Kiwiblog

Received by e-mail:

Dear David Farrar,

Recently you banned me from your Kiwiblog website stating:

[rest of e-mail deleted by DPF due to copyright complaint by the troll]

I am unsure of the legal requirements for public forums and will be seeking some legal advice concerning the matter. If I am not reinstated as a blogger on your site, I will undertake a test case against Kiwiblog for limiting peoples right to voice an opinion on a public forum. I will also inform the media of such action. …

[rest of e-mail deleted by DPF due to copyright complaint by the troll]

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Todd.

You know if Todd has stopped his e-mail with his apology, I probably would have relented and let him back in after a period of suspension.

But threaten me with legal action for your right to comment on my blog. Well fuck that. First of all you show yourself to be very very stupid – my blog is not a public forum. It is my private property, and I allow people the privilege of commenting here at my discretion. I would greatly enjoy any court case where someone tries to gain a legal right to comment on my blog – it would be hilarious.

Todd also threatened to expose what I did in banning him to the media. Well I’ve done that for him. For those who wonder why Todd got booted, feel free to wade through the 280 comments in this thread, especially from around 5.30 pm onwards .

First time I have had someone threaten to sue me for their “right” to comment here. I really didn’t think there was anyone that stupid around.

UPDATE: Todd says he was going to expose me to the media, but when I blogged his complaint letter so the media could see it, he then decided he did not want it public and filed a copyright complaint with my ISP. Hence I have removed most of his e-mail from the post. The remaining sections fall under fair use provisions.

This blog runs on WordPress. It started life originally as a Movable Type blog, but a few years ago we migrated it to WordPress, and I have to say it made a huge difference. Not only was the blog heaps faster (as it did not rebuild the whole site after each post), but the functionality was greatly improved. And even better, one had thousands of WordPress plugins one could utilise to add on more features.

So being a big WordPress fan, I’m really looking forward to attending WordCamp NZ on Sat 19 and Sun 20 February. It is being held at Te Papa.

The guest speakers are a mixture of local and international, including John Ford from Automattic – the company behind WordPress. Local speakers include Julie Starr, Lance Wiggs and Richard McManus. I’m also talking for a bit about the challenges of a blog with over 600,000 comments on it. There’s also sessions commercially focused such as Search Engine Optimisation.

You can register to attend on the wordcamp website. Cost is only $85 for the weekend.

I’m hoping I’ll come out of it with some good ideas about ways I can make Kiwiblog better.

Was interested that the second most popular term for finding Kiwiblog (after Kiwiblog itself) is “Julian Assange”. I was surprised I would be on the first page of Google hits for his name, and even more surprised when I stuck his name in that Kiwiblog came up as the second hit after Wikipedia.

Someone is stalking Rex Widerstrom as his name is in 9th place for search terms and the NZEI death sqauds are hunting Peter McKeefry who is in 11th place.

Very amusing that we have a tie for 21st place with 179 hits each between “donkey sex” and “trevor mallard labour leader’. Is it 358 random searches or one person searching for both terms 179 times?

Iain Dale is the most widely read UK blogger. I read him and Guido almost every day.

He announced last week that he is going to stop blogging. This has made news not just in the blogosphere, but also in the mainstream media.

Looking at some of the reasons why Iain has quit, I can understand his decision. There are times when it does get pretty challenging.

Well, I am afraid this is the blogpost where I tell you that I am giving up blogging. This decision has been coming for some time and was nearly made a month ago, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it then. Well, today I can.

There’s no single reason, but let me try to explain as best I can why I can no longer blog in the way I have been doing over the last five years. First of all, let me say what it’s NOT about. It’s got nothing to do with the Conservatives being in power. There’s this myth that blogging in government is less interesting than in opposition. I’ve never bought that argument. I think I have been quite open in making clear when I think the coalition have got things wrong, but I accept that is not the perception, and probably never will be.

I agree it is not less fun in Government. I thought it would be, but I am finding no shortage of things to blog on – in fact my challenge is the topics I miss out due to lack of time or resource.

I’ve been thinking of going through the year’s posts and counting the number of times I have criticised or disagreed with the Government. It’s several score at least.

The truth is, I no longer enjoy blogging and I think that this has been evident for a few months now to my readers. I hate the backbiting that goes along with it. I hate the character assassination that is permanently present.

