Monday, February 19, 2007
A Thinly Veiled Threat
Okay, look, it's late (for me) and I'm angry. The traffic on this site has quadrupled in the last few months but the number of comments hasn't. I just received yet another email from a reader saying how much she loves the blog but feels too intimidated/not witty enough to comment. Now I know about the Chinese not commenting, but I don't understand the rest of you. There's some pretty straightforward stuff on here and the fantasy can't be that hard. Also I don't censor anything unless it might land me with a libel writ. So abuse, fantasise, crack jokes and refute. From now on every reader must comment. It's the law. Oh and can anybody explain why I have been getting referrals from US insurance companies for the last two weeks? They don't say anything either, but that's a good thing.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
In silence lies much wisdom.
ReplyDeleteIn wisdom lies much silence.
Okay, I'll hold my hands up. I come by many times every day and I rarely comment. I promise to work harder and try not to feel that whatever comment I want to write is immensely trivial.
ReplyDeleteWell, thanks for setting the ball rolling, Dukey.
ReplyDeleteThe Duke is certainly a man with his finger on the pulse of the life-force, but I am worried at his repeated failure to mention the Forces of Production.
ReplyDeleteNow we're cooking.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot that I actually had a point to make regarding the US insurance companies reference in your stats. You're probably getting referer spam which tricks you into visiting their site by faking a link in your log.
ReplyDeleteThe insurers are coming because your new book on living forever threatens their livelihood. Hoping that you will die trying to do so sooner rather than later, they have arranged for your increased silent traffic in order to raise your blood pressure. It seems to be working. Actuaries can be dangerous, especially if their tables are threatened with obsolescence, Bryan.
ReplyDeleteThe software which many companies now use to filter the surfing of their employees, (e.g. 'Websense') is often configured to prevent employees from posting blog entries, but still permits them to read blogs. Perhaps your extra traffic has come from such office-bound lost souls. I was one such until recently.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully I only read your blog to keep up on the comings-and-goings of Lord Archer. I know that I am not worthy to read the actual blog of his lordship so I rely on you to keep me up-to-date on anything of interest at the Archer estate. The recent theft of the statue of the girl standing on her head is a perfect example. I have been trying to emulate his Lordship ever since but as I can't afford a bronze and my daughter refuses to do headstands in the backyard (what with the snow and all) I haven't had much luck so far. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteBy-the-by Mr. Marx, when the revolution does come, will Lord Archer be one of the first up against the wall. I would hate to show disrespect to him by forcing him to wait too long!
I should add that I have the same commenting problem at my blog. Although I doubt that anyone is afraid to comment because of fear of my wit.
ReplyDeleteJust had to say,I can't believe a literate bloke like you had never heard of Negley Farson. Shame on you...
ReplyDeleteOver on Guido's blog there seems to be some sort of running private joke about Gordon Brown, nappies and rocking horses. Could you please explain if it's not too disgusting?
ReplyDeleteAh, you were there all along. Thanks for the advice on the insurance comoany referrers. And, Purleyway, I don't know about the nappies but will let you know if I can get Guido to explain.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's related to the expression 'as rare as rocking horse shit'.
ReplyDeleteAs in "the people who comment on this blog are as rare as..."
The ratio is often something like 10 readers per commenter. There's lot of you out there. I have some Chinese, a Belgian and an Aussie regularly on my blog, all completely silent. Bloody voyeurs...
Given the irreproachable heights of Lord Archer's writing, Thomas, ongoing efforts are being made to convert him to the struggle. I confess the poet in me cannot contemplate the putting of such a man against the wall, though if needs must, htey must. I am reminded by the wise words of my progeny, Lenin, regarding the music of Beethoven, "I don't want to listen to it any more, because it makes me want to stroke people's heads and tell them sweet, nice stupid things, and I have to smash in those heads; smash them in without mercy in order to finish my revolution." Ah, the insidious nature of art, inspiring such opiate feelings as love for mankind.
ReplyDeleteThe Hitch explains the nappies thus:
ReplyDelete'Sometimes at (sic) marvel at the naivety' of our Mr Appleyard
An allegation was made many years ago in a scandal sheet known as scallywag, that gordon is an adult baby, and was photographed wearing a nappy and riding a rocking horse.
It is of course entirely untrue (+.'
Perhaps Gordon B lets his hair hang down in the homosexual hotbed of Bohemian Grove- the Californian all-male enclave where the elites of the world gather every summer, and indulge themselves in unexpected ways.
