Let's not mention her name again, shall we?
An excitable article was uploaded last night on Malta Today, boasting that:
Alexa.com, the reputed world ranking domain for portal sites has confirmed www.maltatoday.com.mt as the fastest growing website in the Maltese Islands. It ranks at 23 in Malta up from 41 in August of last year. It stands as the fifth most visited Maltese website in Malta.
Actually, it ranks as the sixth Maltese website most visited by people in Malta. Somebody at Malta Today can’t count. And that’s quite apart from the fact that, contrary to the impression given by that paragraph, alexa.com does not tell you which is the fastest-growing website in Malta. You have to bring out your calculator, monitor the rankings on a daily basis, and work it out for yourself….if you can be fagged to do it.
What that article fails to mention (of course) is that a humble no-budget blog run by one woman in her spare time when she feels like it ranks 13th Maltese website most visited by people in Malta.
Yes, that’s right: il-blokk tal-moqzieza Defni the Bidnija Witch who vomits bile and spreads horrible lies about nice Labour people and innocents like Saviour Balzan has now overtaken most of the Malta news portals.
I wasn’t going to tell you about it because where I come from, boasting is proscribed and severaly frowned upon, but I find it difficult to pass up any opportunity to get up Saviour’s nose and make him splutter.
The writer of that excitable article is thrilled because Malta Today has moved up in the general Malta rankings list (which includes all websites used by people in Malta, whether they are Maltese sites or Google or xHamster) from 41 in August to 23 this week.
It doesn’t mention (of course) that the Bidnija Witch’s blog has zoomed – literally – from 278 (the position in the first week of January when the site had been static for five weeks) into the top 100 when I began to write about Labour’s golden years. It is now at 81.
That would be, ghidilhom tat-Times, because yes, people do want to know about Labour’s Golden Years, ánd they want to know the truth culled from media archives, not the fiction that is currently being hastily concocted.
The Times, with its immense and valuable archive right there at its finger-tips, is passing up a tremendous opportunity to inform a generation hungry for the facts about the 1970s and 1980s, facts which they can’t get hold of themselves unless they spend days in the archives themselves.
The last time this blog was in the top 100 was the week it was set up, before the 2008 general election. It didn’t even make it into the top 100 during the Consuelo Herrera scandal, and that’s saying something.
If you read that Malta Today article in toto, you will see that Saviour Balzan’s main obsession is not the news, as he claims, but beating others and particularly his enemies, like the newspaper I work for and which he once worked for too, leaving in a huff when he wasn’t made editor.
Another reason he attacks me all the time is that I didn’t follow him and Roger de Giorgio out of there (de Giorgio was my managing director for years) – but shhhhhhh! don’t tell anyone, because they want you to think that it’s because I’m a witch who flies through Bidnija at night while dissing Labour.
Oh and by the way, Saviour – I don’t really care where this blog stands in the rankings because I don’t take advertising, but I know that you do because your website, unlike mine, is a business. So good luck with that.
I find it amusing, the way you tie yourself up in knots about me, Saviour. God, you’re so damned easy to lead up the garden-path.
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If you stopped mentioning Maltatoday and Balzan their rankings would probably plummet.
I don’t think they will, David.
Malta Today is so popular because it’s plugged a gap in the market: an English language site not officially affiliated to Labour but clearly pro Labour and anti government.
You can tell exactly where its readership lies by examining the comments.
As long as Malta Today addressed the real news with proper coverage and indepth reports – all of which are still accessible online through its archive – its popularity remained static.
When it changed its editorial line to anti government and pro Labour, its popularity soared.
But Saviour and Roger don’t seem to understand that advertising doesn’t follow the Labour vote and that advertisers don’t care how many people read a site or a newspaper, but mainly what sort of people do.
Advertisers are interested mainly in ABC1 and not DE. Rather than showing off about how many people log onto their website, Saviour and Roger have to find some way of proving to advertisers that they’re the sort of people with money to spend and the discernment to spend it on certain products and services.
