Blabatocracy's new mantra: All Jeremiah Wright, All the Time

If my hunch is right, Chris Tolles has a better shot at representing the future of media than does Chris Matthews and his ilk.

[Lift-Off]

Topix content is all too often more vapid than 6 - 10 AM rural radio. If you REALLY want to do something with what you do have, forget bells and whistles until the EASY stuff works right.

RIGHT HAND COLUMN from the top, which is SECONDARY to the "meat" of supposedly town forums :

1. Google ads not relevant to the forum
2. Weather
3. Some Quick Poll like in # 1
4. 10 most recently posted to STATE topics. COUNTY is more relevant, especially neighboring towns
5. TOWN NEWS (finally)- OK, some towns are lucky enough to have a real live Editor. Lot of good it does when his "picks" or exclusives are a MINIMUM 1/3 of the way down the page and all too often OVERLOOKED unless at least one comment is posted and the topic gets in the forum proper. A savvy Editor could always post a "bump" to get a particularly relevant/IMPORTANT item into the "mainstream" but it would look kind of odd two seconds after the story was written...
WHITE SPACE - http://www.topix.com/forum/city/marie-ar
Want to bet a lot of what is showing up is "bleed" from the Osceola forum (http://www.topix.com/forum/ci ty/osceola-ar/)? Use THAT quirk for a REGIONAL field before the STATE stuff.
6. MOST POPULAR - How the heck can that make sense when the Number 1 item has less posts than others? Oh, maybe because it's "Does Madonna still matter?" Really - did she ever?

[moi]

Lift-Off wrote:

Topix content is all too often more vapid than 6 - 10 AM rural radio. If you REALLY want to do something with what you do have, forget bells and whistles until the EASY stuff works right.
RIGHT HAND COLUMN from the top, which is SECONDARY to the "meat" of supposedly town forums :
1. Google ads not relevant to the forum
2. Weather
3. Some Quick Poll like in # 1
4. 10 most recently posted to STATE topics. COUNTY is more relevant, especially neighboring towns
5. TOWN NEWS (finally)- OK, some towns are lucky enough to have a real live Editor. Lot of good it does when his "picks" or exclusives are a MINIMUM 1/3 of the way down the page and all too often OVERLOOKED unless at least one comment is posted and the topic gets in the forum proper. A savvy Editor could always post a "bump" to get a particularly relevant/IMPORTANT item into the "mainstream" but it would look kind of odd two seconds after the story was written...
WHITE SPACE - http://www.topix.com/forum/city/marie-ar
Want to bet a lot of what is showing up is "bleed" from the Osceola forum (http://www.topix.com/forum/ci ty/osceola-ar/)? Use THAT quirk for a REGIONAL field before the STATE stuff.
6. MOST POPULAR - How the heck can that make sense when the Number 1 item has less posts than others? Oh, maybe because it's "Does Madonna still matter?" Really - did she ever?

In response to #6. I believe most popular is indicative of most active posts or hits during a particular timeframe.

I looked at Marie - I think I want to move their the site is so peaceful. The oldest thread was initiated on March 19th. I didn't check all discussions so some may pre-date. It does seem like I read somewhere that last update Topix added more zipcodes. This could be one. It is their ballpark.

I do think county news is more important than state. Maybe a future update will tie in county by zips.... and voting districts.

[Lift-Off]

The Marie forum is reflecting threads from the Osceola one. Most county posting is either through the Blytheville or Osceola forums, probably because they are the two largest towns and the county seats. If someone in Gosnell (http://www.topix.com/forum/ci ty/gosnell-ar/) wants to comment on something in their town but wants greater readership, they'll put it in the Blytheville forum as the two towns abut each other, Blytheville being the larger of the two and the "north end" county seat.
Oh, yeah. The state line with Missouri is only three miles away. Their good folks show it on semo.net .

[moi]

Lift-Off wrote:

The Marie forum is reflecting threads from the Osceola one. Most county posting is either through the Blytheville or Osceola forums, probably because they are the two largest towns and the county seats. If someone in Gosnell (http://www.topix.com/forum/ci ty/gosnell-ar/) wants to comment on something in their town but wants greater readership, they'll put it in the Blytheville forum as the two towns abut each other, Blytheville being the larger of the two and the "north end" county seat.
Oh, yeah. The state line with Missouri is only three miles away. Their good folks show it on semo.net .

Well, My guess about the white space is that the display for all the forums for every town is equal. Each, having a set length for 100 different discussions before going to a second page.

I had forgotten I was able to view by county.

I fell into something on one of these sidebars yesterday that made me gasp. I don't know if you recall the US map of most recent activity on Topix, I saw a view from a little while back and the indicators of activity were off the board. Massive graphic overload.

So, I get a headache just thinking of this enormous increase in data acquisition, compilation and the comparative analysis to even think beyond the whistles.

You are more attuned to your neighborhood and I sense that you have already worked out multiple solutions. I need to pay closer attention to my hometown. Specially the free classified advertising available.

[Lift-Off]

There are county forums but they do not include the city posts. If they did automatically, it would be even harder to find stuff that pertains to the COUNTY AS A WHOLE. Again, folks post to our two county seat cities to discuss the upcoming primary election, county doings, etc. Their reasoning is no doubt, "That's where everybody looks."
Topics cannot be moved presently, nor split should they go off topic or on some other tangent. It would take a human editor to do that.
I have seen that activity map but can't find it at the moment.
"People Reading, Talking, Editing" - is this new? How is it determined WHO shows up on there? Wonder if they're aware of this? And what is with "99racoons'" caption on that pic? If an IGNORE feature comes about, he's a prime candidate with that F-word. Sexism is apparently STILL rampant and "OK", according to Topix...
EVERYONE needs to pay more attention to their hometown when it comes to outsiders messing with them. Some of us are not only well attuned to our home turf but quite protective of it.

[moi]

I think this will get you there. I just noticed you had posted to the article where it caught my attention

http://www.topix.com/forum/geo

I'd say "People Reading, etc." is wildcard. I have been located and have located others via that.

I am trying to protect my home turf. My neighbor keeps planting plants and shrubs on MY water lines. She thinks she is helping me. Our tastes DIFFER. You should have been here last fall when she cut down my shrubbery.

[Lift-Off]

I wonder what that spread could be telling us about the eastern half of the country...

[moi]

I am more interested in what we could make up about what that spread could be telling us, in truth, I would say at that time there were many active posters. I wonder how many are in the same household?

There was a time when I would double-click around that map just to read the news in that part of the country.