Either or for me. With the links, though, comments are directed and not so much ‘open.’ You might consider both; have an open thread and lift the interesting links from posters on a subsequent link thread. That way you have both and maybe the posters can do some of the work for you? Just an idea.
Thanks

Posted by: Lysander | May 5 2009 14:21 utc | 4

I like the “links” threads very much. Giving a direction to “open threads” is, i think, a very good strategy — whether pedagogic, rhetorical, or whatever. Much better than the “open threads”.
In an ideal world, y’all would all know that i’ve spent more than a decade provoking people to talk with one another. Unfortunately, this is a blog so i’ve got to mention it, rather than staying modest.
That said, i think you, b, would be more effective with them if you
a) didn’t post the links threads so often (honestly: i think you could invite a few “guests” to help you post discussion heads. DiD, r’giap, anna_missed, slothrop — those’re just off the top of my head. But those are just my personal biases, there — you could take it in many directions: aural, visual, aesthetic, philosophical, etc. It’s a big field. ).
and
b) focused the links threads more on single issues, or double issues, rather than multiple issues tossed together as they come to you.
I think the discussions would profit by backgrounds deeper than just a few days.

Posted by: china_hand2 | May 5 2009 14:34 utc | 6

i like china_hand’s ideas about more focused link threads. i also agree that the link threads are posted too often. on more than one occasion i’ve waited to post a link or make a comment because i know there will probably be a new link thread, and as Uncle pointed out, folks naturally gravitate to the newer thread.
anyway thank you and congrats, b.

Posted by: Lizard | May 5 2009 14:44 utc | 8

many thanks to b and to all barflies.

Posted by: selise | May 5 2009 16:02 utc | 10

I just want to say thanks b and congratulations.
And I’ll use this as an excuse to wish Happy belateds to comrade r’giap and Hamburger. Also, b a month or so ago.
Kanpai!

Posted by: beq | May 5 2009 16:52 utc | 12

Congrats, b! At this rate you’ll be joining the big dogs of the blogosphere in no time. When this happens, all I ask of you is to never forget us ordinary folks who are just trying to make ends meet, while the bigwigs would love more than anything to either have us work to the bone for next to nothing or have us fight to the death in worthless wars around the world.

Posted by: Cynthia | May 5 2009 17:00 utc | 14

I like the links, but it does not feel “open”. There does not feel like a place where you can have a dialogue… Because the threads all have narrowly confined topic parameters, it becomes a series of pronouncements from the contributors.
A:”ZOMG! Check this out. News!”
B:”That source sucks. Out loud. I suspect that you suck as well.”
A:”Yes, well, I suspect that you eat poop.”
C:”My link didn’t go through.”
Pronounce, rinse, repeat.
The links themselves are still interesting, but the analysis is less than it used to be, and the rate at which it is being renewed is making it more difficult to find things in the archives.
I was chastised once for using the term “newsdump” to describe the old open threads. The new links pages feel more “newsdumpy” to me. I think there’s a value to that insofar as it is a great place to, well, dump news, but it really does not invite discourse without making one (me, anyway) feel like they are hijacking the thread.

Posted by: Monolycus | May 5 2009 17:08 utc | 16

Qlipoth (17), by recommending a combination of links and Open Threads you’re totally omitting permanent threads on specific key topics, threads that in the past have attracted much more copious and intense comments than either the Open Threads or Links have achieved. For example:
In January alone:
Where is the Left?: 86 comments
A Carrier Group To Attack Somalia: 103 comments
Hamas vs. Likud Charter: 85 comments
The Anointment: 96 comments
Gaza Song – We Will Not Go Down!: 81 comments
Compare the above with the paucity of comments enumrated in #15 above.

Posted by: Parviz | May 5 2009 18:11 utc | 18

I appreciate the links posts but I also feel it has hampered ongoing discussions. Perhaps a better solution would be to find a comments application that would allow indented comments (reply to this comment). This would make for easier discussion following within each post.
That said, thanks again b.

