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NOTE: I was told there would be livestreaming of the Lizz Winstead’s Morning News Dump today, but it looks like that’s not going to happen so hopefully one of my peeps here will shoot vid and have it up soon.
So…the decision: Pam’s House Blend is becoming part of the Firedoglake family. From Jane Hamsher’s post:
Pam’s House Blend has long been one of the most compelling and influential sites in the blogosphere. Founder Pam Spaulding has used the platform not only to speak out herself as a woman of color and a member of the LGBT community, but also to play host to many other fine bloggers who have worked with her to build PHB into a robust activist community.
Pam was also one of my first friends when we were both posting at Daily Kos, before Firedoglake even existed.
So it gives me great pleasure to announce that Pam’s House Blend will be joining the Firedoglake family of blogs. I think it’s a perfect union – as the task of hosting a blog and performing the tech, legal and security work to keep it up and running becomes more and more complex and expensive, it will free Pam and her fellow bloggers to spend their time doing what they do best, which is blog. It also allows us to feature the work of a really amazing group of writers on FDL, and be tremendously enriched by the PHB community.
Remember back in March when I ran the PHB Reader Survey?
The text-based answers to two questions can be read more clearly as PDFs: Click over to see: “In what areas does the Blend need improvement, and “What impact, if any, would there be if the Blend were to shut down?”…You want the Blend to continue in some form. While I didn’t ask this as a Yes/No question, most of you are not happy with my idea of shutting down the blog as a viable option. It wasn’t a trivial question at all. I’ve been doing this since July 2004, with few breaks (mostly because of illness), and even with the most prosperous advertising year (2008), I certainly couldn’t quit the job that puts a roof over my head. And I have the job in the family with anti-discrimination protections, another reason for the lack of flexible options for me. That’s why I’m thankful for the baristas and Blenders who contribute interesting and varied content from around the country. That model of authorship has always made the coffeehouse interesting. But for those who are particularly interested in seeing more content from me, I feel for you; I wish I could do this full-time, but no one has come up with a sustainable model that allows editorial freedom. Someone may figure this out, but don’t see it happening in my blogtime; it’s a problem that has been on the table for progressive blogs generally, never mind a niche blog that doesn’t take skin ads. (BTW, bonus points for the respondent that said they wanted no ads on PHB! LOL.) Everyone likes to get things for free.
So, I’m keeping the option of shutting it down on the table, people. Putting tips in the jar won’t make a difference; it really comes down to time. I don’t see how I can ramp up for 2012 coverage, help with the marriage amendment battle in my state, hold down my day job, produce content for the blog, and work a third job I now have. No Más.
The blogosphere would lose my particular perspective as a black lesbian from the South, but I’m sure someone would eventually step in to fill the void, or at least I hope that someone will. I’m not unique at all, just an early adopter whose audience grew over time.
Jane Hamsher and her team asked me whether it would make it possible for me to continue blogging if I didn’t have to worry so much about the back-end matters of the current platform. The opportunity to bring new readership to the Blend (more non-LGBT progressive voices) into the debate on equality is also a big positive for the Blend, so I thank Jane for the chance to expand PHB readership.
What does that mean for you, the readers? We haven’t worked out all the details, but the switchover will occur sometime in July, if all things tech go well.
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Your bookmarks will change. While I haven’t decided on the subdomain, it’s likely to be http://phblend.firedoglake.com or something similar.
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A cleaner design and platform change. It will still be a virtual coffeehouse for vigorous discussion.
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The baristas move over with me as well. Someone has to brew, serve and do the virtual housekeeping.
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All past Blend content on this platform and Blogger will move over (we’re going to throw a fundraiser to help out with this).
And the obvious question – no, I’m not quitting my day job. As I said in the reader survey post, it’s hard to see that happening in my blogtime, but hopefully I can reclaim some zzzzzzs.
More to come, but for now, what are your thoughts, questions?
25 Comments
Good luckPam, I hope this move relieves some of the stress you have experienced and that PHB can continue to be the dynamic and interesting place it is today.
