A new free blog hosting platform was launched today.The new hosting service is aimed at “left of center” bloggers.
Blogs For Democracy is a blogging platform that offers left-of-centre Canadian bloggers up to 10 MB of free storage space, unlimited blogs, a wide selection of blog themes and templates, and the tools resources necessary to promote progressive politics through an emerging online medium. Using the open source WordPressMU
Is “Blogs For Democracy” looking to fill a niche ? Is it looking to “compete” with Progressive Bloggers,or Blogging Dippers ?
For me personally I think there is a place for another left of center blog community.For example the anti-capitalist left.
I believe Progressive Bloggers pretty much has the “progressive” bloggers covered. That is when one uses a broad and generalized definition of progressive.
But a generalization that can and does cause some confusion.
While “Blogging Dippers” has NDPer’s covered.
But,even though I am a ‘Dipper”,at times I believe belonging to Dippers can cause others to assume,to much about me or my politics.
My support of the NDP is one of critical support.On many issues I believe the NDP is not “left” enough.
Then there is the assumption that if one is a “Dipper” or supports the NDP then in all likelihood one adheres to the idea of the Third Way.
Anyway just some thoughts on the difficult nature of defining ones politics using simplistic labels
Overall though I believe there is a place for a new “left” blogger host/aggregator.I look forward to see where this goes and wish Devin the best.
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Blogs for Democracy is created by Devin Johnston, who is a moderator of the Blogging Dippers, and from what I gotten from his writings of the matter, it is supposed to be a compliment to Blogging Dippers. Especially considering that it does come with Blogging Dipper specific tools.
Comment by Northern BC Dipper May 15, 2007 @ 11:20 pmES,
Perhaps a couple of clarifications are in order. First of all, BFD is not in any way intended to compete with BD or PB (OMG, acronyms!) In fact, there is a section on the site with advice for promoting blogs that encourages member bloggers to consider joining PB, VLWC, and BD if it suits them.
The issue here is a distinction between a blog aggregator or blogroll (which is what PB, BD, and VLWC are) and a blog hosting service, which is what BFD is. BFD is a resource help the left-of-centre crowd to start blogging, as an alternative to Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, and other services.
Regarding the issue of “defining” politics in simplistic labels, I would have to agree with you. That is why I have intentionally left the definition of “left-of-centre” ambiguous on the new site. It’s basically for anyone who isn’t a neoliberal right-winger. I designed the site specifically with New Democrats and non-affiliated socialists in mind, but welcome anyone who self-identifies as “leftist” in any sense of the word. I think that the label “progressive” can be quite dangerous, and has often been co-opted by right-of-centre Liberals in order to soften the image of neoliberals. But, whatever people want to call themselves is fine with me. I just want to create some space in the blogosphere for those who are proud to be left.
Comment by Devin Johnston May 15, 2007 @ 11:36 pmInvitation
Comment by Dr. Ahmed El-Meadawy October 29, 2008 @ 12:49 pmto
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