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Six guaranteed ways to increase your Community Traffic

Six guaranteed ways to increase your Community Traffic

In the past ten years or so, I’ve participated in or led the management and moderation of more than a dozen online communities. Sometimes there were targets to be met and metrics to provide. Universally, there was a desire to increase the participation and traffic to those communities. Here are ... Read more »
Positive Points for Open Primaries

Positive Points for Open Primaries

The Conservative Totnes experiment with open primaries is an interesting one. The Tories opened the selection of their candidate to all local electors. They could choose from a shortlist chosen by local party members. It’s an idea that’s fraught with risks and problems and, possibly most ... Read more »
Brighton Scenes #7

Brighton Scenes #7

Backstreet boozer not far from the sea, sunny Sunday evening. A flame haired, ill-tempered 30-something woman approaches the bar. She has enjoyed a few scoops. And I don’t mean ice cream. Her: (Rudely) What wine have you got? Barman: Red or white, madam? Her: White. (As if he should have ... Read more »
On eBay UK's Tenth Birthday

On eBay UK’s Tenth Birthday

On the promise of a live link from thelondonpaper.com to this here my blog and a possible plug for me old book (Make Serious Money on eBay UK), I obliged a journo from The London Paper with comment and copy the week before last on the occasion of eBay UK’s Tenth Birthday. I was present at the ... Read more »
TV Nostalgia: Crystal Maze

TV Nostalgia: Crystal Maze

The Crystal Maze was a big deal during the early nineties. If you were like me and in your early teens, it was required watching and, frankly, terribly exciting and cutting edge. It represents the pinnacle the adventure-style game shows that replaced boring old quiz shows for a while and filled the ... Read more »
TV Nostalgia: Treasure Hunt

TV Nostalgia: Treasure Hunt

Early on, Channel Four specialised in Granny-Vision. Countdown was obviously vital for the old folk as well as students. Treasure Hunt was Sunday afternoon entertainment. Certainly in our household, it was family viewing. Especially if Granny was around. Treasure Hunt in a nutshell (as I ... Read more »
Farewell Henry Allingham

Farewell Henry Allingham

I live a stone’s throw from Brighton’s oldest church, St Nicholas’s. So I felt an urge to attend the funeral of Henry Allingham, one of the last veterans of World War 1. Many hundreds of people were there too. It was a moving occasion, even outside the church. Sombre certainly and all the ... Read more »
Goldsmid By-election Reflections

Goldsmid By-election Reflections

It’s a lot of fuss over a single seat on a city council. But the Green victory in Goldsmid offers a lens on the politics of this City-by-the-Sea. A Labour gain in Goldsmid was always a big ask in the current climate but then again a Tory hold was hardly a dead cert (the previous Tory Councillor ... Read more »
A Letter to the Daily Mail

A Letter to the Daily Mail

Don't ask me why I was reading the Daily Mail yesterday, but I was. There was a letter from one reader in response to a recruitment drive by police forces to recruit more officers from gipsy groups. My jaw dropped. I'm slightly surprised that this is ... Read more »
How 31 Year Olds Consume Media

How 31 Year Olds Consume Media

Matthew Robson (aged 15) wrote a memo for Morgan Stanley called ‘How Teenagers Consume Media’ and caused a stir. I’m hoping to be as helpful with my own memo along similar lines. Don’t expect it to make the front page of the FT any time soon though. How 31 Year Olds Consume Media By Dan ... Read more »
Online Community Reading

Online Community Reading

Here are a few things I've been reading. I'm fascinated by the whys and wherefores of interaction on the web. All of these blogs, pages and ideas have provoked a reaction from this community manager. Pew Internet provide this fascinating graph charting how various activities have changed online ... Read more »
Politics and Torchwood: Children of Earth

Politics and Torchwood: Children of Earth

I enjoy a good polemic and I also appreciate didactic drama. But I’m not so serious that I don't adore well crafted pap. Often people ask why a seemingly otherwise balanced and normal man watches Doctor Who and, by extension, Torchwood. I don’t have kids after all and I’m not an obsessed ... Read more »
Michael Jackson Ticket Refunds Update

Michael Jackson Ticket Refunds Update

Things have moved on a little since I wrote my first post about Michael Jackson tickets and the situation regarding refunds for people who had bought tickets for the ‘This is It’ concerts at the O2 arena on eBay and paid with PayPal or credit card. eBay has made several announcements and the ... Read more »
TV Nostalgia: The Boy from Space

TV Nostalgia: The Boy from Space

It’s amusing to think back to the notion of schools’ television when I was a kid in the 1980s. Whole classes would sit in front of a big telly and watch broadcasts live or on video. The video was much sought after, as I recall. Televisions were wheeled from room to room. Telly time was ... Read more »