The actual panel is called “Community Engagement Strategies: Rational Debate or Herding Cats?” The panelists are from Drew Curtis from Fark, Erik Martin from Reddit and Tucker Max (you know who he is.) “I’m usually concerned about offending people on panels, but I’ve got Tucker with me, so I’m safe,” Curtis said.
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?
Max: Something real and tangible that accomplishes something that’s of value to people’s lives. Rotary club, web activist group “Anonymous”, etc. A group of people who have common goals and are accountable to each other to take action that adds to people’s lives.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE QUALITY OF THE COMMUNITY?
If all you care about are numbers, and you don’t care if it’s shit, then the community is useless. If your comments suck and detract from your website, people won’t want to go there. Chicago Tribune or Sun Times just shut down their comments section on their comments pages.
LOGISTICAL ISSUES
How are the comments sorted? Chronological or reverse chron? Who replied to my comment? Where are my comments? Why I am hitting “recommend” when it does nothing? What is the point of recommendations if they don’t affect the order or filter of the comments?
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Strong community sites have FAQs or user agreement pages that are updated frequently, linked out, actively something you can refer people to. They’re user-centered.
Writers should participate in comments. Interact with the audience, update their stories based on comments. “If they’re not bothering to also communicate, then why do you need to even have that section.” Read your feedback. Roger Ebert goes into people’s comments and responds to them. He’s going to argue about movies, spends the time and does it. So his blog is so great.
Care about quality comment sections and the community of commenters. Rageful comment sections give you cheap traffic, and so then mainstream media take less chances. Panelists feel like news organizations dependent on ad revenue have no incentive to improve user experience. “Improving user experience costs them money,” said Max, about news orgs that don’t prioritize user engagement.
Re: Moderation. Have published rules and your unpublished norms. What’s your ethic? Nice? Dickish? Communities are like five-year-olds. Whatever baselines you set, you have to enforce them. The guidelines you set will create the community that you want.
THE DEBATE OVER ANONYMITY
Some people need to have an honest debate without using their real name, but Max argues having ID attached to comments is important for “meaningful debate.”
“Do you see a lot of meaningful debates in the comments sections of political blogs?” Max asks. “What’s the signal to noise ratio? It’s not worth it for me, negotiating with all the angry rageful trolls to find something useful. You cna clearly have a good community where everyone’s anonymous, but toward creating meaningful discourse in a comments section of a political site, name and face are key. Then there’s at least a modicum of accountability behind it. This person can now look at what I look like and know where I might be coming from. I don’t feel like it’s a crucial for a community, but it depends on what kind of community you want to have. You want to have a meaningful debate, you gotta hold people accountable for their opinions.”
Pollo en Mole Poblano from Fonda San Miguel in Austin. (Rick Bayless photo)
It’s almost time for the confab that keeps on growing. I’ve heard some locals longing for the more “open source” SXSW of yesteryear, when not every inch of grass near the Austin Convention Center was sponsored, and you could actually get into normally-lame places like Buffalo Billiards without being on a list. But as my mom always tells me, “it is what it is, you gotta face it.” And I kinda like the town being taken over for a few weeks. So many great reunions are had as smart people from all over the world descend on the 512. And sponsored everything means SO MANY FREE SNACKS!
But if you’re looking for some non-free recommendations, I did a lot of going out while I was in Austin, so listed a few of my suggestions. I tried to leave out the usual suspects like Cisco’s, Uchi or The Salt Lick, which are probably on every SXSW list out there.
Delicious Tex Mex For Less Than $7: El Azteca, 2600 East 7th Street: Your reliable Tex Mex fare in an atmosphere that includes art of half naked Aztecs and a VELVET JOHN F KENNEDY! All the lunch specials here come with iced tea and sherbert included, which I love. I usually go with the combo that includes a cheese enchilada and beef taco.
