Whiskey Bar closes

This is sad, but understandable. The proprietor at the Whiskey Bar, an excellent political blog and a daily read, has chosen to close down his comments section.

The original idea behind Whiskey Bar was to have a site where I could experiment with different types of content - straight reporting, opinion, comedy, media criticism, book reviews, graphics, etc. - while also providing a cozy spot for like-minded readers who wanted to offer their feedback, ask questions and/or talk about similar topics. I never really imagined it as a chat room or an on-line community like Daily Kos. I never thought it would become that popular.

In other words, I thought I was opening the kind of smoky little bar where the regulars outnumber the first-time customers, and, as the Cheers theme song had it, "everybody knows your name." Instead, I've ended up with something that's more like one of those huge franchise watering holes were you have to shout to be heard over the roar of the crowd.

It's a sad, but almost inevitable outcome of any online social gathering space.

Posted by jpbutler at June 29, 2004 05:43 PM