This April 18th rabble celebrates its 20th birthday. Hard to believe we've been around that long.
I'm tasked with writing a piece on 20 years of babble and would like your input. The piece follows on my March report, which you can read here. What are a few of your favourite threads from over the years? I'll be combing the archives, but what I think is great is not necessarily what you think is great. Let me know. Looking forward to your submissions!
Bump!
19 years and four months for you. I have four more months. Also, I miss Rebecca West. I do recall when you started posting. Skdadl mentioned in our private Yahoo group that you seemed pretty sharp and on the ball
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
I look forward to seeing memories posted by those who were here at or near the beginning. Hell, any memomories of the past 2 decades will be fun.
Happy 20th Birthday!!
19 years and four months for you. I have four more months. Also, I miss Rebecca West. I do recall when you started posting. Skdadl mentioned in our private Yahoo group that you seemed pretty sharp and on the ball
Very high praise coming from Skdadl. I miss her, and many others. Every once in a while I try to get Tommy to start posting again, but he thinks being married to the moderator might create some conflict of interest issues. I think it would make things more interesting. Like we'd have our own reality tv show, except it would be all text.
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
I joined, as you know, not long after 911. babble is still the best citizen journalism I've seen.
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
Bacchus! So good to see you here.
So if anyone is so inclined to look at the archives, here's the new link: http://babble.archives.rabble.ca/
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
Bacchus! So good to see you here.
Thanks Meg, almost 18 years now. Amd the baby is almost 12 now and I became a grandpa 15 days ago, how did that happen?
Holy crap, Bacchus! I remember when the baby was a newborn. I started at EnMasse and BnR and eventually migrated here but it seems that I have known many of the regulars in a virtual way since at least 2005.
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
Bacchus! So good to see you here.
Thanks Meg, almost 18 years now. Amd the baby is almost 12 now and I became a grandpa 15 days ago, how did that happen?
Is this the same baby that barfed on me in The New Times Cafe on Carleton? Still thought she was very cute.
Thats the one OG! Still cute but way way too smart, Decided shes a lesbian because boys are icky
Congratulations. What with FB sucking up all the oxygen in the room and increasing troll action everywhere I can't imagine it is easy keeping a forum going these days. Most of the sites I remember from 10 years ago aren't there anymore.
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
Bacchus! So good to see you here.
Thanks Meg, almost 18 years now. Amd the baby is almost 12 now and I became a grandpa 15 days ago, how did that happen?
Wow, 18 years and the baby isn't a baby anymore! My baby is turning 20 this year and I have three grandchildren, all in the past few years. Mindblowing, isn't it.
Congratulations. What with FB sucking up all the oxygen in the room and increasing troll action everywhere I can't imagine it is easy keeping a forum going these days. Most of the sites I remember from 10 years ago aren't there anymore.
Was Free Dominion still around when you joined? We'd get trolls from that site all the time. Entertaining as only right wing idiots can be, but not really productive. I believe they collapsed under the weight of numerous lawsuits and settlements.
At some point I'll post about 911, and what a hugely transfomative event it was for the babble community. The editor at the time, Jude MacDonald posted that our threads really made her rethink citizen journalism.
That is one of the events that started me on the road that led here
Bacchus! So good to see you here.
Thanks Meg, almost 18 years now. Amd the baby is almost 12 now and I became a grandpa 15 days ago, how did that happen?
Wow, 18 years and the baby isn't a baby anymore! My baby is turning 20 this year and I have three grandchildren, all in the past few years. Mindblowing, isn't it.
Honestly? It seems like just yesterday
Congratulations. What with FB sucking up all the oxygen in the room and increasing troll action everywhere I can't imagine it is easy keeping a forum going these days. Most of the sites I remember from 10 years ago aren't there anymore.
Was Free Dominion still around when you joined? We'd get trolls from that site all the time. Entertaining as only right wing idiots can be, but not really productive. I believe they collapsed under the weight of numerous lawsuits and settlements.
And Enmasse and BreadNRoses gone as well, or as good as
Happy birthday, Babble/Rabble!
It was.
Didn't see any of those ones. I did hear about the Israel lobby ones regularly showing up. That was for the most part before my time.
Congratulations. What with FB sucking up all the oxygen in the room and increasing troll action everywhere I can't imagine it is easy keeping a forum going these days. Most of the sites I remember from 10 years ago aren't there anymore.
Was Free Dominion still around when you joined? We'd get trolls from that site all the time. Entertaining as only right wing idiots can be, but not really productive. I believe they collapsed under the weight of numerous lawsuits and settlements.
Not just them. It cut across the whole format. Like I said, with FB sucking everything up most of it is gone. I only visit a couple... mostly technical sites.
Not intending to be depressive; to be honest just surviving as an old-style forum in this climate is in itself quite an accomplishment.
Congratulations. What with FB sucking up all the oxygen in the room and increasing troll action everywhere I can't imagine it is easy keeping a forum going these days. Most of the sites I remember from 10 years ago aren't there anymore.
Was Free Dominion still around when you joined? We'd get trolls from that site all the time. Entertaining as only right wing idiots can be, but not really productive. I believe they collapsed under the weight of numerous lawsuits and settlements.
And Enmasse and BreadNRoses gone as well, or as good as
It is an incredible accomplishment. Sadly, BnR and EnMasse have been shuttered for what seems like close to a decade (egads, maybe even longer given that I joined here some 14 years ago when things were dying down). The former US AlterNet forums died well before 2010 but migrated to what was the Utne Forums. That was also folded but the regulares resurrected The New Cafe as a forum. It's still there but in the last few years has had many campaigns to try to save it.
Really happy to see 20 years of progressive journalism up, running, and going forward!
Now, which were my favourite threads? Great question. How much time do we have? I don't mean that in the planetary or cosmic sense.
I would love to see some of the threads on racism from fifteen years or so that Maysie or Big City Girl dominated. I learned many important but subtle points from those threads. The less subtle ones I like to think I knew before this millennium.
To me, the most memorable threads are the Babble Quote Hall of Fame series; the gay marriage threads from 2005; the old Israel-Palestine threads where babblers with opposing views would duke it out; and the Babble strike threads from 2006 when Audra Trower Williams was fired as babble moderator.
Wow, 20 years. A belated happy birthday rabble, and babblers!
Nice to see you Unionist, Left Turn and Swallow. I have been missing so many voices of the past.
I think the threads on the Arab Spring were the most troublesome for me. The idea that the whole thing was being orchestrated by the CIA was an ruled an insult to the people on the streets, Claiming that it was primarily being fueled by NEC funding and logistical support was basically forbidden because it denied the agency of these brave people. Unfortunately in retrospect, those of us who feared that the people in the squares were being used as dupes in a great global imperial game were right.
Happy birthday Babble and Rabble. I used to babble a lot back in the early days as Non-Partisan Partisan. Feels like a lifetime ago. I also blogged for a while as well. Thinking of getting back into it.
I remember Judy explaining the rabble/babble project to us at the counter-summit protesting the Summit of the Americas in Québec City. Not only the imperialist and retrograde summit itself, but also the absurd lengths of the crowd control and sundry police and military measures against a largely peaceful band of protesters.
