Monday, March 11, 2013

A New Godless World

Welcome to the latest incarnation of Godless Gross. The apron strings have been cut.The umbilical cord has been severed. Godless Gross has been cut loose from its founding parent – the National Times of Fairfax Media.
This is a shame as the blog’s audience will plummet from tens of thousands flooding in per week to a tiny trickle.  But everything starts small.  When Godless Gross commenced, it attracted a small and dedicated band of readers where barely any comments were made. It finished last week, on anecdotal assessment, the most commented on blog in the country.  Fifty thousand comments have been received and mostly published.  In its popular periods, it would average almost 500 comments per week, far beyond even the most rabid and popular of bloggers.  It seems that transcendence and death, ritual and sin are still turnstile turners.  But the problem is that many in the leadership of the media world have a younger focus. They don’t get higher order, existential issues as salient, front mind topics. 
The end has been coming slowly. First, promotion of the blog in The Age and SMH declined.  Then there were the disagreements over moderation. I was a more accommodating moderator than others on the site. Many comments I would have let through were cut off at the knees by others moderating the site. Then the blog went to fortnightly from weekly. This meant that immediacy and currency were lost.  So I felt that notwithstanding the success of the blog at the National Times, its days were numbered there.
Of course the good thing is that independence bequeaths control.  I have often yearned for a blog where I could rap out a quick report on some dastardly religious atrocity. I have craved the ability to enter a debate with a few lines my own drivel.  So the future is flexible even if less well read.  There will be no editor correcting my many errors and tasteless observations.  Life without the safety net of corporate protocols and editors will be more fraught. This will add to the tension.
Anyway, this is the first of a hopefully fruitful and entertaining blog. I start on the Papal battle tomorrow.
See youse in the blogosphere.

Dick 

21 comments:

  1. Great to see you're still blogging on Dick!

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  2. Thanks Alan. It will be a different experience from Fairfax.
    The Dickster

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  3. Hiya Dickster,
    I look forward to the new era of Godless Gross. Let the games begin.:)

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    1. And let the poems flow...I am thinking that we might be able to construct a Poets' Corner on the blog. Time will tell.

      Thanks for your support.

      The Dickster

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  4. Anonymous12:32 AM

    Hey Dickie,

    Can't wait to read your new blog at your new location. Location. Location. Location. Blogging is like real estate really isn't it? x

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    1. Yes, the location at the National Times was very advantageous. I observed the massive growth of the readership as GG was there at the start. It was like watching a revolution as it happened. The numbers started to go through the roof of both commentators and readers of the NT. People say that Fairfax have buggered up their digital strategy but the truth is that they have got some stuff right. The online presence was a success in readership terms but perhaps less so in financial terms. This was a problem for a company that lost the rivers of classified gold through its own incompetence through the nineties and the noughties. Some of Oz's great corporate heroes such as Hilmer, Gonski and Walker presided over that fiasco and yet have emerged with their reputations unscathed. But I digress. The National Times was a great address to be camped at and I hope to return this blog to it or some other august online presence.
      Dickie

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  5. It Lives!

    Huzzah. I wonder if I will be able to access through the work Firewall of Death? Or will I have to contribute like normal people with jobs? That's your 'problem of evil' right there.

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    1. Normality is vstly over rated...go hack that firewall.

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  6. ogham2:01 AM

    Hey Dickster
    I like what you've done to the place. The curtains are a bit Gaudi, but then, they do match your shirt.

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    1. Oh Great and Powerful Og,
      I think that the blog's curtains are truly repulsive too. But the freedom to post up everything is great. The design, whilst confronting and with a bit too much of the facial features of yours truly, is questionable. Perhaps it might be unfolding story (curtain pun).

      BTW Oh Great and Powerful Og, I see you are starring in a current movie at the moment. Word on the street is that movie is over long and dull. Sorry about that. The movie is in stark contrast to your blog comments. I hope the reviews are not too debilitating.

      Hugs etc,

      The Dickster

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    2. ogham4:39 PM

      Now don't you go changin' Dick!
      Yes, the movie, I lost artistic control to the moguls, i't seems my suggestion of more action and sex scenes was too formulaic, and whilst I applaud the attempts at realism, I think they are regretting their decision. But when alls said and done, as a biography, "long and dull" is pretty much on the money. I did offer my thespian services, but having seen the HD out-takes, I realise I don't do close-ups any more. Maybe the stage with lots of make-up will prolong my acting career, seems to work for some I know ;)

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    3. Dear Oh Great and Powerful Og,

      I have not seen your movie but am only going on the deplorable reviews you sadly received. And I agree, close ups can be upsetting. I have been having a bit of a crisis after going through my holiday snaps.

      Dickster

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  7. Hi Dick

    Great to see you're up and running! With all the hoopla going on about "the vote" and chaps in nice frocks, spangly scarfs and red shoes, I've started thinking more about the rituals we see in that organisation and I wonder where it all came from and why do people think it's so important. Did Jesus gad about in gold embroidered robes and lacey numbers? Why do these chaps do it? What does it mean? And what would Jesus think of all this finery? Wasn't the bloke against this type of thing? I remain as confused as ever, but looking forward to the robust conversations of old and not the watered down (or completely washed away) posts we saw in the last 12 months at the previous home of your blog.

    Good luck Dick!

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    1. Dearest Kate,

      I am about to blog on this very topic!! Great minds etc. It is to be posted in a few minutes. Look I will miss the National Times for its prominence and credibility. But I love the freedom I now have to post when and on what I like and to see all of the comments make it to the site. It could be a blessing...
      Dick

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  8. It's good to see that your interesting viewpoint on these topics will continue to be written, Dick.

    And I might actually read the comments now, since I can reply without doing another pita signup.

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    1. thanks tthsk (although that sounds like a tautology). Dick

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  9. Martin C8:40 AM

    I do think they've rather missed a trick here in making it all secret. They should have the whole thing out in the open with television cameras on every nuance of every cardinal voting. The votes of each cardinal should be public, and telecast live, and with continuous play-by-play commentary. They could have Catholics (heck there's an ex-Pope available for the inside scoop) and non-Catholics commenting, and a ticker-tape of tweets along the bottom.

    You could have a Fantasy League where viewers try to predict which cardinals will swing their votes behind alternate prospects as the ebb and flow of popularity swings to or away from their most-desired candidate. See the anguish on a cardinal's face as he attempts to decide whether his own chances are a cooked goose, and whether it is time to throw his support behind an alternate candidate to "at least make sure that dickhead Pell doesn't get it!"

    And above all, betting. Betting, betting, betting. Constant live odds updates. Heck, get the Asian and Indian punters interested and a mere 5% Vatican rake-off could probably fund all the pedophilia cover-up court judgements from here on!

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  10. Martin C9:21 AM

    lol, off to a fine start on the new blog ... with a grand choice of TWO pages to attach my post to, I picked the wrong one. Sorry, will attach to right one.

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  11. Hello Dick,
    Atheism has declined as a fad.

    The fad commenced with the writings of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, etc, and was fuelled by the ensuing rumpus from main-stream Christianity.
    In Australia it reached a peak with the 2010 Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne. And it was given another boost by the repeat performance of the 2012 Global Atheist Convention. But since then the fad has waned.

    Nevertheless, the main-stream Churches are still bleeding adherents. The youth are attracted to the charismatic churches, prosperity cults, New Age gurus and Nature Worship.

    Atheism is no longer in fashion. Yet, despite the fad waning, Atheism still attracts a steady flow of new members.

    Regards,
    David Miller

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  12. Dick this site doesn't work with all browsers

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