KatCo's GPS-Trackable Goat

... or how I, a dirty-hippie-commie-bomb-thrower, see the Nashville community blogging thang shaping up.

Ivy and KatCo pulled together the Music City Bloggers site in record time, at a time when the mere continuance of NashvilleIsTalking was a very unsure thing. They've done a really great job, pulling various bloggers from the community together, and maintaining a continuity of whatever sense of community that used to exist at NiT.

A lot of people think I give KatCo far too much grief. I guess I can see that. But having met her, and knowing how she loves a good argument, I maintain the impression that she's no wilting flower in need of a fainting couch. She's always given as good as she's gotten, and doesn't seem on the verge of any emotional crises as a result.

It's certainly not personal, unless you think that holding someone to the same standard to which they hold others is personal.

Right now, I'm occasionally ribbing her about her choice (and really, I think it's obvious it's her choice, not Ivy's) of blogs to include in the aggregator. She even questioned the inclusion of one blog, herself -- although not because it wasn't a Music City blog (gee, it was in Tennessee, and NiT always seemed happy to oblige any TN-based blog, so I can see the point, there -- no harm, no foul), but because its RSS feed was flooding the zone, so to speak. It was taken off the aggregator, and put on the blogroll.

But what remains? In addition to the usual assortment of expected local blogs, we have stuff like this. Can you tell where this blog is based, or what it has to do with Nashville? Or this one?

Now, is any of this important? Not really, but it seems a bit funny, given that the woman who thought those two blogs were worthy of inclusion on her community blog's aggregator would say this about NiT:

They then saw those of us who cared decamp to other things, and saw someone step in who did the worst possible thing for NiT–William turned NiT into a bully-pulpit. Just like my opinionated brother who shouts down everyone else around the dinner table, William turned what was once a forum with give-and-take into some vaudeville act–a loud band that plays only one note.

That killed the community.

As the Editor In Chief over at MCB I DO happen to think that we have a pretty ideal structure for hyperlocal blogging. Granted, we’ve got more than a few kinks to work out…but our transparancy will help us weather the bad times.

That’s what seems to be missing from the NiT effort—that willingness to be on the level of the community. When BG left, any sense of Transparancy that was here at NiT got gradually whittled away.

KatCo seems to imply that a community site should be inclusive of local voices, and that transparency is key. Has she ever mentioned why these two blogs are appropriate for Music City Bloggers' aggregator? Not that I've read, so far.

And really, if you're going to go out of your way to tweak one side of the aisle, don't get bent out of shape when the tweaking comes back.

Do I think MCB is turning into Little Music City Footballs? Not yet, but when one has to go this far afield of Music City to keep the wingnut agenda front and center (which is what it looks like, to this dirty hippie), one does have to wonder.

UPDATE: Ivy (not KatCo) whups out the transparency:

Because I am REALLY fucking sick of hearing about that, let me explain it to you, Jeffraham. And you’d better shut up after this, or I will have to punch you in the nose, capisce?
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There are more than 2 non-local blogs in the aggregator, because my cousin’s blog is one of them. I believe the 2 that you keep being a WATB about were originally on there by accident. The authors of those blogs have since emailed and thanked us for being on the aggregator, which is nice of them, so they stay.
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But it doesn’t matter, because when the site started, I had already decided that a few non-local blogs (like my cousin’s) would be on the aggregator. Why? Because I like the people who are on the aggregator, and while this site is by and for the Nashville people, I’m still the HBIC and I said so.
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There, how’s that for transparency?
[smiley emoticon]

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