The sort of comments their staff let slip past the moderator, if they have one, are not helping at all towards that end, because they present a face of the typical Malta Today reader that is subliterate, quite stupid and overtly malicious. Certainly not what advertisers want, because rather than being the sort of people who spend money, they are the sort of people who are envious of those who have money to spend, which is not the same thing at all.
Well, yes I know, it was not meant to be taken too seriously.
David is right, at least as far as I am concerned. Over the past few weeks I went over to Malta Today to see for myself the straw clutching effort.
One note of concern – god forbid Malta Today is really (which isn’t) “Malta’s News Portal” as they claim to be on the strap line to their brand!
Another note of personal interest – I long for the day when Maltese advertisers resort to your correct logic on social demographics.
Do you mean to say The Times is not pro-Labour? You haven’t been reading it much since 2004 have you?
This picture of Saver is a bit scary. It looks as though an outbreak of Zombies is imminent, but with your help Daphne they will fail.
I find it hilarious the way they talk about you and people they disagree with. You’d think Malta were some fantastical country with witches and gremlins.
What next? Is there a wizard somewhere on the island too that we aren’t aware of?
Guys, this is the real world, not Middle Earth! Could reporters stop talking about witches throwing up?
And speaking of throwing up: Saviour can’t say Daphne’s name because it makes him feel sick. Well, that’s mature.
They way they talk is not always hilarious, Edward. Sometimes it can be sinister as in these comments to Balzan’s blog entries.
“. . . she has a good chance of losing her police protection hence her immunity to retaliation . . .”
“Not even all the Gordons . . . will be able to defend her from the flak she will get right into her ugly face.”
“He (Gordon Pisani) has made so many enemies it will be difficult to know who will eventually wait for him for a little talk when his boss is no longer the lord of the manor.”
“She too will be awaited for a little talk once the policeman Mr Rizzo appointed as her guardian angel will be transferred to somewhere safer for him.”
I think such comments – made anonymously – can reasonably be interpreted as threats and it would be interesting to find out what is Balzan’s legal responsibility for having published them.
Turiddu, this is what is known as a late mid-life crisis.
Quote
il-blokk tal-moqzieza Defni the Bidnija Witch who vomits bile and spreads horrible lies about nice Labour people and innocents Unquote
How about Daphne replacing Paul Borg Olivier at the helm of PN Tal Pieta. Dr. Gonzi please note. Daphne will turn the tide in your favour hands down. No Daphne No Party.
Ex PN
[Daphne – Mela biddilt id-diska issa, sur Ray Spiteri?]
I just adore Daphne when reply is in her native language MALTESE. Anyway, its time Daph to pen something more dramatic to reach the 1million hits when you targeted the magistrate. how about targeting PBO for example. I wonder who is next on your hit list? try to be more innovative, you either target ex pn, PL, or who tends to go against pn even within the group. keep the momentum, dont let your blog turn boring, your bloggers are the same bunch of pn spinners operating from TAL PIETA. NO DAPHNE NO PARTY.
ex pn
[Daphne – Pop a pill, Ray. Oh, and both Maltese and English are my mother (native?) tongues. I’m bilingual – just in case you hadn’t noticed.]
Hawn Bozza, about “your bloggers are the same bunch of pn spinners operating from TAL PIETA” can you indentify them?
Your native tongues are Maltese and English whether you speak them or not Daph…!
[Daphne – No, not at all. Native tongues and official languages are not the same thing. Native tongue is used interchangeably with mother tongue and first language. I have two mother tongues because our parents spoke both languages to us (idiomatically).]
I thought that those things that appeared on the right hand side of your blog was advertising.
[Daphne – No, they’re special concessions. I receive no payment for them.]
The performance on the other week’s videoblog makes Keegan’s “I will luv it” rant look tame.
“which includes all websites used by people in Malta, whether they are Maltese sites or Google or ***xHamster*** ) ”
Splrbbbrrrbbrrrrrr…. hahahahaa Daphne, come wipe my keyboard and monitor please!
