The Blog
Quite a lot has been happening on the blog itself, with the help of some very patient developers, there are some big changes to the appearance and functionality of these pages with more in the pipeline
You'll see that the layout has changed and the menu bar has some different and I hope, interesting items on offer. At the backend of the site, a good deal of time has been spent on improving the site's performance on mobile and including accessibility among other things. In the result will be that the site will load faster and have better-formatted images. But that's not all, there will be more features and areas of the blog to explore.
Under the Resources tab you will find a page that contains 'SPYCAST' this is a series of podcasts featuring interviews with one-time spies and intelligence agents courtesy of the International Spy Museum in Washington, https://www.spymuseum.org as well as related topics of interest. The Spy Museum is still there with some new additions being viewable shortly.
Recently I have spent time creating a Comparison tool, its purpose was and is to enable this blog and others who wish to measure their performance across several criteria and to come up with a rank or set of scores against each of those with a final score that you can calculate. Here's the link to the page on the blog that describes what it is and how it works:
https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-comparison-of-somerton-man-mystery.html
I am delighted to tell you that this blog was ahead on just about every point and that wasn't done deliberately. Here's an excerpt from a comment made on the FACT CHECK page:
'Let's start with the criteria, I researched quite widely on the subject of 'What makes a good blog'. My sources included Hubspot, the Content Marketing Institute and Moz plus numerous other blogs that are 'in the business' of assisting others to create good quality blogs that deliver.
True to say that many blogs are there to drive income but the principles still apply. From the research and given that I wasn't looking to drive income, I brought a list together of attributes/ criteria by which I could measure this blog's performance from an audience perspective and then use that to see where this blog stood in comparison to others in the same space. The original list had just 7 criteria:
1. Well-researched Content
2. A distinct style
3. Regular posts
4. Good design, use of images etc
5. Active and respectful engagement with the audience
6. Credibility and substantiation of content, trustworthy
7. Adherence and awareness of Copyright issues
To those listed, I added a few more, 1. Professional, ethical 2. Solid comment moderation, 3.Acknowledgement of sources 4. Breaking new ground with new ideas and discoveries. And then
I researched for about 2 weeks, I would have spent about 3 days of my time on bringing it together.
As you can see it wasn't a matter of plucking ideas out of the air, it has been well thought through.
As it turns out, and to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that this approach has been used anywhere although I am led to believe that several other blogs are now looking at the same idea.'
SCORES:
- First place: The Tamam Shud blog with an overall score of 88/100.
- Second place: Cipher Mysteries forum with a score of 63/100.
- Third place: Identifying the Somerton Man with a score of 62/100.
- Fourth place: Toms By Two forum with a score of 61/100.
I had originally included BigFooty a forum for which I have the greatest of respect, but it transpired that because it has such a large group of threads, it was impossible to get a proper and fair result. Here's a link to the Somerton Man forum on big footy:
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/taman-shud-case-the-somerton-man.983169/page-21#post-63225089
I do not know whether the relative positions will stay the same but we will run the comparison exercise again in the New Year.
FACT CHECK
On the menu bar on each page, you can see a link to our new FACT CHECK page. I have done this for several reasons, let me give you two:
1. Several quite vociferous trolls inhabit the Somerton Man space as many would be aware. They are found on two blogs in the main, the Ciphermysteries blog and the Tomsbtwo blog. There are some problems that they cause not just for this blog but for the blogs in the Somerton Man space generally by way of misinformation and sometimes as you will read in the FACT CHECK comments, outright fabrications, and even what appears to be defamation of one of the main people in the original Investigation, that person Being Professor John Burton Cleland. In addition, this blog has also been the target of attacks by these trolls sometimes individually and sometimes, it would appear as part of a coordinated effort. The FACT CHECK highlights and exposes the wrongdoings so that this and the wider audience can be aware of the activities. Comment moderation is not obvious on the blogs concerned.
2. In addition to the attack on this blog, personal attacks on myself are launched regularly by the trolls notably the John Sanders troll for reasons best known to themselves. And that brings me to another current point, I have been advised that there is a major personal attack in the offing. This would not surprise me so this post is to let you know that an attack is likely and it will likely be deeply personal, given the track record of fabrication amongst the trolls, it would be certain that the personal information would be their version of the story and not the true version.
Please make sure that your personal information is kept safe and at a distance from the internet, these people know no boundaries and will go out of their way to make your life as unpleasant as they can. This blog uses the 'blogspot' platform by Google.
As such your privacy is far more assured here because Google does not allow IP addresses to be tracked and there is no need to enter your email address, you can post as many do, anonymously or use a pseudonym.
Other blogs use a WordPress platform in the main and that platform can allow the collection of personal data via a range of plugins. This is not to say that all WordPress blogs are a problem, it is just the ones who have known resident trolls.
Almost missed the BOOK update!
ReplyDeleteThe book is well underway and on target for a mid December release. The research effort has been constant and apart from the new material I had at the outset there's even more now.
Something for everyone? Could be, even a discovery related to the letter 'A's much touted by another blogger.
It's fair to say that the mystery has deepened and there are more leads to yet to follow, there is still a deal of uncertainty as to whether the name of the Somerton Man will ever be known but what he was doing? Well, that's a different story!
Please call by again, there'll be another update in 4 weeks time.