For those of the Corkonian persuasion, there’s a new site in town if you want to know more about your politicians in Cork. The site is called Cork Politics and is a handy resource for the upcoming local and European elections and will probably be a vital source for the upcoming general election too. With this site and the Kildare Street site, politics is becoming more transparent and reporting of it is no longer up to salaried individuals.
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I’ve been following this all week and just noticed, rather ironically on the City Council must open up post, that comments are disabled on the site! Sure if they don’t allow comments it’s just another news site with an RSS feed for feck’s sake!
adam
Just took a look at the Cork Politics site and, while I am sure it is in its infancy and will take a while to flex its muscles, to date there is little analysis of ‘who is saying what to whom with what effect’. As it stands it appears to be a ‘copy & paste’ job for candidate’s press releases.
I emailed them and received the following reply:
> Thanks for the feedback.
> The site is primarily designed to be a local news service. As you can see it also provides a comprehensive database of all the politicians and candidates in Cork.
> The site is brand new and will expand and grow in the future. We will be introducing in-depth features and analysis and providing live coverage of the upcoming election counts.
> We did think hard about including comments or not and also about the possibility of adding a forum too but came to the decision that there are more than enough places where people can debate the issues already such as PROC politics.ie boards.ie and many others.
> This doesn’t mean we wont do so in the future. We also have the consideration of insurance against defamation which for a new start up is a real consideration.
> The site has been launched in a “soft” way and will continue to improve. It will, in time, we hope become a major source of breaking political news in Cork.
I responded:
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I appreciate your detailed response. I guess it’s the use of WordPress that creates an expectation of interactivity, and I’m sure I’m not the only person that has that expectation. I do hope you’ll reconsider, and sooner rather that later: I realise interactivity creates an overhead, but comments can be pre-moderated, and moderation doesn’t have to be instant. I’m sure the community, myself included, would be willing to help if necessary. I would certainly be happy to help on the technical side, as someone with some experience of developing communities.
One other suggestion: On a political site, the lack of an About page explaining who is behind the site, and any political connections, would be wise. If I hadn’t been linked to the site from Damien’s blog, I would’ve noticed the lack of credits immediately and discounted the site as one with a possible bias immediately.
I hope my feedback is accepted constructively, as that’s how it’s intended.
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Going by the chap’s name, the site would seem to be related to the Cork Independent.
adam
Re dahamsta & response:
Any site that provides a service making politics, politicians and the political sphere more accessible has to be welcomed but you’re right, the ‘bona fides’ should always be transparent and upfront while the whole concept of online is for two-way feedback and conversations.
I have been leaving comments, but as so few other people do, it feels a little lonely !
Anyone else care to leave comments ?