OxBlog

Friday, April 06, 2007

# Posted 1:39 PM by Patrick Porter  

THE OXBLOG LANDSCAPE: Reading through the 'comments' box, I am increasingly curious about our readership.

Actually, I'm keen to hear more about our regular readers. What are your backgrounds and interests? Why do you like reading Oxblog?

There are quite a few 'usual suspects' I can think of who drop in with their views (davod, bgates, Randy, mike(s), the Anonymous person who is very interested in world poverty).

go on, tell us a bit about yourselves.
(32) opinions -- Add your opinion

Comments:
Adam
-is a semi-regular reader (about once a week)
-discovered OxBlog from Volokh.com
-lives in Atlanta, Georiga
-is in his last semester of law school
- supports a substantial and continued troop presence in Iraq
- really likes this blog
 
drdivine reads the blog about three or four times a week. I have been reading the blog for years--probably read it more often with the original three founders. I teach Middle East Politics. I especially like David Adesnik's analyses of the news shows on Sunday.
 
- live in Ottawa, Ont.
- left-of-centre politically
- last semester of law school
- interested in international law and public policy.
- like reading Oxblog because I enjoy reading about IR for a change, and the contributors generally challenge my views. N.B.: I do like that Taylor joined even though he's Left too, because he adds to the blog's political spectrum.
- read the blog about 3 times a week
 
bgates is a software developer (yes, I've heard of him, no, we're not related) who lives in Orlando,FL, likes Oxblog's ability to criticize without demonizing, and suspects this post indicates Patrick's blogger's block is ongoing ;)
 
is a grad student.

has socially met a few of the bloggers. and so knows at least one of them well enough to write the following:

left the comment about patrick belton NOT being irish, the fake accent, and why he refers to the hostages as 'ours'. patrick, u're american, embrace it, grow up, and stop pretending to be british/irish when you're not. it really makes reading oxblog irritating.

wrote this on the 'our hostages' thread. was amused to see that comments for that thread had been disabled. why does a little of dose of truth hurt?

more importantly, why do the other bloggers indulge him in his fakeness?

i can see why josh left...
 
obsessed with arianna huffington, but this site is my 2nd fav. i am 17 male. i live in la jolla, ca. when i graduate from high school i will study political science and film acting. beleive it or not, i found this site from patrick b.'s friendster profile 3 years ago. i dont kno him, but i liked his picture.

the guy who wrote this:

"left the comment about patrick belton NOT being irish, the fake accent, and why he refers to the hostages as 'ours'. patrick, u're american, embrace it, grow up, and stop pretending to be british/irish when you're not. it really makes reading oxblog irritating."

he obviously has a huge crush on patrick, and it would be cool if he would just shut up and stop whinning.
 
Jeff
- is a graduate student in mathematics
- lives in Dallas, TX
- is a foreign policy realist
- is a traditional conservative
- is opposed to multiculturalism
- finds neo-liberals puzzling
- came to Oxblog from Instapundit
 
I am an aspiring writer/humorist, grew up in Kansas but now live in New York.
I studied history in college but have an interest in foreign affairs and American foreign policy. I'm a bit farther to the left than Oxblog; I am basically a cautious liberal interventionist (supported Kosovo, Afghanistan, drew the line at Iraq).
I am 28, and I like listening in as my contemporaries discuss affairs of importance with each other. Also, as a person who is not an academic and does not work in the field of foreign policy, I am grateful that an interested lay person like me can still peer in on discussions, arguments, and scholarship that others are involved in.
I somehow stumbled across Oxblog in early 2004. It was the first blog I ever read regularly and out of habit I check in daily.
 
What's to say. I went to a university that only gives reserved parking to our Nobel Laureates where I double majored in Electrical Engineering and Classics. I sail more than I blog. This evening I raced on an Olson 25 at mast position. We came in second in our class, 39 seconds behind the winner.
 
