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ANYONE GOT $25?
Big news at Webdiary! Wayne Sanderson—who has claimed to be “personally uncomfortable with the style of intensely personal and subjective journalism practised by Kingston”, and who once remarked that “things have gotten weirder than a month of Margo Kingston columns”—has been appointed to the coveted position of Webdiary Citizen Journalist. This can’t possibly end in total disaster. In other stunning Webdiary developments, Webdiary Major General David Roffey reports:
We will open the capability for Webdiarists to make voluntary donations to the running of Webdiary, on a purely voluntary basis.
Voluntary donations on a purely voluntary basis? Innovation! Hey, soon we’ll be able to invest in this visionary enterprise:
It will take time for revenues to build to the point where they cover the costs - essentially the salaries of two journalists (Wayne and Margo) and two editors (Hamish and Kerri), which we intend in future to set in relation to relevant MEAA award rates, plus technical and management costs. We will be funding that period by an offer of shares in Webdiary Pty Ltd - currently wholly owned by Margo.
Let’s buy it!
I bet the ASX is abuzz- this puts flogging off Testra in the shade.
This news will slice a good few points off the price of News Ltd, Fairfax and PBL shares; one can only guess at the long-term affect on the market of a new, vibrant, lean and hungry predator entering the already cut-throat media market, and what direction thos burgeoning empire will take. What about a future merger with Big Kev?RWDB bloggers should buy Webdiary and keep Margo.
That would guarantee an endless supply of humour posts and keep our readers happy.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 11 at 12:20 AM • permalinkAh, so capitalism does have it’s uses?
But I’m wondering, is that like a ‘public offer’?
If so you can kiss goodbye to $200K and 12 months of your life, and that’s before you’ve raised a cent.
If it’s not a public offer, well then you can’t tell anyone about it.
Advertising, which would almost certainly include talking it up on Web Diary would be very illegal.
This should get even more amusing.
Well, well, never a dull day over at Our Lady of Public Ethics. Well from tomorrow, all the news that is fit to print but is censored from being printed by the Coven of Coneservatism that binds Webdiary, the ABC, the Fairfax encycliatti, and the hallowed halls of scholarship and genius that are walked by our Cultural Studies commisars, will find their voice at the launch of my blog.
Luddite-tendencies notwithstanding, let’s aim for launch just after sparrow-fart.
This is marvellous. They need four full-time employees and some contractors to run a blog—and they have only the vaguest notion of where the money will come from.
These are the people who want to tell us how the Australian government should be running the country.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 11 at 12:38 AM • permalinkMan I would love to see their business plan and economic modelling.
“It will take time for revenues to build to the point where they cover the costs”
My guess is about 6 million light years.
Let’s say 4 staff at $50K plus super that’s $220K plus technical and management costs, I don’t know what the ‘technical costs’ are to run a Blogg but let’s say all up expenses of $300K per annum.
That means they will have to sell roughly $822 worth of advertising a day just to break even.
How much would you pay per day for an advertisement on web diary?
Those rates sound considerably more expensive than newspapers to me especially on circulation numbers.
The only products you could advertise and sell on Webdiary are illegal, and the Opium Tong and the Lekemba posse’ might be a little peeved by the competition.
I thought selling shares in a propriatry company was bent as well- thanks for the heads up.
Can’t wait to see the ACCC and the NCA raiding the sumptious corporate headquarters of MKI (Margo Kingston Incorporated) and carting those present off in ‘cuffs like slow ENRON execs.
The whole crew may have to flee to exile in Espanola, just like Skasie.#21—Captain is correct. They misspelled the link to their own site, and consequently it doesn’t work.
It’s been that way for a couple of hours, but eventually they’ll read this thread and fix it.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 11 at 01:21 AM • permalinkI am sorry to spam, but in case you did not see my post OT in an earlier thread, Margo listed her new web address as “wwww.webdiary.com.au”
Sounds like it might soon change to http://www.sydneypenitentiary.com/webdiary.
With that many idiots throwing that sort of money around, surely there is an opportunity here for
a brilliant minda devious businessmananyone with half a brain to make a quick buck…...Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 01:26 AM • permalinkMy summation of what is happening here is that Margo can see the writing on the wall that Webdiary is a financial basketcase and is looking to con some suckers into “buying into” the business. Margo will get the capital should anybody be silly enough to part with their cashola that she would take out of the business as income
to pay for her high yield cash crop smoking habit. Margo would also likely make any “investors” directors of the company based on their shareholding probably expecting them to contribute to running costs and by default making them liable for any losses and liabilities when things inevitably go belly up.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 01:38 AM • permalinkif you think Webdiary has value to you, send us what you think it is worth. What do you get in return? - much what you would for tipping the barman: the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the principles of Club Chaos, contributing to enriching community debate and discussion.
Somehow I think the average investor won’t quite go for this…..
Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 01:43 AM • permalinkApart from the illegality of a public capital raising for a proprietary company there is also the little matter of appearing to be trading while insolvent.
There is also the matter of paying the four staff award wages and entitlements which “we intend in future to set in relation to relevant MEAA award rates”. So I gather that they are not being paid award wages at the moment? Other requirements - eg workers comp.? Super? PAYG tax instalments?
These people oppose IR reforms eh? Why?Even ignoring the dubious legality of the whole thing, isn’t that timeline of planned events basically counting on the irrationality of their contributors? I mean, who’s going to donate to Webdiary when they know that the same money would get them a share of the “company” a few months later?
Of course, maybe those donations should be considered akin to venture capital…keeping the thing afloat so that the public offering can even take place. My, what a bunch of cut-throat capitalists those WD’ers are.
