1: Not So Brave New World

Blogging is a brave new world that is not so new anymore. Yet it’s an even braver new world for mainstream newspapers. Usual ‘blogosphere’ practice is for authors of blogs to let fly with no editorial oversight whatsoever. The result is a lively, wild, wooly, sometimes offensive, sometimes nasty, yet often very vibrant discourse. This is one reason why blogs have been such a wildfire web success. Yet this poses a quandary for newspapers, many of which have hesitated to begin blogging because of the ‘say anything’ culture of blogs and the reactions they generate in the ‘Comments’ below each blog post. Blogs are also full of unsourced claims and the ‘Comments’ sections can fill up with invective and mean-spirited remarks.

2: Oversight of gazz blogs

But heck, let’s join the blog-o-fray, we say here at thegazz.com – with a few limitations. We’ll be doing editing and oversight of gazz blogs with the occasional editorial comment interjected. (The nice thing about an error introduced via blog is you can correct it instantly upon it being noticed, and thus dispatch the error into oblivion.) Gazzblogs will not be a Wild, Wild West of anything-goes commentary. It’s better to view gazzblogs as a moderated discussion board. Comments that may be offensive, way too mean-spirited and possibly libelous will be removed. Our hope is that blog give-and-take via comments between and among readers and authors will also be a self-policing community. Civility is good. (There’s a reason they called it the Civil War.) We’ll shut down any comments judged overly nasty, ban sociopaths if they are not funny or witty — and generally hope for the best and prepare for the less-than-best.

3: Who’s Who?

In most cases, our blog authors will be known. But we’re also experimenting with a blog (CrankyArtist) written under pseudonym by someone from the Charleston cultural cognoscenti, such as it is. Charleston is a small village of a town in many respects and we wanted to give our CrankyArtist elbow room to let fly – with elbows – about the city’s cultural and arts scene, its failings and irritations. I know who CrankyArtist is and you can complain straight to the blog (via the ‘Comments’ options below every blog postings) or me if el Cranky cranks you up.

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Let us hear what you think about the blogs, respond to them, suggest new ones, suggest your own for linkage. You know where to find us.

Douglas Imbrogno

Editor of the gazz
gazz@wvgazette.com
August 25, 2005