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Has the party thought of or looked into google 'sponsored links'? https://support.google.com/places/answer/31662?hl=en
Agree it looks good but don't think we should automatically copy stuff from our SOYMB blog there. There's already too much stuff on the blog, sometimes more than 3 posts a day, which defeats the purpose as followers won't read so much. One post a day, as with most other blogs, should be enough. Despite repeated requests to post less (even from blog committee members and a recommendation from the internet committee) nobody takes any notice.
I'm probably in a minority but I find multiple posts on the blogsite enjoyable. I have, over the last few months used various of them, to rewrite as letters to the press.A valuable central resource, which I am frequently telling the bloggers.
ALB wrote:Agree it looks good but don't think we should automatically copy stuff from our SOYMB blog there. There's already too much stuff on the blog, sometimes more than 3 posts a day, which defeats the purpose as followers won't read so much. One post a day, as with most other blogs, should be enough. Despite repeated requests to post less (even from blog committee members and a recommendation from the internet committee) nobody takes any notice.I don't know. Do people go to blogs with the intention of reading every article? In this case I'm not sure that less is more..
When I read the blogsite, I very rarely read an article that I don't find enjoyable, informative and useful. Moreover well written and put forward. A great big slap on the back to those who keep this site full of information.Steve Colborn.
I too think 'the more the merrier' with regard posts to the blogs. Nobody's saying everyone has to read every one. They give a good wide coverage of the issues that capitalism throws up with a topical slant. Something for everyone; i used to read the lot but now i pick and choose. But it's there for me, or anyone else who wants it, on a plate, cooked and selected for me, food for thought, or material for article or argument. Just beats me how they keep it up, day after day…
As for posting a selection to the WSM Home page, with the time from posting, it makes us look 'busy', 'on the ball' as it were. Think there may be an error there at present, however, as the 'Plenty for All' article appears in full. Maybe it's intended, but i don't think there's a need for full articles on that Home page.
Quote:Despite repeated requests to post less (even from blog committee members and a recommendation from the internet committee) nobody takes any notice.ALB, we do take notice but just happen to disagree with that position which you yourself prefer which is simply another member expressing their own personal views. We have discussed it and 3 out of the 4 on the blog find merit in multiple posts therefore we continued as we have done.There are several very popular news/blog websites that judge that their visitors are cerebrally capable of reading several articles a day (actually with SOYMB it is over the course of the day since time zones mean we post our contributions at various times and most internet users are on-line a few times a day.)Perhaps some will accuse us of quantity over quality…i would refute that…particular blogs are posted for a various purposes, some are purely informative, some are op-eds, some are follow-ups to previous posts. On other occasions we post because we have been asked to (…hmmm….? i wonder who has requested the most, could it be a certain editor of the Standard who find his columns sometimes limted in space…or…?). Unlike print we do have the luxury of repeating ourselves (Socialist Courier is nearing a 100 posts on the Arctic sovereignty disputes.).Anyway, if we fail to meet high expectations and standards with several posts, who is to say we would succeed with one or two?If however we received an instruction from the Party to change our policy then of course we would comply. As yet, i don't think the blog has received a full debate at conference/adm but usually skipped over in the reports section which usually includes an opening in it for further discussion and has not been subject to any specific motions, either. Our party democracy does not give precedence to the most vociferous of members in policy or decisions.Now that the WSM website has been revamped, the blog committee had previously concluded that we, too, required a new format and we have had a prototype suggested. We, ourselves, due to lack of technical knowledge and slow connection speeds, are hesitant upon taking on such a challenge and hope for assistance. The proposal also involves much more direct participation in a new blog from the WSM parties, taking responsibility for regional reporting and following the example of the wsm different blogs coming under the same umbrella. But in comments about the new website, i believe i submitted an opinion to a member of the internet committee that the repetition of all the blogs was not desirable…"i think the number of news item posts should be edited and not every one carried." i also pointed out that it includes the defunct Jamaican socialist Review, African Banner and maintains the fiction of an Australian socialist party.
alanjjohnstone wrote:Quote:Despite repeated requests to post less (even from blog committee members and a recommendation from the internet committee) nobody takes any notice.ALB, we do take notice but just happen to disagree with that position which you yourself prefer which is simply another member expressing their own personal views.