Posted by: biklett | May 5 2009 18:55 utc | 20

Now if you could only get a dime for each hit… Congrats on the number of patrons – Drinks for all my friends!
I agree with those that feel the newer format is maybe too loose… but then it seems the world is a pitching machine gone crazy and we’re trying to catch the balls.
When there is an obvious topic, like Gaza, then it seems there is a lot more opinions than when we’re all searching the ‘net for the bits of news that interest each of us personally.
I’d argue the previous format was better because MoA is becoming more of a news dumping ground like What Really Happened or Blacklisted News… not that this is bad, but I feel MoA is more a place where b’s news-sense and a dialog with others is why we come… b has been an excellent editor and I feel he does a really good job of finding hot-button topics most of us want to comment upon rather than leaving the subject matter wide open which doesn’t focus the discussion.
b, I apologize for discussing you in the third-person… I’m not sure of the proper etiquette for such a discussion, but I want you to know I personally think you do a fine job with this place and you’re never gonna please all the people all the time, so ya’ might as well please yourself.

Posted by: DavidS | May 5 2009 20:43 utc | 22

i don’t remember how i came to the whisky bar – tho i know what led me to it – fury & a sense of disbelief that imperialism was behaving in exactly the same way i had caricatured or sensed it at 16. my computer was simply used for writng my texts both poetry & theoretical work & emails. it had never come into my head to participate in a ‘forum’
i participated in the first thread here at the moon & already b was not only taking tiger mountain by strategy – but making it more personal & yet not at all accidentally more political. there has not been a day or night since it began that i have not visited except when i have been in hospital which has been much too often. more often than i would like
moonofalambama is an important part of my life. how strange it is to say that but it is true. it is the filter through which i take information – i use the links here & i cannot say how much the link research that other posters do is precious for me. i do not post often in response to uncle’s links – but you can be assured that all are read
above all i come here for its humanity. i have travelled & worked on all continents but the moon is the first time in my life that i have spoken to americans – i have been enriched for the temoinages within the belly of the beast
the quality of the thinking is unlike anywhere else & it is concentrated & it seems to follow the cycle of life itself. it is not like so many – an advertisement for itself – but rather – a sometimes tough, sometimes tender, sometimes irritable & sometimes furious – boydy of living work
& in the last 2 & half years b has been spectacular on so many fronts. i am not a stupid man but i resemble a dummy beside our host . there has been so much that has been ahead our eyes remain on the central lieu of conflict but b has widened out scope – the work on georgia is without contemporaries. on pakistan & afghanistan b has been unrelenting
so many of us were & are so tired from imperialism’s gravitational grasp that we were tempted to believe the fairytale of obama but b, this blog & other posters have reminded us again & again how grave our situation really is & this is no time for fairy tales
i am partial to the open threads because people being singular bring so much to this community that otherwise i simply would not know & it allows questions that are seemingly not present in information but which have an immediacy. i also like the humanity that has been evident in the open threads
but i can see the utility of the link threads too – but moon has never just been an enlightend version of huffington post – but it is a distinct & human work
i do not see a lack of ananlysis as monolycus suggests – but as a living thing i am not surprised that all of us are at times overwhelmed by fatigue & horror. my own physical sicknesses it seems to me are only an extreme version of that fatigue. sometimes rigour can come in two phrases – sometimes it requires density but even as a regular contributor i feel i have no right to judge nor want to. the nature of our community is that we can have things out in the open without the bourgeois fears of hurting each others feelings. the love that motivates our presence here is only too transparent
i hope by the way that dan of steel follows his promise & visits me here & hopefully i will not be in hospital – tho it seems for the last 3 years that every major time off work has been in the hospital or in constant contact with doctors
the work i do here is very, very difficult & the presence of moon in my life (also evidently in the computer & screen i am using) has made me capable of innovation & courage in my work that i think without you would be much more prudent & tentatvie
b – your instincts are good – listen to us but you have always been genorous with your time & engagement. i give thanks to you & to my brothers & sisters here

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 5 2009 21:07 utc | 24

As I’ve said before, fruitcakes are indestructible.

