blogging in 2011

As you may have noticed, I've dropped the blogging frequency this year. Not sure how much I`ll be blogging in 2011, although we are having a general election (on Nov 26) and at least one by-election ( in March). However if Chris Carter resigns, we'll be having another by election to stop Judith Tizard entering Parliament.

Anyway, Facebook and Twitter have replaced much of the blog conversation, so catch me around there, and Delicious is a great bookmarking tool which you can share links with others. Before I go some awards:

Best MP( and best speech) was John Key, best national MP Steven Joyce, rising star Hekia Parata, best Labour MP Grant Robertson, best minor Party MP Metiria Turei, and best CD HTML - Hard Trance is My Life, by Steve Hill. Best right wing blog is Kiwiblog, best leftwing blog is No Right Turn -although Liberation comes a close second. Worst National MP Paul Quinn, worst Labour MP ( for 2010) is/was Chris Carter and worst minor party MP Roger Douglas. (yes even David Garrett was more effective). Best left wing twittering MP is Clare Curran, best rightwing twittering MP is Tau Henare.

Prediction for 2011: election date will be 26 November and Peter Dunne will win his seat. Pretty sure at least one will be correct.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

Interesting week so far this week. I was elected to the Board of Trustees of the local school that the kids are at. I also started a new job today.

Anyway, I may continue blogging, but certainly not during the day. However I may do some time delay posts, meaning you may get some posts pop up during the day, but written the night before.

Expect to see a drop in the frequency of posts - or I may even just stop.

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Knocking it on the head. Goodbye...

I'm going to finish up blogging. Ive been doing it for years, but I started a new job yesterday that pretty much prevents me from blogging - at least means that there are some things I should not be blogging on - particularly in work time, like I did yesterday.

So I thought I'd knock it off. Goodbye - It's nice to have known you. It's nice to have broken a few stories, nice to have made some friends through the blog. I`ll miss it - but better to take this line than to get me in trouble with the boss.

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The easiest way to set up a blog

So, you read blogs. You'd like to set up your own blog. Or you have a blog and you want to migrate it or back it up. Check out Posterous.com It is now as easy as sending an e-mail.

Here's how it works. You write your blog post. You send it (hotmail or g-mail) to post@posterous.com and hey presto, you have a blog. You can then change the e-mail address you want posts sent from, add another blog, and if you want to syndicate to Facebook or Twitter you can do that, too. You can also group blog; you register members who simply send posts to an e-mail you provide. You can also post videos and pix as well. If you don't like your post, just delete it and e-mail another one over.

It's that simple.[ h/t jonny.baker.]

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Bloggers, lift your game, not your hit rates

I used to read a lot of blogs. I don't read so many now. Some of the ones I used to read a lot have lost their mojo, others are way better than most of the top 20 of the Tumeke Rankings. I have adjusted my blogroll and, on the top of that blogroll have highlighted 10 good political blogs that I think are are worth reading. The list will change. Some are not on that list because they dont blog often enough. Many are not in the Tumeke top 10.

Here they are in alpha order:
david.farrar
frog.blog
kiwipolitico
liberation
lindsay.mitchell
no.minister.
no.right.turn
pundit
red.alert
tumeke!

SO, who do you think should be in that list that is not?

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Political blogging and the media

Early this morning over breakfast, political journalist Fran O’Sullivan addressed a decent size group of people on the topic of the Accidental Empire of Political Blogging.

The hosts were Rural Women NZ – although there were a good number of urban males present.

She was pretty critical of bloggers who blog anonymously – but did not extend this criticism to anonymous MSM editorial writers. She contrasted two left wing blogs, effectively claiming The Standard is left for dead by the authoritative Red Alert blog. Writers on the former blog do so anonymously, the writers of the latter do not. She seemed to think that those who do not blog under their own name cannot be as accountable. But anyone who wants to know who run most of the anonymous political blogs, such as No Right Turn and Roar Prawn, can find out who they are. Indeed, O'Sullivan herself appeared to know who many of them are. She also noted that some bloggers have lost their mojo, while most bloggers can "get away with more" as there is not the same requirement for balance, deadlines or fact checking as in the MSM.

I changed my blog recently and took out my name after getting stalked online after something I wrote.Yet as with the blogger at Ethical Martini,nearly everyone who lands here can quickly find out who I am – and I am certainly accountable for what I write. O’Sullivan even questioned whether a blogger would be sued. I know of only one political blogger who has been threatened with legal action – and if the blogger was with the media, the media outlet would defend any action, not the writer.

O’Sullivan was critical of some of the NZ on Air funded current events shows and questioned why bloggers couldn’t get some funding from a revamped organisation - NZ on Media - and also saw no reason why some bloggers could not get membership of the Press Gallery. After all, university newspapers can, and most of their writing is worse than many political blogs.

But, overall, the mainstream media see political blogs as positive.

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