Welcome back to this experimental format for Carnival of the Capitalists. If you missed Part 1, click here for a series of great posts from around the Blogosphere.
I broke with tradition somewhat and posted this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists in two parts. My reasoning was that with more than 50 posts, I suspect that the current format of a huge dollop on Monday leads to reader fatigue. In fact, I know this to be true as a post listed in the first 10 or so entries attracts many more readers than a subsequent one.
By the time you read this, the verdict from you readers will be in and we can see if this is a format worth repeating. I will also do a round up of comments in an “update” section at the bottom of this post.
Part 2
In Part 1 of this weekís Carnival I featured a post by Mover Mike taking a ìprofessionalî journalist to task. Tim Worstall goes one better by launching an Economic Idiot Award to ìjournalist or commentator who has shown themselves to be absurdly under-educated in the field of economics while still feeling competent to pronounce upon itî. Hmm, Tim, you donít mince your words do you? Find out who is the first lucky winner ñ surprisingly enough at the Press Association!
Anyone who has a remotely popular blog will know at first hand the evils of the blog spammer. These are the fiends who promote their nefarious websites by leaving urlís in the comment sections of blogs. The idea is that search engines are fooled into giving their sites higher rankings. The poor blogger meanwhile has to manually remove all this dross, which can be pretty time consuming. Blog Business World looks at the whole issue, including some very effective preventative steps you can take. But the main point is that bloggers mustnít give up allowing comments as a conversation is at the heart of the best blogs.
Having said that, Gizmodo, Boing Boing and Sun CEOís Jonathan Schwartzís blog all donít have comments and theyíre doing pretty well, thank you very much, so itís not mandatory. But I agree with Wayne that most blogs can only get even better with comments enabled.
Ripples continues this theme about blogs being conversations, comparing blogging with the human experience of fire, in an interesting and thought provoking essay. Like fire, open communication can be dangerous as well as revolutionary.
My own contribution this week is about Nokiaís new keyboard for their phones. ìSo what?î you may be thinking. Well, itís the start of a new and revolutionary new trend as our mobile phones replace our PCís as our primary digital device. This coincides with a move to web services as opposed to on-device software. The PC is dead, long live the mobile phone!
By the way, various opponents of the two phase Carnival have suggested that I put the best entries in the first edition. Obviously this isnít the case, as I even left mine to the last one 
On the theme of new trends, K. Todd Storch has been looking at Podcasting ñ recording audio and making it available for download as an MP3. Itís blogging’s close cousin and looks like itís going to be big. Carnival of the Podcasts, perhaps?
The Raw Prawn has a really interesting marketing post about Toyotaís innovative and successful strategies behind the Scion car brand. Targeting twenty-somethings, itís been experimenting with ideas like launching its own not-for-profit music label.
Part 1 also looked at better working practices and this is a theme continued with Steve Pavlinaís excellent tips on how to do better email. As I currently have about 750 unread emails from my holiday, I can really relate to this one!
New Millennium Minds has also been looking at email ñ this time choosing an email service provider.
Christopher Bailey at The Alchemy of Soulful Work looks at one of his readerís ideas for Buddha’s Four Noble Truths on Job Hunting. Think career, rather than job. A nice post and a nice blog from a new contributor to CotC (Iím pretty sure) so check it out.
From soul to sexÖsex sells, so weíre told. And the Retail Store Blog looks at the phenomenon of using sexy baby boomer models ñ ie people who are 50 or more. And yes, 50 year olds can definitely look sexy as the post illustrates.
Still on the ìsî word, Sand Hill proposes that software needs to be sexed up in 2005. Blogging could be an important part of the marketing strategy, but what else can be done to make your brand stand out from the crowd?
TJ Jacobi has been looking at entrepreneurship both Globally and in Germany, including the fact that Germans are terrified that their venture could go the wrong way, with only Greeks, French and the Israelis more worried about this!
Moving to Politics, Gongol lays into socialism with an unequivocal ìWe risk most our own well-being whenever we grant socialism undeserved credibility.î. Ouch. But I guess this carnival is all about capitalism.
