Freedom of speech under threat (again)

I know that many of you have already done so, but this is just a quick plea to all Blogpower members to bring the Usmanov situation to the attention of your readers.

Basically, a number of blogs have been taken down and others threatened with legal action by an Uzbek millionaire after they repeated allegations made against him by Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan.

These allegations have been around for years, yet Usmanov has failed to take Murray to court over them. Instead he's put pressure on a small web-hosting company he knows lack the resources to fight him.

The British libel laws have become, in the words of our very own Gracchi: "a tool of the powerful to abuse, not a tool to protect innocent people against press intrusion"

Blog Commenting

This is just too good not to share.

If blogs ever ran business meetings, perhaps they would go something like this....

New Blogger - Kizzie

May i recommend an excellent blogger to join BP.

Her name is Kizzie and she is a Sudanese Muslim currently living in Cairo. She brings a completely different perspective on events to our rather Anglo-centric world. She recently guest posted a piece for me on female genital mutilation (yes, i know it's a slightly heavy subject) following a visit by Ayaan Hirsi Ali to Australia.

Her blog is here.

You will notice that she hasn't posted for a while but that's because she is currently in L.A. researching a paper on Spanish immigration into California. She will recommence posting once she returns home.

Check it out.

BP Profiles; Crushed By Ingsoc

The first BlogPower profile victim is Crushed By Ingsoc. Find out more about the man behind DoubleThink here.

If you would like to be profiled, please shoot me an email at pommygranate7@yahoo.com.au and i'll send you back some questions. Otherwise i shall hunt you down..

Pommygranate asks ...

pommygranate asks, at my blog …

James

I'd like to ask the group if anyone has found an effective way of making money from placing adverts on their blogs. i see that nearly everyone runs ads but would be intrested to see if anyone has any positive experiences from the process.

i know i dont!

So, good Blogpowerers, does anyone know of a way?

Blogpower - still relevant for particular reasons

Some readers will have noticed I've ventured into MyBlogLog and the Praguetory community and I've noticed Westminster Wisdom has delicious and digg-it [neither which I understand] listed at the foot of each post. Tom Paine is also in Conservatives Abroad and the Witanagemot Club.

Is this treasonable to good old Blogpower?

This blogger says no, quite the opposite. Despite anything people say about stats not mattering, I think everyone would like to be read by a large and discerning community. Most Blogpowererers joined to expand their contacts and through a friendly but very loosely confederated community which is always outward looking, rather than inwards.

If I had to sum up how I saw Blogpower operating, I'd list the following:

# The 'big bloggers' all have some sort of national exposure which ensures them huge readerships, e.g. TV spots, Doughty and so on. The 'little bloggers', though linking to the biggies, usually don't get anything in return and so there is a case for a large collective of little bloggers who provide each other with larger readerships than would ordinarily be possible.

# The whole ethos of Blogpower is 'blogging for pleasure'.

# Members feed off other members' own expanding contacts, who in turn feed off those contacts and so on. A process of personal filtration then creates an ever-expanding community we'd like to be in.

# There is a definite sense of community here, which is Blogpower's main strength, given that it is open to all shades of opinion and strongly defends the right of those opinions to exist, even if we disagree, sometimes violently, with those opinions or affiliations. Members are free to use full or abridged versions of the blogroll, as they see fit.

# Compared to other web based communities, Blogpower is very human-based and low tech, without the snazzy little 'recent visitors' boxes, marauding marsupials and the like. It works on members of a slowly expanding community knowing one another and providing solid readerships which don't diminish on whim.

# We try to write testimonials, provide technical help and run various schemes to improve the blogs of fellow members. People are lways coming up with new ideas to improve our lot.

# Blogpower, being a completely free and voluntary collective, has no opinions of its own on any topic and endorses nothing but each other. If members wish to expand their blogs by joining other communities and schemes, Blogpower positively encourages that. It doesn't alter our blogfriendships.

# Blogpower Express will soon feature a blog of the week spot and be co-administered on a rota basis. It is our flagship homepage and Defending the Blog is our discussion page.

Anyone care to add anything to this?