Please accept my apologies. I made a mistake this morning. The video on banking was made in April last year. We reissued it because I am on holiday and we did not have enough time, partly because both Thomas and I were just too tired, and we had major IT issues last week, to make sufficient videos before I went away on holiday this week.
The four reissued videos to be published whilst I am away were amongst those that were popular the first time round. This one included a reference to the government's guarantee on bank deposits, noting that the figure was £85,000 at the time that it was made. It is now, of course, £120,000.
Rarely has such an issue ever been the cause of so many comments on the blog this morning. I have deleted many. I am sorry that I got this wrong. At the same time, could I ask that you accept that I can make mistakes and, in this case, the mistake was in reissuing an old video without checking the details?
I have now spent a lot of holiday time addressing this.
There are three ways to deal with this.
One is that there is no material published when I want to take time off.
Another is that I turn off the comments on the blog.
The third, given that I have repeatedly flagged issues around comments and being away, is that more care is taken before posting comments. You are asking to use my time
Right now, it seems to me that the future of this blog, with comments turned on, is increasingly unlikely.
Might I please ask for just a little tolerance and understanding? The alternative is that I will give up.
And please do consider whether your comment is necessary before commenting on this post.
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Richard
Easy for me to say but………..
Looking at ‘Human Factors’ my suggestion might be
1. Dont post when you are away
2. The ‘comments’ are what is creating the ‘Politics of Care’ Community so my suggestion might be to turn them off when you are ‘away’ and make it clear on the Blog.
3. I would suggest and its easy for me to say especially given ‘events’ that you and the team need to take a few days off each week again with some sort of ‘Notice’ think the famous note in the Spectator about Jeffrey Bernard ‘Richard Murphy and team are Resting?’
4. Finally – and I assume this is what you want you need to do whatever is necessary to keep the show in the road
Look after yourself!
Oh & I didnt notice that the banking video was an old one…………..
Hi Richard, I hope you’re enjoying your holiday and taking plenty of time for R&R
I – and I’m sure many other followers – noticed the mistake. But, considering you’d said you were going to re-issue older videos while you were on holiday, I automatically assumed this was one of them – again, as I’m sure many ‘regulars’ did.
The important thing to me was that the views and information were still spot on.
Just a quick suggestion which may be particularly relevant to students etc who discover you… Would you possibly consider a short at some time mentioning specifically that, unless very carefully used, credit cards aren’t your friend either? They’re another form of debt that banks like to keep us in. And a highly profitable one too if not paid off in full.
It may not be the way you’re heading, or just more extra work you can all do without. Just a thought
Noted
Thanks
Even God rested, Richard; so should you and the team.
REST
The merchant’s fees for credit cards are around double, or more, the fees for debit cards. So they are adding significantly to the cost of purchases, maybe around 1% of the value of the goods more than debit cards, which, one way or another, is passed on to the customer. The banks claim it’s because of the higher risks of lending. But of course they also charge interest on credit card debts and that is also partly to cover the same risk! Transparency required. The merchant’s fees should be shown on credit card statements.
oh Richard – you are on holiday – and you need that holiday -as Einstein said ‘ A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new’. I do understand, having made multiple mistakes during my 81 years on earth – we are all human and no one is perfect – I am not perfect, nor are my friends – who wants perfection? Einstein also noted that people will remark on mistakes, but rarely remark on success. Relax and enjoy your holiday please.
Thanks.
To err is human.
It is.
One motivation for posting factual corrections is to help protect the integrity of the blog, given the trolls who would gladly trash it if they could, either here or on social media or YouTube comments.
At this end, we are not aware that a blog/video is a repeat unless it says so – I’m sorry I didn’t pick that up on this occasion.
We also know that mistakes can easily get overlooked.
If comments are “on”, then it is difficult to know that they aren’t actually welcome on that particular day/week. I’m sorry I didn’t pick this up either on this occasion.
I suggest that:
Reissued material is marked as such, so that we know it is reissued.
Comments are turned off when comments are not wanted, eg: at a time of holiday or illness/absence – again, so that your wishes are clear and your down time is protected.
It should be possible to avoid a repetition.
It’s the success of the blog that has caused this problem, not anyone’s failure.
Enjoy your holiday.
Hi Robert,
Thank you for your comment, and for being so fair.
I agree with your conclusion that it is the success of this blog that has caused the problem, and it is not anyone’s failure, but that did not stop me from feeling overwhelmed by the issue yesterday. A blog post is coming on that, because I do appreciate that I was not entirely fair in criticising a small group of commentators yesterday, but there are occasions when something happens that illustrates the need for a bigger change. The issue creating the tipping point then appears disproportionate to the required consequence, and that is what happened yesterday morning. I finally reached the point where I realised that the method of managing comments here at present is unsustainable if I am to do anything else but run the blog.
I accept the criticism that I had not flagged this up. The video was reissued, and you were right that I could have just turned off comments, but the reality yesterday was that I was trying my very best to provide content which people seem to want, and that the demand for this has now outstripped my capacity to manage all the comments that arise as a consequence, meaning that change is required. My suggested response will be outlined in that separate blog post.
Three years ago, this blog’s traffic, and the number of comments, was about one third of what it is today. As you suggest, the problem is one created by success, but it is also created by my own finite capacity and my awareness that I wish to spend more time thinking about policy solutions for the crises we face, and that this creates a personal conflict over my use of time, which I must now resolve.
If my reaction was inappropriate, I apologise. It was an indication of my own recognition that the constraints I have been working under have prevented me from dealing with this issue appropriately since I first recognised it, and that I now need to do so.
Best regards,
Richard
[…] am aware that I posted yesterday in a way that some might think was a little intemperate, or even inappropriate, because what I […]
No real need to apologise, with the phenomenal output of yourself and team this is what can happen. You have reflected rather than ignored, an honest quality.
Enjoy your break.