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Well, it has been a quick year. I published 106 stories in my short time at the Orange Juice Blog. I had the number one story in terms of hits (Shape Shifting Donkey Hooker) and comments (Wisconsin Protests) in 2011 and had a lot of fun along the way. I enjoyed most of my time here especially with Vern – I may not agree with much of what he has to say, but at least he actually reads the posts and comments and is willing to enter into actualy discussion. I even enjoyed, to some extent, the battles with anon and Anonster.
When Greg Diamond joined the editorial board of the Juice I feel that things took a swan dive both in terms of quality of post as well as in quality of comment. His self promoting pieces on the occupy “movement” were his biggest contribution of the year and his poor writing resulted in NONE of his stories placing in the top 40 stories of the year. I find dealing with him simply tiring.
I plan to start my own blog and, with Vern’s permission, will post a link for folks to find me. I have enjoyed this and feel like the blogging world is a great place to visit. Enjoy.
I wish ALL of you guys would get over this notion that the number of “hits” and “comments” is the barometer by which the quality of blog writing is, or should be, measured.
Some posts don’t get many comments simply because the comprehensiveness, persuasiveness and quality of the writing is such that people interested in soundbites and simplistic debate simply don’t want to bother engaging in a more nuanced, objective, “bigger picture” discussion.
That’s the best compliment I’ve heard yet to Brother Larry’s posts. Thank you.
After what you just wrote about Greg, you have the nerve to accuse ME of being arrogant and dismissive? LOL. Whatever, dude.
Someone with a little more objectivity and openness to constructive criticism would be able to read my comment in the light in which it was written.
Sadly my enjoyment at exposing the many flawed comments of the lefties on here will likely keep me at least browsing, despite the loss of Geoff. Also unfortunate, our conversations will not be as enjoyable now that we can’t parse the often illogical and utterly confusing responses he gets to his posts (we ignore the all-too-frequent personal insults). I’m also sorry that Geoff’s absence, along with Brother Larry’s self-imposed exile, will leave the Juice tilting so far to the left it may tip over a la Guam. Well, I’m glad Geoff boosted the Juice’s ratings and put a little more in Vern’s pocket during his brief but tumultuous run.
Newbie, I hope you stay around, but even more, I wish you would go back to the many times me or anon or anonster or rapscallion or demagogue or diamond have challenged one of your assertions pretty effectively, and you just disappeared to another thread. Can I send a few of those examples your way?
🙂
Feel free, but if you mean ignore my point to raise a non sequitur, then I agree with you. Once the dialogue descends into that, or other nonsensical comments, you’re right, I have no time or inclination to respond.
Well, sorry to lose you Champ, think you’re making a mistake, and disagree with your assessment of the Diamond. You’re welcome back here as soon as you see the error of your ways.
CALL OUT – WE NEED ONE OR TWO MORE RIGHT WING BLOGGERS!
I guess this is the last time (for now) that I get to ask:
Vern, your class (most of the time) is why I’ll still hang around for a bit.
Vern, this never fails to elicit a hearty guffaw from me. Classic!
Any other right-wing bloggers out there named “Willis”?
I too have been sensing a shift in the content and tone of this blog leaving me more and more uncomfortable. I have not yet been able to put a handle on just what the shift seems to be – perhaps it is too much anger, too much focus on insults vs. substance (as in your exchange with anon on this post), too much focus on sophomoric attempts at social or political movements – but I can understand your decision to depart. While you are generally too far right for my moderate tastes, your departure is a loss to the product mix, further diluting the weak mix that has been here . Good luck to you, counselor.
OBO:
Too much Diamond. I think that’s what it is. No offense intended toward the prolific writing, but this blog has been over-saturated with Mr. Diamond’s posts. Kudos to him for his Occupy accomplishments, but the blog needs more variety to inspire more comments and then when that happens, less vitriol and snark
when folks dare share an opinion.
That imbalance can be fixed. Good writers from any political perspective, please contact Vern!
“When Greg Diamond joined the editorial board of the Juice I feel that things took a swan dive both in terms of quality of post as well as in quality of comment.”
Well you can add Geoff to the growing list of people who believe this to be the case, but it’s Vern’s blog to do with as he see’s fit.
Smart move on your behalf Geoff. Best of luck to you.
A well-executed swan dive is a thing of beauty and power. I accept the analogy.
I think that you may be confusing a swan dive and a cannonball. But I think that what was bothering Geoff wasn’t the dive but the drubbing.
