matgb | Entries tagged with blogging

My daily digest of texts, tweets and status updates.

12:24 is trying to summon the energy and inclination to write a proper blog post. Bloggers block is a horrible thing. #
14:57 has finished the first draft styling of his tweet imports and wonders if anyone wants a how-to? eg: matgb.livejournal.com/296525.html #
22:45 is arguing over pavement cracks, bears and Milne. theyorkshergob.livejournal.com/65620.html #
00:36 is watching the first episode of Trek series 3. Not seen it since I was a kid, and am told it's the worst ever. So it's REALLY bad, yes? #

Microblogging by SMS, using LoudTwitter and Twitter.

My daily digest of texts, tweets and status updates.
( Sent by text from wherever I was at the time )

Microblogging by SMS, using LoudTwitter and Twitter.

Interesting comment made at

minnesattva's:

The sensible thing to do would be to differentiate LJ, position it if you like as an 'intellectual networking site', or the equivalent of a collaborative newspaper (it has news, opinion, cartoons...) - something you *read* (or write) rather than something you play at. You could even have a default set of people who would be added as your 'friends' when you started on LJ representing some of the best/most popular writing on here - people like say bradhicks or theyorkshergob who don't write about themselves on their journals much but write about actual *stuff*, but who you could then add or subtract at will...

Can't say I disagree with that at all, and am amused at the two choices given as examples. I have, naturally, got a whole passel of posts in my head on the whole SUP buyout/ending-of-Basic/interest not-really-censorship thing, but, y'know, lack of motivation strikes again. I do think ending Basic accounts is a daft idea, and I thinkt he way it wasn't clearly announced was insanely stupid.

SUP appear to want to treat LJ as a Social Network, not a blogging platform with SN elements, which I think is completely the wrong way to go, especially given the Russian market success where blogging means LJ. Ah well.

Possibility my long-on-hiatus alternate platform collection of ideas might get dug out again soon. Possibly.

K, loads of you have suggested stuff on my last post, so I'll probably work through stuff when I can over the next few days but Martin suggested more polls. This shouldn't surprise me, Martin always wants more polls (and I don't post enough anyway). So I thought I'd take the existing suggestions and turn them into a poll because, well, why not. I've also put in one about my most-used tags, just to see what you guys like (and even dislike) about what I normally drone on about.
[Poll #1152482]
As always I prefer check boxes so you can choose everything you like/want—the polling methodology geek in me could witter about how it's a perfectly valid method etc but you don't want that sort of stuff (do you?).

There's a part of me that's wondering if I'm not posting as much because I'm displacing and putting off the forthcoming Dreaded Friends Cut thing because I really need to cut back on the number of different things I try to read each day. I just can't choose which.

Oh, as I post this Ryan emails me to confirm that he's listed me on Lib Dem Blogs after I finally got around to asking him, several at conference asked me to so, well, here we go—hi guys, I promise to write up a "how to comment using your blog address and OpenID" and "how to log in and vote in polls" soon. Honest. I promised I would. About a year ago...

Heh, guess what? Yup, little bit of a malaise when it comes to the will to write posts at the moment. I think it might be linked to being too happy (sorry): I need a little bit of anger in my soul, and despite the perpetual money worries, life is good right now. I even have a few potential clients for the part-time consultancy I really should already have set up. Anyway, a few people are doing this meme:

Everyone has things they write about. Everyone has things they don't write about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

So, y'know, go on, suggest something--promises to actually write the post may or may not be kept for lack-of-motivation or distracted-by-Jennie reasons (especially if she's got the new top that

claire_wain made for her on), but it might happen.

There's also the fair warning that many of you might get the "political leanings" request if you don't normally post about such things--this is me, after all.

Finally got around to writing my first post on Liberal Conspiracy, pretty sure it'll appeal to

innerbrat,

daweaver and

snapesbabe, as well as anyone else who was annoyed by that execrable Kay Burley interview.

Liberal Conspiracy » Kay Burley on Sky News—Incompetent, ignorant or just malicious?

