C101: Political Compass Redux

I wrote about The Political Compass a while back.

Well, turns out there are new developments.

1. The Blogosphere Political Compass Project

Sandor at The Zoo is running The Blogosphere Political Compass Project, to graph out the political philosophy of the blogosphere, based on The Political Compass. Note that the blogs represented are predominantly right-wing; my my my. Let's balance out that chart a little, people.

How The Blogosphere Political Compass Project Works

Straight from The Zoo:

1) Go to the Political Compass web site and take the Political Compass Quiz. It takes about 10 minutes. Here at The Zoo we are well aware that the questions are not perfectly designed, so please refrain from sending us complaints. The BPCP is an attempt to get a general idea of blogger's political affiliation and should not be construed as definitive or infallible.

2) Send me your results, along with the name of your blog and the name you use when posting. The BPCP Graph will be updated twice monthly (on or about the 1st and 15th of every month). Note that all respondents will be researched to ensure that quiz results are coming from actual bloggers and have really been sent by the party in question.

[Please note that "send me" refers to Sandor at the Zoo, not Shaula at C101. I think this is a brilliant project but I'm not actually part of it.]

3) Each update includes links, immediately below the BPCP Graph, to the bloggers new to the project. A permanent list of BPCP participants is maintained further down the page and new additions will "slide down" onto it with the following update.

You see? How simple. How lovely. How fun.

But as I cast my eyes up at that chart...it is just so lop-sided. Heavend forfend that the right-wing blogosphere tout this as indicative of their relative numbers/strength. (It's a propaganda war out there people...er...in case you hadn't come to that conclusion on your own.)

So please, take the quiz, send in your results, and let's get that graph tidied up. :)

I took a look through the blog listings on Sandor's site--he doesn't tag the blogs on the graph yet, although he's working on it, and he does list the blogs, along with blogger names, and their rankings. Contributors to multi-author blogs seem invited to participate! So all y'all, send in your results and get your name and C101 on his list. :)

Non-bloggers are also invited to take the test and leave their results in the comments section here; we're always interested to learn more about C101 readers.

2. The Political Compass Scandal

I know...amazing what wonks get really excited about.

I posted about the Blogosphere Political Compass Project on BOP today, in an article called colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back (a fairly obscure reference to the lyrics of Arlo Guthrie's incredible 18 minute 20 second long, anti-Vietnam protest song; read about it here and read the lyrics here, and if you've never heard the song do yourself a favor and go and listen to it. Or ask your folks--I guarantee that they'll know how the chorus goes.)

Well, the comments EXPLODED. Turns out that there is Great Controversy about the Political Compass (who knew?). You can take a look at the comments here if you're curious, including some estorically impenetrable comments by BOP's Stirling Newberry. In the comments, a reader suggested an alternative, open source version called The Political Survey. I tried it out...and I'm still as liberal as the day is long. My left/right score was -8.7630 (-0.5275). No big surprise.

You can try the (Liberal Approved! Scandal Free!) Political Survey at http://politics.beasts.org/.