tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post1245704205396027608..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Labour LostPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-9531975164069045942009-02-15T19:35:00.000+00:002009-02-15T19:35:00.000+00:00No conscious policy of 'blacking' any leftie blogs...No conscious policy of 'blacking' any leftie blogs on my part. I do include all promising new left of centre blogs on my blogroll, as a matter of course.<BR/><BR/>But I take the point about the wikio rankings and promise to link to both SUB and AVPS more often.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-44376760023404925422009-02-15T11:22:00.000+00:002009-02-15T11:22:00.000+00:00Yes Mod, it is a pretty poor state of affairs when...Yes Mod, it is a pretty poor state of affairs when the left have something to learn from Tory bloggers in the solidarity and mutual promotion stakes. Could you imagine Iain Dale and Paul Staines falling out over secondary issues, or who said what to whom?<BR/><BR/>The left does need to consciously raise its blogging effort if we want to win a bigger audience. Because, to be honest, most establishment political blogs are awful. I regularly keep tabs on Dale and Staines, but aside from that there's only Letters from a Tory, Harry's Place, Wardman Wire, Luke Akehurst (for the council by-election results), and Alix Mortimer and Sadie's Tavern who are worth reading from the 'other side'. These are the best of the bunch - for me the poor quality commentary on the wild cat strikes just underlined the confused and ignorant crowing that passes for most mainstream comment.<BR/><BR/>I think Andy you've hit the nail on the head. Part of the left's problem is a culture thing. You don't need me to tell you how the revolutionary left is geared to compete rather than cooperate with each other for paper sales, donations and recruits. And because the pond we fish from is pretty small at the moment, the more intense the competition. This is not helped by a over hanging culture of being seen to be ultra correct all of the time. The combination of the two on the internet makes for a heady brew of comment box denunciation, zero-sum competition, fallings out and farcical, unnecessary blog wars.<BR/><BR/>I do think the big left blogs have a responsibility to plug the smaller ones - and before I posted this piece on Thursday I was already thinking of writing a regular piece for Socialist Unity drawing attention to new left blogs and some readers may have missed. If you look at my blog roll there are a hell of a lot of excellent but seldom-read writers out there. In fact, I'll do that now!Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-21419792148595171432009-02-14T01:15:00.000+00:002009-02-14T01:15:00.000+00:00Phili think the problem is how do you judge blog s...Phil<BR/><BR/>i think the problem is how do you judge blog success.<BR/><BR/>Guido and Iain are not in a different league to SU blog in terms of visits. Iian Dale had 3.5 million in 2008, SU blog had 2.2 million. And we have had a further step upwards in 2009, following our coverage of Gaza and the recent strikes.<BR/><BR/>The difference is that the right wing blogs feed traffic to each other - which is what is reflected in their high place in the Wikio rankings. Proof of this is the high ranking of the utterly dire Dizzy blog. Remember the wikio rankings are weighted so that links from other blogs that already have a higher rank count more.<BR/><BR/>This is partly by mutual self-promotion; but also partly by froth of internet controvesies.<BR/><BR/>For some reason, the bigger hitting left blogs just don't promote each other. Although i try to plug Lenin's tomb and dave Osler occassioanlly, Richard pretends SU blog doesn't exist, and Dave rarely links to us either. If we did all regularly link to each other we would jump up the wikio ratings.<BR/><BR/>I actually don't think Labour List is that bad. They have referred a couple of good articles to SU blog that we have reproduced. But they have to loosen up a bit - i think they may well.<BR/><BR/>Incidently, an interesting case of political blogging has been the swoppy bloggers and the Lindsey Oil refinery strike; where some of the numpties in blog land took a much less nuanced position than the SWP cc did, and then that bounced the organisation - and now lots of people inside GMB and Unite think that the SWP actually opposed the strike (which is further than they actually went), and one FTO said to me he thought the SWP had set themsleves back 30 years in his union. It also shows what a loose cannon a semi-detached but very loyal fellow traveller like the chidren's poet can be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-46140126706496622522009-02-14T00:53:00.000+00:002009-02-14T00:53:00.000+00:00it is a funny old world when Tories, liberals of v...it is a funny old world when Tories, liberals of various sorts can have an articulate presence on the web, but not the British Left (proper, other than a few scattered individuals)<BR/><BR/>unity is strength seems to apply to everyone, except the British Left :(ModernityBloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06354254639321208955noreply@blogger.com