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Posted on January 16, 2010 by Daniel Klotz

Comment intelligently on local news sites

Local Resolutions Part 14 of 29

This is the fourteenth in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that leaving intelligent comments in response to articles on local news sites is a great way to help others from behind the comfort of your keyboard. This series has included recent posts about appearing as a guest on local blogs and podcasts, bookmarking others’ content, and cataloging your community on FourSquare.

Tomorrow morning the wackos come out.

I’m not talking about church-goers. I’m talking about the haunters of the LancasterOnline TalkBack forums. Despite the fact that its editorial staff was downsized again this week (by ten people), the Sunday News is still the biggest and broadest news source in this county. And big news sites draw online wannabe pundits like moths to a flame.

On the TalkBack forums, community members hide behind pseudonyms, beat long-dead horses, and attack each other ad hominem with glee.

The forums are frequently unfriendly, irrational, and maddening. Reporters famously either hate or ignore them.

For all that the people behind the Lancaster Newspapers drone on wistfully about the importance of an independent press in our society (just listen to the pie-in-the-sky brainwashing that loops for pedestrians at the South Queen Street “Newseum” window display), they have done a preposterously inept job managing the sorry excuse for discourse taking place around the articles they publish online.

And yet, here I am, about to suggest you join them.

Yes, in 2010, consider walking into the lions den on occasion to say something intelligent.

Don’t get your hopes up: the TalkBack forums are broken beyond repair. Still, even though Lancaster Newspapers has gone to lengths to block their website’s traffic on information services like Quantcast (where this blog’s traffic is verified and available for all to see), we know that enough people visit the site to make it an important place for public input.

So that you don’t get pulled into the quicksand of the uglier sorts of conversations, I suggest following these three guidelines:

1. Speak your mind. Don’t react or respond to other posters. Instead, write with regard to the article itself, not any comments that may have already been left.

2. Don’t watch the replies like a hawk. Leave your comment then close the tab in your browser.

3. Point to intelligent resources like articles, blogs, and data sources. It will raise the level of discourse beyond conjecture, and break a hole in “the TalkBack forum bubble.”

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Daniel Klotz

Play the critic

Local Resolutions Part 8 of 29

This is the eighth in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that writing reviews of works and events produced by local artists is a great way to help others from behind the comfort of your keyboard. This series has included recent posts about making a list on Twitter, explaining your position on an issue, and making a habit of giving online.

Everyone’s a critic.

At least, in the sloppy, mean sense. We all tear down things we’re ignorant about. It’s a problem.

But today, everyone has the opportunity to be a critic in the difficult, helpful sense. You can review a work of art with care, looking at it with a critical mind, rather than a critical disposition. You can blog, write a review on any number of sites, record a podcast, make a video, or use whatever other medium suits your fancy. The important thing is that the medium isn’t the problem. It’s no longer a barrier keeping everyone but paid columnists out.

At least, that’s one important thing. The other important thing is that while the medium isn’t hard, the work still is. I can spout off and criticize Ikea (as I have done before on Twitter), and I take flak for it and no one really cares. That’s because playing the critic doesn’t mean simply saying what you think about something. It means explaining how you understand something in a way that others can themselves understand and appreciate. It means communicating in such a way that people don’t shut their eyes and ears to you because you’ve made them so disgruntled right off the bat.

I took a stab at being this sort of critic last April when I reviewed the 2009 Rumschpringe Film Festival, which is held here in Lancaster. I caught some flak for it, online and off, but the dominant reaction by far was appreciation—enough that the event’s organizer, Michael Hoober, was happy to accept an invitation to come on the podcast I co-host to talk about this year’s Rumschpringe in this week’s episode.

