Site Update April 2020

It has been a while since I have posted anything about the site performance or plans for the site, so this is overdue. Once I upgraded the server last year I did not have to worry so much about traffic patterns and so forth. I now have plenty of bandwidth and horsepower to avoid having the site tip over. The nice thing about the current age is you can always get more disk, memory and bandwidth. In the coming crash, I expect the prices for server space to collapse with everything else.

For reasons I have never understand, March is the busiest month of the year in terms of traffic and number of comments. This March saw over 220,000 unique visitors to the site, after netting out robots, crawlers and so on. I credit some of the increase to longevity, as I’ve been at this for seven years. Some of it due to fewer people writing in this format. We are up to our eyeballs in YouTube performers, but very few people write short essays anymore. It is an under-served audience.

As far as the podcast, I have no way of knowing how many people listen every week, as the metrics are pretty much useless. YouTube provides stats, but I’ve seen my listen counts go backward, so something is wrong there. Maybe when they ban people they ban their history. Spreaker’s numbers are an estimate, but I don’t think many people use their app or site. iTunes is probably the top platform for consuming audio, but they don’t provide data to you unless you pay them for it.

The only thing I can go on is the number of people who tell me they recognize my voice or e-mail about the show. Having an unusual sound, something I never knew until I started this, means people will just walk up to me and ask me if I’m the man behind the podcast. It’s happened in Europe and here, so I guess that means a lot of people on this side of the divide listen at least a little. I get a lot of e-mail about old shows, so people must be going back through the catalog too.

On the media front, some people have suggested I give D-Live a try. I’m not a fan of consuming video, so I have no interest in doing video, but our folks are doing what amounts to radio talk shows on the D-Live platform. I’ve listened to White Art Collective on there from time to time. Fuentes is now their biggest act, so it would say the tolerance levels are much higher on D-Live than other platforms. I’m thinking a Saturday night or Friday night show would be fun, but I’m open to suggestions.

Similarly, request lines are open on the podcast, as far as topics. I like to do a commentary about the news once a month and a world report once a quarter or so, but otherwise I just do what comes to mind the Sunday before the show. I’m getting requests to read and review books from small publishers lately, so I thought doing a show on a book or books might be fun. I did a show on Shapiro’s book a while back and that got a good response, but that may just be because I trashed him.

As far as the site, on the drawing board for over a year has been a plan to modernize it a bit, but time is my enemy. Some suggested a message board for donors, which is a possibility. Someone else suggested a badge for donors in the comment section, which seems like a good idea. I’ll need to do some coding for that, which is why it has not happened yet. Again, time is my enemy. I like the plain style I use, so I will not be doing any big changes on that front. Plain site. Plain language.

The travel schedule has been squashed for this year, I think. All events I was expected to attend have been postponed indefinitely. This summer I hope to escape Lagos, but this lock down could delay that depending on what happens with economy. There’s rumblings that the mortgage market is in trouble, so house buying could be a totally different thing in a few months. Even so, if I do escape, travel will be out of the question for a while, so I probably will not be on the road for the rest of the year.

The floor is now open…


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136 thoughts on “Site Update April 2020

  1. Z, I love the “Plain site[, p]lain language” approach you take. Your essays are the perfect length—just when I start thinking, “okay, how much more is there,” I’m getting to the penultimate (or antepenultimate) paragraph.

    The podcast is excellent. I’m always amazed how you make each segment almost exactly ten minutes, and the whole thing exactly an hour. I usually will listen to the podcast a minimum of three times over the weekend, time-permitting. I listen on YouTube, as it’s just the easiest way to consume it.

    Your old podcast on fascism was really fascinating. The metaphor of restoring an old house really resonated with me, as I grew up in an old Queen Anne-style home that my parents renovated with a lot of sweat equity. Everyone thought my folks were crazy to buy a dilapidated house; no one things that now. That said, I’d be interested in hearing another deep dive into fascism–maybe Franco’s Spain? It’s an engaging topic.

    I look forward to your daily posts (I’m always on the lookout for the notification on Telegram that the day’s post is up).

    Keep up the great work! If you do move, I highly recommend South Carolina, my home. Traditional, conservative, and affordable. We have beaches and mountains, and lots of great seafood and Southern cooking. The girls are prettier here than anywhere else, too, and people are friendly. But then, I’m biased.

    God Bless, and Happy Easter!