Like many people with a pension plan, I look glumly at my end of year statements and wonder why I bother investing when my capital seems to decline every year. Of course, professionals mouth the tired phrase that ìyou have to look at the long termî. Conveniently, if I wait until Iím 65 or so to take this view, these same professionals will have retired and be well out of the scene. The Big Picture looks at this long term investing scenario with some rather sobering results.
But it would have been far worse if youíd been an employee of certain telecom companies and exercised Incentive Stock Options, according to Roth & Co. We havenít heard the last of this scandal, thatís certain.
Another potential scandal is covered by Sanity Check. Public companies are required to disclose all material risks. But they donít disclose the huge contingent liabilities from the fail to delivers and the margin shares loaned out to short sellers. This could be the next big class action suit to hit corporate America.
Meanwhile, Political Calculations has been looking at Personal Retirement Accounts (PRAs) as an investment vehicle for US residents. Most retirees today would have been better off, but read the full post as itís pretty comprehensive.
An alternative strategy would perhaps be looking at investing in the Chinese market as followers of the China Stock Blog will no doubt be doing.
Staying on the investing track, the Internet Stock Blog looks at the implications of the email war between behemoths Yahoo! and Google and the effect on the other big players. No easy answers, but lots of thoughtful questions. Sister site Media Stock Blog looks at current issues facing Hollywood Entertainment.
Can Capitalism be wrong? asks The Golden Gate. Well, yes if itís applied to the housing market of San Francisco.
Meanwhile, Steve Verdonís been writing about the US Healthcare system. Specifically, heís been questioning the claims that socialized medicine is quite all itís cracked up to be.
JS Logan has been exploring the topic of testimonials in business and it seems no matter how many times that weíre told how important they are, we still donít use them properly. I can certainly vouch for their effectiveness at first hand ñ read the post and try his recommendations. It works.
Staying with the international theme, Interim Thoughts looks at a housing boom in Bangalore, India and asks if it has all the hallmarks of a bubble. Watch that space.
And finallyÖon a lighter note, WordLab has been blogging about ShitBeGone toilet tissue. Their business blog errrÖ. stinks apparently or as Abnu writes is ìreally a piece of shitî.
UPDATE: If the debate on having two editions of the Carnival of the Capitalists doesnít interest you, read no further. But if you are interested, hereís some analysis on the experiment.
I estimate that about 4,000 people read the first post. Of these the overwhelming majority didnít seem to care one way or the other ñ or certainly not enough to leave a comment.
Iíve had a total of about 12 people commenting. One was very positive and the rest pretty much or very much against it. However, the ones who felt most strongly about this subject were all contributing bloggers who werenít included in the first edition and seemed to feel slighted in some way. There is no truth that I put the best posts in the first edition as you can read for yourself ñ I worked pretty hard to get the right balance. I also ensured that posts in this second edition werenít especially ìperishableî or topical.
You can read most of the comments yourself and make up your own mind, but the main argument for not splitting the Carnival seems to me to be summarised as that we havenít ever done it before.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that if no one ever tried anything new, the world would be a pretty dull sort of place. And I thought that bloggers generally would be the very sort of people who would welcome change, bearing in mind that they’re very much at the forefront of changing the way the world communicates.
Besides which, I ran this experiment with the reader in mind ñ contributing bloggers, in my opinion, are only a secondary consideration. If the reader isnít being served, they wonít come back, which will be the end of the Carnival.
So, letís carry on this debate. If splitting the Carnival isnít the answer, but reader-fatigue is (I think weíre agreed on this), what else could be done?
Iím sure Jay and Rob would welcome any new ideas before the Carnival becomes unmanageable ñ and that would be a great shame for all of us who care passionately about it.
So please leave a comment or drop me an email Russell AT mobhappy DOT com.
Thanks for reading.
Russell
(Breathes sigh of relief and ducks behind a convenient fire wall, wondering why 10 hours of work on this and motivated purely by a desire to help could lead to such vitriol.)
I fall into the ‘mildly annoyed by the split’ category; I already get literally hundreds of emails a day. Yes, yes: filters and so forth. I do that. But splitting CotC in two means I’m slightly less likely to get to the second half, simply because I have other things to do.
Warren,
You may be ducking behind that firewall, but I hope you peek up over it to read this. To summarize: your experiment has failed, badly in a business sense, because it missed the most important aspects of the relationships that make it possible to successfully execute the Carnival.