I’ve always said I’ll give up if I don’t enjoy it. But unlike Iain I don’t get too bothered by the haters out there. The more someone spews venom at me, the more I think that I must be doing a good job for them to feel so threatened. If someone I respect criticises me, I take that very seriously – but they tend to do so in non-personal terms.

So I can’t see myself ever giving up because of the haters. Quite the opposite – it encourages you even more.

I no longer enjoy the pressure of feeling I have to churn out four or five pieces every day. I used to enjoy sitting in front of the TV at home in the evenings and writing blogposts at the same time. I can’t do that any longer as I am on the radio every weekday evening. And when I am in the office during the day I have two companies to run. Something has to give.

This is where I can totally empathise with Iain. Once upon a time the blog was not an “obligation”, just fun. But I do feel a sense of (mainly self-imposed) obligation to try and do around 8 – 10 posts a day, to cover off major issues and to be topical.

There are days and weeks when I am exhausted from trying to manage the blog, actually earn money from Curia, contribute to InternetNZ’s activities, do various media obligations, and a near non stop range of meetings and speaking arrangements.

Even getting up at 5 am doesn’t leave enough time, and friends have to put up with me trying to catch up on a backlog of e-mails while watching DVDs on a Friday night.

To cope with what will be an even busier in 2011, I will be soliciting some volunteers to help with certain aspects of the blog. I’ll provide details in January. I’m also going to learn the value of the word “no” and start declining speaking requests – not all of them, but some of them.

And if I am honest, I now feel that my blogging is having a negative effect on various aspects of my business and broadcasting life.

I estimate I could probably double my income, if I gave up blogging. Partly due to the extra time I would have to do business development – in six years of business, I’ve never responded to an RFP or solicited a client. It has all been word of mouth. Also the blog makes me too risky a choice for many government sector clients.

I’m working 9am to 10pm five days a week. I enjoy it. I relish it. I thrive on it. I’m running a very successful publishing company which is, I believe, on the brink of great success. I’ve achieved a lifetime’s ambition of having my own daily radio talk show. I am not about to put either of those things at risk. And frankly, I’m not going to put my health at risk either. As I said above, something has to give in this life I am now leading, and I am afraid it is the blog.

The health factor is real also. I left Parliament, partly because of the insane hours. They’re not as bad as when I was at Parliament, but it is a long way from a 40 hour week.

But at the end of the day, my challenge is to get a better balance, not to give up blogging. I’ve actually been debating politics online since 1996, and blogging is just a continuation of that. If I can get the balance right, I hope to blog until I am happily (or grumpily) retired.

I have also decided to give up all party political activities, as they too have hampered aspects of my business and broadcasting career in the past. I am, and will remain, a Conservative supporter, but that’s as far as it goes.

I made that decision after the 2005 election, and it was the best thing I have ever done. I will attend the odd party conference if it is interesting, but have managed to avoid any roles or offices.

The only party role that might interest me in the future would be on the Board of Directors, but I suspect it would be incompatible with my blogging as you can’t really have a Party Director criticising a National-led Government, even mildly.

Finally, I’d like to thank all my readers for sticking with me through good times and bad over the last five years. To the many enemies I have made along the way, I’ll just say in a very Nixon-esque manner, just rejoice in the fact that you won’t have me to kick around any longer. For the moment, anyway. For the most part, I have enjoyed the blogging experience and made a lot of friends through it.

Iain’s departure is a real loss to the UK blogosphere. I always enjoyed his blog, as he was very reasonable and fair. And it was a great way to keep up with UK politics.

Over 500 votes in the Kiwiblog Awards. The winners are:

• MP of the Year – John Key wins easily with 61% iof the votes
• Labour MP of the Year – Grant Robertson wins with 43% of the vote, double the next Labour MP – David Cunliffe
• National MP of the Year – Steven Joyce pips Judith Collins by 2 votes – 166 to 164.
• Minor Party MP of the Year – John Boascawen wins with 36% but a creditable second place to Metiria Turei on 26%
• Press Gallery Journalist of the Year – a close contest byt Guyon Espiner wins with 55% to 45% for Duncan Garner
• Public Servant of the Year – Bob Parker on 45% edges out the Auditor-General on 37%

Congrats to all the winners, and finalists.

