L.A. Liberty

Improving the #Politics Tag

First, to further dispel the runaway myth that libertarians command the tumblr community (also see here), I’d like to point out that right now, only four of the top 35 posts on the politics tag are from those who may lean libertarian. As I’ve stated repeatedly, I have no problem with this general distribution.

Ari sent me this follow-up message to my previous post on this subject:

I unfortunately get this sort of reframing of arguments all the time.

I did not state that I thought it “unusual for libertarians to command only 25% of the editorial spots for the Politics tag.” Far from it. What I did state was that I thought the ratio was “ok, since there’s probably more bloggers on the left than libertarians on Tumblr” and “[w]ith only 25% of the promotable posts, libertarian editors are hardly the dominating force some make us out to be.”

In any case, what does it matter what the “populace” identifies as? Tumblr hardly reflects the “populace” in general (for one, the general “populace” has a preponderance of elderly). And as far as a percentage of the Tumblr community that identifies as generally anti-state or minimal state, I don’t see how 25% could be far off. Do you think 75% of the “populace” is generally leftist or statist? How about the “Tumblr populace”?

Anyway, putting aside ratios and demographics, I’d like to address some of the concerns people have with what is found on the #politics tag and what areas need improving (click “read more”).

Editors and “promoting” posts

I’d like to start by covering some “editor” dynamics. Editors can only promote 10 posts a day. Because I would not like to dilute the tag, I am very selective with my “promotions.” Unfortunately, other editors don’t seem to be and are too eager to dump nonsense and water down the tag. Of the last 400 featured posts, I promoted 21.

And since there’s no way to know which editor promoted which post, what I generally do is either “like” or “reblog” a post before or after promoting it. So anyone who looks at the ‘notes’ of a post and sees “laliberty” immediately following or preceding “This was featured in #politics”, can safely assume that the promotion was my doing. I think full disclosure is important. An editor should stand behind his or her promotions.

Also, I can only promote a post that is either by someone I follow or as it is found in one of the directories. The “promote” link is not available outside the dashboard. So if you want your post promoted, make sure to tag it as #politics so it can be found in the “everything” section. I browse that area constantly.

Another drawback to promoting posts is that only the original post may be promoted. Even if a certain reblog is more interesting or thought-provoking, promoting the reblog only results in the original post being featured. This is intentional, I’m sure, to prevent the featured section to become a gallery of poorly-formatted reblog backs-and-forth - so there’s no way around it.

Finally, if you see an editor’s post in the featured section - it’s likely because another editor promoted it.

News

Some people are concerned that there’s too much “news” on the #politics tag. My opinion on this is that if the news is political, it is relevant - but I don’t personally promote posts unless they offer an analytical or editorial component. Posts that simply state something along the lines of “Candidate X won District 9 primary” probably shouldn’t be on the #politics tag. Now, if it’s more like “What Candidate X’s victory means to the residents of District 9 - and the country” - that seems more appropriate.

Broadening the International Scope

I understand how many international users feel ignored with the preponderance of U.S. politics being featured. While I think it difficult to eliminate the U.S. slant entirely, considering how many tumblrs are from the states, I think this is generally a by-product of too much straight news. Political analysis, theory, and philosophy is universal no matter what country is discussed in the particulars.

Additionally, there’s a language barrier as well. Spanish is my first language, and while I have also gotten into political discussions in Italian, the featured section in the #politics tag will predominantly be in English. Unfortunately, there is simply no way any editor can promote something he or she cannot read.

All that said, if there is an international political discussion we are ignoring, please feel free to share with me and I will consider its promotion on a case-by-case basis.

[Update: I looked up the email I received from Tumblr asking me to be an editor, and in it the only instruction was: “The idea on this is to focus, at least at the start, on U.S. politics, or state politics that have a national import/interest.” So its structure was intentionally meant to be more U.S.-focused.]

Original content

There are a number of requests that #politics feature only original content by Tumblr users. While I value original content, to limit the tag to this rule is impractical and would reduce the tag to a trickle. I generate a decent amount of original posts, but it still constitutes a minority of my overall blogging activity. Posts like “The Calculation Problem and Price Theory“ or “The Case Against the TSA“ or “Repeal the Minimum Wage“ aren’t an every day occurrence. Plus, there is absolutely no reason to close off the tag to political thought that originates outside the relatively small pool of tumblrs. Such an intellectual blockade does nothing but inoculate us from even more challenging and interesting posts and ideas.

Quality over Quantity

Here is the area that causes me most concern. As I previously stated, I am very selective with my “promotions” - but other editors unfortunately do not seem to be.

Sometimes, I can understand how a major political or news event can dominate the tag for a bit. The killing of Osama bin Laden, for example, generated a lot of activity. There were some good posts offering different perspectives on the situation.

Other evens can also generate a lot of activity when it is not merited. For example, the essentially live-blogging of the White House correspondent’s dinner. While I’m sure it was fun to follow Obama making fun of Trump repeatedly, is that really what should be featured in #politics? I think not.

I mentioned the Newt glitter bomb in my last post. Did four separate posts really need to be promoted?

I think the editors should be vigilant about not creating redundant posts, especially when they are back-to-back:

And there are too many trivialities being promoted in general. Here’s a sampling:

I’m sure many of you will agree with me that none of those above should be featured in #politics. I know my standards are quite a bit higher.

Please feel free to provide feedback on any of my comments above. Torie of thepoliticalnotebook and jeffmiller have also expressed openness to suggestions.

Posted May 23, 2011 at 11:18am in ∆ politics tag kohenari riposte | comments || home