I had planned my first post to be a general 'this is what I'm about' post but that'll take too much time to research and put all the links in. Feel free to go read, comment, etc.

In a discussion about the interesting Beeb article on gender differences

andrewducker says:

You know, the quality of comments like this, and the breadth of knowledge available on my friends list is one of the reasons I love livejournal.

I'd amend it slightly to say blogging generally, but LJ, with the built in friends list aggregator, does make it very easy to keep in touch with a huge chunk of people with knowledge in specific areas way beyond my own.

Not sure on the research as presented, she's definitely got a point, but as always generalisations can be beaten by specifics--my index and ring finger are roughly the same length, and I definitely show both "male" and "female" traits depending on context, and I know a fair number of women that are a lot more "male" than me in most respects. But on the other hand, I definitely agree that a good mix of talents and a good gender ratio make for a much more succesful office/business in general situations, and I'm always slightly wary when a profession, office or place of work is too skewed one way or the other.

Heh. Want to hear me singing?
Tim recorded our attempt at an anti-Carol concert last night (

bloggerheads):

Bah, Humbug!
(to the tune of 'Jingle Bells')

Ebenezer Scrooge
Wasn't all that dumb
Until he met the Ghost
Of Christmas Yet to Come
Then he lost the plot, and woke up with a scream
Then foolishly made life decisions based upon a dream!

Oh, bah-humbug, bah-humbug, bah-humbug, I say
We are demonstrating here
Protesting Christmas Day... hey!

Also present included Justin (

chickenyoghurt ),Gareth (

d_notice_fd), Davide (

nether_world_fd), a bloke called John with a saxophone from the Strawberry Theives and most impressively Garry (

bssc_world), who'd travelled down from Aberdeen for the occasion—his first time in London as well.

We have succesfully established that SOCPA is an arse, the police think that demonstrating in favour of something doesn't require permission, but to demonstrate against something does. This is interesting to know, and Tim is working on ways to test this in the future, because, well, we're in favour of keeping the detention-without-charge limit to 28 days or lower, right? We're in favour of getting the Govt to change its policies on a large number of issues.

After the event, naturally, we went to the Westminster Arms which, scarily, doesn't have a menu—it has a Food Agenda. Much beer was consumed. Much much beer. I think I should've eaten more food earlier.

One of the better blogs on my 'regular reads' list has had a problem with its domain registration (this also affects the dormant Liberty Central), so Unity has a new domain and will redirect the old one ASAP. Ministry of Truth is now at http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/ not .org.uk. I'll be getting the

unity_truth_fd syndication sorted across to the new location ASAP as well.

(Yes, one of my top 5 blogs is written by a Labour member, and I agree with him more often than either of us agree with the Govt, daft, innit? Stupid electoral system)

Reasons why Mat should pay more attention to those messages he's got marked as "reply to when you've time"...
Liberal Conspiracy

That contributors list? That's a who's who of left-of-centre British blogging. Some I virtually always agree with, some I vehemently disagree with on most things. Suspect it'll be an interesting site. And I can pretty much guarantee that a fair few of the contributors will fail to understand Chris Dillow on more than one occasion. There are far too many people out there that think support for markets=right wing. Guys? It's the Tories that are supposed to be Stupid, remember? Except the liberal ones, who really ought to realise they're in the wrong party.

I barely have time to read my friends page, let alone comment, or update here. So why am I thinking of contributing to two super-blogs and maybe starting something else as well? Given the huge number of half-started projects on my to-do list...

Oh, wait, it's because I'm a lunatic. We knew that. Sleep? What is this sleep thing of which people speak?

Cory argues that online censorship hurts us all in his Guardian column today

daniel_davies asks us all to contact our MPs about the Democracy Day for the Iraqi Interpreters and gives contact details and a quick walk through on how to phone them. *cough*some of us have their MPs personal mobile number, but, y'know, for the rest of you^[1]*cough*

Some very worrying news for he-who-was daweaver of this parish and his annual is it Xmas yet spotting competition. NB tsitsoss_rss is a damn good read anyway, and the entry below that one is also worth a look at, especially his link to
Liz's post about blogging which I'd had set for a link at some point soon anyway.