You can vote in the six categories in the sidebar. The nominees, based on those who got the most nominations are:

MP of the Year – a choice between PM John Key, Police & Corrections Minister Judith Collins and Health Minister Tony Ryall

Labour MP of the Year – the four most popular nominees were David Cunliffe, Phil Goff, Trevor Mallard an newbie Grant Robertson

National MP of the Year – a choice between four ministers – Judith Collins, Steven Joyce, Tony Ryall and new Minister Hekia Parata

Minor Party MP of the Year – a diverse range with United Future’s Peter Dunne, Green co-leader Metiria Turei and Rodney Hide and John Boscawen from ACT

Press Gallery Journalist of the Year – it’s a two way contest between the two TV political editors – One’s Guyon Espiner v Three’s Duncan Garner

Public Servant of the Year – Law Commission President Sir Geoffrey Palmer competes with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker and Auditor-General Lyn Provost

Whale has blogged about the Get Frank site, and use of bloggers material.

A number of bloggers back in 2007 gave permission for Get Frank to to use some of their posts on their site. At least one blogger was told:

as our adver­tis­ing grows we will be offer­ing all con­trib­u­tors the chance to take 50% of all adver­tis­ing rev­enue from their page(s) on a CPM basis.

I was one of those bloggers who gave permission. I can’t recall whether or not my e-mail made any mention of revenue sharing. I suspect I said yes on the grounds of liking to help a new site.

But Get Frank has gone on to be commercially successful, and the Bloggers Union (which is compulsory – like student associations) has been saying that those who provide the content should be getting a share of the revenue, which has been declined. So Whale has gone to war in his normal subtle way.

By coincidence, I had noticed around six months ago that Get Frank were still using my content and I made a mental note to myself to email them at some stage and say I think it is time to stop using my content, especially as I do get advertising revenue on my own site. But it was not a priority so I had not got around to it.

This flare up has been the catalyst for me to do so, and hence the permission has been terminated.

Cactus Kate has blogged on this also.

I blog primarily because I enjoy having a say. I do make some “pocket money” from advertising but on an hourly rate it would come to less than the minimum wage. So my motivation is not commercial. But I’d rather increase the money I made from my content, than have others do so, and receive nothing at all myself.

If Get Frank (or anyone) are interested in a commercial relationship in the future, my door is open.

Overheard at lunch  a comment along the lines of:

“According to Kiwiblog and Whale Oil, the guy leading the charge is a Labour Party candidate”

It was a group having lunch. I resisted the urge to introduce me, and just kept the quiet satisfaction to myself.

It’s been a while (14 months in fact) since my last blog poll on the Front Bench. These are not scientific, but it is interesting to see how readers regard the various Ministers are performing – and also how things have changed over time.

You can vote in the left hand sidebar – there is a poll for each of the nine Ministers. Go and have your say.

The last summary of blog polls was in June. These are fun, not scientific. results since then have been:

1. 62% think Phil Goff will remain Labour Leader until the election
2. 24% said Brazil would win the FIFA World Cup, 20% Germany, 19% Argentina and only 11% correctly picked Spain
3. 59% (in June) said they thought the Coalition would win the Australian election
4. 70% support a ban on smoking in prisons
5. 75% said Pete Bethune pisses them off more than the Japanese Whalers
6. 77% support extending the 90 day trial provisions from small employers to all employers
7. 25% think Carter wrote the letter to the gallery as malicious payback vs Goff for demoting him, 6% think because he genuinely does not think Labour can win under Goff and 69% say both
8. 54% thought Labour would expel Chris Carter
9. 51% think KiwiSaver should be made compulsory
10. 64% blame Allan Hubbard for the collapse of SCF, and 12% each blame the global recession, the cirrent Government and the former Government
11. 52% approve of the Canterbury Earthquake legislation
12. 76% oppose Labour’s policy to remove GST off fresh fruit and vegetables
13. Only 43% think TVNZ did the right thing in accepting Paul Henry’s resignation

A reader asked me what the reader stats by country are. Google reports for the last month the following visits:

1. NZ 250,720 85.0%
2. Australia 13,366 4.5%
3. US 8,767 3.0%
4. UK 6,461 2.2%
5. Canada 1,749 0.6%
6. Japan 1.326 0.6%
7. Singapore 878 0.3%
8. Hong Kong 707 0.2%
9. Germany 683 0.2%
10. India 645 0.2%

Also at 0.1% or more are France, Netherlands, South Korea, China, Thailand, UAE, Ireland, Indonesia and Switzerland.

