Poking around Dane101 yesterday I was struck by how low the site has fallen. What started over three years ago as a "collaborative news and arts blog for Madison and Dane County" has degenerated into a shell of its former self. While the site has never had much interest in Dane County outside of Madison except when an outlying community seeks to enact a smoking ban, Dane101 was able to muster a goodly number of posts about our fair city's government and arts scene.
Yesterday we were treated to the quotidian dose of links to other sites ("Breakfast Links") and regaled with the story of a woman's friend who brought a boy toy back to her parents' home, behavior which was strictly verboten. So much for news and arts.
Look at the early posts at the site. They were plentiful and often political. Today the posts chronicling our fearless representatives and public servants are all but consigned to the memory bin. Sure, there's the occasional foray into this arena but they're nowhere as common as they once were. Obama gets mentioned for running a television commercial here but going back on his promise to filibuster a bill that weakens our Fourth Amendment rights escapes with nary a comment. Is co-founder and editor Jesse Russell not involved with Labor Radio News? Why is there nothing about local labor on Dane101?
I suppose we'll have to wait for New York to ban something again before local politics becomes worthy of mention once more.
The site, however, does do a pretty decent job with the music scene. If you're white and in your twenties, odds are your band will get coverage. But woe betide the musician of color. I think the only time you'll get a nod is if you cancel your show as did Lee "Scratch" Perry recently.
Perhaps if I were 10 years younger I'd get a kick out of Ashley Spencer's posts. As it is, though, her contributions speak volumes about the degeneration of Dane101. The concept of a "collaborative news and arts blog for Madison and Dane County" has been defenestrated with her amazing adventures which are the Madison blogosphere's equivalent of Beverly Hills 90120. How a quest for casual sex in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago qualifies as news or art is beyond me. Lincoln Park 60614! I sure hope Ms. Spencer is bestowing favors upon someone on the Dane101 editorial board in exchange for this kind of stuff.
So, how to explain the peregrine nature of the site?
I don't know. Maybe the paradigm shifted when co-founder Kristian Knutsen defected to The Daily Page; or perhaps it was when the site started to sponsor trivia contests and concerts with a music festival and a drag king show being the latest recipients of Dane101's good graces. I'm sure helping plan a multi-day music festival takes time. The problem is that maintaining a quality news & arts blog does as well.
POSTLUDE (The Day After)
I am compelled to add a few things here now that the name calling has started.
1) To be clear, I am NOT accusing Jesse Russell, Dane101's editorial policy, nor any contributors of being racist. Please see this post for further elaboration of this line of thought on race & the Madison blogosphere as regarding music.
When I whine about this, it is common for folks to retort by saying that I/we/they support the Madison music scene. And this is to miss the point. It is also to miss the point to say that I don't like certain bands that are promoted being promoted at whatever website. I am not griping about quantity, but rather quality. (To be hyper-clear, I mean "quality" as in the composition or nature of and not an aesthetic judgement.) Dane101 promotes and reviews concerts by many bands whose music I enjoy. While there have been a couple folks that have agreed with me on this point, none of the people who respond by calling me names (and they are more numerous) ever address the dramatic disparity I point out. If you think I'm wrong and that there is no disparity or if you don't think the disparity is a problem, then say so. I'm not going to call you a racist. But pointing out all the wonderful white musicians being touted doesn't address the core issue.
2) I apologize for having neglected to mention some things about Dane101. Please understand that the site is a non-profit labor of love and staffed by volunteers. Having said this, I admit that I don't think that these things completely explain (N.B. - I used "explain" and not "excuse".) what I consider to be an unfortunate change in focus at the site. These are certainly limitations but they've always been present. Also note that Kristian Knutsen departed three months after the site launched.
3) Curiously enough, no one has leapt to defend Ms. Spencer's chronicles of her exploits in Lincoln Park. She is certainly a good writer but her posts seem like filler given the context.
This is a really disappointing rip on Dane101, which is a solid resource and supporter of the Madison scene. Even if everything posted is not your style, the way you go about attacking people who are trying stuff in town is really unfortunate. Of course, my efforts have had the pleasure of being shat on too, so I'm saddened that this continues to be the direction taken. Dane101 is even a collaborative project, right? So energies could so easily be invested in helping make it better, but is that not your goal?
ReplyDeleteHeck, I just posted a Bob Mould concert in support of the Forward Music Fest:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.upthedownstair.net/2008/07/show-165-bob-mould.html
I think Dane101 does a *great* job of supporting a certain part of the Madison music scene. It's just that I wish it supported a greater variety of music. I take that back, not support. Covered. I don't view this as a fault of any one individual as it is a collaborative effort and reflective of Madison more generally.
looks like on dane101 last night there was a huge rebuttal post, but now it is removed. The link showed up in my feed reader and is on the google search but when you click on the link it goes to a page cannot be accessed, so they must have deleted it. My guess is that either they didnt like it or something else, but by breaking a classic blog rule and deleting after posting, it just makes more of an issue of it..
ReplyDeleteI took a screenshot and uploaded here, I dont have the full blog text though..
http://i35.tinypic.com/2cdih5j.jpg
It (the rebuttal post) is showing up timestamped at 8:13 AM on my RSS feed, which is roughly 10 minutes ago, not last night. Give it a few minutes, I'm guessing they're probably midway through the posting process.
ReplyDeletemaybe, in the screenshot it says 2:13 AM, in my Google Reader, it says 2:43 AM
ReplyDeleteSteve & Anon - thanks for the heads-up. Also note that I've amended the post.
ReplyDeleteIt went up accidentally at 2 in the morning. I took it down because I was saving it for this morning and it wasn't supposed to go up at that time. I wrote it and wanted to sleep on it.
ReplyDelete"3) Curiously enough, no one has leapt to defend Ms. Spencer's chronicles of her exploits in Lincoln Park. She is certainly a good writer but her posts seem like filler given the context."
ReplyDeleteOk, I'll bite.
In Spencer's defense, every single piece published need not be a work of ground-breaking and hard-hitting journalism. It would be silly to criticize the Wisconsin State Journal for including a page of comics, or the AP or Reuters for having a sub-syndication stream specifically dedicated to "Odd News," or the Isthmus for it's occasionally rambling sex/relationship advice column (which often ends up being more about the author than whomever is seeking advice). They are, after all, fun to read--and even occasionally insightful, in ways another droning article about the MPD or the Republican Legislature simply cannot be.
Anon re Spencer's column: OK, fair enough. But, if personal anecdotes having nothing to do with the area are now acceptable, then it opens the floodgates for more such stuff. I'd hate to see Dane101 tread further down the path of essentially providing space for something I would consider more suitable for a personal blog.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed Spencer's posts a lot. Even thought they make me feel old, they're hilarious. I see nothing wrong wth them being on dane101.
ReplyDelete"personal anecdotes having nothing to do with the area"
--Yeah, she's in Chicago right now for a summer internship (but she's a UW-Madison student). I'm not sure I really care that it's not technically local for the time being. It's funny shit.
"personal anecdotes having nothing to do with the area"
ReplyDeleteApparently someone has never read Hunter Thompson, one of the most famous journalists of our time...
Also:
ReplyDelete"Lincoln Park 60614! I sure hope Ms. Spencer is bestowing favors upon someone on the Dane101 editorial board in exchange for this kind of stuff."
This? Not necessary.