Wednesday 17 June 2009

A Crap Blog that no one reads !!!!!

A crap blog that no one reads. That is how one of Barnet's most senior politicians described the Barnet Eye.

It seems that he may be slightly wide of the mark. Crap maybe, but no one reading it? Well I thought I'd share a few facts with you.

To date I've published 419 blogs.

The most popular (by a country mile) is this one detailing all of the free dinners Brian Coleman had listed on his GLA register of members interests. You may be interested to know that there are over 200 links from other sites to this blog story. It is always in my top five popular . It is well due a follow up. Every day dozens of Londoners visit the story :-
http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2008/11/councillor-brian-coleman-free-dinner.html

The most downloaded image is the one from the solicitors acting for the Sheltered Housing tenants. This has only been up a week and has had hundreds of downloads. The accompanying story was one advising senior staff at Barnet to look for another job. The link to public sector jobs on that page is also rather popular.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk1cVls9iyjZ1Dpyj69K_dtKcIPLgKEr0vjCnxnicw0u4mstqFnsomD1XG6lip0u88-ZX_DQ42EqIuCc4TZA_6msRVQck-acbRcOlpj7_JRBqgdxFC9-9gE_vDlILWM1M1U0Il7B2MX2oN/s1600-h/scan0001.jpg

What is even more interesting is the quality of my visitors. We had 10 from the GLA and 7 from the Houses of Parliament. It appears that both have bookmarked the site. Of course, I'm pleased if anyone reads the blog, but it especially pleases me when people show their trust in me enough to get in touch. I don't publish my email, but it's easy enough to track me down.

Here is an example of what people say. This was forwarded to me yesterday.

Hello,
I'm living in Sheltered Housing provided by Barnet Council and would like to contact Roger.
I'm eligible for Legal Aid but it doesn't allow me to take them to court which I want to do.
If you could ask him to contact me either by email or by telephone, I would be most grateful.
Sincerely,
*** ******
PS. I got his name from an Hendon Times article and have just started following his wonderful blog where I found your email address.
Unfortunately, I'm still very new to the whole blog system and don't really know how to contact him by email.

I've received quite a few such emails. I feel embarrassed and humbled when I receive them. I really don't think I deserve such praise - I really don't think I'm wonderful, as I feel that often I'm P*ss*ng in the wind with Barnet Council. I spoke to the guy who sent the email yesterday. Some of these tales make me want to cry. I will do what I can to repay the trust of all of you who follow the blog. All I can really do is put things into the public domain so that people know what's going on. I'm not a lawyer, a councillor or a hitman !!!!

Yup, it may be a crap blog, but people seem to like it.

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