I have been editing Bogpaper.com since July now and have been trying hard to get the best quality content we possibly can for you, our beloved readers. At the moment I have been trying to achieve this through looking at all of the Fancy analytical bits and bobs that the site provides us with but I don’t believe that that can ever give us a full picture. Which is why dear reader I turn to you…
I would like to know what we here at Bogpaper Towers can do improve the service that we offer you. What is it that you would like to see added, improved upon or even taken away.
Some suggestions that we have been floating around the Tower include adding more crowdsourced content, more competitions and perhaps even a forum to allow you to debate in full, with each other and our contributors, the issues that effect and interest you.
So tell us below what it is that you would like to see and we will do what we can to make it so.
Bogpaper.com 
I enjoy some of the articles. Commenting is easy and spreading any article around is easy. I don’t see what needs to be added.
I wonder if you can increase the number of replies on any comments thread. At the moment it is only two. This makes tracking a conversation between two people more difficult.
Eg.
First reply.
Second reply. Now I should find that I can’t reply to this comment and other people can’t either.
(I need to post this to check this is the case)
Anthem wrote:
“I couldn’t respond directly to your excellent comment up there (think Bogpaper admin needs to adjust their discussion settings in WordPress… Settings > Discussion > enable threaded (nested) comments x levels deep).”
It seems like this is the way to enable this.
I wonder if Bogpaper can make Bogpaper podcasts?
One of your authors, James Delingpole, already does this, working with Ricochet.com
The other thing I notice about Bogpaper, is that there are no adverts. So I guess that means that there is no revenue to the site, so I don’t understand how it pays its bills.
Maybe you could consider adverts as a way of funding content / new content.
Merchandise?
T-shirts, hats, mugs, that sort of thing.
Don’t know if there is enough demand for it at the moment though.
Bogpaper shurely?
Or branded kitchen roll?
Oh yes! I would pay good money to stock my loo with Bogpaper bogpaper, maybe they could have wise libertarian quotes on each sheet!
Am I right in thinking that Bogpaper is mainly a UK site? If that’s the case, then international expansion might be a possibility.
For example, if you could find an author to write about US or Canadian items.
Then you could look to increase the reader base accordingly.
Employ dr… he/she’s like a whirlwind of great ideas! 🙂
To be honest, another website that I read a lot, (its not political) went through an exercise like this a couple of months ago. So I had a think about things back then. Also other users did too.
That website settled on accepting donations, because they wanted their main author to be able to spend more time on the website content, and so needed to fund that person to be able to cut their hours at work.
Thanks Anthem, for saying that you like the ideas.
You could also consider changing the background. The bit that is currently a montage / collage of dollar bills (maybe hundred dollar bills).
I think that this has been the same since the website started, so now might be a time to make a change and freshen things up a bit.
Personally, I like the background – I think it is timeless and classy.
Just as in all other fields of endeavour– in blogging, it’s all about the “Benjamins.” (Hundred-dollars, aka “C-notes”)
May I suggest you re-think the name of the blog, to attract more, shall we say, discerning readers. Even ‘blogpaper’ would be an improvement. And the strapline under the blog’s name is both inaccurate and a turn-off.
The content is generally worthwhile though. Keep it up.
I like the name too …
Roderick
I agree with all of that.
Roderick,
I think you are right. The name as it currently is, keeps the website for a niche audience, but will deter some readers from visiting, or if they do visit, staying for long.
The strapline, I think, was based around coping with Hyperinflation, but the blog now, seems to be much more political and less economic, so I’m not sure that it fits so well anymore.
“…perhaps even a forum to allow you to debate in full, with each other and our contributors, the issues that effect and interest you…..”
That would work for me.
Maybe you should also consider a name change. No one is going to take the site that seriously with its current title.
What is the Latin for bogpaper ?>
To ‘improve’ there has to be a well defined purpose to Bogpaper. (At the moment it is a sort of unrestrained chat room to debate liberalism ?). the name Bogpaper is funny to begin with but like all jokes it wears off and may become a liability if the purpose is serious.
GWPF is a good model with clear purpose; design and categories of discussion.
I would like Bogpaper to to be the GWPF of making people aware of the consequences of the nanny state.
Seen the news this morning ? Euro (bog)-standard loo flush; next up the amount and type of bogpaper permitted for a range of ‘purposes’ to be explicitly defined.
Get rid of that Delingpole charlatan!!!
I came to Bogpaper because I like Dellers’s writing. I’ve not regretted it either: I find all of the site’s authors entertaining.
Also I like to have my bigotries reinforced, though whether yours match my anti-left, anti-humbug ones, only you can know.