Welcome! Pam, obviously I am very excited — and I want to extend a hand of friendship to you and your team: Autumn Sandeen, Alvin McEwen, Scott Wooledge and Laurel Rameseyer.
I simply cannot wait for this! So glad this worked out.
Congratulations!Pam, I am so happy to hear the news of your restructuring and hope it will afford you more time to write–and live the rest of your life!
“one of the most compelling and influential sites” So true. Your site was a lifeline to me during the second George W. Bush term, one of the few online places where reason ruled.
“more non-LGBT progressive voices” + “a virtual coffeehouse for vigorous discussion”. With the prospect of a larger and more diverse audience, I respectfully urge your commenters to heed the terms of service and the spirit inherent within the policies on civility. Way too often in recent years, the bitterness and hostility of commenters toward those of a more moderate bent, or toward those who, even if we are in agreement on the desired goals and outcomes, make different strategic calculations, has dissuaded me from fully participating on this site, figuring I just don’t need the grief and hate thrown in my face.
It would be a tragedy, with a wider distribution by way of the firedoglake umbrella, for PHB’s goal of securing justice and equality for all non-gender conforming people to be undermined by over-the-top denunciations of individual politicians and personal attacks hurled against LGBT colleagues, friends and allies, and potential supporters of our cause. Passion rhetoric and speaking truth to power are all good; but I don’t see how our movement is advanced by alienating or verbally bashing our neighbors, those senators or representatives whose votes we will need, or holding fallible and multifaceted human actors and moral agents–among them the leadership and volunteers at HRC, the Task Force, GetEqual and all the rest of our communities’ organizations–to impossible standards of purity and perfection.
I wish all of the PHB baristas and diarists much success with the new joint venture, and with gratitude salute you on your many years of dedicated and professional journalism.
Congrats!Good move!
Sounds like a win-win situationAll around. It frees you up to do what you do best, takes the stress of all the back-end stuff away, and best of all the liability issue (hopefully) is better addressed.
CongratulationsI’m very pleased to know that PHB will continue and that you will be able to improve the quality of your life, as you have improved ours.
Well, that would explain the trap doorsIt seemed odd, the way a particular moderator pair was allowed and even encouraged to trapdoor all the radical riff-raff in the prior few months for offenses that seemed inconsistent and even contrived. You know, the ones that were contentious, didn’t agree with so-called ‘mainstream’ LGBT policies and worked against Maryland’s anti-trans bill. The ones that made Pam’s look a bit too…progressive and radical and yes, fully trans inclusive.
Gender and sex variant people of all flavors used to have a voice here. It was one of the few, if not the only, online general audience forums where those of us that do not agree on much could rally together against those who wish to treat us as mentally ill or sinners or simply too out of norm in terms of expected gender and/or sex (or history, can’t forget the HBS’rs). Those who could not or would not assimilate into the far more centrist LGBT way of doing politics. Those who fought for true equality. Yes, the discourse would get a bit flavorful and even contentious but (and this is key), we were all adults and entered into and continued the heated discussions willingly. But suddenly, at the climax of the Maryland issue, voicing opinions that ran counter to the established and sell-able gay voice began to be silenced at a faster rate. That was why instead of eventually getting trap-doored, I and many others simply ceased to stop by. The coffee had grown cold for us, so to speak.
Pam, I completely understand the apparent decision you had to make for your own health and the continuation of at least some part of what you created and nurtured. But at the same time, for many of us at the bottom of the privilege ladder it feels like a favorite neighborhood coffee house that started to clean out all the undesirables in preparation for a sellout to Starbucks. The events may well simply have been coincidental, but they still occurred as they did.
Pam, please take care of yourself and thanks for the memories and the wonderful discussions that I enjoyed here in the past. In it’s heyday, Pam’s was crucial to stopping, or at least temporarily blocking, oppression based on gender and sex variance from the LGB mainstream and the larger societal expected norms, and for that I and my family thank you and hope the best for you.
This calls for
Conga rats!
It is good when one’s hard work pays off.
congrats and complimentsThe combination of two great websites in one place. Couldn’t be better.
(BTW, is that a halo over your head in that photo?)
