I like Political Cortex...but don't go there anymore just because my time is so limited and generally didn't see much traffic there. In general I thought the level of their discours excellent.

I still am learning the ropes of how to blog successfully in a lot of ways, though perhaps that goes for everyone. I think there is no question that whatever problems anyone might have with Daily Kos, Markos has been successful by almost any measure. I don't know how one emulates that...or even if one would want to. Many who form new blogs who come from the dKos community do so in reaction to problems they had with dKos, so their focus is on what they don't like, not on the success. Or at least that is my view of it.

As for my experience, I got some slight notice on dKos. More than I originally thought given the general lack of response to my diaries. I began to notice that the same people would come back to my diaries over and over, suggesting they keep an eye out for what I write. Once I started writing at Daily Gotham, I chose to write about local Brooklyn politics even though I figured in Manhattan-centered NYC no one would care. And I chose to be both a touch inflamatory (call corruption for what it is and arson for what it is even when most people want to cover them over) but also make clear that I respect a wide range of people and ideas. I made an effort to see the positive aspects of most Democratic candidates but to be strong in my advocacy for who I liked best and be even stronger in my condemnation of the crap Republicans are doing now.

So, everything in my approach (narrow focus, strong wording...even profanity at times) made me think no one would be reading my stuff. Well, to my surprise the Brooklyn centered stuff Michael and I wrote became some of the most read stuff in NYC blogging. At first the response to both of us was overwhelmingly attacks, and very nasty ones. At first I thought I had done wrong, but in the end I realized I was merely touching nerves that really did need to be touched. Talking about race irritated wealthy white liberals, but was appreciated by blacks. Calling attention to a large increase in suspicious fires near ares developers wanted was called crazy...but eventually the mainstream media started picking it up. And our local Congressional primary really brought Michael and me to everyone's attention with two of the candidates (plus the nearly unknown Republican) reading our stuff regularly and one of the other campaigns reading it. So by writing what I wanted to write in a pretty aggressive way, I became known. Now I have Brooklyn politicians and judges see me and say, "Hey, you're that blogger guy!"

When Liza asked me to spend more time with Culture Kitchen as managing editor, I had to pull back a little from Daily Gotham. And I find I am back to being unsure what people will read. And I find some people find my style too aggressive. Perhaps what files in NYC is different than what flies nationally, but maybe I am just touching nerves that need to be touched again. Not sure yet. But since writing what I wanted to in the style I wanted to worked for Daily Gotham, I see no reason not to continue it here, even if it may be more aggressive than some like. We'll see how it works for Culture Kitchen!

None of which has much to do with business.