  2. If you’re fixing to set up on dlive, I’ll say we have a good size community of our guys over there, who most definitely would need more grounded voices such as your own. I too am a medium-length essay guy, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed livestreaming.

    Two of us counter-currents authors stream here, our show’s called The Writers’ Block. Feel free to drop in any time you like, Z. We’d be happy to have you.

    https://dlive.tv/Fullmoon-ancestry

  3. Z: You mentioned a while ago your gun position. Its probably a fruitful topic you dont hit much (i often listen to the podcast while reloading). What role can gun shop culture play in our thing, how are guns as a cultural symbol involved in our thing, is hunting an inherently our thing activity and why/why not, what can we learn from the nra’s past failures and successes, what does our enemy (John Brown gun club, antifa with AKs) do with guns and how does that interface with the typical lib grabbers…

  4. hey Zman, a spot on what the hell happened to the USPS would interest me, I go in there and it looks like east Germany, with black “girls” who have 4 inch fingernails, blond hair and smartphones in front of them. I hadn’t been in one in a long time. I started doing a little ebay thing recently and I don’t think I’m going back there again .

  5. Have you considered BitChute? They don’t seem to censor and the platform is getting more robust.

    As for badges, I’d give ‘em low priority. We don’t need no stinking badges.

  6. If it ain’t broke…….
    Your site is daily morning ritual now.
    First found it through a link from a UK blogger and still follow links to your older posts.
    Thankyou.

  7. Struck by sudden epiphany the Statists have sucked Trump into his own preferred venue of Reality TV show;
    COVID-19, where he leads a team of experts to conquer a dreaded disease….while meanwhile they install dictatorship of the experts in the background.

    This is exactly reversing Trump’s usual move of playing the media off against his antics while he governed in the background.

    It’s late, I’m tired and being paranoid, right?

  8. My two cents, fwiw, agree that you’re filling a shrinking space with the essay format. It seems, to me, a more in depth and engaging format than the wild gesticulations on video. Also, I like the Liddy style news commentary, you have a good talent for cutting through BS.
    Good luck getting out of Lagos. I myself am hoping I didn’t wait too long to get out of the northern NE, especially now that the New Yorkers have started to move in. Maybe I can get one of them to pay a premium on my house and acreage. Interesting times indeed.

    • Very long term, a day may come when civilized people again want to live in the great old cities like NYC. Possibly, it would be highly dependent on what the laws of the new government are… 😀

  9. I’m kind of new around these parts,( negro public radio) convert. aka we hate white men radio. so I just want to thank Zman for his hard work, the podcast are epic ! I read the blog daily. I read some of the comments. a lot of them are well written and on point or counterpoint. when I loose interest in the direction of the thread, I just don’t read further. up/down vote I’m not too crazy about . keep going Zman !, I hope you don’t change it up.

  10. Idea! No, wait, this is sterling, an absolute necessity.

    A button that plays a clip from Monty Python’s Holy Grail- the King saying, “shut up, will you just shut up!!”

    We’ll call it the Alzaebo button- for overwhelmingly obvious reasons.

  11. I am not sure a badge is a good idea, unless it is very subtle. Maybe you could implement a feature for subscribers where they can subscribe to replies without email confirmation using their SubscribeStar somehow. Things which offer a little convenience.

  12. We don’ need no sting-king bajzhes

    Update: Dagnab it, Vizzini! Curses, foiled again!

    Okay, we don’ need no sting-king video

  13. I feel like Z Man got pissed off about Vdare buying that castle; you could hear it in his tone when speaking about it. And now he’s trying to hold out until he’s better compensated. I can respect that. Keep it up Z Man. We’re proud of you.

  14. I seem to recall discussion of an upcoming Z-book. I don’t think I’m alone in requesting that whatever you do (and as stated above, your own instincts have served you well so far), please don’t let it distract from that book we’re all eagerly waiting for.

  15. I’m a reader and use podcasts etc while driving when I gather reading is frowned upon. Don’t have a problem with length – I’m pretty sure I can read faster than you can write.
    Site’s fine but would benefit from some of Unz’s comment management wizardry re commenters history etc.
    No video, please.
    The DR is really light on face to face and I have no useful suggestions as to how to overcome the obstacles and risks. Open a chain of gunstores as a front?

  16. If you did a video talking head show I honestly would never see it. I don’t have time to sit in front of my computer or hold my phone in my face for 30+ minutes just to watch a guy talk.