Posted by: biklett | May 5 2009 21:23 utc | 26

Just as I was thinking about what to write here a giant Air Force C-117 Globemaster Cargo plane thundered over my house, so low it rattled all the windows. Some how, that say it all. Because today it was close to me, tomorrow it will litterally be rattling someones else’s windows in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, or where ever.
The beauty of this blog is it’s international character in attempting to report and link from around the world to establish an objective, community oriented language of what is really going on, why, and how it feels from a multiplicity of eyes and ears and hearts. I’ve as yet, have failed to find any other even near parallel. I give b and the barflies full credit for how this site has evolved from the Whiskey Bar orientation into something quite different.
Congratulations to all.

Posted by: anna missed | May 5 2009 22:47 utc | 28

annie
as mayakovsky sd ‘love is the heart of the matter’ & i think it can be sd that i fell in love with this place & its people. life is a busy & dense thing & all i know in whatever state i am – i need to pass here & even when there is apparent lulls – my engagement with it is more intense
& as am says in @28 its very multiplicity is constantly nourishing. perhaps to an outsider we are all lefties but the differences between each & every one of us is so subtle yet resonant. sometimes when i really don’t want to communicate outside of work (for sometimes it is so dark & elemental) i feel i can speak here & know that the others will filter my fury – contextualise it & it is returned in a dialectical fashion as not just an emotion but as something useful away from the hegelian hell of self
this night i just ploughed through french, italian & arabic television where israels utter madness in relation to jurisprudence is presented as if it is quite normal – when any sensible person knows that they have gone pass their soweto moment & israel not jews is hated as south africa was hated – they do not speak – we cannot listen & after all it is just noise
& here the air is clearer

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 6 2009 0:14 utc | 30

yes, it was stalinist fruitcake. i have had time to read the thread. r’giap your comments are sublime.
when i first read the news link posts i loved them, i still love them..but for some reason i find it harder to comment on them. i will tend to read them all, collect some thoughts and notice no one is mentioning the ones that i am fixated on, so for some reason i don’t want to interrupt whatever conversation is going on. i miss the old long threads and i have never liked the 50 comment limit. it just makes me have to go thru additional effort to bring up a post if it happens to be further on the thread. in a perfect world we would have the posts w/the links and people could comment, then we would have the longer threads, and none of them would have a 50 post limit. i don’t like the limited threads because if you want to reference an earlier post you have to go hunting for it somewhere else.
i’ve been busy and more focused on the palestine. i will be traveling to the ME in a couple weeks and haven’t quite gotten around to mentioning it. i will keep you all posted once i am there, and certainly afterward but i don’t want to say too much cuz i don’t want to jinx anything. i am very excited tho. letely i haven’t had that much to say. the economy bores me so i tend to skip thosethreads, but not the posts.
my favorite threads are b’s original focusing on one issue. some are so juicy i don’t know how the rest of the world gets along without them.
i start off every day here, and usually end here too. it has completely changed my world view. you have completely changed my world view. i have become much more opinionated and certain in my convictions. i am starting to think people can really change the world if we find out how close we all are. how much commonality we share.

Posted by: annie | May 6 2009 1:39 utc | 32

annie-My fingers are crossed and I’ll be wishing for good things and happy spirits to keep you company on your adventure.
Thanks everyone for everything… My favorite place to get drunk on ideas.

Posted by: DavidS | May 6 2009 3:25 utc | 34

i like your current system, it is competitive with book forum, arts and letters, and 3quarks. i email comments back and forth with a group of old farts. your system opens the door on many opinions and much information that serves to stretch our understanding of what is happening now.