It is my opinion but not "simply" my individual one. It is also the opinion of the Internet Committee in its report on activities in 2013 and included in the EC's Report to this year's Conference:
Quote:Part of the Committee's role is oversight of the Party's blog, Socialism or Your Money Back. Cdes Johnstone and Surman contributed on a regular basis and there were often three or more posts daily. While the Committee is happy with the volume of blog posts over the past year, we feel that one daily, topical post to the Party's blog would be a good minimum, and that any extra ones could be submitted instead to the blogs of the Companion Parties in order to help bring them out of dormancy.Unfortunately the report of the discussion of this report is not yet available.
"we feel that one daily, topical post to the Party's blog would be a good minimum, and that any extra ones could be submitted instead to the blogs of the Companion Parties in order to help bring them out of dormancy."If an "artificial stimulus" is thought to be needed to overcome "dormancy", then it is probably not going to be sustainable, even in the short to medium term.I am quite happy with the blogsite, as presently done and am able to "cope", with more than one post a day, as I suspect are mose visitors to the site.
Quote:that any extra ones could be submitted instead to the blogs of the Companion Parties in order to help bring them out of dormancy.Perhaps the internet committee and the EC should communicate and consult with the bloggers and the actual companion parties themselves before reaching recommendations. Perhaps the EC will also accept the role of adjudicating which daily post on what topic takes precedence and then naturally provide explanations to their choices and then mediate as well between the inevitable disputes that are bound to arise over who has editorial control of the blog. Or maybe, instead, they should stop trying the impossible by micro-managing the party!If something is broken by all means fix it…but perhaps the blog committee could be informed of what is actually broken in our approach and the evidence of that and how improvements would result in the suggested change.If the companion parties so desired the bloggers assistance, we would be only too happy to help out but there has not been any such request received.We have endeavoured to keep alive the Socialist Banner blog by regularly updating it despite only the occasional input of an African comrade. We live in hope that this committment will one day be lifted when African comrades begin to blog for themselves.I did note the WSPNZ did make an appeal for help but that was on the technical issue of setting a blog up and was directed to one member with extensive computer knowledge , Cde Millar. They did not contact the bloggers for submissions although we often carry items on NZ. There also may not be a functioning Australian party but it doesn't stop us from carrying posts on Australian politics. The WSPUShave their own members who are seasoned bloggers so maybe the EC should enquire about their failure to have an updated party blogSocialist Courier always carries numerous items gleaned from the SPC monthly report so shortage of material is not the problem of why the Canadian blog is inactive. It should be noted that Socialist Courier frequently features just one daily post but no significant impact on traffic can be noticed The world is a big place and a lot is going on and some wish to limit our observations on it!Our ideal blog which we would like to see implemented in the future would have separate individual pages for each companion party/indivdual international contact and may well address the fact that the SOYMB is serving as a de facto WSM blog which accounted for the wide spread of post topics. Our audience is predominantly American and Windows. If criticism is called for it is that the bloggers are not active in all the social media…Facebook or Twitter and we have held up our hands to that. Our UK based blogger has taken on the responsibility of dealing with Facebook but what progress there is there i have no idea, not being on Facebook.We could also make more use of You Tube but two of the bloggers simply do not have the luxury of speedy band width from our the internet provider that would make it easy for us to surf videos and select suitable ones. It can take me several minutes just to view a simple webpage if it is heavy with ads and links and cookies and i often give up waiting before i'm able to cut and paste. As i said the blog committee would be very happy with a full debate and as i have also said we have our own ideas on how to improve it….but from what ALB says, the debate that seem to have taken place have never included us.There will always have their differences of opinions…Jeez we have some members, even one of the Standard editorial committee, who won't move from our old lists and deign from even visiting this discussion list to engage in exchanges. And that certain member considers the blog to be some sort of vanity publishing project…despite the majority of posts not actually being our own original writing …and then we are damned by him for being little more than having a news tannoy approach…As editor of the Standard, ALB, you know you cannot please everybody all the time and so you follow the will of the whole party's as expressed through conference. All members of the blog are happy to adjust accordingly when we are given that democratic direction. Otherwise those who disagree with the way the blog is, will have to up their game and demonstrate just where we are failing and convince us how their recommendations will be of benefit. I am also looking forward to the know-how of the internet committee in designing a new-look blog which might incorporate the bloggers aspirations. And i feel genuinely guilty that in this regard i can not be more active and i know the other bloggers too wish they had the expertise or capacity to design and upload new templates and maintain past archive material, despite the seeming easiness of Blogspot or Word-press and so to the internet committee we offer our apologies in advance.
