Yours is always the first newsblog I turn to — and if my time is limited, the only one.

Hard to articulate, but it comes down to being a really excellent filter.
In the book “Interface Culture,” Steven Johnson spoke about how people use trusted filters to cope with information overload. Used to be the national news was a shared filter, but nowadays individuals are finding their own, and you have become one of mine.

The site doesn’t overwhelm me with too much information, but you manage to hone in on the most important stories in the news, quote the most relevant bits, and then bold what’s truly crucial to know.

You’ve got an excellent eye for catching what’s most newsworthy, and are capable of concisely explaining it. You provide a good spread — a smorgasbord of topics — in contrast with other sites’ narrow single-issue focus. And, I like your voice — in your own essays and your selection criteria.

The guest bloggers you’ve used have been fine, but be careful of following Kos’s route. His site has grown too large to be terribly useful to me. [What's the Yogi Berra quote? "No one goes there any more, it's too crowded."]

Would it be easier for you to linkblog pointers to good articles without doing so much editing and commentary? More twitter-like posts? I would find value in that. But as others have already responded, you need to take care of yourself and do what’s best for you.

PS: I sympathize re:election coverage making you crazy. I’ve stopped much of my political blogging because I find it all so depressing. If you just want to leave off the news coverage altogether and journal occasional pieces about how your life is going, I’d read that too.

PPS: Just found a 2005 post recommending your blog. At the time, I described your site as “a quick one-stop catchup with current events,” praising you for your “astonishing skill in extracting the most relevant two paragraphs out of multi-page articles — and if you’re in too much of a hurry for that, she bolds an even tighter executive summary.” So, I guess it wasn’t that hard to articulate.

Also, I used to enjoy Chris’ front page blogging at Booman’s place. Especially his Sunday morning jazz posts. So, to find him posting here was a big plus for why I would like to continue reading here.

And lastly, but most importantly, I love your taste in music and how you incorporate it into this blog. It’s something I tried tp do with my own blog because I think music better conveys ideas and emotions that words can only sometimes convey.

Whatever you decide, I wish you great success.

But Izquierdo (speaking of “leftitsts” ^_^ …) is correct about Ms Whinner’s theme, that SG is bountiful source for links to articles of interest to liberals - even if not for those of the “most far left” variety.

At least until someone kind enough beats that.

Don’t take it so seriously, SusanM. Control what you can, cry when you have to, feel you must, that’s a part of the plan. But don’t forget El Photo Grande, which in the end tells me, at least, that we didn’t mean a hill of beans outside our own circles of love, family, and friends.

And sympathetic bloggers and readers of blogs.

Another reason I read your blog is because you have “taste” in linking to stories which are interesting, important, humorous, etc … more so than any other blogger I can think of right now. Not to even mention the music links … ok I’ll mention ‘em: Great music links, too.

In other words I dig your blog a lot, and like others I’ll most certainly miss it if it’s gone or changes radically. But I’ll live. I don’t really have a good suggestion as to which direction this blog should take, but I do want to join the chorus in singing your praises, for all you’ve done here over the years. Be well. Post when you feel like it. And … Brava! Brava!

But then I realized we were a lot alike. Our political differences on the Big Picture were remarkably small, and I liked your straight-up style and subtle snark. The tunes you posted were mostly great in my world.

Then you posted about some financial hardships, along with a later one about the $25 you had received, and coupled with the number of bloggers who link you, the combination sort of irritated me. “Friends” my ass.

I just like the site, and the content, and you, and will miss you if you go. I get it; I personally have skipped days, have no back-up, and have recognized some of the negative impacts of being a news and political junkie. I think maybe I’m able to detach better, is all. As I age, I realize there isn’t so much in my control, and I like to blog so I can say “I told you so” later, and vent my spleen on some particularly egregious issue.

Whatever you decide, all the best.

John O

Two of your great strengths are a working class perspective and a lifetime of work. Cut the number of posts you make by two-thirds, and balance them, half positive and half negative. This recipe should reduce your workload and increase your satisfaction in contemplating your posts.

Just my two cents.

You tend to link to every article you find that foretells diasater for this country. And you rarely question the accuracy or consider the source. You are like the Paul Revere for the far left’s “chicken littles”.

You almost never post about good news or success stories or happy times. That is too bad.

I am so where you are (as you know) after nearly 5 years of blogging. I’ve taken the occassional few day break from my blog more often than I used to, and while I feel a lot better when I return I find myself slipping back into questioning why I am here and wishing I had more time each day to run both my business and my blog.

I have quite a few other writers but none post with the frequency I do and the bottomline is, this primary season is making me nuts too. As a writer it’s great to have an outlet to share your thoughts, when it consumes the rest of your life and becomes stressful it is not so great.

I’m cutting way back too, will probably just focus on issues other than the election - Congress, the environment, small business, etc.

One of the best things I have done for myself over recent months is unsubcribe from a lot of lists and groups and political action committees to avoid excess distraction.

Good luck… I’ve wondered if someone should start Bloggers anonymous. I really think somedays that blogging is addictive.

I really identify with your dilemma. I don’t know the answers. I love to blog, but it’s incredibly time-consuming and basically unpaid. I just had to take off a week because of life issues, and got emails asking me, where are you?

Group blogs are just not quite the same. I guess the Hullabaloo/Skippy solution is as good as any; a very small group with the posts clearly identified as by the different contributors.

Selfishly, I hope you stay with it, but would understand if you hang up your keyboard.

I agree that setting up a kos-style site would be a headache. And worse it would end up with an exponentially larger number of strudel shitgun-types.

What I tend to do these days is blog at brendancalling when the spirit moves me, and supplement my time with diaries at booman tribune.

You are usually one of my first stops every morning, before the Times, Philly.com, and even talkingpointsmemo.

Otherwise, just post at your own rate.

But what I most enjoy are the tales from your life, the scrabbling-with-your-husband’s-ashes-in-the-trunk stories.

You relate these experiences with elegance and grace, and you never, ever make excuses for yourself. These are the choices you made, and if they later proved to be the wrong choices, you say so.

I have no advice. But if you cease to write in a public forum, I will miss you.

It’s your blog, and you should do what you want with it. Selfishly, I hope you’ll continue, because I missed you when you were working for Knox last year, but I can also totally understand the stress and aggravation and 24/7 factors. Too well.

I like the individual blogs. If I want something more, I check out memeorandum, and look by story. But I keep going back to the voices I like.

If you have to reduce pace, I’ll still read every day. There’s a blog I check every day for a post, and she posts perhaps once a week, but it’s almost always an entertaining read. I’ve accepted that deal as a reader. And that’s the point - you’re the one doing the work, so you should determine the terms of “the deal”. Perhaps the real question you should be asking is not what readers expect, but what you expect, from this blog.