ReplyDeleteIt's the quiet ones you have to watch out for!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.soca.gov.uk/
Go on then why not. You know your stuff, you've interviewed the greats, you know what satire is. Am I being stuffy for thinking the following post from The Hitch blog is racist? Or is it indeed, as he claims, satire?
ReplyDelete"Unite against fascism
F****** hell yes! If it means old white blokes get to f*** some hot young black velvet The Hitch is all for it. They f****** love it, its a hangover from slavery. They want to f*** the master and suck his white bamboo."
Unite Against Fascism, The Hitch
Obviously, I don't expect you to publish this comment but an answer as to whether you think it's satire or racism would help.
Why wouldn't I publish it? The Hitch thing is, first, witless and charmless, lad babble at its worst. Racist? Sounds like it but he probably doesn't intend it to be so. Let down by his dodgy grasp of tone I think.
ReplyDeleteHumour is all about timing.
ReplyDeleteThe Hitch seems to get more comments than most bloggers so I guess that's the way to go. The trouble is, I just don't understand his sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteWell you know what they say is the difference between humor and tragedy...
ReplyDeleteHumor is when you fall down a man hole. Tragedy is when I fall down a man hole.
Jeez, what a lot of comments ;-) I have not read them all because I am a person with a life, but it is certainly the case that traffic does not equal comments.
ReplyDeleteSeveral scientific journals have recently got into all this Web 2.0 stuff, etc, and opened up content to comments. Then they are gobsmacked when they don't get any. I am hardly surprised that busy scientists don't have time to post detailed technical comments on published papers because of the way the scientific profession structures its reward system, but there you go.
Speaking of my own humble blog, I am now well aware that if I write a thoughtful serious post I get no comments, but if I write something in 2 secs that is trival, silly etc, it is far more likely to get comments.
I think commenting is essentially a function of bored people riffling through their rss readers or blogrolls, and if they can do it in a couple of secs they will, but if it requires concentration, etc, well, they do that all day at work or whatever, so they don't bother.
I'd say your excellent blog gets a far higher than average comment rate, and well done to you for that.
The words of Nietzsche might be apt, Chippy:
ReplyDelete“Life is a fountain of delight, but where the rabble also drinks all wells are poisoned”.
This Thursday night on Irish Radio, Dave Fanning on 2FM will be doing an hour on the subject of immortality.I only said that to obey the law.
ReplyDeleteThis Thursday night, Generalissimo Francisco Franco will still be dead (on and off Irish radio).
ReplyDeleteThis is what wonks from Oxford Institute for Internet have to say on the matter:
ReplyDelete"Even for Wikipedia (the gold standard of the genre) half of all edits are made by just 2.5% of all users. And note that in this context user means “logged in user”, not accounting for the millions of lurkers directed to Wikipedia via search engine traffic for instance."
I translat all this to mean that you have a very good response!
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estetik ameliyatlar The Duke is certainly a man with his finger on the pulse of the life-force, but I am worried at his repeated failure to mention the Forces of Production. estetik burun ameliyati The insurers are coming because your new book on living forever threatens their livelihood. gögüs büyütme estetigi Hoping that you will die trying to do so sooner rather than later, they have arranged for your increased silent traffic in order to raise your blood pressure. It seems to be working. estetik gögüs ameliyatlari Actuaries can be dangerous, especially if their tables are threatened with obsolescence, Bryan. gögüs küçültme estetigi Truthfully I only read your blog to keep up on the comings-and-goings of Lord Archer. karin ameliyatlari I know that I am not worthy to read the actual blog of his lordship so I rely on you to keep me up-to-date on anything of interest at the Archer estate. cinsel organ estetigi The recent theft of the statue of the girl standing on her head is a perfect example. lazer epilasyon I have been trying to emulate his Lordship ever since but as I can't afford a bronze and my daughter refuses to do headstands in the backyard (what with the snow and all) I haven't had much luck so far. karin germe estetigi Sigh. Several scientific journals have recently got into all this Web 2.0 stuff, etc, and opened up content to comments. Then they are gobsmacked when they don't get any. estetik I am hardly surprised that busy scientists don't have time to post detailed technical comments on published papers because of the way the scientific profession structures its reward system, but there you go. saç nakli Speaking of my own humble blog, I am now well aware that if I write a thoughtful serious post I get no comments, but if I write something in 2 secs that is trival, silly etc, it is far more likely to get comments.
ReplyDelete