Great work BP, I’m happy as it is but finding a North American and Ozzy blogger would be good for 24 hour action!
Not for me: Delingpole is a positive draw.
Use Disqus for the comments, put a couple of Podcasts together and perhaps more polls (and archive the results of those polls – I like polls. I like Poles too). Mostly, just keep up the good work.
Agreed – definitely more polls!
Embedding humour makes it tricky for an international audience to understand (but much more entertaining for Brits)
1. Get rid of that rjmackin charlatan
2. Get some right of centre heavyweights to write for you on a regular basis, such as Frank Furidi (sp?) David Grey and Nigel Lawson, to build a right-wing intellectual base.
3. Keep the name and the strap line – it appeals to those irreverent souls who are tired of blogs as usual.
Does no one do irony here?
No, my wife tends to do all that kind of stuff.
Like what you did there!
Please improve the tagging and/or archives – I’d love to send a link to, say, all Kevin Marx articles to a friend, but most of the posts are tagged ‘libertarian’ and left at that.
Try and get some interviews with bloggers from across the pond for cross-promotion. I’m avid reader of Megan McArdle’s blog and I think her commenters would love Bogpaper (well, any person of taste would, really).
And donation button is in order – I read the content every day, I’m willing to drop some Canadian Pesos every now and then!
There is one lamentable absence. All I hear is male voices. You need to reach out a bit more.
Lest you are wondering, I speak as a shore lark bearing the XX chromosome !
I’m Female!
I wouldn’t want to see the humour compromised in order to broaden appeal.
The odd contribution from Dan J Mitchell or the great Dr Sowell would be welcome but they can be a bit flat.
Walter E Williams does a nice line in sardonic humour which I thought was reserved for us, but obviously not. Some of his youtube clips have me roaring with laughter with the gems he drops in between the serious points.
More economic and financial chatter please. You only seem to have the Austrian guy on Tuesdays. I love BP, but it needs more economics, finance and investment writing for me.
It may be possible for some of your columnists to have their columns sponsored. For example, someone like Kev Marx, might be able to have his column sponsored, say, by the TUC or Socialist Worker. The revenue would be split between the author and the website hosting the column.
BOGPAPER LIVE! It might be possible to organize a conference or an un-conference. Somewhere where Libertarians can go for a day or two, to hear / deliver talks on aspects of Libertarianism or Austrian economics, or witness / ask questions in debates or panel discussions. I think that an un-conference has some side rooms in which people can turn up and just book themselves in on the day to give a talk on a topic. Also it would have stalls selling refreshments. And pastries, eg. Danish pastries, maple pecans and cream slices. And a book stall, including signed copies of James Delingpole’s books. But no pole-dancers.
BOGPAPER VIRTUAL LIVE! It might be possible to organize a conference, but entirely online. This could be done in association with, for example, Ricochet.com. So this would consist of a number of channels, each of which would be populated with Libertarian / Conservative / Austrian economics content some of which would be live talks / debates / panel discussions, and some of which would be pre-recorded podcast type material. Maybe a chatroom or forum aswell, so people watching can discuss the content as it is being broadcast. This could be in the afternoon early evening in the U.k. and so morning/ early afternoon in the US. Online audiences for the live shows would be able to send in questions (maybe by email or by twitter) for a moderator to be able to select and put them to the speaker / panel if appropriate. This virtual experience would be able to include a wider geographic spread of people than a physical conference, and so would be more appropriate if Bogpaper had international expansion plans.
I think you would do well to replace John Duffield’s ‘Science on Sunday’ columns. He frankly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and never talks about anything other than a certain narrow range of physics. You should get someone to cover a broader interest there, and cover it accurately.
If Bogpaper wanted to be a bit more activist…. You could produce a series of one page flyers, and put them on a page on the website. You would grant permission for people to reproduce the flyers so long as they didn’t change them. This would mean that Libertarian activists could download them and print them out to use as hand-outs or email them around to spread the word. Each flyer would be a set of pieces of information about a particular topic. So you might do one on Liberty, and one on Fiat vs sound money, etc. Over time, these would increase in number and the page storing them, would support Libertarian activism.
Bogpaper could carry book reviews. I don’t mean of “classic” texts like Human Action by Von Mises, but book reviews of newly released books. So, for example, if Ann Coulter had a new book out, Bogpaper could carry a review of it. If all book reviews were tagged appropriately, then a user of this site could filter on the reviews to get information on some recently published political or economic books.
More competitions. I think that Bogpaper has had one competition in its history. I think that they should be more frequent.
