SLANTblog poll tells all?

The Weekend Without Echoes project (July 21-23) has caused a bit of a stir, it seems. Yes, I’m a little surprised at how much. The discussion that has flowed from the announcement of a group effort by bloggers volunteering to post original material for a three-day period has been lively. So, I’m glad about that. While not all the reaction has been positive, plenty of it has.

To see a list of those bloggers who have signed on, click on this link to Vivian Paige’s blog. (Look at the sidebar, to the right.) So, now I especially want to thank the bloggers who, like Vivian, have seen fit to expose their readers to the concept of the challenge by posting news of it on their web sites.

As an aside, I want to salute the Raising Kaine site for its post yesterday morning, publicizing the experiment. Since, I’ve questioned some of what I've seen as their sometimes over-the-top methods there, propaganda-wise, it’s gratifying to see the project mentioned.

There’s the graphic device for Weekend Without Echoes that Vivian Paige put together, blinking away. And, the RK top dog, netroots regional poobah, Lowell Feld, wrote a piece about the project. He didn’t take sides ... hmm ... just a few questions. Which, as always, set the comments section buzzing. Poof -- almost spontaneously, it seemed the RK regulars weren't so enthusiastic about the project.

Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

And, there’s a poll, to generate some telling numbers on the registered regulars' view of the three-day-old work-in-progress that this concept still is. But it seems a little bit manipulative ... hmm.

Now I get it. It's a little joke. Even better. I gather the spunky blogging squad at RK wants to play. They’ve up and gone creative, in honor of Weekend Without Echoes. That’s almost cool.

OK, while the passionate RK squad chugalugs its daily dose of grape Kool-Aid, mixed Jonestown style, let’s play. Accordingly, SLANTblog has created a poll, too:

And, not unlike the poll at Raising Kaine, my poll is only open to people I personally approve of. Naturally that would be members of the SLANTblog blogging team.

For security reasons, except for me, they must all remain under cover. For their safety I can’t tell you how many there are, or anything else about them. Some of them may be paid consultants for various politicians ... not to worry. Don’t even bother clicking on the vote button, unless you’re a registered agent it won’t work.

Later on, when it suits me, I’ll post the results here at SLANTblog. Then we can discuss the bogus results. Actually, I already know what they will be. But, let's wait, anyway.

Am I making all this up?

Well, of course I am. Still, my poll will have as much credibility as the one they’ve got up at RK. And, I've read enough of Feld's sometimes very thoughtful writing to know he's smart enough to realize that RK, as it is now positioned, has been caught on the wrong side of this Weekend Without Echoes experiment.

Now they don't really know what to do about it. Ignore it? Assimilate it? Discredit it? But how can you be against writers trying to be original for a spell of three days?

More Kool-Aid?