George Takei got himself a rock named after him, making it three Trekker types now officially orbiting the Sun (via)

[1] Technically he's no longer my MP, but as I'm not settled in Wimbledon really and am moving on, plus I've been campaigning and supporting him since I was a kid, he's the one I consider my MP until such time as I'm settled somewhere formally.

Hmm, this is, I think, rather amusing. Those, um, impartial advisers acting as lawyers for Alisher Usmanov say on their site:

Using the law to protect reputations is our specialism.

Hmm. ( Some hyperbolic musings on my part )

ETA:

liadnan in the comments here makes a very good, and informed point, from the perspective of a practicing barrister:

By and large the lawyer's (or at least the solicitor's -professional obligations are slightly different at the bar-) job is to advise -within the law- on possible courses of action which may achieve the client's wishes, and then, once the client has decided, carry out the chosen course, not to make decisions for their client based on their own political, social, or moral beliefs about what the law should be.

He's right, of course, the law firm itself can't be blamed specifically for acting on behalf of their client, but then, I've always known I'd make a terrible lawyer...

One of the advantages of having an image in your sidebar hosted at Tim Ireland's site is that when it comes back up, the image reappears to tell you. Bloggerheads itself has a holding page, he needs to reconfigure the database, but he's got a blogger hosted temporary site all about The Alisher Usmanov Affair and today he's specifically requesting a response from Fasthosts:

To ensure we broadcast as clear a picture as possible, Clive and I need to deal with this matter by addressing the parties/issues involved in the following order:

- Fasthosts
- Schillings
- Alisher Usmanov
- UK libel law

Today, we begin with Fasthosts.

The Fasthosts issue is a contractual/specific libel case one, that I'm not involved in, I have however removed them from my potential list of companies to rent a server from (I am looking) in the meantime, pending their response. The libel law is where my obvious interest lies, the law can, and should be, reformed, and this may be the cause celebre to get it done, we shall see. in the meantime, Chris Applegate asks:

I figured an article that doesn’t mention the allegations specifically but still discusses them is better than no article at all. But in the light of reading all the blog coverage of this now, I have my doubts: Am I right, or have I cowardly compromised? Your thoughts are welcome.

Personally, I think he was correct to be cautious. Craig Murray, by all accounts, thinks he has a solid case and welcomes the opportunity to test it in court, Schillings/Usmanov seem to want to quash the story but not actually sue (that's my big issue with the law as is, money can suppress a story by threat of legal action). But those not party to the evidence itself need to be circumspect--I have reason to believe Craig may be correct, but I have no plans on going to court over his story. Giving coverage to the action, but not the details of the story itself, seems to me to be a valid compromise.

K, briefly, something very serious, but I need to follow it up properly. Read this:
Chicken Yoghurt » Public Service Announcement - Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper...
Then go on to read these
Ministry of Truth » Blog Archive » Wealth (n). Impunity.
The Devil's Kitchen: Directing action against UK libel laws

The US allows for hosts to be covered by, amongst other things, common carrier status. The UK doesn't. I've mentioned the stupidity of the UK libel laws before. But for Tim's business, and the websites of two completely unrelated well known professional clients to be simply taken down because Fasthosts appear to be running scared? That's not good.

I suspect a change to the law will be needed. Scarily, wouldn't take much, especially if someone like Boris Johnson is already directly involved. Might want a letter writing/emailing campaign. More to follow.

ETA: At the top. Alex edited a badge into the post. Because of the way Blogger releases feeds, that marks it as a 'new post' for LJ, which means it showed up on my friends page again. Blogger's new version doesn't seem to work well with LJ at all. Pretty sure it's Blogger's fault (this time), although LJ's feed handling is pretty poor overall.
Love and Liberty: David Cameron on Today: How I Long For Yesterday:

Let’s just give Mr Cameron’s career a minute’s silence for that point: the one leader in history so petrified of taking responsibility for anything that he says ‘Not in my name!’ about even his own name.