I also wrote public reviews of Progressive Galleries when they opened downtown and of the Barry Moser exhibit at the Lancaster Museum of Art. When I write such reviews, here are some of the objectives I have in my mind:

Explain the event, work of art, or exhibit in such a way that people who wouldn’t easily “get it” can appreciate it. Remember all those “appreciation” classes in school? Poetry appreciation, art appreciation, music appreciation, and so on? The world of art is so fluid and fast-changing that few people have the ability to appreciate most new works of art. We miss out a lot of good art because we throw up our hands and say, “I don’t get it!” I’m with Nicholas Woltersdorff when he says that the primary role of the critic in today’s world is not to review but rather to explain.
Entice others to experience it for themselves. I try to avoid the pitfall of thinking I have some sort of moral responsibility to keep people from experiencing a work of art for themselves. Sometimes I can’t help it (as in when I encourage you not to see Dogville, not to read Glamorama, not to shopt at Wal-Mart, not to follow the Elements of Style, and not to refer to Eats, Shoots, and Leaves). But overall, I think it’s best, especially when it comes to the local arts scene, to encourage others to check it out for themselves so that a real conversation can take place.
Treat it like it’s the real deal. One of my hopes for my review of last year’s Rumschpringe film festival was that my taking it seriously as a critic would encourage others to begin or to continue to take it seriously as participants, organizers, and viewers. Real works of art get reviewed, and real artists who produce work for the public submit themselves to the public’s response.
When assessing, include the good with the bad. I think some of the best feedback you can give as a critic of local art is to say what you would like to see more of and what you would like to see less of. It’s helpful to artists and to event/exhibit organizers to hear feedback like, “This part was great, so keep focusing on it, while this part was hurting, so improve or ditch it in the future.”
Put it in context. Think about what you’re reviewing in terms of its setting in place and time. What significance do you see in the fact that it exists at this point in history rather than earlier or later? What does it matter that it took place in Lancaster rather than Philadelphia, L.A., or Guadalupe?

Think about what art you’re planning to take in this year and consider whether you might be able to elevate our community’s discourse about the arts by playing the critic. What objectives will you have in mind when you do?

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Daniel Klotz

Explain your position on an issue

Local Resolutions Part 6 of 29

This is the sixth in a series of 29 ways to help your local community online in 2010. If you missed it, you may wish to read the introductory post.

In this post, I suggest that making small charitable donations publicly online is a great way to help others from behind the comfort of your keyboard. I have already written about making a habit of giving online, joining the local Freecycle group, sharing traffic reports, inventing new awards, and responding to questions in Yahoo Answers.

We disagree.

What’s more, we disagree on things that matter.

And, frequently, you have an opinion about something you think is really important, and I’ve never even thought about it before.

It’s important that we listen to each other. Because we are part of the same community, I want to hear what you think.

You have important thoughts. Share them.

I’ve been pulled into more than my share of online debates. They take place on Twitter, in the comments on a blog post, on message boards, by e-mail, and in a handful of other places.

Debates are fine. I’m a person who actually learns from debating and through debating. But, debates have their limitations and flaws. For one thing, they tend to annoy others. For another, they tend to cause everyone to get defensive.

So, my challenge to you today is to resolve to take time this year to explain your positions on issues that are important to you. I want to read your thoughts. Enrich me. Elevate the level of civic discourse in our community. Speak your piece.

What to write about

“An issue important to you” doesn’t have to be political. Sure, your support of universal single-payer healthcare for everyone is a good position to explain. But so is your take on the lifting of salary caps in the NFL. Your ideas about how bosses should treat their employees. Why you think chain stores are actually pretty cool. An insight you have into why a particular TV show warrants appreciation.

You’ll know you have something to write about the next time you find yourself saying, “You know what I think?”

What to do with it

Then hop on your computer and tell me—tell us—what you think. Share it online

on your blog (if you don’t have one, they’re free and easy from WordPress.com)
through Facebook Notes
on a video you post to YouTub
as a guest post on someone else’s blog

As far as guest pots go, if what you have to say is a) local to Lancaster County and b) level-headed, I would be thrilled to share it here on my blog as a guest post. If you, too, are a blogger interested in such guest posts, please let us know in the comments below.

Explaining your take on a particular issue to your neighbors, to other members of you community, does not make you a pundit. It makes you a citizen.

Photo by Flickr user Michael Karshis

Lancaster, PA Blog

Tag: resolutions