The Davisite is a multi-authored community blog by and for Davisites. It covers a wide range of topics – especially politics, but also art, education, environment, “slices of life” pieces, and more. It seeks to provide a space where Davisites can discuss issues freely without fear of personal attack, promoting community, fostering participatory democracy, and seeking accountability from public officials. In short, it gives Davisites a voice. New authors are always welcome, on a one-time basis, a regular basis, or anywhere in between. If you are interested in writing for the Davisite, contact Roberta Millstein.
The term “Davisite” refers to a resident of, or someone otherwise affiliated with, the town of Davis, California.
The Davisite blog is hosted on wordpress.com.
More about the Davisite
Periodically confusions arise about the nature of the Davisite. This is an attempt to further clarify what sort of platform it is.
First and foremost, as noted above, the Davisite is a multi-authored community blog by and for Davisites; it seeks to provide a space where Davisites can discuss issues freely without fear of personal attack, promoting community, fostering participatory democracy, and seeking accountability from public officials.
In addition, some organizations use the Davisite to post press releases and event announcements. The Davisite doesn’t endorse these events, but these announcements often foster democracy and build community.
And really, that’s it.
The rest of the clarifications are about what the Davisite is not.
The Davisite is not an organization. It is run by unpaid volunteers who operate as individuals and who choose to donate their time. It is literally just a blog, nothing more.
The Davisite is not a newspaper (even a virtual newspaper) or a media outlet. Some authors may choose to write articles that are intended to be factual and/or in the style of a reported article. Nonetheless, each author remains responsible for their own content. In May 2023, the Supreme Court “passed up a closely watched opportunity to clarify the scope of the federal liability shield known as Section 230 that protects internet companies from most legal claims over content posted by users” (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/18/twitter-google-supreme-court-win-00097643). The volunteers who run this blog operate under this understanding. Volunteers do not have the expertise or the time to fact-check authors. As with any source of potential information, readers are encouraged to do their own fact-checking.
That being said, the Davisite’s volunteers do reserve the right not to post any article that is sent to them that they know to be patently false or which contains personal attacks. In most cases the volunteers will try to work with authors to find a solution that is acceptable to all, but that is not always possible. With regard to personal attacks, there is an understanding that elected officials traditionally undergo greater scrutiny than other individuals, but the rule against personal attacks still pertains.
The Davisite does not accept any money, whether in the form of donations or advertisement. It is self-funded by its volunteers.
The Davisite does not have “guest authors,” only authors (members of the community) who may have one article, several articles, or many articles. Some authors post their own work whereas others have volunteers post on their behalf; this is just a technical convenience as not everyone is comfortable using blogging software.
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