Just to say that in an effort to improve site loading speed, I have removed my Twitter and also the video bar. I feel these have not worked and some have misunderstood why I placed my Twitter here. I have tried to bring more interactivity, greater responsiveness – including the weekly liveblog – but accept that these haven’t worked as I wanted. We are also planning to restore haloscan comments in the next few days. At that point, I think my work is done.
The essence of this site is BBC bias. I have approached this from MY perspective and angle all blog posts accordingly. I write to my own style which people can love or loath. I know that this sometimes brings trolls and perhaps that brings the site problems. It is not my intention, as I do not control trolls, it is they who haunt me.
In summary, I have come to feel I am more of a liability to this site than an asset and perhaps it can grow without me.
Don’t go!
Sorry that you feel that you have to leave. Thank you for your efforts, I have enjoyed them.
Very sorry to hear that, could you not reconsider? We have so much propaganda in the MSM, especially the BBC that an antidote is not only needed, it is essential.
Derek
DV
stay! dont be silly.
It’s a shame that you feel you’re not welcome here. There might be some who don’t appreciate your input but they don’t speak for other frequenters of this blog, myself included.
Whatever you may decide it’s been a pleasure reading your thoughts and I wish you success further. All the best to you.
I am sure you’re an asset to the site DV. What problems there are may be solved when the Haloscan comments are back. Your thoughts and your humour, as well as your energy, have been more than refreshing- they have been effective. Your insight into the BBC is often powerful. I hope it will continue to be felt here.
David,
I must say that the redesign has put me off visiting this blog a little bit. It’s just not the same as the old minimalist look, which was working just fine as far as I could see.
I gather you have had some bad comments directed at you for you to threaten to leave?
I would ignore them if I were you and just get on with the job of destroying the BBC, which is very, very important!
Don’t be silly. So what if you’ve got a few obsessive enemies with nothing better to do than follow you around the intertubes making fools of themselves. Are you going to let them win? Fuck that. Here’s a straw: suck it up.
The BBC may be as irrelevant as it is an anachronism as it is partisan, and more and more people are realising it, but it’s still a long way from dead. Your efforts are still required.
Don’t abandon ship, David Vance. Your steering has sometimes been a bit erratic in my opinion, but we didn’t hit any rocks and overall it’s been good to have you at the helm.
You have contributed a great deal of energy and commitment towards the site and it would be a pity if you moved on. Anyway, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I guess you could always keep the option to post here open.
Biased-BBC can also grow with you, when you think about it.
Thanks for improving the site speed. It’s now loading about three times as fast for me.
And great news about Haloscan.
David,
Don’t leave. Remember – the fact you are getting flak means you are winning!
We need you here. Keep up the fight.
Blog formats are meaningless. It’s the content that counts.
David,
I stumbled across this site last year after about 25 years of talking to myself (metaphorically-speaking) about just how rotten and biased the BBC is.
Now I find lots of other people feel the same way & I started blogging a few weeks ago with the aim of giving you ammunition (in the form of evidence) for you to fire at our common enemy – the Beeboids.
No-one can spot everything & many eyes are needed (given how much bias pours out of our state broadcaster). (Also, it's great to get it off your chest).
You've been on the end of some very nasty comments recently. Do you think we regard them with anything other than contempt? Reasoned disagreement can be stimulating. Abuse from shits isn't. Trolls, like the poor, will always be with us (with or withour you).
Please ignore them & please think again.
I love reading your stuff (even when I don't agree with it!)
P.S. I've taken to the new format like a duck to water (as John Humphrys might say). I've surprised myself with that.
In summary, I have come to feel I am more of a liability to this site than an asset and perhaps it can grow without me.
Rubbish David, and I thought I was supposed to be the certifiably paranoid one.
Generally I find your work here of high quality and an improvement on what was before.
At least you read the comments.
However it would perhaps be better if we could have 2 major posters, one with a more alternative perspective. Although please be assured your own are well observed, written and respected by myself, along with the vast majority of others.
David
I too don’t think you should leave. You have added lots of energy, and greatly enlivened the site. And certainly you should not leave because of any trolls.
“In summary, I have come to feel I am more of a liability to this site than an asset and perhaps it can grow without me”
No, David, before you joined the teem I hardly ever visited this site as the site was boring and bland and so many comments were being deleted I got the impression an ex BBC employee was running the site. I enjoy your strait forward approach and you are one of the few writers that recognises the BBC propaganda and its threat to our British traditions and way of life.
David Vance Your Resignation will not be accepted Britain needs you to continue the fight otherwise we may become the minority in OUR Britain.…
Fuck off. On yer bike – take a hike.
Don’t slam the door on yer way out.
You’re just so wrong, David – you’re needed now more than ever!
This is in no way to decry the sterling work of your antecedents, but the site could never have grown to its present height without you!
But if you are determined to go, many, many thanks for all your efforts, and all best wishes for the future.
Stop playing the martyr. Pray, continue.
Of course you should stay – I see most of the bias you write about, but you can put it into words better than I can.
