Tuesday Open Thread

Serious question: What do we need to do to get more participation around here?




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Big Al's picture

Malcom "In the Muddy" Fraser:

"In his new book titled "Dangerous Allies," Malcolm Fraser, the former prime minister of Australia worries that the Canberra's dependence on the United States will eventually bring the nation into a direct conflict with China. His words echo those of Georgetown University professor Amitai Etzioni in and article he wrote for the Diplomat on Jan. 20. "

Not that they would know anything.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40815.htm

"U.S. Dangerous Ally" Ya, I would think most of them have figured that out by now. The entire planet has figured out the U.S. game
now. It's Empire or bust.

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is probably the only thing that will stop the machine.

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Big Al's picture

Can't say I haven't seen it before. When they started Voices on the Square, quite a few people were initial members like here. But not many
were really on board with helping it grow, it was more just another place to go then less and less.
Obviously the one thing most needed is content. People will come to any site that has good content, and regular content.

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that you haven't helped in that regard.

People will come to any site that has good content, and regular content.

Thanks Al.

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we've all seen the left leaning sites dropping one by one over the last couple of years. i don't care though, this place is just meant to be a redoubt from the craziness for those who need it, even if it's just you and I talking over the fence, I don't care. You think maybe some pootie diaries will help, how about some Obama photo diaries.

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Military-clad English-speakers caught on camera in Mariupol shelling aftermath

Armed people in uniform speaking fluent English with no accent have been spotted in Mariupol in the aftermath of the rocket hit, fuelling allegations that foreign private military contractors are serving among Ukrainian troops.

The port city in eastern Ukraine, under Kiev’s control, saw a surge of violence on Saturday, when several rockets hit a residential area in the east of the city, reportedly killing 30 civilians. Numerous videos from the scene showed destruction in the aftermath of the attack, for which local militia and Ukrainian troops blamed each other.

But among footage shot in Mariupol, there are some videos showing armed men in military uniform, who speak English fluently.

One video uploaded on YouTube is apparently raw footage of a local news channel MSN (Mariupol News Service). One episode shows a man passing resolutely by the camera.

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like to see this place as a private site? Would that help to speak more freely? Or should we keep it open? Come on folks, speak up, what do you think?

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joe shikspack's picture

i'm happy either way. it seems like we've got plenty of options for private sites, though.

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gulfgal98's picture

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

as a private site. Participation was dropping off there as well. It's not the site.

I've been depressed for the past month, and so have not been as involved as would be desirable. So that's one more voice to add going forward.

Also, there's about 30 people who were waiting in the wings for a website who did not want to be part of the Google group; I can invite them, but we should probably have a little more going on here before we invite them.

In the spirit of "any non-malicious content is good content" I can write a daily journal of sorts, just my thoughts on activism, politics, life, the universe, everything...the quality of Peter Jackson's latest movies, the perfidy of the Patriots...it ain't much, but it might provoke conversation.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

at getting a lot of the people who used to post to talk: FrustratiDude/JVolvo, AoT, DallasDoc, RFKLives, YucatanMan...they've all stopped talking.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

IdealistCynic's picture

that JVolvo, DallasDoc, and RFK LIVES have been regularly popping up at GOS.

My excuse? I am working a lot with major projects, it's tax time which is even more complex this year with the ACA, and 2 dependents who now have jobs on top of the usual and customary Schedule C. Plus one of my daughters was hurt. Time to read and rate, but not write.

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Blue Dragon's picture

options and dropped away. Now that we have a functioning site which is open, we can begin to build. I am very depressed about the state of the world and my personal situation, not to mention my friends caught in all kinds of madness.

It is the deep of winter. Let's give ourselves credit for getting this far.

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May the dolphins, whales and furry things inherit the world. Humans, unless we do an about face, have just about proven we don't deserve this beautiful planet.

Big Al's picture

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gulfgal98's picture

And I have been AWOL for the last several days because of handling a lot of real life stuff. Nothing negative. :o

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Big Al's picture

This is a pretty darn useable site. It's quick too. I like it, I think it has potential.

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MarilynW's picture

I get them from Common Dreams, NYTimes headlines, Salon. I wouldn't mind getting an alert from here about the content, new diaries etc.

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To thine own self be true.

that can be done, hi Marilyn.

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Lady Libertine's picture

but I agree with others its hard to follow the bouncing ball after a while, heh. This is a great looking site, thanks for your work JtC.

Ill wander over to the current days OT. A DAILY OPEN THREAD will help a lot, imho. In a way, theres nothing really significant to say outside of an Open Thread other than "man are we ever screwed" ya know. Theres no new anything, nothing a la Occupy Wall Street, not much hope really. sO Bernie might run. M'kay what else?!.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

are most likely factors.

OTOH, since DKos is a partisan Democratic Party website, and there is quite a bit of 'truth telling' at our various sites, it's not really that surprising that a few folks would fall away.

IMO, members will self-select.

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

northsylvania's picture

worked more easily for me than the original sister site, which I couldn't get to recognise or change my password. This one is much cleaner looking in terms of graphics as well. I say invite the chatters back again and then throw the doors open. I've had some health issues and have only been doing GOS drivebys recently, but will come here as well, just don't expect anything sensible Smile

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northsylvania, welcome, glad you like it. We've only been live for about a week and I believe we've got most of the active folks from the forum already here thanks to the diligent recruiting job CantStoptheSignal (SouthernLiberalinMD) has done. She was at it all day yesterday and has brought in 13 new members since then and she has a pretty long list of invitees to go through yet. And if anyone knows someone you'd think would fit in here, give them an invite as well.
Heh,

just don't expect anything sensible

That's my excuse as well!

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