At Backbenchers last night there was a discussion on lifting the retirement age from 65 to 67. They asked one table how many years off retirement they are. One girl said 46 years so I guess she was 19. Then they asked the more elderly gentleman how many years from retirement he was, and he responded that as he was 89 I guess I am already retired.

A round of applause for him, as people impressed that at 89 years old you’re coming to the pub, having a beer and watching Backbenchers.

At the end of the night he came up to me when he left and said how much he enjoys the blog, and reads it pretty much every day. Pretty thrilled to get such cool feedback, and meet what may be KB’s oldest reader.

It got me wondering. Who is the oldest and the youngest reader of Kiwiblog? If you are over 89 or under 18 feel free to state your age – either in comments – or if you are shy, by e-mail.

On Monday 20 September I blogged my views on the Wellington City Council elections.

Around 12 days later on 1 October, Eastern Ward Councillr Rob Goulden sent the following complaint to the WCC Returning Officer:

This email is in relation to information I sent to the Electoral Officer as a candidate profile.

My profile was sent for WCC to circulate on its website to the media, as general information as to who was standing, and for publication in the Candidates handbook.

I did not and have not given permission for my information to be published on the Kiwiblog website.

I am also required by the Electoral Act to authorise such publication. I have given no such authorisation to the Mr David Farrar the author and owner of the Kiwiblog website.

I believe his publication under the banner of Local Government Election 2010 on his website is a breach of the act. He tells people how to vote in numerical order, and whom they should vote for.

I do not see this as any different from circulating a leaflet doing the same thing, which was the subject of a recent complaint in Tawa.

I wish information about me to be removed from his website.

Can you please consider this matter as a formal complaint?

The first I knew of this complaint was today.

I should point out at this stage that in my blog post, I did not actually advocate a vote for or against Rob Goulden. I did endorse Simon “Swampy” Marsh and Amanda Nicolle for two of the three spots and said:

The three current Councillors are all quite well known. I’d keep at least one of them on – so people should also support their preferred incumbent.

Ironically several people wanted me to explicitly state that Rob should be ranked in an unwinnable spot. But because of some shared history I declined to do so, and did not state any preferences amongst the three incumbent Councillors. I won’t be as generous in future.

I also provided links to the official candidate supplied statements on the WCC site, allowing readers to make up their own minds on who to support.

Anyway back to the complaint, the Returning Officer responded the same day:

I acknowledge receipt of your complaint and, as required by section 138 of the Local Electoral Act 2001, your complaint will be referred to the Police for their investigation and appropriate action.

Oh what fun. I’ve been under Police investigation without knowing about it. The Police responded quickly:

Police response on Kiwiblog complaint

The Police very sensibly can tell the difference between an advertisement and a hyperlink.

Anyway I found out about all this today when Rob e-mailed me and said:

Please see the attached. I hope you will comply forthwith and remove my information from your website.

Now I am under no legal obligation to remove the link – it is to a public elections site. And I am bemused why Rob didn’t just e-mail me directly in the first place. But just so Rob doesn’t lose any more sleep about this, I have removed the hyperlink.

But perhaps I should replace that hyperlink, with another one. This hyperlink is to the WCC Watch Blog, specifically (by coincidence) to a blog post they did today on Cr Goulden.

UPDATE: A further e-mail from Cr Goulden:

I sent you an email tonight with the Police and Electoral Officers response attached.

I made a complaint to the Electoral Officer because that is the process I am required to follow.

You published my material without permission, which is why you have been asked to remove it.

For the record in 2007, you also published on your website defamatory material about me. You were told  to remove and you subsequently did.

I note already a defamatory remark made in response to your latest post.

I am not going to be as lenient as I was last time and intend to do something about you and your posts.

I will give you until the morning to remove them and no longer.

I have responded:

I am disappointed you have not learnt anything from this.  Polite requests go down better than threats and complaints.

You have not specified which of the comments you feel is defamatory. If you do so, I will consider your request.

I will continue to blog updates.

I’ve now got comparisons from Neilsen for NZers who read Kiwiblog vs all NZers who are online.

