What is this thing that people call the South African blogosphere?

It’s a collection of (mostly) South African web sites that have installed upon them blogging software.

What is blogging software?

Blogging software is the upgrade to classic web sites.

A classic web site contained mostly html and image files which mostly displayed as static (unchanging) web pages. The ability to interact with a clasic web site was, for the most part, very limited. There was no software behind the site which managed it as a whole and had built-in features that engaged visitors. Updating the site involved changes being made offline to html (and other) files and then uploaded via FTP. FTP remains an arcane and elusive protocol to master by many internet users today who find it beyond them technically.

Blogging software replaces that old model with something that is more accessible, especially to those who are not technically inclined. It allows a person to update their blog via a web based editor.

WordPress is one of the most popular blog software packages that is used by many South African bloggers. WordPress calls itself a personal publishing platform. Simply put, it affords almost anyone the ability to get their stories published online, without having to worry about a myriad technical details.

Where do I find the South African blogosphere?

Blogging software is designed to interact with various blog indexes to update them whenever anything new is published on them. This is something that classic web sites did not do – one needed to manually add them to search engines, and even then, there was no way for search engines to know when a site had been updated and needed reindexing.

Blogs are programmed to tell a whole bunch of, mostly American, blog indexes (including google) when they have been updated. If you are a South African blogger who mostly desires a local audience, then you need to add your blog(s) to the South African blog indexes, which are amatomu.com and afrigator.com. Instructions, which tell you how to do that, are found on both of them.

Both of those South African blog indexes display a list of South African blog sites known to them in order of popularity, as well as a list of the most recent blog posts. By browsing the list of recent posts, you will be able to pick out articles that interest you. You can also browse by category and do keyword searches.

There are two other South African blog related sites that you should be aware of – muti.co.za and sablogger.co.za. Those two are not blog indexes, instead they are social networking sites to which people can submit stories that they find interesting. Many of the submitted articles are from blogs, but not all. One can browse those sites to find out what other South Africans found to be interesting content.

What is the South African Blogosphere about?

Anything and everything really.

It’s a very interesting diversion from reading the mainstream media web sites, that most South Africans spend almost all their time online browsing.

You will read a diverse selection of opinions and monologues, some that will resonate with your own beliefs, others that may make you want to punch your monitor out, and still others that will just bore the life out of you.

Along the way, you will discover interesting people that will engage you and cause you to think about what you think you know and believe and hold dear. You will discover new things, new people, fresh ideas. You will grow.

Most bloggers desire to interact with their visitors via comments left in response to their articles. If you have an opinion about what was written, you should submit your comment. You will soon discover that it can be a lot of fun and that it can lead to new exciting friendships with people you might ordinarily never have come across.

What should I watch out for in the South African Blogosphere?

The usual suspects – disinformation, slander, general unfounded nonsense masquerading as fact, vociferous arguments about nothing, bad people.

Bloggers are often referred to now as citizen journalists. Being a journalist implies having a responsibility to report things accurately. Journalists still make mistakes. Bloggers, however, have no responsibility at all to report factually. They can make up anything they like, so take care about what you choose to believe. Many bloggers, including myself, will cite sources at the end of, or in the body of their articles so that the reader can see for themselves where they got their information.

Not all bloggers take care to meticulously research their articles before they write them. They may authoritatively state utter nonsense, and you may be inclined to take what they write at face value. It’s general laziness – laziness on the part of the writer and laziness on the part of the reader. Truth does not simply fall out of a tree like a ripe apple – it must be searched for. Remember that at all times.

How do I become a blogger and join the South African Blogosphere?

The best type of blog to have is one at your own domain, typically a co.za domain. You will need to have your domain registered and hosted and blogging software deployed on your server space.

I do recommend that you register a domain in one of the .za domain namespaces if you intend blogging primarily for a South African audience. I recommend WordPress to power your blog, and I recommend that you host it on a Linux platform, not Windows.

There is more to do and an expense associated with this option. It is also the most flexible and any and all advertising revenue that you manage to derive from your blog is yours to keep.

If you prefer to start off with a free blogging option, then I suggest you register with either iblog.co.za or wordpress.com. iBlog.co.za uses the WordPress blogging platform too.