There will be a trial of allowing “trusted” Webdiarist’s comments to go straight onto the site with only subsequent moderation review. “Trusted” in this sense means a track record of getting the tags right (much easier on the new site anyway), spelling, [ YEEEEEHAW!!!! ] and not descending into abuse when frustrated, and has to do with protecting the site from libel etc, not with whether we agree with your politics!
Bolderizing and cowboy cries mine.
Hey, what if we all bought a share, (don’t laugh yet), with the condition that we (the shareholders) have permanent “trusted” status to posting in the comments section? Yeah? Freedom of speech, man! Or at least, affordable speech!
“We will open the capability for Webdiarists to make voluntary donations to the running of Webdiary, on a purely voluntary basis. Web guru Robert Woodhead calls this “tipping”...”
Tim Blair commenter zeppenwolf calls this an erroneous implication that “web guru Robert Woodhead” is either the contextual author of that obvious word choice, or that it is somehow in less than rampant currency. Or both.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 10 11 at 01:51 AM • permalinkShe would actually have a diverse list of advertisers with a large range of political and cultural backgrounds. She would advertise:
1. Che Guevera T-shirts and Soviet flags.
2. Islamic head coverings for woman.
3. Copies of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This range would appeal to her communist, nazi and islamic terror supporting readers. Blair’s law in action.
This is public record:
Australian Securities & Investments Commission Current
Extract for Organisation Number 115 525 543
This information was extracted from ASIC database on 11 October 2005 at 02:38PMSection 1274B
This extract has been prepared by the Australian Securities
& Investments Commission from information it obtained ......115 525 543 WEBDIARY PTY LTD DOCUMENT NO.
ACN : 115 525 543
ABN : 80 115 525 543
Registered in : Australian Capital Territory
Date registered : 29-JUL-2005
Review Date : 29-JUL-2006
Current Organisation Details
Name : WEBDIARY PTY LTD 1E1196733
Name Start : 29-JUL-2005
Status : REGISTERED
Type : AUSTRALIAN PROPRIETARY COMPANY
Class : LIMITED BY SHARES
Subclass : PROPRIETARY COMPANY
Disclosing Entity : NO
Registered Office
Address : DAVID ROFFEY,———- STREET,———, NSW 2—- 7E0501395
Start Date : 07-OCT-2005
Principal Place of Business
Address : ——————————-, ACT 26— 1E1196733
Start Date : 29-JUL-2005
Director
Officer Name : ALCORN, HAMISH 1E1196733
ABN : Not available
Birth Details : 30-DEC-1967 MACKAY QLD
Address : ————STREET,———-, QLD 4—-
Appointment Date : 29-JUL-2005Officer Name : KINGSTON, MARGO 1E1196733
ABN : Not available
Birth Details : 08-JUL-1959 MARYBOROUGH QLD
Address : ——————————-, ACT 26—
Appointment Date : 29-JUL-2005Officer Name : ROFFEY, DAVID CHARLES 7E0501395
ABN : Not available
Birth Details : 25-NOV-1949 BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH UNITED KINGDOM
Address : ———STREET,——-, NSW 2—-
Appointment Date : 11-SEP-2005
Secretary
Officer Name : ROFFEY, DAVID CHARLES 7E0501395
ABN : Not available
Birth Details : 25-NOV-1949 BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH UNITED KINGDOM
Address : ——STREET,————-, NSW 2—-
Appointment Date : 11-SEP-2005
Current Issued Capital
Type : Current 1E1196733
Class : ORD
ORDINARY SHARES
Number of Shares/Interests issued : 100
Total amount paid/taken to be paid : 100.00
Total amount due and payable : 0.00
Note: Information on this extract such as Share Structure,
Members and Ultimate Holding Company is obtained from the Company
Annual Return. Care should be taken when using this information
as it may have changed since the most recent Annual Return was
processed by ASIC. Care should also be taken when using the
member information as only the top twenty members in each class
are listed on the extract. If no member details are shown it may
be that the company has only recently been registered and has not
yet lodged its first Annual Return.
Current Members
Class : ORD 1E1196733
No. Held : 100
Benefically owned : YES Fully paid : YESName : KINGSTON, MARGO
ABN : Not available
Address :——————————-, ACT 26—
Joint holding: NO
Document Details
Received Form Type Processed No. Pages Effective
30-SEP-2005 484 30-SEP-2005 2 30-SEP-2005 7E0501433
484E Change to Company Details Appointment or Cessation of A
Company Officeholder30-SEP-2005 484 30-SEP-2005 3 30-SEP-2005 7E0501395
484 Change to Company Details
484B Change of Registered Address
484E Appointment or Cessation of a Company Officeholder29-JUL-2005 201 29-JUL-2005 3 29-JUL-2005 1E1196733
201C Application For Registration as a Proprietary Company
*** End of Extract ***
Copyright (c) CITEC 2002So no mention of anything like franked dividends then.
Maybe they’re planning on paying out in bunyas; fixing up the Fiscal Fiend for his slice may prove difficult, as they normally only accept cold, hard cash or body parts.
Mother would so love Webdiary shares at Christmas.
And she doesn’t have anywhere to park another black helicopter anyway.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2005 10 11 at 02:18 AM • permalinkEasist way to earn $50K
by Wayne Sanderson7:30 Roll out of bed
7:35 Check emails from syndicated feeds.
7:40 Copy and paste
7:45 Click on submit to WD and collect cash.
7:46 Start thinking about how I’ll fill my day now that work is out of the way.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 02:25 AM • permalink42 Habib,
Dividends? You’re joking right?
Fact is because they are a new company and a new business without any trading or profitability history it will be illegal for them to include any indication of (un)likely returns in the manner of forecasts or projections in any prospectus.