• Gender – 52% Male KB vs 42% NZ
• Age – similar profile
• Household Income – 30% $40 – $100k KB vs 36% NZ, 34% $100k – $250k KB vs $28% NZ and 7% over $250k KB vs 4%
• Occupation – similar profile
• Location – Auckland 32% vs 34%, Wellington 28% vs 18%, Canterbury 15% vs 14%, Otago 5% v 4%
• Area – 86% urban KB vs 82% NZ
• Ethnicity – NZ European 80% KB vs 76% NZ, Maori 4%, vs 4% PI 2% vs 2%, Other European 7% vs 10%, Asian 2% vs 4%
• Internet Connection – 1% dial up KB vs 3% NZ
• Average Internet use – 36% up to 10 hours/week KB vs 50% NZ, 34% 10 – 20 vs 31%, 16% 20 – 30 vs 11% and 15% over 30 vs 10%
• Web 2.0 – 62% have used social network site vs 53%, 46% have commented n blog/discussion site vs 32%,
• Online Services – 86% use Internet Banking vs 83%, 34% have used VOIP calling vs 30%, 5% gambling vs 5%, 8% gaming vs 7%, 39% auctions vs 37%, 85% read newspaper vs 76%, 46% download or listen to music vs 37%, 28% listened to radio vs 19%, 60% download/view video vs 48%, 33% download/view TV or movie vs 26%, 41% download software vs 33%, 29% used RSS feed vs 18%, 30% monitored sports event vs 24%, 35% used IM vs 32%, 21% accessed Net via mobile phone vs 17%

Through my advertising network, I am on Nielsen Net Ratings. Apart from the normal stuff on page impressions, visitors, I also get a demographic breakdown of visitors to Kiwiblog. I figured people may be interested in them also.

• Gender – 52% Male, 48% Female (this is readers, not commenters)
• Age – 2% under 18, 21% 18 – 30, 28% 31 – 45, 31% 46 – 60 and 17% over 60
• Household Income – 15% under $40k, 30% $40 – $100K, 34% $100K – $250K and 7% over $250K
• Occupation – 23% professionals/managers, 9% self employed, 7% tertiary students, 3% secondary students, 7% retired
• Employers – 32% work for employers with less than 20 staff, 15% for 20 to 100 and 29% over 100
• Homes – 39% own with a mortgage, 31% own and no mortgage, 25% rent
• Children – 14% have children aged under 5, 13% 5 to 9, 13% 10 – 14, 13% 15 – 17, 63% no children at home
• Shopping – 44% say main household shopper, 39% say split equally, 17% say not primarily them
• Location – Auckland 32%, Wellington 28%, Canterbury 15%, Otago 5%, Waikato 4%, BOP 3%, Manawatu-Wanganui 3%, Northland 2%, Nelson/Marlborough 2%, Hawke’s Bay 1%, Southland 1%, Taranaki 1%, Gisborne 0.3%
• Area – 86% urban, 14% rural
• Ethnicity – NZ European 80%, Maori 4%, PI 2%, Other European 7%, Asian 2%
• Internet Access – 32% work, 63% home
• Internet Connection – 1% dial up, 97% broadband
• Average Internet use – 36% up to 10 hours/week, 34% 10 – 20, 16% 20 – 30 and 15% over 30
• Web 2.0 – 62% have used social network site, 46% have commented n blog/discussion site,
• Online Services – 86% use Internet Banking, 34% have used VOIP calling, 5% gambling, 8% gaming, 39% auctions, 85% read newspaper, 46% download or listen to music, 28% listened to radio, 60% download/view video, 33% download/view TV or movie, 41% download software, 29% used RSS feed, 30% monitored sports event, 35% used IM, 21% accessed Net via mobile phone,

What would be interesting is to see how Kiwblog readers differ from the average online Kiwi.

Good God I made 16 posts yesterday. Fridays are meant to be relaxed!

I’ve been so busy the last couple of months that I’ve not had time to update the demerits table. This is actually a quite slow process as I was recording the date of every infringement etc.

To make it a more manageable job, I’ve set up a demerits spreadsheet, and will just copy and paste this to the demerits page.

The good news for those with a history of demerits, is I have wiped all current demerits, as I have been failing to keep the table up to date.

At of today, everyone is at zero demerits. However those who have previously has suspensions, still have that history – ie if they get suspended again, it will be for more than one week.