Outreach. I think that it would be interesting to share articles or information with a group of like minded people from another country. For example, I think that there must be conservatives in Canada, and if a Canadian website would have its authors write articles for Bogpaper, Bogpaper could reciprocate. This would give readers of both websites the opportunity to read the kinds of content that are typically published in the other country.
Another example might be India. I don’t know if their are any conservatives or Libertarians in India, but I would assume that there must be some, taking into consideration the sheer number of people in that country. It seems to me that Socialism has gone round the world, and is present in most countries. Free market thinking is now present to some extent in most countries, even Communist ones like China. But I wonder if Libertarianism or a variation of Conservatism is also “exportable”. I believe that it would therefore be interesting to collaborate with a group of conservatives in India (if they exist) to produce content as a way of underpinning a dialogue between like minded people in India and the “west”. I don’t mean this activity to be done from a neoconservative perspective, because I don’t agree with that. I’m not suggesting that we force ideas onto people, merely seek to learn from their experience and offer them the lessons of our countries history.
Bogpaper summer magazine. Once a year you could produce a “magazine” in either an ipad or ebook format. This would allow people to obtain the magazine and add it to their holiday reading. So if they are to travel abroad, maybe to a place without wi-fi, or where they don’t want to have to try to get Wi-Fi working, they could take the magazine with them on the personal device. The magazine would contain exclusive content. Maybe about ten articles, (so its not huge). Also some adverts, and some photographs, maybe in the form of a photoessay. Maybe a crossword, perhaps a general knowledge one, where the topic is European and US politics. If not a crossword, a political general knowledge quiz (A test your knowledge type activity). This magazine would likely be sold for a low price, because its not huge. This activity could be done as a collaboration with another website, so for example, it could be a joint Bogpaper / Ricochet summer magazine, or a Bogpaper / Zerohedge summer magazine, where articles are provided by writers from both websites. It is possible, that once the magazine is no longer on sale, in the late autumn, that the articles from the magazine would then be published on Bopaper, or Bogpaper and the website that it collaborated with, so that the articles are still read by the maximum number of people. Readers of the magazine would be paying for the portability, the format and the access to the exclusive content months before it would be made available for free.
For information on how to do this, as far as I know, James Delingpole’s wife is a tech wizard, and she writes her own magazine called “into gardens”, so James should be able to find out the technicalities of how to make it happen.
Article series: A number of articles could be written on the same topic to allow a greater depth to be explored, than is possible in a single article. All the articles could be written by the same author, or they could be written by a group of authors. If a group of authors were used, then again this activity could be done as a collaboration, where Bogpaper and another website work together to create the series, and then the series is published on both websites simultaneously. Examples of topics for a series might be AGW, fracking, nuclear power, liberty, fiat currency vs sound money, abundance, electoral systems and different idealogues versions of a political ideology, (eg. you might write an article on Bastiat’s Libertarianism, and an article on Von Mises Libertarianism and so on.)
A series would allow the authors to draw attention to nuances that may not normally be written about.
Becoming Libertarian or conservative.
A series of articles could be produced, where in each article the author of the article writes about how they became a conservative or Libertarian. (This assumes that most people start off either as left wing, or in the political centre and then move to the right as they mature / age). So each article is a autobiographical story of one aspect of the author’s life, that is, their political opinions. These articles would draw attention to those experiences or ideas that caused people to choose to shift their political allegiance. This series could serve as a resource for people finding out about conservatism / libertarianism, or for people who are undergoing there own shifting process, where their opinions are changing. This article series could have its own tab at the top of the website, or a permanent link from the homepage, so that it is always easy to find.
How about this idea?
I’ve been watching programs about the ’84 Miner’s Strike lately and a fascinating “what if” is what would have happened if Scargill had called a ballot before the strike.
If he had – and the Miners had voted to walk out – would the outcome have been different?
The Nottinghamshire Miners may have struck rather than worked – could the demand for coal have been met by stockpiles and imports alone?
Also, if there had been a ballot, I understand that under the law at time the Miners would have been able to claim benefits. This would have meant that they could have stayed out a lot longer than they did. What impact would this have had?
Anyway, my suggestion is to have a weekly “What If” subject on which we can run riot in the comments section. There are endless interesting political decisions throughout history that could have had a huge impact had they gone another way.
Can you make the comments editable? Then if I make a typo, or write a comment too quickly, I can edit it afterwards.
Other people sometimes make mistakes too.
Campaigns
Bogpaper.com could organize a petition to call for a change of some description. The campaign could be written about, promoted and debated on the website.