    But audio podcasts I consume all day long while working. Yours are a weekly must-listen. Occasionally I miss something when I have to concentrate on a calculation or a saw cut (I make furniture), but the rest of the time what I do is like driving–can listen and drive screws or sand at the same time.

  17. The missus and I had set up a fabulous tour of Austria in May. Everything went down the drain, mainly because the airline changed our flight so that we had to fly into Paris instead of Munich. Austria is shut tight. Deal breaker. What a hassle. Good luck, Z. Should be an interesting year.

    • I bet when things open up, you can do the same trip for 1/2 the price. seriously 🙂

  18. I read your site and catch your podcast on You Tube. Enjoy both. Sometimes it’s hard to find a post I am looking for in the messages Other than that I think the format is fine.
    I would enjoy a once a month live questions show of some kind.
    Great content here.

  19. Why is March different? Years ago I used to see an annual publication showing how many items of a certain product sold in which month, at least in the UK. The weird thing was that for some reason tape recorders (yes, this was back in the seventies) sold most in March compared to any other month.

    I knew this must be true as the first tape recorder my father bought for me was in, er, March one year.

    • In my business life, I’ve often had to tackle the problem of seasonality. It almost always makes sense once you account for how seasons change behavior. For example, Florida tourism does better when it is very cold and snowy in the Northeast. I’m at a lose as to why March would make people more interested in this stuff. Maybe the change in sunlight hours makes people more energetic. Traffic does decline slowly through spring into July, the slowest month. Then it ticks back up and gets close to March levels during the holidays. Then it falls off for winter.

      • Do you have any data on intra-day traffic?

        Is the March phenomena a function of the fucking around with the clock?

      • Could it be that, unlike Julius Caesar, people expect something bad to go down in March and have come to rely on your diagnostic skills? Before the Wuflu freakout, “Beware the Ides of March” was a very tired cliché yet still conveyed a grain of truth.

      • March is also “the cruelest month” (poet said?) and this certainly applies in Z’s latitude (I grew up just S of Lagos) so I know the climate. In March, it’s not unusual to get cold, damp, rain, sleet or a small snow, and a few days later (or earlier) you’ll have a few days of sunny pre-Spring, with emerging flowers, bugs and suchlike entities. Literally, around DC, March (or even Feb.) can give you anything from a foot of snow (gone in a day), to 90 degree summer weather. Usually of course it’s something in the middle of those extremes. Of course, the same thing happens lots of places, just called April, May, etc. 🙂

  20. Please, moderate the comment section, delete the upvote/downvote feature, and impose a limit on the number of comments a participant can post in a day.

    You write and speak eloquently about the need for people on this side of the river to be a Prince among Men and the reasonable voice in the room as mechanisms to provide normies who are starting to Notice with a sane space full of high-quality, reasonable, and thoughtful people to consider a view of the world from this side of the river. However, as your audience has expanded the comment section has degraded significantly, both in terms of content and language. The comment section now fails miserably in these objectives. Normies who are rowing across the river and who visit this blog are now likely to scroll through the comment section, write this place off as a ghetto for racists, misogynists, and haters, and turn around and row back. Somewhat ironically, the comment section is actively undermining the cause you purport to advance in this blog.

    I blame a significant part of the degradation in the comment section on on the upvote/downvote feature. People who comment like getting upvotes, and the comment section has become something of a contest to see who can get the most upvotes by making the edgiest comment. I’ve been reading this blog daily since 2014. I used to learn things reading the comment section, but for the most part that’s no longer the case. There may be some good comments, but it’s become a chore wading through the dreck to find that hidden jewel.

    Another part of the degradation is due to the fact that the comment section is being taken over by a relatively small group of people who post excessively. The post on April 2 has 379 comments as I am writing this. There is a small group of commenters who have over 20 comments each, most of which are simply sniping at each other. This is precisely the kind of dreck that has made the comment section unbearable. If a reader is posting more than 3-5 comments per day they are probably just shitposting or sniping, which is a value subtractor.

    Finally, a comment about writing. A writer has to be cautious and cognizant that you will reap in your audience and in the comment section that which you sow in your writing. Steve Sailer morphed his writing style from a fairly straightforward analytical/statistical style to a style laced heavily with snark. His comment section is now largely a clown car parade of morons competing to make the pithiest comment. It’s worse that Twitter. Similarly, Vox Day’s writing has become far angrier and conspiratorial, and his comment section is now an unreadable morass of conspiracy theory freaks.

