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An invitation to liberal, conservative, moderate (centrist), libertarian, and even statist or authoritarian bloggers
Basically, there are two kinds of political bloggers in the world.
- Most political bloggers, columnists, writers, and contributors prefer to write from the peanut gallery, lobbing peanut
shells over the railing at their opposition (real or imagined), but in truth they are little more than terrified bullies.
Bring them face to face with their opponents, and they drop to the floor in a dead faint. They have no guts.
- The other kind of political blogger prefers to engage the opposition face-to-face and nose-to-nose without
resorting to name-calling and disparagement of the opposition as the basis for their arguments. This kind is
the one with the real guts. He or she is the kind of blogger we look for at the Nolan Chart.
It's ridiculously easy to set up a political blog these days, and thousands of people have done so.
They enjoy the thrill of seeing visitors who think like they do come to visit their blogs. In a few rare
cases, some blogs become popular enough that the writers might even earn a living from their blogging, but
for most, blogging is just an opportunity to vent their spleens, call the opposition some dirty names, and
engage in rampant sarcasm while getting repeated pats on the back from the writer's well-wishers. Eventually,
however, the thrill fades, and the blogging seems more like a chore than a hobby or an interest. The reason
for this is that real political bloggers ultimately want to blog because they want to engage their opponents.
They want a chance to change the other guy's mind, to rip apart the other guy's argument, and then counter-charge
when he reacts.
To the best of our knowledge, the Nolan Chart is the only political web site on the Internet that actually
invites, brings together, and engages liberals, conservatives, moderates, libertarians, and all other political
viewpoints in the same location. The 'Chart is the ultimate expression of free speech, because it's an opportunity
to not only address your supporters, but also to take on your opponents head-on.
Origins of the Nolan Chart
The late David Nolan created the original Nolan Chart, a political map designed to expand upon and replace the
traditional left-right spectrum map most political commentators refer to. For those who do not know him, David Nolan
was one of the original founders of the Libertarian Party and was a noted political scientist. This site was created
in 2007 to put David's magnificent chart to work as a venue for political debate and discussion. Before his untimely
death in November 2010, David was a regular contributor here at the 'Chart. We continue his tradition by taking his
original idea and turning it into a forum for political discussion and debate of the issues of the day. David enjoyed
writing here, and we know you will, too. Please note that our use of the word "libertarian" on this website does not
exclusively refer to the Libertarian Party. To the contrary, most libertarians on the site are not associated with
that party at all. In its fullest meaning, to be libertarian is to be in favor of freedom and liberty, and that's the
meaning we apply in our use of the term on the web site. Many of us (myself included) refuse to have anything to do
with the Libertarian Party directly, although we do have some party members who choose our site on which to write.
Forceful Yet Respectful Debate
We do insist on a certain level of decorum and respect for one's opponents and critics. Ad hominems (personal
attacks) are discouraged. We follow the rule that if you want to call someone else a clown, you have to provide
evidence that he dresses up in grease paint and baggy clothes for children's birthday parties on the weekends, or
something similar, in order to use the label. We discourage the use of nasty language to describe one's opponents,
while recognizing that ad hominems can never be completely avoided in political debate.
Strictly speaking, to say that your opponent is wrong is to engage in a personal attack, albeit of a very minor
kind. Thus, to eliminate all personal attacks would end political debate. We recognize that it would be counter-productive
to maintain a pure line on such attacks. However, our rules do cut down dramatically on the frequency of overtly and
intentionally cruel and nasty personal attacks, and we do not hesitate to enforce our rules.
So if you are the kind of person who isn't afraid of a little head-to-head to debate and can engage in it by writing
articles and columns without trying to drag the debate into the gutter, you are the kind of contributor the Nolan Chart
seeks, regardless of your political views. We welcome all political viewpoints that are presented in a respectful and
engaging matter.
Documenting Claims
We require that factual claims be documented with links (whenever possible) within all articles. So if you claim a
particular statistic to back your argument, or if you quote someone else, you have to include the source of your claim
within your article and link to that source from within the article. This policy significantly improves the quality of
the article and op/ed writing that takes place at the site, and it is one of the main reasons that the site is so successful
four years after its initial launch in August 2007.
We are not interested in articles whose primary purpose is to promote another website or venture. So if you're merely
a marketing person trying to promote some kind of business scheme, and that's the main purpose of your writing, we don't
want you.
If you want to promote a particular political viewpoint or campaign, that's fine. You are welcome to participate at
the Nolan Chart.
Original, Previously Unpublished Writing Only
We also only want original writing that has not yet been published elsewhere. If you have already done some blogging
and want to share some of your better pieces with us, the way to do so is to rewrite them, give them a fresh coat of paint
so to speak. It takes a little bit of work, but it can be well worth it. It's amazing how one's own views and understanding
change or become more detailed and comprehensive over time. So that old article you thought so highly of may actually not be
your best work, and taking the time to re-write it results in a new article that is actually many steps better than the
original. The process makes you re-think your own arguments, and writers often find that they've got new information to add
that they didn't have when they wrote the original version.
You Are The Editor
We require that you take responsibility for doing all your own editing. We will not edit your articles for you, although
we may kick them back to you if the editing is poor. You are welcome to use any editing software of your choice. The online
editor we provide where you enter your articles (even if only by copying and pasting from your preferred word processor) is
small but robust. It includes a built-in spell-checker, too. We might also kick your article back if you have taken liberties
with the way articles are typically laid out on the pages of our site. If that happens, we will always inform you what changes
need to be made in order to get your article approved for publication on the site.
Our Readership
As mentioned above, Google News includes our site's articles in its listings, which adds further interest and readership.
Overall, we currently average about 60,000 unique readers per month, and we have plans in place to increase those numbers
dramatically in the weeks and months ahead. By the time the 2012 presidential election arrives, we hope to have those numbers
in the hundreds of thousands each month. In fact, in the long run we're aiming at the day when we have hundreds of thousands
of unique readers each day!
Revenue Sharing
While everyone who writes here does it for the love of writing, for the thrill of seeing their articles posted in Google News,
and to challenge the powers-that-be, we do also have a revenue sharing program. You won't likely be able to make a living from it,
but we make it available in case we get writers who succeed in bringing large numbers of new visitors to the site on a regular
basis because of what they write. We take one-half of our entire revenue stream from advertising on the site and make it available
in a revenue sharing plan. Those who opt-in to the plan are credited with their share of the revenue sharing as measured by the
writer's readership levels. The shares of those who do not opt-in to the plan revert back to the ownership of the site. Again,
the advertising revenue we currently collect does not enable any of our writers, even the most successful, to earn a living from
it. But as our readership numbers grow, the advertising revenue will also grow, leading to the day when writing at the Nolan Chart
may become a vocation for some of our writers as well as a hobby and an interest.
Other sites such as the Huffington Post hinted at possible revenue sharing plans of their own at one time, but they ended up
selling out, leaving their writers with nothing while Arianna Huffington collected $315 million from AOL. At the Nolan Chart, our
intention is to always retain the revenue sharing program, because we know and recognize that our success depends upon the
contributions of writers like you. Thus, even when we we've lost money (more expenses than income), we've always paid out the
revenue shares as writers reached at least the $25 level in accumulated revenue share earnings.
Get Started
So are you ready to get started? Click here to set up your account.
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