Ignore the trolls, they are just cowards, especially now they hide behind “anonymous” on these boards.
David,
Everyone (almost) on here seems to agree that you have helped to re-vitalise this site; I can see that you have a lot on your plate what with ‘Tangled Web’, the biased BBC book project, media appearances, etc.
Perhaps some notion of ‘rotating editorship’ months might be worth a try. Please don’t depart for wrong reasons.
David, I can only begin to imagine how difficult the job of running this site would become in the long haul.
Efforts like yours are often thankless. I’ve really appreciated your posts and think you deserve congratulations for your intelligence and your efforts to improve the site.
Having said that I should also note that while those vile bastards are still spewing their biased garbage, your voice is still desperately needed.
MAN UP!
Will Jones
The new look is great, David. I think you should keep the Twitter feed too – there are less intrusive and bandwidth-hungry tools ou there, which can show the feed on the site as simple plain text – which should have a smaller impact on load speed – do a little research.
Ignore the haters – who appear to be accusing you of bigotry whilst their own childish ad-hom posts positively drip with it.
Keep up the good work.
I must add my voice to those asking David not to leave.
Aside from your incisive comments on BBC bias, it was you who healed the great rift caused by the previous occupant of the throne.
Under your guidance, the blog has gone from strength to strength and the appearance of a few irritating trolls is to be expected – light in the darkness always attracts moths.
Please reconsider your decision. Your efforts are much appreciated, as the comments here show.
Couple of comments deleted above for gratuitous abuse.
I think Mr Vance should leave. I’ve been commentating on this site now for some time. Since Mr Vance’s tenure here the reason for the site, bias at BBC, has become secondary to his opinions on politics, disguised to look like BBC bias.
Mr Vance’s opinions are not the opinions of the majority of the British people. Our qualities of tolerance, room for all views is lacking in his posts. He has deleted perfectly reasonable comments from me because they did not fit HIS view, even tho they were perfectly in line for the site before his elevation here as a poster.
He didn’t even comment here, was simply drafted in from accross the water where he seems to disagree with peace and reconcilliation in a divided society in Northern Ireland.
He has removed my comments on his N.Ireland posts, even though I, a former serving soldier, for Queen and Country, believe that the peace process over there is a welcome development.
For those reasons I think he is a dangerous liability to this site. His views on peace and tolerance are obnoxious, no one will ever take this site seriously while he remains here.
Let him go.
Mr Vance you are a dangerous link.
Goodbye.
I haven’t got round to commenting sice the new look site went up – but now I have to!!
David, don’t be daft, boy.
sigh
Another post to fish for comments.
These posts usually take the format of ‘site traffic has increased since I have come here’, now its ‘I’m off due to some silly comments’.
Does this guy have some sort of attention defecit? Depression? Something like that?
See a doctor old chap.
Someone has impersonated me at 7.09pm.
I have absolutely no idea why.
Bye.
PS: Perhaps one of the moderators could remove that post at 7.09 and ban that ip address. Thanks.
ooohhh pleazze beg me to stayThis is a ploy by a hollow man.
Slither back below the rock you crawled from under.
if david vance leaves we will be back to the one post a month senerio we had before he came to this site which sucked to be honest.
and this
7:28 PM, May 30, 2009
His views on peace and tolerance are obnoxious, no one will ever take this site seriously while he remains here.
No one ? what about me! i take this site seriously,have done for about four years,I think it was a guy called andrew who acted as steward in those days,davids done a good job (in my opinion)of revitalising this blog and keeping it interesting,i’d rather let you go.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Why do trolls follow this guy? How come he’s made so many enemies?
Begone!
So you are off then?
Do drop by and comment, and feel free to visit us here.
“Why do trolls follow this guy? How come he’s made so many enemies?”
Because the trolls are Lefty’s and the Left always want to silence anyone that has a different opinion to their fascism. Never understood why the Left hate their own country so much and sympathise with Tyrants and terrorist groups. Then again those Trolls could well be some of those overseas guests we have in Britain?
8:17 PM, May 30, 2009
8:19 PM, May 30, 2009
8:22 PM, May 30, 2009
8:27 PM, May 30, 2009
You are joey deacon and i claim my five pounds.
I’m not sure I believe DV has any intention of leaving the site — he just wants his ego stroked, and knows that there are enough acolytes in the comments to do the job for him.
As I’ve said before, I believe Biased BBC would be stronger with fewer posts, sourced in facts rather than the opinion of one man. If DV were to leave, the chances of that happening would be drastically improve.
These would be the ‘facts’ which you and your fellow BBC-loving trolls refuse to accept when they are routinely presented, would it, ScottM?
Here’s a deal for you. Why not let us run a poll and see which of you wins?
The loser folds his tent and goes.
Penny to a pound you would be gone in an instant.
A new crop of IP addresses to deal with, which shouldn’t be a problem. Was that the idea all along?
Getting rid of Twitter is a smart move too. Better use of space would be to put the Jay/Marr/Paxman quotes there, i.e., upfront where they belong.