    As a regular reader since 2014, I feel like this blog is coming to a fork in the road and you are going to have to make some difficult decisions. If your goal is to grow your audience as much as possible then you are probably on the right course. But if your goal is to attract the kind of high-quality people that might be useful to a nascent political movement, then a course correction is probably required. I used to refer people to this blog, but I will no longer do so because the comment section has become so vile.

    • Concern Troll says Steve Sailer needs his writing advice, Vox Day is Alex Jones, and this site is “vile?”

      FWIW, Unz Review is fairly strict on multi-posting etc… since recently and it hasn’t really changed. Still no shortage of TLDR Bohemian Grove stuff, but we don’t see Ron having a hissy-cow, and his numbers are growing. His commenters post stuff well beyond any “vile” content found here.

      Sounds like you’re over the target, Z – you’re catching the right flak.

    • I’m –partly– in agreement with this especially re: volume of comments. But I think what Guest is suggesting sound a bit draconian as heavily moderated comments tend to suck in a different way from my experience.

      I’ve said that I have kept myself very limited here in that I only post if I have something semi-insightful / profound. I think this is a good rule of thumb. I get the fact that everyone has a lot to say but I do think 10-12 posts from a single person can be excessive -especially- if they are ‘top level’ (i.e. not replies).

      Self-policing is the indicator of high intelligence and being well adjusted, and this commentariat is at the high end of that like the old Takimag section. There has been a degradation but not as acute as our ‘guest’ would make it out to be.

      The upvote/downvote is also a double edged sword for certain. I’m very conflicted about it myself and really don’t see a solution for it that would satisfy all sides of the argument.

      • Thank you for the compliment to the Takitariat. This is the only comments section I have been able to find that favorably compares. Easy to use, unlike Unz’s Byzantine mess with which I refuse to try to engage.

      • Up/Down is a form of engagement and gives Z a means to take the temperature of his audience on given topics. I don’t see anyone here angling for up-votes or trolling-down and no one is triggering over down-votes. Net positive, but not essential if Z’s otherwise inclined.

        • I do like up/down- it stifles my own urge to make too many and useless comments.

          Yeah, yeah, I know. Gee whiz.
          (and thanks, Frip, I needed that)

      • What WATV said re: Taki.
        Speaking of which: a once/week podcast – no matter what the content – beats any of Taki’s testosterone, alchhol fueled meadrings of his memory lane.

    • I agree that there are now too many comments to read and that this wasn’t the case a few months ago. I would support a limit on the number of comments a person can make per post. This would encourage each commenter to make every shot count.

      With playful respect to Guest I reply, “you say, ‘racists, misogynists, and haters’ like they’re bad things.”

    • There are some guys who post here A LOT. But even when I disagree with them I enjoy the comments and the interaction. Especially at this moment when I am trying to teach kids math “from a distance”.

      Some interaction is good. I would do more myself but life, work, dying mother, and other things get in my way.

      This site would be MUCH BETTER if several of you would UPS me some toilet paper. 🙂

    • Vox moderates his blog like a demon and it hasn’t done him a stitch of good, other than making him look foolish. If you want to see someone that can turn the normies off – that’s your boy. If you watch him long enough, you will see that he doubles down, lies, and projects. He also displays all the traits of the gamma male that he claims to despise. I won’t take him seriously. His blog is less of a regular read for me now, and more of a pit stop. He’s getting stale with his MENSA warrior act too.

      There is always going to be content you disagree with on any site. What I like about this one is that I am relatively free to disagree as long as I am not a dink about it. The guys reciprocate. Toning it down to appeal to cucks would probably destroy it. Who wants that? I come here to read the edgy stuff, to think out loud and listen to others do the same.

      I hope it stays that way.

  21. I second those above who opt for minimal change. I like your short essay format and read them most days, along with the comments. I also listen to your Friday podcasts and enjoy them. I do like the idea of an occasional book review segment.

  22. This is a quality blog, even when I disagree w the host. If I were to suggest something it would not exactly be original but it has been gradually dawning on me in real time that population replacement is the issue on the DR I care the most about. I think it is the most important and devastating. How do we deal with that? What can be done to stop it? Given that whites WILL become minority in the United States, what does that mean on the ground level?

  23. With the mortgage market imploding people well positioned to buy a house might be able to get good deals when this is over. I on the other hand might not do so well given this house I bought in better times might lose value leaving me owing more than this place is worth. Oh well, maybe hyperinflation might kick in and I can pay the place off with a wheelbarrow full of worthless Fiat in a year or so, assuming I still have a job.

