I’m trying a new idea. therefore, pieces are going up elsewhere.
At Continental Telegraph. Yes, there is a comments section.
It’s all a bit new, most of the site is still cod pieces just to make spaces right and so on. But the general intention is to get this up and running as a truly Worstallian newspaper…..something a bit more than a blog, perhaps a little less than a newspaper in fact.
As a general layout, the usual ranting and shouting will be there. Then, added excitement of pieces aimed at search engines etc. The game to see whether sufficient traffic to support a lifestyle can be gained. There will obviously be the occasional pieces here as well. Stuff that even a Worstallian paper wouldn’t publish.
Lifestyle requires 20,000 page views a day once running properly. Can this be done?
“…something a bit more than a blog, perhaps a little less than a newspaper in fact”
It needs a name. Everything on the internet has to have its own invented name. It’s a cross between a blog and a newspaper.
It’s a blaper.
“I contribute to a blaper. Oh, you don’t know what a blaper is? Wow, just shows how out of date you are. Do you still have a VHS to watch movies on?”
This is totally your project, Tim?
Presumably, you will accept contributions from others and publish those that reach your excruciatingly high ranting standards?
I can be controversial about tax, whilst tapping in to the deep rooted feelings of the common man.
“Tax? It’s bollocks, mate”
Looks very nice actually.
If I had one piece of advice, it would be to rescue some of those cut loose by The Register. They must be about and if you can, see if they will write something.
@AndrewC
Not just news; hopefully there’ll be OpEd and salacious gossip too. And a topless page.
Also why just paper? Why not have video articles about informative and controversial topics (I’ve just been watching Pat Condell).
A readers’ problems section? “What would Adam Smith do?”
And don’t forget the cartoon. Maybe “Matt” (telegraph cartoonist) can be crowdbribed to do the occasional piece.
Should the ‘manage’ button really be appearing on the bottom right if the mobile version?
Perhaps it’s a snog?
the Dad’s Army graphic will test the sense of humour of at least the continental readers of the Continental Telegraph.
Good luck. I’ll keep checking in.
The manage button is on the desktop version as well.
Thumbs up emoji
A friend wondered if an agony uncle section on sex or lack of it, and associated later life problems, would hit the target audience?
Second Bilbaoboy’s question – happy to view, but do you want contributions as well?
A friend wondered if BiS could have a regular spot on recommending working girls in Spain. Puls a Rocco Siffredi film review column (oo-er missus).
Plus not “Puls”. FFS.
Need to change the title. Currently it’s “Users’s blog”.
Second SMFS idea of recovering the lost from El Reg.
It’s in my feed. Fire away.
Is 20’000 anywhere near what you were reaching at Forbes?
““Tax? It’s bollocks, mate”
That should be ‘“Tax? It’s bollocks, mate. Cash?’ for the true common man view.
At some point but not yet. Bugs to iron out etc…..
Can we have Mr Ecks as the voice of the man on the Clapham Bus?
Also needs a “Spud History” page, somewhere to link to list the hypocrisy of the twat regarding his own tax dealings such as:
– Trivial Pursuit, Ireland + San Serif, Barbados
– Council tax on the annexe
– Business rates on the office
– Nanny advice
– TJN tax advantage
– The FTM flop
Somewhere easy to point people to!
Oh look, Spud really does think he’s god:
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/02/21/the-demand-for-integrity-requires-consistency-or-it-looks-like-hypocrisy/#comment-799793
The most fun I’ve had online was when the UK Telegraph had a lively blog section with commentary allowed on all Op Ed. It was a wonderful crash introduction to heretical thinking: Christopher Brooker, James Delingpole, Janet Daley would start the ball rolling but the comments were the best part. I would love a fight club of ideas. Mr Ecks to host drastic solutions to annoying people weekly please!
RSS feeds please. That’s plural (one for each author/topic) not just one firehose like Breitbart.
The Telegraph had that too.
There only seems to be one box per page for adverts. Not complaining, but wouldn’t a couple more increase the chance of you making a living out of it?
@Noel Scope
Alas, my Qs didn’t get through on another of Spud’s mind-vomits about the FCA chairman and serious errors of judgment.
They were about the serious errors of judgement on taking dividends, saving tax in Ireland and writing tax savings columns in the press.
It seems that the Spud God can commit no sin, only spot that of others.