Dario’s, 1800 East 6th Street: This family owned joint can turn around your order in about 90 seconds. The food’s always served on super hot plates (as it should be) and here, the homemade flour tortillas are the bomb. Like many of the East Austin Mexican places, it’s not open on Monday’s.
Maudie’s, several Austin locations: I’ve been sad ever since Maudie’s got rid of its blackberry mojito, but their ‘ritas still pack a wallop and the food is what I first rushed to eat when returning to Austin after my first few weeks in DC. I could drink their queso just as fast as their margaritas.
Breakfast Tacos, The Austin Specialty: Torchy’s Tacos 2801 Guadalupe St, Austin (and other locations): Austin loves it’s breakfast tacos, but Torchy’s does tacos around-the-clock. If you like spicy stuff, the Brushfire’s the way to go. I like the vegetarian Fried Avocado Taco if I’m not eating a typical Torchy’s breakfast selection, like the Monk’s Special. Torchy’s also makes what might be my favorite queso in town, which includes a magic middle of guacamole in the middle.
Mi Madre’s: The favorite for many of Austin’s foodies, if you have time to get out of the Convention Center area to grab one, two or 10 of these, it’s worth it.
Nicer Restaurants Worth Trying: Braise 2121 East 6th St.: This cozy restaurant on the far East side boasts some delicious Osso Bucco beef, but I prefer their takes on pork. The grits and other traditional comfort foody selections are also delicious. You can bring your own wine and pay a small corking fee, which saves a ton of cash. Do what we did and order everything on the menu and eat it family style so you can try everything. Why not?
Justine’s Brasserie, 4710 East 5th Street: You’ll notice I’ve chosen a lot of places on the once-downtrodden-but-quickly-gentrifying-East-side of town. Justine’s is WAY East, but the frites are worth it! I love their cocktails and the French food is fantastic (but a little overpriced for what you’re getting.) Justine’s gets a pick for plentiful parking, attentive service and fun atmosphere. Nothin’ like hanging one of their L’enfant Terrible cocktails on the front patio after a long day at work.
Fonda San Miguel, 2330 North Loop Boulevard West: They say they invented chicken tortilla soup at this interior Mexican restaurant in North Central Austin. I don’t know the truth, but I believe it, as their tortilla soup is tasty stuff. So are their margaritas, and anything else on the menu. (See photo above.) This place is going to be a bit of a drive from downtown, but as one of Texas Monthly’s top five Mexican restaurants in all of Texas, you might as well make the trek.
Get Your Drink On (as if you need more places to drink): LongBranch Inn, 1133 East 11th Street: This is as simple as a bar can get, located right next to a rickety liquor store on East 11th Street. No food, no snacks, just lots of booze and a good jukebox. Speaking of good jukeboxes…
Donn’s Depot, 1600 West 5th Street: Many, many great Austin nights were had here, where the pour is heavy and your worries will become light. If you forgo choosing some George Strait selections on the jukebox there are two house bands, Donn and the Station Masters, and Murphy’s Outlaws, that croon old country hits on Thursday and Friday nights. Also, check out the bathrooms, repurposed out of old train cabooses.
The Roaring Fork, 701 Congress Avenue: This was our go-to place after work at both The Texas Tribune and among my closest pals in the Capitol Press Corps, mainly because it’s the closest place to our offices. But if you don’t mind running into lobbyists you can get great happy hour deals like $5 martinis and and take advantage of an extensive bar menu of munchies. (I recommend the fish tacos, the half-ass burger, or the chips and queso.) During SXSW you may have thread your way through the lines of film festers waiting to get into a showing at the nearby Paramount Theatre, so don’t miss the front door.
Fave Austiny Places: P Terry’s Burger Stand, 404 South Lamar Boulevard: These are my favorite burgers in Austin, and director Robert Rodriguez’s too. Order through a window for locally grass-fed beef burgers or opt for a tasty veggie burger with cheese. I also can never wait to get home to consume their fries, which are always served in generous portions.
