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Democracy vs. Oligarchy in Iranian Blogsphere, or Balatarin vs. Sobhaneh

Kamangir | October 9, 2006 | Category Iran

Since the early days of Iranian presence in the web, we have had our own ways of posting and finding hot links of the day. For me, it all began with Gooya (see), “the most useful Persian media”. Gooya News (see) was a perfect source for news, compared to the vast number of state-run news agencies of the time. That’s probably why the Islamic Republic has filtered Gooya News and all its aliases (this is the last one (see)). What Gooya News does, apart from the material produced by its own anonymous crew, is copying content from other sources and gathering them in one place. Gooya was quite successful for a long while.
Then, blogging came, with its coveted spiritual leader, Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder) (see). For a few years he was the voice which encouraged everyone to write in their own blogs. He also established a more modern version of Gooya News, called Sobhaneh (see), means breakfast, with the slogan “the most important meal of the day”. Sobhaneh and its numerous aliases (see) are also filtered in Iran. In those days and even now, it was quite common to read in a blog “thanks to Sobhaneh for the link”.
Any one who has an account in Sobhaneh can post links there. Also, having an account you can comment on links. The problem is, since a long while ago no one can register in Sobhaneh any more. So, you refer to Sobhaneh for important news and then close the page.
If Gooya was a dictatorship, of probably a good king, Sobhaneh is an Oligarchy. In some sense it is a good version of the Islamic Republic; you may benefit from it, but you have no control over it. In this analogy, Hoder resembles the supreme leader. He benefits from the +20,000 hits each day (see) in two way; Sobhaneh carries ads and Hoder has a personal location there to advertise. More complaints were heard when he devised a rule that members can post blog links on Fridays, and he did so in the entire week. As Hoder returns to earth, leaving the position of the “Iranian Super Blogger”, Sobhaneh is also facing a similar fall.
Two months ago, Mehdi (see) mentioned his ideas about an Iranian digg (see). That was the beginning of Balatarin (see), means “the highest”. It is a directory of links where everyone can register and send a link, there are 366 users registered at this time. Also, everyone can post comments and vote, positive or negative, for all the links. the list then is sorted according to the ranks. He is adding more features everyday, including RSS feed, content icons, language icons, etc. This is how Balatarin introduces itself (see).
Compared to Gooya and Sobhaneh, Balatarin is the ultimate democracy. Sometimes, I think if I had designed Balatarin, I would have written my blog’s link everywhere. Mehdi seems to be super democratic; his link comes as a short text in a page somewhere not very important (see). Looking at his blog’s counter, it is obvious that he is not really benefiting from Balatarin (see).

Reader's Comments

  1. Mahmoud | October 9th, 2006 at 7:55 pm

    Just wanna mention, After Sobhane and before Balatarin another similar website came, which is called Blognews.

    BTW, Thanks for the link in Balatarin.

  2. kamangir | October 10th, 2006 at 9:12 am

    Mahmoud,
    Thanks. I have seen it. Still, I think Balatarin is more democratic and well-designed. And you are welcome. I liked you post about Amish people.

  3. … « Persian Architect | October 10th, 2006 at 1:53 pm

    [...] 4. My friendhas opened a very good argument on some basic Iranian weblog history and current event. [...]

  4. somi | October 14th, 2006 at 4:06 am

    thanks for introducing Balatarin.com , really i was mad at Sobhaneh for not letting any further registration.

  5. kamangir | October 14th, 2006 at 9:24 pm

    Somi,
    You are most welcome. I had the same problem with Sobhaneh.

  6. Balatarin Goes Higher « Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر | November 29th, 2006 at 6:50 pm

    [...] Balatarin (means “The Highest”) is the three-month old Persian lounge where Iranians around the world communicate links (also see this). Compared to the other available link-posting websites, including the famous Sobhaneh, Balatarin is attracting more people, because of a very simple rule; it tries to be a democracy. It was interesting to see that in the UCLA incident, Sobhaneh reacted only after the topic was being discussed in Balatarin for over five hours. [...]

  7. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Blogging, Marriage, and Democratic Dictatorship | April 1st, 2007 at 7:38 pm

    [...] Everyone has the right to be interested in anything they want and to write about them in their blogs. That’s probably why Google returns over a hundred million entries when you search for “one plus one is three“. That, however, does not mean that the Internet, in a general meaning, is a lousy place. Having said that, I never begin my day by searching “Iran” in Google. So, to my understanding, Balatarin is not just a smaller sample of the Internet. This is also emphasized in the “add new link” page in Balatarin. For example, Balatarin policy states that “your description should be related to the link you are posting. If you have any personal idea about the link you can always write about it in your blog and then post the regarding link”. Also, copying content from other sources and using offensive language are banned. Having said all this, I think the ladies pointed out a very serious threat, that Balatarin may become close to what Sobhaneh has turned into. [...]

  8. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » 2007 » April » 01 | April 1st, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    [...] - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Blogging, Marriage, and Democratic Dictatorship on Democracy vs. Oligarchy in Iranian Blogsphere, or Balatarin vs. SobhanehKamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » A Truckload of Lies on Basij: Deport [...]

  9. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Blogging, Marriage, and Democratic Dictatorship | April 1st, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    [...] Comments Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » 2007 » April » 01 on Democracy vs. Oligarchy in Iranian Blogsphere, or Balatarin vs. SobhanehKamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Blogging, Marriage, and Democratic [...]

  10. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Iranian Blogosphere, The New Era Begins | August 16th, 2007 at 2:14 pm

    [...] its operation, the Iranian blogosphere was dominated by the semi-democratic Sobhaneh.com (see Democracy vs. Oligarchy in Iranian Blogsphere, or Balatarin vs. Sobhaneh). Balatarin has long passed Sobhaneh in terms of hit and influence (Alexa). This is not a [...]

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