steve colborn wrote:If an "artificial stimulus" is thought to be needed to overcome "dormancy", then it is probably not going to be sustainable, even in the short to medium term.I am quite happy with the blogsite, as presently done and am able to "cope", with more than one post a day, as I suspect are mose visitors to the site.Amen to that
I pretty much go along with all that Alan has said although I'm a bit nonplussed regarding some aspects I'm unaware of. As one of the regular bloggers, I too have very slow internet access which is a pain in the proverbial. That being the reason that after Yahoo's 'upgrade' or whatever it's called a few months ago I stopped visiting Spopen, Spintcom and WSM forum because it was so painfully slow and time consuming. So, if there has been discussion there on this topic I know nothing about it. But we do have a communal email address which could be used to send round robins.I don't understand the rationale in wanting to limit the blog to one post a day. Don't folks pick and choose which items to read? I think we try to offer a wide spread of subjects, both topical and more general because we live in a capitalist world and there is so much to call attention to.I do wonder how the choice of which post to put up, if it comes down to one a day, would be made. Anyway, Alan has covered it well, so that's enough from me.
"I don't understand the rationale in wanting to limit the blog to one post a day. Don't folks pick and choose which items to read?"Yup Janet, I do pick and choose. I choose to pick and read everything. Call me a glutton, but one cannot have too much ammo at ones disposal.I've said it in other places but it bears repeating. Check the blog and if a blog catches your eye, either copy it, if it's not to long, or condense it, if it is and use it as a letter to the local press! If enough members did this, think of the coverage we could get for our ideas? I must have gotten on AJJ's nerves, all the time I've thanked him for this blog or other but I'll restate, thanks Alan and as it's apposite, thanks also to Janet.Keep up the Excellent work.
ALB, you raised my hackles and, of course, i am being defensive. But i am gratified that so far the other contributions have been supportive, (even from member of the Internet Comm who you cite in your and EC's favour casts doubt upon the wisdom of its recommendation)I would be interested to hear from those others on the EC who also endorse its recommendation (or instruction, i am not sure which it is) to understand the reasoning behind their decisionI would like to know what contact the EC made with the companion parties in regard to their blogging activities and intentions before offering them the services of the SOYMB bloggers.But most of all, i want to know why the EC didn't deem it necessary to engage with the blog committee before reaching its conclusions, and then failed to inform it of their decision which we only discover on this thread on a completely different theme!You may appreciate our understandable disconcernation at being excluded from the loop.Perhaps this is not the correct place to discuss. The Moderator will soon be informing us that we are off topic. The Blog Committee therefore awaits a formal communication from the EC and until then will continue as we have. It is not for us to go checking that we meet with the EC's approval. If the EC have issues with the blog they should address them directly to the blog committee and we will naturally discuss it amongst ourselves and give a response as a committee. As it should be.
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