Top Ten Posts 2012 and thanks

As this month and next are the time when contenders for awards for the past year vie for each other, and thank those involved, here are the top ten most read blogs that were written in 2012 in descending order:

Islamic fundamentalists gunning for Malala again (as if once was not enough)

Darwin Awards 2012 – too young to include? (Supposed age criteria not applied – no email reply yet as to why)

Jose Mestre – facing a brighter future
(finally has operation for face covering tumour after fear of blood transfusion due to Jehovah’s Witnesses)

Genital Mutilation of Women in Malaysia

Sir Patrick Moore dies at 89

Seven Year Old Beaten to Death
(Child beaten to death for failing to memorise Koran in UK)

Doug Wright Facebook Viral Post
(Friends voting against his rights as a Gay man)

Sex, Intimacy and God (better relationships with partner and god via the sack)

Richard Dawkins Foundation remove post (inaccurate information on other religions and Christmas/Christian similarities taken down after Facebook users point out)

Malala Day – 10 November (the Taliban failing to silence her, the world community came together to make her message heard).

Special mention to Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, Andrew Copson and the British Humanist Association, Council for Ex Muslims, International Humanist EU, and @NoFGM for retweeting blogs. Also special thanks to Henmant Mehta for crediting me for stories he picked up from the blog – a very nice touch.

Then there are the comments and reblogs for 2012 so special thanks to those that stand out for continual support are John Zande, R.L Culper, Gary William Murning and Glen Carrigan. Cheers guys reassured me people were reading

Retweets on twitter and facebook posts allow a far bigger readership to know about these things than otherwise would have been possible. So a big thank you to all readers that did so who I may have missed.

Appreciate you all reading, and getting involved. In the words of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation complaints division “Share and Enjoy!”

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

Follow @JPSargeant78

Following by email

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However you follow, thanks for your support!

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

Follow @JPSargeant78

Ask the Atheists

Realised that I am not actually able to answer questions on Ask the Atheists. Might explain why I have not been receiving notification emails for questions for a while …

So I have reapplied to be a writer once again.

Hopefully someone there still remembers me.

For my previous answers check out this link here.

Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog

Follow @JPSargeant78

Imitation greatest form of flattery?

It is great when people share your blog with others – perhaps using Facebook or Twitter which provides a link direct to the article they want to share. Someone from Sweden very kindly did so via Twitter for my God to Dawkins in Gradual Steps blog. Resulting in half my readership that day coming from Scandinavia.

To make that easier I have now included share buttons which you will find below each post.

What I am less keen on is reproducing my blog in full on someone else’s blog. Largely because it is my original work, but also you are in effect stealing traffic from my blog. The proper etiquette would be a link on your blog saying that you found this about blah blah, you might enjoy. Or even say what is wrong and what you disagree with. Quotes most certainly fine, but above all a link to the original blog and plainly stating who originally wrote the blog. My most ardent critics have courteously done that.

Which brings us to what is wrong here:

That blog looks familiar, especially the chap front row far right in the photo with Dawkins. I see him regularly in the mirror.

Hang on:

I have sent the blogger a comment to correctly identify me as the author. It incorrectly states by Uncle Timmy at present.

So by all means tell people about my blog. But do so in a way that respects my rights to my work and credits me with the authorship and brings people to the blog. Reproduction without permission is a clear no brainer. When you work hard at something you care about recognition is a big deal.

Thanks all!

UPDATE: my thanks for the blogger now including my real name identifying me as author and adding link to original blog.

Martha Stewart on the art of blogging

1. Have your own TV show that mentions your blog, or get it mentioned on air:

Actually I could do with some advice on creating the illusion of space in my house ...

2. Write about things that matter to real people: like pets, gardening, weddings, DIY

3. Being a well known celebrity will help with interest in your blog; be famous

4. Have a team of experts and managers for your blog; delegation secret to success

5. Get advertising, like for example plugging a Cannon Camera, to help with costs

6. Get a link with other sites similar to yours so you can direct traffic to each other

7. Use WordPress for your blog, as used by Martha.

The rest can be found on her blog here. In fairness Martha Stewart is the sort of celebrity that could get your parents blogging. Which may mean that your blog tries to sort out social justice and human rights issues when your mum asks for a link to her latest blog on cross stitching patterns for Christmas.

Freedom of expression – it does have a price

Open Blog Day

The urge to get people to listen to what you have to say. Or at least get people to listen to your point of view.

So go for it – leave a comment saying what your blog is about and link it.

OTHER BLOGS:

Inspiring change by blogging

Thank you for reading – please comment

Well this September has seen the highest readership of the blog. The previous August did have the record, but September manged to more than double that previous best. Blogs on Sarah Palin being McCain’s running mate and the fall of Michale Reiss from the Royal Society – showing the arguments over religion and science being incompatible are not about to go away. Not least with Richard Dawkins Website being banned in Turkey.

