Mutiny on the Mail & Guardian blog

Blogmark - the first to market with an offering that fused forum-like functionality with blogging to create South Africa's most active and addictive 'citizen journalism' site - has been bedevilled by poor technology and bad communication by blog management, according to bloggers.

After the latest glitch, irate bloggers turned their ire on Blogmark administrators, threatening to migrate to other blogs. Harsh and abusive criticism dogged the blog, while administrators did little, if anything, to communicate with the bloggers.

Ahead of the time

M&G's blog was something of a coup for South Africa, democratising the web with a unique offering that was ahead of its time. A blog-forum hybrid, www.blogmark.co.za offers users ownership over their posts, yet lists blog posts in a communal space encouraging community and conversation. The net effect realises an interesting mix of bloggers (given the nature of the M&G brand) in a dynamic, active and vociferous forum.

Experts agree that the blog is ahead of its time and subsequently has attracted a discerning and active community. "Blogmark invites a technologically-savvy and confident niche audience to share content and ideas that ultimately drives more traffic to M&G online. Should M&G wish to convert traffic to revenue, they'll need to look at a revising the technological model," says communications strategist and blogging expert, Mike Stopforth of TomorrowToday.biz.

"I commend M&G online for an unprecedented attempt to harness the value of the social media juggernaut. For all its limitations, Blogmark is still leaps and bounds ahead of M-Web's ?ber-weak attempt at a blogging community site. That being said, they have invited a community to participate - a community that has reciprocated by driving cheap traffic to M&G online - and need to be aware of the needs of that community."

Shoddy communication

That audience turned on Mail & Guardian's blog administrators, accusing them of shoddy communication after an unannounced technical 'upgrade' robbed the blog of functionality. This is the latest in a series of technical glitches which has frustrated users.

When asked for comment the publisher of Mail & Guardian Online, Matthew Buckland, said that the technology deployed had not been perfect and that the problem was being looked at. "We have had a range of problems, from a security issue where a Brazilian hacker (apparently) downed the site to comment spammers damaging the site. Other than that it has been stable.

"There are always bugs to sort out when we install a new version. With our limited resources we are doing the best we can and we have people looking at it all the time," he said, adding, "We hope that our users understand that we are doing the best we can under difficult circumstances - and we hear each and every comment regarding the site and do consider it."

Sustainable damage?

While M&G is an established, credible and highly respected brand and it is doubtful whether bedlam on M&G's blog would cause any sustainable damage to its brand, marketing experts suggest that M&G would do well to take better care of the online community they have created at www.blogmark.co.za.

Communications expert John Bradfield advises: "Even though M&G is providing a free service they are a reputable media group and should be concerned about how well the blog is functioning because many of the bloggers would be readers of the weekly newspaper too. This is a discerning readership so M&G would not want to upset them too much.

"However, remember that M&G is a very strong media brand given its proud (and credible) history of journalism and this would not really dent the M&G brand."

Internet and content specialist Jarrad Cinman says that M&G should understand their strategy for Blogmark: "The whole idea doesn't seem to have much strategic direction, so as a standalone experimental system, I can't see the harm either way. If I were running it, I'd simply stick a "BETA" label on the brand like Google has done with Gmail, and all would be forgiven. If, however, there is some intention to make this some kind of thriving Citizen Journalism site, then I think they should be concerned because frustrated users will migrate elsewhere."

Unimpressed

Users at Blogmark remain unimpressed:

"Please guys, could maybe just roll back the code a teensy little bit, to what it was before the upgrade? We'll wait patiently for the new features, if we can just have the basic ones back." - Dex.

"Perhaps I am preaching insurrection because I am pissed off by being fobbed off. M&G has made the wrong technology choices, in my opinion." - Gary M.

"Absolutely nothing appears to have changed." - Zephilla.

"The only changes I see are negative." - Tafelberg.

"The M&G site is kinda cool, and then the blog associated with it is a disorganised mess...what kind of image is that projecting?" - Andreas.