I would love to be a more regular poster but can never figure out the damned sign-in procedure. I occasionally post as Topcat. I'm a semi-retired attorney working for a nonprofit in Western North Carolina. A McCain/Swartzenegger Republican who wishes the Dems would provide a viable alternative rather than the nutroots dominated party the are today. Enjoy Oxblog but wish you would make an easier sign-in procedure for vetted posters, I'd like to contribute more.
 
- senior at Yale College
- philosophy major
- heading to Cambridge University next year (don't our stories seem similar?)
- love oxblog--great analysis, much of which i agree with
 
Nitin:
-Columbia Business School MBA Student (2nd year.)
-blogging since 2003 (but have not developed a readership)
-Reading OxBlog since 2002; now I read it about once or twice a week
-The original founders were awesome
-I like Adesnik's posts the most. I don't like posts that are too wordy. Met Adesnik once in 2003.
 
Three cheers for Patrick Belton. I enjoy the little leprechaun at the bottom of the garden who often brings light relief to some pretty heavy blogs

Gene Pool
 
Recently completed undergraduate studies at the Department of War Studies, King's College London. Concluded my studies by missing out on 1+3 ESRC funding by a whisker. Still waiting for teeth to stop grinding.

Supported the Iraq War, now really quite embarassed about it.

Early advocate of viewing the GWoT as a weird form of global counterinsurgency, before it became fashionable.

Strong Tory sympathies, but in practice probably somewhat to the left of Adesnik on some issues.

Seem to remember I found this site following a link from Andrew Sullivan, but it was such a long time ago that I can't be sure.

Key moment: Responding to a request from Josh Chafetz' (that dates it...) request for advice regarding an upcoming Oxford Union debate on Iraq by informing him that he might as well go into the study with a revolver and a bottle of whisky because there wasn't a hope in hell of him ever winning. He won.
 
P,
Don't worry about the psychopath ex above. The rest of us love you and your stuff.
Post more, we miss you! :)
 
Matt is:
-26
-studying Mandarin at Yunnan University in Kunming, China
-visiting OxBlog via a proxy server (now that's dedication!)
-a regular visitor- probably three to four times per week
-a native of the San Francisco Bay Area
-correspondingly left-of-center politically, making me a right-winger in my hometown :)
- an International Studies graduate from UC San Diego
-a reader of OxBlog since 2003 or so
-a fan of David Adesnik's intelligence and writing style if not his political leanings
-shocked to find out that Patrick Belton isn't actually British/Irish.
-now boring you all to tears with my lengthy self-introduction
 
Patrick, don't let the bastards keep you from posting. OxBlog needs you off in conventions and war zones to get back to its glory days! And I think you've written very sensitively about what it feels like to be at home in three countries; it's not a bug, it's one of your nicer features. :)
 
All of you are wrong about Belton.
He holds Italian nationality through his mother; therefore his true place in the blogosphere is not in Oxford on OxBlog, or in Dublin on PubBlog, or in Washington on WashMeBlog, but sipping espresso here on the Piazza Navona on RomaBlog. Signore Belton, we will await you here.
 
I've been a semi-regular reader since 2004. I probably am guilty of only logging on to leave a comment when I strongly disagree with what someone has written, so it's nice not to be antagonistic for once...

Former Oxford student from Scotland, stumbled on this site through reading Marc Mulholland's blog (He taught me at Oxford, doesn't appear to still be blogging though unfortunately). Since Oxford I have completed a Masters at Glasgow University and am hoping to go to S. America for a time.

Politically, I'd describe myself as anti-war and well to the left of most Oxbloggers, certainly the original three, but I read because I consider it important for a European socialist like myself to keep up with what the American Right are thinking....

Out of interest, will there be any more posts on the dialogue between David and Pamela River? I thought that collection was one of the best things I've seen on OxBlog and sparked a lot of fascinating debate.

NB. If site admin consider a particular post offensive, is it possible they could remove that post only rather than close the entire thread, as happened recently with the 'tribute to the hostages' thread?
 
hi Niall,

Marc Mulholland is still blogging now and again, at a site called 'Katheder Blog.'