    • Cynically offered: Don’t overlook what happened in the housing bust of 2008-? Homeowners with a mortgage suddenly worth more than the property either just walked away or more strategically, just stayed in place and sometime for years before eviction. At times because the lenders didn’t even have a deed or proof of the mortgage. Not everybody wants a foreclosure on their credit report, but if this downturn is as bad as 2008’s, a lot of real estate is going to be frozen/bad mortgages again. If you’re suddenly unemployed and the cash flow is gone, why pay the mortgage? Already millions are in this fix, and while deferring the rent and utilities for a while (interest accrues? Must they pay it back?) or sending everybody a $1200 check are happy pills, the underlying debt won’t vanish so easily.
      Uncle Sam won’t bail out everyone. The crooked mortgage lenders, yes, but not the stupid borrowers. And once again, the citizens who practiced sensible financial practices, living in a paid-in-full home, are screwed by the bad behavior of others and worst, such rot abetted by the government itself. The good intentions still lead to the same place, whether the road is a mule trail or an 8 lane brand-new freeway 🙂

  24. I like things as they are too, Z. I am not a fan of podcasts but I do listen to yours on Spreaker every a Friday. They are ordered and presented as a formal talk and I like that you go to the effort to do that. I like Scott Adams but his style drives me nuts. You have to listen to too much prattle to get the good stuff, and while he does have something to say… his signal to noise ratio is maddening.

    Wouldn’t mind seeing a talk show format with a high profile guest, maybe. Cornelius Rye from Gab comes to mind.😉👍

  25. You might consider breaking the podcast videos into individual segments. That way individual pieces can become “classics” with a life of their own on the platforms. As it is now, they’re “locked” into the podcast.

    Or maybe just pull out the “higlight” segments that are on evergreen subjects that won’t become dated.

  26. I like your plain site and plain podcasts. Content is the reason I read and listen. Video doesn’t interest me at all as it requires me to anchor to a screen. Although reading requires screen time it’s a cerebral process that needs focus…not so much with listening as I can do other things.

  27. I’d say the site is fine as-is; that being said it can be a little difficult to follow who’s replying to who on longer threads.

  28. Short essays are the way to go. Radio Derb in his National Review days started it all for me and podcasts. I found the Z a few years ago through the Derb. Dissidents gravitate towards each other.

    • It’s weird, there’s a sort of symbiosis between derb, Z, and Greg Johnson of counter currents. They laud and homage each other quite a bit. I wonder what the connection between them is.

      • Both John and Greg are friends of mine. We don’t agree on all things, of course, but there’s a lot of overlap.

        • I do wonder about the Derb-Johnson nexus. If they’ve conversed, I would love to have eavesdropped.

          • Yes, very similar order of intellect among those. It worries me that no new pundits are arising to fill their shoes. It gives credence to the idea that we are getting dumber as a people. I mean there are some ardent young guns like Fuentes, but no one with the general intellectual heft outside politics, or the academic credentials. Of course they may be waiting in the weeds somewhere.

  29. “Greatest Hits” list still top thing we want.

    Absolutely scandalous that a lot of top guys–Sailer, Derbyshire, Zman–haven’t made any attempt to anthologize.

    You have so much content only the hardiest (or most unemployed) souls would hack it all, but surely there are some gems back in the mists of time?

  30. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

    Best website on the internet by far. Love it the way it is.

    Cheers Z and co.

    • You are reaching big numbers. CNN doesn’t get that many unique visitors that are actually engaged. Congratulations! Don’t change. If your site suffers from the additional work on a show, and I would have to think it would, it would be a real shame.

  31. I like when you discuss old books (e.g. Belloc). If you’re up for book reviews, how about ‘old book reviews’? Severian recently turned me on to Elmer Gantry. So much we don’t know we don’t know anymore.

      • Yeah, I’m 90% of the way through it (easy read), and Solomon was right, there really is nothing new under the sun.

        I believe Severian’s point regarding it is to understand how powerful *preaching* is – “Don’t argue, don’t present “facts,” and for God’s sake don’t try to “reason” with them. Preach at them.”

        • Yes, all is vanity, a striving after the wind 🙂 I’m no believer, but in younger years I read the good book. My favorite book has always been Ecclesiastes because he is the most pessimistic, perhaps Stoic, writer. Hey if it was good for nothing else, the Byrd’s song “Turn” based on it.

