Warning: Matt Wardman RSS Feeds are moving to Feedburner

From the desk of admin ·March 31, 2007 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Announcements

In the next 48 hours I will be redirecting the RSS Feeds for the blog (for Everything, Comments, Political Blogging and Sport) to use the Feedburner service.

There should be no impact on service, but please be tolerant of any glitches that happen along the way.

Also, you will notice the address of your feeds change but there will be no change of content.

Tags: Announce, RSS Feed, Maintenance

[tags]Announce, RSS Feed, Maintenance[/tags]

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MessageSpace: The T&Cs are on our website, but keep quiet about it

From the desk of admin ·March 31, 2007 at 1:02 pm · Filed under Humourous

I was tickled today by a page on the MessageSpace website. Terms are published on the website for prospective “publishing partners”.

If you are a blogger wanting to carry MessageSpace ads, you can read the Terms of Service online - including the one preventing you disclosing the Terms of Service to any third party.

This is the term, from the page with the agreement on it:

Confidentiality
You may not divulge to any third party the terms of this agreement without permission from EOS Online Media, not to be unreasonably withheld.

I’ve taken my life in my hands printing it here, and put a forbidden link in the brackets ( click if you must but don’t tell anyone about it ).

Read it stealthily if you like, but keep mum. Ssshhhhhh !!

Tags: MessageSpacie, Terms of Service, Humour

[tags]MessageSpace, Terms of Service, Humour[/tags]

Comments (4)

I’m forever bursting bubbles …

From the desk of admin ·March 31, 2007 at 10:23 am · Filed under Cricket, Relaxation

Something to take away the minute by minute tension of the action while you are listening to the Cricket World Cup on Test Match Special (sorry not all countries) or following the Matches on Over by Over this afternoon.

Boomshine is an addictive Flash casual game. Click the screen to start a chain reaction and try to explode as many dots as needed to pass a level. The game contains 12 levels ranging from the easy to the hard (only 3.97% of games pass level 12). Over 3 million games have been played by over 100,000 different players.

I finished, but it took 20 minutes.

Boomshine via Nicole Simon.

[Update 3pm: It’s raining. And they have a lawn roller with a sponge wrapping to dry 20 acres with. Enjoy the Boomshine game.]

Tags: Boomshine, Cricket, Test Match Special, Online Game, Cricket World Cup

[tags]Cricket World Cup[/tags][tags]Boomshine, Cricket, Test Match Special, Online Game[/tags]

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Brenda with a Brolly

From the desk of admin ·March 30, 2007 at 2:30 pm · Filed under Photo

A superb photo (via the Posh Sounding Northumbrian), but why is her brolly up if she is standing under the balcony?

Answers on a postcard (or in the comments box), please.

The Queen was opening the new National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, south west London.

Tags: Queen, Elizabeth the Second, Tennis, Roehampton, Photograph

[tags]Queen, Elizabeth the Second, Tennis, Roehampton, Photograph[/tags]

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Phyllis Chester: How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam - Is it racist to condemn fanaticism?

From the desk of admin ·March 30, 2007 at 2:12 pm · Filed under Ethics - Religion, Islam and Islamists

A provocative article with a more than 300 follow-up comments from all views, by Phyllis Chester.

Also, a response by an American living in Saudi Arabia.

Time-Online via Blog Sisters.

Tags: Phyllis Chester, Islam, Afghanistan, Blog Sisters, Saudi Arabia

[tags]Phyllis Chester, Islam, Afghanistan, Blog Sisters, Saudi Arabia[/tags]

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Labour blog explosion: I’ll take the Slow Road

From the desk of admin ·March 30, 2007 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Labour, Political Blogging, Politics

A recent column by Mike Ion on Comment is Free - picked up via Iain Dale about “Power Blogging” suggested that there would soon be an explosion of political blogging on the left - in tandem with the Labour Party Deputy Leadership election:

Left of centre political blogging is on the rise and could be a big factor in deciding the outcome of Labour’s deputy leadership election.

Mike cites Tim Montgomery:

Tim Montgomery, who runs Conservative Home are predicting that 2007 will be the year when Labour blogging (and bloggers) comes of age.

Start blogs, then wait a year

I think an “explosion” is unlikely. An explosion is a very rapid expansion - and that is not how blogging works. The Slow Food movement is a better analogy. Good blogging takes time - and that is one of its key advantages.

Blogs are built like an electorate in a Council or Parliamentary seat - as a slow, steady, trickle over a long period of time.

It is possible that the Labour blogosphere may lay down the the foundations of an expansion in the current period of intense political interest, and many new blogs started or new readers turn to existing blogs.

I’ll take the Slow Road

However, a blogging expansion will also take long time to become visible to the wider Internet as there are a number of specific factors that slow down the process:

• Political blogging is like a distributed online version of the “Westminster village” - a small community where everyone knows each other. To have an impact on the wider society, we need to break out of the ghetto. It is still an conversation between insiders.
• Blogs become visible when they have a base of material to draw on - which can mean from 100 to 500 posts. It takes time to build up a base of articles of this size.
• It takes time for a blog to become visible through Google - which usually means at least 6 months.

The Risks of Rushing

If anyone does attempt to drive an expansion of blogs quicker than is natural, there is the risk that the quality of the writing and the ensuing debate will be “thin” - lacking substance.

Further, those who rush into the blogosphere without taking time to listen and then engage have a habit of looking foolish. To put it more colourfully:

“You will resemble a class of Japanese language students in Cambridge, who are out on their bikes for the first time in their lives, and who have all just gone the wrong way round a traffic island and are too terrified to go back.”

Further Articles

I will explore the questions raised above in more detail in further articles, and look at some technorati and google data for particular blogs.

Tags: Political Blogging, Labour Bloggers, Labourhome, Mike Ion, Blogosphere, Politics, Matt Wardman, Deputy Leadership, Tim Montgomery

[tags]Political Blogging, Labour Bloggers, Labourhome, Mike Ion, Iain Dale, Blogosphere, Politics, Matt Wardman, Deputy Leadership, Tim Montgomery[/tags]

Comments (12)

Hmmmm. Orinoco the Womble and Antony Worrell Thompson.

From the desk of admin ·March 30, 2007 at 5:00 am · Filed under Humourous

Too many cooks spoil the broth. We present Orinoco the Womble and Anthony Womble Thomson (also known as Henry Antony Cardew Worrall Thompson).

Credit: The Womble Burrow

Credit: Hagbourne School

Orinoco and Anthony Worrall Thompson are both well balanced - clearly equally favouring cooking and eating. Orinoco is slightly more hairy. Worrall Thompson is slightly more irascible, especially when compared to a Tellytubby by Gordon Ramsay.

Tags: Lookalike, Humour, Humourous, Double, Womble, Anthony Worrall Thompson, Orinoco the Womble, Madame Cholet, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Wimbledon Common, Food

[tags]Lookalike, Humour, Humourous, Double, Womble, Anthony Worrall Thompson, Orinoco the Womble, Madame Cholet, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Wimbledon Common, Food[/tags]

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