[Daphne – Wipe the keyboard and monitor after you’ve used xHamster? Certainly not. Ring that Saviour. He’ll do anything for money.]
No, you know what I meant of course, and I know you did and that you know I do, but hahahaha, this gets funnier!
Proset, Daphne,
I often read your blog but never comment. We need some more people like you with guts so as to show the hypocrisy of many angelic-looking people.
Thanks.
There was a policeman at their office door, trying to hand them court summons, at 6.15, but it seems like they did not open the door to him as he was left talking on the intercom for quite some time. I couldn’t stay longer to see the outcome.
Pity Daphne does not take up the hint of becoming the Secretary General at the PN – what an asset.
My pc says 79, not 13
[Daphne – I’ll allow this comment from you, Mister Personal Problems, to point out once more that you are unable to read and interpret a simple sentence, a problem you share with so many other people who vote Labour despite the shrieking warning signs that they shouldn’t. daphnecaruanagalizia.com is 79th in the top 100 sites among users in Malta. That means all sites in the world. Of all sites in the world, this site ranks 79th in preference among users in Malta. However, if you go through the top 100 and list only sites which are ‘Maltese’, like this one, Bank of Valletta, Air Malta, The Times, Malta Today and so on, daphnecaruanagalizia.com ranks 13th among users in Malta. I trust you are now able to understand, but quite frankly, if you spend too much consorting with dunces, you end up losing the ability to think. Now off you go again, to play with the maniacal (and stupid and subliterate) stalkers.]
And please respect our intelligence. “a humble no-budget blog run by one woman in her spare time” my left foot!
Why don’t you say that your blog has all the media resources of the PN behind it?
[Daphne – It has none, because it doesn’t need them. If you knew anything at all about the internet, you would know that it costs NOTHING to set up a WordPress blog. And I don’t have to pay myself, so it costs me nothing in terms of overheads either. All the other resources, I was born with or learned along the way.
You put me in mind of all those envious and incredulous little bitches at school who couldn’t understand how I spent all my time fooling around and not working and still got top grades when they spent all their time studying (or fooling like me) and failed or scraped through. So their conclusion, because the truth was too unpalatable to them, was that I must have ‘done something’ – you know, like sorcery. Sounds familiar? Stupid people who can’t understand or admit that they are stupid: the very worst, and you are among them.]
“And please respect our intelligence”
Which part, if you cannot distinguish between Maltese and non-Maltese sites?
Not very nice of you. Lanqas ħaqq ix-xogħol li ħadet Tessa Baluci.
Tsk, tsk.
[Daphne – Che centra Tessa Baluci? You do know that the entire The Times archive is online and can be used against payment, don’t you? I suggest you try it. In fact, I suggest The Times newsroom tries it.]
This remark deserves the Award for Stupidity, platinum edition.
The PN’s media archives are accessible to the public. So are The Times’ archives, and the archives at the National Library, as are the national archives in Rabat. And even someone who signs off as ‘ChavsRUs’ cannot have failed to notice that the Internet is publicly accessible too.
I wouldn’t bother with Labour Party’s archives. The last time anyone I know asked for a one-year old copy of one of their newspapers, the response was, “Il l’Alla. Jesus. Ma nafx fejn ser nsibu.”
chavrus kemm tiflah tkun injurant, fil-kelma u fil-forma. Website ma tiswix karlin. Tiswa biss hin biex taggornaha. Imma bhas-soltu mohh ta’ tigiega li mhix kapaci taghraf bajda minn bocca.
The more I read chavsRus’s comments, the more I appriciate the PN.
The more I read chavsRus’s comments, the more I despair, seeing that the bulk of the population are of the same mindset – unfortunately for the rest of us, especially come next election.
On another note…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12477275
You were so right, Daphne…
[Daphne – Yes, and a few people had messaged me to say that I didn’t know what I was talking about.]
Daphne, to shed further light on the pissing contest initiated by MT, ranking is highly subjective and wholly open to interpretation, especially in alexa’s case.