GW . COULD NOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE . im sorry to see you leave . . you leave me the only one to take on the nuts , anoster , democrap , diamond , vern , . my god i am going to feel like a ram fan at a raider game on here . . i know how you feel i have been talking to former bloggers on here . since 100,0000 words diamond came on here its gone down hill . his stories give me a headache with its long on and on post . . this site is sinking it has no views from the other side all ocupoo crap . the real 1% .. vern hopefullycan get some ballance in here its not good WHEN EVERYONE ON THE SITE AGREES TO THE SAME THING .. GOOD LUCK TO YOU GW .
“.. im sorry to see you leave . . you leave me the only one to take on the nuts , anoster , democrap , diamond , vern ..”
I’m still here to lend a hand (right hand) great one.
I took one final glance at the site stats and was surprised to see this story clocking in at number 2 for the day behind my exclusive yesterday on the serial killer. Mr. Diamond’s multiple entries totalled about 120-150 unique hits today while I had a nice and robust 700+. I bid you all a fine farewell.
Just to give everyone a peek under the hood, we had 2016 hits as of 5:27 p.m. today. Here are the top posts.
Home page 669
Serial Killings May Be Part of Gang Initiation 267
Goodbye from Geoff Willis! 97
‘Bigots need to know’: Pedroza endorses indiscriminate outing of gays in politics 53
Occupy OC Village Moves: Thanks, Irvine, and Hello Fullerton! 47
Obama Murdegate Scandal Grows as I Get My Own Hashtag 45
Public Unions Threaten Claim of Slavery 44
18 of World’s Top 20 Hospitals Are In U.S. 27
CA-39: Roycerdammerung cancelled! Miller last seen heading east 19
Bubba J for Obama 15
And here are our top referrers with their titles when available:
Referrer Views
philadelphia.craigslist.org/rnr/2794790609.html 35
[“Gang Initiation Ritual Responsible for Serial Killings”]
detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/rnr/2796270921.html 33
[“This posting has been flagged for removal.”] (Probably Gang Initiation related)
sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rnr/2795192155.html 27
[“Police Find Gang Ritual Link In Serial Killings (berkeley)”]
portland.craigslist.org/wsc/rnr/2796424364.html 23
[flagged for removal]
orangecounty.craigslist.org/rnr/2794757661.html 22
[“North Orange County Serial Killings Linked to Gang Initiation”]
facebook.com 22
saltlakecity.craigslist.org/rnr/2796382306.html 19
[flagged for removal]
orangecounty.craigslist.org/rnr/2796991059.html 13
[“Leading Blogger Leaves Orange Juice”]
losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/rnr/2794760354.html 6
[“Gangs May Have Link To Orange County Serial Killings”]
twitter.com 5
theliberaloc.com 5
surgeusa.org/surge/ca.htm 3
I could do this for every day, but “Rants and Raves” craigslist postings often don’t last long.
You’ll note the titles of the craigslist posts at the links compared to the disavowals of what the story itself was and wasn’t saying. I don’t think that this demands more comment (at least now, from me.)
Geoff has indeed helped to boost the overall hits for OJB. He has implied not and/or outright denied being behind the aggressive craigslisting of his stories, but whoever has been doing it has been having a substantial effect. (I’ve tried it two or three times; once for someone else’s stories. It works. I should probably do it more often, but I just don’t like doing it. It feels skeevy.)
Anyway, when “quality of comment” is said to decline after my arrival, my own sense is that it’s due to the fact that I’m completely willing to write something like this that doesn’t let people get away with tricks unremarked upon. I value my lower number of hits because I feel confident that most of them are coming from Southern California and from Orange County in particular, which on this blog is my intended audience.
I do wish Geoff good luck with his new blog and I hope that his Craigslist-Posting Fairy follows him there to keep up his number of hits.
I gotta learn how to start doing that… I should take half an hour putting up all our stuff on craigslist … or else my google ad income is gonna “swan dive” with Geoff going…
Congratulations on demonstrating your ability to be a pompous ass.
Godspeed, Geoff. It’s been a pleasure, in its own way, engaging with you, and I am sorry to see you go. When Occupy OC eventually comes to Costa Mesa, we will serenade you in your office.
Aight Vern —
Find a new right-winger…and one who can actually write!
Get Cunningham, that will turn things upside out and inside down.
“……….False alarm we only came to town.”
HAHA. That’s just wrong. Everybody here has to be just a LITTLE anti-establishment, you know!
Greg, can you explain what this Craiglist thing is? It means nothing to me otherwise, and I suspect a few others may be in the same situation. All I know about Craiglist is that it is a site for listing things for sale or rent, etc. I have tried copying and pasting the addresses you list in my search engine line and keep getting a “page not found” retort.
