Happy New Year to all Blogpowerers

Thought it was time to publish this:

Defending the blog (blogpower)

-- Site Summary ---

Visits

Total .................................529

Average per Day ................... 32

Average Visit Length .......... 5:09

This Week ..........................222

Page Views

Total ................................866

Average per Day ................. 55

Average per Visit ................ 1.7

This Week ..........................388

Happy New Year and may 2007 bring us great blogging.

What's Going On Here, Then?

If you have come to us as a result of hearing the Tin Drummer's incisive remarks on Five Live, then welcome. He covered it all pretty comprehensively during that interview - which you can listen to again - so there's not an awful lot to add, except to reiterate that we encompass a broad spectrum of opinions, and all are welcome to take part in the project.

The inaugural post and Blogpower manifesto would be the logical starting point. If that sounds good to you, then please cut and paste the banner from that post and upload it onto your site (Tin Drummer is your contact for banner issues, and can also provide the relevant code - see the sidebar).

The blogroll contains all our participants so far, and is also available for addition to your blog - it updates automatically. Cut and paste the following code into your template, removing all white space between lines 3 and 4, i.e. the php? and the r=e55...:

<!-- Blogpower blogrolling code begins -->
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"
src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?
r=e55ad1d2d72ae49253ccd8343b7b2fd8">
</script>
<!-- Blogpower blogrolling code ends -->


If you use Wordpress, Spicy Cauldron provides some useful extra info about the blogroll in the comments to this post. Once you have uploaded the banner, let me know so that I can add you to the blogroll (again, my contact details are in the sidebar).

If you have any general questions or observations, please leave them in the comments, and someone, most likely one of James, TD or myself, will be along in a while to respond. We'd also like you to use the comments to let us all know you're taking part. Don't be shy!

Blogpower Christmas Day Special Radio 5 Live

I’ve just listened to the Tin Drummer with the BBC’s Chris Vallance and I thought, quite frankly, he was fantastic. We blog to each other and never know how the other one would sound but surely you’d have to agree the Tin Drummer has one of the best radio voices imaginable. I myself am deeply honoured to have been mentioned [a little too much I feel] and now I’m going back and am going to listen to it all over again. Well done, sir and you’ve done Blogpower a world of good!!

Don’t forget to download Tin Drummer’s Christmas Day special below. I’m currently exploring how to get the graphic onsite. Thanks Thunderdragon for the hosting and the work.

http://www.roedinofpern.co.uk/blog/thetindrummer-unsungblogs-hosted_by_%20thethunderdragon.mp3

or Chris Vallance's own BBC copy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/podsandblogs/2006/

12/the_best_unsung_blogs

On another matter, fellow Blogpowerers, when the Christmas rush is over, after you’re back at your computer, could you possibly respond, as Cityunslicker has responded and compose a short summation of 10 other bloggers of your choice? It’s a bit like a Christmas present for them.

Meanwhile, to all of you, from whatever persuasion, this Christmas holiday, may only good things come to pass for you, as you would wish it on others. I hope December 25th will be a day of peace for you and for your family.

Of interviews and testimonials

Very excited about Tin Drummer's interview and while we shouldn't perhaps get ahead of ourselves, it seems to augur well. I've just been round our blogroll's blogs and it's a pretty varied bunch - left, right, pagan, Christian, male, female, fairly British still [would like a few more Canadians, Americans, Aussies, Kiwis and so on].

I have an idea. Yes, truly. I think we should maybe choose ten bloggers we really like and write something on them. A paragraph. Then they can use that as a testimonial, like Iain Dale has his header crammed with [we're forever emulating Iain because he was the pioneer in a lot of things].

Of course, some blogs will miss out on anyone writing anything on them but that would be my job to check out later and perhaps nudge a few people in that direction. This is truly a mutual support thing, bloggers. We have to give all of us the maximum chance possible and then it's up to the quality of the blog to sustain itself.

Taking so long to deal with it all - sorry

Sorry it's taking so long to get the admin done. These people have already been sent to Ian for adding to the blogroll:

http://morag.wordpress.com/
http://comingoutfromunder.blogspot.com
http://the-morningstar.co.uk/
http://pubphilosopher.blogs.com/

Those who came after that I'll deal with now but Ian will not be back until tomorrow and he'll blogroll people then. Codes I can send now.

Stand alone posts by various bloggers on this issue

These posts on Blogpower also have comments attached, of course ... hover over the link to see the author ...

Weblog awards – the unfairness of it all

How to upload the banner

Blogpower [1]

Blogpower [2]

It’s the same every year

Standing up for the little blog

Blogpower [3]

Ickle bloggers united

Little blog power

Blogpower [4]

Small but perfectly formed

Blogpower and the end of futurism

Newish! Feel the blogpower

New! Defending the blog

If you’ve posted or uploaded the banner and you’re not here – please let us know either by comment below or by e-mail to one of us!

