Mister Barrett goes to Washington

Cameron Barrett has launched WatchBlog, a group-edited weblog about the 2004 U.S. presidential race subdivided into Democratic, Republican, and Third Party sections.

Though it's an interesting idea, the three-column, three-politics format is gruesome to scan. I think it would be preferable for each viewpoint's individual page to have a sidebar with headlines from the other two and for the main page to mix all entries together.

2003/06/16 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

Todd, great idea! I think when the site becomes more popular, having some "name-brand" guest bloggers would be an excellent idea. I'll think about how it might affect the page layout.

#1 · Cam · -1/11/30

Interesting idea. Each blog has its own home page and people are welcome to read just the blog that they are interested in (or most closely matches their political affiliation) but the idea of rolling all three blogs into one page is to get the tunnel-visioned people to read past their own peer group and political party and respective beliefs. This is why I decided to have all three blogs published on a single page.

If too many people complain about the 3-column approach I'll explore alternative layout ideas, including the one you suggest. I may also experiment with posting the last 5 headlines form each of the other blogs to each blog's respective home page.

#2 · Cam · 2003/06/16

I would love to see a guestblogs similar to the BoingBoing idea on each of the individual party pages. The kicker being that commentary or response authors are from the other parties. Give each party a chance to comment on recent stories from other's camp.

Great site however!

#3 · Todd · 2003/06/16

My perspective is colored by the fact that I'm a liberal who isn't going to read the other two sides in full, though I might jump over if a headline grabbed me. Congratulations on the launch.

#4 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2003/06/16