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TAX ANALYST BLOG CRIES FOR HELP

January 25, 2004

What else can this be:

Des Moines Rocks!
Jan. 23, 2004 12:15:04 PM

Following Howard Dean's impassioned speech after his disappointing third-place ranking in Iowa, Internet wags have begun circulating an altered photo that depicts the Democratic presidential contender onstage at a punk rock concert, complete with stage-diving fans. -- Karla Miller

The above is an entire entry from the new Tax Analysts blog, "Tax Analysts Alive." Why is it a cry for help? The poor poster clearly would love to link to the "altered photo," but for whatever reason - maybe the primitive blogging interface, or perhaps bureaucratic indifference - apparently no linkage is possible. Gotta love the headline, though.

IT COULD BE SO GOOD

Tax Analysts Alive (We'll call it "TAA") could become the definitive tax blog. With some of the smartest commentators around, a Tax Analysts blog could affect the terms of the national tax debate. That's why TAA is so far such a disappointment. Of course, their blog is still new, and maybe they are looking to learn and improve. While the Tax Update makes no claims to being a model blog, we offer some suggestions:

LINKS! A blog without links is like a tavern without beer. As Glenn Reynolds, famous blogger, has intoned, "A blog that doesn't have links is less interesting." Why? With links, "...you can follow the link and make up your mind for yourself."

For example, the TAA entry above begs for a link to the picture it talks about.

AUTHORS. Tax Analysts is the home of Lee Sheppard, Gene Steurle, Martin Sullivan, Bill Raby, and a host of other noted tax authors. It would be great if they would chip in. Real-time commentary on developing tax bills, speeches, or new rulings and cases from these folks would be fascinating.

CONTENT. So far, the posts in TAA are mostly news snippets. There's nothing wrong with that, but it would be so much more fun if authors told us how the piece of news they relate illuminates the tax world. For example, this entry in TAA:

All Smiles . . . for Now
Jan. 21, 2004 01:21:52 PM

House Ways and Means Committee Chair William M. Thomas, R-Calif., on January 21 spoke jovially to reporters off the House floor but issued this caveat about his friendly attitude:

"Don't worry. It won't last. I just got here on Monday." -- Patti Mohr

It would be nice if the poster would put this in context: is Mr. Thomas notoriously grumpy? Might he call the Capitol Police to arrest impertinent reporters by the end of the session? Enquiring minds want to know!

PERMALINKS. On most blogs, every entry has it's own URL, enabling other blogs to link to the post specifically - like this. You can find the one for this post by clicking on the little "link" dohickee at the bottom of the page.

Permalinks encourage other blogs to reference to you. Without permalinks, all you can do if you want to tell folks about a great post is to link to the site itself and say "scroll down." That's dark ages stuff - so 2001.

COMMENTS When a blog has good comments, they can be really good. It would be great to see, say, B. John Williams respond to a post by Lee Sheppard about the Bush administration's approach to tax shelters.

Not all blogs allow comments, and some that do maybe shouldn't; the comments can descend to juvenile name calling. If a bunch of tax protestors - ahem, members of the "Tax Honesty Movement" - started making inane comments by the dozen, that wouldn't add a lot of insight. Still, for a blog just building a following, comments can add a lot of interest.

MAKE IT EASY. We don't know what software Tax Analysts uses for TAA, but it appears to be the same package it uses for the rest of their site, www.tax.org. Posting to the site probably involves HTML coding, chisels, and a cuneiform stylus.

TAA should hire a skilled weblog designer to set up a Movable Type weblog. This would enable the blog members to post from their homes, offices, or handy wireless hotspots anywhere. Movable Type is so easy, even we can use it; if it isn't easy, busy people won't use it. If they chose to set it up in the morning, they could probably be posting in Movable Type tonight.

For an idea of what TAA could be, visit the Volokh Conspiracy (volokh.com), a group weblog of legal scholars. For what TAA is now, go to their handy and easy-to-rembember URL:

http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/
website.nsf/Web/TaxAnalystsLive?OpenDocument

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