Changes at L.A. Land

A few changes at L.A. Land, worthy of a short note.

First, as some of you noticed over the weekend, the blog has some new contributors -- reporters and editors who cover real estate and related issues for the Los Angeles Times. This is good news. It will lead to a more diverse, more interesting and more informative blog. As always, you'll still get the full dose of my grumpy take on real estate and the housing bubble. But now, for no extra charge, you'll get additional news, information and analysis from the experts in the Times newsroom.

Second, more good news: Beginning this Sunday, a "greatest hits" version of the blog will appear weekly in the print edition of  The Times, in the  Business section (you Web-only cheapskates had better subscribe, ASAP). The paper will "reverse-publish" the best posts from that week for those of you who missed it, or for those print readers who might not have ever come to this blog.

Third, a bit of controversy for you to chew on: The latimes.com website is in the process of tweaking its blog comment policy ever so slightly, in hopes of encouraging more thoughtful, sincere, well-reasoned discussion and debate. You can still be silly, or mean and ornery; just be silly, or mean and ornery, while making a relevant point.

My hope is that these changes will make this blog more interesting and more valuable to its readers.  You have my thanks, as always, for participating in the blog. As one of the higher-ups here told me (he meant it as a compliment, but I didn't hear it that way): "Pete, the best thing about your blog is the comments."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[E]

Experts from the newsroom?

You mean the relentless bubble cheerleaders that sold their souls to the RE advertisers?

Do you mean people like Peter Hong that can't dig a little deeper on the flippers that he wrote about, yet when busted all over the internet...still stays silent?

Do we get "experts" like Connie De Groot or Tom Adkins?

Do we get "bottom callers" that helped people into overpriced houses in the past year?

And what's with the "best post of the week" gig? Are these going to be the posts that are hand selected by the MSM's REIC corporate masters?

Who will be the next big writers. There are so many shameful people to choose from I'd have a tough time picking them myself.

[mike]

I LOVE IT. YOU HAVE TO MAKE A POINT IF YOU ARE GOING TO COMMENT.

[Ace]

Since you asked me (not really).... here are my suggestions for the blog:

1. Improve the comment section so it is displayed in more of a digg format. Lame comments will be hidden unless you really want to look at them. Also, digg lets you directly respond to a comment and then your comment is displayed with the original comment. MUCH easier to read.

2. Now that you have a giant team of journalists, hit the pavement and do more stories about actual home owners and home buyers. Rehashing the same weekly numbers from 5 different sources does not really help people understand the housing market.

3. Get rid of those annoying google ads! The ads on the top and on the right are enough. We don't need ads in the middle of the story.

[Laker]

Peter, it is a fact that the a good blog is characterized by good comments. LALAND is right there!
Blog with no comments or meaningless comments is worth nothing. The whole idea of blogging is to present a thought based in ideas, facts, etc and get an extremely wide range of pro/con. This is like having a classroom with 30 professors vs. a classroom with 1 professor. Now, since we have 30, there is a good chance to learn something. However, in a class of one professor, if the professor is good, we are good, but if the professor is worthless, we are doomed to fail.
In any case, You rock, and the blog is steaming!

[Rational Renter]

Well, it sounds like La La Land as we know it is coming to an end. I fear all change.

[buz]

LA Land has become a daily read for me over the past year. I credit Pete V for guiding the discussion relatively free of censorship and political correctness. Please tell me this wiill continue. If other LA Times staff want in on the act let them run their own predictable PC blog.

[It All Happens on the Margin]

Wow... just think... names like "pugtv","puckhead", and *gasp* "Uncle Billy ____ __ _________" will be printed in the actual, live newspaper.

[mucker]

So the powers that be will decide which comments in a blog are relevant to the discussion. Is this the whiff of censorship?

[the problemwithcaring]

>>As always, you'll still get the full dose of my grumpy take on real estate and the housing bubble. But now, for no extra charge, you'll get additional news, information and analysis from the experts in the Times newsroom.

My Mama had a name for a good-intentioned person, always busy fixing what isn't broken. The Hag of Help. lulz

[Anon.]

I read La La Land becasue it is good new media, even though it is obviously tied to an old media institution. I like the singualr voice and Pete's smiling picture. I hope that despite the new posters, the singular voice will still continue. I guess I subscribe to the auteur theory of blogging.

[sfvrealestate]

Three comments. First, Peter, you've been great about including the Valley, Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale in your posts. I hope the other bloggers will do the same and not just focus on housing issues over the hill, as does L.A. Curbed.
Second, I'm not sure state-wide or even "So.Cal-wide" stats are really instructive anymore, and I hope we'll get less headlines and posts that cite stats outside of L.A. county.

