Green

Gosh, high praise indeed.

I thank you, sir.

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The only blog worth reading is Marc’s because it links to all the goodness that is Emily, Steve, Sweem, Jaffrey, Tony, The Pauleys, Carrie, and a host of others who are dear to my heart…

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Interesting, not sure how to take this anti-Slugger stuff, but on the nose. I only just got down this far today. I was in Donegal when you posted this. My birthday too!

I have no problem with that Stephen. Under no circumstances would I advocate compulsory interest in politics - for Northern Ireland or anywhere else!

If I do have a problem it is that your criticism is so general, I don’t actually know how to respond to it. It reads as though you believe there is absolutely nothing of value or relevance on Slugger.

Stephen,

Thanks.

In a last ‘defensive’ word I’d just say that NI has many identities, and some of these are seasonal. The summer is particularly sticky.

Last summer, as you know, we didn’t have any comments, and so I could pretty much control all the content on the site. This year - esp when I was on holidays - I opened it out to others. The through-put of stories dropped and people have gotten into what has often been a series of tedious circles.

I hope we can recover some of the previous high standards over the next week or so, but if not we may have to look at dropping the public discussion, or putting it out on another part of the site. We have a forum page ready and waiting, but I had been so pleased with the standard of debate, I was reluctant to part with it on the front page.

If it goes the way of many other fora, we’ll just have to cut it completely - the bandwidth on the site has risen phenomenally over the summer - and I am not keen on funding a public platform for pure vitriol. Though that would be something of a blow.

As I mentioned before Slugger is a web resource, which much as it brings great opportunity, it also has its own severe limitations. It can’t for instance, as the internet can’t, reflect real life in Northern Ireland. Indeed, I am not sure anything can.

I am keen however to build out the number of voices available on the site, which I hope will provide a greater variety of views and pick up more of the sports and culture angle - not simply politics.

I hope to have some news on that in the next few weeks.

There is no need for praise Stephen, nor am I fishing for it. Criticism is far more useful.

I have a lot of sympathy for the ‘let’s get beyond the two tribes’ scenario. And most people in their ordinary lives by and large do not let themselves get hooked up on that. To take a simplistic view, they’d never get anything done if they followed the same line as Ulster politics.

However, when you are looking to get the political situation to move beyond that, you have to start where you are and look for routes out of it. We are, as far as I can see at the end of a long and difficult political cycle on the island with a new one about to kick in.