To comply with the law they will instead have to say something like this:
‘The Directors have no basis to forecast future earnings on the basis that the operations of the company have no history and as such are inherently uncertain.’
#40, Principal Place of Business
Address : ——————————-, ACT 26—
Start Date : 29-JUL-2005
This is just around the corner from my place (which figures since the suburb would have the highest number of chardonnay socialists per square metre), I’ll have to check it out.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 10 11 at 02:33 AM • permalinkI’m still not sure what Margo is going to sell.
A capital raising is one thing (presuming that they can demonstrate a viable business model) but what happens after that?
Buying shares in Margo.com reminds me of the worst excesses of the .com boom where geeks rushed straight to market simply on the basis of a good idea.
If I recall correctly Margo said she wasn’t going to have advertising on the site, so I still don’t see a revenue model. What are the Web Diary people going to ‘sell’ as their product.
We know that wages and fixed expenses alone are about $200,000 which means which means (with floating costs) about $225,000 a year will be needed to break even.
I truly believe Margoyle doesn’t appreciate that the print media needs advertisers to survive - that she was there, in part, to fill the spaces between the ads.
Also, what is exactly the return on investment for those dumb enough to throw in their hard earned cash?
What are the assets of the company?
What is the balance sheet?
What are the guarantees?
And as for Sanderson, he’s an interesting chap in the Chinese definition. Nicky and I know his journalistic “integrity” intimately well… What an arsehole.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 02:37 AM • permalinkSorry for the errors in my post. That’s what I get for lurking when I should be working.
It’s a good job that I’m the boss.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 02:41 AM • permalinkWhat happens if some right-wing group buy up all the shares? Poster - Eric Childs
Damn, they’re on to us.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 02:44 AM • permalinkAww, you have to give ‘em credit - it’s hard work running a big business model from an internet cafe.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 02:53 AM • permalinkWhat are the Web Diary people going to ‘sell’ as their product.
Warm, fuzzy feelings !! Who wouldnt want to buy $220,000 of that ?
Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 02:54 AM • permalinkLooney, if Canberra is like most places, a home-based business operating from a residential premises is more or less tolerated as long as there are no increase to traffic movements.
Besides, if Margo is still operating from her web cafe then that should be no problem - as long as she has her sub-leasing arrangement in place with the cafe owner.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 02:54 AM • permalinkWayne Sanderson is the big winner in all of this. He has effectively leased The Daily Briefing to Webdiary for AUD50,000 per annum, which suggests it was going down the gurgler fast. Failed applicants for the Journalist Job of The Century who couldn’t bring an already existing - albeit lame duck - news service to the position should probably consider a class action against Webdiary Pty Ltd.
Full credit to Wayne, though, who seems the only person in the whole Webdiary gaggle with an IQ marginally larger than his shoe size. Leasing TDB to Margo’s budding empire has saved his arse. But even better, when Margo’s parallel universe business model collapses in a heap, who do you think will retain full rights to TDB? Hint: it won’t be Webdiary. Sanderson will simply revert it to subscription only (and what’s more, he’ll have picked up some new subscribers from Webdiary). Pretty savvy move there, Wayne.
The business plan: It should be recalled at the outset that Margo studied law and actually practised as a solicitor and lectured in business law prior to faking her way into journalism (see here but beware hideous photo). You’d have thought she would have picked up some reasonable ideas along the way (Sanderson obviously did). It’s clear from reading her plan, however, that whatever training she received has been burned away as a consequence of excessive drug use. Raising revenue to cover four emmployees and on-costs via tipping, advertising and the sale of shares in Webdiary Pty Ltd suggest fantasy has trumped reality by an order of magnitude incalculable under current computational limits.
Wayne Sanderson has figured this out, which is why he’s taking a salary over subscription payments. If Sanderson can’t make TDB work for a single individual, hasn’t anyone in this slow motion train wreck cottoned on to the fact that it won’t generate enough income for four?
Like EP, I can’t wait for the prospectus. I hope Tim B has already signed up for a copy and will post it online so we can all read what will surely be the most imaginative financial document of all time. To give you some context for that statement, I work in Hong Kong and routinely deal with mainland companies preparing to list (in China, Hong Kong, or elsewhere) and in whose prospectuses are claims that routinely flout financial convention in ways that would make Nick Leeson blush.
Given the authoritarian intellectual environment and its ensuing impoverishment resulting from Margo’s diminished powers of empathy for contrarian views, Webdiary Pty Ltd will no doubt dissolve amongst recriminations from shareholders who will have seen their interests ignored or trampled, staff who will see their rights frittered away like so much urine in the wind (leftist enterprises like this invariably treat their staff worse than just about anyone else), and a host of others who will watch as transparancy clouds over and corporate governance is reduced to Margo saying “What’s good for me is good for Webdiary”. There’s a business school case study in here somewhere. Unfortunately, an Australian university will hire Margo after the dust of the collapse disappears and she’ll be the one teaching it!
Hanyu,
On the plus side, if you do invest you might score one of those t-shirts…...Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 03:01 AM • permalink#62. It’s not looking so seductive for potential investors at this point. 50K spent on something that most bloggers could fart out in half an hour after dinner? they’re kidding.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 03:06 AM • permalinkoops - I meant post #65 Hanyu. Beer loves me!!
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 03:08 AM • permalinkHarold: it’ll be more fun than a fart in the bath. And then when the shit hits the fan I can put in a formal complaint…
It sounds like your maid is the one who should be putting in a formal complaint.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 10 11 at 03:12 AM • permalinkPersonally, I think they should raise money by a user pays system. Marilyn and the other orders of arichnida that populate webdiary should ‘pay-per-post’.