If you would like any advice in this regard, leave a comment and I will endeavour to give you useful answers.

So after everyone has thoroughly enjoyed themselves defaming Juan Duval Uys up and down the South African Blogosphere and in media publications, it turns out that the state has NO EVIDENCE against him.

This does not come as a surprise to me at all.

On July 23 2007, Carol Amos of eBlockWatch contacted me via email asking me if I had any "evidence" against Juan Duval Uys.

I gave her the following reply via email:

Juan Uys is gonna walk.

If all they have as evidence of fraud is "receiving donations from the public", it will be thrown out.

Arresting him for alleged fraud of R250 is ridiculous. R250? Are you kidding?

That’s the only charge I’ve seen reported. If he has been harrassing [Andre] Snyman [also of eBlockWatch], I haven’t seen him charged with that (yet).

I think he could sue the police for arresting him, and the media for linking him to the blog, without any evidence.

I’m amazed at the media printing this slander about him without any firm basis.

If someone asks for donations on their web site, it’s only fraud if it is represented that the donations are for a specific purpose (other than keeping the site going) and then they are not used for that purpose. I don’t know what his web site said to elicit donations (if it did indeed do that).

It seems likely to me that the person made the R250 donation specifically so that they could then lay a charge. In that case, they knew beforehand (or at least strongly suspected) that they were giving a donation to a person for them to dispose of as they wished. And that is not fraud. Fraud involves deception.

I think this is a very weak case so far. Let’s see if they have anything of substance to bring. Otherwise he has a case for false arrest.

My message to all the bloggers out there who jumped on the bandwagon and vilified Juan Uys without having any evidence or proof for their allegations is this:

YOU are the kinds of bloggers who ought to be shut down. You are exactly the problem. As much as SA male prostitute was criticised for publishing information whose truth was in doubt, so did YOU.

Andre Snyman of eBlockWatch claimed that Uys had been harassing him telephonically since December 2006. No evidence. Sorry, Snyman, but I just don’t believe you. I suspect you made it all up to get your name in print and to focus a little bit of attention on eBlockWatch which seems to be an organisation of dubious worth. I say that because your actions seem to be nothing more than misguided vigilantism. You have shown no restraint in blackening a man’s name without any good reason to do so. You ought to deliver a public apology to Juan Duval Uys.

All of you who have vilified Uys owe him a public apology.

Source:
No evidence against sex blogger

Far from being over, many questions remain unanswered.

How did de Lille become aware of the sa male prostitute blog? It doesn’t seem plausible that she just stumbled across it.

She invoked the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in her initial public outburst, even though it was not clear how they fitted into the picture. She was criticised for that in the blogosphere.

The Sunday Times article (on May 27 2007) mentioned Mbeki for the first time.

In Saturday’s Weekend Argus (June 02 2007), an article written by Michael Schmidt (on page 15) pointed out that that vindicated de Lille’s invocation of the NIA, because there was a national security risk if a member of Mbeki’s staff had disclosed private information (about Mbeki) to a prostitute.

This information about Mbeki was not posted to the sa male prostitute blog, although the Sunday Times article gives that impression because they quote him immediately after they report that he had updated his blog on Friday May 25 2007. They leave that (deliberately) vague. They can say it was in the emails they got from him. Or they can say that he edited his blog to remove the information.

I never saw anything about Mbeki in the RSS feed from the blog, which I have still in my Google Reader. Although he has removed the posts, the feed remains.

The Sunday Times was careful to avoid naming others, except for Grindrod whose name was already associated. They chose to mention Mbeki. I think they wanted to smear Mbeki. They published slander that was not even available in the public domain. It was a vague insinuation that someone had dirt on Mbeki.

People (for instance, Vincent Maher of The Mail & Guardian) were criticising me for publishing sa male prostitute’s url in my blog (a criticism that I resist), but no-one has criticised The Sunday Times for being the original publisher of hearsay slander about Mbeki.

The Sunday Times reported they left a comment on the blog and received a response via email from "Skye, who claimed to be the anonymous blogger."