The bad news for those who become abusive or disruptive, is that it is going to be easier for people to report such behaviour:

If you see a comment that you think is highly abusive, then feel free to report it by sending an e-mail to kiwiblogabuse@gmail.com. The e-mail should include a link to the specific comment (if you click on the date/time of the comment, this will bring it up in the address bar).

I do not have time to read every thread, let alone every comment. So your help in maintaining standards is appreciated. I also do not have time to respond to every complaint – they will all be considered, and you’ll see below whether or not I decide demerits are warranted. Generally I won’t respond individually.

I am going to be putting a few minutes aside every evening to review any complaints, and decide if any action is required. The dedicated e-mail address will ensure they don’t disappear in the black hole that is my main inbox.

Thanks to Mobify, Inspire Net and No Shortcuts Design, there is now a mobile phone version of Kiwiblog.

The URL is http://m.kiwiblog.co.nz and it is customised for better viewing on mobile phones, and to use up less bandwidth. The sidebars are gone, and the photos are smaller. If you are on the mobile site, you can click through to the full site at the top right.

At this stage we have not set it up for auto-detect, as I am assuming people are happy enough to choose the full or mobile site for themselves. But can do so, if people want it.

Kiwiblog is seven years old today. Over those seven years, there have been approx:

• 17,000 posts
• 600,000 comments
• 3,300 tags
• 5,700 registered commenters

Monitoring visits is more difficult as have swapped systems often. But over just the last two years, Kiwiblog has had:

• 12 million page views
• 5.5 million visits
• 1.9 million visits through Google

Thanks to all the readers who enjoy Kiwiblog – I enjoy writing it.

I’m a bit gutted to be away when Wordcamp NZ is on. Wordcamp is for users and fans of WordPress, which is what this blog uses.

I would have loved to attend (7 and 8 August in Auckland) as I know I’d pick up heaps of good ideas for plugins and features etc.

There is talk there may be one in Wellington later this year or early next year. I hope so.

The Herald had this story last week:

BLOG HEAVEN

Kiwiblog has increased unique users 43 per cent in the past two years _ a much bigger increase than that recorded for Public Address.

Figures released by Nielsen Online research for June 24 show the National Party friendly blog increased from 33,548 in May 2008 to 48,067 for the same date in 2010.

The liberal and Labour friendly community Public Address increased from 16,471 to 18,545, an increase of 13 per cent.

Kiwiblog dominates the mainstream right of centre political market, while Public Address shares the left with several bloggers.

Kiwiblog owner David Farrar said that commercial returns from political blogging were small unless they were international in scope or focused on the US market.

What I found funny is I was totally unaware of this stat until the NZ Herald rang me asking me for comment on it. I leave pretty much all the advertising to Scoop and Ffunnell and just have a browse through the quarterly reports every three months.

I used to follow my stats monthly, but look at Google Analytics rarely now. So I had no idea that traffic had increased by 43% over two years. Especially pleasing is that it hasn’t dropped away with the change of Government, but has in fact grown.

A new commenter left the following comment:

Oh what a surprise! The National and ACT party’s long term plan of having Banks as Mayor of the so called ‘Super City’ kicks into action as soon as Len Brown shows up 11% ahead of failed MP Banks. Oh another surprise, the horrible geeky little man ( being generous there) Farrar is doing Keys and Hides dirty work for them, just like he did on Winston Peters in the election. Well Farrar, time to exercise a few skeletons out of your cupboard, as well as Banks, Key and Hide. Just wait and see what starts popping up on the internet in the next few weeks, maybe a long term trip to Rarotonga would be well timed, or would Thailand be a better choice for you Farrar?

I deleted the comment, but then decided maybe better to let people see it.

The Thailand suggestion is especially charming, as we know what he is really suggesting by this.

Now here is my dilemma. I know the identity of the person who made that comment, through their e-mail address and domain name, with his threats against me. Kiwiblog’s privacy policy says:

I reserve the right to use or publicise any of the above information. However, unless there is good reason, I intend to only publish information in summarised form …

So the bottom line in terms of privacy in browsing or commenting on this site, is that in 99.99% of all cases I will keep your personal information strictly confidential to me. However if you break the law, defame someone, or really piss me off, then you have been warned!

