When rabble began 23 years ago, it sought to exist not just as an outlet for progressive news, but also as a community where readers, activists and thinkers could come together to discuss not just the news of the day. A key component of this early vision for rabble was our babble message board.
After more than 20 years, rabble.ca decided in early 2024 to close babble and archive the contents.
Due to the rise in popularity of social media sites such as Facebook, Reddit and more, babble’s active user base inevitably had dwindled over the past few years; and due to this, and an ongoing review of rabble.ca as a whole, it was decided that it was time for the message board to come to an end.
As we close this chapter, we must take a moment to share our appreciation to all of those who helped to make babble a lively and respectful community for all of those years.
A small history of babble
Just as rabble was one of the first online-only news outlets when it began operations in 2001, rabble was also one of the first news outlets to take a step into the early realm of social media in the form of babble.
As we’ve outlined in rabble’s 20th anniversary book, Everything on (the) Line:
“From the beginning, one of the site’s defining features has been active reader participation. Before Facebook, before Twitter, and certainly well before the first iPhone, rabble created “babble,” a political virtual space for moderated discussion on the news of the day, built on the Ultimate Bulletin Board platform. Tens of thousands of people have opined, shared, posted, debated, and organized in babble.”
Audra Williams was instrumental in the setting up of and managing of babble in the first five years of its existence.
“I really wanted to build an online space that would lead to real-world connections and action,” said Williams in an email to rabble.ca. “I wanted it to be as much a place to find common ground as it was a place for debate. And I knew from my own experience that people were much more likely to give each other the benefit of the doubt and have a productive conversation about a political issue if they’d recently talked about their favourite episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or compared cat pictures. I wanted to create an entry point for changemaking.”
Williams said that the community created on babble in those early days really made it special.
“So many of us [shared] the load of making it a worthwhile space. The way the babblers would follow rules for the sake of the community and quality of the discourse. It was a very respectful space; I was humbled by how respected I felt by the critical mass of active people on those boards,” Williams said.
Frank Preyde was also present in the early days, and it was that community that kept him involved with babble for the next two decades, eventually taking on the role of principal moderator.
“I enjoyed the banter. There was a lot of joking around and discussions of politics, social issues. There were also a lot of threads on cooking and literature,” he said in an interview with rabble.ca.
Preyde explained that the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 was an early defining moment for babble.
“I guess everybody remembers where they were when that first happened,” Preyde said of that fateful day. “I just wanted to come home and uh watch this on TV.”
Preyde added that he also opened up his laptop to see that activity on babble had kicked into overdrive with speculation, opinions and discussion on what had happened that day, and what might happen next.
“Jude McDonald, the publisher [of rabble] at the time called it an interesting exercise in citizen journalism,” said Preyde.
The end of an era
Preyde said that he knew the time had come for the sun to set on babble, but despite babble coming to an end, he looks back fondly at the discussions he had there and the connections he made.
“I got to meet such interesting people. I got to do things, meet people and go places that I would not have otherwise,” he said. Preyde recalls chatting about new books, recipes and local goings-on; celebrating birthdays and occasionally meeting up at a pub for drinks.
Williams likewise remembers babble for the strong community it created both on and offline.
“I remember talking about personal lives. Navigating spouses with dementia. How much we loved our cats. Deep disappointments we felt with various leaders of various levels of the NDP. But mostly I remember the joy of riffing off of each others’ jokes and analysis,” she said.
rabble would like to thank all those who dedicated themselves to helping to make babble a place for thoughtful, respectful debate and community for more than 20 years.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