Excellent news! Very happy for you, and all the baristas, Pam!
A question, since you asked.
Will Autumn be allowed to ban people from all of FDL?
Or just your section?
Or not at all?
oh come on…This is threadjacking and irrelevant. Based on our reader survey, people want more moderation than less, and our terms of service is clear. That people cannot seem to follow them is not our problem, but the commenters who refuse to abide by them.
And the trapdoor will continue to be opened by all moderating baristas.
I’m sure some people may feel that wayBut clearly it isn’t a sellout for cash – I’m still working a full time job, it doesn’t create any additional hours in a day. I don’t expect all readers to like the move, and the fact that some cannot read or follow the terms of service is why the trapdoor exists. In our reader survey people wanted more moderation, not less. And that means more trapdooring, not less.
I could also choose to have no moderation at all, but no one liked that either.
We can’t please everyone, so I’ve let go trying. New people find PHB, others leave unhappy. End of story. I can’t lose sleep or my health over it.
Congrats!I hope this leads to less stress for you — and more visibility and vibrancy for the entire Blend community!
Gratz on the move!If this helps bring the LGBT, Southern, and North Carolinian perspective to even more progressives and allies out there, then this could be a very exciting prospect. Gratz on the move!
Simple Questions “Will Autumn be allowed to ban people from all of FDL?
Or just your section?
Or not at all?”
These were simple questions and more than relevant to the move, not threadjacking by any stretch.
Posters wish to know exactly how much control certain tyrannical moderators will have.
Seems like the poster hit a nerve, confirming other suspicions.
You could have just answered the questions instead of coming up with the bull threadjacking obfuscation.
For the rest, I highly doubt FDL will let AS moderate anything outside of PHB as that will mean nothing but trouble for them. I doubt the honeymoon will last long.
I’m guessing Jane didn’t have to apologize first….for creating the hashtag #fagbagger.
Nope you’re wrongFDL doesn’t have any editorial or moderating control over PHB, and our TOS will be our own as well. That is part of the deal. So if you are displeased, you don’t have to migrate over to read.
Good luck in the moveI hope this allows you the opportunity to recharge your batteries and do some more writing. I’ve not been an active member but you’re an important touchstone in my world and I’m glad you’ve figured out a way to keep it all moving forward. And thank you …
FIRING up the ol’ Coffee House!What a great idea!! There will be some gnashing of teeth and trashing of keyboards … but with the Clown Car as full as it is ..and statehouses still psycho too. we will need lots more time to get 2012 together.But, at least, now that the United Nations has said we are equal, that's all taken care of.
Gratz to Firedoglake and PHB!It seems like we are all winners with this move. It means a bigger audience for PHB (and probably for FDL as well), and it also means that we get to keep Pam in the blogosphere. I particularly appreciate that Pam speaks for LGBT people who live and work in the South.
Thank you for hanging in there.
Here’s wishing you the bestI haven’t posted but do come here and lurk for awhile. Hope all you gals and guys are doing well.
The move sounds like a giant step in the right direction.
Thanks for continuing to have this forum and allowing me to learn more about my GLBT equality including form my sisters. :-)
And I’ll add to Pam’s comment……that I consult with her behind the scenes a great deal regarding moderation of our comment threads. I don’t accomplish moderation of the blog unilaterally, without consultation.
Not having a day job though, I usually have more time to moderate the blog than Pam does.
Great newsThis is good news. It makes sense for Pam, who can now maybe get some more rest and recharge. It’s good news for me, because it means PHB will continue. I really enjoy this space, and have come to depend on it for real time updates on issues that I can find nowhere else. So I am happy that PHB will move to Firedoglake and continue.
Majority Rule?An online survey is not the best way to choose a path for a niche site like an LGBT rights site. After all, if we let the majority rule us with surveys out in the wider world, they’d vote to ban Gays and Lesbians. Maybe the people who clicked the dot that said they wanted more moderation aren’t the people you need to be listening to. Maybe they’re getting their way too much because they are in the majority, just like the straight people who are homophobes get their way too much because they are in the majority.