Comments on: Politics Home: A Garbo Review

By: garbo

garbo — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:20:33 +0000

… and they are back again!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:20:06 +0000

That’s better - I had spammed a lot by mistake <:-(

By: garbo

garbo — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:19:51 +0000

Yea, I noticed they had gone…

I am sure you are right about the column inches - I just liked the idea of some poor work experience kid sitting up all night with a ruler measuring newspapers articles in time for a 6am launch.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:13:55 +0000

Something fishy with the comments. The first 3 have gone.

I’ll look into it.

On the column inches, I thought that would be done by the same person who counts the mentions, and it’s probably electronic and done with a word count. After all, columns are varying width.

Matt

By: garbo

garbo — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:19:08 +0000

jmb - I am glad someone has noticed! It hasn’t done me in, I just have a project that I am focusing on at the moment which means my time is really taken up. I hope to have things up and running again in the not too distant future.

Percy Pigeon - I agree with Matt, I am sure their readership will well exceed 100 anoraks. However, the site in its current format will not appeal to the masses. Maybe they are not trying to though - it is not their responsibility to get the wider electorate interested in politics. If they want to just appeal to one person, then that is their choice.

The real question is where is the money coming from and how long can they keep all this up? I pity the fool who is measuring the column inches!

We should also bear in mind that this is still a beta version and the site has only been up a few days. I am sure it will evolve to reflect the needs of its readers. I, for one, am willing to give it some time.

By: jmb

jmb — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:29:27 +0000

Mr Garbo, I see you are alive and well but what about the Poliblogs? Did it do you in?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:48:10 +0000

I’d suggest that there are more than 100.

To me, Politics Home is a bit overwhelming for Daily Use - but I can see the value when i want to really research a story and find out who covered it. The archive functions look quite good. I can also see the site saving significant time for some people.

As you hint, the rub will be the business model. The lack of adverts suggests that they may be looking for sell a service to large organisations.

In the meantime, I’m sure that others will come along on a more popular level.

I think they’ve missed a few obvious things, and I’ll be doing a review from my “internet technical” perspective tomorrow - as a foil to Garbo’s “political commentator” angle.

By: Percy Pigeon

Percy Pigeon — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:07:58 +0000

And how many uber-political anoraks do you think exist in this country. I would intimate that it’s no more than 100 or so. Not enough to make a revenue stream or be remotely useful to anybody with a so-called “real life”

Do you think the single mum on benefits cares about PoliticsHome? Not even the local busy-body that sticks their nose in everybody’s business will care for it.

It saddens me that when politics is such an important issue and people are getting sick of politicians with their snouts in the trough that good money should be wasted on an insiders-only website that is exclusive to the masses.

Rather a masturbatory affair methinks.