Also, this was stated in the ASc information:
Name : KINGSTON, MARGO
Joint holding: NOLiar. She’s always holding a joint. What other excuse could she have?
#67. FusterCluck, I once watched a mainland company move from claiming USD200 million in turnover and assets to showing a USD200 million dollar loss in its first annual report as a listed company. If the poor bastards who invested in that mess got a t-shirt they’d have been cheering. I’m not holding out for a t-shirt because I think those guys were actually better managers than Margo and crew.
#68. Deo Vindice, I think beer is the missing component of Margo’s business plan. She clearly needs to drink more of it. Wayne Sanderson has cleaned up. As you say, he’s doing little more than most bloggers do in their spare time.
A couple of weeks ago I washed a pair of my Levis. I screwed up and forgot that I’d left in one of the pockets a throat lozenge, an ATM recipt, and a piece of paper with a woman’s name and number on it.
Now, that mess came out of the dryer as a congealed sticky glob.
So tell me, how many shares will that glob buy me? 500? 1,000? Majority ownership?
I mean, no thinking sentient human being would actually part with cold hard cash for any shares in this upcoming train-wreck, would they? Now bartering for shares for the disgusting things that you find in the pockects of your Levis, that just might make sense.
Posted by David Crawford on 2005 10 11 at 04:08 AM • permalinkhaving read the joke below, have just lodged a comment at wd asking how margo’s intention to retain total control differentiates her from rupert murdoch - wonder if it’ll get up
“My understanding was that this site was to be a true “peoples forum” where we could promote truth and democracy. What happens when the new shareholders decide that they want a return on their investment? Will they start accepting advertising? Will the shareholders and advertisers have editorial rights over the content here? What happens if some right-wing group buy up all the shares? Isn’t this just going the way of the main stream media?
I don’t know that privatisation is the right way to go here. Keep it in your hands Margo.
David: the intent is that Margo will retain a majority of the shares after the issue. Full details will have to wait until we issue the prospectus.
Posted by: Eric Childs | 11/10/2005 2:45:59 PM”
Why is it that I’m starting to feel like I’m on Candid Camera every time I look at what is happening at Webdairy?
This is stupidity on such a grand scale I’m doubting that it is actually real.
One thing is for sure they might well be talking about Margo Kingston in 50 years time, specifically in regard to this eagerly awaited prospectus. Giving people a guaranteed belly laugh for generations to come.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 04:35 AM • permalinkShe might be wanting to buy another company with a stock merger.
To do that she only needs to talk up the value of her shares. Her earnings are already zero, so a high P/E ratio should be no problem if she can get any P at all.
High P/E companies are taking over low P/E companies all the time with stock swaps.
Some coal company or something.
Well, this is a revelation! I didn’t know that TimB could “limbo down, way down under”. Multi-talented; multi-skilled. He certainty hides his Xmas lights under a thingy.
Sortelli – marvelous and innovative use of capitals; plus you helped save a boldering tree from being needlessly chopped down.
I’m still trying to work out how WD can be BOTH a charitable organisation, which it is, if they are soliciting and accepting donations; and at the same time they will sell shares in a private company being run with the intention of profit.
With 100% of shares currently valued at $100, as per the company registration papers, and given that MargO will retain majority ownership, does this mean they hope to raise $49 from the share issue? If so, that would cover munchies at little-lunch, and three boldering tags, then the company would be broke.
#71 – Nic = beautiful pickup! LOL.
#77 – KK – as far as I am aware, no-one on WD has demonstrated that they are real people; proof has not been provided.
Do these gibbons have any idea what it costs to issue a public float? For a newly encorporated company with assets of a library card, a 2 1/4” floppy disc containing the business plan and articles of association and some dubious looking bean sprouts in a busted ‘fridge to be able to stump up the dibs for the annual returns and quarterly BAF, let alone raise about a quarter mill in rear money, not magic mediums of exchange revealed during chemical-assisted board meetings is a little fanciful.
No, it’s completely fucking crazy.
This can only end in tears. (Mostly from laughing uncontrollably in my case).This is O/T but.. Hot Milf actor/ess Rowena Wallace has escaped jail in a welfare fraud case .
Pity the authorities didnt go after Gitmo jihadi disability pensioner ‘Mamdude Habib’ who recently ran the ‘city to surf’ marathon despite his ‘bad’ middle-eastern BACK.Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 05:31 AM • permalinkHarold - thank you for sharing your knowledge; you would gather not one of my areas of expertise. Curious though: you’re serious that they would be issuing a million ordinary shares (that’s a LOT of little-lunches covered)? Or rather, issuing under 50% of that number so that MargO retains “control” (hee, hee, hee, hee, hee, hee)? Is the assumption $1 per share, in this case, or unknown until prospectus issued - how is the share price determined, when the assets amount to a keyboard & broadband connection?
Thx.
I don’t really want to put everyone to sleep here but they are normally $1 ordinary shares. They can be sold at a premium or discount or lots of other ways. They don’t have to issue all one million of them at one time. For example there are only 10 issued shares at the moment.
It can be quite involved and much more so for a public company, which they are not. (Hence severe restrictions on how they raise capital).
Suffice to say I believe the whole thing is way beyond the Margoyles.#82 ‘Hot Milf Rowena Wallace’
Milf? More like Gilf! Deo, exactly how old are you?
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 06:53 AM • permalink#90 - No, I think the Chris Sheil “tightly holding his treasure” thread was marginally better.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 10 11 at 06:58 AM • permalinkI don’t mind a bit of maturity but, frankly, Rowena looks like a chap in drag.
—Nick
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 07:04 AM • permalinkRowena Wallace? You’re….joking, right? Euw. Euw euw euw. EEEEEUUUUWWWWW!