By the same token, using compete.com as a benchmarking site, a 1-year trend of UNIQUE VISITORS (one of a number of base, far more accurate metrics) reveals that through December 2010, bar (marginally) in July, September and October, your one-woman effort pretty much eclipsed MT’s performance. (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/maltatoday.com.mt+daphnecaruanagalizia.com/)
To be fair, proper analytics should take in consideration average visit durations rather than just the number of hits. Alexa states that your average reader dedicates 8 minutes per visit whilst an MT reader spends around 16 mins. This again, is due to one of two scenarios – a) the obvious: being a newspaper offering rather than a single person’s blog they have far more content and hence their reader has more to digest; b) their readers could easily take twice as long to read an article (and am not necessarily implying that MT readers are slower-witted, or that SB’s writing is at times so incoherent that it requires a number of rereads to try and decipher what he is attempting to get across, but statistics by their own nature are always open to interpretation)
What is, to me at least, inexplicable is the sudden and dramatic increase in Unique Visitors to the MT site as reported by compete.com for January – given that there was no sudden increase in marketing spend (none that i’ve seen at least, either in billboards, media ads or social media posts) or no ground-breaking news being covered – I cannot fathom how their site visits suddenly shot up eightfold from around 2,000 visits to over 16K… in my experience this almost never happens as dramatically or suddenly. It would be far more natural to experience a steady growth over a far greater period, even if significant marketing efforts were being put in place.
Interestingly, alexa also quotes MT’s bounce rate (not to bore you silly, but for clarity’s sake, the rate at which users exit the site on the same page they landed, hence signifying a lack of interest in further reading) as increasing, month on month, and at around 35%, in comparison to your 24%.
Furthermore, if one wished to compare oranges with oranges, a far more accurate indicator of MT’s performance would be a side-by-side comparison with TMI (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/maltatoday.com.mt+independent.com.mt/) where albeit (imho) a far poorer and outdated online layout and none of the much-touted investigative journalism a la MT, throughout 2010 TMI outperformed (again, quite significantly) MT… Jan 2011, if performance is maintained, is as above, quite baffling… or they seem to be doing something right, in which case their marketing team is nothing short of spectacular!
I think both the sudden increase and the bounce rate might be simply explainable. My guess is that a good number of hits were actually prompted by this blog. If others do like me they probably found something here quoted from MT and clicked the link (or googled the quote), had a look at that one article on MT and read no more.
I have done that quite a few times in the past fw weeks, though I haven;t attempted to check whether the numbers would make sense.
Actually, the mystery deepens…. Alexa quotes that ONLY 37% of MT’s audience is local (as opposed to DCG’s 68%, over a 3 month average).
Other than the Luxembourg and Brussels diaspora (which for the sake of exaggeration, cannot be more than a couple of thousand souls), who is clicking on the MT site?
[Daphne – Sites with the word ‘Malta’ in the domain name get a lot of hits from overseas. Leaving the word ‘Malta’ out of the domain name is an error the newspaper I work for really needs to rectify. It’s http://www.independent.com.mt when it should be themaltaindependent.com]
Dottore, you seem to know your stuff. MT could have covered an event or events taking place internationally and by pot luck or intended or unintended good SEO, came up tops in international searches for that topic or topics.
I have seen this happen with some local sites (not MT as it happens) when making “international” searches.
The reality is, being a Maltese publication and deriving Malta-targeted advertising revenue, such attention is generally undesirable, serving for nothing more than consumption of resources, or worse.
Unless of course one includes (misguided) bragging rights in the equation.
“MT could have covered an event or events taking place internationally and by pot luck or intended or unintended good SEO, came up tops in international searches for that topic or topics.”
Actually, it’s a lot easier than that. But these are little secrets that the rest of us know how to play with.
The key indicator would be for MT to show the global hit geographic data for the past month.
But that won’t happen since some things are better left unsaid.