Posted by: bstr | May 6 2009 4:33 utc | 36

Thanks for the congratulations – they are very welcome
@Tangerine @11 – I guess what counts is the quality or interest of the links/posts …
Most link collections I see are on economic issues. I try to give a much wider view with short comments and, hopefully, quality links. I do not intend or expect that everyone reads every link or every link to be commented on. Those are just the links I may have read or would read if I had the time to do so.
@Parviz @13 – I far preferred the previous format that highlighted specific topics.
That format has not changed at all. I still post one or two specific topic posts each day unless I am ill or traveling. The “Links” format only replaced the “Open Threads”. It did not take away anything else.
@Parviz @15 @18 – totally omitting permanent threads on specific key topics, threads that in the past have attracted much more copious and intense comments than either the Open Threads or Links have achieved.
From my experience, the number of comments to single topic threads depends very much on that single topic, how interesting it is, how immediate the issue is and how it influences people’s daily life and thought. Pieces on Pakistan receive much less comments than pieces on Gaza. Pieces on emerging news get more clicks than long term issues. Also the more pieces I post, the less comments each gets. The number of visitors and commentators is simply limited and I often hold back pieces for exactly that reason. That’s also why I like the “Links” postings. They allow me to comment on issues that do not deserve a full post or full discussion.
@Uncle $cam – @19 – it has been offered on several occasions by myself, and others to help out, but you have firmly decided against turning loose control
Huh?
@jonku @37 – The thought of changing the forum beyond what currently exists is a bit scary to me — it might be easy to think about changing the platform or technology but as a technologist myself my instinct is to say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Exactly my thinking …
—
Thanks to all of you. Here is what I’ll do for now.
I will reduce the “Links” format a bit so it takes less mainpage-space.
I will relaunch “Open threads” and link them again in the second box on the left of the mainscreen.
I will watch how that will work out and probably change it again later on.

Posted by: b | May 6 2009 6:22 utc | 38

B, your site has been my favorite news forum since the day I came through the doors for the first time, some 4 years ago. Your continuous effort produces a library of intelligent and fact filled posts on a wide range of topics, made all the more precious by comments and contributions added by the sharp minds and great writers your blog attracts. My world wouldn’t be the same without the MoA and its community. For this and so much more, a heartfelt thanks to you Bernhard and all you barflies who make this place into the gem it is.
So let me join the chorus and congratulate to reaching the 2 mio mark, a wonderful milestone indeed. May there be many more seven digit numbers to follow. It seems like only last year that Uncle wrote the comment breaking the million mark. Time flies when you have fun 😉
Re the current format, I don’t mind the recently introduced daily links posts, grouped by subject matter, a fountain of information at ones finger tips. On the other hand, I can also relate to the opinions voiced above that this fast moving news flash format does not lend itself as easily to tracking discussions as let’s say the old open threads did. The compromise of having both instead of one or the other sounds good to me, although in the end, as you predict, the two most likely will merge back into something new. Blog evolution.

Posted by: Juan Moment | May 6 2009 15:47 utc | 40

citizen – glad to hear you’re still here & am also looking forward to your jumping in more often
—
i like having both the open & daily thread for reasons others have already stated. i find the links helpful b/c, outside my following east african media, i have little time these daze for broader reading & rely on MoA for a feel of what’s going on. the only issue i see w/ having both is that we don’t have the volume of active participants to expect for robust discussions to bloom in each & every thread. there’s no reason to feel that since a daily thread is now out-of-date that a discussion or comment can’t continue there – i realize it’s a temporal construct we carry over from our immersion in media spin cycles. actually, i wish many older threads were still open so i could add things, though i figure that compounds b’s maintenance responsibilities.
it all works out eventually, anyway. i figured out how to hack a link to specific comments in the “next” pages of any thread. seems likely that there’s a way to do that on front page, but haven’t investigated how those links are generated or how any of the components are implemented. there has to be some way to override the default setting for pagination, one would think. (not complaining or putting pressure on b here – my fingers are just thinking outloud)

Posted by: b real | May 7 2009 3:50 utc | 42