Year: 2013

The New Dish: Your Thoughts

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Yes. My brother also kindly pointed that out to me on the phone yesterday. A reader writes:

Congratulations on the new site! Clean, simple, requisite beagle presence – everything the Internet should be. I have to say I’m shocked at how unusual it is not to see any ads or large blocks of white-space from ad-blocking software! It feels a bit weird, like the site is too perfectly formed. My brain is just so used to tuning out extraneous garbage. It certainly was worth the subscription! Thanks for all your hard work!

As another puts it, “Your site is a perfect visual equivalent to your brand of conservatism: clean, straightforward, and keeping the best of the old without the clutter.” Another asks:

Remember when you had a darker background? Can we have that as an option again?

The new Dish has an echo of that old color. To see it, just highlight any of blog’s text. And for a fun effect, press Command-A (or Ctrl-A on PCs). It’s back to 2001! Another reader notes the faster page-load speed:

Congratulations!  Love the new space!  As this is the site I refresh most frequently, not having it suck my browser resources to load ads and busy cross-promotional sidebars is more than worth whatever it was I paid.

Another:

A mobile optimized site! Can it really be?? This alone is worth the subscription price.

Another adds, “Finally, I can read you on Android!” Another:

Among my favorite new features is your kick-ass search.  I’ve been looking for this post about Lem Billings for ages, and searching on Google had always been fruitless.  Found it using your new search engine in a few seconds (“jfk gay” was my query; was always struck by that passage you quoted by his friend Lem Billings and your little homily to friendship at the end).

Another:

The baying beagle representing the ‘I’ in Dish is wonderful.  The beagle has long been the Dish’s mascot, but intended or not, I can’t think of an animal more suited to represent Andrew than one howling at the moon.  Is he gobsmacked by the rehashing of a flight from Texas to Alaska?  Ranting about circumcision? Prickling at a perceived slight elsewhere in the blogosphere?  Singing along to the PSBs?  Perhaps he just needs a few ginger snaps.

About that seemingly spartan masthead.  I have an idea to kill a few birds with one stone.  You have the space in that masthead (or perhaps prominently atop the sidebar) to embed the week’s VFYW contest.  Just slap the window view up there with a link.  This would make it a much easier post to return to in case we wish to research it in multiple sessions, and as you’ve already decided the answer to the contest would be a coercion tactic to sign up members, it would make for a subtle subscription drive as well.  I can’t help but think that the weekly window view teasing me in the corner will bring me back for another round of futile sleuthing.

A great idea; we will probably give the window contest a permanent presence in the sidebar. But I love all that white space on top. Looks like freedom to my eyes. Alas, the ginger snaps disappeared with the gluten-free regimen. I only liked the Nabisco version and they’re never gonna be gluten-free. Now for the criticisms:

Were you not wearing your glasses when you proofed the design!? Turn down the font size! It looks like one of my father’s ebooks.

I think we got an equal amount of emails asking us to increase the type-font. We’ll revisit it after our eyes get used to the new, spacier design. Another:

I like the new look and I think, god, I can only pray, that my iPad crashes on the site were caused by the Javascript stubs on the ads. I have to give it a workout, but I hope they were the problem of my crashes. But as a retired IT project manager, congrats on what appears to be a successful migration. I’ve done several of these things and your last minute frenzy is typical. You can imagine what it would take to bring a whole company of several thousand people over to a new system. Glad I was able to contribute to a subscription to make this happen.

The new site and mobile versions have had a variety of glitches since Monday morning, but things have gone smoothly for the most part. Chas, Chris and the Tinypass team have been working all day to answer your questions and troubleshoot any difficulties. You can reach them at support@andrewsullivan.com. One technical issue we are on top of:

My office network blocks access to your new site because it is tagged as a social networking site.  I imagine others may have similar problems with corporate networks that block access to social networks. I don’t know how that tagging is determined, but I had the same problem when you were first hosted at the Beast.

We are already in process of correcting this. Another reader:

There should be an “email the Dish about this post” link at the bottom of each post, alongside the Twitter and Facebook buttons. I’ve emailed you only a couple times, but here’s what I’ve gone through each time: copy the post URL, scroll around until finding the “email Andrew” link, paste the URL into the email window … That’s pretty inconvenient, and frustrating in its petty way. I’m sure other readers have experienced this small frustration.

