Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

How Did YOU Become a Reader of BMG? Poll

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Charley came out to the M&W Dems meeting tonight in Hudson and talked about blogging, growing community blogs and a number of related topics.

Thanks again, Charley! 

One of the things he talked about was growing readership.  It made me wonder how readers got started reading BMG. So I decided to create a poll.

Do you have an interesting story about how you got involved?

Please share widely!
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Comments

  3. Don’t remember. It’s one of lots of sites I’ve stumbled across, but one of few I’ve returned to regularly.

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    Generating new visitors and generating return visitors are two different things. The former much easier than the later, of course.

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    At some point in the last year or two I’ve probably visited half to two thirds of the blogs listed on this site. If I get to them at the right time, I might give them two to three viewings in the course of a week. If they don’t hook me by then, it’s probably a long while before I go back. Unless they get back on the radar by frequent or interesting mentions in other places I deem credible.

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    But with a local blog, I think you’ve got a better defined target audience that doesn’t have a lot of other outlets to turn to. Is there ever an issue on BMG that doesn’t get covered in MSM? Discussed on dozens of blogs and radio shows? Not really. But local, local issues usually don’t get that kind of exposure or involvement.

  4. “endorsed by bluemangroup” when he was on the radio.  Then I what the hell does Bluemangroup have to do with politics?  So I poked around on Google and found it.

  5. The late, great Cape Cod Works was written by my friend Len Stewart, who was always quoting and supporting BMG.  I began visiting, and soon began commenting as I was intrigued by the ‘reality-based’ appellation, and my own point of view was that it was not always that.  I believe I am also among the first 500 members.

        • Actually all the IDs of the people who were on the old TypePad Blue Mass Group got randomly assigned when they moved to SoapBlox, so we can’t tell what order people “joined” in.  Back then you didn’t need accounts to comment, so they just went by whatever names people were using and aggregated those into accounts.

          • Charley is number 5 and Bob is in the teens. I couldn’t think of who would come after David but before them somehow.

          • so people with ID <= x would know they were among the first x, whereas anyone with ID > x would know they were after the first x.

              • I had NO idea Progressives were so competitive, and that what I had intended as a happy reminisince would turn into such a mishegoss!

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                Ad Shill – I remember you from Typepad days as well (thx to Afertig, I found a 2005 post bitching about what a reactionary Romney was – so even THEN…he was a conservative!) and looking at our respective names, I strongly suspect that the number assignment was alphabetical.

          • but they are not completely reliable.  On typepad, you had to give a name and email address to post a comment, but the email address could be fake, so a lot of those IDs are dead now, since soapblox requires a real one.  But for folks who signed on to typepad with real names and addresses that are the same on soapblox, the number does reflect when they first showed up.

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            That’s also why I’m #2, Charley is 5, and Bob is 13.  The numbers reflect when you first commented, not when you posted.  So a few people posted comments before Charley and Bob did.

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            The transition to soapblox happened around user # 600, and after that point it’s all exactly in order.

            • By checking on the person IDs I expected something like that.  So, do we get points for being a member of the BMG 600?

  7. It was the only place to get decent info on the special election for the 2nd Middlesex State Senate seat in 2005. I stumbled across it just googling the candidates’ names.

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    My “personID” is 271… does that mean I’m the 271st member?

  9. IIRC I found Blue Mass Group when I was looking for information about the candidates in the special election for 18th Suffolk state rep in the winter of 2004/2005.  I’d heard about Tim Schofield from someone in DFA and wanted to find something written down that I could show to other members of one of the DFA groups I was in, to get them involved in the election.

  10. I found this place shortly after it started when I was looking for state-level political blogs in preparation for starting my own.

    • The good ol’ days…what system was BMG using back then? It wasn’t Blogger, as I recall.

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      I think I found the lefty MA blogosphere from dKos, from someone’s sig line or something. I can’t recall which was the first blog, BMG, .08, etc. It was like a gajillion years ago.

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      It would have been at the end of ’04 or beginning of ’05 though, as I started mine soon after in May ’05.

    • I found sco’s great blog .08 Acres while researching some state house issue and enjoyed reading that. I started paying more attention to the links he had to BMG.

  11. I found bluemassgroup around the end of 05 when I was looking to find about the candidates in the governor’s race.

  12. ..of the monkeyshitfight forums that attract l/r wingnuts. So I did a search.

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    Though I don’t see this blog as entirely reality based, at least it’s mostly civil.

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    RMG (poorly named) could probably attain some stature as well, if someone could sandbag the trolls that seem intent on trashing the place. 

  13. A link from Hub Politics, of all places. 

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    A friend who sends me links when ever something happens within the Democratic Party.  For some reason he thinks I’m the gatekeeper who needs to defend all stories regarding the party.  Anyway, don’t recall the issue, but he forwarded a link from Hub Politics that had referenced BMG with link, just followed the link here and have been hooked ever since.

  14. I first looked at it in early 2005 when SusanM from beyond 495 mentioned it to me.  It fell of my radar screen until around Convention 2005, when there was a thread that mentioned me.  As 2005 heated up I started following it more closely.  It is an interesting source of information. 

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    Kate

  16. Working the Murray campaign and then the Patrick/Murray campaign and now the Anti-Casino campaign….and lots of issues in between.

    Enjoy the quick wits and banter.

     

     

  17. I joined during the last race for Governor.  I think I read about BMG in the Globe or heard about it on the radio, probably WBUR.  I probably have spent way too much time here, but it sure is nice to have a place to go to write about how I feel about certain issues. And often the response is immediate. 

  18. wow! I have a low number! I wanted to hear what they were thinking.

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    I stay because I am learning about state level politics, about blogging and the internet, the conversation is civil, the jokes fine, and:

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    the Vermont blogs I have found seem to be written by people who already know each other and each other’s opinions. Their topics are not wide ranging.
    I never know what the subject will be at BMG.

  20. I was reading for a long time before I started commenting. I want to say I came here in the summer or fall of 2005, but it may have been later than that. I think I heard about it through a friend when I was just beginning to organize for the Deval.

  21. The last thing I remember we were drinking Tequila and talking politics. Then darkness. When I woke up I had a chipped tooth, a face full of gravel, and my pants were down around my ankles.
    Ever since, it’s been BMG for me.

  22. i’m not sure for sure, but i seem to recall reading on another MA blog several pointed complaints about what later would be dubbed process liberals here on BMG.  i came over for a peek, boiled over with indignation (and some not-always-welcome posts), and stayed.  there is a lot to like about this site: the integrity of many of the posters, the transparency of those whose integrity is put on and taken off like a romney conviction-du-jour, the breadth of the topics, etc.  i also like how how the editors share the page with users over there on “recent user posts”.  many users contribute excellent posts.

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