A Shiny New Left in Lowell? Your Help Needed!
When a concept keeps you awake at night thinking about how cool it is, it’s time to explore implementing it. So it was last night, when at 3am I found myself going over in my head for over an hour and a half exactly how, technically, I could transition this site, as long promised, into hosting more community content from all of greater Lowell. (This morning, I am exhausted from the lack of sleep…)
I’ve had my head in ExpressionEngine development for a couple weeks straight now, working on sites for clients. ExpressionEngine is a CMS (content management software) that I discovered last summer, and I have since become something of an advanced EE developer. It’s an affordable commercial product which combines the strength of open source (development of addons and improvements by the community of developers) with the sort of support which isn’t as hit or miss as other open source, free platforms like Drupal or WordPress, which, while powerful, drive me nuts both in implementation and in trying to get help with problems. I’m something of an EEvangelist these days. It’s great software, flexible, customizable, powerful.
But it’s exceedingly hard for me to make the LiL upgrade project a priority while concurrently running my business. And though transporting existing WordPress blogs into EE is possible, it’s tricky, and something I would likely want to hire out to a pro. The software also costs some small amount of cash, and in order to prioritize my time (and EE takes a lot of time to custom-develop) I need to at least get paid a little bit. Also, I may want to buy some of the affordable modules other developers have created to accomplish goals such as a recommended list with ratings, etc. So. Here’s the deal.
I am looking for advanced pledges of donations to make this happen. My goal is $1500 in total promised money (if we go above that, more features will be built). I say pledged donations because I don’t want to actually take anyone’s money unless I reach the goal and can actually do this project. Don’t pledge if you think you won’t have the money in a month. And don’t pledge if you can’t afford it, either, I don’t want blood from a stone!
What you’ll get for your money, if the project can go forward:
- Community posting ability and User Post list similar (but better!) to Blue Mass Group or dKos (though User Post privileges will be given out on a case by case basis, to maximize quality, and geographical/community group/political coverage)
- Registered user system with email validation - no more waiting for moderation, just log in and comment.
- A very cool events calendar that any registered user can add to.
- Some sort of ratings system/recommend list
- Moderator ability to “frontpage” interesting or important posts from users
- Better organization of information
- A far better advanced search function - EE’s native search module is incredible.
Other cool ideas that could be incorporated:
- Ability to grant community users the privilege to post photo galleries or MP3 podcasts.
- RSS feeds in the sidebar from other regional progressive or governmental blogs like richardhowe.com, jackiedoherty.org, or the CM’s blog so you always know when they’ve posted something new, and we at LiL can more regularly drive traffic to these excellent resources.
- Other requested features you might think of that you would like to see. Have a cool idea? Let me know!
There you have it. There’s all this great potential, but it takes a lot of time and money to make it happen, and I just can’t do it alone. But with help, this site can become more useful to the community, the way I always had intended it to be. If you can pledge, any amount (and only pledge if you intend to follow through, on the honor system!) send me an email, lynne [at] leftinlowell.com (replace the [at] with @ and get rid of the spaces) so I can tally up the amounts and see if this ship can afford to leave the port. 
I want to try to capitalize and improve upon the community-blog model that’s been pioneered by Scoop-driven blogs, without miring the site in outdated or inflexible code. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, and I hope we can make this a reality.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I’d be willing to donate but not if the site continues to allow anonymous, slanderous, ignorant attacks. This is a great forum for discussion, but there are too many pseudonyms. If you have an opinion you should say it and stand behind it. Some people see this site as a source of information, and I believe that it wrong. Largely, this site is a source of opinion and commentary. The two should not be confused. — Jim Lichoulas III
June 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Here’s where one has to learn to understand the internet, and what comments on a blog really are. People who post gain their credibility on merit - people who post stupid comments, trust me, their opinion become untrustworthy to the audience. There are a lot of people who would rather not put their names on their comment for various reasons (because of their job, or other personal reasons) who are perfectly credible, because we judge them on the contents of their comment and not on who they are. It’s called critical reading, and reasoning, and frankly, it’s a skill I think people are capable of.
We moderate comments, yes. However, there’s moderation and then there’s deciding who gets to be heard. There is a hard balance to achieve - we allow most comments to go through. We err on the side of opening up the conversation because the alternative is to censor. If you don’t agree with something, you have every right to post a counter argument - and if your argument is a better one, readers can see that right off. We are a thinking people, on blogs, for the most part. The ones who post negative or non-backed-up comments fall by the wayside because no one believes them. (Eventually most of them stop even bothering.)
You can’t just judge this whole blog on one or two comments that made you angry. Trust me, comments on this blog piss me off all the time. It’s how you react to it that shows your mettle. This isn’t a newspaper. It’s a messy, sometimes scary conversation that can do a lot of good if you let it. Censorship isn’t a positive part of that.
In the Lowell community, there’s a huge rumor mill that scuttles in the dark places underneath the surface. Like little cockroaches that love the dark. At least on a blog, the comment, anonymous or not, is in the open. That’s a lot more than I can say for politics offline.