Now, I’ll put my pitchfork down to offer some other constructive suggestions - many of which I learned long ago in my now distant days as an editor….
First, it’s not the number of contributors or reader fatigue that’s really at issue. The Carnival could be two or three its current size, and not be negatively impacted or even be unmanagable. What is important, with regard to these perceived issues, is making it easy for the customer (the casual reader) to navigate their way through the contributions to find content of interest - and that’s the job of each week’s host (aka “the editor.”) The best way to do this is to organize the content into logical groupings, with in-page anchors allowing the reader to move quickly from the top of the post to the grouping containing their items of interest below.
The second thing the host needs to do is to double-link the content they find most compelling at the end of the post, while mentioning that they’ve done so at the beginning. This is your editorial opinion of the best contributions of the week, and by *not linking* through in-page anchors to your “best-of” list, you are encouraging the reader to scroll past all the other contributions, thereby compelling them to see what else is there, and letting them pick items of potential interest they might otherwise miss.
The third thing I’ll mention is editorial comment. While every post may be deserving of extended review, when you have a lot of them, it’s best to keep it short. Your best commentary belongs with the posts you consider the best of the week. Also, humor helps.
Finally, go back and make sure you study Brian Gongol’s post on why the whole thing should be kept together - I can’t say it better.
Warren,
When I say to “read this,” I mean:
http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2005/03/cotc-part-2-of-2.html
the link for which didn’t survive the technology behind your comments….
Ironman
Thanks for the comments - the name is Russell, by the way.
I’m still intrigued as to why most of the comments on this came from bloggers who were in the second edition…
What do the real readers think?
I like some of your ideas, but I’d also point out that it took me 10 hours to do the editing this week. Your ideas might be great for a full time, professional editor, but I don’t think have much practical application in the real world.
The time consuming nature is compounded by the limited time an editor has. Most entries arrive at the last minute and we need to get them up within about 12 - 18 hours (depending on time zones).
I think we should focus on quality, if we don’t want to split posts, and just feature the best 10 or 15. But from my experience, there’ll be continued howls and gnashing of teeth from people who didn’t get in.
Oh well. I’m glad it’s someone else’s decision..
Russell
Hello,
As a reader, since Russell seems to think that only reader opinions count, I prefer that the COTC be one single weekly posting. If I am interested in the COTC, which personally I am, reading the reviews requires me to visit a webpage that I probably would otherwise not visit, having to do it twice in one week is a nuisance.
Aloha Russell,
You seem sincere in wanting some feedback for future hosts of CotC, and so although I am another blogger and not the non-blogging reader you prefer to comment, I would like to add my thoughts in that regard. Iíve participated in CotC in the past but was not able to this week, so perhaps you can consider me a reader too?
1. Iíve never hosted it, and I can empathize with the amount of work it must entail: perhaps the submission deadline should be earlier.
2. On the other hand, Iíve often wondered why some hosts donít use the summaries we submit instead of having to rewrite the entire entry: youíd think that would save them some time, time they could use to editorialize in other more creative ways if they wish to.
3. I do feel that the host should specifically use the blog authorís name and/or blog name within the post, and just not link their chosen description of the article. Readers will make their decision to click in based on name recognition as well as subject matter, and I feel very badly for authors who are denied that opportunity.
4. There are voices here more qualified than mine as to the advantage of first appearance and alphabetization, so perhaps thatís where the host can be more creative as well: mix it up. There is such a wide diversity of subject matter normally covered in the Carnival that the categories are great, and they can be mixed up too.
5. I vote for the all at once, and on the day expected. Being creative and having an editorial flair is wonderful, however the customers (bloggers, blogger-readers, and readers alike) of this CotC have a long-standing expectation that should be honored. If they are reading blogs and the Carnival at all, theyíre probably more savvy about bookmarking etc than some would give them credit for: they can and will come back if theyíre interested.
6. People arenít great with surprises, and that may be the biggest lesson here. When I prepare a submission for CotC Iíll always visit the hosting blog the week before to check if theyíve posted any heads up for us, and to ìmeetî the host when itís a blog Iím not familiar with. If you want to try a new idea (and I agree with you, the world would be quite boring without them), take advantage of that advance scouting traffic and ask for feedback.
