It has been only about two weeks since I joined with some friends in putting together Globe Tribune.Info. The basic functions are streamlined. I can post texts, make italics and links. Unfortunately, uploading videos continues to be a problem. I am faced with either linking to the videos or uploading them to Magdeburgerjoe and Rudistettner.com. Additionally, I am having trouble running Google ads. One thing I can't stand about them is that they run ads on my site for disgusting thinggs like Mike Bloomberg and Jews For Jesus. Hey, this medium is a work in progress. Not everything is going exactly according to plan. WordPress is in some ways more challenging than blogger.
The second problem is SEO, search engine optimisation. To put it bluntly, my regular readership would fit around my dining room table. This web site does not yet have a mass following. To counterbalance that, I am consoled with the realisation that I am reaching out to one person at a time, and that total strangers are giving my articles and my world view some consideration.
We could load this site with lots of content. But there are some obstacles. For starters, we are losing money now. The articles we are able to post are written on our own time, sandwiched between family and work obligations. That limits the number of articles that can be posted. The other problem is self imposed. We will NOT cut and paste articles. We WILL present news and link to other artcicles, but we will do so in our own words. This is for two reasons. First, all of us want to showcase our own writing. Cutting and pasting articles does not accomplish this. Anyone can do that. The second reason for restricting our output to original content is that we respect intellectual property and the work that goes into producing an article. Writers are paid on the internet on the basis of how many hits they get. If we take an article from your site, I am taking away from the hits you get, diminishing your perceived status. It is far better to promote your article and to add some thoughts of my own. We are looking to increase productivity, but not at the expense of quality or the rights of others.
This site tends to be news oriented, but we will put substantiated opinions into our site. We are independent. Sometimes we come down on the liberal side, and other times we weigh in as conservative. I identify myself as "labour conservative". Most of my other writers are plain conservative, except for Ilan Zuta, who is more often liberal.
This site is guided by orthodox Jewish values. That being said, we enjoy and present secular music. If that offends any of our more religiously right wing readership, we accomodate such differences by labeling musical posts seriously.
We try to make this site "family friendly". That being said, some of the news today is pretty disturbing. If there is violence or sensitive material, we will try to warn readers.
It has been interesting deciding how to cover news stories. The Greek orthodox bishop in Piraeus, Greece is a case in point. He made some outrageously anti Jewish statements recently on Greek national television. When Paul Kovacs wrote about this story, he went to the bishop's web site, wanting to get a picture of the man behind such outrageous statements. This was a perspective not found in other news articles.
Another story about the desecration of Joshua's tomb was written by Elias Bassevi. He could have put up a picture of the defaced interior. Instead, assuming that most readers had never seen Joshua's tomb. For this reason, he chose picture of the building glowing in the night. The text of his article described the desecration. The picture, rather than underscoring the text was intended to provide a contrast, a sense of beauty and sanctity that been violated.
Although this is a news site, it is also a goal of Globe Tribune.Info to bring art, literature and music to our readers. Although we are a news site, we recognise that the choice of news is itself a political statement.
Although progress is slow, and there are bumps in the road, it has been a pleasure presenting the news on this site to readers.
The illustration at the top of this article is by my friend Boruch Hoffinger, an artist whose work deserves a lot of attention. That is one of the things I most enjoy is promoting artists and musicians, both friends and strangers who through their art bring beauty to the world.
Boruch Hoffinger's web site
http://essence-graphics.com/