Rumblings at Z
Z communications is one of the institutions at the heart of this community–the community centered around Participatory Society, and the community that broadly calls itself The Left. Michael Albert, one of the original creators of Participatory Economics, founded and continues to be one of the few (two?) paid employees of Z communications. It is the “home site” of many famous authors of the left.
Even this doesn’t fully explain it’s place in this community. For a lot of people, Z is the central source for news and analysis, and the central place of comparison; when a new person shows up at an APPS meeting, and says “I’m a long-time Z reader”, I know that at the very least I share a common language with them.
Unfortunately, it’s been years since I’ve felt really connected with Z–since shortly before they announced the new ZSpace. A lot of the things I didn’t like about the new Z have been voiced in a recent blog post over at Z and the comment thread after it:
- Interface is too busy/clunky
- Split between “writers” and “sustainers” makes it feel like there’s a two-class system.
- Everything I read at Z feels serious and confrontational. I think twice or three times about saying anything even related to it, because I feel the need to ‘defend my thesis’, rather than just share an idea. Part of this is because it’s true of all the featured content by the writers, which sets the tone for the site.
- A lot of software difficulties (for me, this centers on poor quality RSS feeds).
I ended up creating Planet Parecon separate from Z because it just feels so much easier.
After I participated in the Z parecon/parsoc class over the summer, Michael Albert sent the participants a really, really frustrated, kind of bitter email in which he guilt-tripped the participants for not “pitching in” enough for the school to meet his expectations:
Perhaps by then we will all be ready to pitch in a bit more, and more folks will want to join us.
I’m a prime constituency who still speaks fluently in the language of Z, yet, I don’t feel comfortable there at all. I’m willing to help find a way for people like me to feel more comfortable, to help build a community. I really hope that the folks at Z see this as a form of “pitching in” and not just nagging.