Next you’ll be hankering after Jeannie Little.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 10 11 at 07:07 AM • permalinkDaaahlings! I ran out of plastic bin liners to wear to the Looooogies!!
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 07:22 AM • permalink#82 Deo Vindice,
Don’t you ever, ever mention the term “HOT MILF” on a Margo thread again.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 07:50 AM • permalinkA takeover- the great Margo raid-Margnificent Obsession.
O/t Insight tonight on sbs for specials -Chris Pyne is silly enough to provide himself as Brockiefodder.
Disobedient audience member elicits tilts and sighs by stating “we’re half way through this programme and its been all negative so far..”
Another timid stakeholder spoke out"We consumers just sit here while you (big wigs) talk to each other…..
SBS’s audience selection panel must have malfunctioned.Here is some info on Webdiary Pty. Ltd.
I am no expert but I think a public offering of shares requires a prospectus. The legal costs on one of those is hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think Margo has no concept of what she is getting herself into.
There’s a reason these turds don’t run businesses.
Posted by swassociates on 2005 10 11 at 09:01 AM • permalinkSmells like Air America, Australian style. Does Margo know anyone on the board of a charity?
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2005 10 11 at 10:45 AM • permalinkThis pie-in-the-sky optimism puts me in mind of a scene from one of John Biggins’ excellent novels about the Austro-Hungarian navy. The sub commander is listening to a bureaucrat from the war ministry drone on about the future expansion of the Imperial Fleet; the bureaucrat even displays charts and figures extending into the 1950’s. Of course, the reader (and the sub commander, writing his memoirs from the vantage point of several decades after WWI) sees the tragicomic futility of the bureaucrat’s plan.
What the inevitable end of Webdiary lacks in tragedy, it will more than make up in comedy.
Look, I know you all seem to be having a great time laughing at Margo’s latest plans for Webdiary. But do I detect a hint of jealousy? I mean do I see Tim Blair selling stock in Blairville? No. The Real Jeff S? No. Richard McEnroe? (snort) No.
Laugh if you want. But it seems to me that if Webdiary can sell 1 million shares at $25 a share, well that’s $25 million. They can parlay that into investments in a corporate headquarters, top of the line computers, luxurious furnishings. And they can attract the very best journalists Australia has to offer. Maybe even New Zealand too.
Then next year, assuming a fine first year performance, they can sell maybe 10 million shares at $100 a share. That’s $1 billion. With that they can buy private jets, a yacht, and other business assets. And they can attract the finest journalists from around the world. I’m talking the Robert Fisks, the John Pilgers.
And then in Year 3 they can sell another 100 million shares at $1,000 a share. That would amount to $100 billion. By Year 3!
With that kind of money, that’s greater than Microsoft. Bigger than General Motors. That’s the New York Times and the Sidney Morning Herald combined. That’s bigger than The Age even.
Yeah, laugh it up now. But we’ll see who’s laughing at the end of Year 3.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 11 at 11:35 AM • permalinkrant begins/
And why wouldn’t you pay for tripe such as:
From “The Daily Briefing”
http://margokingston.typepad.com/harry_version_2/2005/10/the_daily_brief.html#more***********************************
Thirty years ago Gough Whitlam convinced Australians that they could demand more from governments. In a very different context, Labor today can only win by appealing to a sense of common interest in equity and the sharing of resources, and it will only succeed in doing this when it persuades voters that government matters not just because it taxes and controls, but also because it is our collective means of enriching our lives.”
***********************************http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/k/karlmarx136396.html
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
Karl Marx
***********************************It’s amazing the strain of government liberalism that focuses on “fairness” and “equity”, which almost always means the government is supposed to even things out for everyone via taxation and wealth transfer.
It’s the same screed here in the US - somehow economics is considered a zero-sum game where wealthy Americans MUST have made their money by exploiting the poor - - there’s NO other explanation for it.
How ironic, then, that Margo needs money to continue to rant online? Isn’t Blogger a free service? To quote Herr Marx, Margo’s abilities appear to be minimal, so her needs should be proportional to those needs, no?
Or is making money a bad thing?
/rant
dcXXXXX: It’s the same screed here in the US - somehow economics is considered a zero-sum game where wealthy Americans MUST have made their money by exploiting the poor - - there’s NO other explanation for it.
That drives me crazy too.
Apparently, if it weren’t for Halliburton, we would all have completely equal financial status… although admittedly we’d all still be living in caves.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 10 11 at 01:40 PM • permalinkNever mind business plans, registration with the ASIC, etc.; all Margo Inc. has to do is send out a bulk mailing, with Nigerian postmarks, describing her clandestine meetings with a bastard son of Idi Amin, who has access to several hundred million dollars of secret gold bullion, and needs only to acquire some good-hearted citizens to send him their bank account information, and make everybody rich. Then we’ll see who has the last laugh!
Posted by Bruce Lagasse on 2005 10 11 at 02:19 PM • permalinkA Margo Bookstore is now being suggested as part of the business plan.
This is sure to be a winner.
Browse the Margo’s top 5 selection ladies and gentlemen.
Number 1Number 5 - Needs reviews
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 05:55 PM • permalinkHank,
re Title number 5, I’m happy to oblige. According to amazon my review should be up in the next day or two :-)—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 06:39 PM • permalinkRe #120/Book number 1:
per Amazon - People who bought “The Communist Manifesto” also bought “The Wealth of Nations”???!!!
Wasn’t there a classic Sci-Fi novel entitled “What Mad Universe”?
Posted by Bruce Lagasse on 2005 10 11 at 07:05 PM • permalinkYour review is up now, Nora.
