Good morning, gentle readers, and welcome to another week here at Liberal Democrat Voice. I have to admit that it’s going to be a quiet start, as I’ll be attending a funeral later, so do bear with me if moderation isn’t as snappy as it usually is.
Following on from my plea a fortnight ago, we’ve had a few requests and/or comments, and so I ought to respond.
To Katharine Pindar, who raised the issue of press releases, we’re not receiving very many at all at the moment – we are receiving e-mails from the HQ Press Team, but not much in the way of actual press releases, so we’ll check to see if the communication channel has failed.
Sue Sutherland wondered if we might publish data on the reasons why comments were rejected, and I can see how that information might be of interest. The catch is that it requires effort to gather the data, and to interpret it fairly and, to be honest, it’s a job that we don’t have time for. However, I will note that we’ve rejected slightly less than 4% of the 485,000 or so comments submitted since Liberal Democrat Voice was launched in 2006 (is it really that recently?), which might indicate our general tolerance level, or that most of our readers are reasonably fair-minded, respectful souls.
Do you have any other questions, suggestions or ideas? Do use the comments section to raise them, and I’ll try to reply next week.
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13 Comments
Is the ‘Recent Comments’ facility not going to be restored ?
Thank you Mark, but I think by now you should be able to spell my surname correctly, and as an editor would wish to do so. Please also be more open about LDV. As David Raw asks, and I asked, is the Recent Comments column not to be restored? I should also like to know, please, about how many people on average are reading LDV these days? Sharing that information with us would make the Most Read column more meaningful, and Caron a long time ago used to tell us.
@David Raw, @Katharine Pindar
I have no idea why the “Recent Comments” feed is missing, but in the meantime you can go directly to the feed’s URL: https://www.libdemvoice.org/comments/feed – depending on your browser, you might need a plug-in to display it in a readable way. ( I use “Livemarks” on Firefox )
I am so amazed that the Libdems have not jumped on the backs of (added by editor:) fans of Millwall Football club after the appalling act of Racism, why is it just ignored. We should be shouting with utter disgust at the blatant racism shown by some of their fans. Why are we so quiet about this.
Still no enlightenment about Recent Comments from Creeting St Peter.
Shurely Shome Mishtake….. or has our dear editor been off for the day to Great Snoring, which, as the cognoscenti will Shurely know, is a small village in North Norfolk formerly represented by one Sir Norman Peter Lamb.
@ David,
Thank you for your patience and, having returned from the funeral I was attending (as noted above), I’ll see if I can find out what has happened.
Thank you for the figure of slightly less than 4% which seems quite reasonable to me. We are definitely not being silenced even though we might wish that other contributors sometimes were.
@ Katharine,
I apologise for spelling your surname incorrectly, and have corrected that accordingly. Mind you, given that you once challenged an editorial decision I made by questioning my sexuality, you’ll pardon me for thinking that you might be overreacting just a little to an unintended error.
Hi Mark – I didn’t really understand the comment about the LD Press Team. Are they not providing you with news material about campaigns or details of parliamentary activity?
It is not surprising that the party is invisible in the national media if even the LDV website isn’t being given updates. When the party is at a low ebb it is vital to get the comms strategy right.
@ James,
We get a morning briefing, which is not for forwarding or other onward distribution, and, usually, press releases as they’re issued. Recently, we’ve had the former, but very few of the latter, which implies that not many are being issued.
I started publishing the press releases verbatim because it seemed like a useful exercise – readers can see what the Press team are issuing, can promote those messages or use them in their own campaigning. And, whilst readership isn’t huge, it seemed to be appreciated.
If the flow resumes, I’ll be sure to resume the feature.
Mark, thank you. I’m grateful for your response.
I do so apologise if I missed your reason for not responding earlier on. Respects and very best wishes to you both..
@ Katharine and David,
I’ve had an exchange with Ryan, LDV’s technical guru and the person who makes all of this possible, and he advises that the loss of the “recent comments” is due to a WordPress update. As time permits, there is a possibility that it could be reinstated, but it isn’t likely to be any time soon.
Thanks for the update, Mark.