Input needed - Changes at Leftist Politics are in the Wind

Hello Comrades -

 

Due to situations outside our control, it has become necessary to move on from this Blogger site in order to preserve and continue the constructive social commentary and leftist information and analysis that we set out to do.  Hopefully for you, the transition will be (pretty) seamless.  

We have set up two options.  One option is to continue with a new Blogger site, which could mean no change for you at all.

  

The second option is to move our site to our own domain and server space  and escape Google data mining (Blogger is owned by Google).  We are working on this option and development is going (cough...) well. 

We need input from our community please:   

DISQUS OR OTHER COMMENTING PLATFORM:  What interest do folks have in leaving disqus altogether and moving to another commenting platform that will not harvest data (as disqus does)?  Getting rid of the truncated threads where each person sees a different version of the discussion and which is open to any troll that signs up for a disqus account is an option.   If we leave disqus, there will be no way to send out notices of new posts, and you would have to set up a commenting account with an email address. 

             If we move to our own server space and want to add disqus to Wordpress, the disqus              plugin is rated 2.7 out of 5 stars.  Yikes!!   

Can we discuss and have a show of hands who would be interested in moving to a different comment platform?  Possibly flat thread (as opposed to disqus threaded view)?

MODERATION:  The question of moderation is a perennial one.  For the most part, we have taken a very light touch but there are trolls and saboteurs who periodically disrupt and most of us have played that role ourselves.  (banned one who has been a particular personal menace yesterday) There are obvious holes in the moderation here.   Are commenters in favor of more aggressive moderation?  Or what is your view?

HELP!!  One more important question...  Do we have a tech guru with experience in Wordpress in the house who would be interested in helping me with the transition?  I have the tech things pretty much in hand, I think, but there are a few loose ends (if so, please send me a note - newestbeginning@gmail.com)

Thanks for your contributions guys,

newestbeginning, collectivist and dmorista

(also might as well ask - is there anyone who wants to be removed from our email notification list?)