[Beta] Blockers?

I gather those Blogger users who have already made the switch to Beta are having problems posting comments to this blog, which has yet to make the change. One obvious solution, given it looks as though non-Beta users can comment on Beta sites with no problem, is that we switch Defending the Blog to Beta. Any thoughts?

(If,for the reasons mentioned, you can't post your response here, please mail James or myself. My mail is due to appear in a sidebar near you soon, but in the meantime imaginedcommunity and googlemaildotcom are what you need to contact me. Please, though, bear in mind I will be away from any PCs from Sunday to Wednesday.)

we now have sitemeter

We now have sitemeter at the bottom of the page.

[blogpower] codes for sidebars

At the beginning of the code, you need to type a left pointing arrow just before the word script . At the end you need a left pointing arrow, then a slash, then the word script, then a right pointing arrow. The reason they don't appear below [the reason I had to take them out] is that they make the code disappear in this post when in position. If this confuses you, go to the post on [blogrolling] three issues, go to the comments and look for Ian's comment.

This is Ian’s code for the blogroll:
script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=e55ad1d2d72ae49253ccd8343b7b2fd8">

[blogrolling] two of three issues resolved

Just got home from work. Checklist from the last post:

1] Everyone's now currently been blogrolled.

2] Copy and paste or e-mail admin and I'll send the code direct.

3] Ian's put together some code for your sidebar [see commnets]

Now to contact Ian and see where we are.

[blogrolling] three issues

These are the three main issues which have been brought up by fellow bloggers:

1] Why are some people in the Blogrolling and others in the html? Answer - I haven't had time to transfer all to Blogrolling yet. Simply that - work pressures are fierce just now and there are no spare minutes. Secondly, I don't understand the system at all. [Help is further down in the post.]

2] How do I load the banner to my site [or I tried to load it and it doesn't work]. Answer: I can send you the code direct if you e-mail me.

3] How do I get a piece of code to put on my site which will reflect the changing blogroll as people join? Answer: hold fire for now - help is on its way this evening.

[blogpower] open posting from members

All right, this has been a learning curve [geeks wrily smile]. Seems I have to send you an invitation through the Blogger system but it doesn't like non-Blogger account people [might have something to do with Beta]. Blogger also only lets you send the invite once unless, of course, I go in and delete the invitee, then invite him/her again. This supposedly protects the receiver of the e-mail.

If you'd like to post freely here, indicate in Comments and I'll send the invite but you'd best have a Blogger account, just in case. If you have no e-mail, I haven't the least clue what to do to get you in.

Open letter to the small blogger

It annoys the hell out of me to see some big names promoting themselves shamelessly [not those on my blogroll], getting major traffic and they’re truly neither quality nor well laid out. Of course, they say people visit for the expertise, to read the pearls of wisdom but this seems a very MSM thing to say. Why are they emulating the MSM? Is that what they’re trying to get into?

Then you get some fine blogs where the guys [and gals] think out what they say, they’re also clearly knowledgeable in their field, they present well and more importantly, they invite debate rather than say: “Hey look, I’m the expert – here’s your daily dose.” What happens to them? Either they get invited onto Doughty and they’re never the same again or they’re invited onto Doughty and they stay the same unaffected scribes they always were or else they gradually die away.

I call for us to set up some sort of cooperative for the smaller blogs, some sort of struggling blogger solidarity group and we can draft a few rules. We need to:

1] adopt the motto: ‘do unto other blogs as you would have them do unto you’;
2] be broadminded and accept that others in the scheme are going to have views opposed to ours. So what?;
3] include at least ten posts in a week, no matter how small;
4] actively try to get round to each blogger on our own roll at least once in two days and comment at least three times in the week;
5] promote our blogfriends with either banners, buttons or the occasional link;
6] join in their little promo things e.g. normpoll, tomlist, voluntary-code-free-zone, chicken yoghurt’s book and so on;
7] comment on other’s comments on your own blog whenever you can;
8] link – if it’s in your power to blogroll someone who’s blogrolled you, try to do it. If you can link to a member in a post, do it.

If we, the little people, all do this, with even 100 participants, we guarantee ourselves at least basic traffic, we can share ideas and improve our blogs. To this end, I’ve prepared an initial 150x95 banner above, which needs to be cut, pasted then uploaded on your sidebar. It links to an administrative blog where we’ll keep the data, manifesto and ideas sharing. If we want to change the location or go to wordpress or whatever, we just change the banner embedding.

On this blog, we can throw around ideas on how to run this thing better. For now, a start would be just to upload the banner to our sites.