Sounds like a must-read.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 11 at 07:06 PM • permalink#121 Nora,
I’ll look forward to reading it. Given it was published in September 2004 and nobody has yet reviewed the article I’m not liking the chances of it being a best seller.
Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 11 at 07:08 PM • permalinkI should confess that I haven’t read it either. I did the typical print journalist trick of scanning the ‘sleeve’ notes and precising other reviews.
Ya think anyone will notice?
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 11 at 07:23 PM • permalinkSortelli! Stop using up all the caps!
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 07:24 PM • permalinkWebdiary Pty Ltd
Unless that’s shorthand for “Webdiary’s pretty limited,” that’s pretty much the dictionary definition of a junk bond…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 11 at 07:38 PM • permalinkMind you, it might be worth it to see their version of a science article… unless Tim’s got that covered already with his “Beware the Wrath of Gaia” sendups…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 10 11 at 07:42 PM • permalinkWho the hell gave that book 1 star ?
Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 07:58 PM • permalinkNora, I thought your review was very professionally done, nicely worded. And the fact that you didn’t actually, you know, read the book didn’t take away from the veracity of the review in the least. Actually you not reading it made it sound even more reasonable.
In fact, I liked it so much I’m going to use a few of the bold tags I have left.
Nice review.
I’d also write it in caps except there doesn’t seem to be any left in the caps jar for some reason. (Look people, it’s a communal jar, someone’s been especially piggy about it and they better stop that like pronto).
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 11 at 09:35 PM • permalinkSortelli,
Laugh now, but what happens in five years time, when all the bold tags, italics and caps run out ?
Shouldn’t we be looking into renewable font-formatting styles ?
Somebody please think of the childrenPosted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2005 10 11 at 10:06 PM • permalinkSortelli, you didn’t happen to do the bold tags-caps-underline-punctuation work for Webdiary did you? Like about the time just before they were given the old heave ho by Fairfax and they found that they had spent too much money on the editing of bold tags? Meaning it was macaroni & cheese night 7 days a week?
Tim, I think it might be better that you lock up the font cabinet again.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 11 at 10:07 PM • permalinkLaugh now, but what happens in five years time, when all the bold tags, italics and caps run out ?
Meh, we’ll just do what we always do. Find a font-rich country, accuse them of building WMDs, invade them and steal all their formatting.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 11 at 10:20 PM • permalinkRe: # 137
Exclamation marks are indeed expensive, which is why I suggest diluting them with the numeral ‘1’ whenever possible, like so:
OMG BUSH LYED!!11!1!!1!
You get much the same effect, but for a fraction (in this case, 6/10ths) of the cost.
This principle also works with the use of caps:
OmG BuSH lyED!!!111!1!1!
#143 My nana would be impressed by your thriftyness, Tasman.
When I was a child, she once showed me how to create home-made exclamation marks out of flour and water.
“A little trick I learnt back in the Great Depression, lad. Oh, those times were hard…” she would mutter as she stretched and kneaded the dough.
Here’s a handy hint for saving exclamation marks. Type in ‘SHIFT 11’ instead.
ie - BUSH LIED SHIFT 11. Easy peasy.Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 11 at 11:51 PM • permalink#146 Ekb87.
Here at Tim Blair we are constructively figuring out ways to conserve this precious resource. Ironically over at Webdiary they are chucking money around like drunken sailors with gay abandon.
This is turning into a heart wrenching story of the haves and have-nots. We create home made exclamation marks out of flour and water while Margo can splash $50K at somebody for 15 minutes work per weekday.
Perhaps a ‘bold’ welfare plan is in order.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 12 at 12:09 AM • permalinkthat also why highly espected news sevices such as euters and the bbc don’t use the wod “teo” or “teoist”. without the ’ ‘, it makes no sense! fa bette to use “militant”, which has no ’ ‘.
insugent is also good.
ps: almost out of caps, stuck on feeway. send help. have to ation so i can still type SUV
A contributor at Webdiary is suggesting that current clickthrough rates equate to AUD2,000 per annum in advertising revenue.
The problem with even this hefty estimate is that most Webdiary readers are only there to watch the monkeys at work. I’d suggest revising that figure downward by around 30% to reflect the number of readers from Tim Blair dot Net.
They did say that anyone interested in receiving the prospectus should indicate so via a public notation in the “comments” (how very professional); so, has anyone counted the number of people who have asked for a prospectus so far?
PS – I notice that ten people have been “Banned for previous persistent abuse” – in only the past month. So much for the Grand Panjandrum of Ethics and her hand-wringing and anguished nights over banning “only” five people over a period of five years. Tosh!
That comment thread has moved on from its brief engagement with the boring topic of money, and is now back in the Webdiarists’ comfort zone—consipracy theories.
I haven’t the faintest idea how a website like this is constructed and made to work in practice, but for what it’s worth, here’s my 2c:
Imagine a structure like a ladder. One rail, with a blue theme (like this site) is concerned with the discovery of DOTS. The relative merits and importance of the dots can be argued, but dots are essentially the things that people have said and done, on the record. Dots are as near as we can get to established facts.
On a separate, but parallel rail (with a pink theme, sic) is the place where we dot-joiners do our knitting. The rungs of the ladder are a very pretty piece of hyper linking. Any pink link found on the BLUE site leads across to speculations concerning those dots. Conversely, blue links on the PINK site are the dot-points in support of someone’s latest insight. Stray across, or not… it’s up to you.
Good to know they’ve got a grip on the important stuff.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 12 at 01:53 AM • permalink#157 CK. Oh I don’t know. Perhaps I’m confused. Maybe it was an abandoned bold Margo splashing a grand at 50,000 gay drunken sailors?
Or something like that.Posted by Hank Reardon on 2005 10 12 at 02:11 AM • permalink#164, Ck—You are of course correct.