That would be

alexwilcock/

alex_wilcock for those interested.

My reaction whenever I read any of his posts is always "he really should post more often". It's like Millenium, but without the childish name calling. Hmm, wodner why that might be...

OK, with all the fuss about the latest fandom controversy, many of those not involved in fandom at all (which, let's face it, is a huge chunk of LJ including me) might be wondering why it affects them and why it's more evidence towards the site dying off. Indeed,

publicansdecoy posted a poll yesterday and followed it up today with another point about what he likes about Livejournal as a platform and network. And I don't disagree with him on any of those points.
( Livejournal needs money )
( Money needs users, and they're off )
( Site usage is dropping, and has been for a long time ) In order for the site to continue to exist, the owners need to make money. They're failing in this. Now?

liz_marcs: The fat lady sure does sing,

brad is leaving SixApart, and

insomnia suggests that he don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. The site owner is bored and is leaving. To go work for Google it seems. Mark thinks it's because he's seen the writing on the wall, and we've been aware for some time he wasn't happy with the way things are.
( Long term, the LJ we know is doomed )

And that's why I'm preparing to both jump ship, and make it easy for everyone to follow. There are services that replicate LJ utility, there are ways of keeping up with blogs on many platforms in a manner that's as easy as your friends list. They just require a bit of know how. So, when I've got time (and work has hit me with a bit of extra stuff), I'll begin to write up what I'm specifically doing. Because it'll be easier to be prepared.

Because I love this place, I love the way it's networked and let me meet a lot of cool people. And I hate to see it dying. But it is dying, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. So I want to keep you guys even after it's dead.

ETA: Posted a follow up at

no_lj_ads, specifically linking to this post with a very well done set of graphs emphasising the points made above.

a_reynolds_fd, first post is here:
http://voxish.tripod.com/teahouse/index.blog/1703079/into-the-great-wide-open/

That makes virtually all my favourite current authors now blogging in one capacity or another. Good good.

Very good article at ReadWriteWeb on the massive growth of Facebook:

As well as quantity, Facebook has on its side that it is a very sticky site - 50% of registered users come back to the site every day. Facebook is generating more than 40 billion page views per month, from 24 million "active" users - 50 pages per user every day, which is very very high. In comparative terms, Facebook is now the 6th most trafficked site in the U.S. and gets more page views than eBay.

( Facebook is getting the new users that want privacy )

( Livejournal dropped the ball, Facebook took it and ran )

( The new applications mean Facebook truly can conquer the web )

( Community is what these sites are about )

Any site like this needs new users to keep feeding in, else it withers and slowly dies. LJ is dying, and the owners are helping kill it. Ah well.

Appeal for help from noted (and respected) blogger Rachel North (

rachelnolondon). Rachel from north London: Cyber-stalking: Your help is needed:

After Lowde was found guilty in absentia, a bench warrant was issued by the District Judge for her immediate arrest and sentencing. I came home after the trial, and wrote up the sorry story here. Then I went back to my usual policy of ignoring her. I hoped that was it. Please let this be over, and let this wierd stranger be out of my life at last.

However, instead of accepting or appealing her conviction and serving/appealing a sentence, Lowde chose to abscond and go on the run. She has continued to post lies on her many bizarre blogs, and send me threatening and obscene abuse almost daily. She is now believed to be living rough in London, and using internet cafes to continue the frenetic harassment campaign.

I'm adding it to my sidebar for awhile, and urge everyone else to repost this as a post or go into their journal options and adding it to whatever their style supports (text area, sidebar text or blurb box depending on layout). For your convenience, have a textarea to copy/paste from:

In more cheerful news, I'm off to a beer festival.

