Application for Membership --- Question That

We have a new application for membership from a Libertarian blogger, Ian_QT, who blogs at Question That, and who describes himself thus: For moderate libertarianism, not-so-moderate EU-scepticism and real democracy. He discovered Blogpower via Matt Wardman and since I see some of our members on his blogroll, I am sure he is already familiar to some of you.

Please take a look at Question That and make your feelings known in the comment section here. Any objection will move the discussion and voting to the mailing list, with comments subsequently being closed here.

NB: The blog name has now been corrected. Apologies to Ian_QT.

Andrew Allison -- A Conservative View

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Andrew Allison, of Andrew Allison --A Conservative View, back into Blogpower as a returning member. As one of the founding members we are very happy to see his name back in the blogroll, to which he has now been added.

I'm sure he will be again displaying the banner and the blogroll in the very near future, although he is a very busy man with the David Davis campaign.

Please go visit his site and welcome him back and for those newer members who do not know him go over and introduce yourself.

Reapplication for Membership in Blogpower, Andrew Allison ---A Conservative View

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Andrew Allison of Andrew Allison --A Conservative View has applied to rejoin Blogpower. Most of you will know Andrew very well but for those of you who do not please take at look at his blog. Andrew is very involved in the campaign to re-elect David Davis so there are some very interesting posts at his blog.

Please make your wishes known in the comment section.

The Next Step

In the recent vote we had in Blogpower, regarding putting a limit on the number of members, the decision in favour of doing so was passed by a slim majority of one vote. With that in mind the three of us have looked at the situation and since the membership had been as high as 70 at one time, in fact the heading of the blogroll in the sidebar says "We happy close to six dozen", and we all dealt with it satisfactorily, we have decided to make this the new limit. In addition 22 out of the 37 who voted wanted either 70 or more or no limit so we feel this number will be acceptable to the majority.

Currently we have 56 members on the blogroll, so we will be accepting new members once again. During the voting procedure we had an application from a former member to rejoin and a new application for membership from a writer/editor who is a former editor of the New Statesman, who may be of interest to many among us. We will contact them now and confirm that they wish to proceed and will be asking you to vote on them as soon as we hear.

JMB Ian Grey Colin Campbell

Change of Membership

David (Baht at) of Bradford Degeneration is no longer a member of Blogpower and can remove his link to Crushed by Ingsoc, who remains a member.

Thank you

HTML Blogroll - updated

Okay, folks - here is the updated HTML blogroll. Please take a moment to make sure that a) I've included you, and b) I've got your URL and name right.

Thanks.

<!-- Blogpower HTML blogroll begins -->
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://aconservatives.blogspot.com/">A Conservative's Blog</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://atangledrope.blogspot.com/">A Tangled Rope</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://adelaidegreenporridgecafe.blogspot.com/">Adelaide Green Porridge</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://fakeconsultant.blogspot.com/">Advice from a Fake Consultant</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://ageisallinthemind.blogspot.com/">Age is All in the Mind</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://andrew-allison.blogspot.com/">Andrew Allison</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://beamansworld.blogspot.com/">Beaman's World</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.pageflakes.com/tom.paine.ashx">Blogpower Homepage RSS</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://defendingtheblog.blogspot.com/">Blogpower HQ</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://braveheart-does-the-maghreb.blogspot.com/">Braveheart Does the Maghreb</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://brummierepublic.blogspot.com/">Brummie Republic</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://cafe-grendel.blogspot.com/">Cafe Grendel</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thecornishdemocrat.blogspot.com/">Cornish Democract</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://corporatepresenter.blogspot.com/">Corporate Presenter</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://criticalfacultydojo.blogspot.com/">Critical Faculty Dojo</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://crushedbyingsoc.blogspot.com/">Crushed By Ingsoc</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.deeplyblasphemous.blogspot.com/">Deeply Blasphemous</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://elleeseymour.com/">Ellee Seymour</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.liz-and-harvey.blogspot.com/">Finding life hard?</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://chervil-earth.blogspot.com/">Green Living</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://grendel-grendel.blogspot.com/">Grendel Grendel</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://greenbanana.wordpress.com/">Heather Yaxley-Greenbanana</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.hells-handmaiden.com/">Hell's Handmaiden</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.hercules-28704.blogspot.com/">Hercules</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://higherthebetter.blogspot.com/">In Search of High Places</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.wholeheartedly-sudaniya.blogspot.com/">Kizzie</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.lettersfromatory.com/">Letters From a Tory</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://lookingforavoice.blogspot.com/">Looking for a Voice</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://onewalesgovernment.blogspot.com/">Miss Wagstaff Presents</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://mutleythedogsdayout.blogspot.com/">Mutley the Dog</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://nevertrustahippy.blogspot.com/">Never Trust a Hippy</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://nobodyimportant-jmb.blogspot.com/">Nobody Important</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://observationsfromthehillside.blogspot.com/">Observations from the Hillside</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://this-is-sparta.blogspot.com/">Ordovicius</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://pubphilosopher.blogs.com/">Pub Philosopher</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://ruthie-zaftig.blogspot.com/">Ruthie Zaftig</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://sallyinnorfolk.com/">Sally In Norfolk</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.museinmeltdown.blogspot.com/">Sempiternal Horizons</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com/">Sicily Scene</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/">The Cityunslicker</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/">The Conscious Earth</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.lastditch.typepad.com/">The Last Ditch</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://the-morningstar.co.uk/">The Morning Star</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://norfolkblogger.blogspot.com/">The Norfolk Blogger</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thepoormouth.blogspot.com/">The Poor Mouth</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thethunderdragon.blogspot.com/">The Thunderdragon</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://thetindrummer.blogspot.com/">The Tin Drummer</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.theospark.blogspot.com/">Theo Spark</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://tuscantony.blogspot.com/">Tuscan Tony</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/">Two Wolves</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/">Wardman Wire</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://gracchii.blogspot.com/">Westminster Wisdom</a>
</li>
</ul>
<!-- Blogpower HTML blogroll ends -->

Voting on the Blogpower List

There are two motions related to potential expulsions of members of Blogpower. The details are presented on the list, where you can make your opinion known and or vote. You can also vote directly to an admin, JMB, Ian Grey or myself.

