Tuesday 19 February 2013

Exodus progress #2


This little blogger site has been going for roughly three months now since an unplanned departure from a community site that most of us were long term members.

To give you an idea of how the site is going I will give you some stats available from those of us with access to the dashboard. When we started off we very quickly climbed to over 100 views (people reading our discussions) per day. For the first few weeks this was helped thanks those from the old site checking up on us but by the time that interest died down we were had others interested enough to read our material. For the last month we are consistently staying above 200 views every day.

It is interesting to see were our views come from. The majority are Australian but the United States has for the duration maintained the number two spot. The number three spot has been maintained until this last week by the good citizens of France who of late are under challenge for this spot from people viewing from Sweden. I don’t know why this is so but I hope that those reading our discussions from overseas are gaining a positive benefit for doing so.

Just what discussions are people viewing on this site? Well out in the lead of all time views is Preventive Burning that was published back on December 8th last year but in spite of that is every day for over a month it is the clear leader. We do have an audience interested in updates about the Peter Spencer case for example for today’s views the discussion SPENCER GAINS GROUND IN FEDERAL COURT is running third. The discussions about coal seam gas and the Gladstone Harbour that John Mikkelsen and myself write have a solid audience. Other discussions that have enjoyed a run are, Can a ‘good’ farmer still make a good living? and Lenders Mortgage Insurance  - The Ned Kelly of the insurance industry. Jo Rea has with her very first discussion published this week is running very strongly – Foreign investment rules

 Cartoon sourced from Crock by Bill Rechin

The disappointing aspect is the number of comments each discussion is attracting. I would like to know the reason why.  Are you just happy to read what is going on without participating? Are you having trouble making a comment to a discussion? I know of two people who were having trouble making comments and with help are now contributing. If you are having difficulty with some aspect of the site, click on the Help tab at the top of the page. If you are able to comment, leave your question in the Help comment box. If not the sites email address is ozfairfuture@gmail.com

In the first open newsletter, Exodus Progress, I said that this blogger site was a transition vehicle and that are new site was to be built. Obviously that hasn’t occurred as of yet. We got a fair way in determining what to do before the pleasant disruption of the Christmas period and then I went on my first holidays for years in which I wrote about here, here & here. I came home to deteriorating seasonal conditions on my farm and had to swing into action to prevent a lot of hungry cattle with no feed in the near future. I was saved at the 11th hour by rain and then came the Australia day floods. I have been doing work for Property Rights Australia including submission writing and this last week had to appear before a Parliamentary Committee Hearing in Brisbane on behalf of PRA. Work wise this is a very busy time on the farm until about May and I can’t see myself doing much about a new site until then.

In the meantime I’m very interested to know if you are having any trouble contributing to the site. What are your suggestions to improvements to this site? Please reply by commenting below or sending an email by the address above.

So the summary of the exodus progress is that we are wandering in the wilderness but be assured we will be out of it before 40 years.
Cheers.

20 comments:

  1. I like your closing line Dale, "So the summary of the exodus progress is that we are wandering in the wilderness but be assured we will be out of it before 40 years." :0)
    Might I be so bold as to suggest interest from France could be drawn to the Gladstone Harbour issues, the involvement of UNESCO which is being kept informed of on-going controversy, and the recent screening of a news feature on the French Planet Hope TV program which focussed on the dredging and major developments in Gladstone and Mackay/ Abbot Point and the threats to the Great Barrier Reef.
    This past week there has been huge controversy surrounding the pending departure in August of the Gladstone Ports Corporation's CEO whose contract is not being renewed - he wanted to continue but was told it was time for a change and new blood. Also a probe has just been launched by Environment Minister Tony Burke into alleged environmental audit breaches by the GPC (as exposed in last Saturday's front page of The Australian) - I have written about these and other Gladstone Harbour issues for this Saturday's Queensland Telegraph so will be posting more on here following publication.
    So much for the claims made on that "other site" about Gladstone Harbour being of limited local interest only.
    Meanwhile I can't see the difficulty in posting comments here.

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    1. John boy - I find everything you write is extremely interesting. The Gladstone Harbour issue is so important, even though I am not "local" I am very interested.
      And...Dale - good on you too!

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  2. Mikko, this discussion of yours has been getting a bit of a run this last week, French focus on threats to Great Barrier Reef

    The thing you have to remember about computers, the internet ect. is that when you have learnt to do something it can be dead easy. But if you have never done it before it can be quite difficult. So I'm making the asumption that some people are having trouble to comment especially after two of those who are commenting now had difficulty to start off with.

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  3. Dale, congratulations on what you have achieved. Amazing really, given the extreme reality of your other 'distractions' ;-)

    I have been quiet of late as while I haven't been dealing with disasters, sometimes we silly old buggers just take on too much (in my case, computing help to friends, family, writing newsletters, meetings and lunches, finance stuff etc etc) and time just seems to have disappeared. Will have to lift my game before we leave for a bit of tramping in NZ in (gulp!) 2 weeks.