Alamo Drafthouse (Movie Theater/Food/Entertainment): It may be hard to get in to see a regular feature during SXSW, as the theaters participate in the SXSW Film Festival. But whether it’s mainstream movie or a film fest flick, try to go for the Alamo experience. Like I already wrote about previously, this place is way more than a movie theater.
Little City Espresso Bar and Cafe, 916 Congress Avenue: Quick, visit Little City before it has to close down (the building’s been purchased by a conservative think tank at the same intersection). Little City is staffed by people who always seem at least mildly stoned, and the food orders can take forever, but the place also has a clientele that ranges from state lawmakers to shirtless homeless guys that live in the alley nearby. Very Austin. Worth it.
Nau’s Enfield Drug, 1115 West Lynn Street: One of the rare drug stores that still has a soda fountain, this neighborhoody pharmacy/lunch counter has been around since the days of Betty Draper and if I remember correctly, the counter still doesn’t take credit cards. Bring your cash and order a simple cheeseburger and a shake or malt before picking up your Pepcid on the pharmacy side.
-Diving right into work means traveling on the fourth official day on the job. We’re off to God’s country to talk journalism with a member station. Looking forward to the team adventure, especially since my partner-in-crime is Ken Rudin, resident political junkie and jokester.
–Josh Ritter tiny desk concert on my first day! It was the same day I received a package of bacon-flavored chocolates from Stiles, and I had planned to use the chocolate as an “in” to talk to Ritter, but totally forgot when it was time to report to the fifth floor for el concert.
-Still not quite over sitting in the newsroom right behind the newscast folks, the voices we hear every half hour with updates on the latest headlines. Paul Brown! Jack Speer! And wait for it… Lakshmi Singh!
-But here’s one oddity I could do without: hearing NPR programming in the bathroom stalls. The ladies room has speakers built into the ceiling so you don’t have to miss a single second of NPR programming, not even during your bathroom break.
-Everyone here is more organized than I am.
-Unrelated to the new work environment, but it must be said. Really missing my Starbucks baristas, Mike and Orlando, at the 10th and Congress location in Austin. If you go by there and see them, please tell them I say hi.
Unable to decide between the two, Stiles chose both wet AND hard.Since I booked three hours, I shared half my facial time with Roger. It was a smart call, as had that facial lasted any longer my face would have been zapped off (somehow I got subjected to “photo rejuvenation”??)Genius.Happy Year of the Rabbit, y’all. Let’s celebrate by eating some rabbit face-shaped bread.
Time for another round of iPhone photos. We’re actually in my grandma’s home city of Taichung now, to celebrate Chinese New Year with the extended family. Family from Chicago and the DC area have joined us here at grandma’s for a mini-reunion, which is what Chinese New Year is all about. In the unlikeliest of places, an underground used bookstore underneath YongKong St., Matty finds a 1975 printing of "Precision Journalism," by Philip Meyer, the father of data journalism.
Yeah, I'm four years old. As part of Chinese New Year tradition, we honored Heaven and Earth by following the ritual of sacrifice to the ancestors, uniting ourselves with living members who had died. We sacrificed money and clothing. Matty dives into a family game of mahjong, learning some Chinese characters along the way.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Sure, we’re taking real photos while we’re here on this constantly hustling, bustling food lover’s paradise of an island to celebrate Chinese New Year. But the quirkiest moments I catch with the old iPhone camera, and many times, not in very good focus. Here goes…
An iconic sign for an iconic memorial. You can't enter the Chiang Kai Shek (father of Taiwan) Memorial in your "slovenly" dress. The armed guards flanking both sides of Mr. Chiang don't move, so I'm not sure there's any actual enforcement of this. In the seafaring town of Danshui, north of Taipei, we stumbled upon fishiegoodies. Had to check it out. No real "fishiegoodies" were to be found, just a 8x8 room with some photos of old fishermen.A good scooter can move more household infrastructure than you'd think.Way before pork belly was a fave for trendy gourmet chefs at four star New American restaurants, the Taiwanese were serving it up in the streets.This expat bar, featuring this "Wheel of Drinks," deserves an entire post of its own. For now I will say we did not try the wheel, I did not dance atop the bar as I did 10 years ago, and we very much enjoyed the cover band aptly named "Five Minutes to Clown".
