Tristan Ewins: "I've noticed that there's very little traffic going on in OLO comments today... Are there still lots of readers out there?"

I suspect there is. An article about something most people agree with doesn't seem to attract much in the way of comments. After all what can you say but "I Agree"?

If you want comments you have to personally insult some part of the readership. They will then call you an idiot. Others who agree with you will then call them idiots. Soon enough it will be on for young and old, and everybody will be having fun.

But an article saying we need more public transport? Who is going to disagree with that? You could of at least added a through away line mothers in 4WD's putting everyone else's kids in danger in the school car park, or perhaps parents being too paranoid nowadays to let the kids ride to school like they used to, or even how the average Australian's selfish insistence having their own 1/4 acre block makes public transport impractical.

Well, at least someone's still got a sense of humour. :-)

Tristan I think people are moving away from Online Opinion. I haven't figured out where they have moved to, although you could try
candobetter.org
roadtosurfdom
abc.net.au/unleashed
huffington post
I don't read articles about topics that don't interest me and always put my tuppen' worth on topics close to my heart even though I know the debate [sic] will be monopolised by the same old trolls.

Dear Billie;

I'd be interested in knowing whether or not this is true. (ie: that the OLO audience is 'moving away'. I know a couple of months there was a great controversy over an article which tried to rebut the climate change arguments... And that Clive Hamilton urged progressives to stop reading the journal.

That said - I think OLO had great potential - to fulfil a liberal pluralist and participatory mission. And I also remain thankful that for years OLO has given me an opportunity to be published - whereas many others - I feel - have treated me unfairly.

I don't read OLO every day - so there are other people who are better at judging than me...

But if people think that OLO has become unbalanced in its representation of radical, centrist, conservative or liberal ideas (and so on) - then I encourage such people to ensure their voices are heard... (rebutting trolls, submitting articles etc)

re:the websites you mention...I've heard of roadtosurfdom& unleashed... I submitted work to Unleased a while ago - so far no response... Also a limit of 1,000 words - which is difficult - but which could prepareme to be a columnist if ever the opportunity arises. (so long as I don't have to compromise my values)

I'll check all these out - but I hope that the progressive audience comes back to OLO - because its potential as a truly broad and inclusive forum of exchange - is important.

I don't think OLO is 'finished' really - after all it had such a large audience - and i'm not convinced this has totally evaporated.

But I think progressives should involve themselves to ensure they are included.

And I'd liek to see some research on OLO's readership base-numbers, political orientatione etc...

Please don't give up partcipating - your responses make me feel me effort is worthwhile.

take care, most sincerely,

Tristan

Tristan I think people are moving away from Online Opinion. I haven't figured out where they have moved to, although you could try
candobetter.org
roadtosurfdom
abc.net.au/unleashed
huffington post

I saw an brief article recently on a motor vehicle insurance cover which is kilometer based rather than time based.

You buy insurance from them to cover a certain distance rather than a period of time. That type of pricing has to help make public transport more appealing whilst reducing the cost of ownership for the trips we do need to make. Bring in the same for registration.

I assume that there is a fixed component and a per k component.

Renewal notices might be difficult.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the article.

R0bert

Hi Tristan,

I'm a relatively new user of this forum - and I really enjoyed your article and agree with it!

My only criticism is with your article is your citation of Wikipedia. Now I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia - however, I would never really on its statistics. Personally, I believe you should use the Wikipedia article as a starting point to find more reputable data sources. (Then again I'm pretty anal about referencing and citations as a researcher!)

thanks,
Sandeep