Analyze This: New York Puts Brownstoner on the Couch
Considering the tone of what New York Magazine has written about some other blogs, we thought that this week’s cover story about Brownstoner, and its culture of commenting in particular, was reasonably thoughtful. Sure, it had some the magazine’s signature sensationalism, but underneath that were some interesting thoughts about what the commenting culture on the…
Considering the tone of what New York Magazine has written about some other blogs, we thought that this week’s cover story about Brownstoner, and its culture of commenting in particular, was reasonably thoughtful. Sure, it had some the magazine’s signature sensationalism, but underneath that were some interesting thoughts about what the commenting culture on the blog says about the collective psyche of Brownstone Brooklyn. Our only major gripe was that it played up the importance of one egomaniacal commenter over some of the more constructive aspects of the community. In the end, though, it did include one belief of ours that we’ve clung to from the beginning: That as messy as many of the threads get, the tough issues that underlie much of the change that Brooklyn has experienced in recent years—class, race, gentrification—are at least getting discussed, and often among people who wouldn’t otherwise be mingling offline. The conversations could be a lot more polite, but at least they are happening.
The Brooklyn Wars [New York Magazine]
Illustration by Zohar Lazar
Like any asset, real estate is priced at the margin. The rapid increase in bk real estate values have been driven by relatively limited supply and limited ability to increase supply in the short term, coupled with significant wealth of nyc professionals, who were increasingly attracted to the area. I don’t see the demand curve disappearing, though it will reduce as the choppy national economy begins to affect NYC; as family-oriented buyers rediscover the suburbs (not because they necessarily want to live outside the city, but rather because they look at their personal finances and discover how much easier life would be if they add 30 minutes to their commute); and as Brooklyn loses some of the vitality it enjoyed over the last 10 years.
Supply is also greatly increasing, both in terms of new buildings coming on line and because of the increased attractiveness of some formerly marginal neighborhoods (e.g., Boerum Hill, Fort Greene) that are not attractive replacements for more established nabes.
Doesn’t mean there will be a crash, but new marginal pricing will need to be established that (1) elimates some of the fluff from the last few years and (2) drops the presumption of excess future price appreciation. Who knows when it will happen, so those renters still out there may still be sitting on the sidelines for long.
Well Roberto, I can’t exactly argue with people who accurately accuse me of having not grown up in many ways, but I love the new term you just coined: “aggressive moderation”.
shelltoe, thanks for explaining it. Maybe comments from you, bxgrl et.al., will encourage resolution to the issue.
Biff, I’m with you. Most blog sites that have had problems with trolling have instituted a registration requirement, and have more aggressive moderation. (Is that an oxymoron??) Registration protocols can easily be set to exclude spaces and other tricks…
I do find it interesting that on one hand, we all say that kids grow up too fast these days, and on the other hand it’s obvious that fewer and fewer people grow up at all.
Yeah, I’m anon@9.43 — I’ve tried to register, but B’stoner’s mailing system for email verification is broken, so I can’t.
May 27 10:29:43 parkcentral postfix/smtpd[17021]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from apperceptive-bst1.client.logicworks.net[209.73.24.197]: 504 5.5.2: Helo command rejected: need fully-qualified hostname; from= to= proto=ESMTP helo=
Oh well…
[shelltoe]
An interesting side note – on Curbed.com there is also a prolific poster who calls himself “Sneaky Pete.”
Sneaky Pete seems to be the The What’s nemesis. Unlike The What, SP can post commentary without launching into an obscenity laden tirade.
He is also positive on NY RE. He sees opportunity in the market. The interesting thing is that all the anon posters on Curbed attack Sneaky Pete like The What attacks posters on Brownstoner. They hurl insults and slurs at Sneaky Pete in the same trashy manner as The What does on Brownstoner.
Biff, I’m with you. Most blog sites that have had problems with trolling have instituted a registration requirement, and have more aggressive moderation. (Is that an oxymoron??)
I do find it interesting that on one hand, we all say that kids grow up too fast these days, and on the other hand it’s obvious that fewer and fewer people grow up at all.
It might stop this new wave of faded type spamming too…
wait a minute – that can’t be the real bxgrl – she hasn’t made some unfounded allegation about poster A not being very intelligent based on a disagreement with poster B.
thanks bxgrl, I appreciate your very reasonable response and perspective. No doubt the system has flaws – in fact, I was surprised to see last week that there appeared to be two Rachel Pratt’s signed in last week contradicting each other. I didn’t notice, but perhaps one of the did the spacing trick you mentioned.
Brownstoner, can you fix this flaw and add controls to the registration process? I really believe offering a better sign in process and having more posters sign in would enhance the site.