The South African Blogosphere FAQ
Posted on October 2nd, 2007 by Richard Catto 3,059 views
What is this thing that people call the South African blogosphere?
It’s a collection of (mostly) South African web sites that have installed upon them blogging software.
What is blogging software?
Blogging software is the upgrade to classic web sites.
A classic web site contained mostly html and image files which mostly displayed as static (unchanging) web pages. The ability to interact with a clasic web site was, for the most part, very limited. There was no software behind the site which managed it as a whole and had built-in features that engaged visitors. Updating the site involved changes being made offline to html (and other) files and then uploaded via FTP. FTP remains an arcane and elusive protocol to master by many internet users today who find it beyond them technically.
Blogging software replaces that old model with something that is more accessible, especially to those who are not technically inclined. It allows a person to update their blog via a web based editor.
WordPress is one of the most popular blog software packages that is used by many South African bloggers. WordPress calls itself a personal publishing platform. Simply put, it affords almost anyone the ability to get their stories published online, without having to worry about a myriad technical details.
Where do I find the South African blogosphere?
Blogging software is designed to interact with various blog indexes to update them whenever anything new is published on them. This is something that classic web sites did not do – one needed to manually add them to search engines, and even then, there was no way for search engines to know when a site had been updated and needed reindexing.
Blogs are programmed to tell a whole bunch of, mostly American, blog indexes (including google) when they have been updated. If you are a South African blogger who mostly desires a local audience, then you need to add your blog(s) to the South African blog indexes, which are amatomu.com and afrigator.com. Instructions, which tell you how to do that, are found on both of them.
Both of those South African blog indexes display a list of South African blog sites known to them in order of popularity, as well as a list of the most recent blog posts. By browsing the list of recent posts, you will be able to pick out articles that interest you. You can also browse by category and do keyword searches.
There are two other South African blog related sites that you should be aware of – muti.co.za and sablogger.co.za. Those two are not blog indexes, instead they are social networking sites to which people can submit stories that they find interesting. Many of the submitted articles are from blogs, but not all. One can browse those sites to find out what other South Africans found to be interesting content.
What is the South African Blogosphere about?
Anything and everything really.
It’s a very interesting diversion from reading the mainstream media web sites, that most South Africans spend almost all their time online browsing.
You will read a diverse selection of opinions and monologues, some that will resonate with your own beliefs, others that may make you want to punch your monitor out, and still others that will just bore the life out of you.
Along the way, you will discover interesting people that will engage you and cause you to think about what you think you know and believe and hold dear. You will discover new things, new people, fresh ideas. You will grow.
Most bloggers desire to interact with their visitors via comments left in response to their articles. If you have an opinion about what was written, you should submit your comment. You will soon discover that it can be a lot of fun and that it can lead to new exciting friendships with people you might ordinarily never have come across.
What should I watch out for in the South African Blogosphere?
The usual suspects – disinformation, slander, general unfounded nonsense masquerading as fact, vociferous arguments about nothing, bad people.
Bloggers are often referred to now as citizen journalists. Being a journalist implies having a responsibility to report things accurately. Journalists still make mistakes. Bloggers, however, have no responsibility at all to report factually. They can make up anything they like, so take care about what you choose to believe. Many bloggers, including myself, will cite sources at the end of, or in the body of their articles so that the reader can see for themselves where they got their information.
Not all bloggers take care to meticulously research their articles before they write them. They may authoritatively state utter nonsense, and you may be inclined to take what they write at face value. It’s general laziness – laziness on the part of the writer and laziness on the part of the reader. Truth does not simply fall out of a tree like a ripe apple – it must be searched for. Remember that at all times. 
How do I become a blogger and join the South African Blogosphere?
The best type of blog to have is one at your own domain, typically a co.za domain. You will need to have your domain registered and hosted and blogging software deployed on your server space.
I do recommend that you register a domain in one of the .za domain namespaces if you intend blogging primarily for a South African audience. I recommend WordPress to power your blog, and I recommend that you host it on a Linux platform, not Windows.
There is more to do and an expense associated with this option. It is also the most flexible and any and all advertising revenue that you manage to derive from your blog is yours to keep.
If you prefer to start off with a free blogging option, then I suggest you register with either iblog.co.za or wordpress.com. iBlog.co.za uses the WordPress blogging platform too.
If you would like any advice in this regard, leave a comment and I will endeavour to give you useful answers.
Tags: afrigator, amatomu, Digg, iBlog, muti, reddit, sablogger, South African Blogosphere, StumbleUpon, WordPress
Filed under South African Blogosphere | 3 Comments »
Did the Sunday Times make up it’s story about SA male prostitute?
Posted on May 28th, 2007 by Richard Catto 4,191 views
Yesterday, the Sunday Times published an article about sa male prostitute, wherein they claim to have had email contact with him.
They apparently initiated contact by posting a comment in his blog and received a reply by email. He allegedly calls himself Skye, is 30 years old and is living in Australia with his girlfriend.
Thing is, there’s no comment in his blog by the Sunday Times. Although comment moderation is turned on, he has already approved two comments, both of low quality. Comments by myself and another blogger, Johan Swarts, have not been approved (yet). It seems to me that a comment by the Sunday Times would be approved merely for the status value of having a major South African newspaper comment in your blog.
According to the Sunday Times, Skye says he has received only two emails so far. One from the Independent Democrats, threatening him with investigation by the Scorpions and another allegedly from one of the people he blogged about.
SA male prostitute publishes a contact email address on his blog. I sent an email to it on Friday evening (May 25 2007) and got a bounce back. The email address does not exist. The yahoo address he published ends in co.uk. I changed it to .com and that email did not bounce, indicating that it does exist. The yahoo ID was created on the same day as he made his first blog entry, so I am reasonably confident that my second email was sent to the correct person, yet Skye says he only received two emails, neither from me.
Skye, apparently, according to the Sunday Times, doesn’t know about all the fuss around his blog. However, he has been using his WordPress.com blog account and the WordPress dashboard would show him all the incoming links from all the many bloggers that are now linking to him. When bloggers see a new incoming link, curiosity compells us to go look at what they are saying about us.
Was Skye playing dumb? Or did the Sunday Times invent the whole story?
One last thing – if the Sunday Times is indeed in possession of emails from Skye, and they originated from yahoo, then they may also have his real IP address which would allow Skye to be traced. Supposedly, the police are investigating this matter, even though no crime seems to have been committed. Are the police, who are apparently investigating a civil case, now going to demand that the Sunday Times provide them with the emails they received from Skye?
When can the public expect to hear a straight story from the Media on this whole charade?
Tags: hoax, Independent Democrats, lying swine, Patricia de Lille, sa male prostitute, Simon Grindrod, Skye, South African Blogosphere, Sunday Times
Filed under South African Blogosphere | 13 Comments »