There is a section of each craigslist free-commerce site (and there are many many of them) called “rants and raves,” wherein people rant, rave, and link. (It’s like their “open forum.”) Those links you see above were Orange Juice’s top referring links for today — the ones “sending us readers.” As the titles suggest, each of them has been promoting a story by Geoff with, as you can see, differing success. (And then eventually they often get pulled as spam, which is why you keep getting “page not found” reports.) Advertising a story on craigslist, Facebook, and Twitter are all ways of increasing one’s number of hits.
I think Geoff’s departure has far more to do with the current political winds and in reality, very little to do with Mr. Diamond.
Everyone knows that the Republican candidate is going to be Mitt Romney and I just bet Geoff doesn’t have the stomach for spending the next year trying to defend and promote the ultimate flip-flopper.
Even I would’ve taken pity on Geoff and that’s sayin’ something.
So take heart Greg, Geoff’s cheap shot is just to deflect from the truth, remember, this is coming from a man who couldn’t even admit he misspelled dreidel (I think that was the word).
Anyway be proud fellow liberals, we are ever so much more tolerant than our adversaries and we have Geoff to thank for proving it, because I can’t remember any liberal quitting due to an over abundance of tea …snooze…party stories.
Thanks Geoff!
“Anyway be proud fellow liberals, we are ever so much more tolerant than our adversaries and we have Geoff to thank for proving it …”
Anonster, you’re a couple of months early. April Fool’s Day isn’t for awhile.
Though I will give you credit for posting one of the few liberal comments on here that didn’t use a sexual term to reference the Tea Party.
NEWBIE you forgot her viel and angry comments of people on the otherside her hate for tax payers since she is a union, teachers, public employees , lover and her discusting view of consevatives ..
You spelled “comments” right!
He was copying off of Newbie..
when you have nothing to add to the conversation like most dems/libs nit pick on the spelling .. no wonder everyone is leaving this blog .
Hey, that was a compliment! I was proud that you spelled a word right, amigo.
lib quitting over abundance of tea = hmmm mr weiner quit ,
I think Anonster nailed it. Mr Willis is trying to duck out on a high note, like the Beatles, but unlike the Fab Four, he doesn’t leave millions of fans wishing for more. I wasn’t impressed with his smug claims of popularity and “hits”, which neither reflect actual readership or quality.
Maybe Diamond could edit more of his content, but it’s not fair to try and blame him for the blog’s climate. Times change, people come and go. If it’s too hot – get out of the kitchen. Anyway good luck Willis!
I don’t know if it was a high note. And people do come and go. And come again and go again. And some even stay. Seems most of the right-leaning folk have left permanently. And it seems to me that the more times change, or the more we change, that things really do stay the same. It’s just packaged differently. And let me begin one more sentence with a conjunction and write that in all the years of reading this blog, I cannot recall an occasion when any of the regulars (posters and commenters) actually changed their mind from their initially held belief. Or if they did, dared to admit it. People cling ardently to their beliefs for some reason I don’t completely understand. As for Misters WIllis and Diamond; their careers both depend on their ability to argue and win; no matter whether they truly are right are wrong or whether they even believe they are truly right or wrong. Seems their posts were a bunch of mini-briefs. We, as readers, should be thankful we didn’t get charged by the hour to read them.
In the Occupy movement we have the same type of personalities as Willis. Spoiled yet fundamentally insecure, Ego absorbed, non team players. When they fail to sabotage on behalf of their own selfish agenda, they walk away and we dismiss them as quitters!
Down twinkles.
from all the post above you can see the hijacking of this website by far left goons is starting already . vern hope yuo can get some voices on here from the other side or this will turn into a site like the daily kooks . oops didnt a blogger from that site come here .
*Whatever happened to the idea that there is a tent big enough for all? Whatever happened to those who respond to issues rather than rhetorical name calling? Whatever happened to having a little fun along the way?
Hmmm…we have had so many bruised egos leave the Juice, return, jump up and down, not come back…..and scream bloody minority reports….that it seems more like a fradulent litmus test to us.
Love ya man……stay the course…..1000 points of light………who knows? You might someday turn into a Tebow….ite! Or maybe you are just suffering from Tebowitus!
Believe you me….it will all be gone tomorrow and you will feel so much better about all of it.
*I think the Winships are trying to say something nice?
Geoff-I’ll miss you around this site. But plan on seeing you at your next site. Let me know where you go. Blessings to you
‘Another One Bites the Dust’
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