I know it is a liberal Blog; but you know what? It’s a blog and when one goes down, I believe the Blogosphere suffers.
Sort of a shock to me; I used to read this blog quite a bit.
Anyhow, here’s the sad news:
I have some sad news. After nearly four years in operation, today will be the final day Open Left publishes new content.
The site will not disappear, and all published content will remain online, but after today we will cease producing new content.
As the people who founded the site, myself included, moved on to other projects, we have gradually run out of money to maintain operations. It is a difficult decision, but we kept going for as long as we could.
I am, and always will be proud of the work we did here. I am, and will always be grateful to everyone who supported, visited, and participated in the site.
No matter what, the inside-outside fight we engaged for progressive change at Open Left will continue in other venues, even though this blog is about to close. The movement is much bigger than one blog.
Farewell posts will run throughout the day. Thank you, so much, to everyone.
Centrist Blog Donklephant is not buying it:
Wait…what?
Open Left is run on Soap Blox, which is a blogging platform and hosting service. The blog platform appears to be free and the most expensive hosting costs $40 a month. Sure, there are add ons, but Open Left doesn’t get a ton of traffic. They say they’re going to keep the website up, so it’ll cost $480 at the most every year. If you add in extra storage and overages every month, maybe it costs $1,000 a year…maybe.
So the idea that it was too costly to maintain the site is hard to swallow. Why didn’t they just throw a fundraiser? Think they could get 100 people to pitch in $10…or more? This is, after all, some of the same readers who rocketed Howard Dean from obscurity to the national stage because he was able to raise a ton of money online.
Bottom line…if they really cared about their readers they’d simply tell them that they can’t pay their writers anymore so content contributions will go down. And that’s assuming they paid their writers in the first place. Many political blogs simply invite people to blog and pay them zip. The platform, readership and communication is enough compensation. Also, I’ve been frank with all of you about content dropping in the down years between elections…and our hosting costs more than what they were paying. Do you see us going away?
Just saying…Chris Bowers and crew could easily keep that site up and post to it when they want to. But they’re not making any money. That’s the reason they’re quitting. Not very “open” if you ask me.
Ben Smith over at politico opines:
There’s been a bit written recently on the death of blogs, and while there will — I hope — remain space for some, there’s little doubt that the online world of politics is no longer limited to this form.
And here’s another harbinger of the shift: Open Left, founded in 2007 campaign by bloggers who often challenged Obama from his left, including Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller, announced today that it’s shutting down.
“No matter what, the inside-outside fight we engaged for progressive change at Open Left will continue in other venues, even though this blog is about to close. The movement is much bigger than one blog,” Bowers writes.
Some of the older blogs on right and left are still thriving, while others — like TPM and the Hot Air bloggers — have worked to turn themselves into broader news platforms. But the form now feels a little quaint.
I will not be your typical partisan — um, pardon the french — asshole and say, “Ha ha! progressive writing is not popular!” No, I will not do that. The truth is, that this economy just sucks wet socks. Because of this, start-ups are feeling the heat. The reason why I feel it, every time a blog goes down is this. I believe in a full rage of political discussion — whether I agree with it….or not. Open left has been around for a very long time. I remember reading it back, when I was still rooting for the other side. That is, before it became rooted in stupidity.
As a Christian; I say to Chris Bowers; I wish you the best.
Hopefully, my readers will understand, that I take no pleasure in, nor do I get any joy about knowing that someone that I disagree with has had to throw the towel in on something that they enjoy.
Update: It seems that they do not feel the same way about me:
Shortly after Kerry’s loss in 2004, at MyDD, Chris wrote “Conservatism is our enemy” which I think is the first time I ever encountered a direct ideological assault on conservatism itself. Along with Phil Agre’s rightly famous essay on the subject, it began me on a road and mission to better understanding this beast. Everything I have learned to date from then continues to bolster Chris’ original thesis. Conservativism is still the primary enemy of progress, justice, fairness and widespread happiness for humanity. It remains a destructive and corrosive force on the institutions of democracy and the single biggest obstacle to world peace.
To which I say the following:
Eh, God Bless ’em. The awesome thing about America is the fact that everyone can have an opinion about Politics and other such subjects, without being worried about someone getting their head peeled. (So to speak…) Not that I agree with that at all. But there was a time, when I felt the same way. Although, I was not quite as vocal about it. Nor did I put my feelings in such terms. Rigid ideologies of that sort get nothing done. Nor are either of the major political ideologies perfect either.
So, again, I say, eh…. God Bless ’em. 😀