This weekend, The Wall Street Journal’s running a feature on Austin, a treatment we get every once in a while, and especially around March (when everyone who’s anyone descends upon the SXSW Film/Interactive/Music fest). “It’s said that to really get Austin you have to live there,” the WSJ piece opens. And now, after not-quite five years of living here, I’m preparing to leave. So here’s a stream-of-consciousness guide to what I’ve loved about the 5-1-2.
Sitting and eating outside even in early January. So many great nights had on patios. My favorite outdoor drinking spaces are Botticelli’s back biergarten (and their fantastic happy hour mussels), Clive Bar (in the Rainey Street district) and the picnic tables behind Liberty bar, where the Asian fusion truck “Eastside King” makes pork belly buns and roasted brussel spouts and tempura fried beets to die for. The Hotel San Jose bar would make this list if it wasn’t beer and wine only.
The BLT with three vodka tonics after work at the Stephen F. Austin hotel bar.
Making the great walk up to the Capitol everyday during the legislative session. In January I’m typically out of breath, but by May I’ve made the trek enough times to be conditioned.
Karaoke at Emo’s. That night we saw an accountant-looking dude don a long black wig and lose his mind to some Pantera and unleash a frightening string of epithets at the crowd was among the more absurd yet amusing times during my half decade here.
Swimming in the summertime at Barton Springs, where the water’s always around 68 degrees. This water is also therapeutic when I’m training for a marathon and need an ice bath after a long run. Get there during training seasons on Saturdays around 9am and you’ll find a bunch of half dressed runners in their sports bras, soaking in the springs.
Following up a swim with a trip to Sandy’s down the street for a dipped cone and a cheeseburger. Or following up the swim with a Sno Beach snow cone, also just a stone’s throw from the springs.
Thursday night is Ladies Night at Cool River Cafe, a cheesy chain restaurant/lounge that we have dubbed “Cougar River” for all the Liza Minnelli lookalikes that go straight from dinner across the lobby into the bar, where a cover band usually named something like “MAXX” or “Suede” is playing tunes from the nineties (or that really annoying Kings of Leon song). We have made it a tradition to go about twice a year (because that’s all we can take), do half a dozen shots each upon entering the bar, then tearing up the dance floor all night until one of us inevitably gets sick.
Two words: heavy pour.
Impromptu gourmet homemade meals at my friends Jimmy and Skyler’s house. Getting a call from Skyler saying Jimmy’s made paella, or chili with venison, or ice cream, or some delicious pasta dish, or any number of tapas (he spent a bunch of time eating and cooking in Spain)… is near the top of my list of Austin delights.
Dim sum on Sunday mornings, always the “same time, same place,” with the same people. Three couples and two babies and an endless flurry of eats at Shanghai Restaurant up by Highland Mall. Three-year-old Ellie loves barbecue pork buns and red bean flavored anything, and we share a love of sesame balls.
All the birthdays and baby births we’ve celebrated over the years. There was one week in July 2010 when three of our pals had babies in one week. And from quiet birthday dinners for my girls, or my friend Justin’s crazy birthday night out at that bar with the swinging chairs, to April, myself and Moritz’s annual “Three-Way Birthdays” that we’ve celebrated with big parties at changing locations since the year I turned 25 … When I think Austin I think birthdays and babies and booze and bliss. (But no booze for the babies.)
Getting to know the residential streets in North, Central, East and South Austin by training for a marathon here. I hate running but I love talking, and some of my strongest bonds with friends have been forged as we’ve climbed the hills and pounded the asphalt of ATX.
