The end of summer bums out a lot of people, but I look forward to it. I really do not like summer very much. I am an Ice Person, which means I am built for a climate where the civilized people build civilized things. Let the savages have their tropical weather, where they can wriggle around as their barbarian nature instructs them. I would prefer it if the temperature never got much above 70° American. If that means cold snowy winters, so be it. I like snow and cold. I am an Ice Person…

The podcast is going better than expected. I have been fiddling around with different things, seeing what works for me. One thing that seems clear is YouTube is a waste of my time. I get very few listeners via that platform and there is no reason for them to listen there versus this site. I think I will just drop YouTube entirely once I sort out how to post the whole podcast as parts on the site here. That is not a technical hurdle, more of a lazy man hurdle. I just need to commit the time to doing it….

The interesting thing I have learned about YouTube is that it is just an elaborate skimming operation. They have an algorithm for checking if you are uploading content that is owned by another. That means if I use a Willie Nelson song in my podcast, I get a notice that the copyright holder has laid claim to my material. That means YouTube gets to keep the ad revenue from my upload, presumably to give it to the copyright holder, who has made the claim. There is, of course, a dispute mechanism.

The first thing that is clear is a clip shorter than 20 seconds does not trigger the YouTube copyright algorithm. I tested this. The other thing is the notice that the “owner” of the copyrighted material has made a claim is a lie. YouTube is just pattern matching against a database. The real owner has no idea that their material is being used by another person on YouTube. What this most likely means, given the theft culture of Big Tech, is that YouTube is using this to steal from the owner as well as the uploader.

“A dog that will bring a bone will carry a bone” is an old time expression to mean that a person who will steal for you will steal from you. That is true of Google. They steal from the people who use their services and they (most likely) steal from the people on whose behalf they are stealing. Their fraudulent traffic numbers scandal is probably the tip of the iceberg. Google is based on a theft culture. That means they will steal from everyone, including their employees and potential employees…

As far as listener numbers, each week the numbers go up by about 10% versus the previous week. Depending upon who you talk to, the goal in the first year is to get to between three and five thousand listeners. That is the base. Then, in fits and starts, you see the numbers go up quickly. That is how it went with this blog. I was at those numbers for a while and then traffic started to leap each month. Assuming that is true with podcasts, I am ahead of schedule. I thank everyone for listening and recommending…

The site had record August numbers. Historically, July is the slowest for traffic and it was the slowest month this year, but well above 2016. August traffic took off, probably due to the Prog Loony Outbreak after Charlottesville. Traffic was ~30% higher in August 2017 versus August 2016. I seem to be getting famous so I am getting a lot of “alt-curious” people visiting for the first time. I have gotten twenty-five e-mails in August from first time readers happy to have found a home. It is good to keep Hell stocked with souls.

As to the real numbers, August had 90,000 unique readers versus 67,000 for the same period last year. It is not an all-time high, but July and August are the slowest months for web traffic. Strangely, 1.6 million pages were served up, which is a record. Sailer says he gets a million page views a month and I know he has more readers than me, so maybe page views is not a useful metric. It probably depends upon how your site is constructed and how often you post. Regardless, the site gets more popular each month….

I have been mulling a rework of the site’s look and feel. The main reason is to keep it fresh, but I am also thinking about how to curate the podcast here, rather than on Spreaker. I am also thinking about doing some video on some empirical topics like race, crime and demographics. YouTube is a terrible company, so I will want to host the videos on my server. No, I will not be making an appearance. I have a face for radio. I am thinking about presentation type videos. If anyone has a suggestion for topics, I am all ears…

The interesting thing I have seen looking through the site stats is that DuckDuckGo is becoming one of the more common referrers to the site. For those unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo, it is a search engine. I have started using it because it is better than Google. For a while now, I have noticed that Google search results are increasingly erratic and I have to use their advanced features to find things. That and the revelation Google is run by lunatics seems to have pushed people to seek out alternatives.

Along the same lines, there is a search machine called Qwant. It is especially useful for esoteric searches, because it vomits up everything. There is a lot more to it and I have yet to explore it fully, but if you want another option for searching, there is that. I have also started playing around with Opera’s new browser called Neon. It is a major re-think of the browser. I am not sure I like it, but Opera has been on the cutting edge when it comes to privacy so maybe they are blazing a trail with this thing.

The fact is, alt-tech is mostly vaporware at this stage, but there is a demand for products and services not made by bloodthirsty lunatics, with no respect for human rights or your privacy. An opportunity invites lots of experimentation. Tech 2.0 looks like it is going to be a rework of existing ideas but based on a traditional customer relationship. That means lots of people trying to figure out how to make that work, while avoiding the bloody hammer of the Robber Barons of Silicon Valley. Let a million flowers bloom…

Thank you to all of my readers, listeners and those who bully their friends and neighbors into visiting the site. It is a long war and we have to support the media that supports u, so use this as an excuse to throw Steve Sailer, VDare and American renaissance a few bucks if you have it. They need it and you need them…