Steele Park is specifically the area above the Steele’s Alta Vista ranch on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River a few miles north of Lake City and below Cannibal Plateau, where Alferd Packer murdered and devoured his companions in the winter of 1874. More generally, it encompasses the area where Charles and Cynthia Steele ran their cattle and cut timber. It is the starting point for the history contained here.
Deja Vu Redux
It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that I take keyboard in hand to inform the world that The Agonist has a New Editor-In-Chief! Continue reading
Blogging 3.0
Quo Vadis again again
Blogging 1.0 often replaced the plethora of special purpose forums that were apparently everywhere.
Blogging 2.0 consisted of some special-purpose sites, but the real blogosphere was comprised of many sites very much like The Agonist: covering a wide range of topics, multiple viewpoints, meaningful (and sometimes heated) discussion, generally outside of and frequently in opposition to the MSM.
It seems to me it’s time to ask, “What will Blogging 3.0 bring?” As has been noted elsewhere, the drop-off in activity is not limited to The Agonist but blogs with a specialized focus are still healthy. Generalized blogs are either attached to some other money-making entity, independently funded or dependent on reader contributions.
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The More Things Change…
Just to keep everyone in the loop, I wanted to let you all know that Agonist.org has a new owner.
There will be some technical improvements coming soon, primarily to make the site more responsive and mobile-friendly, since web access is increasingly being done via mobile devices.
The editorial policy will not change. We will still be free to post & comment as we always have.
In preparation, I will soon be simplifying the existing site, removing unnecessary clutter.
We would like to solicit feedback from bloggers and readers and a feedback form will be made available for that purpose.
Once the site is repackaged for better service and functionality, we will explore ways to attract more bloggers and blogging.
Stay tuned.
Agonist: The Book
For over a decade of ups and downs, chaos and dedication, arguments and agreements, The Agonist has earned a place in the blogging community. We have had some marvelous writing, outstanding posts and spirited (to say the least) conversations.
We are contemplating compiling a Best Of Agonist ebook, to be made available free of charge.
We are investigating several distribution methods and will pick whatever provides the widest availabilty.
To that end, we hereby invite all members to submit their favorite posts/writers and let us know via the site Contact Page, since relying on comments here might result in overloading the comment system and emails are easier for me to keep track of.
Once we have assembled a reasonable list of posts, I will copy/paste/edit them by hand, since all the software I’ve seen to automate this process creates a very ugly and nearly-unreadable product. It will therefore take some time to put together.
If there are those who specifically do not want their own posts to be included, we will certainly respect their wishes.
Furthermore, we will only publish comments on an Opt-In basis.
Your comments will NOT be included unless you specifically give us permission.
Nota Bene: There may be posts whose names you recall and which show up in a search but turn up missing when clicked on. (We have an issue in the site database). I may be able to retrieve some of these posts from the clone site, as the export/import seemed to have resolved the issue on the clone site. If your favorite post doesn’t display, note it anyway and I’ll try to track it down.
In addition to providing the posts/comments, we may also ‘blurb’ the writers if requested, so that those who blog or write elsewhere may get a little ‘boost’ in visibility for their non-Agonist world. If that category includes you, feel free to provide us any bio or links you would like us to include.
Agonist 2014
Regular visitors will have noticed recent changes to this site. Some were aimed at improving performance, some at providing additional functionality. The most recent changes add more functions, provide a consistent method of navigating the site and improve the appearance.
Old habits die hard and we expect the new site will taking some getting used to. Part of the problem is that the ads on top and to the right take up a lot of ‘real estate’, which limits our options. We will continue to work on functions and cosmetics. If you have suggestions, comments are welcome and the Contact Page proves a means of communicating privately, as does the new Messages Page.
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Return of the Chronicler
It gives me a great deal of pleasure, satisfaction and even excitement to announce that The Agonist will soon have a new Editor-In-Chief:
Going Forward
This is the second time in about a year I find myself unexpectedly promoted on the departure of the EIC. At least this time around I’m retired and can devote more attention to The Agonist, although, like Michael, I too have personal obligations which take precedence from time to time, as we all do.
I would emphasize that I have no agenda here except to facilitate and preserve The Agonist as a forum for discussing things that matter (or should matter) to all of us.
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Agonist Internal Message System
Welcome to Steele Park
Editor Emeritus: Penelope Puffbear Quivertail 2000-2014
This site contains cross-postings of my posts at Agonist.org, before it folded, since archived at Agonistas.com.
It also has a number of music videos and recipes and computer ‘war stories’.
It is affiliated with Steele Park Press.
Joe Bageant died in 2011. He wrote “Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War” and “Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir”. Joe’s writing was put before the public, particularly the online public by a peripatetic, cosmopolitan chap named Ken Smith. Ken was Joe’s ‘literary executor’ and Ken put together “Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball: The Best of Joe Bageant”, which Ken felt were Joe’s best 25 essays.
Ken kept Joe’s website operational and after some issues with the hosting, was considering migrating it to WordPress. I offered to help with this and he gave me access to the data, to serve as a archive in case the conversion failed or the old website was lost permanently.
In 2016, Ken Smith passed away. At the request of Joe’s family I have established Joebageant.org to preserve Joe’s online presence and the website now belongs to Joe’s family.
While I am happy to help preserve Joe’s wonderful writing, I am neither young nor immortal.
Buy the books, read and savor Joe’s wit and honesty – and spread the word.