The site has many limitations; few if any are down to you. Little point, then, in spending time gazing at the navel. That’s easy to say; the frustrations must take a toll.
Quite likely the site will die if you leave. It’s appeal as a continuing prop for oversized egos is certainly limited.
I agree with Scott, Idon’t think this fellow has any intention of leaving, its simply an ego massage he wants. Once he gets it and feels better he’ll be up front posting as before.
Of course there will be the necessary stoppage from him first. He’ll stop and then everyone will cry out David Vance come back.
Anyhow we did fine without him when he was of in Cyprus, and we’ll do fine without him now.
He’ll be shouting how much site traffic has improved since he’s come back.
Truthfully I think this fellow is lonely, a bit like a man in a shed. And the internet is this guys shed. He has no friends presumably and takes refuge here,looking upon anonymous people as friends. It’s sad.
He’s nothing better to do so he won’t leave, he needs the site more than the site needs him, as he rightly says he is a liabliity.
Some of these anonymous comments are absolutely disgraceful. I guess they know they should be ashamed of themselves and thats why they hide behind anonymity.
If it was me I would keep pressing the delete key.
I think the loss of the current main author is unlikely to be beneficial to the blog.
I have to say I was attracted to site originally as much by the ideas here that I had not come across elsewhere as by the information on the BBC (that I trusted up to about a year ago).
You have to have an idea of how things might be viewed differently in order to know something is biased.
I’m not sure but I think a couple of blogs have alternate quick loading version – not something I know anyhting about. The load speed doesnt bother me in any case.
This is a terrible thread.
Chin up DV!
David Vance: Perhaps a trial separation? Write less and moderate more?
BTW I want a discount on the book when it comes out.
One doesn’t need to be an expert in textual and stylistic analysis to work out that several of these supposedly individual commenters busily sniping at David Vance are nothing of the sort.
The spelling, grammar, style and content show they are, clearly, written a tiny number of (barely literate) malcontents, some of whom do not even seem to be motivated by Mr Vance’s views on the BBC but his position on Ulster.
These people are cowards and trolls. They lack the courage even to invent names and they try to pretend they are many, when they are few.
Generally speaking (particularly as a sometime refusenik) I am against banning people but there is self-evidently a case for the judicious application of some DDT here.
A tiny number of blocked IP addresses and we’d be rid of these tiresome little bugs for good.
This is what I think –
By and large the new website is good and I for one very much appreciate the effort that has gone into the re-vamp (Remember the calls to ‘update’ the look of the old site).
The comments system is different but not unusable. The previous Haloscan comment facility was easier to use but it was occasionally unstable although the new/unread comments count was a great feature.
I look forward to Question Time live debate – always good for a laugh and almost makes QT entertaining .
DV’s posts, or anyone else’s for that matter, are an invitation to participate in a debate – nothing more. Nobody has to agree with them. If anyone disagrees with the post,
they can and should comment. I read the site far more often than I post comments and actually look forward to seeing comments contrary to the opinion of the post even if
I might disagree with them. All opinions should be tested and counter arguments welcomed. However, hit and run comments from ‘anonymous’ trolls are worthless and
should be ignored.
I like to see new posts every day. Do you remember when, before DV started posting, postings were few and far between and threads of hundreds comments were common ?
If you don’t like the ones that appear, there is an invitation on the home page to ‘Get in Touch’ so you can suggest examples of BBC bias for discussion.
The BBC is massively powerful and incredibly arrogant whilst the individual Licence Fee payer is impotent.
Biased BBC is useful in reminding us that not everyone thinks that the sun shines out of the BBC’s arse.
To all those who post here, please carry on. I, for one, appreciate your efforts.
Dave in Mancester.
What the bloody hell are you talking about Mr. Vance. Your posts have been excellent – I’ve been reading this site for a year and a half and have always been informed and entertained by them. By all means there may well have been the occasional turkey but can anyone think of ONE blogger who publishes daily who hasn’t made the odd mistake now and then?
Screw the trolls. Every single political blog on the web has them. Just look at an excellent site like Pajamas Media, which features some of the best writing and best blog comments in the conservative blogosphere. It’s also teeming with cackling leftists whose only contribution is to bleat, hoot and bray at anything remotely conservative. They coordinate their efforts via left wing blogs and launch attacks. They always have done and they always will do. This blog has its regular prodders and so do most other blogs. Who cares? If someone’s flooding the place with non-constructive insults and pointless mockery then just ban their IP. It’s as simple as that.
If you give up, the trolls have won. You get some nasty comments here but they are usually dealt with very capably by yourself and others, and no one is fooled. Some one needs to be doing this work; it is too important to let drop. If you do stop, I should like to thank you for what you have done.
David
I think your problem has been quantity – just keeping up with us all must be difficult and time consuming.
Have you time to still contribute if we don’t expect so much. Please continue. We and the rest of the country need the efforts that people such as you are prepared to give
Thank you for what you have done to date – and I hope we keep hearing from you