There’s a slightly bizarre concept. Now that Dave and Al have moved on ttto new things, I find myself the longest standing current writer on Tech Digest.

Granted, others like Ashley and Kat have worked for longer on the publication overall, but they too have moved on. I’ve outlived three editors, and yet have only been working full-time with Shiny Media for two years.

That’s how fast things change in the online media world. Seems fast to me, anyway.

Still, there’s something nice about being part of the virtual furniture and watching new talent come through, some just cutting their teeth in the world of paid blogging just as I was in 2006.

For all the “joys” of the publishing system and a few quirks here and there, I love writing for Tech Digest. Of course there are trolls to deal with, and people trying to sell mobile phones and dodgy medicine, but then every blog contends with them.

Here’s to the next two years, nay decades, of Tech Digest!

Update 6th May 2008: I received a very decent email today from the MD of Leapfrog Computers (at least, I trust that it was from him). I’ve never held any ill feelings towards him, and I’m sure his company is generally good.

I do still work for Shiny Media!

Unbelievable!

Let me start with a hypothetical question: if you read an erroneous piece of information about you in The Guardian, would you (a) contact the author directly, (b) contact the editor, or (c) send an email to everyone who writes for the publication?

If you answered (c), shame on you.

Yet, that’s exactly what Leapfrog Computers did about a recent article (now removed) at Tech Digest.

Instead of contacting the writer directly (the name of the author of each article is stated quite clearly at the bottom of each page), the Sales Manager at Leapfrog Computers decided to email everyone.

I’ve had my share of companies who have been annoyed by things I’ve written. Sometimes their annoyance is justified, in which case I remove the offending material, and sometimes it’s just because I’ve made them sound bad, but without actually defaming them.

At least the complaints were (in the main) directed at the right person.

Read the rest of this entry »

Given the vocal nature of bloggers, the snub I received today from Sony is a little strange. Perhaps Sony doesn’t fully understand the outspoken immediacy of many blogs, or perhaps they really don’t care.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend Sony’s latest BRAVIA ad photo shoot in Miami. I must admit, I was a little bemused to have been “chosen”, given that — at that time — only a handful of bloggers had been invited, but given my work on Tech Digest and HDTV UK, it was justified enough.

For an expenses-paid to trip to Miami, I’d be able to report to close-on half-a-million monthly visitors to both sites about the photo shoot, and some of Sony’s latest camcorders.

However, today I was informed — most apologetically — by one of Sony’s PR companies that I’d been dropped from the trip, due to a change in filming dates, “logistical issues”, and… because “Sony is only keen to get US based bloggers”.

OUCH!

It seems that, despite Sony being happy enough to use a tower block in Scotland for their exploding paint ad (perhaps an exploding high rise in America wouldn’t have gone down so well?), when it comes to filming an ad in the US, and despite the likelihood that it will be used worldwide, Sony only wants US bloggers to cover it.

Now, I must make it clear that I’m not particularly bothered about the trip. Yes, it would have been an interesting thing to do, and I’ll happily accept the offer of free travel and accommodation, but the “logistics” of planning a trip away when there are still the same number of targets and deadlines to achieve is no small task.

It wouldn’t have been a holiday.

However, the supposed snub is rather unfortunate. As a freelancer and a blogger — even for a relatively large UK new media company — I would never expect to be invited on these kinds of trips.

So, to be invited — I thought — showed some forward thinking on behalf of a company that should already be forward thinking — technology, after all, is nothing less than shaping the future.

What should have happened? Sony should have been more organised, and decided exactly what they wanted before trying to entice bloggers out to their PR event.

Filming dates rearranged? Flights do that too.

Apparently, I’m on the list for “next time” — whatever and whenever that might be. Thing is, I’m not sure I’m particularly interested now.

Companies, listen up — bloggers tend not to like being used as pawns in your PR games. Actually, I reckon most media professionals don’t, either, though I’d imagine (perhaps wrongly) that the most established media gets slightly better treatment.

