Posts-not-written roundup, and Jon Garfunkel's "The New Gatekeepers" series

Collected recent items on the A-list and posts not done.

1. I used to participate in commenting at Jay Rosen's PressThink blog. But I gave it up when the chaff/wheat ratio skyrocketed, along with the dogs/cats ratio (and I didn't want to hang around to the point I was deemed prey). I've thought of writing a post concurring with the perspective that he's been making some bad mistakes lately (when a lead dog of a pack congratulates you on your help in the pack's hunt, that's a good time to start checking yourself for fleas). But it's been evident both privately and publicly that Jay's very unhappy about some criticism he's received. He'd probably just get mad at me, and it's all way out of my power-league. Let somebody else save the liberals.

2. In an ideal world, I could have added more factual support when Shelley Powers was flamed over women and "qualifications". The problem is that you can't really win a debate with an A-lister unless they permit it. Trying to do so is a bit like arguing with a military dictator or a small child. They always have the option of declaring themselves the winner, and woe unto you if you don't go along with that. Every once in a while I asked during the "RSS Wars" how blogs were supposed to revolutionize society when the leaders couldn't even agree on lunch, I mean a site syndication format. This, to me, was a profound question. But the consequences were going to be against me for asking it, not against those who didn't want to try to answer it. Here, I could have pointed out to the A-lister that he had once slammed me to his entire audience without being willing to do one click to check "qualifications". Just a single click, and he didn't do it, before unleashing on me a flame from on high. This thoroughly convinced me that Shelley Powers had critical facts right about the social process at work about determining who is "qualified". But, recursively, I was almost certain to get another flame out of that.

3. Inversely from the all the above, I've owed Jon Garfunkel some linkage for his series:

• The New Gatekeepers - "I will argue here that gatekeepers are inherently needed by the architecture of the blogosphere"
• Changing of the Guard - "Is it that this new set of gatekeepers is more responsible to the public than the old?"
• Who They Are - "...where I learned just who the new gatekeepers were, and why people are suspicious of their roles."
• Their Values - "... Freedom over responsibility. Anonymity over traceability. Immediacy over thoroughness. Talking over listening. Breadth over depth. Ego over deference ..."
• The Alternative - "We should be aware of the things that can go wrong before we assume that they will always go right."

Read it. [Disclaimer - I appear in the series].

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)