The Michael Reiss thing led to an early exclusive. Sir Harry Kroto responded to my blogs about Reiss on 26 September. On Sunday 28 September that was published in The Guardian. I have asked Sir Harry if he could go further than his comment by saying how students that bring up creationism in the classroom should be tackled. Though rather fortunate to have had a comment from him at all, if he does reply that will be included this month.

Stats of course are only part of the story. I am curious to know who out there reads this blog on a regular basis, or at least keeps coming back for more. So please do drop a comment to let me know who the loyal readers are.

Don’t be shy. I know one person who never directly comments on the blog, but does by e mail. If they comment on the blog I just might get lunch this time 

Inspiring change by blogging

The Conservatives are having their conference in Birmingham this week, and despite Brown’s speech last week closing the gap the Labour Party is still on course for the worse drumming in an election since Michael Foot was leader in the 1980s with a manifesto described as the longest suicide note in history.

However, it is easy to be popular when you tap into people’s resentment. The real question is what policy alternatives do you have? Whether this is just a gimmick to engage the public or they really do not have a clue on this is unclear. They have opened up policy discussion on their blog to make suggestions for what policy might be on the Conservative Website. Just as Gordon Brown borrowed from America his wife introducing him before his speech, this idea comes from Obama’s website.

George Osbourne (Conservative Shadow Chancellor) made the point in 2006 on blogs:

In politics and in the media we’ve both assumed that we do the talking and the people listen. Now the people are talking back.

It’s exciting, liberating, challenging and frightening too.

There are 57 million blogs and the number increases by 100,000 every single day.

Over 125 million people have created their own MySpace page – and 250,000 new people do so each week.

This is not quite virtual democracy, uniting the world. The majority of the world’s inhabitants do not have access to global communications. In 2006 only 57% of UK households had access to the internet. The other point is the impact by which using this medium has on the political process. Organising could not be easier – just start a facebook group, send some chain e mails around. Contacting elected representatives is as easy as a few key strokes. You can write a blog, with no one to edit your content. Political parties are encouraging people to target blogs with comments.

I can see where this is heading. Regime change by blogging, and commenting. It could even be used to encourage dissent, rather than by supplying money or arms, by positive comments to a blogger to keep on undermining a government with their criticism. Or creating blog accounts to coordinate rumour mills in the digital internet age to shape events in the real world through cyberspace. Blogs written by covert agents of the state to influence people both foreign and domestic.

The power to inspire goes beyond the grave

On the one hand a force for good, but also one for conspiracy. Just another medium for the propaganda war. The real significance of what the Conservative Party is doing is making existing activists feel more motivated to take part, and garnering publicity. They can perhaps dream of the website contributing to party funds the way it did for Obama. Cameron lacks the inspiring qualities that make people jump up from their seats and extend their wallets to be part of a movement for change.

Are we too cynical to think change is ever going to happen, or do we just lack a charismatic leader that could inspire us that way here in the UK? Well we did have such a politician that knew how to raise the roof, and in many ways it made me a political activist because I could see the things that needed change. That was Tony Blair, and in many ways I think it is easy for us to forget how popular he was when first elected as we remember him now for Iraq and unfounded public loyalty to George Bush defending the indefensible.

In a world full of bloggers you will not please them all, but you will get widespread opinion out there. But the person busy typing away is still a human being. One motivated to get their message across to people, or vain enough to think people will read and take notice of what is said. The internet offers new opportunities – it does not however change the nature of the political animal.

If politics has taught us anything though, it is that governments have their own agendas often shaped by things beyond the public’s control. It is not so much us the people that influence policy as legitimise a group  to formulate and enact them on our behalf. We have the power of veto by removing a government for a particular bad policy. However, with George W Bush and Tony Blair reelected after sending troops to Iraq and  the incompetence and human rights violations that entailed I do not have the confidence in the electorate being relied on to exercise that veto. But if it is business as usual when you change the faces then what real power do you have?

If you want change it is not enough to just change the people in office:

‘Those who have changed the universe have never done it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.’ (Napoleon)

It is often said that power ultimately rests with the citizen if only we exercised it. Perhaps that is where blogging may work in communicating ideas. The change it gives birth too though may be as effective as writing down your frustrations and grievances in a notebook which you keep under your pillow. It makes you feel better having got it off your chest – but are you actually using it as a call to action on others, to inspire others to change the universe?

It is a battle of ideas, with cynicism being the barricade on the way to progress. But that cynicism is not just other people, but what we can have ourselves. Because sometimes we may think even a small thing will not make the difference, and that a blog is no more an instrument for change then a notebook under a pillow. Yet we can do more then dream on them:

Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others…
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. (Robert Kennedy)

I suppose the real secret if you can inspire people is not to get killed for doing it.

My interview with The Pakistani Spectator

I was asked by The Pakistani Spectator for an interview on blogging  – which can be found here.