The ALL CAPS quote sections are quite difficult to read – font too large, impossible to scan, quite jarring – I would reduce size, and use normal upper and lower case formatting
The massive all-caps quotes in italics are hard to read, by the way
Get Lewis Page in asap – I really miss his stuff
LJH +1
“It was a wonderful crash introduction to heretical thinking: Christopher Brooker, James Delingpole, Janet Daley would start the ball rolling but the comments were the best part.”
And there must be a whole load of non established writers / thinkers that might enjoy a chance to contribute to something that could gain some critical mass?
Go for it Tim, it could be a lot of fun.
Noel
“Katie Rinciershaw” ……
@PF,
Very good.
Given up on the anagrams and gone to the Chris Moyles’ “Toby LeRone” book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLZAHCC_km8
Ah, I assumed it was you. Must be one of the usual suspects….
And there must be a whole load of non established writers / thinkers that might enjoy a chance to contribute to something that could gain some critical mass?
Indeed. Are you looking for writers?
PF,
Not me that one, well done on whoever it was! I’m someone else today!
Such a repellent stench of ordure emanating from that unimpressive end Terrace in Ely today
Drew Peacock shows a touch of class
“touch of class”
Nothing that Viagra can’t deal with.
Apols – OT – and paywall unfortunately, but PHE will no doubt wet themselves over this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/20/alcohol-fuels-majority-early-onset-dementia-cases-study-finds/
And can we PLEEEEASE have an edit function on the comments?
+100 for having Tim N on board too!
Does it count as a Page View if it’s on my Feedly RSS Reader?
PF; “Alcohol Fuels Majority of Early Onset Dementia” – normally by about 10:30pm, but it depends when you started.
“And don’t forget the cartoon. Maybe “Matt” (telegraph cartoonist) can be crowdbribed to do the occasional piece.”
Oh please no. No socialists please.
BraveFart
It’s deeply nauseating stuff from the great tuber I agree!
>Lifestyle requires 20,000 page views a day once running properly. Can this be done?
How long is a piece of string? How many viewers do you already have on this blog? Are you planning to have more writers, or is just going to be your own blog with new graphics and a new name?
There’s your tagline, above: “A Fight Club of ideas”
Bit surprised by the blog-style “next/previous articles”, have got rather used to the “related articles” or “you might also like” or “other people are reading” bells and whistles on “proper” news sites. The ones that make me read the most are where you reach the bottom of one article to find a new one starts directly underneath it, often chosen to be a match for me based on what I was reading before. Without clicking a link and just scrolling down I often find myself reading 5 articles that way. Does relegate the comments to something you have to click to access though.
I know this is a “work in progress” detail at this stage, but when it comes to doing this for real, then “immigration” isn’t really one of your 5 a day (across the top) – it’s not the kind of web site you are trying to portray? Nor elections but that’s less provocative.
And people do read things that way – it points to the focus of the site. Economics, politics, pissing all over idiot lefties – any of those / others would be more appropriate?
Yes, will be changed in time
Seriously, how do I pay you for your content?
I support a couple of things on Patreon to a few bucks per month, and they’re great value.
You have shown me a great deal about economics and the political class and would willingly sign up to support you.
At this time of life I think you show pay for things of value to you.
Maybe I’m alone here though…
Yeah, fully in accord with those who hate, loathe and despise the giant italicised capital quotes.
Indent, italicise and use a normal size font with normal upper/lower case usage. A tasteful not black/grey colour might help…
As tp payments, sites like MacInTouch encourage a monthly PayPal donation. Dunno that it’s keeping Ric in the style he’d like, but it’s simple, doesn’t require much from you and leaves the ‘subscriber’ completely in charge. I do the same thing with our local individually-funded classical radio station. A thousand people at $5 a month makes a useful dent in the claret bill.
“Paying for content”
Ads presumably?
Tim, following on from Raffles – there are ways of doing this and some better than others, and people have suggested this before on this site, but don’t rule out some form of process whereby people are able simply to donate.
There may be times, when suddenly the shit hits the fan, people get bloody irritated, or “something”, and at that point are willing to contribute to somethng / someone who is on their side, or taking the flak or fighting the same battle.
And best done subtly so that it’s not so obviously evident until someone thinks “is there a donate button”. Food for thought?
Water in Cape Town 🙂 Easily amused and all that, but thinking back to the Forbes fallout..
