With friends like those…
I enjoyed greatly Iain Dale’s condescending pat on the head for lesser bloggers the other day. After showing us (again) how big his knob is - ‘the top three most popular political blogs (Guido, ConHome and yours truly) get between 0.25 and 0.35m unique visitors a month’ - he gave us this:
Most politicians would give their eye teeth to give a speech to an audience of two hundred. So if you are a candidate with a blog whose readership amounts to only a few hundred, that’s the fact you should comfort yourself with! It really is a truism in blogging to say that it isn’t always size that matters.
And he’s right. Us ickle wickle bloggers shouldn’t worry about whether we have as many readers as Iain. Take a look, for instance, at the comments under this post of his about the NUT. I don’t know about other bloggers but if I had that mob following me around, I’d pack it in all together. I’m grateful to say the least that I don’t have his readership. That’s the fact you should comfort yourself with!
And as for Guido Fawkes, if you were to take out the racist, the sexist, the homophobic and the brain-damaged, his readership wouldn’t be much larger than mine. If you were able to create a virus that killed people who have a prurient obsession with others having anal sex Guido’s blog would be virtually friendless overnight.
It’s who not how many, thanks very much.
Posted on March 25th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
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It’s called LCD, Lowest Common Denominator…. etc. I scanned the Daily Mail comments that were linked to the Tory sterilisation program that you blogged about this morning, and what I could see 95+% (there were 70 comments made at that time) were in favour of the sterilisation project. (Holocaust next?).
Only problem is The Empire doesn’t exist today, thankfully.
I noticed that, too. Reminded me of Rebekah Wade losing control of her mob a short while back:
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2008/02/rebekah_wade_of.asp
It was good of Iain to come off his cloud and offer sage advice to us mere mortals. I’d be interested to hear if Iain and Guido, despite the ludicrous number of visits, think their blogs do their politics credit and engage and convince opponents. If the Tories win the next election, will they both be as bold to claim credit for the victory?
When the anonymous comments are more reasonable and saner than the ones leaving their actual name, you know you’ve got problems.
*applause*
Well noted. Well said.
Sorry but this does smell a little of sour grapes to me. I don’t see much wrong with a lot of the comments following Iain Dale’s post in particular.
Yes, there’s some nuttiness (you’d expect that just on the basis of the sheer number) but in amongst it there are some very good responses. I disagree with Dale on this particular point, but in general the NUT has come out with some real idiocy this past weekend. Plus, I discovered this excellent teacher blog through that comment thread.
When it comes to Guido, I agree with you more but you have to credit his nous - he’s found a niche and marketed his blog very well indeed.
Sour grapes how?
I would welcome your views on this paragraph from the same blog post:
Is this a hint at some behind-the-blog thinking. Dale’s blog is already looking more like a newspaper’s website. Is he thinking of getting in bed with one of them?
Putting the boot into Dale’s and Guido’s readers and finishing up with “It’s who not how many, thanks very much.”?
Not sure if that’s what was intended but that’s how it comes across.
I’m not following you. Are you saying I’m jealous I don’t have a horde of racists, homophobes and bigots reading my blog?
Are you saying that most of Guido’s and Dale’s readers are racists, homophobes and/or bigots?
I’m not a regular reader of Guido, and I don’t have much in common politically with Dale (though I do read the Diary once in a while), but I think that’s rather harsh to say the least.
It should be apparent to even the casual reader what goes on in those comment threads. I wouldn’t tolerate a commenter who calls himself ‘Little Black Sambo’ but they seem happy to and the homophobia on display in Guido’s comments is a disgrace.
They both pander to and condone the worst elements of blog commenters which is why I’m grateful I don’t have their readership. If that’s the price of success then I’m not interested.
I’m not saying you haven’t got a point with regard to Guido, but that blog is the closest thing the British blog world has to a tabloid newspaper. Yes there’s some nastiness on the comments threads, but there’s also plenty of on-topic discussion about MPs’ expenses, a worthwhile topic.
As for Dale, on the other hand, don’t you think attacking his blog based on what one of the commenters chooses to call himself is reaching a bit?
No offence, Ian, but have actually you spent any amount of time in Iain Dale’s comments? The largely anonymous personal abuse and libel he’s let through comment moderation attacking others who he then refuses a right of reply? Ever tried to have a serious discussion in a thread where the likes of ‘Verity’ are tolerated?
I’m not attacking his blog, I’m attacking the way he runs his blog and the band of shits that form a very large part of his readership. I don’t envy either.