Sure, the kitchen is hot. But you know what they say…
June 10th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
What I love about this site is that the people just make you think. No one here takes the posts as facts. I am sure there are lots of reasons people use pseudonyms. It is just a habit for me to use the start of my email address.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Jim, don’t hold back your opinion. ;0)
Since Lynne went to all moderated comments, alot of what you “might” be referring to has gone away. The next step is to have everyone register their names email addresses and so on.
Their is in fact quite a bit of truth to the comments listed. Those that are w/out merit are quickly called out, including our own!
So take heart, take from it what you want and leave the rest.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Have you looked into Scoop? Daily Kos uses it. That looks pretty powerful. Is Expression Engine better supported?
June 10th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Sometimes a blogger’s merit does not keep their comments from being factually incorrect. Journalism should give both sides of each story. Of course that never really happens, so why should it happen here. The Left in Lowell community blog is not a ‘newspaper’ but it is a source of news for some. The nature of it’s title honestly reveals it’s perspective. Usually anonymous posts are used to flame and rarely is it for some ‘legitimate’ reason. My concern is that LIL is trying to become a greater source of news: “I want to try to capitalize and improve upon the community-blog model that’s been pioneered by Scoop-driven blogs.” Perhaps I am misinterpreting the goal, but a Scoop-driven blog blurs the line between news and commentary. If the blog wants to become more newsy then those posts should at least be backed up by a name and email address. To remain credible, the ‘facts’ should be checked. If LIL wishes to remain a comment and opinion site, then I understand (but disagree) with anonymous posting. [I can’t believe I’m writing this while watching the Celtics game.] As someone who has been attacked by factually incorrect accusations I would appreciate the decency of the blogger to take credit for their statement(s). The problem is without a defense of the statement (or even with one) the statement is taken as fact by most. Over time, as the incorrect fact is repeated again and again until it becomes factual in the minds of readers. Put me down for $50.
– Jim Lichoulas III
June 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I love the sidebar section with Jackie’s and the cm’s posts listed. They are always posts that I love to read but do not seem to comment on.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Kpem thanks for your kind words; Jackie and I are in blogger’s limbo because of technical difficulties; we hope to be back soon. That said, Lynne and LiL ignited the blogging scene in Lowell, giving us all a forum and then the courage to go out on our own. I will definitely support the new effort.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Scoop is terrible. Unwieldy and once you get your site built in it, you’re stuck. It’s severely outmoded in terms of web techonology, IMHO. I have no desire to learn it, and hiring someone to build in it is expensive. And EE is way better supported!
Jim, this isn’t a newspaper, and we’ve never pretended to be. For one thing, we’d be drawing a salary!
I think you are misinterpreting the goal I’ve laid out, just a little…a community-driven site is, if anything, MORE decentralized and less top-down, the opposite of journalism, which at its best has good editors and filters (OK, so most journalism isn’t journalism these days). However, it’ll allow neighborhood groups to post on their events, or someone who attended an art event to give us a review, or someone like you a space to refute things you think are light on facts, even - INCLUDING what appears in the pages of a “newspaper” like the Sun.
There’s a grand tradition of anonymous posting in our country, except it used to be called pamphlets. This is nothing new. It’s just a different medium.
However, your comment elicits an interesting idea for me. I could definitely see a space where more “vetted” writers are given a more prominent space to write posts, whereas other posts from nonvetted sources are not. We already do that a bit already, with the sort of difference between front page writers (me and Mimi, for instance) and comments (anyone can write them).
Certainly, I already had in mind that only people with posting histories where I could see the quality of their writing and, as you say, factual (or reality-based) comments would be the ones to be granted User Posting status. I do not want this site to become a BMG, where that idiot (sorry, but he is) Ernie Boch can post very mean or nonfactual rants (or completely useless one-liners) in the user posts. Priority for User Posting status will go towards progressives, leaders in the community (community groups, Democratic leaders, etc) politicians and their staff (so they can engage the public), people in different towns (so we can hear more about what’s happening where we can’t cover), and people whose voice is credible, like waittilnextyear, who’s been with us a long time and whose insights are important.
But Jim, you have to understand that front page posts and comments are very different animals, and anyone who’s reading comments knows they aren’t held to the same standard. If they don’t they should. (And the new site will have a page talking about the “culture” of this blog and what to expect, which we don’t have now but we should.) What the new site could give you is a place for YOU to put YOUR thoughts out there and correct what you feel is wrong, and engage with the misinformed directly. This is something that one canNOT do in the real world Lowell Rumor Mill that pervades out there.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Jim, you really want to get yourself worked up? Check out the comments after the “articles” in the Lowell Sun online. Wow, I thought the articles were bad, the people reading and writing about them are insane! I’ve had to bar myself from that website for fear of having a stroke!
June 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Except for the well written Sun editorial by me today. If you all believe the Billerica accesor that the Power Plant will make home values rise in the area then I have a nice used car to sell ya. I never thought someone would annoy me enough to write in to the Sun.
http://www.lowellsun.com/letters/ci_9549433
June 12th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Nicely done, Kpem!!
June 12th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Peter is right, the comments in the Lowell Sun are nuts!
June 14th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Well, there you go then, Jim…”Left in Lowell - our comments may sometimes be crazy, but ours are way better than the Lowell Sun’s!” My new tagline.