[Daphne – Not so secret, especially when you consider that the bulk of the phenomenal incease in traffic in the space of just four weeks comes from outside Malta. You just use the same tactic that is used to bring down sites by bombarding them with traffic, only you keep the traffic manageable. Tal-Malta Today. Ma tistax tafdom.]
Il-qabza tal-Malta Today meta imqabbla ma’ ta’ Daphne infehmielek jien u hi minn ghawl id-dinja.
Ara, Daphne ghamlet xi gimghat ma tikteb naqra fuq dan il-blogg; kien xi Dicembru, bhal hanut maghluq bil-vetrina armata kien dan il-post. Wiehed bhali li ma sabx fejn jikkumenta l-istupidagnijiet tieghu intefa’ fuq l-Malta Today fejn kienu bdew ihallu kummenti fuq il-websajt minn ftit qabel Dicembru nahseb.
F’kelma wahda kien hemm migrazzjoni imqanzha ta’ nies bhali lejn Saviour u John Dalli.
Issa gara li qed niehu pjacir nara lis-sinjura hawnhekk tikteb erba kelmiet u u imbghad l-ghada nara lil Saver jitmashan, jbezlaq u jxejjer dirghajh waqt li ma jsemmix l-isem Daphne, ghal l-isbah ghaxar minuti.
Jekk dawk is-sinjali blu u hodor qed jghidu is-sewwa nahseb li sa xahar iehor ta’ l-Malta Today se jiehdu daqqa l-isfel meta jitqabblu ma tas-Sinjura Daphne.
Any comments about the events in Libya – Bengazi., flok titlef il hinn tatakka lil PL, saviour etc.
For your info. in case you missed this event,few days after Gonzi met id ditattur Gadaffi.
And how about the Gieh ir Republika lil ex ditattur tat Tunizja. now all is well with this friendship with current ditatturi and ex ditatturi.
laqwa li daphnecaruanagalizia.com ranks 13th among users in Malta.
EX PN
[Daphne – Don’t get too excited, but it’s in my column tomorrow.]
Do you feel the need to write EX PN after every comment? You’re breaking our hearts with that!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110216/local/julia-farrugia-files-libel-case-against-daphne-caruana-galizia
I would like to ask Julia Farrugia if she thinks that Saviour Balzan has stepped over ‘il-linja fina hafna’?
There’s another thing to be said about this; Alexa’s is far from a precise science. I quote:
“Alexa achieves its ranking system by counting how many pages were visited by people who have downloaded their toolbar. And that group of people is anything but random: they tend to be webmasters, internet marketers, and other market-minded people.”
In a small island like Malta, it’s extremely easy to sway rankings one side or the other.
But why all this hatred against Daphne? I am sure this is all jealousy. I never heard one person criticising Daphne in a serious manner. It’s always a barrage of crude insults and no counter-arguments. Typical Labour style. You should all be ashamed. It makes me wonder why they read this blog in the first place – to get upset?
qabislti demma riya. i wonder who should be ashamed? tal misthija nahseb min jattaka personalment kif tghamel your dear daphne. kollox mitluf sinjorina jew sur riya pn qed jitilfu l popolin, hafna hafna voti, u fuq kollox kredibilita. kollox mitluf. with or without daphne pn is heading for the biggest ever defeat in the history of national elections. think out of the box. and you will get the message from all. maybe inti u ftit ohrajn komdi taht dan il gvern. l arroganzi telfitu zgur il vot tieghi u ta hafna. din hija ir rejalta. ex pn
Minn ruffjan bhalek wiehed x’jistenna? Incens? Mhux morr jistenna ghax ghandhu faham miblul. Pinnuri hawn kemm trid bhalissa ibda minn Joseph il-mexxej il gdid tieghek ray spiteri, li dar l-irjieh by 180 degrees u taf fuq xhiex? U spicca f’dak Pullicino Orlando, li issa wassal biex jaqbel mal-opposizzjoni fuq l-agenda personali tieghu, id-divorzju. Dawn huma l-pinnuri li qed ibati minnhom il-PN.