Now comment moderation was turned on and their alleged comment never showed up. The only person who could see The Sunday Times’ alleged comment was the person who had access to the blog’s dashboard (that’s what WordPress calls it’s control panel). So if they received a reply to their comment, it WAS the blogger. It wasn’t someone else – no-one else could see it. It’s not plausible to argue, "oh, he might have approved it for a few hours to give people a chance to see it, and then he hid it or deleted it."

My opinion is that they used ambiguous language deliberately, to give them a way out, if their story is shown to contain fabrications or "inaccuracies" later.

Emails can be traced. The headers contain the IP addresses of all the servers which handled it and also the originating IP.

The Sunday Times does not report what domain the email came from, but the blogger published his email address on his blog as samaleprostitute at yahoo dot co dot uk. Unfortunately, that address does not exist. samaleprostitute@yahoo.com does however. The yahoo id samaleprostitute was registered on the day he posted his first entry (April 23 2007) so there is every likelihood that that is the address he used to communicate with The Sunday Times, if they’re telling the truth. Yahoo mail contains header information that identifies the originating IP address.

I don’t know how journalists operate, but if I receive an email from someone and their location is an issue, I’m all over their headers to check it out.

On Monday May 28 2007, Die Burger reported that they had also received an email from Skye.

Now Skye blogged about both Barry Ronge (The Sunday Times) and Peet Bothma (media24). Yet he chose to communicate only with those two media organisations, ones which would have an interest in tracking him down. He didn’t email IOL, even though some commenter on my blog calling "herself" Belinda wrote that he had.

Belinda most likely works for media24. She came onto my blog disparaging me by saying that all the journalists at media24 thought I would be fool enough to republish Skye’s material as truth. She also asked, "didn’t you use to work for media24?" She was clearly acting as an agent provocateur.

She is also responsible for sowing the idea all over the SA Blogosphere that the unknown blogger is Juan Uys, for which she has provided absolutely no proof. Belinda has not furnished her true identity either. She commented too that she was harmed by Juan Uys on a previous occasion, almost losing her job. Clearly she has a score to settle with him.

Neither The Sunday Times nor media24 have reported that Skye is actually in South Africa. They can trace those emails (if they exist). They also have two employees who would want them to.

The Sunday Times reported that "someone" from the Independent Democrats had emailed Skye. Who? At what email address? Or was this also a lie?

Did The Sunday Times and media24 cut the alleged legal deal with Skye?

They may have been able to discover his true identity by approaching someone at Internet Solutions with his IP address, via their ISP (MWeb / ISPA) contacts. Assuming the email story is true, and that Skye was being truthful about having cut a legal deal, of course.

So what is the real story here?

Is there a base political motive underlying all of this?

Was this all to take a cheap swipe at Mbeki, whilst focussing a lot of public attention on Patricia de Lille and Simon Grindrod to bolster The Independent Democrats, and to settle an old score by pinning it all on a patsy, Juan Uys?

Anyone who can find definitive answers to all these questions, has a great story to write.

It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Hahahahahaha!!!

He was just a stupid joke, not so?

I believe that he has been thoroughly discredited by now. Does anyone still believe any of his claims?

Will he be back for more?

Count on it!

Since much mileage has been made of the legalities of linking to web sites allegedly containing defamatory material, I asked Professor of law, University of the Western Cape,  Pierre de Vos for his thoughts on the matter.

Here is what he wrote me.

Well as far as I understand it, at present it is not legally problematic to LINK to a site – even if that site contains defamatory material. Those who feel aggrieved should send a notice to the actual site containing the defamation and get them to remove the material. That is why I had no qualms linking to it.

My post on whether this is defamation presents a more complex case. I am making an argument that this should not be viewed as defamation. I am not giving a legal opinion on whether it would – in law – constitute defamation. I suspect some judges will agree with me but that others won’t. I argue that this is because of their own prejudice and social conservatism.

I believe that this is the only viable approach for journalists (and bloggers) to adopt. A free press needs freedom from the duress of legal sanction to be able to report news accurately, fully and honestly.

Yesterday, the Sunday Times published an article about sa male prostitute, wherein they claim to have had email contact with him.