In the interest of full disclosure, on Monday I commented on your decision on my own blog, because you gave me the perfect opportunity to share a real-time Reinvention case study with my own readers. Unfortunately, I could not send you a trackback. Hereís the link if you care to read it.
http://rosasay.typepad.com/talkingstory/2005/03/reinvention_tra.html
A last idea for anyone interested in using it: I park the current CotC link on my blogroll now, updating it each Monday as a service to readers who donít bookmark. Theyíve told me they appreciate it.
Mahalo (thank you) for the comment space Russell, Iíll be very interested to see what you do if you decide to host the Carnival for a third time.
Me ke aloha, Rosa Say
My personal vote (if it counts) goes for the split.
Carnivals generally last for a week, but I am content with two days.
Here is my positive spin on the issue:
1. your blog traffic shoots up by 4000 high quality Carnival readers two times a week.
2. You get more time on the weekend to spend with your family :-).
Russell:
Don’t let the negative comments get to you. I think everyone who commented respects that you decided to try a new idea, even if they don’t like the idea itself. And I hope this experience doesn’t discourage other people from trying new ideas with the CotC (though advance warning/discussion is nice).
I like Jay’s idea of having a category drop-down in the submission form, to make categorizing easier for the host.
Another possibility would be encouraging people to write succinct 1-2 sentence descriptions of their posts, ready to just be copied and pasted. I’m sure the form could even enforce a character limit, if that’s what people wanted.
Currently the official deadline for submissions is noon saturday, but that’s neither widely-known nor enforced. I think it would be good to raise awareness about this deadline, and maybe even enforce it, having submissions made after that roll over to the next CotC. I wrote the post I submitted for this week’s carnival last sunday, but for this reason I withheld sending it until after last week’s carnival had been posted.
Thanks everyone for the comments - keep them coming!
Rosa - I love your ability to criticize without getting personal. Thanks for the feedback - I think you have much to teach us all.
I would say, however, that a lot of my motivation for doing it this way is to provoke a reaction and start a debate. And you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs
Having said that, I wasn’t prepared for the strength of feeling I seem to have stirred up, albeit from a tiny, tiny minority of people. About 8,000 people seem to have read both posts (this does include some/a lot of double counting) and less than 20 have commented.
Of these 20, most have been bloggers in the second edition - and none at all in the first . Hmmm.
For the record, I now have the stats and the readership of the second post is within a gnat’s whisker of the first. In other words, about 10 fewer people have read it and readers are still coming.
Anyway, despite the flak and some pretty personal attacks, I would certainly love to host again, if my fellow bloggers and Jay/Rob allow.
Adam - some good suggestions. Actually, most people do write a summary, by the way. But you still have to read the post and by then, it’s just too tempting to put it in your own words
Strict enforcement of the deadline would certainly help though.
Cheers
Russell
Russell,
Apologies for the name confusion!
I think I can answer your question as to why most of the complaints have come from the “second edition” bloggers. Many of us have only seen a fraction of the traffic that we normally would through the Carnival. Although you may have noted between 4,000 and 8,000 unique visitors, that hasn’t translated into an equivalent number of unique visitors at our sites. Given what I’ve seen in my server logs, I’ve had more visitors link to my site through my comments to this post than through my contribution to the Carnival (by about 3 to 1).
Something to think about anyway….
Ironman
That’s very curious. Why would my traffic be the same on both days and yours suffer?
I wonder if other bloggers in the second post got the same results?
By the way though, most comments came before the second post went up, so the second edition bloggers couldn’t possibly have judged the effect at that point.
Russell/Warren
Not a blogger but a sometimes commentator and an always reader.
Sometimes I read lots of links listed and other times I find none of interest.
Take note Ironman, it could be the editorial comment or your content that kept readers away this time.
I start my reading on Sunday night. If the COTC is posted I work on the links if not I read some of the posts by the host.
I come back as often as necessary to complete the articles which intrest me.
So bottom line, I go for the all at once concept. Let me come back when I want to not when you decide.
If you were selling something you wouldn’t make it harder for the buyer to access product.
This is a wonderful service provided by voluntary hosts so I keep reading regardless of differing editorial presentations.
Hello, I’m Bettye, the interesting article contained the information I was searching for, Thanks