Here's a conspiracy theory for Labour's Communications Coconut, Super One and Maltastar
Attakk fahxi fuq Jose Jalapeno
You can’t say I’m not generous, feeding them scoops like this. After the ‘Charles Crawford is the government’s spin doctor and Daphne’s inner circle friend’ mega-scoop of today, I’m afraid they might dry up and end up as part of Joseph Muscat’s ‘human recession’ – out of a story and out of a job.
So here it is, Kurt, Charlon, Byon Jo and Glenn: my blog has been blocked for months on the state internet network. No civil servant in any state office can access it. You can’t even log on to www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com in the hospital canteen.
Now if I were a pro-Labour writer, you can imagine the kind of story that would be spun out of this.
ATTAKK FAHXI FUQ IL-LIBERTA TAL-ISTAMPA – GONZIPN JIRRIFJUTA LI JIKKUMENTA – ABBUZ TA’ POTER – RESIGN GONZIPN
Because I am a sensible person, I know that civil servants have been denied access to this blog from their work IPs because it is distracting them from the main business of the day, as with Facebook.
The coconuts at Maltastar might wish to put a different spin on it, now that they appear to be in full ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing but I’ll do it anyway’ mode.
ATTAKK FAHXI MINN GONZIPN FUQ L-ARTIKOLISTA NAZZJONALISTA U HABIBA TAL-INNER CIRCLE DAFNE CARUANA GALIZIA – IMPJEGATI TAC-CIVIL IMBARRATI MIS-SIT ELETTRONIKA TAGHHA MINHABBA SUSPETTI LI L-ARTIKOLISTA SE TISSIEHEB MAL-MOVIMENT TAL-PROGRESSIVI
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Censored by Gonzi PN!
Do they have access at Marsa and Hamrun glass-house?
X’tahseb? If they didn’t, then how would they act upon advice posted on this blog in real time?
Lucky civil servants.
[Daphne – And unlucky me, because it means that I get a huge spike in traffic after 7pm and have to deal with shed-loads of comments instead of watching television.]
Twanny, if you think that civil servants are lucky because they can’t access Daphne’s blog at work, then why – when you have obviously got it in for her and all she stands for – do you keep coming back voluntarily?
Why don’t you just stick with your luck and stay away?
Maybe it’s because you find Maltastar indigestible.
I don’t “have it in” for anybody, Grezz – unlike some people I could mention.
Lucky Twanny. There’s less of a fight for eyeballs.
I have a rather sceptical turn of mind – is there any independent way of checking the statistics about “hits” and site traffic?
Having said that, volume is no guarantee of quality – after all Jerry Springer had (has?) one of the most popular programs in TV history.
[Daphne – High levels of demand, Twanny, are the surest indication you can get that a product or service is….in demand, that it has filled a significant gap in the market. People who vote Labour have trouble understanding the dynamics of demand, supply and a market economy – hence the obsession with protectionist policies, banning this, stopping that, price control, hating businessmen, the works. How would you define quality in a blog – that it is boring, turgid and unreadable, like Mario Vella’s? One in which long and complicated words are used with the aid of a thesaurus, to show how much the blogger knows, or rather doesn’t know? If you want independent confirmation of this site’s traffic, go to http://www.alexa.com and check. I don’t control it, I promise you, so lay off the conspiracy theories. If you wish to check how many views this site gets every day, you are free to fix an appointment with me by ringing 9949 3545 and I’ll show you. You need to get into the administration dashboard, and I have to be there to do it. However, I am quite sure that my web-host company, Vanilla Communications, will be pleased to confirm that the site had to be transferred to a super-sized server to cope with the surge in traffic and the crashing and slowing that had become a problem at peak hours. You don’t, however, really need to confirm the number of views per day; you can just use your intelligence. This site is now number 42 on the Maltese list (and that doesn’t include only Maltese sites, but all the zillions of sites that exist wherever). Maltastar.com, with its legions of Labour fans and the full backing and promotion of the Labour Party, is 114 on the list. It is unlikely that this level of traffic will be sustained, because people come in when there are issues that interest them. But the point is, they’re coming here now because they’re not getting the information and debate they want elsewhere. Demand and supply, Twanny – remember that.]
@Twanny
If the people being blogged about are acting like something out of Jerry Springer, it is a small wonder that it is the first comparison that sprung to your mind.
I remember watching the first interview that Muhammed Ali (when he was still Cassius Clay) gave to Michael Parkinson. At one point, Parkinson said “That must have been a very good question I asked – you have been talking for 20 minutes”.
And yet you said nothing about Jerry.
[Daphne – Why would I need to? Your comparison, like your thought processes, was illogical.]
Thanks for the “alexa.com” link – very interesting.
I found out that while, as you say, Maltastar is ranked at 114, Maltrightnow (with which it should properly be compared) is at 104, only 10 places better despite the fact that it obviously enjoys infinetly better resources.
