Now, for everyone who has commented here, I really, invite you to read the scariest thing I’ve ever written. “I am a racist”. I really wanted this to be a big conversation starter.

As for grammar checks - I know Matt has excellent grammar and may be able to assist, and I do writeups, artist bios and press releases for my own company and others around the world - I don’t have an abundance of spare time but might be able to assist once I get settled (I’m in the middle of moving at the moment).

I used to be really lazy about grammar, thinking, hey, it’s a blog, no one cares about grammar on a blog, but then Dustin pointed it out, and I started paying a little more attention, and now that you have as well, I will redouble my efforts.

Rushed or not, I always use the spellcheck at a bare minimum now. When I am rushed, however, I forgo the rest of the grammatical checks because I’m not going to not put up a post because the grammar’s not up to stuff. Right now I’m actually busier than my posting frequency would lead one to believe, but trust me this is happening a lot lately.

All though, it may be worth seeing if Mike’s up for bringing someone on board solely to come behind and check everyone for grammar. It’s worth a look, isn’t it?

As for your kind words, thank you very much. One of my mission statements comes from the first few days of blogging where I made the decision that I was not going to be like some of the a-listers out there that manage to get hundreds of comments and thousands of hits a day for linking to a story and writing maybe half a sentence on it. If that was all I was going to do, then there really isn’t much of a point in me being a part of the echo chamber. So that mentality kind of has guided me throughout this strange journey.

And I like the idea of maybe doing sunday roundtable posts or something, and I’m going to keep working on that. that is kind of the point behind my “What do you think?” posts anyways, try and stir up some discussion.

C: Thank you as always, and I’m also still working on my woefully lacking networking skills. I even do a weekly blogrolling thing. Again, I’m hoping when the rest of my life calms down some I can put more energy in this.

Thanks guys.

I don’t have a political blog, but in my online rave journal I’ve built up quite a readership, and I did so by engaging people individually and collectively - by reading their journals and leaving comments and questions that would encourage them to explore, and by posting questions in my own journal for the group to answer collectively. I don’t know how much of either you do already, but over the last few years I’ve found this to be quite effective.

One other thing that I think a lot of people overlook is bringing in new readers from outside the blogosphere - otherwise we’re simply poaching other people’s readers. It is this recruitment of new people that really helps add to the strength of the community at large. This means getting involved in other internet communities (I link through here for my ravers from time to time), it means getting involved in the “real world” with people who get their news from CNN or Fox or USA Today and showing them this new world, and it means giving people good examples of all this “blogging” their hearing about in their regular news.

One last thing - have you heard anything from Mark lately? Publius hasn’t been updated in over a month.

You know why I read. I think you, Mike, Matt and McSwain are great bloggers. Keep doing exactly what you do.

But I think you need to do some outreach. Not every day, maybe once a week, send an email with a post you think is a cut above the rest to a bunch of people. Take the time to write each individually, not just a mass mailer. Cultivate some contacts. Phone people. And always remember to write emails thanking folk who link.

Regards, C

I can’t even remember how I ended up here the first time. It was probably a link during a Blogroll event or something. All the machinations of the past (referenced in your post) are a mystery to me and, frankly, I don’t care. What I do care about, and what keeps me coming back, is the depth of analysis, the interesting points I don’t necessary see on any of the other blogs I read regularly, and the breadth of knowledge you have. That’s why I’m a reader.

I post comments periodically as well; more often here than on other blogs. In part this is because, when I finish reading a post, I often find I have something I want to offer either in response or to expand on the points made. I LOVE the fact that the comments section doesn’t get filled up with screed to wade through, and I especially love the dialogs that often emerge in the comments section. Most bloggers don’t appear to even read their comments sections; you provide thoughtful and thought-provoking responses.

Given these strengths, from my perspective, I can offer a few suggestions:

- I have no doubt that the frequent blogging can be exhausting. Perhaps you could have less frequent posts, with more extensive dialog in the comments section. Is there a way to put the comments thread on the front page, to encourage discussion among readers?
- Posing questions for discussion would also be a good way to get more involvement. I’m thinking here, by way of an example, about the “Sunday discussion group” that TheCarpetbaggerReport used to have. I could see this prompting some activism, which wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

I guess where I’m headed with this is the notion of turning the blog into more of a community effort — the foundation is there and (at least on my part) the interest is there as well.

Finally, and I don’t know any delicate way to put this. . .You need a editor/proofreader! I know I’m especially finicky about spelling and word use, and maybe you can just chalk it up to this flaw in my character, but there are times that the quality of your analysis and the larger point you are trying to make gets swamped out by unnecessary (and undoubtedly inadvertent) errors.