We initially left off an email button in order to cut down on clutter and page-load speed, but many readers have suggested bringing it back, so we will. Very soon. More constructive criticism from a reader:

Congratulations on getting it up and running! As a web developer, believe me when I say I understand what a Herculean task that can be, regardless of how prepared you are. Anyway, new site looks different and will take some getting used to, but I did want to suggest that you increase the contrast between the post and the background space, and that you add some noise to your page header/masthead. Right now the whole page comes off as way too white. It looks more like an 8th grade book report than a professional web publication. Some borders or texturing might help too.

Signing in was easy and straightforward, hopefully your other subscribers have the same experience. And whoever your artist is, the new graphics are fantastic – especially the cartoon versions of Chris and Patrick. Happy to see them out from behind the curtain!

Our cartoonist is the brilliant Terry Colon, whose work we are going to feature in an upcoming post soon. Another reader:

Just subscribed today. I hope that a lot of people were like me and waiting to see the makeup and look of the new site (which is great), and you’ll get a raft of money coming in this week. Just wanted to say that I never pay for or subscribe to any sites like this, ever – until yours. Unprecedented behavior on my part. Thanks for helping me surprise myself.

A reader who subscribed on January 2nd:

Do you not understand that many readers will want to donate a small amount RIGHT NOW when they read something that they particularly like? Where is the option to do so? You’re apparently still caught up in old-media payment models, where subscribers pay for a set amount of access time. This is fine, but many people will ALSO want to vote with their wallets for stuff they like. So far, that’s just not possible on the new Dish, and so you’re leaving money on the table.

We are trying to stay away from the tip jar model, but the Dish is currently developing a gifting option through Tinypass where you will be able to buy subscriptions for friends and family. We are hoping to launch it soon. Another writes:

I’ll admit, I was hesitant to join the club. I’m a generally frugal college student mindful of a budget and was initially planning on consuming my daily Dish the way I’ve always done once the meter hit: my trusty Google Reader. But that plan went out the window this morning.

Browsing through the Dish’s feed on my Google Reader, I saw that the favicon had changed to the WordPress “W” (maybe someone should get on that…). I was curious to see what the new site looked like, so I hopped over to dish.andrewsullivan.com and knew what I had to do. It was time to subscribe.

Clean lines, good typography, no ads, snappy response for an initial build, focus on the words and visuals – this is what an online experience is meant to be. You know how drinking a Coke from a glass bottle just tastes better? Sometimes I think that blogs are meant to be consumed the same way: in their original environment. I normally use an app like Reeder to read my RSS feeds, but who knows now… things can change.

One of my favorite things about The Dish is its community, carefully led by its awesome team. I’ve always been really interested in different ways of defining a community. You can have communities of place, where people are brought together by where they live, work or visit. There are also communities of interest, which are collections of people knitted together by similar interests or passions. One of my favorites is the idea of a community of memory, where the people have not only a shared history, but a shared sense of what they want to see in the future. The Dish is all of these, through and through.

I’ve been part of this “community” for years now. When I first got interested in politics, volunteering for a young senator from Illinois before I could vote, I voraciously read anything that was worth reading. As I’ve grown, the Dish has been a constant as I try to pull my dreams of a brighter future to present. Part of the reason why I subscribed was that I wanted to take a more active role in trying to shape the Dish’s conversation on how to do that (and have a little fun, too).

So take my $21, my current age. Ideally, that number will climb upwards as I continue to be part of the Dish community in the years to come. So here’s to more reasoned debate, links from reddit, beautiful videos and lively conversation.

You can join the Dish now by clicking the red subscribe button in the upper-right corner of the blog. The next few days are crucial to convert some of you fence-sitters to supporters, since the seven free read-ons are running out for some. If that’s you, you’ve been kinda busted already as a Dishhead. Please help us keep you part of this community.

