Whither now - SatNav required

So - it does seem as if the MyT blog has been cleansed. There are still a couple of things that need to be sorted out but doubtless that will follow.

Now, what happens with this blog? I resurrected it to give me the facility to get away from the over-weening MyT protection of TCP. Where I could get my opinions across without someone lodging a spoiling complaint.

I think I might try and run them both.

End of the world as we knew it!

Well, today we can well and truly claim that goodness will triumph over evil. Bit dramatic but that is how it feels. The despotic and dyspeptic Slocombe has departed from MyT. Long rambling justification which completely evaded the fact that he was almost universally reviled.

I do have a few doubts. His sudden collapse came very soon after, at long long last, we got TCS to organise a forensic analysis of activities as recorded on the server logs. My personal opinion, based upon the long leash he had enjoyed for so long, is that he was given the alternative of Go or Be Pushed. Either was he is off.

Or is he? One of the failings of the registration process is that all one requires is a valid email address. These are as scarce as gay condoms in Brighton. He could well come back. The bogeyman returns.

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/phil_slocombe/september_2007/goodbye_myt.htm

Watch out - snipers!

The decay continues of what could have been a first class blogging facility run by the Daily Telegraph. Some good forensic work by outraged and disappointed members has shown very clearly that there is something untoward afoot. Shane (TCS in my Army-like nomenclature) has appointed a side kick to undertake some sort of inquiry. Doubtless, it will be just as the Dr Kelly job - your terms of reference are that if you find anything dodgy you must not publish them.

I have given up. I will post what I want in the manner I want.

Return, tail between legs, downcast

Well, I have been away some what - 4 months? Went to the blog run by the Daily Telegraph. I say 'run' - after this update you may form some other opinion.

It all started off well. Very easy site to use - this because it has limited features. Limited HTML, few formatting options. Only upload one image per post. It was a lively site with most posts getting an average of, I suppose, 20 or so comments. These were a happy mix of serious, facile, what-the-hell-is-that-about and in-jokes. They have a section which establishes the most popular post, comment, saved item and bloggers. Each post has the ability to vote Yes or No in agreement with the post and these are consolidated to an overall popularity percentage. I'll do a link with the Guest Blog and you will see what I mean.

This Top of the Pops feature is well on the way to killing the whole thing. Registration requires only that one have a email address. Canny posters looking to get themselves or their work included registered many times and this gave them the facility to manipulate the results. What they were doing was very obvious and logs were maintained of weird activity which suggested the doppelgangers. The blog moderators poo hooed the double identity creation but did not amplify how they prevented this. Some of us, to check, used multiple emails to see where any hidden check might be. There was none. We were able to make posts in more than one identity before cancelling what we saw as an abuse and loophole not closed.

Another built-in by design failure was the ability to complain about a post or comment. This was directly and all too easily available from the post. Using the Complain About feature allowed ill-minded members to stifle any comment or post that revealed their quirks or double-identities or manipulation tactics. The post and comments are then removed from general view whilst, alleged, they have been cleared by the moderators. In all the time I have been using the MyT blog, I have not seen any resurrection of a complained about post or comment. Surely, not every complaint can have been justified for cause? Feed-back from the blog fuhrers is almost non-existent giving none the ability to correct their future work to avoid it's abortion.

So, if anyone here is thinking of designing a blogging application, the MyT is a good example of what not to do.

Now, without further ado, one of my posts that was killed and an example of the writing of the person I highlight in that post. Enjoy.

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TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Philip S. is a much talked about man at the moment. It is not just a few awkward members doing this but people one rarely reads of are commenting as well. It cannot be easy for him as he doubtless still sees himslef as a founder member. Maybe he has some idea that he is the blog. I did entertain the start of a wonderful conspiracy theory that TCP does not really exist but is someone invented by Shane or such to give the blog that appearance of success that any application initiated by a newspaper requires if it is not to be a chain around a even more seniors' neck. This conspiracy would involve under the table payments and action in manipulating statistics. I cleared Shane after finding him and TCP on site at the same time, However, we still have to wonder why such a sharp executive seems unable to comprehend the logs and information addressed for his perusal.

I used to get quite annoyed at TCP. He appeared to have his own private line when he complained about a comment or a post. I imagined a dedicated moderator alert as the HMV dog Nipper for when His Master's Voice came on - Exterminate, exterminate. He made quite immoderate and extraordinanry claims in his own work without giving any reference or other citation. All it needed was for him to say it - instant truth andconfirmation. However, as his work became even more like that of Captain Queeg and his cache of strawberries, I sensed that there could well be something like megalomania at work. The symptoms were just so accurate; "Megalomania is an unrealistic belief in one's superiority, grandiose abilities, and even omnipotence. It is characterized by a need for total power and control over others, and is marked by a lack of empathy for anything that is perceived as not feeding the self". He needs to controll everything and this to an extreme. I imagine that much of his life is now out of his control. He will be crippled and look terribly unhealthy and old beyond his actual years. As an ex-serviceman. he smokes 60 a day. He cannot sell his house and has lost so much of his limited capital. He cannot communicate or understand so much around him in China and his wife would seem poorly educated. She would be of limited support on his trips to Spain where his conquistador lifestyle delusions give him comfort unattainable in China.

So all in all, the poor chap deserves our sympathy rather than the scorn and derision that he now attracts.Were he a dog, he would need a rescue center. I think he deserves to be treated like a dog for the rest of his few years here.

Ave Atque Vale

I include an article that comments on the Nazi attitudes to racial purification by the sad old Slocombe. No action was taken to kill the original article.