The voting will take place until Sunday 15th June at midnight.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this process.

Issues from Blogpower Vote

There are a number of issues that arise from the results of recent voting.

We need to resolve whether the outstanding members still intend to remain members of Blogpower. If you did not participate in the vote and did not respond to JMBs request to confirm your plans, perhaps you could do so. For those who are taking a break from blogging, we have a place for you without giving up your membership. All you have to do is email JMB at the email address in the side bar stating your intentions.

At present a vote is taking place in the mailing list for all current members relating to a proposed expulsion of one of the members, David from Bradford Degeneration. The background and issues are well documented in the mailing list. This vote will conclude on Sunday June 15 at midnight. Please go to the mailing list to cast your vote and share your thoughts.

This vote is an important one for Blogpower and it is hoped that all members will either vote on the list or directly to one of the admins, JMB, Colin Campbell or Ian Grey. A record of your vote will be documented, but not shared if it is your intention to remain anonymous or do not want to use the list. Email contact information is on our blogs. All that we ask is that we try to maintain a civil tone. The personal attacks that we have seen leading up to the vote are not acceptable and make Big Brother look pretty tame.

On a personal note, would like to thank everyone for supporting me in my new role as admin. I am hopeful that we can reclaim some of the original aims that James set for the group in his original vision statement to support fellow bloggers. My personal opinion is that this is a very powerful vision and worth supporting. My decision to take on this role was motivated by a desire to ensure that it was not lost in some of the changes in the organisation since that time.

Best wishes to you all.

Voting Results Summary

This is the summary prepared by JMB for the mailing list. It is worthwhile to have it posted here for the record.

My apologies for not sending the results of the ballot out earlier. Life is rather hectic at the moment for JMB.

First I would like to thank all forty people who responded to the voting ballot, either to my inbox or in the mailing list. While I am disappointed that I did not hear from all 66 whom I emailed personally, I don't think we have ever had such a good response to a vote previously. I am hoping that some people had the emails from "nobody important" eaten by the spam filter and are truly not so lethargic. I hear Yahoo has a very (over)efficient spam filter.

In those forty responses, three chose not to renew their membership in Blogpower for personal reasons, mostly being too busy either to continue blogging or to commit the time to Blogpower. Their votes were not counted. Those three are Matt Sinclair of Sinclair's Musings, Chris of the Russian Wolfhound and Juan Garcia of the Poliblogs. I am sure that we wish them well with their future endeavours, both in and out of blogging and I am also sure that they will remain in many of the BP members blogrolls in any event. Would everyone who has a manual blogroll please update them to reflect these changes.

However I'm sure you are all anxiously awaiting the final results of the thirty seven who cast their votes and I just want to say that we really appreciate any comments that were included since it gives us more of a feeling of what the membership are thinking above and beyond a simple yes or no.


Are you in favour of limiting the number of members in Blogpower? Yes 19 No 18


If yes what would you think is an appropriate number -- ten voted for 50, five for 60, two for 70,
one for 150 and one abstention on the number

Do you wish to continue as a member of Blogpower (including showing the banner and blogroll)?

37 out of the 40 replies recommitted as mentioned above


Do you confirm Colin Campbell as an administrator of BP ? Yes 37 No 0



Should a reapplication for membership by a former member require a new vote? Yes 25 No 12


Are you in favour of a black ball system for admissions and expulsions to BP: Yes 13 No 20 (2 abstentions
namely, 3 nays equals no admission, 3 ayes equals expulsion*? One split vote with yes to part(a)and no to part (b), so not counted)

Are you in favour of all discussion moving back to the comment section Yes 17 No 18 (2 abstentions)
on the Blogpower blog and the mailing list being closed for good.


The vote on the limit was a very close one. You can see by this that there really are two camps on this issue in Blogpower with the yes camp thinking we are past our comfortable limit. But although the majority is slim, that's the result of the vote and we will not be accepting new applications for membership for the moment.

Congratulations to Colin Campbell on his unanimous confirmation as administrator. We look forward to his input and help with the various administrative tasks.

Reapplication for membership will require a new vote for admission.

In retrospect I should have broken the blackball question into two parts but I did not want to be accused of trying to sway the voting so went with the exact wording of the motion. Some of the yes voters said that 3 was too small a number for expulsion and suggested other numbers, such as five, ten and even ten percent of the membership was mentioned.

The list vote was also very close but the status quo won out and I hope that those who voted for its closure will come to appreciate that it is a far more effective means of communicating with members of a group than using the comment section of a blog, which was why it was implemented in the first place. I think it is important to use the list responsibly and to make sure that the messages or daily digest come to an email address that is convenient for each member. If you need help then please ask any one of us how to go about changing your preferences.

A word about reconfirmation of membership. This means displaying the banner which is linked to DTB blog and since the blogroll is quite long you may consider using either of the two scrolling blogrolls which take up a much smaller amount of space. Both can be modified to size and the moving scrolling one of Thunderdragon also works with Wordpress fortunately. Again contact us for any help you might need with this issue.

Thank you for your patience and thank you to all who participated.

JMB