When someone posts a diary asking what Booman Tribune is all about, I naturally feel like I should reply. But, it turns out that I don’t need to, and actually, it seems, it would be presumptuous for me to do so.
Reading through all the comments in Catnip’s diary made me realize that the members have somehow determined what the site is about, and you all are not embarassed to express what you think.
It’s a fascinating thing to watch a community grow and evolve, and to know that I have had a role in determining how that growth evolved.
I have always believed that American politics suffers from a deficit of female voices, influence, and power. When I decided to create a progressive community website, I had a goal of reaching for a site that had an equal number of female voices. It started with looking for women to be front-page posters. Susan has been more responsible for fulfilling the feel of this site than I ever imagined one person could be.
But it goes beyond just her contributions. This site has developed into a decidedly caring and nurturing place. It’s done so in a way that I never anticipated except in a purely conceptual way.
But it backs up my theory. My theory was that political discourse would improve, be more productive, and better reflect the values of the Democratic Party, if the community was more representative of the actual demographic makeup of the party.
From a gender standpoint, I think we’ve been astonishingly successful. We still need to work on attracting more people from the lower socio-economic strata of the party. But we already can see the benefit of having a large female voice here.
I won’t try to characterize the effect because it’s best reflected by the comments people made in Catnip’s diary. I think that I had some influence by creating certain guidelines for the community (like the ‘don’t be a prick’ rule). But, most of the effect has been organic and has developed autonomously.
One thing that has developed, and that I encouraged, is that this community is first and foremost about its members. Bringing together a community of people with a wide variety of skills should be empowering. We benefit from the sharing of political information, but we also can benefit from the sharing of photosop skills, HTML skills, gardening tricks, life advice, and everything else.
That’s what I value the most. We can all benefit from the skills and support that we have to offer each other.
So, without diminishing what everyone else has had to say about what Booman Tribune is about, I’ll just say that I am pleased with how the community has evolved. It has been surprising to me, but also validating, in that I always believed that an online community could be more than just a place to throw ideas around. An online community can be a place that makes all of us better, more knowledgable, more powerful, better supported, and happier.