Logging into Google AdSense tonight, I find myself needing to read and accept some new terms and conditions.

Seeing an option to “Remind me the next time I log in. (You must accept the above Terms and Conditions by 25 May 2008, or you will no longer be able to login to AdSense and make changes to your Account.)” I plump for that so I can check some stats before going to bed.

Cycles back to the log in screen and then reloads the Terms and Conditions.

Well, I’m not going to click on “No, I do not accept the above Terms and Conditions.” just in case I’m frozen out.

So I take a cursory look at the T&Cs, hoping that Google isn’t going to do something nasty because I haven’t read all the small print, and submit again.

Still locked in a loop.

Maybe because AdSense tends to log me in automatically, there’s some part of the acceptance process that’s not being completed. Whatever the problem, I can’t get past the Terms and Conditions page.

Hopefully it’ll get fixed soon enough.

Update: Oh well, that was quick!

As we enter Fairtrade Fortnight, Cafédirect has commissioned a survey to find out just what the British public thinks of Fairtrade products.

With Fairtrade, as with many things, it’s very much about companies following the “minimum standard”. Some companies choose to do more, but that can’t be relied upon as the average.

For example, four out of five consumers surveyed thought that brands carrying the Fairtrade logo work directly with growers, build long-term partnerships, and reinvest in grower training and development, whereas that’s not a requirement.

The Fairtrade mark guarantees a fair and stable price for farmers and an extra premium to help improve their lives, but only a few companies do more than that. That doesn’t make it bad, but is worth being aware of.

Similarly, nearly half of shoppers believe that the same amount of money goes back to, say, coffee growers regardless of which Fairtrade coffee product they buy. In reality, companies that buy raw materials from the Fairtrade register are required to pay the minimum Fairtrade price, which covers growers’ costs of production and provides a social premium for investment in community projects.

Zachary Dominitz, Head of Corporate Affairs, Cafédirect said, ““We are proud of, and guided by, the direct, personal, long-term relationships we’ve nurtured with our grower partners over the last 17 years. In addition to paying above market prices, over the last three years we have invested on average 60% of our profits into training and development programmes for our growers, to help build their expertise. Fairtrade gives millions of small-scale farmers disadvantaged by the conventional trading system an opportunity to earn a decent living, but that is just a starting point, not an answer. We believe that we have raised the bar for Fairtrade, and urge other brands to follow our lead and help guarantee a sustainable future for growers and communities around the world.””

87% of those surveyed said that they bought Fairtrade products each week or month. The Fairtrade Foundation reports that sales of Fairtrade products have increased by 40% or more each year, to an estimated £430 million in 2007.

86% said they’d be happy to pay a few pence more for Fairtrade products.

Over the weekend, I finally upgraded two implementations of WordPress, which were long overdue.

I seem to remember the last time I updated the software, it took quite an effort, which is probably why I left it for so long this time. However, I read the Three Step Upgrade notes, and, after a couple of hairy moments on each installation where I got a blank screen because I’d forgotten to copy over a particular file, or a plugin wasn’t working, it was fine.

Each site took no more than half-an-hour to complete, which I was most impressed with.

Admittedly, I don’t use many plugins, and I rarely hack the source WordPress code, so there wasn’t really much to go wrong.

I’ll be upgrading another couple of sites this week, and then I expect I’m a lot closer to being ready to upgrade to version 2.5 when it’s available next month.

Update: TrafficJam.com is now live, read my Blog Herald news post about the launch.

Good for you, John — everyone needs a break and I don’t mind that.

However, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything about BlogRush, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s just a stagnant project.

Actually, I quite like BlogRush, so — unlike some of the nay-sayers — I’m prepared to give it a go.

In the niche that my BlogRush-accepted blog resides, I’ve found some decent blogs because of the widget. Yes, I could’ve found them in other ways, but it was easy to do.