You and I might have broken a lance over at Daily Moiders once or twice. Glad you read the site, even if to monitor the views of the enemy! :)

P
 
Niall,

I look forward to posting more about Israeli and Palestinian issues. If Ms. River is so willing, I hope she will find the time to contribute her thoughts.
 
I'm a 30 year old lawyer in upstate New York, liberal, interested in foreign policy, very critical of the Iraq War. I think I originally discovered oxblog through Volokh.
 
Is this thread still going? Hmm...I'm a reluctant reader; I'd rather not be interested in government, which is people having power over other people. Yuk. I'd rather write software and think about the self-reproducing machinery of a few years hence. Unfortunately some governments are horrendously bad rather than just bad, so I supported the invasion of Iraq even though I wrote at the time that we were getting into a long bloody mess and that Bush was not a good leader for it, and I wrote my congresscritter to support nation-building, and nowadays I give lots of money to SpiritOfAmerica.net each year, and try to work on language-teaching stuff for the U of Kabul, and I wish I had The Answer. But I don't.
 
Am a D.Phil student at Cambridge in IR. Have been reading Oxblog on and off for about three years.

I think Adesnik is brilliant; his ability to argue a point fairly and persuasively is unmatched. Am warming to Porter and Taylor. Not too crazy about Belton; he rarely posts, and when he does it is either 1) a joke 2) a sentence or two and then a link to an article written by someone else, or 3) a self-aggrandizing announcement about some media gig he is doing. And he shouldn't have taken down the comments about the British hostages just because someone outed him as being American.
 
Foreign policy committee staffer in Washington. Converse of the previous; miss Chafetz, wish Belton posted more, find his humour appealing and don't think there's anything particularly wrong with noting on your blog if you're writing or speaking elsewhere. Hint of jealousy there?
 
Anon 8.29
There is no d.phil. at cambridge. But nice try.
Assume you're the same psychotic exgirlfriend that's behind amusedpasserby.
 
thanks to those who gave us those snapshots about themselves!

disappointed that some misread the post as an invitation to be abusive.
 
This comes to mind about Patrick Belton,
"Mrs Barry, you must acquire the trick of ignoring those who do not like you. In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: The stupid and the envious. The stupid will like you in five years time. The envious, never."
Excellently delivered by Johnny Depp in The Libertine.
As for the psycho ex(s)...he is a bad kisser...but he tastes damn good...
Post-graduate degree in something that has nothing to do with IR...but I find the blog useful and amusing...although I disagree with most of what's written...I take a peek 2-3 a week...
 
Well, let's see, I'll post my list here:
- 33 Year old male
- I'm an American living in Paris. That is hard enough as I really do miss home.
- I grew up in Detroit, went to school in Boca Raton, FL, then South Bend/Notre Dame, IN. Before my move here, I lived in NYC for 10 years. I adore New York City and America. I miss it everyday.
- Fully a conservative in though and votes since before I was able to cast a vote.
- Absolutely love my footie, we have a blog here ,and Guinness (I think they go together like salt and pepper!)
- I will soon make my French girl a 'Franco-American'...providing she's up to it, although after almost 5 years, one has an idea.
- Oxblog reader for a long time. Although, I do not remember how I came across it. Perhaps Instapundit around 3-4 years ago.
- I love the news analaysis of the Oxblog commentators. I believe it is 'non-partisan' and 'fair' in every single way.

Thanks for everything.
-G
 
i read more now that founders are no longer ostentatiously bragging about their fancy scholarships. that made them look silly
 
There is but another model of those replica watches which happens to be recognized as 'self-winding chronograph'. This model of look at functions just like a navigation exclusive computer also it allow pilots to calculate particulars of flights accurately.
 
Armed with your information, companies can now either choose to target you as a potential client or refuse to let you become one of their clients. Beat By Dre.

 
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