Moreover, Maltarightnow has seen a decrease of 20% over the last 3 months and a “recovery” of 6% over the last month,
Maltastar has seen an increase of 4% over the last 3 months and no less than 30% over the last month.
Statistics are fascinating, aren’t they?
[Daphne – Another illogical line of reasoning: do they hold training sessions in how to think in convoluted ways, down at Maltastar? I compared this site’s ranking to those of the Labour Party’s site BECAUSE YOU SUPPORT THE LABOUR PARTY AND SUSPECTED MY RANKINGS AS BEING FALSE. Comparing the ranking to that of Maltarightnow would have been as pointless as comparing it to say, CNN – which, incidentally, this site outstrips in Malta. Give up and face facts: this site is popular because people wanted it.]
Just give him the access login and pass and he’ll check for himself. Otherwise you’d have to prepare tea and cake.
Better still, just publicise the access details for all to confirm.
(As a side note, “conspiracy theory” does not apply here – one does not need to conspire in order to lie.)
[Daphne – Publicise the access details? Are you insane? The access details control the entire blog.]
Madonna Twanny, give it a rest. Your logic is flawed beyond belief. The only reason Maltastar’s hits have gone up in the past month is because readers of this blog are directed to it to have a good laugh at the Asterix & Obelix style of reporting there.
Maltarightnow does not make an ass of itself (that often, ha), so that unfortunately makes it rather bland. Hence the rise is not so steep as Maltastars’.
Wow! Twanny, it seems you are into masochism big time. How many more whippings must she give you before you utter the safe word?
Are you a hermit or something?
Even the lecturers are talking about it.
…and alexa shows conservative figures, usually up to 5% less than actual figures.
Twanny, I hope that now you won’t go to some other forum to moan that your posts are being filtered on this blog.
Oh boy, this one will have them awake all night !
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and in case anyone missed them ….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47DT41m86N4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCjwNGHdjcs
At least you’ll know who Glenn Dangerfield is when he emails you for comments.
Fair enough. I just discovered this whole blog thing tonight. I know – ding dong, about time.. anyhow I am addicted and will be checking it everyday as the humour and sarcasm are of a level at which one can read, be entertained and learn the true art of scorn. Loving it!! But I have to agree that this blog will definitely keep people away from working as it is doing to me now.
You’re banned from MCAST too.
But not at the University of Malta. Hooray!
For now. A particular lecturer posting here shall certainly be sulking.
Dominic Fenech? Let him sulk. We’re still waiting for a decent book which covers 1964-1987.
Daphne, the real conspiracy is that those close to Castille did not want to have our civil servants on drugs: this blog is highly addictive!
I had no idea that the daily hits for this website are achieved without input from civil servants at their desks – that is even more impressive. Are there any more local web sites which are blocked, like Maltastar, TMI, MT or Illum?
No – those are not blocked – they are listed as News and allowed.
Then why is this blog blocked? This blog IS news too!
Super News.
Isma D, ma nafx ghalfejn tirreferi ghal dik l-imbarazz ta’ MaltaStar hekk. Ahna tax-xoghol kollha nirreferu ghaliha bhala MaltaSUN (bhal t-tabloid tal-UK) ghax hlief imbarazz ma fihiex.
[Daphne – I don’t agree with you. The Sun is an excellent newspaper in its field. You can’t fault it as the best possible example of its kind, with sales to prove it. The same cannot be said of Maltastar. Even this website beats it.]
Re the fact that this site is blocked on the state internet network and other places, those affected can try to get around this by logging on to one of the many free web proxy servers available on the net and browse to their heart’s delight.
Even those are blocked by MITA – as well as another number of sites depending on certain keywords.
Does not work: in fact, this practice is flagged and may result – as it has in the past – in disciplinary procedure as per the terms of use and internet policies adopted within the public service.
So, please, before giving advice which could get people in trouble, do take the time to check.
Daphne: “The coconuts at Maltastar might wish to put a different spin on it,…”
They’re not all coconuts you know. Some of them are bananas.
Smelly and rotten bananas.
Blocking the blog – It’s understandable as it is highly informative and entertaining and, therefore, addictive.
I have worked in financial services for donkey’s years and internet is of course available on our desktops but you are not supposed to log on Facebook et al, MUFC and other footie clubs, porn hard or soft etc during company time. In fact the geeks produce a list of sites which were visited and by whom and so it should be. You cannot spend a leisurely morning surfing and then start working like mad at 1.00pm to make up for lost time (read Proust).
I’m surprised that maltstar didn’t come up with a story claiming your site is blocked so to prevent all your “opponents” commenting negatively!
Ah, but they came up with this one, missing the irony of their own headline. That’s not surprising. Irony is only visible to the intelligent.
http://maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=7688
So if six employees in an office spend some time each day logging into a particular site that will put up the number of hits? I’d never bothered to have a look at Maltastar before seeing it on this site – so I suppose I’m increasing the number of hits as well.