Well okay, yes, but his are so much less screeching than others, and are relatively rare, so I wouldn’t necessarily characterise it as a common feature of his site. The ‘WWF’ to Whale Oil’s/No Minister’s ‘Sea Shepherd’, perhaps?

StephenR: You don’t expect partisan attacks from DPF or his resident commentariat?

Quality’s also a matter of what people expect from a site. What the regular posters at WOBH, No Minister and to an extent The Standard and Kiwiblog and others want (and what their respective proprietors want) is quite different to what KP is about.

Quality’s also a matter of what people expect from a site. What the regular posters at WOBH, No Minister and to an extent The Standard and Kiwiblog and others want (and what their respective proprietors want) is quite different to what KP is about.

Yes, I didn’t really take ‘flame wars’ into account did I? I think Whale Oil’s ‘popular’ site which has a lot of posts, but little discussion was probably colouring my thinking a bit. Not that I really go there very often. Quality is certainly difficult to measure though too.

It is nice having a site around on the left that is quieter than ours. Certainly you get a better class of commentator.

Now we just need to work on some of the commenters… please feel encouraged to moderate out the trolls and abusers.

I’m just delighted to see a blog from the left (please excuse labeling/generalisation, etc) that manages to do a good job of putting its views forward without slurs and abuse.

Oh and Greg – i do my cooking in the kitchen. kiwipolitico is a “kitchen” – what i do in another part of the house/another blog that doesn’t even pretend to “kitchenhood”, is an entirely different matter.

i thought “Nats back obesity in schools” was snappy, to the point and humorous. Don’t really see how it could be interpreted as offensive. It could have been framed more accurately at the expense of being less “catchy” and “attention grabbing”. But that’s the point of the text, not the title in my opinion.

StephenR

…the title of his latest is noticeably different in tone from anything else i’ve seen here lately, i’ll say that. Ah well, wadaya gonna do.

Really just thinking of stuff posted elsewhere…though the title of his latest is noticeably different in tone from anything else i’ve seen here lately, i’ll say that. Ah well, wadaya gonna do.

StephenR, Greg & Dean,

I am less interested in the stats than I am in contributing to the NZ political debate. I also believe, contrary to the opinion of some, that the best way to do that is to respectfully disagree, and to be polite and respectful in any event. For me that means no personal attacks, no epithets, no nonsense. Regardless of who posts and what we post elsewhere, that is the standard I signed up for when Jafapete and Anita invited me in. I expect that standard will be upheld by additional contributors and guest posters, otherwise we shall be heading down the slippery slope towards political flame wars. We all have seen what that does to the tone of the debate, so I do not have any desire to participate in such a forum.
Anyway, that having been noted–so far, so good!

My congratulations also. It’s hard to consistently write considered and informed posts that promote discussion and respect differences, I think you all do it well. It’s great that post the election, the rampant partisanship has abated and blogs have adopted a more moderate approach.

Congratulations, JP. Of course, you were already in Tumeke’s top 20, but the addition of Anita and Pablo have certainly given the blog a much wider appeal and a more varied stance.

Why did you give Rogernome posting rights? He detracts from what is otherwise indeed a blog of ‘considered debate’ with personal attacks and petty rubbish.

This is going to sound cruel, and petty……..but it bugs me.

Although I just noticed that Roger Nome is writing now (guest post?). Would’ve thought he’d be more at home at the ‘attack blog’ The Standard, but there you go.

Yes, always thoughtful, and a credit to its writers. I’ve always thought the number of comments were probably the best indicator of how ‘good’ a blog is (subjective, yes) – there are a few higher-ranked blogs out there that post a lot, but don’t generally generate much chatter. Keep it up!