This is an example of the profligate wastage of characters which will drive Webdiary into bankruptcy, even with restrictive boldering policies.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 12 at 02:17 AM • permalink#163 Discovery of dots?
Does the first reference in capitals denote an acronym of some kind or is it the discovery of real dots meaning chicken pox invaded the Margo universe?
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2005 10 12 at 02:34 AM • permalink#167 - Perhaps this foreshadows the future in Margolia.
When they run out of fonts, boldered or otherwise, they will have to use dots.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 12 at 02:54 AM • permalinkHey! All right, would someone please tell me what just happened? I walked out of the room and I come back and there’s CAP and ! and 1’s and even some bolds strewn all over the floor. And when I go to the font cabinet to check the Blair stores of font characters, the jars are very low.
Please tell me you people (looks south towards Australia, ignores NZ because everyone pretty much ignores it) did not devolv into a Monty Python skit. Not again.
(hy, why isn’t thr a ” ” in devol?)
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 12 at 03:01 AM • permalinkConserving font enhancements? HAH!!! We evil neo-cons control the world supply of font enhancements!! I personally light my dophin-meat cigars with BOLD FACE TYPE, and wipe my extravagant, protuberant and oppressive bottom with non-biodegradable print characters STOLEN FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
That’s exactly how they caught the former French ambassador to the UN in the oil-for-font scandal. He was seen liberally spending way too much bold and vowels. Sounds like a Frenchie.
It’s only a matter of time before Galloway gets caught. Hell, I thought it was obvious when he used an exclamation mark after every sentence uttered during the debate with Hitchens. I thought at the time “well that looks odd, what, did his aunt in Crete fall down an elevator shaft and left him a bundle of fonts?”
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 12 at 11:47 AM • permalinkm srry bt lst ll f my cptls frmttng pnctn nd vwls brly hv spcs lft fr ths mssge pls snd immdt rpt immdt rspply
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 13 at 02:19 AM • permalinkOnly 20 posts to go, for the double century!
*grits teeth* Time to visit Margolia for some material to keep it going ...
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 13 at 02:55 AM • permalinkIt turns out that Webdiary is controlled by the right-wing.
I have wondered for some time why Webdiary has submitted to the right-wing on this site and banned all discussion on so-called ‘conspiracy theories’. The extreme right-wing Webdiarist, Stuart Lord, has in his latest post confirmed my belief that Webdiary some weeks ago, as a result of threats from Jay White to leave Webdiary and complaints from Craig Warton, effectively shut down debate of some important questions that emerged in both Iraq and from the London bombings.
Sometimes I wonder if the Left even exists at all, or is it just a plot by Lord Rove to keep us busy. Oh well, as long as those black helicopter vouchers keep coming in, who cares?
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 13 at 03:14 AM • permalink#182. i’m glad it’s you reading that webdairy krep and not me, shift eleven.
they wont publish my posts, shift eleven.
not happy marg0, shift eleven.
(help i am out of caps plz send more caps asap).Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 10 13 at 06:07 AM • permalinkEP
Something even stranger. How is the Magrok funding her lunatic site (editing the comments? I mean WTF??). She apparently got a substantial golden handshake/redundancy package from the SMH.
I think she might be funding it herself, with her redundancy money. If so, she is going to bankrupt herself quite quickly (paying people to edit comments with your own money!?. A very serious WTFIMRWTFF moment!). This may explain the idiotic share sale idea presently in play.
She has to be literally around the twist, bananas, two chops short of a barbie and have roo’s looose in the top paddock as well.
I like watching a leftie train wreck as well as the next slavering, baby-bayonetting neocon, but this is beyond surreal.
MarkL
CanberraPS. I have ample stocks as I have been stealing vowels, capitals, punctuation AND italics from the Greens during midnight raids. It is easy, they are all bonged out, blown and buggered (often all three and always by each other) by 2300.
bb brwn nd krry nttl r pssd wth mrkl rght nw
dv s
tgh sht nt gd ngh sbstt fr vwl nd pnctn
mmdt rspply crtcl
pls hlp m pls pls pls pls pls
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 13 at 09:59 AM • permalinkWell I for one say let The Real JeffS remain foisted on his own petard. He could have planned ahead and stretched his supply of vowels. Oh but did he do that? No. He squandered and wasted them in his responses, albeit insightful, to orang and others.
No, that’s jst t bd fr y. Wht? Wht th fck? Whr dd M VWLS G T???
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 13 at 12:59 PM • permalinkm prcdng kyrgyzstn mst drct rt nd fstst spd
gd lck t wrnwrght wh hs srs prblms wth vwls nd pncttn sggst mmdt trp t dwn ndr dv s mks gd pnt n ntl spply f vwls
wll snd rpts whn pssbl mst rch tw hndrd cmmnts n ths thrd
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 13 at 02:36 PM • permalinkI’ve slept on it overnight giving Margo, the webdiary team and Wayne Sanderson time to respond to my emails requesting a copy of Wayne Sanderson’s post where he challenged me to a physical punch up in a post on the The Daily Briefing 13th October thread.
Well my inbox is empty which leaves me with the obvious conclusion that coupled with their fast deletion of that post along with my post where I had spent some time quantifying financially what my concerns where they are covering this up and they want to pretend that it never happened.
Perhaps Wayne or Margo realised a lapse in judgment and hoped that I would not get the chance to read it in the short time it was up on Webdiary but unfortunately for them I did read it and I have since felt shocked and appalled at the spray that Wayne gave me.