The #796, (or is it the #766?) Pork with Dry Bean Curd at Asia Cafe in North Austin.
Barbecue trips to the barbecue town of Lockhart. Topping off the beef and sausage with a DQ Blizzard at the Lockhart Dairy Queen, where there is clearly marked “Medicaid Corner” for old dudes who sit around and chat at the DQ all day.
The music. The ubiquitous live shows around town. The Austin band I see the most — The Belleville Outfit — coincidentally came here the same year as me (2006), from the same place I was living (Spartanburg, SC). So many great venues but I love the coziness and cheap drinks at Momo’s, and just outside of Austin my favorite is Gruene Hall, which has been around since before the Civil War. Speaking of which…
Discovering new bands and new filmmakers and new ideas at South by Southwest every year is a fave, despite our town getting taken over by entertainment tourists. There’s nothing quite like it – impromptu parties and free drinks on random corners, seeing celebs without entourages, the pleasure of meeting new people, the frenzy of it all.
The Alamo Drafthouse. This isn’t just a movie theater where you get served a full menu of food and beer in your seat, this is an experience. We always get there about 45 minutes early (because you basically have to, to get a seat), and watch the pre-show entertainment, which always features clips related to the stars in the film or the film’s subject matter. But my favorite preshow event is the no-talking PSA. I love the one with the singing hot dog and drink… “Can’t beat my meat (from the hot dog)… Sucking on me… is such a treat” (from the drink).” That’s followed up with the “Coming up Next Month at the Alamo” trailer, which features a sharply edited montage of the movie events coming up in the next month – Monster Ballads singalong, Master Pancake Theatre lampoons Forrest Gump, Mad Men watch parties with sixties themed food, air sex competition – like I said, it’s not just a movie theater.
Tito’s Vodka. I will soon have to correct myself every time I order a “tito’s and tonic,” as my beloved Tito’s won’t be ubiquitous anymore.
Breakfast tacos and queso at Torchy’s. That queso has a magical lump of avocado in the middle and every time, it’s like discovering a dollar in an old pair of jeans. (Only far more delicious.)
Lazy times on the lake with my friends with boats and houses on lakes. That doesn’t really need more description.
Orlando and Mike, my baristas at the Starbucks at the Capitol (1oth and Congress). I’ve seen them every work day, it seems, since 2006. And over the years we’ve developed a kind of shorthand where I rarely have to order (or pay for) my beverages. In late December, when I told Orlando and Mike I was moving in early February, Orlando goes, “Well, at least we have a month to say goodbye.”
“Ten decisions shape your life,
you’ll be aware of five about…” -The Strokes
I get to (finally) make it official. We are moving to Washington D.C., a.k.a. the great nemesis of Governor Rick Perry, home of the lamestream media, and the land of taxation without representation. (That poor congresswoman doesn’t get a vote! WTF?!)
This means, of course, I’m leaving the proudest professional project of my 28 years, The Texas Tribune — and Texas, for that matter — just before Valentine’s Day.
One more twist came at the end of 2010, the year I thought would never end. In mid-December, I got an unsolicited call from NPR in DC. They had “done some research” on me and had a job for which they thought I would “be an interesting choice.” A few days later I was at the DC HQ, meeting smart people who cared about journalism, and I wound up accepting the job, which calls for leading the digital side of NPR’s new StateImpact, or the project formerly known as the “Impact of Government.” (There will be someone else heading up the radio side, and I recently learned that the broadcast counterpart is Ken Rudin, longtime NPR Political Director and the original “Political Junkie” blogger.)
IOG will aim to expand state government coverage by eventually hiring 100 reporters, two in each state, devoted to reporting the multi-year effects of government decisions. (The first eight pilot states will be announced in the coming weeks.) Taking on this project means working from Washington, conceptualizing the digital platforms, creating new story forms, helping stations hire and train reporters, etc.