(Photos provided by readers)

Yglesias Award Nominee

“What you’re hearing from some folks about the status of the sequester simply tells you that there’s a group of Republicans who are willing to look at the Defense Department equally with the other departments. I think Republicans lose credibility when they say we have to look everywhere for savings except defense,” –  Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), a sophomore congressman who has been leading the campaign for spending cuts, including at the Pentagon.

Pay No Attention To The Men Behind The Cartoon

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A reader writes:

I’ve been reading you since 2008 and am very glad for your continuing success and innovation. I’ve enjoyed watching the Dish grow to include a full-time staff. Now I’m excited that the new site seems to show that in full-fledged caricature form. I was planning to ask who is depicted in the cartoon above the masthead, but the file-name (cartoon-chris-patrick1.jpg) gave up most of the answer. Still, who is left and who is right?

I must confess that I still miss the mystery redheaded girl. A reader can dream, no?

Patrick is on the left and Chris is on the right, in both the cartoon and the above photo (they both wear glasses about half the time, but Patrick is wearing them in the cartoon). I’m being totally serial when I say they’ve been total heroes this month – even more than usual. I seriously hope Chris slept last night. He can forget. As for the red-headed girl, well … you never know, do you?

American Hero Of The Day

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y7i1ASCS5o]

Mike Bertha sets the scene:

A 54-year-old Tacoma man has been arrested for allegedly driving his car into a Pacific Gas & Electric worker in Fresno, trapping the man between two vehicles. According to a witness, Jett Simmons claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ before making racially charged threats and ramming his car into the PG&E worker. The witness—a hitchhiker “from Dogtown” by way of West Virginia named Kai (that it—just Kai)—says that after Simmons rammed the man, he got out of the car and tried to smother a bystander with a bear hug. That’s when Kai sprung into action and hit the 6’4″, 290-pound Simmons on the head with a hatchet. Once, twice, thrice. In the aftermath of the ordeal, the victim asked not to be identified and said that he only hopes his assailant gets the help he needs.

Kai, meanwhile, gave the greatest interview in the history of television news. Peep the full, NSFW version [above].

Update from a reader:

The Dude did not abide on that one. Fucking awesome.

Which Trolls Should You Feed?

Ann Friedman considers the question:

A younger woman who works in media recently wrote to me, “How did you build up a thick skin? Something I’ve always struggled with is not taking things personally and getting upset when people say things that hurt me — in comments, on Twitter, etc.” I explained to her that I have a hierarchy of haters. High-order haters are those who really know how to hurt you; they may have real power or influence in your social or professional world. These are the folks you might consider responding to, or otherwise defending yourself against.

Low-level haters are usually people of little professional or social consequence to you. These are the folks who call you fat and ugly because they disagree with your views on, say, the federal debt. The lower a hater is on the pyramid, the more likely it is that the best response is to ignore him — while taking pride in the knowledge that, wherever the hater falls in this hierarchy, his or her very existence means you’re succeeding in having an impact.

The Fraternity Of Former Smokers

Dominic Reynolds relates his own battle with quitting smoking. He notes that smokers are much more visible than those trying to quit:

[Smokers are] together, enjoying the bizarre fraternal alchemy that happens when a number of people agree to stand outside and not talk about cancer. Quitters on the other hand have always been alone. That lady chewing gum on the next table could be one. The guy behind the bar could be one too – or he could just be quite fidgety. The urban quitter’s tragedy is that while temptation seems to waft ostentatiously around every street corner, our fellow habit-kickers are invisible.

E-cigs solve that problem:

They’re coming out of their smokeless closets, nervously clutching their cigarette substitute. Now, for the first time, we can identify a fellow sufferer. We can draw strength from watching him desperately suck on his faintly embarrassing plastic impersonation of a cigarette. We can offer an eye-roll of solidarity as we both wonder – why does the tip glow green instead of orange?

A friend of mine is literally addicted to his. I think they’re great. I grew up hating cigarettes – largely because I breathed them in every day of my life. I would wake each morning to a light mist of damp, bacon-scented cigarette smoke slowly condensing on the windows, as the radio blasted the news and the kettle purred away downstairs. My public bus rides home were effectively in a moist, smoke-filled can. But the rebellion that smoking now signifies has made it cool to me again. I think I started my evolution when Hillary Clinton banned cigarettes from the White House. And I feel pity for those poor schmucks forced to stand outside a bar or restaurant in a stigmatized hunch dragging on the remains of their butts.

But the e-cig? What’s not to love about a portable vaporizer? Go green, young man. And hang in, Eli.

Recent Dish on e-cigs here and here.

About Those Loopholes, Mr President

I think Patrick Brennan is right to be suspicious of this kind of evasion:

These are not the words of a president serious about cutting the debt. Cutting “waste” in government isn’t going to get you anywhere near what you need. And the president needs to get serious about the burgeoning long-term costs of Medicare. That requires real honesty about real future sacrifice – not blandishments about how we might be able to bend the cost curve slightly. But my main beef, as is Brennan’s, is the way Obama talks about tax reform. Money quote:

There is no doubt we need additional revenue, coupled with smart spending reductions in order to bring down our deficit. And we can do it in a gradual way so it doesn’t have a huge impact. And as I said, when you look at these deductions that certain folks are able to take advantage of, the average person can’t take advantage of them. The average person doesn’t have access to Cayman Island accounts, the average person doesn’t have access to carried interest income, where they end up paying a much lower rate on millions of dollars that they earn.

I don’t disagree with any of that. Who but Mitt Romney would? I’d love those loopholes to be closed. But that’s not real, serious revenue-raising tax reform. It’s old-school class demagoguery, not 2008 Obama honesty. If we are to control future debt, and to do so in part through ending tax deductions, we simply have to include the mortgage deduction, the state tax deduction, and the charity deduction – or find a way to cap those deductions past a certain income level. Nothing else comes close to making a difference. And yes, that means the middle class will get hurt a little. That’s what “additional revenue” in the amount required entails.

So less about the Cayman Islands and more about the sacrifices we need to make, please. I really hope the ACA reduces healthcare costs, but I don’t think it’s fiscally responsible to rely on experiments that may well yet fail. Baiting the super-rich is easy. Reducing the deficit responsibly is extremely hard – unless this president is prepared to be blunter and clearer than he was in this interview. And this, recall, is at the beginning of his second term, with maximal leverage at his disposal.

If you want to go small, Mr President, and leave the real debt cutting to your successor, that’s your prerogative. But it is not the change we believed in. Or voted for.

Betting On Sports

James Surowiecki wants to legalize it:

The ban on sports betting does exactly what Prohibition did. It makes criminals rich. People still gamble, after all: the National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimates that more than three hundred billion dollars is bet on games annually. Legalized sports betting would bring in significant tax revenues for the states—Drazin estimates that Monmouth Park could take in a billion dollars in bets in its first year—and it would leave cops and prosecutors free to go after crimes with real victims. As for the concern that legalization would encourage shady behavior, the truth is that legal and regulated betting makes it easier, not harder, to spot things like point-shaving. One of the biggest college point-shaving scandals of the past twenty years was uncovered when Vegas bookies noted unusual betting activity on certain games and reported it to the authorities.

Will Netflix Originals Pay Off? Ctd

Tim Wu thinks that that House Of Cards “a typical product of our current golden age of television—dark, expertly directed and acted, and about five times better than the average Hollywood film”:

An Internet firm like Netflix producing first-rate content takes us across a psychological line. If Netflix succeeds as a producer, other companies will follow and start taking market share. Maybe Amazon will go beyond its tentative investments and throw a hundred million at a different A-list series, or maybe Hulu will expand its ambitions for original content, or maybe the next great show will come from someone with a YouTube channel. When that happens, the baton passes, and empire falls—and we will see the first fundamental change in the home-entertainment paradigm in decades.

How Yglesias understands Netflix’s investment in the series:

The thing is, House of Cards isn’t a gimmick to lure in new Netflix subscribers. After all, the people who are most interested in the show likely already have a Netflix subscription or know someone who does. What’s more, while I liked the show enough to watch 12 episodes over the course of two days, it’s not nearly good enough to be a reason all its own to become a Netflix subscriber. The show, then, is a sunk investment that Netflix is making in the hope that it will prop up its new brand identity and gain experience.

Earlier Dish on Netflix’s experiment here.