Slog - Comments on Every Council Member Should Have a Blog http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog That seems like a no-brainer, but so far, only two of them do--Sally Clark, whose most recent entry was on February 11, and freshman Tim Burgess, who updates his with frightening regularity. Burgess's blog provides insights into his views on all sorts of issues, including cop hiring ("Some will argue that Seattle's crime rate is declining and, therefore, we don't need additional officers and the funds for hiring can be shifted to other important areas of need. Not true..."); the mayor's decision to give his State of the City speech at the Pacific Science Center rather than City Hall ("Alas,... Copyright 2008 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:02:48 -0800 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:15:01 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Tuna The key is balancing being frighteningly regular with being totally full of shit.

]]> Tuna http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945155 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945155 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:14:29 -0800 Comment by Levislade I was hoping this was going to be in the vein of the "every child needs a mother and father posts." Oh well.

]]> Levislade http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945160 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945160 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:18:10 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Yes, please replace the newsletters -- or at least stop spamming them. Emailing your councilmember does NOT mean you want to receive the newsletter, unless the email SAYS "send me your newsletter". Which it doesn't -- couldn't, in fact, because no rational person could possibly want to see a councilmember's newsletter.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945162 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945162 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:20:11 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Oh god no!

Please, not MORE political blogs ...

Why do you hate us so?

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945177 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945177 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:26:43 -0800 Comment by Oppo Research A most excellent idea. They should tell us all their thoughts in real time in a permanent, easily researchable format, as they work through the many difficult issues they face and forge difficult compromises to get that fifth vote.

Why not live webcasting of their every conversation, too?

Heh heh heh....

]]> Oppo Research http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945183 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945183 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:29:30 -0800 Comment by Gay Seattle Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware Tim Burgess had a blog. He even allows comments.
Muahahaha! Sorry...
I suppose making it a priority to fight violence against gays and trannies infriges on people's freedom of speech.

]]> Gay Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945189 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945189 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:31:37 -0800 Comment by elenchos Get a load of this apostrophe!
The vet's answers to Senator Murray's questions [...]

I guess Josh Feit has a topic for his next column.

]]> elenchos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945210 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945210 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:45:23 -0800 Comment by voter Awesome! I was unsure of voting for Burgess last time because of his history, but his blog definitely won me over next time around. I didn't realize anyone on the city council was actually this aware of homelessness issues. Extra points for his props to Plymouth Housing and Paul Lambros -- I'm a huge fan.

]]> voter http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945230 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945230 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:59:51 -0800 Comment by Phil M And every blog should have an RSS or ATOM feed.

Burgess' does. Clark's seems not to. I e-mailed the technical contact to find out if they're publishing a feed.

Does anyone who follows more than a dozen or so blogs really go browse to each of them individually nowadays? (Anyone who is unfamiliar with but interested in this topic should start with the Wkipedia aggregator article.)

]]> Phil M http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945234 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945234 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:01:49 -0800 Comment by ecce homo Hows Hillary doing ECB?

A bit embarrased now?

]]> ecce homo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945250 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945250 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:13:06 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Phil M -- I do. I hate RSS. I like the idea of it, but in practice -- I've used Sage, for Firefox -- it's worthless for me. The formatting and stuff is useless, and I have to go check anyways. I check probably fifty blogs regularly as the mood strikes me, and I check them all manually. It helps that I daily use four different computers with totally different sets of bookmarks.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945277 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945277 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:26:46 -0800 Comment by Geni Nick Licata had one for ages - what happened to it? I think he had one long before any of the others did.

]]> Geni http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945285 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945285 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:32:17 -0800 Comment by Gay Seattle @8 Thank you Tim Burgess staffer. Can you be anymore obvious?

]]> Gay Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945378 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945378 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:35:31 -0800 Comment by watcher Why? Why should councilmembers have blogs? can't they just do their work like we elect them to? Isn't email and TV enough?

]]> watcher http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945440 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945440 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:00:31 -0800 Comment by J.R. @14: Dead on. So, Erica, you forgot to mention exactly why every Council member needs to have a blog. To make your job easier, right?

]]> J.R. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945449 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945449 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:03:20 -0800 Comment by Phil M Fnarf wrote:

I hate RSS. I like the idea of it, but in practice -- I've used Sage, for Firefox -- it's worthless for me. The formatting and stuff is useless

That's like saying you hate HTML after using one particular Web browser that did not render the content well.

NetNewsWire is probably the best feed reader available today. It's Mac-only. I've heard Safari's built-in is pretty good. I also use Akgregator on GNU/Linux. I've no experience or need for Windows feed readers. On the Web, Google's is probablby pretty good. It's at google.com/reader.

Reading blogs with a Web browser is slow and cumbersome. With a feed reader, I have three columns: one lists feeds, the next lists posts for the selected feed, the next shows content of the selected feed. Having one interface for all the blogs I read is nice.

]]> Phil M http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945473 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945473 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:15:04 -0800 Comment by elenchos Erica is right about this.

]]> elenchos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945520 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945520 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:31:04 -0800 Comment by pencil riot Now I can hit on Tim Burgess. Kind of.

]]> pencil riot http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945525 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945525 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:34:10 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Reading blogs with a browser isn't slow; what's slow is loading images, but that's what I'm there for. Exactly 0% of my frustration with blogs is because of the interface. I LIKE the way I do it. What you describe sounds like I wouldn't like it. I LIKE having every blog in its own universe.

Suit yourself, though.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945649 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945649 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:26:57 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Yeah, OK, the Google Reader is pukeworthy. Totally worthless for what I use blogs for. I'm looking at Slog, and it sucks goiter. Where's the comments? Oh, yeah, you can open up the individual item, but, unlike opening them from the main Slog page, it can't remember my details. I'm supposed to type them in from scratch 100 times a day? I don't think so.

This is in fact the same problem I had with Sage. And it's UGLY, like all of Google.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945663 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945663 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:33:06 -0800 Comment by ivan I have all my regular blogs in a tab in Firefox. I consider RSS totally unnecessary. But hey, if people like it, fine.

]]> ivan http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945735 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945735 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:15:02 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Oh, don't get me started on tabs. I need a key to bounce between windows, like Alt+Tab. Can't do that in tabs. I wish.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945811 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945811 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:13:06 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Oh, God, I am the world's biggest asshole.

Ctrl-tab switches between tabs.

Never mind!

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945813 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/every_council_member_should_have_a_blog#c945813 City Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:15:01 -0800