Number 1 on Google!

Posted on March 13th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,954 views

I didn’t make the SA Blog Awards list this year. Apparently I was nominated for a category that was subsequently scrapped.

Reading a few blogs found via amatomu, it is an understatement to say that these awards, begun by Jon Cherry in 2005, provoke a great deal of bitter controversy.

Jarred Cinman provides a biting overview of the current state of affairs on Thought Leader, in which he contributes his own controversy with the following observation:

‘Let’s just get one thing straight right off here: there is no such thing as a “Web 2.0 expert” in South Africa.

There is no one who can stand back and proclaim pre-eminent understanding and knowledge of blogging or any other aspect of the next generation of the internet.’

The reasons for this dearth of web 2.0 experts, according to The Cinman, is our lack of adequate and inexpensive broadband Internet in South Africa, along with the fact that the vast majority of South Africans are simply too poor to be able to afford it.

I tend to agree with Mr Cinman there. South Africa does not foster Internet innovation. South Africans who innovate online do so from outside of this country.

Justin Hartman spells it out more directly on his own personal blog:

"The SA Blog Awards is a farce and provides absolutely no value or true reflection of the state of blogging in South Africa."

Hartman was also upset that a category (Most Controversial Blog) for which he had nominated blogs was dropped.

Someone also asked him why this blog (cape town news) did not appear in the list of top blogs, but received no answer.

I’m unsure how much winning an SA Blog Award means. There’s no financial reward, there’s no additional publicity. No SA Blog Award winner is going to receive a cheque for R1 million and be interviewed on TV or radio

If the SA Blog Awards are going to mean anything to South African bloggers, the organisers are going to have to think big.

This blog did not make it onto any top blog award list, but it has made it to the Number One position on Google for the following keywords, beating out newspapers such as The Cape Argus and The Cape Times:

• cape town news
• "cape town news"
• capetownnews

Google provides this blog with 40% of its traffic. Its Google PageRank recently increased to four (from three).

Tags: amatomu, Jarred Cinman, Justin Hartman, Number One on Google, SA Blog Awards, SERP, Thought Leader
Filed under SA Blog Awards | 6 Comments »

People who played with FaceBook and got burnt

Posted on February 29th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,368 views

Back in Dec 2007, I wrote about a blogger on Thought Leader who created a fake FaceBook profile for Thabo Mbeki, which contravenes FaceBook’s Terms and Conditions. IOL reported, at the time, that President Thabo Mbeki’s office was referring the matter of fake FaceBook profiles (which impersonated him) to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Naturally, this threat was not taken seriously by either Thought Leader, the blogger in question or many of my readers.

However, although South African authorities have failed to make good their threats, Morocco has taken action against a fake FaceBook profile creator.

Fouad Mourtada, a Moroccan citizen has recently been jailed for three years for creating a fake FaceBook profile of Moroccan Prince Moulay Rachid. FaceBook has denied assisting Moroccan authorities in this matter. This judgement has sent ripples of alarm through the Moroccan Blogosphere and caused at least one Moroccan blogger to stop blogging altogether, out of fear that other forms of online activities might invite unwanted attention from the authorities.

Unsurprisingly, the sentence handed down to Mourtada has been condemned as excessively harsh by many. Nevertheless, he remains incarcerated whilst his supporters scramble to rally international pressure for his release.

Mourtada played with FaceBook and got burnt. But he is not the only one.

More recently a British policeman, Inspector Chris Dreyfus (30), British Transport Police’s head of royalty and government protection, had his promotion to Chief Inspector denied after his superiors had a look at his FaceBook profile which includes details of his gay lifestyle.

Dreyfus also played with FaceBook and got burnt. Are you next?

It could be that more and more people are becoming aware of the dangers that FaceBook poses to themselves because people are logging off. El Reg reports that FaceBook traffic amongst UK users is down 5%. I know of more than one local blogger who has recently opted out of FaceBook over privacy concerns.

The Canadian military is also concerned that insurgents in Iraq could use FaceBook to gain intelligence about their soldiers deployed there, and has cautioned personnel not to post personal information on their FaceBook profiles.

So, are you worried yet or do you reckon your titanium armour will hold off all comers?

Tags: Chris Dreyfus, facebook, Fouad Mourtada, Thabo Mbeki, Thought Leader
Filed under facebook | 10 Comments »

Censored on ThoughtLeader (again)

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,940 views

ThoughtLeader has censored one of my comments again.

Michael Trapido wrote a blog post on TL entitled "Has Oprah chosen race over gender or are Hillary’s supporters being sexist?"

An uproar has erupted in the US over Oprah’s decision to back Barack Obama for president in lieu of Hillary Clinton. Oprah’s huge female fan base appears deeply divided over her decision. Harsh criticism has been directed at her, accusing her of racial bias.

I wrote the following comment in response to Trapido’s TL blog post:

The problem is not black vs woman. The problem is WHITE MALE.

It is because WHITE MALES have monopolised world politics, world opinion, world EVERYTHING for so long, that when the chance comes to have anything but WHITE MALES in power, then all the traditionally disenfranchised bicker amongst themselves to see who is FIRST going to get their slice of the pie so long denied them.

I think WHITE MALES should be legally barred from running for president for 1000 years.

Get rid of all the WHITE MALE judges too. Just generally subjugate WHITE MALES wherever they hold power.

WHITE MALES are the problem. They have held too many of the cards for too long and now I say that WHITE MALES must hold nothing for 1000 years.

Perhaps you disagree with this opinion, but it does serve as a foundation for further discussion I believe.

Since TL refuses to allow me to comment on their blog, I’ll post about it here and open it for further discussion.

I have to bear in mind, of course, that TL has very recently been harshly criticised for having mostly WHITE MALE bloggers writing articles on their site. Perhaps they felt intimidated by my comment?

Perhaps they lack balls?

What do you think?

Tags: Mail & Guardian, Michael Trapido, Thought Leader
Filed under Thought Leader | 32 Comments »