Hi Purple State,

I'd have to agree that the site as it now stands discourages any real discussion. I'm still trying to be patient while Andrew and his team work the bugs out. But last night it occurred to me that perhaps some of what I'm hoping gets corrected won't, and may be part of the software itself. The format seems very much like DKos, and although I like DKos also, it's a different world, and just isn't set up for the sort of lengthy, in-depth conversations that made this site so appealing in the past. I will sorely miss our discussions here if the format remains as is, even if the bugs are finally resolved.

It occurs to me that perhaps this format is considered superior for some other reason. It may be, for instance, that some potential site visitors were put off by the long conversations, and so did not participate. Even so, it seems to me there could be some sort of compromise that could be developed - perhaps a separate forum set up this way, while the rest of the site maintained the earlier format. It must be possible to set it up that way, because for quite a long time, while most of the site retained the old format, Election Central had moved to something like this. Although I participated at Election Central before the whole site was switched over, the inability to track comments there meant I made mostly hit-and-run posts, and it just didn't seem as usable for that reason.

Andrew has said that they are going to restore the ability to track one's own comments, but the loss of the tracker function is a big loss, imho. I'm giving it more time, but I'm disappointed at the moment too.

Just FYI, Andrew has a post up where people are talking about the problems with the site: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/06/bug_stompin/

I've enjoyed our conversations in the past, Purple State, and frequently learned something from your posts. I'm hoping that the plan is to restore the ability to engage in the great discussions we all had here at TPM Cafe, so that you and the other longtime users will stick around.

You might like my other post on this, "The End of Conversation."

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/02/the-end-of-conversation.php

I agree with you, as well as with Tom Wright (whose first post seems to have got a strong reaction from Andrew and Josh I can't agree with). Also with Ellen on the comparison to Facebook (although Ellen, alas, the eye for personal image is already a net cliche). But mostly my comparison would be to all Election Central all the time.

Increasingly, I have to look at Drum or Yglesias to see if it's possible to comment on anything other than who has more charisma and who is ahead. I know I'm more into policy than many, but we need a few posters here who have opened the Times in ages. If news is boring and issues are even more boring, at least dump on David Brooks's pop sociology of Obama and Clinton. Or something.

This site is like a parody of the mainstream media. Perhaps E. J. Dionne's posts will broaden it marginally. Of course, I'd also like to post one day without logging out first, would like tracking back, would like not to insert html tags manually, and am frankly amazed no one worked out any of that before a launch, but eventually bugs will go, I guess, and content will remain.

I wrote this yesterday:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/02/why-fix-something-that-wasnt-b.php#comments
I'm 63 years old and not a techie, but I'm a blogger
http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/
and I was able to figure out the old system immediately. I thought it was a very good, well designed, system that facilitated communication and created community and presto change-o instant goatfuck.