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now". -White Goodman

I'm not a moderator or an editor. I'm just a longstanding user. And yeah, I say silly things like I won't contribute to RedState from time to time but I really don't mean it. In the end, I will, it just depends on personal cashflow.

RedState always knows that when I have the money I'll eventually help them out.

I'm what used to be called a "Trusted User" under Scoop and I don't take that lightly. I've been around since right after RS got started and I've seen every kind of troll and malcontent that's possible to see in a zero-cost open registration participatory blog.

Which is why I miss Thomas because he wasn't afraid to hit them with Spiked Pipes™. I'll still be here at RedState but I'm going to be doing more to blog at HinzSight in the next few months and I am still working on my own "internet private club" which I am not going to use advertisements for. Everyone who wants to be a member is going to have to pay to support it from their own pocket. If nobody does, so be it, and it'll disappear.

One thing that I'm exceptionally unimpressed with in the blogosphere as it exists today is something that Glenn Reynolds talked about a couple of years ago, but it's gotten worse as time has gone on:

The blogosphere isn't a medium for changing people's opinions, it's more about preaching to the choir and building groups of like-minded people. But the big problem with a place like RedState is that you cannot have really private conversations, so you have to do it through email or through the often-referenced but never seen informal IM network that the editors here use.

I say, to heck with that: if you want to have a private space on the Internet, just make one, and make everyone pay to be a member, and make them sign a contract. I'm not personally interested in having some of those opinions be indexed by Google: in fact, I would rather they weren't. And I'm willing to pay for that elitism.

One big problem with the blogosphere in general is that it almost instantly cheapens the value of the information placed on it: as soon as you post something interesting, it's freely available to everyone, including your enemies. I'm more interested in setting up a place where people can converse without worrying the Donks are listening in, and membership will be exclusive.

And if that smacks of elitism I'm really not concerned about what people think in that regard. I want to create a place where people who aren't going to dribble manufactured comments all over the place can come and talk seriously, and the only way to do that is to not allow anonymity and force everyone to to be a stakeholder. By definition it won't be a "popular" destination.

Because it sounds interesting.

I'm thinking of something like $250 a year. I appreciate the value of open information but I also appreciate the necessity for private spaces on the Internet. I would like to have a real organization that has actual monetary and real "meatspace" responsibilities associated with it, with an actual bonafide membership of contributors who all agree to the terms and who want that kind of private space with all the immediacy and flexibility that the packet-switched communications network we call the Internet affords.

I'm not trying to undermine the "everything should be free" internet model as such, I'm just saying that people should also be able to create their own private spaces and really rigorously and legally enforce that privacy.

I think the most important part of that is that everyone who is a member has to pay and most importantly, that they are *not* anonymous to the organization. The way blogs work right now is sadly that anybody can sign up for nothing and it actually costs the people who are running the place to police it against them. The truth is that trolls are successful because they cause actual people to spend real time and money to defend against them. I disagree with that; I don't think it should be the only model, and the only way to get around that is to invite known quantities, sign them up, and say that they all agree to a set of terms.

Like it or not, every successful business in this world relies on a certain exclusivity in order to thrive. Universities do it, car manufacturers certainly do it, and a lot of other businesses absolutely couldn't survive without it. The Internet model as it exists right now in the blogosphere is almost completely lobsided in the other direction: anyone can join, anyone can show up, write arbitrarily awful stuff, waste people's time, post spam, post graffiti, etc., etc., and the people who have to police it are the ones already paying to run the site. They lose the money value of their time just acting as cyber janitors, cleaning up the trash. That's wrong.

I want to think about creating a space for discussion where we won't have to deal with the trolls, because people will be *invited* to join and everyone else will know who they are, just as they actually do in a real community. And that requires a little up-front commitment. It's not so that I can get rich. The money would be used to further the goals of the organization.

Redstate is not perfect by any means, but it is the cleanest site that I've seen to date, and also the most intimate and social. They could already get together and start charging and have then your ideal blog. The fact that it is open is more in line with their mission statement and also allows this to serve as an alternate news source. I think your perspective is valid, and a closed forum is great for honest dialog. I guess it could even co-exist with this more open format, sort of like a private corner or vip lounge. I'm new to all this, my first exposure what googling "multiple choice mitt" after I read that Kennedy had stuck Romney with that nickname way back. Erick's blog actually popped up, and I've been hooked since. I'm new here but already I feel like I "know" some of these posters. (btw, Erick, do come back to Romney, he can't be THAT bad.)

"Go ahead, make your jokes, Mr. Jokey... Joke-maker. But let me hit you with some knowledge. Quit now". -White Goodman

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Most Donks listening in aren't that well-connected or assume that they have nothing to learn from us because we're so "narrow-minded" and backward (the Donk definition of "conservative.")

I think a bigger problem is when you are debating, say, Giuliani versus Huckabee and a Donk comes in a puts a thumb on the scale towards one or the other, without letting you know that he or she is Donk. It's sabatoge, darn it.

Just a sad moment. I'm back together now. I just wish the general public was as smart as you folks are. I really get a kick out of reading what you guys and gals have to say. I'm not going anywhere and I will put my two cents in. Thanks for listening...

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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater