Well, I admit. I was a Midland-snob when I lived there. Didn't understand WHY anyone would actually go to, or even visit, Odessa. So of course, all sorts of negative stereotypical reasons jumped to mind when you asked your "why no Odessa bloggers?" question. *blush*

That said, we did know some very nice families who lived in Odessa. I just never understood why. *eg*

Maybe they haven't had enough electricity available to power Bloggers. But now with the 1200 megawatt TIE plant on the southside they should be able to power up. :>]

You made me go do a google on all the surrounding cities + blog. Me and Terry are holding down the fort in Somervell Cty. He's full-time, I'm weekend help...

Gosh, Scott, I figured Somervell County to be the blog-capitol of Texas, what with Nemo and Rainbow adding to the mix! ;-)

But, on a per capita basis, I'm pretty sure you and Terry represent a larger % of your county's population than do the combined Midland bloggers, so you've got that going for you.

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For Odessa to have active blogs, The Odessa American should allow readers to post comments RIGHT BELOW their news reports and editorials.

Allowing people to post their comments a little FAR AWAY, like in their FORUM section will not work. It would be NOT RESPONSIVE.

Priority of people is to look for comments right there below the news report. If they can't find it there, they go to the editorial page. (but even posting or reading comments to a news report way way yonder at the editorial page is already quite a distance. You lose posters and comment readers that way. A post is useless if nobody reads it. Looking for comments in a location where there are no posts is also useless.
There are several solutions that would stimulate an active Odessa Blog and ultimately active Odessa BlogS (PLURAL). But we must start with ONE SUCCESSFUL ONE FIRST.
The easiest, as I said is for Odessa American to receive and post readers comments right below each news report, and also allow readers to respond to each other's comments right here below these news reports.
If the Odessa American will not do the above. we here in the Fireant Gazzete can post some messages in the FORUM section of the Odessa American. We will talk to each other overthere at the Odessa American FORUM. In so doing, ERIC's post at the OA FORUM will receive many many posted responses - but actually just coming from us talking to each other. SOONER OR LATER, MORE AND MORE ODESSANS WILL JOIN IN, AND SOON ODESSA WILL HAVE A FIRE OF A BLOG IN THAT OA FORUM. It will be very helpful if the OA FORUM has "meters" telling how many viewers the post received. (So also with your Fireant Gazette!!!)

Alternatively, if OA will not let readers post messages below their news reports, THE MIDLAND REPORTER TELEGRAM can change its name to THE MIDESSA REPORTER TELEGRAM and sell the MIDESSA REPORTER TELEGRAM BOTH IN MIDLAND AND ODESSA. Odessans will then post their messages in the MRT-MIDESSA REPORTER TELEGRAM instead of the ODESSA AMERICAN.
With at least one busy ODESSA BLOG where Odessans are dialoging with each other, other Odessa Blogs can also be made busy in the same manner as we together as a group stimulated the OA Forum to become BUSY.

You may be right as far as a community discussion-type blog goes, but all I'm really curioius about is why there are no personal, daily-journal type blogs originating from Odessa.

That has nothing to do with whether the local newspaper allows comments on its website, or whether it even has a website.

I'm not particularly interested in making the Gazette a community forum where grand issues are debated. I'll leave that territory to others who are more qualified and motivated. Most blogs don't fall into that category anyway. I'm just curious as to why no Odessans seem interested in sharing their individual perspectives on the world in an online format.

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It is the assumption of most people that the FORUM website of the Odessa American is the most popular and most busy website in Odessa.

Yet, posted messages in the OA FORUM receive no reponses.

Hence, if even a posted message in Odessa's BUSIEST website receives no response, why go to the extent of doing your own Odessa Blog?
Will you be more successful than the Odessa American???

That is why, I say, Odessa American should allow readers to post messages below their news articles, just like in the MRT. Otherwise, the perception is that nobody else in Odessa is posting, when the truth is there are Odessans posting as evidenced by the many people who posted in the FORUM of http://www.oaoa.com
in the past to the present.

The fault lies in that there are no meters in the OA FORUM. People might be reading the posts, yet because there are no meters, the perception is that nobody is reading, and that in turn causes other people not to post, and soon you have no more readers and no more posters.

People are free to EMAIL the OA Editors but the EMAIL will not be printed !!!!! If not for their OA FORUM, it seems like all they want people to do is just READ, READ, READ. They even have an excellent menu of all editorials that they wrote way into the past. Well, those might be excellent to show others in the nation what they wrote, hence enabling them to receive national awards, but as far as the readers posting their messages, IT IS A FRUSTRATION!!!!! I don't think it is conducive to the FREEDOM THAT THEY TALK ABOUT.

If you were an Odessan, will you do an Odessa Blog believing nobody will read your blog, because you will have less success than the OA????

If you were an Odessan, will you do an Odessa Blog believing nobody will read your blog, because you will have less success than the OA????

I suppose there might be potential bloggers who have made their decisions based on this criterion...but I'd be surprised.

I'll bet if you polled the Midland bloggers, you'd find that none of them took into consideration the success or failure of a local media website or blog before deciding to start their own. I didn't.

