Make Your Voice Heard Where It Matters

THE LAST FOUR WEEKS have been an interesting time for the Canvey Beat, and me as its author. I had to get used to a quirky BlogSpot dashboard – as opposed to the all-singing, all-dancing version provided by WordPress. And regular contributors, in the new site’s first two weeks, had to come to terms with a comment editor that seemed unwilling to post their contributions.

I had decided to permit all and sundry to comment, provided they could prove their humanity by typing a randomly displayed word as confirmation; but what I did not know was that the facility only worked if the visitor pressed the ‘preview’ button. Those hitting ‘post comment’ had their contributions disappear into the far reaches of Cyberspace. The fix has been to allow all postings; but to direct them at moderation.

Commenting on posts is still, I am afraid, a bit of a pain as compared with WordPress. BlogSpot insists that visitors choose a profile from a drop-down list – and that has confused many. The solution, if you do not wish to use your own name or an alias is to choose ‘Anonymous.’ If you wish to post in your own name, or an alias, use the ‘Name/URL’ profile option. You will be asked to complete both fields; but you can leave the URL field blank if you wish.

BlogSpot does not place a cookie on your machine to make your task easier if you decide to post again in the future. You need to select an appropriate profile each time you leave a comment.

So why should you go to all this hassle? Well, if you want your opinions to be seen by the people that matter, the Canvey Beat makes that happen.

Over the past few weeks, the Canvey Beat has been devoid of any Internet traffic. Google only got around to indexing the Blog yesterday and it has been very interesting to look at the detailed statistics that the site’s new StatCounter provides. Unlike WordPress, which only provides a count of page loads, the new facility provides detailed information on visitors; their software and machine specifications; the number of times they have visited; the duration of their visit; what pages they accessed; and full details of their Internet Service Provider and access node used to connect to the site. On WordPress you only obtain an IP address for those leaving comments – and are left to dig-out the basic information yourself.

I was pleased to find that old Canvey Beat contributors were continuing to access the new site; and surprised to find that it is also being monitored by the Echo and its Newsquest owners, along with Castle Point Borough Council, Essex County Council and Parliament. It seems that those organisations are particularly interested in what Canvey Beat readers have to say.

So please brave the strange new comment facility and leave your usual candid remarks on my posts.

Your comments on the Canvey Beat really will be read by the people who can make things happen…

... (03/08/2010, Ted Pugh) - Knock! Knock! Who's There?