Wanted to congratulate you on the fantastic job you did with the Continental Telegraph. Way past time and name could have been catchier and you still need to figure out how to get women to look at your site but at least you are on the way.
Please take five minutes to give your page a favicon. My bookmarks toolbar already has ten grey amorphous blobs and telling them apart is a mission. Check out my sexy favicon at shadeburst.wordpress.com
One more thing. I don’t approve of the title. Or is it only me whose first reaction was “I don’t give a Continental”?
Southerner – I too found that odd. Continental United States? Continental Europe? Continental Britain? Was able to post and reply, but the email with the password never came across.
Well Iv’e bookmarked it. Will check daily to see whats on.
Maybe somewhere for people who have comments taken way out of context to present their views properly once the MSM piles in and screams at them, like the recent comment on gay couples and kids
Thirded SMFS idea of recovering the lost from El Reg
Add the lost from Forbes
What Steve said:
Get Lewis Page in asap – I really miss his stuff
@MyBurningEars, February 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm
Related article: Right-click and “Open in new tab”
@MyBurningEars – I hated the way Forbes starts a new article beneath the one I was reading. Too often I scrolled to far, or page down went wrong, & I was reading a new article.
It screwed the comments up too.
However it seems to work on adamsmith.org, so…
+1 for Lewis Page.
Who else was worth reading at Forbes? I only read Tim.
The landing page is a bit in your face on the iPad in landscape
Great venture and good luck.
Certainly can’t be a newspaper without sports pages.
Like many men, I’ve spent my entire life reading newspapers from back to front.
I’ll chime in and agree about El Reg.
Called in for the first time in yonks to have a nose around and found it to be absolutely woeful.
However, some of the old commentards were still sniping from the sidelines. Lewis would certainly be readable. Anyone know what he’s up to?
Also, a suggestion with regards to a cartoon strip, is Scott Adams expensive 😉
One last suggestion, how about an Amazon referral button where all purchases net you a small amount?
Has nobody else read the hardboiled detective stories about the Continental Op?
Dashiell Hammett invented the genre.
Was the first thing I thought of when I saw Tim’s post – the blournal [better than blaper, no?] is the Continental Telegraph but the Man Behind It All (and cunning to boot) is The Continental Op.
Technical issue- clicking the follow us on Facebook button takes you to a page called ‘Tagdiv’.
I’d be interested in contributing occasionally too, maybe could have an expats section? (You seem to have plenty of expat readers here!)
Tim,
You need, and soon, a prominent link, right at the top of this site (and perhaps with a brief narrative), to the new site?
For those, that may not be daily regulars, now clicking on their existing bookmark and perhaps not realising that you’re moving. Instead they may just assume, if the volume here is reduced, “another of the good guys bites the dust”?
So the blog is effectively dead and you are going to be spending all your time on this pseudo-newsy crap. Tim.
It is a moneymaker somehow is it?
Ecks
Maybe my phrasing was presumptive? Whether it’s “reduced”, “a JC parrott” or perhaps loads of “below the belt stuff” presumably will be in the eating?
Actually, it just needs a link to the new thing anyway, because “common sense”…
If you’re looking for content, Tim, had you considered reviving an old idea & running a short story section? There was a time a lot of publications carried short fiction works. SciFi was pretty well born there as were many writing careers. Did the readership market dry up or was it disinterest in publishing? I imagine a lot of us would welcome something in the quarter to half hour to read band as a diversion on a journey or hanging around waiting & with smartfones it’d be an always available resource. There’s a limit on how much factual one feels one needs to consume or can hold one’s interest.
Not saying the MSM produces much factual these days, of course. Just that their fiction is neither well written nor believable.
@BlokeInBrum, February 21, 2018 at 11:08 pm
Me too yesterday, as you say “woeful”, best bit was commentards scathing comments of El Reg SF’s Damore sjw article.
Forgot this yesterday:
And that Scottish El Reg bloke who’s at Gartner (iirc) now.
It looks like the follow-on-Twitter option could use some work. Thanks to NASA’s OIG, I now know how important Twitter followers are.
If you need some SLS/Orion bashing articles for the tech section, let me know. Spending $6Bn+ maintaining ISS-2 so we can have a handful of government employees visit somewhere in the vicinity of the Moon is a terrible idea.
My opinion is that we are far better off spending half that amount supporting operations in LEO that use commercial stations and transportation. If we really want to go to the Moon other half buys 20+ Falcon launches.