    • Daniel Defoe’s classic (1750’s – looking back a century) “Journal of the Plague Year” springs to mind for some reason.
      As I previously pointed out, some entrepreneurial soul whipped out a new paperback edition in early March this year. On Amazon $10 or so

  32. Videos can be irksome as you can’t skim. When they’re not edited they’re too long, and when they’re very edited they seem phony. I really appreciate the short essay format.

  33. No worries on the “badge” for $$$ contributors. Think we pay for the quality content, not a cluster of glowing electronic status symbols on a website.

    Keep up the good work.

    • Ditto the “glowing electronic status symbols.” Don’t turn this into Caddyshack.

  34. Congrats on your success! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Maybe add occasional book review. For me, coffee with Z to kick start my brain each day. Podcast is great and I multitask while listening. Many of us have come together through you. Stay strong, my friend!

  35. D-Live booted some of their spicier guys like Randbot last year but they still have content that’s pretty far beyond anything we get up to here. IIRC, that happened around the time of the Great Shoahening from YouTube that took down James Allsup and others.

    Having a cross-platform presence is probably the best way to go for all that it dilutes the brand somewhat.

    We’ve discussed here before how the trend towards video is a generational thing. I’m never going to be a “video first” person in terms of consuming content but creation-wise if I did an “open” site I’d do video & pod content just because so many people under 40 consider this format the equivalent of grandpa’s newspaper now.

    I still and always will love reading > viewing. In these dark days without text-search-for-video, I don’t have the patience to watch hour-long clips to find the nuggets I’m looking for and the topical “table of contents” we’ve developed to substitute is still vastly unsatisfying. It’s a giant PITA for creators who spend hours queuing up clips and other pre-fixing only to have clunky Windows 10, Twitter vidya etc… wreck their prep.

    I’m similarly dubious re: travel. I’m holding out tentative hope that I can visit Ireland, Russia & Scandinavia, maybe even non-London Britain, but I’d put the odds at 1/3 based on nothing more solid than my barely-educated guess.

    Travel within the continent should still be doable, even to Canada (like they could stop me if I were so inclined). If you see anything on CBC about “White Supreemiss border-jumper claims asylum from Trump Admin,” I’ll be flashing the “OK” signal for lulz.

    • Text remains, video dies with each format change.

      Papyrus, my boy, it’s the Next Big Thing
      Smoke signals are so 3250 BC

  36. I like the plain site. It’s all about the ideas. Form follows function, and all that. Have you considered surveying your readers to determine a percentage of those who also listen to your podcast, and how often? There is probably a high correlation between readers and listeners, so you can extrapolate a good estimate from your unique visitors. As an example, I read you every day, but listen to about 50% of the podcasts, as it depends on my time in the car. Derb posts a transcript, but I vaguely recall you saying that is a pain to produce.

    • I would like to echo Vizzini. DON’T CHANGE.

      You can trust Vizzini, I understand he is an Appalachian. 🙂

    • Yeah, and moreover, you should bully the other right-wing content creators into following your clean style.

      Our side has a lot of sites with decent content dragged down by terrible style. Style matters, especially for newcomers and/or right-curious types. It’s like what you wear to the interview.

      The length of the articles is absolutely perfect. Students should be forced to study them in “Right Wing 101” class.

      • Bare-bones is a nice niche look. I still like AoS’s circa-2004 style for plain-sites. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Daily Caller’s site crashes more machines than ZeroHedge. Open both sites at once and your cubicle implodes.

        • Exile, speaking of sites, when is your project going to debut? I am certain I’m not alone in the eagerness of my anticipation.

          • Just finished the “obligatory disclaimers” and a long recommended reading list. Letting some select haters beta this weekend if all goes well. Most is behind a registration-only wall (forum for OurGuys, invite only), but I’ll break something out for public consumption as well. IRL vetting required for the forum, so it’s pretty much limited to those who were at SoCal’s MLK Appreciation Weekend 2020 for now.

  37. Thank you for keeping with the written format. I’m a strange bird that hates being read to and is doubly annoyed by “how to” videos replacing text and photos.

  38. This is still a good looking site, easy to read. I know in the past you had enabled highlighted posts that were unread from last visit. You seemed to have a problem with keeping that. Has anything changed that you could possibly revisit that feature?

  39. Ditto on the plain look, plain language. Far too many sites over the years have gotten bogged down in “fresh looks” to be readable any more. Or, perhaps they ran out of ideas and had to concentrate on other.