Further, I don't read the MRT's "blog" and I don't read the OA's "blog" and neither of them have any impact on my site.

Bottom line: There are a lot of different motivations for people to blog.

I can't tell you why there is not an Odessa blog, but I can tell you that George does such a good job with the Midland site that I read it often--and I am from Odessa!! I guess I just don't buy into all that Midland/Odessa rivalry junk. As for OA, they only print what is politically in their interest--Forget open-minded, intellectually exchange of ideas!!

I agree that George does a super job with Sleepless in Midland, and that the Midland/Odessa "rivalry" is overhyped AND that the OA has a specific political agenda (but, then, show me a newspaper anywhere in the world that doesn't...or, for that matter, a blog without an agenda or pov).

But all of those things are sort of beside the point I'm trying to make with my observation about the absence of Odessa bloggers. I still find it curious that no one in that city of almost 100,000 has chosen to go public with his or her opinions and observations via the blogging route.

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Eric:
I am looking at the 2003-2004 Permian Basin Area phone book and it looks like Best Buy only has a Midland store but no Odessa store.

I am also looking at the 2000-2001 Permian Basin Area phone book and it looks like Office Max which is no longer in Midland in 2004, used to have in 2001 only a Midland store and no Odessa store.

So maybe, there are not that many bloggers in Odessa as there are in Midland.

BTW, educate me! With respect to this "blogger" terminology and Fire Ant Gazette, Tulip, Scott, Teresa, Bert, me are bloggers, right? Eric is not a blogger but an administrator. In the case of Wallace, he is only a blogger at FireAnt but an administrator at Yellow Dog. Am I using the words correctly?

How about naming your website as "The Odessa Fireant Gazette?"

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Not "Yellow Dog" but "BigGoldDog."
Sorry, Wallace!

BTW, educate me! With respect to this "blogger" terminology and Fire Ant Gazette, Tulip, Scott, Teresa, Bert, me are bloggers, right? Eric is not a blogger but an administrator. In the case of Wallace, he is only a blogger at FireAnt but an administrator at Yellow Dog. Am I using the words correctly?

Not exactly. Tulip Girl, Wallace and Scott happen to be bloggers (because they run their own blogs), but when they leave comments on my blog, they become commentors. You are a commentor, not a blogger (as far as I know). Teresa and Bert are commentors, not bloggers (as far as I know).

Bloggers are the folks who "own" and regularly post to their own blogs. Folks who visit and leave comments aren't bloggers.

In my humble opinion, as important and interesting as they may be, comments are NOT the primary value of a blog nor the reason for its existence. Many excellent blogs do not even allow comments. It's the post that counts.

This is what sets a blog apart from a community discussion group or message board.

How about naming your website as "The Odessa Fireant Gazette?"

Because I live in and blog from Midland.

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The answer might lie in Eric answering this question: How about calling your blog, "The Midessa Fireant Gazette?"

Thanks for pointing out to us the difference between "bloggers" and "commentators."

Is that the reason why "jessicaswell.com" ends with a ".com"?

Isn't the question above better and more accurate at sending commentators to the right blog by ending the sentence with ".com"? instead of the grammatically correct, ".com?" What say the authoritative Eric about this old grammar rule that makes the " the last character of the sentence, resulting in the blog's address MISTAKENLY TYPEWRITTEN? Is it about time the Internet age junk this old grammar rule?

I now understand your point of bloggers whose intention is to post and not necessarily to receive comments. That's all right. It is like those manicured houses full of beautiful lights on Christmas time, nice to see, but don't trespass!!! Kind of like books where people read but don't comment. Your blog is okay!!! I hope Odessa will have some soon.

If I am not mistaken, them soreheads in Stanton, Tx have at least one such blog too. Tentacles reach all over the world, bringing to end the myth that they are soreheads at all.

I'm sure, thousands of bloggers and commentators from Odessa, Russia will be eager to read about the city and people of Odessa, Tx, USA - the city which they helped build over a century ago!!!!

The answer might lie in Eric answering this question: How about calling your blog, "The Midessa Fireant Gazette?"

No, because I like the current name. I make no secret of the fact that I'm based in Midland, but the name "Midessa" is meaningless outside this area, and I'm not necessarily trying to be a "local blog," anyway.

Thanks for pointing out to us the difference between "bloggers" and "commentators." Is that the reason why "jessicaswell.com" ends with a ".com"?

No, that's simply the top level domain (TLD) which was registered by the owner(s) of Jessica's Well. It is completely unrelated to the content of the website to which it applies. I've seen blogs with TLDs of .org, .net, .us, .info, .tv, .ws, etc.

Someday we may see a TLD of .blog, which would give everyone clear notice that the website is probably a blog (but there would still be no guarantee, unless a new domain name registration rule is written, and some means of enforcing it created; don't hold your breath).

Isn't the question above better and more accurate at sending commentators to the right blog by ending the sentence with ".com"? instead of the grammatically correct, ".com?"

Your question seems to be apropos of nothing. Nevertheless, I believe the correct style is the former (".com"?). The question mark would go inside the quotation marks only if it is part of a quoted question.