Int fejn kont fis-sebghinijiet u t-tmeninijiet? Isa, ghidilna….ghax jekk ghexthom u issa “ex-pn” veru int tal -biki. In any case, m’ghandniex bzonn “nies” bhalek.
Dream on ray, dream on.
Pulcinell.
Appropo all the politics surrounding us Daphne, did you know that on Saturday, at exactly 13:30hrs, the GWU Building has become home to a new community club? The advert, shown on today’s l-Orizzont on Page 21, reads as follows:
The Stitch & Bitch Craft Club – Tizviluppa Komunita Kreattiva Kull nhar ta’ Sibt fis1:30pm fil-bini tal-GWU, South Streeet, Valletta. Gha aktar informazzjoni cempel lil Nicole fuq 79911200.
I mean, honestly, you gotta love this! I tinhk I’ll ask my fellow gayboys and camp it up a bit…. It’s either that, or watching GayTV aka SIBTek on TVM, lol
Kisses
xxx
xx
x
Ex-PN, Ray Spiteri, is this your real name? What made you switch to Labour and why do you make it a point of ending your comments with ex-PN? Excuse me if you have given an explanation for all this behaviour elsewhere on this blog.
Ha nghidlek jien il-ghala Ray Spiteri spicca maghna:
GonziPN:
Nehhielu is-sussidju mil-gass u il-pitrolju.
Ghollieilu il-petrol u id-dijzil
Ghollielu id-dawl u l-ilma.
Tah zieda ta’ nofs lira u GonziPN ha 600 Euro bil-mohbi.
Ghax Raymond favur id-divorzju imma hu personali ma jridux.
Ghax Joseph orrajt.
Ghax fuq ix-xoghol spiccatlu is-sahra.
Ghax bhali, nhar ta’ Sibt johrog jiehu pizza flok bicca laham tajba.
Ghax il-partit taghna iggeded u nehha l-ghanqbut.
Ghax ahna irridu nergghu nghixu dawk iz-zminijiet tad-deheb.
Ray ibqa iktibha EX-PN ghax qeghda ittihom gewwa.
Jien qatt ma kont mmur fuq il-blogs ta` Saver. Tghid mhux se nahli iz-zmien hekk. Imma meta naqra xi haga hawn, jew tigbdilna l-attenzjoni Daphne, immur per kurzita`. U bhali aw ELUF, Sur Balzan. Imissek tkun altru grat ghal dan il-blog ghax iservik ta’ riklam.
It could be a sly tactic that Saviour is using. He launches a fierce and colorful attack on Daphne, knowing that she will get back to him on her blog. This will then be followed by several clicks on his site.
Here’s the blurb for Saviour’s latest masterpiece of a vlog: “Saviour Balzan talks about Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s 360 degrees U-Turn on holding a referendum on the introduction of divorce.” Saviour evidently needs help with angles – a U-turn is only 180 degrees. A 360 degree turn is no turn at all!
[Daphne – Coincidentally, I was about to post that. He makes the same mistake Muscat did a few days ago. Their scripts must be written by Marisa Micallef.]
My, my! You’re bitter, hniena expn Ray spitieri
i really pity you all. why are u so much disturbed when signing ex pn. does it hurt so much. i do not hide my name like most of you bloggers. cowards. mariac calls me bitter. i will not call you names. the grinch calls me ruffjan, maria, me and troy cannot digest the fact that arrogance is the reason why now ex pn. people like you now motivate me to cast vote to PL. last election i was not able to do that, i opted not to vote. keep insulting your ex pn and rest assure more and more will shift vote. even you bloggers behave arrogant, let alone GONZIPN. i admire comments like davidg, he does not insult but only question when signing ex pn. reason : arrogance of GONZIPN. we had enough. enough is enough. ex pn
Never trust a man with small hands …
This is the kind of investigative journalism Illum carries out, though it seems more akin to stalking to me:
http://www.illum.com.mt/2010/03/07/sport2.html