    I’m guessing I’m like a lot of others and find the podcasts great for driving time, when we can pay attention while still doing other things. The problem with videos is that they require complete attention and dedicated time. My life is far too busy to set aside time for videos.

    • I’m betting this audience skews far more to the book-reading side of the scale than YT’s crowd, for any of their topics. Book reviews are a natural!

  40. Congratulations on the success of the show and blog. I like the idea of a book review episode once in a while. The plain site is good too.

  41. some people have suggested I give D-Live a try

    Please don’t do livestreams. They’re not broadcasts, they’re meandering, interminable glorified Google Hangout confabs between a wannabe leader and his flock of initiates with a peephole for the tolerated laity to spy through.

    Besides, they’re an extremely inefficient* form of communication. Subtracting the pre-show music, filler talk while people join in, housekeeping talk, mic problems and other technical difficulties, arguing with NinjaNazi and TurboSperg in the chat and then banning them, explaining to QMom6Gorillion why she was kicked off the Discord and reading endless Notice-Me-Senpai superchats, there’s little left that’s interesting, edifying or otherwise valuable to the average listener.

    *Unless you ambition to groom a simping section of NEET devotees, which, admittedly, has proved a goldmine to many.

    • who’s making you listen to all these objectionable sessions?! give me their name and you shall be free within a fortnight!

      • My point is that there is not a livestream in existence, however interesting, that wouldn’t be punchier, more enjoyable & more convenient to listen to in a traditional non-interactive format. In other words, when an internet show goes to that format all else being equal, it automatically becomes a lesser show. That doesn’t necessarily mean the absolute content value decreases, just that said content is less efficiently packaged since it becomes diluted in dead air, digressions and frivolities.
        Look at Lionel and Vox Day for cases in point.
        The only exception being comedy shows where said frivolities supplement the material.

        • well, Zman is planning to do both, so you can just take the parts you like — kind of like a 6 meat buffet.

      • My answer: nobody is making me listen to those crappy sessions. That’s why I don’t.

    • DR bathwater sales are definitely a niche market now that Lauren S’s sister has left the scene.

    • Top kek Anon, that was a hilarious summary of the typical D-live clusterF. A sure fire way to kill your signal to noise ratio.

      Like the others here have said, if it ain’t broke… right now you are lean & Spartan with heavy hitting power. If you pivot to more ‘chrome/bling’ that may or may not come along. In a Web 3.0 world having really solid content in an old school format is a bit of a rarity. To quote my favorite ‘pretend Italian’ jew ♫Don’t go changin’, to try and please me…♫

    • Anon, I’m giving you an upvote if for nothing else than the anthropological value of your post.

    • Brutal, but true. Interactivity as a feature is a permabug that skews the signal to noise ratio.

  42. Comments section reflects the author and the nature of the site. Video is for passive consumption, while reading, though you’re sitting still, is active. Essays, even though short, require people to sit for a minute or two and think. You might not consider that a high bar, but apparently it is.

    But revolutions, if that’s actually on the agenda, require people to do more than sit and think. They require mass participation. Moving beyond a DR ghetto, and growing the audience, might require video. I think experimenting with a video format is worth doing.

  43. I like the plain site, plain language as well. Been using YouTube for the podcast, but that’s only out of habit / familiarity.

    Have no burning desire to see any YouTube production. Just have grown accustomed to the blog site. Plus having some personal anonymity is always a good thing especially in these crazy political times.

    It also adds a bit of mystique 🙂

    For the record have you pictured as David Brudnoy for no other reason than think you guys sound the same.

    • I don’t know, I kind of see Zman as Winston Smith’ish (but in a good way) 😛

  44. I’d tune in for a Saturday dlive chat. I barely even use youtube anymore as everyone I enjoyed has been banned.

    I wouldn’t mind a podcast trashing the larpers on our side. The do nothings who think posting immature memes in echo chambers while hoping something, anything will change and then magic box, bam, better future. They are so tiresome.

    If they’d stop larping and start taking the future a little more seriously maybe they’d be able to plan in a realistic way. Accepting we are the little people so our change is going to be from the bottom up. It’s a place to start. They reek of such desperation they just drive people away. Nobody wants to join a team of losers.

        • I learned a ton from Adams circa 2015-16; haven’t paid much attention over the last few years as he seemed to have pitched his objectivity and become a shameless Trump shill.

    • Every time I go through my utube liked videos list it seems half of them are deleted…it’s sad as there was a lot of interesting stuff a few years ago.

