Darryl and I have been doing some live blogging recently. Darryl has been on fire with the GOP Presidential debates, and I also did one of them. Mostly, I’ve been live blogging either events I’ve gone to as an activist or been invited to (or weaseled my way into) as a writer for this blog.
Recently, I’ve been influenced by this piece by Tim Wood. And while not everything about a sports blog applies to a politics blog, especially to the events where most of the readers aren’t able to follow along, there are some style things that are important.
There is an art to every format we use at Bleacher Report, but none more than the live blog. Done right, a live blog can be your ticket to a loyal following on B/R, because the live blog is the spot where you can most spotlight your personality.
You’re keeping readers up to date on the event, but more importantly, you’re giving the reader the feeling of watching it with you at a sports bar. You’re the buddy for the reader to interact with, so perspective and variety are two keys to keeping your readers interested.
I think change sports bar to watching the debate and you have a pretty good summation of Darryl covering the debates. For me, I think the most important thing is to put the updates below the older things. That way people just finding it half way through don’t have to scroll up and down a bit, then back up, and people can hit refresh from one point in, and be in the same spot. I try to remember to put times at the start of each update, but sometimes I forget. I’ve also made more of a point of going back and correcting grammar/punctuation/starting sentences that I don’t finish so it stands as something.
So, my question to you on this holiday shortened week, while most of you are perhaps still out with family: are these things you’d like to see more of? Less? Would you like advance warning? Would you like something different stylistically?
I really enjoy the live blogging. Darryl’s workings of the GOOBER primary “debates” were quite amusing and helpful. Those are just too dangerous for me to listen to or watch, and I appreciate him doing that for us. Actually, I feel the same way about Democrats, and Obama, for whom I have developed a particular loathing. I react the same way hearing his voice as I do hearing Jr. Bush.
The one thing I’ve noticed in my attempts to live blog in the comments is just how hard it is. My hat’s off to the people that can actually do it.
From a reader’s standpoint, I found it easiest to keep two tabs open, one for readers comments and one for Darryl’s, and switch between the two.
I’ve tried to do it a little bit in the comment threads. I just naturally assumed the moderators would be live blogging the caucuses and primaries as we come up to them. And yeah, I agree with Michael, it’s challenging to try to keep up with what’s going on in a debate while attempting to write down what happened in the debate a couple minutes ago.
And to make it even more challenging, try taking the nightly vocabulary quiz at the same time! Dunno if I could do that, but my score for tonight is posted next to “RR.” Now it’s your turn:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/quiz/index.htm
There should be live blogging at the next Family Murder scene. Or at one of Ron Paul’s next lynching.
@5,
I’m going to write-in Ron Paul in 2012, just like I did for 2008.
Don’t believe all the crap being put out by the bloggosphere and others. It’s just partisan shit because Ron Paul scares the beejeepers out of progressives and conservatives alike!
@6 – the guy is a nut job.
@7
kinda like you…both figuratively and literally.
@8 hey it’s Max.
of course it is, dildo breath.
you get a gold star for stating the obvious!