They apparently initiated contact by posting a comment in his blog and received a reply by email. He allegedly calls himself Skye, is 30 years old and is living in Australia with his girlfriend.

Thing is, there’s no comment in his blog by the Sunday Times. Although comment moderation is turned on, he has already approved two comments, both of low quality. Comments by myself and another blogger, Johan Swarts, have not been approved (yet). It seems to me that a comment by the Sunday Times would be approved merely for the status value of having a major South African newspaper comment in your blog.

According to the Sunday Times, Skye says he has received only two emails so far. One from the Independent Democrats, threatening him with investigation by the Scorpions and another allegedly from one of the people he blogged about.

SA male prostitute publishes a contact email address on his blog. I sent an email to it on Friday evening (May 25 2007) and got a bounce back. The email address does not exist. The yahoo address he published ends in co.uk. I changed it to .com and that email did not bounce, indicating that it does exist. The yahoo ID was created on the same day as he made his first blog entry, so I am reasonably confident that my second email was sent to the correct person, yet Skye says he only received two emails, neither from me.

Skye, apparently, according to the Sunday Times, doesn’t know about all the fuss around his blog. However, he has been using his WordPress.com blog account and the WordPress dashboard would show him all the incoming links from all the many bloggers that are now linking to him. When bloggers see a new incoming link, curiosity compells us to go look at what they are saying about us.

Was Skye playing dumb? Or did the Sunday Times invent the whole story?

One last thing – if the Sunday Times is indeed in possession of emails from Skye, and they originated from yahoo, then they may also have his real IP address which would allow Skye to be traced. Supposedly, the police are investigating this matter, even though no crime seems to have been committed. Are the police, who are apparently investigating a civil case, now going to demand that the Sunday Times provide them with the emails they received from Skye?

When can the public expect to hear a straight story from the Media on this whole charade?

In response to Media is a grown-ups’ game, not for kiddies by Vincent Maher.

One thing is for certain, a few of them seem to think being small-time is tantamount to bravery. The Cape Town News blog explains how mainstream media are too scared to link De Lille’s call for the government regulation of blogs to a particular sex blog that the Mail & Guardian did a story on yesterday.

I’m saying that the Mainstream Media hasn’t got any balls, yes.

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Matthew 5:13

If the media no longer has the courage to publish and be damned, it has become worthless.

5. It will be up to the judge to decide if the story is a lie, not a bunch of scrofulous nerds

And until it is actually deemed a lie by a judge, it is what it is. It is neither lie nor truth.

4. When you spread a lie about someone its the same as telling the lie in the first place

Only if it is my intention to defame. I am linking to sa male prostitute’s blog to facilitate discussion of its merits and demerits.

In my opinion, it seems to have a ring of truth about it. It could be true.

6. If the lie turns out to be true then thats the right time to talk about it and make it public knowledge

Actually the media is already talking about it, but in the cagey, indirect, dishonest way I criticised.

I’m also not prepared to put my life on hold waiting for a judge to tell me if it’s okay to blog about and link to material that I feel is newsworthy.

7. If the lie is a lie, and you helped spread it, you are guilty.

Judge Vincent Maher has spake. Please note this down. I am guilty. Mea culpa.

BTW, Maher, you link your blog to my blog which links to sa male prostitute. Hence, you are also helping to spread the "defamation". Maybe we can be cell-mates?

Thinking you are above he law because you are using the Internet is the dumbest thing you could ever do.

I don’t think I’m above the law. What I think is that the media has lost its course. It no longer knows where True North lies.

Perhaps if enough bloggers point the way, you will remember? Trouble is, the media doesn’t want to believe the Blogosphere. It thinks to itself, "What do they know? They’re just kiddies."

It is easy to track you

So track down sa male prostitute already, if it is so easy.

If someone was doing that to you, you might understand this point a little better.

It has been done to me already. All manner of slander has been posted about me by various people on Usenet. I even had their IP addresses. Only fuckwits sue. You just ignore. That’s what you do.

Spreading slander to millions of readers a day is an irresponsible use of press freedom and the freedom of speech.

I’m not asking them to spread slander. I’m asking them to report honestly and truthfully.

I believe that I have done so in this blog.