No MyT work for a couple of days. As yet, no with-drawal symptoms. My last post there drew a response from an ex-MyT'r who had set up a small operation on a social network basis. I joined as I was aware that going cold turkey might be difficult after the high activity levels of blogging. If the new thing directs me down the paths that made me quit MyT I shall drop that as well.
I have given up my My Telegraph blog. No particular reason that I could identfy as responsible. The DT blog is quite cerebral with a lot of deep thinkers and serious commentators and that led me to explore their ideas and thoughts.
I was learning more than I wanted. Allied to this greater awareness of how this world was sliding down the stairs on a tea tray was the realisation that there was little I could ever do to ameloriate the situation still less offer any solution. I have little interest in being an onlooker; I always want to get down in the dirt with the players.
So, I came away. For a rest? Maybe. I want to continue with my steps to discovering if I can write. So here I am.
I returned to this blog area today to find something from the archives. Awaiting me was a comment from Wireless Guy dated 9 November 2007. Due to weird persons such as him, comments are moderated. I rejected this one.
However, as he seems to wish to use this method of communication, it might help if I explain why his comments here will always be rejected and those made elsewhere reported for total removal or amendment.
The short answer is that I do not wish to communicate with him in any way, shape or form. I have made this clear to him when he was using email. I also advised him that I would not hesitate to contact his ISP if he again sent abusive or unwanted traffic. He seems to have understood that. I stand ready to issue the same warning regarding his harassment on any blog of mine.
I do not know what his problem is. He makes reference to events in my past but these are either founded on his misinterpretation of my actions or just sheer animus. He refers to the death of my daughter/his sister. What he does not know is that I discussed my attitude with her whilst she was still lucid. We agreed there was no good outcome for her. We also agreed other matters; these were personal her to me and I do not intend to debate them with him.
Another matter that rankles is my attitude to her husband and children. I do not know what transpired but after his intrusion at the latter stages of my daughter's resulted in her daughters feeling unable or unwilling to contact me or my wife. I associate his appearance with this situation. If they cannot discuss the problem, I cannot assist. I know not what I have done wrong. Their father has confirmed Wireless Guys part in their changed attitude but says, quite rightly, it is a matter for them and not his resolution.
On odd occasions he refers to the death of my mother. He can have no idea of that which he complains. Her consultants confirmed that there was nothing further the medical services could do and recommended I give consent to cessation of treatment. She and I discussed this when she was aware of what was going on. Anything I did after her death was agreed by and with her. I do not accept any criticism from him. His intervention and allegations are unwanted and slightly distressing. It is matters such as this that could cause me to complain to those who provide his Internet access.
He goes on to other sundry matters. These include the question "have you stopped beating your wife?" and seems to expect either a yes or no answer. Again, I see the matter as nothing to do with him. I would point out that my wife and I recently celebrated fifty years of marriage; if she is being beaten she looks well on it and is prepared for the next few years.
His own behaviour would support adverse comment.
Anything that comes from this wireless guy needs to be taken with a large dose of salt. If there is any opportunity I would add legal action to the complaint to his service provider. He may see me as his father. This is biologically true but I certainly do not see him as my son such that he may feel he has rights to speak out and be heard.
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.
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
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.
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.
TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
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.
I posed the question as to whether an enemy could gain any useful information from blogs written by servicemen. Nice of Slate to answer the question for me eh?
Seems that the Yankee poodle Yankee fool will get a pay off from the Bush regime after all. The idea that this duplicitous war-mongering criminal has any place in the Middle East is ludicrous. Truly, a Ambassador is a man sent abroad to lie for his Country.
However, I live in hope. The Middle East has a fine history of assassinating those who cause the war lords problems.
I am not yet a total reclusive hermit at the back of some dark and dank cave. Additionally, and to the best of my knowledge of course, I am not yet fully infiltrated by the Altzheimer's illness.
However, I do not recognise this treatise as being the same Scotland as the one I've been living in for the last nigh on seven years. So, I have to repeat my T-shirted request "If found wandering and confused, please phone Norma on 01361 ******"
In England, serious criminal cases such as children chalking hop-scotch boxes on the pavement attract really wide spread attention.
Seems things are different in America. A truly horrendous murder of a young man and a girl failed to gain much publicity outside the state where it took place and one adjoining state. Just some detail of the murders -
Christian and Newsom had gone on a date Saturday, January 6, 2007, but did not return home. Newsom's body was found adjacent to railroad tracks in East Knoxville the next afternoon. According to investigators, he had been shot and his body had been burned. He had apparently been raped. Some reports state that his penis had been severed from his body prior to his death.
"When the perpetrators were finished with Christopher, they allegedly turned their attention to Channon. She was beaten, gang raped and at times urinated upon. When her killers finally had their fill of her, they cut off one of her breasts while she was still alive, poured bleach down her throat, in an attempt to cover up evidence. As with Christopher, they set her body on fire; however, for unknown reasons, they did not dump her body but instead placed it in a trashcan inside the apartment"
And the reason there was only limited reporting of this? Too grim for publication - no. Seems that there was insufficient novelty in what happened. Extreme degrees of horror quite often appear in the media. Some commentators have said that this is due to a supposed media bias which supposedly provides more coverage to cases in which whites allegedly attack blacks (such as the Duke Lacrosse case) than vice versa.
I think I prefer to read about kids and hopscotch.
I had half-expected to see Bush with his Yo-poodle at his side. Maybe they had learned their lesson after the Wide MouthFrog described herself as England's First Lady in the publicity blurb for one of her mortgage-supplementing tours. Cannot have two First Ladies at the same time.
Our farewell tour of the land around Arizona was described as The Final Round Up (or Two Old Farts in a Canyon). Given the ages of Liz and Phil, maybe they felt the same emotions.
I suppose it has provided the plot for countless essays submitted by creative writing students. "Man told had incurable disease. Will die in weeks" goes out and has a high old time. Then - mixed emotions - not ill at all. Will live for ages and ages but has no money or assets.
If the key to successful writing is to write about what you know, this guy should be on a winner.
A very competent war zone blogger writes steps out of his environment.
TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Michael Yon.
I had been saving this as a tag for a suitable blog. Cannot say where I got it from as I have lost/forgotten that bit. I am going to just put it up and forget it. May come in handy if anyone has that discussion with me.
I am a racist. And a sexist. It’s true: I believe in making judgements according to individual merit, without regard to race, color, creed, sex, or national origin.
Corresponds with the usual criticism. Shows why I don't care when accused.
This is just one revelation posted in to Post Secret. By the very nature of the project, the majority of those published reveal people with serious problems in their life.
Whether or not this anonymous disclosure has any beneficial effect I cannot say.
I do not intend to find out.
Whenever there is the death of a soldier on active service it seems inevitable that there is a debate about insufficient equipment or equipment not suitable for the purpose. The politicians, safe at home in the bosom of their family, then claim that the commanders on the ground are getting everything they ask for. Seems that they do not convince the man responsible for procuring the stuff who has issued a report on how he sees things.
And people are discussing what Tony's legacy should be.
Don't know if the system will allow you to see my site meter record of places from where this blog has been accessed. Just looking, seems I have lived in or visited the majority of them - excluding Oz and Kiwi Land.
So - come on, don't be shy. Drop me a quick note about how things are there right now. I may be able to tell you what they were like for me going back anything up to 55 years ago. Save looking in the profile - j.wood999@btinternet.com.
