I don't know about you, but I find blogs, including my own, are a bit patchy. That is, I go through phases of liking them, and not liking them. So here is this week's Blog-O-Meter, Weasel's guide to what's hot and what's not. Lack of inclusion implies nothing at all. I cannot mention everybody, good or bad.
Guido - Up
Guido Fawkes is lucky. People send him a lot of very good material, indeed anyone with half a brain could look good with the stuff he is privy to. At the moment news is hitting Guido before Nick Robinson gets it.
Tom Harris - Down
Since Tom had to restate his rather arbitrary comments policy, I notice that comment numbers have been down. Could that have anything to do with his posts? They seem to inhabit a parallel universe at the moment.
Polaris - Up
A new one to me. Polaris writes well and is funny.
Subrosa - Up
Goes from strength to strength, and unlike me, engages fully with her commenters.
Iain Dale - Down
Great if you are a fan of Iain. Boring if you aren't. Far too self-referential these days.
Special commendations to That's News, and Anna Raccoon who have provided good reads this week.
Please make your own submissions.
Thanks to Dave, Polaris, Bugger, Katabasis, King Athelstan, AP1984, Spartan, Denverthen, JPT, banned, Michael, Ruth@vs, Jim Baxter, Subrosa, Rebel Saint, boozer, Stewart Cowen, Kerry Katona, Winston, Ayrdale, Fraser, beeboids explode, Jimmy, Norton Folgate, Richard who have all made my life a bit richer this week.
(sorry to be soppy..it won't happen again)
12 comments:
Auch WW I really don't deserve this but thank you.
Polaris is always a good read for me along with Anna Raccoon. Both do excellent research.
As for Guido, Tom and Iain I don't read them regularly anymore for some of the reasons you mention.
I try to respond to my commenters because that's the least they deserve for reading my efforts.
Agreed completely - I once had a settled canon of reads but nowadays I find myself adding and deleting blogs almost daily. I also think there's an upper limit that you can usefully trawl through - around 25ish for my limited concentration span.
Your blog has yet to come under scrutiny in my pruning-drive, though the 'big boys' (Dale, Guido, Tory Bear yada yada) were given their marching orders months ago!
Subrosa, I have been hauled up by Jimmy for not responding enough, so I am trying to do better. So I suppose he has had the desired effect!
Michael, I always welcome your reasoned and interesting comments. I cannot possibly read more than a dozen blogs properly, each week, but there are those who, on the whole do not get pruned. They sometimes come back, and it is really mostly a reflection of my butterfly temperament.
At the moment I have time on my hands due to the weather, probably like everybody else!
I must admit, Ruth, that I am getting Pre Election fatigue. I mean, what more can be said? We know what's going on. We know, more or less, what the result will be,and we know that not a lot will change.
Best tend the garden, something you seem to be rather good at. I shall fish out my book MS and see if it is worth another go.
That's really kind, WW, and a super idea for us citizen bloggers.
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a selfish blogger; a bit of an unthinking, uncritical parasite when it comes to material, having started mine up really with only one, ruthless goal in mind - to vent splenetically until I get my way (the end of this government).
Sad, really, on balance.
Thank you for your kind words Mr Weasel.
I am humbled by your compliment - perhaps him indoors will stop nagging me (yes really!) when I show him this...
Clara
WW. Good article !
I read similar blogs to yourself.
The comments in guidos blog are always worth reading if you need cheering up. Especially the ongoing arguments between various commenters. John Prescots trip to the climate conference in China was a classic ( Twojags youtubed from his toilet complaining about the automatic flushing toilet damaging the environment).
Subrosa is good and her links take you to other good bloggers like Old Holborn and Dark Lochangar and of course yourself.
EUreferendum is interesting at the moment with the climate scam and the Pauchauri scandal ongoing. I watch with anger as Scotland is soon to be decimated with pylons to connect to pointless windfarms.
Oh and Ruths gardening blog is good although a bit quiet at the moment with the arctic winter in Lancashire.
I'll have to get a blog as I recognise a few avatars that might be me in your list !
Actually Jimmy, and this is not meant to sound in any way condescending, a good, regular commenter is as worthy as any blogger. Not having a blog leaves you free to react, to think and to take another view. Having a blog ties you and corners you a bit, the latter being sometimes useful and sometimes not. It is easier to let other people do the work. I do a lot of background work on some posts, checking and making sure I am not spouting utter bollocks. Sometimes it can take an hour or two just to get the facts.
So, fee free to get a blog. In some ways, you have nothing to lose. I am not sure I could stop and go cold turkey now, though, since I have been at it since 2005, and as you know, there is still much I can learn.
WW. I think just being a commenter is a bit of a cop out though. If I had a blog then I'd have to be a bit more consistent in my views. I can swing from left to right far too easily.
Oh and I do tend to go off piste a bit at the weekend when I get back from the pub so blogging would hopefully rein that in a bit. I've never understood legiron's ability on underdog bites upward to come back from the pub totally blootered and write such good stuff. Unless he's really a teetotal non smoker and is winding us all up !
Oh and if I blogged then it would give me access to comment on blogs such as subrosa where you need some ID or something
I agree that having your own blog is good discipline, and a proper ID. In fact, the only comments I would delete, especially if they were just abuse, is anons. Anons get up my nose.
If you are serious and have confidence in yourself, having a set identity works, because people can take a better view on things you say. It makes you careful, and since blogging gets a bad name for the level of abuse people write, it makes the blogger a bit more responsible.
I have written a lot of things I would in retrospect have not, but I try and be honest. I never delete things that have attracted adverse comments, for example. Honesty is underrated right now, and bloggers can set an example.
Once people know you, it is much more interesting to exchange views, since you get the feeling you have an understanding where the other person is coming from.
Cranmer ? Butch ?
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/
http://keepthinkingbutch.blogspot.com/
Thankyou Ayrdale. Excellent choices.
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