While my traffic conversion isn’t amazing, it isn’t terrible either — given that the whole system is effectively free (apart from the space you have to give up on your blog, of course, which could arguably be put to better / more profitable use)

Still, I’d like to find out a few things, and as your blog doesn’t accept comments (perhaps you’re frightened of criticism?), I’ll have to write my questions here. Whether you read them, is another matter, because…

1. …none of your support staff ever replied to my email enquiring why one of my sites was rejected from the network. That’s plain rude, given that your page invites such questions. Actually, you never sent the original explanation email either.

2. What’s happening with this TrafficJam.com project? It sounds dead in the water. It’s all very well talking about 2008 and massive opportunity but that was two weeks ago. Small time bloggers like me can still get away with that, but just because you’re “not a typical blogger”, you are still (supposedly) a “big fish” in your niche.

That’s why so many people joined and endorsed BR in the first place.

3. What other stages are coming up? That “stage two” video has been idling for months now. What about stage 3? How is my web site, and my readers, and my niche, going to benefit from being a part of BlogRush / TrafficJam / Project X, Y, Z … ?

4. I’ve heard that you kicked quite a few people out, and yet never told them why.

I’m wondering if it’s because they didn’t place the widget above the fold as you asked people back in November to do.

Yet, I’m still visiting blogs where the widget is way down at the bottom of the page, or stuffed —half-obscured — in an inline frame.

I PUT MY WIDGET at the top of the page — I don’t begrudge that, it looks OK — but why, three months on, are there still sites flouting your own guidelines. No wonder the conversion rates are pretty pathetic.

So, basically…

5. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE BLOGRUSH A KICK UP THE BACKSIDE

OR

6. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO OFFICIALLY KILL BLOGRUSH AND LET US ALL GET ON WITH SOMETHING ELSE?

I don’t feel any particular loyalty, but something nags at me to stick with BlogRush, even when many others have shunned it.

That won’t last much longer.

PLEASE, tell us what’s going on. At least update your blog more than once a month, even if it’s to say “we’re working on it” (don’t push it, though. If you’re still saying that in July with NOTHING to show for it, then it’s “goodbye”)

Thanks John. What’s happening?

If you turn to today’s Technology Guardian (available online) you’ll see a lovely shot of me standing in my garden with my wife’s laptop, looking seriously at the (blank) screen. It’s for the article Porn bill firm opens new front.

It’s part of The Guardian’s ongoing coverage of the MBS billing software debacle which I first covered in March last year.

It’s given some positive press to the MBS Victims Forum Liz and I set up towards the end of last year.

I wonder what (if anything) it will do for me: “Professional blogger Andy Merrett”.

Welcome to any Guardian readers who’ve been following links!

“So, if you fancy a good pint, a tasty curry or meal out with the family, we hope that you enjoy the Wetherspoon experience.” [company web site]

Not any more, it seems — not unless you’re prepared to eat and drink up fairly quickly, anyway.

JD Wetherspoon, whose pubs are known as family-friendly places to visit for reasonably priced food and drink, has announced that adults with children will be limited to two alcoholic drinks, and may be refused soft drinks and coffee in order to shorten their stay.

Apparently, children are causing the cut-price pub chain discomfort because of a lack of play facilities.

Bizarrely, the pub chain are trying to comply with “child cruelty legislation”. Rather funny, given that, in the case study quoted by the BBC News website, one bar manager said that the parents could stay only if the child left. Huh? So who would look after the child then?

Given that the pub is trying to find new ways of attracting customers, with early morning opening to attract the coffee-supping crowd, and free Wi-Fi, you’d have thought that it would be happy for families to be in the premises during the day time. Evidently not.

Rather bizarre. Thanks JD — at such a point as I have children, I’ll be sure to avoid your establishments and go somewhere that gives a damn about the family.

(Via BBC News)