    • In-fighting with those you consider beneath you lowers you and elevates them. Another thing Taleb gets right in “Anti-Fragile.” Worry about what you can do, not what those “doing it wrong” are up to.

      • You losers with your gay antics drive away people who actually have careers and families. Anglin going hard for the incel crowd, when their was already such overlap, was a really bad idea. Nobody wants to join team loser.

        • Thanks for your considerable ongoing contributions to this site. Dan. I learned a lot from this exchange.

          • These are the useless snarky comments from neet losers who spend all day larping online the commenter below was referring to. Whom you neet losers down voted already. If zman wants his comment section to become alt right loserfest 3.0 that’s his perogitive.

            No group of misfit losers posting memes in echo chambers are ever going to effect any change.

  45. I very much like the idea of badges or public tokens for donors to have next to their names when they comment (“graduated tokens”?). I might not commit to $5 a month, but what if a thousand of us sent in $2 a month? That would help, no?

    • I do not want a badge. My monthly donation is my freely-given token of appreciation for your thoughts and words. Just keep out the trolls and the worst of the normies, since most cannot help themselves and respond to them, using all their magic facts. I’m a reader not a watcher/listener, but do whatever you enjoy and whatever increases your audience. Thank you for sticking with it and allowing us all to to talk about here.

      • I seriously do not know why anyone would want a ‘badge’ signifying his or her ‘contribution.’ I can be pretty damn daft, though, and I know this (which is important), so I appreciate any and all insights to the effect I haven’t as yet thought of.

    • If you put up a ‘badge,’ you’re queer.

      I tend to be really really slow to financially support these sorts of sites. You’ll have to do your own math as it relates to whether or not my (belated) type of contribution is on a level (or somewhere thereabouts) with the less belated version thereof. Queerify at your own risk! Ha, ha.

  46. I too prefer the essays to video. I find that YT is becoming useless for anything but entertainment and cooking how-tos. One topic I’d suggest for a podcast is an exploration of evaluating places to live: urban versus rural; small, medium or large; how to avoid diversity; etc. You clearly have some perspective, having lived in Lagos for years and apparently decided to relocate. Share the thought process. In particular, I am trying to figure out how to move to a new location and successfully integrate with people who won’t be antithetical to Our Thing. I need a more robust mannerbund, and it isn’t happening in my current abode,

    • Selfishly, I would welcome this kind of how-to, as I am also trying to escape from my current location this year.

      • too short legs. Although a occasional segment on relocation might be nice. Besides the white rabbit has run enuf. Need to stand our ground these days.

    • I highly recommen the appalacian corridor. We have a spooky reputation but, in reality, the people are really sweet. Even the few blacks are amazingly nice. I also want to encourage you cheap bastards to kick in to Z’s subscribe star. We need to start building our guys up. 220 k? That starting to pack a punch! Z hire an assistant already and start professionalizing your operation.

    • I dearly loved the 1990’s version of “The Outer Limits.” I thought this might be relevant: many plot lines revolve around a person or group living in their own little world; if they think of the greater world at all, it’s an illusion the overloads supply (similar to “The Matrix”). Balancing this out, however, are some positive episodes where the group accepts a new reality and escapes self-imposed prisons. Or on the downside, they remain in a cherished illusion because the real, outer world is actually hostile and too horrible to contemplate.

  47. “I’m getting requests to read and review books from small publishers lately, so I thought doing a show on a book or books might be fun.”

    I know a guy who writes about a dystopian future where humans get to know their new Machine Overlords… with a distinct “our side of the river” feel, since you did solicit for suggestions, Z.

    https://tinyurl.com/w8g6n72

  48. I would enjoy a small segment on the podcasts along the lines of “this thing here was a win for our guys, and this is how they did it.” Kind of a morale boost/object lesson.

    Keep up the mind blowing work!

  49. i like text presentation of information over video. in fact, i almost never watch video podcasts. one reason is that text is less ambiguous than video, another is that it is easier to go back and re-view/re-read a section with text. and the final reason is that i can hide what i am doing at work with text, easier than with video 🙂

    one thing i think you could be good at, is finding historical parallels to current world conditions. not just surface similarities, but deeper societal features.

    • —-I can read faster than most people speak. And that’s probably true for most of you.

      —-YT is great for “How-to”. Utility drops off sharply after that.

      —-90% of YT-ers do not understand brevity. If you go much over 5 minutes, more than likely I am moving on. Whatever you think of Mark Dice, he seems to get that.

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