This entry was posted on
Monday, September 15th, 2008 at
11:42 am and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement.
BBC – Warning sounded on web’s future: The internet needs a way to help people separate rumour from real science, says the creator of the World Wide Web. Talking to BBC News Sir Tim Berners-Lee said he was increasingly worried about the way the web has been used to spread disinformation… Sir Tim told BBC News that there needed to be new systems that would give websites a label for trustworthiness once they had been proved reliable sources.
Yes, a little ‘wilful distortion’ flag would be useful. But one problem here is that the same people who play these games also have no issues with multiple identities, multiple voting, etc. etc. etc.
People like this are sure to game the system in order to defend themselves and make baseless accusations of invention/bias/etc. against others.
[‘Obsessives’ only: Speaking of such things, you might want to take a look at all the ‘different’ people defending Donal Blaney’s original Wikipedia entry. Take a close look at that and/or the history of his latest entry (and those of Iain Dale, Paul Staines etc.) and sooner or later you will encounter this nest of sock puppets.]
Anyway, getting back to that ‘power of perception’ thing, today Nigel Morris makes Iain Dale just that little bit more influential by declaring him to be so, but he does so while thinking that Iain Dale has “350,000 readers every month”.
Iain Dale doesn’t have anywhere near 350,000 readers every month, but the fact that Iain Dale cheated in order to give everybody the impression that he does isn’t something you’re going to read in Iain Dale’s neighbourhood anytime soon.
By pro_tempore September 15, 2008 - 2:35 pm
If Nigel Morris does indeed think "that Iain Dale has "350,000 readers every month".", then that would be because, er…, Iain Dale said so!:http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/09/10-most-infl…I would have expected better from the independent…
By jailhouselawyer September 15, 2008 - 3:03 pm
In the same article Guido Fawkes (aka Paul Staines), who is apparently a blogger, declares that his site is worth £1M. LOL.Spare a penny for the Guy, Guv?
By Manic September 15, 2008 - 3:04 pm
If one takes Iain Dale at his word (not usually a good idea, but let's just say…) then Nigel Morris was provided with several sets of figures and (perhaps) mistook one for the other. I've emailed NM and asked him about it, but he's away at the Lib Dem conference, apparently.I do love Dale's phrasing, BTW:"(Tim Ireland) also accuses Nigel Morris of misleading his readers about the number of readers this blog gets."No, I don't.My post clearly says that Morris *believed* Dale to have "350,000 readers every month"; generally it's understood that to 'mislead' someone is not to make an error or believe a lie, but instead to knowingly and deliberately lead someone away from the truth.Which, amusingly, is just what Iain is doing. Again.The usual claims of jealousy and nitpicking I'll leave as scraps for the dogs.But I did mean to laugh at Paul Staines' apparent assertion that his weblog is worth "at least a million pounds" earlier, and will do so now:Bwahahahahahahahaha!