After getting the offer, I spent days talking myself out of and then back into and back out of the opportunity. I would have never been able to stretch and grow across platforms without the vision of John Thornton, the friendship of Ross Ramsey and the trust of Evan Smith, who’s basically the George Clooney character in the “Ocean’s 11” of journalists who came together. I feel a deep, deep attachment to what we’re building here. After all, this is born of our actual sweat and tears. (Many, many tears, in my case. Ask my multimedia partners-in-crime Todd or Justin.)
I wasn’t (and am still not fully) ready to leave our baby, or my real-life friends that helped build it, or the city that quickly became my home. I prefer Austin’s four seasons – mildly hot, medium hot, sauna hot and surface-of-sun hot – over actual seasons. But I decided to take this leap into another public media unknown because I’m sold on what a special opportunity this is to grow and learn, and on NPR’s commitment to being on the cutting edge of web journalism, which is of highest importance to me.*
So off I go. I’m counting on you to bring me a case of Shiner, and if you’re a really good friend, some Tito’s, when you visit. Both are nearly impossible to find inside the Beltway.
*That’s the official line, anyway. I was really most swayed when my soon-to-be boss said that if I went to DC, Nina Totenberg and I “could be BFFs”.
There I was, minding my own business, getting five servings of vegetables juiced into one not-so-tasty beverage when this — THIS — walked into my line of sight.
I had to snap fast. Had I taken my time I would have also captured the skimpy cami up top that revealed the lengths of both bra straps.
The twitter comments ranged from “#WeDifferent” to “That’s Leslie” to “What’s the problem? I have a pair of those.” My favorite was from @IsadoraVail, who suggested we start a “People of Whole Foods” blog, akin to the People of Walmart cybercreation.
To continue with an annual tradition started at least half a decade ago, it’s time to look back at the year that was. I’ve already been quoted calling it “the longest year ever,” but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Let’s see. We said goodbye to John Wooden, Leslie Neilsen and George Steinbrenner, the whole country learned what a blowout preventer was and somehow I made it through all of 2010 without seeing a single episode of ‘Glee’.
Noteworthy Taiwanese Imports: NextMedia Animation, the company that makes shameless animated versions of the news, and that chubby cherubic looking kid Lin Yu Chun, who totally KILLED IT with William Shatner on a rendition of karaoke fave, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”:
Noteworthy Low Moment: When the Tribune’s Niran Babalola and I tried to karaoke to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in front of 500 strangers packed into an Austin bar during SXSW in March. We were bad, and I’m not just saying that. Behind us was an oversized projection of the instant Twitter comments as we were singing. “This is OUT OF MY RANGE!” Niran kept reminding me.
Personal Buzzword: “Werd.” I realized it’s spelled “word,” but my partner-in-crime Justin and I feel we pronounce it slightly differently, and that the difference is in the vowel.
Blissful Discoveries: Breaking Bad (OMG!), Austin’s Rainey Street district, and how I can hold down Apple+H keys to hide all of my windows MUCH FASTER now. How did I go so long without these luxuries?
The Rest of the List:
-Became a godmother
-Became a wife
-Became a contributor to The New York Times
-Got eyesight (due to the advances in laser vision correction)
-Attended six weddings (including my own)
-Rode a donkey up a mountain to a cave where they say Zeus was born
-Got a too-excited photo with Chuck Todd at the White House Christmas party for the network television folks, which my White House staffer friend kindly let me formally crash (not wearing a sari, natch)
-Formalized our Celebrity Death Pool, in which our competitiveness led us to strangely dark proclamations
-Threw one epic, four-day party in Amsterdam, preceded by a swank engagement party hosted by a dozen of my besties, a pair of bachelorette nights (one on each side of the Atlantic), a shower at (where else?) a hot dog place, followed by a raging after party held by a pair of distinctly Austin hippies, also featuring hot dogs.
