Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Members Net (Again)

An almighty row over at Members Net now. Wish I hadn't bothered. One more good reason to open it up to the outside world.

I suppose not.

But I do get frustrated.

If, however, you prefer to be positive, RedRooster has posted the following over at Labourhome today. If you want to take part in the survey in question and have a user name and password to enter the site, please click here.

Be honest. Be good. And be truthful.

4 thoughtful fixes:

Paul said...

I had a look at the site but to be honest it's so strangely laid out I can't really work out who's saying what to whom about what exactly, and in what order. I can't even find the first comment made in reply to your original post, which might have enabled me to follow the trail.

However, as far as I can see, some people are saying that blogging/posting on membersnet is just fine because it's not elitist and you can say what you want like you have a right to, and some others are saying it's best to use blogging as part of a strategy to build the labour movement and that to do that the posts have to be in public and really good.

I honestly can't see what the fuss is - each to their own on this one.

I tinkered with membersnet but never felt I got any kind of coherent dialogue going, and never felt my tinkering were ever likely to achieve anything of the stuff I wanted to achieve, so I started blogging at the Record instead; that is just starting to achieve some of the things I wanted to achieve e.g. a) learning how to write; b) picking up useful and intelligent comment from other people; c) annoying the hell out of my local press who think I'm up to something very dodgy and threatening to them; d) making local Conservatives nervous; e) getting me thinking about stuff I've not really thought about because writing is a reflective process especially if it's to your own agenda; f) seeing how brave I am/am not. I reallly appreciate the wider blogolland because of what it's brought me

But that doesn't mean I object to membersnet, because people using it clearly get something out of it.

So why the fuss? But then that's what's confusing you too.

Mil said...

What I don't understand is why they seem to think blogging on a public blog is elitist. Blogging technology is about as anti-elitist as you can get these days. But as you say, each to his own.

I feel a little sad on this, I have to say. I spent a lot of my time blogging on Members Net with some very clear ideas on how I would like it develop. I also owe it - and the Labour Party people who believed in it - a lot: it helped me recover from unhappy times, regain a public persona in a relatively safe place and enjoy writing, something which I have always seen as my most favourite activity of all.

I've only just started dipping my toe into the big wide world of blogging out here. Yes. You do want to see how brave/not brave you are. There are matters of principle at stake. We live in a democracy, are subjects of that democracy - and are almost duty bound to say the truth as we see it. Sometimes you get the feeling you might be attacking the foundations of reasonable society - but, at least in my case, that's definitely not the intention.

Your reasons to blog are excellent, by the way. May long you continue.

And may we all learn to be brave together.

Miller 2.0 said...

I wouldn't worry about it.

Most people think membersnet will be opened up in the end anyway.

Mil said...

Really? How so? Greater exposure to potential new members perhaps?

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