[anonymous]

Uhm, Peter,

"reporters and editors who cover real estate and related issues for the Los Angeles Times. This is good news. It will lead to a more diverse, more interesting and more informative blog."

Sounds like a meaningless blather from a higher up in a staff meeting. You had us all worried earlier this week when you weren't posting and those other *fill in the blank* reporters and editors were.

Peter, you make this blog worth reading and posting to. I could pass on the other stuff someone has deemed "more diverse, more interesting and more informative."

They didn't ask me!

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

It is hard to make a relevant point while trying to be silly.

Have you thought about that?

Nooooooooooooo.

By the way, it's sanity to respond to an absurdity with another absurdity...and here is the relevant part, home prices are absurd. It's sort of like minus times minus equals plus.

Go ahead and print that!

[save your ammo]

Looks like the powers that be at the LA Times who
live in places like Santa Monica, Brentwood, B.H.,
San Marino, etc., are finally cracking down before
this blog starts to effect their home equity values.
So much for free speech.

I don't buy their enlightened reasoning.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Let me say something about relevance, facts and ideas.

X-rays, cornflakes, penicilin, nylon - they are all accidental discoveries, i.e. people were doing things irrelevant when the discovery happend.

If the conscious continues to desire its dominance over the unconsicous, there will be no hope left for mankind, not that I am particularly partial to them, over, say, animals or pebbles. But just MAKR MY WORDS!!!!!

[The original RZ]

"You can still be silly, or mean and ornery; just be silly, or mean and ornery, while making a relevant point."

I hope that certain posters out there would stop being rude. (There are ways to be silly, mean, and/or ornery w/out being rude). Debate is great, but there's no reason for rudeness, especially since on a blog no one is stopping anyone else from a "civil attack." I changed my log-in name because I felt that the other "RZ" was being quite rude to Peter.

[TakeFive]

Ace wrote:

"Improve the comment section so it is displayed in more of a digg format."

Bad idea. The Diggbats bury any post that doesn't agree with their ideology (hint: it's not rightwing).

Let's keep the censorship to a minimum. The delay in posting comments already acts as a pretty effective governor in keeping things from getting overheated.

But I'm curious what "...tweaking its blog comment policy ever so slightly" means. Filtering software for naughty words? Password accounts? IP logging? Surveillance by Times delivery people? Midnight raids by subscription services?

[Nick]

Well, I hope it stays good, and doesn't venture too far into the realm of censorship that's seems to be more prevalent these days. That said, it's pretty cool that they plan on publishing some choice comments; that should be good for the paper too, as long as they don't cherry pick based on ideology. Good times. :)

[TakeFive]

Peter – since your sole proprietorship of this blog is coming to an end, maybe it’s time for perhaps your final “Ask Pete” post.

[Milla]

that's fantastic news, peter. even though i know you're a powerhouse capable of juggling knives while spinning plates on a spoon, i'm sure maintaining this blog entirely on your own for the past few years wasn't easy. and fresh perspectives are never a bad thing.

[Rob]

Sooo, you mean I cant say things like the only point I see is the one on top of your head (leftus), unless I am actually making a relevant comment?

Has this blog become so popular to warrant censorship?

[Ace]

TakeFive 'Bad idea. The Diggbats bury any post that doesn't agree with their ideology (hint: it's not rightwing).'

Isn't that ideal? Most of the commenters here are angry renters. If an angry homeowner (looking at you ShockG) posts, the post will just get buried and I don't have to sort through it.

[Tombstone Realty]

I'm a little confused about the "blog team" idea - I thought the whole idea behind a 'blog' is to have one person's take on certain issues.

As for possibly seeing my handle in print someday - I don't read the LA Times print version. The news itself is a day late, and that icky newsprint smudges my pinafore.

But at least the ads don't have dancing aliens in them. Lord does that drive me crazy.....

[SoCalRealEstateNews]

Can we post about Jon Edwards now?

Silly, yes, but there is a point. About censorship. Makes me nervous about those bureaucrats tinkering with your blog. Wish it was your idea.

Onward & upward?

[CD]

Sam Zell won, censorship rules now on the blog. Welcome to all realtards cheerleaders. By the way, would you like to buy a BS condo/loft downtown, Sam will have those ready for you in a jiffy. Lets see 2 million for the penthouses, 900K for the 1800 sqft 600K for the 1200sqft. Now is time to buy, all is well again in our economy and we need you to buy more crappy condo/lofts in downtown LA. Come on down !!!!! I hope Peter got a mega raise, he built up the comment section and now he is hosting the Brady bunch/cheerleaders...Do we get a raise too or we keep bending over holding our ankles for your pleasure ?