So should I name the person who made this comment? Does this qualify as the 0.01% exception?

Has been a year since my last summary of blog poll results. They are of course fun, not scientific. The results are:

1. Only 17% said Richard Worth should remain as an MP
2. 66% said David Shearer’s majority will be smaller than Helen Clark’s
3. 16% of respondents use Twitter (June 2009)
4. 58% agreed owners of safer cars should pay lower ACC levies
5. 85% opposed the proposed requirement to add folic acid to bread
6. 58% have smoked cannabis
7. The favourite guest posters were Jadis 42%,  Tara Te Heke 29%, Peter Gibbons 24%
8. With regard to mining on conservation land 50% said consider on case by case basis, 34% said drill baby drill and 16% said never allow
9. 62% want a 4 year term for Parliament, 28% 3 years, 7% 5 years, and 3% 2 years
10. 72% said Whanganui should be spelt Wanganui
11. 34% change their razor blade less often than monthly, 31% monthly, 18% fortnightly, 16% weekly and 1% more than once a week
12. 59% use Facebook, 21% Twitter, 9% Bebo and 7% My Space (Oct 2009)
13. 47% support MMP, 23%, STV, 20% FPP, 6% SM and 4% PV
14. 81% want competition for ACC
15. 35% wants Police able to take DNA samples from those charged with a serious crime so long as the sample is destroyed if no conviction. 16% support DNA samples taken at birth.
16. 50% named Chris Carter as the biggest trougher, 20% Hone Harawira, 18% Rodney Hide and 12% Bill English
17. 76% wanted the Maori Party to expel Hone Harawira over his MF comments
18. 55% think CIRs should be binding on Parliament
19. 61% think Kevin Rudd will beat Tony Abbott
20. 56% said for Xmas they were holidaying at home, 40% holidaying in NZ and 13% holidaying overseas
21. 51% think Cameron Slater is not guilty
22. 43% want Charles as King, 18% for William to take over, and 39% want a republic
23. 43% think there should be no minimum wage, 18% say it should be $15, 11% more than $15, 9% $12.50, 7% $13.00, 7% $12.75, 5% $14.00
24. The PM’s statement was given an A by 19%, a B by 29%, a C by 23%, a D by 125 and an E by 17%
25. 62% support a lower minimum wage for under 20s
26. 32% want a driving age of 18, 22% 16, 22% 15, 18% 17 and 6% 14
27. 82% hate the proposed Wellywood sign
28. 62% wanted the Govt to remove the ban on mining on Great Barrier Island
29. 65% want retail shops to be able to open on Easter Sunday
30. 84% think Superman would beat the Hulk (they are wrong – Hulk gets stronger as he gets madder)
31. 64% thought David Cameron would become UK PM, 23% Gordon Brown and 13% Nick Clegg
32. 34% think Andrew Little will be the next Labour Leader, 24% David Cunliffe, 18% Shane Jones, 8% Grant Robertson, 8% Trevor Mallard, 6% Maryan Street and 2% Ruth Dyson
33. 42% want the alcohol purchase age to be 18, 40% wants 20, 9% greater than 20 and 9% under 18
34. 58% would vote to retain MMP
35. 31% rated the 2010 Budget very good, 36% good, 14% average, 6% poor and 13% very poor
36. 47% say Andy Haden should be sacked and 53% say he shoudl keep his job

I must do these summaries more often!

Starting from next week, we’re going to have a new premium content system for comments on Kiwiblog.

Readers will be able to access posts my me for free, as per normal. That will not change.

But if you wish to read or make a comment, there will be a small micro-charge, as a contribution towards the running costs of the blog.

The comments will be behind a premium content firewall, and there will be three levels of access:

1. Bronze – Read only – $1/month
2. Silver – Ability to make up to three comments a day – $2/month
3. Gold – Ability to make up to 30 comments a day – $3/month

We’ll be using paypal primarily as the method of payment, as most people already have a paypal account. Credit cards will also be okay, but at this stage we can’t do automatic payment or direct debits.

The money from comments access will primarily be used to fund professional discussion board software that will allow easy moderation, tracking of all comments from an author, most popular comments highlighted and a few extra features you’ll see next week.

Going to be on an area with little or no Internet coverage until Tuesday, so lite blogging over the weekend. Have scheduled the general debates to appear each day.