The deleted post seems to have quickly been replaced with one that Wayne has obviously written with clenched teeth under instruction for what is deemed appropriate.Wayne Sanderson claims at every turn that he has 25 years experience, is a professional, etc but how professional is it to explode at a fellow contributor claiming I have no moral decency and then stating he’d like to “invite me outside to settle things the old fashioned way”(his words). I’m not going to get into what I think the result of that outcome might be but I’ve always taken the approach in life that you avoid a conflict from having greater strength and I haven’t been “invited outside” many times for that reason. I thought we were fighting the battle of minds in any case which disappoints me immeasurably. Things have gotten way out of hand over at Webdiary and I don’t think I’ll be going be back even if I get an apology, I never expected that I could make a contribution regarding the financial survival of Webdiary which Wayne obviously felt threatened his little lucrative arrangement and be challenged to a fight and be insulted.
Wayne has in all of this stated that he puts in 60hrs a week to churn out his Daily Briefing on Webdiary. If anybody, especially Margo believes Wayne is putting in a 12hr day to produce that I want to show them a nice bridge for sale. It doesn’t pass the smell test.
What I was trying to put across to Margo and the team was that I felt the concept of Wayne becoming the only source of news to the Webdiary readership was only going to result in everybody quoting a limited range of sources for discussion topics. Where is the vibrancy in that? I thought it a much better concept to teach the readership how to setup RSS feeds so that they can tailor their news to their own individual requirements and then bring that broad and diverse knowledge to the different discussion topics. Wayne obviously wants everybody to be and think like him. I don’t need to be told how to think and what to read.
The webdiary contributors obviously take a big back seat to “the team” and I get the distinct impression that if you have a differing view to some of the team then you’re told to move on like Wayne states to me. I notice that Wayne can have a post still up on Webdiary calling me ignorant but it seems I have no right of reply in Wayne’s World.
Even though I wasn’t a regular poster at Webdiary I did for quite a while enjoy reading it’s discussion topics but I’m deleting it from my favourites as it’s not worthy of my time anymore. I can now see that the criticism of Webdiary that has appeared on this site is now very justified.
Ok, I’m pissed. I was forced to go to the bank and cash in my vowel CD that I was saving for a big essay on how Newt Gingrich might win the 2008 election. Now all I’ve got left is enough to write this message and to otherwise say “NUKES FOR NEWT IN 2008!”
Anyway, would somebody go and ask Andrea, very very nicely, for the key to the font cabinet? When you get the key, assuming she didn’t throttle your neck, open the cabinet, and check the vowel jars. I think we have some “u"s left, maybe “y’s, but we sure as hell are low on “a"s, “e"s, and “o"s.
Somebody stole them. I bet it’s the Dutch.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 13 at 07:46 PM • permalinkOr maybe it was AdamS. Dang it Adam, you wrote an essay. On the topic of Webdiary? You stole my vowels!
Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 13 at 07:48 PM • permalinkAdam writes an interesting essay, though.
So this is what a “professional” web media organisation looks like.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2005 10 13 at 08:13 PM • permalinkWell, I made it to kyrgyzstn and resupplied with vowels. And punctuation, too! They had a great special at the local equivalent of Wal-Mart.
But I’ll be more frugal in the future…..
And cool! We hit 200 posts in this thread!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 14 at 12:59 AM • permalinkThe_Real_JeffS:
I remember there was a funny piece in The Onion about that a few years ago. Bill Clinton offering to airlift surplus vowels from parts of Africa (Aoililoia - okay, I made that up but they do have names like that) to vowel-drought blighted Central Asia.
Posted by James Waterton on 2005 10 14 at 04:02 AM • permalinkI remember that article too, James. It started off with a massive airlift of vowels to war-torn Yugoslavia. It had some brilliant lines. :-)
“I have four children, and none of their names is pronouncable by me or anyone else,” Trgr Ztvc wept.
“If they just give me 5 vowels, I can be George Taylor. This is my dream!” Grg Tylr said hopefully.
The Real JeffS,
Yes, but those vowels are Cyrillic. You’re letters will appear backwards.
(oh good lord, we went over 200 comments, now Tim will want to sell out to Margo)Posted by wronwright on 2005 10 14 at 12:57 PM • permalinkI presume WD is currently being funded from Margo’s seperation payment from the SMH, and the as-yet unknown profits from the sale of her NHJ book. That must have sold quite a few copies - I saw it everywhere at the time, it wouldn’t surprise at all me if it made her a couple hundred thou.
And now she’s pouring her whole nest egg into a dot com startup! Who said Margo wasn’t a capitalist? She’ll bury us all!
SORTELLI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, ENGAGING IN ASCII PORN SPAM!?!?!!?!? JGM MAY HAVE BEEN ACCIDENTAL, OR DID YOU MISS THE DANGER QUOTES? I FOR ONE NEVER THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD STOOP SO LOW AS TO WASTE CAPITALS, VOWELS, AND PUNCTUATION ON ASCII PORN SPAM.
THE SHAME OF IT ALL!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 15 at 03:15 AM • permalinkI just realized that “ASCII Porn Spammer” is a really KEWL blog name. Too bad mine is too deeply entrenched within the Blogosphere.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 15 at 07:42 AM • permalinkOn second thought, Sortelli should change his Blogname to “ASCII Porn Spammer”. After all, he invented it.
Andrea The Blogmistress™, can you do an involuntary name change on Sortelli? Wouldn’t want the unsuspecting lurker to be flashed by him, would we?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 10 15 at 07:44 AM • permalinkNo way! You think YOUR name is entrenched? There’s a http://www.sortelli.com, I will have you know! It currently features a fine time waster my brother made out of my old comic.
If I were to surrender the family name as my nom de internet, my brother Joey would surely make off with it.
ALSO: OMG NSFW!!!!!
(.)(.)
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