If you've been around here for a bit, you've seen me mention

chrislightfoot a few times. If you've missed it, I'd posit a guess that if you're British, you've been to a site he helped build, possibly without even knowing it. It was announced today on his weblog that he passed away last month. This was followed up by tributes from his two main employers, Tom Steinberg of MySociety and Phil Booth of No2ID.net. If your friends list or feed aggregator has as much overlap with mine as is likely, you've seen many links and tributes already. Here's another.

So, how do I know you've been to a site he built? Easy. How about the Downing Street petitions website (credit)? If you haven't been there, even to simply trawl around, or look at the news story du jure, then you've missed a trick. What about WriteToThem.com , the site that allows you to contact your elected representatives for free online, after a simple postcode search? It's how I first contacted Adrian, and I was very impressed. HearFromYourMP.com has been less of a success, but is still a damn fine idea. PledgeBank? Simply awesome, one of my favourite ideas for a site, and I'm signed up to a few and a couple ongoing relevent pledges, Refuse being the one that first got my attention. And then there's Downing Street Says (

number10says), breaking the lobby correspondent secrecy wide open.

But not only was he am innovative and engaged site builder, without whom many of the more innovative online democracy projects may not have been possible, but he was also a top blogger, with a fine analytical streak. Here's a series of articles debunking the loons at the Association of British Drivers. Those links were via Tim at

bloggerheads, and he has many more in a fitting tribute.

As for memes? Political Survey 2005 was one of the better at the last election (mine from then and one I just did); looks like I've moved half a point into the centre, not that that makes a difference really. As for why he was a blogger's blogger? He paid attention to referrals and commented on my post taking issue with his axes labelling; nice to know we were both right, for different reasons.

Normally, I cut a post of this length. Not this one. I'm a humanist, I don't believe in an afterlife, I believe that all that matters is your legacy, what you've left behind you, what you've achieved, how you'll be remembered. In Chris's case, he did more in 28 years than I'm likely to achieve in my life. He'll be missed. If the comments on the memorial post on his blog read like a who's who of British blogging, the tributes below the cut are indicative of his influence.

( A linklog of other tributes, long and short )

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Mat Bowles

September 2021

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Profiles

Blogs & stuff I read

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Page Summary

What I've been up to by Text today
What I've been up to by Text today
Positioning Livejournal in the blogging/SN marketplace
Polls and popular blogging topics
Inspire me: what should I write about?
Me elsewhere: that awful Sky News interviewer
Quote of the Day: On Blogging, Digit Ratio and Gender Equality
I'm gonna be Elvis this Christmas
Ministry of Truth has moved slightly
It's all one great big Liberal Conspiracy
Random Linkspam--Politics, Iraq, Asteroids, Xmas already?
Schillings-Reputation managers with a reputation problem?
Lunchtime linkage: Bloggerheads has a new server
British libel laws and the internet--are you scared yet?
Alex listened to Today so you didn't have to
On sinking ships and LJ...
New blog: Alastair Reynolds
Facebook: What Livejournal could've been
Wanted: Felicity Jane Lowde
In memoriam: Chris Lightfoot, the bloggers blogger

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Mat Bowles

Dreaming in Digital

Entries tagged with blogging

What I've been up to by Text today

What I've been up to by Text today

Positioning Livejournal in the blogging/SN marketplace

Polls and popular blogging topics

Inspire me: what should I write about?

Me elsewhere: that awful Sky News interviewer

Quote of the Day: On Blogging, Digit Ratio and Gender Equality

I'm gonna be Elvis this Christmas

Ministry of Truth has moved slightly

It's all one great big Liberal Conspiracy

Random Linkspam--Politics, Iraq, Asteroids, Xmas already?

Schillings-Reputation managers with a reputation problem?

Lunchtime linkage: Bloggerheads has a new server

British libel laws and the internet--are you scared yet?

Alex listened to Today so you didn't have to

On sinking ships and LJ...

New blog: Alastair Reynolds

Facebook: What Livejournal could've been

Wanted: Felicity Jane Lowde

In memoriam: Chris Lightfoot, the bloggers blogger