A short hiatus?
Friday 12 July 2013
If I survive the experience, I get a free lunch and will be back home early evening, traffic permitting.
In the meantime, I will blog as and when possible, although that might be infrequently, if at all. I may even miss the Booker column. He's gone swanning off to Italy with his family for a holiday … just who does he think he is? Thus, I won't get the .pdf of his column to post. I'll tell you a little secret, though. It's about the EU, with a short piece about STOR.
With a bit of luck, the current STOR piece in the blog will find its way into the Mail on Sunday this weekend. I'm doing a collaborative venture with Dellers, so he is in charge of the writing. But it may or may not appear. You never know until you actually see these things in print, especially as this is not a commissioned piece. Newspapers tend to be very sniffy about "not invented here" copy – they are usually the first to be dropped from the running order.
With that, I certainly could do with a break. With the STOR research, I've been hard at it and, behind the scenes, I've been preparing a powerpoint lecture for Monday. I like using powerpoint, but it's very easy to do badly.
Preparing a new presentation from scratch is a serious commitment and I always find them very difficult to do. This one has taken me ages, eating up several days in total, and even more in thinking time and research. I've included one of the photographs I intend to use, at the top of this piece – arguably the weapon that broke the British Army, although few will understand why, or even be able to identify it.
For reasons good and bad, therefore, I will leave the blog unattended for a little while – other than perhaps some airshow photos. In years past, I would have been worried about leaving it for so long without a constant stream of fresh posts. It is a given that blogs must be constantly refreshed, otherwise the readership falls off … especially if your RSS feed doesn't work. It should … but it doesn't, and we don't know why.
That said, the readership has been falling off anyway. Looking at the stats, this is mainly because of a drop in US traffic, which once accounted for more than 60 percent of our hits. As we focus more on EU and domestic matters, it is sometimes less than 20 percent. British readership has increased, but not enough to fill the gap.
Part of the reason for that, over the years, is the abrasive and occasionally dogmatic style of the blog. I have managed to offend a growing constituency, while my refusal to fall in with the prevailing orthodoxy means saying things a lot of people don't want to hear. And if you think people go on to the internet as seekers of truth and wisdom, be advised that the main reasons are to confirm and reinforce strongly held prejudices.
Another part is the fragmentation of the blogosphere. There was a time when the blogroll and cross-links were an essential part of any blog, and we tried to work as a pack. But now, as Anonymous Mind points out, in a flattering use of my work, tribal mores have re-asserted themselves and we have segmented audiences who do not cross-refer.
With the quite deliberate sabotage of the blogosphere by the legacy media, that means that truly independent blogs such as mine are struggling for an audience. We simply do not get the recognition that we deserve.
I once thought that I would be concerned if my stats started falling. Now, strangely, I am indifferent to them. I know my work is of good quality. I also know it is not to everyone's taste. People will read my work if they want to, and I am grateful when they do. If they don't, that is their loss.
If I wrote "vote UKIP" on every one of my posts, talked earnestly about the "liblabcon" and condemned the "traitors" in Westminster and Whitehall, perhaps I would get a bigger audience. But they are an audience I don't want anyway. They do not belong here. Nevertheless, I think I deserve a short break. I haven't had one for nearly two years, when they slit me open in order to sew a bit of a pig inside me. But if I don't manage to post until late Monday, and you're all gone by the time I get back, it's been nice knowing you.
The donation button is on the top left, and it would be very nice if some of you pressed it on your way out. I am very grateful for the many who visit it occasionally, but there are far too many people in this world who seem to think I – and more importantly, Mrs EU Referendum - can live off fresh air.
COMMENT THREAD
In the meantime, I will blog as and when possible, although that might be infrequently, if at all. I may even miss the Booker column. He's gone swanning off to Italy with his family for a holiday … just who does he think he is? Thus, I won't get the .pdf of his column to post. I'll tell you a little secret, though. It's about the EU, with a short piece about STOR.
With a bit of luck, the current STOR piece in the blog will find its way into the Mail on Sunday this weekend. I'm doing a collaborative venture with Dellers, so he is in charge of the writing. But it may or may not appear. You never know until you actually see these things in print, especially as this is not a commissioned piece. Newspapers tend to be very sniffy about "not invented here" copy – they are usually the first to be dropped from the running order.
With that, I certainly could do with a break. With the STOR research, I've been hard at it and, behind the scenes, I've been preparing a powerpoint lecture for Monday. I like using powerpoint, but it's very easy to do badly.
Preparing a new presentation from scratch is a serious commitment and I always find them very difficult to do. This one has taken me ages, eating up several days in total, and even more in thinking time and research. I've included one of the photographs I intend to use, at the top of this piece – arguably the weapon that broke the British Army, although few will understand why, or even be able to identify it.
For reasons good and bad, therefore, I will leave the blog unattended for a little while – other than perhaps some airshow photos. In years past, I would have been worried about leaving it for so long without a constant stream of fresh posts. It is a given that blogs must be constantly refreshed, otherwise the readership falls off … especially if your RSS feed doesn't work. It should … but it doesn't, and we don't know why.
That said, the readership has been falling off anyway. Looking at the stats, this is mainly because of a drop in US traffic, which once accounted for more than 60 percent of our hits. As we focus more on EU and domestic matters, it is sometimes less than 20 percent. British readership has increased, but not enough to fill the gap.
Part of the reason for that, over the years, is the abrasive and occasionally dogmatic style of the blog. I have managed to offend a growing constituency, while my refusal to fall in with the prevailing orthodoxy means saying things a lot of people don't want to hear. And if you think people go on to the internet as seekers of truth and wisdom, be advised that the main reasons are to confirm and reinforce strongly held prejudices.
Another part is the fragmentation of the blogosphere. There was a time when the blogroll and cross-links were an essential part of any blog, and we tried to work as a pack. But now, as Anonymous Mind points out, in a flattering use of my work, tribal mores have re-asserted themselves and we have segmented audiences who do not cross-refer.
With the quite deliberate sabotage of the blogosphere by the legacy media, that means that truly independent blogs such as mine are struggling for an audience. We simply do not get the recognition that we deserve.
I once thought that I would be concerned if my stats started falling. Now, strangely, I am indifferent to them. I know my work is of good quality. I also know it is not to everyone's taste. People will read my work if they want to, and I am grateful when they do. If they don't, that is their loss.
If I wrote "vote UKIP" on every one of my posts, talked earnestly about the "liblabcon" and condemned the "traitors" in Westminster and Whitehall, perhaps I would get a bigger audience. But they are an audience I don't want anyway. They do not belong here. Nevertheless, I think I deserve a short break. I haven't had one for nearly two years, when they slit me open in order to sew a bit of a pig inside me. But if I don't manage to post until late Monday, and you're all gone by the time I get back, it's been nice knowing you.
The donation button is on the top left, and it would be very nice if some of you pressed it on your way out. I am very grateful for the many who visit it occasionally, but there are far too many people in this world who seem to think I – and more importantly, Mrs EU Referendum - can live off fresh air.
COMMENT THREAD
Richard North 12/07/2013
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