    Couple of comments relating to your request for ideas:
    1) It is fiddly (or so I recall) setting up your goggle blogging identity with avatar. I think many people would be deterred by writing a comment, and seeing it come up as from 'Anonymous'.
    2) The Top Comments links don't work well. Clicking on "Continue" should take you to that actual comment, not just to the topic. If the comment itself is buried back above somewhere as a comment / reply on an existing comment (as eg some of yours and mine have been) the only way anyone would get there would be by searching through the entire thread, which is time consuming.
    30 Re the French interest, as well as the the drawing power of the Reef / Gladstone, you have given a vital clue - your preventive burning topic. Last year, a team of CFA personnel made exchange working visit with colleagues in Provence, Fr, which like much of Oz suffers from very hot, dry summers, strong winds and big fires. I heard a great prsentation by CFA's youngish Deputy late last year, with lots of good pics. Our guys learned a lot - most notably that the French just couldn't understand our 'let it burn (out)' philosophy, as frequently followed. When a fire breaks out they hit it with EVERYTHING. They set up strategically placed water bombing storage sites, have excellent fire roads into danger spots. Also, one firefighting district in the provence of Provence has as much or more firefighting aircraft than does the whole of Victoria! Given our recent and continuing fires, I am not at all surprised at the interest in your discussion.

    Must get back to my Newsletter. Although an act of love (or stupidity? :-) I am obliged to meet a deadline. Later in the week, I hope to get back to read all the interesting looking new comments from Elizebeth, Jo and Co, which I have not read as yet :-(

    Cheers al

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    Replies
    1. Alan,
      You are right about France and the delegation. I believe there is a reciprocal delegation in Australia at the moment.
      Many years ago I remember reading a book by a man who had lost his family in the concentration camps.
      Several years later he lost his wife and children to a fire in rural France driven by the dry wind Le Mistral which is caused by an "anticyclone".
      This web site is a really interesting one with statistics and facts on Australian fires.
      http://home.iprimus.com.au/foo7/firesum.html#6
      I have long found it difficult to understand why the reccommendations of the expert fire people are not implemented when there has been such huge loss of life. Australia is a country which used to value human life above all else. Now I fear "the environment" and "the planet" come before people.

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  4. I agree Al, and marvel at how well Dale has managed to persevere in this journey ‘in the wilderness’ despite so many other pressing commitments. No doubt the eventual arrival at the Promised (land) site will make it all worthwhile!

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  5. Should we re-christen him "Moses" :0)

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  6. Al & Jo, I was unaware of the fire French connection.

    As I see it there are two immediate shortcommings with this Blogger site. The comment box; its inability to easily have active links, photos & videos. The second is that I'm yet to find a way to send a message to all the followers of this site at the same time. It is possible to contact people individually but to do that by 56 would be time consumming.

    It is possible to convert the comment box to the same one as used on facebook. I may have to look into that further.

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  7. You could say I'm having trouble commenting. Checked help but basically I'm still confused.

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  8. Worked that time but what confuses me is the todo Google goes on with when I sign in using a google email address. Instead of getting on with letting me progress my participation on this site.

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  9. Hi Dixie, nice meeting you here!

    I must confess I also felt confused for a long time, trying unsuccessfully on occasion to add a comment - while being too time-pressured to persevere. In fact, I've only recently succeeded - with a little help from Dale!

    Being somewhat computer illiterate, I even have a bit of trouble navigating the site, though I'm slowly getting more of the hang of it. If there are others who find it impossible to comment while not receiving alerts, it could be a case of "out of sight, out of mind" with the site.

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  10. It is good to see people I know here; especially Elizebeth and others from the "non-inclusive place, if you dared to have an original opinion".

    I have had some hassles with the rigid rules of Google.

    I am able to comment on posts, although it is time consuming "getting in".

    Creating a blog? - well it is not user friendly to do so...I admit a defeatist attitude here...and I don't have enough time to persist, so for the moment I will comment on other people's blogs.

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    1. It's nice to see you here too, Ebony. It seems like old times!

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  11. Hi Ebony, frpm one mug if it is any use, don't bother with the "creating a blog". All you have to do is sign in (which to me just means typing my email address then password. Takes just a few seconds) Then don't go "add a blog " if you want to start something, just click on "new post" at the top right and it's pretty straightforward from there - much like that "other" site we all got sick of and left.
    If you are reading comments and haven't logged in yet, if you hit the "add a comment" box it will say select account. Just select google and it will then direct you to the log in or sign in page as above (just email address and password required) Once you do that it will take you back to the comment. Maybe Dale has explained it better in the help tag but seems pretty straight forward to me and I'm sure no computer expert.

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  12. Re "hit the "add a comment" box it will say select account. Just select google .." Actually it says select profile and you then select google and it take you to the sign in as stated above.
    Cheers
    JohnM

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  13. Actually I haven't as yet got anything up in the Help tab about how to sign in and what you have written Mikko will be a great start in writting something to go there.
    Can anyone else add anything of how to as simply as possible that you can first join up and add comment to the site?

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  14. Thanks for the words of help people. Today the comment box has me signed in and ready to go so will see how that goes.

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    Replies
    1. All the best with it, Dixie. I always enjoyed your well-considered comment.

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  15. Signing in only seems to last for a day but just follow the steps above.
    cheers
    JohnM

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    Replies
    1. It's good to see good people together again.
      Mikko I have just landed in Brisbane from Solomons and will catch up in coming days.
      Regards all.
      JCF

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