RIP HnC: another renegade blog bites the dust

Another notorious anti-interim government blog goes offline. Hyde and Seek, which went live in May of 2007, seems to have taken itself offline within the last several hours after around 400 posts and thousands of comments.
As with the death of WFC, rumors abound about whether or not the bloggers took the site down willingly or unwillingly. If you want to see how the site looked in June and July of 2007, there are three pages captured by the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine.

No doubt, a blog or two will take hnc's place.

Photo by: a shot in the dark

Blogged with Flock

Fiji Rugby Blog hits Wordpress list

For the second time this month (see here for the first), a Fiji blog has hit one of the top 100 lists of the blogging giant Wordpress. On July 14, 2007, the Fiji Rugby Blog, brainchild of columnist Rusiate Mataika, appeared in the 35th position in the Growing Blogs list.

They are wedged between a Swedish blog and a blog advocating the abolition of wealth. The Fiji Times had this to say:

This is a remarkable achievement spurred by the creative juices of local sports writer Rusiate Mataika and internationally renowned but locally based web design firm Webmedia Fiji.
[Fiji rugby blog gains momentum, Fiji Times, July 20, 2007]

Keep up the great work, Rusi!

Let me also give a little praise here to one of Fiji's "oldest" and most prolific bloggers. Gilbert Veisamasama, Jr has been running two very active blogs since January of 2006:

• Promoting Suva
• Invest in Fiji

These two blogs are invaluable sources of information that is difficult to find elsewhere. Check them out!

Photo by: huygens

Infamous Fiji blog hits Wordpress top 100 list

Most of the world's bloggers are typing away in relative obscurity having very few readers beyond a few family and friends. Most of Fiji's bloggers are no different drawing only single digit readerships daily. I have been grinding away at Digital Fiji for roughly a year now and I can only boast of a daily readership of around 40 unique readers daily with occasional spikes to over 100 whenever I write something reasonably interesting.

It will not surprise anyone that Fiji's anonymous political blogs, which exploded onto Fiji's blogosphere shortly after the 2006 coup, draw much more of an audience than Digital Fiji. However, who would of thought that one of Fiji's most controversial anti-military blogs would rate among the "top blogs" of the world? Why Fiji Is Crying, which I recently blogged about, has done just that.


This screen shot is taken from the Wordpress Top Blogs page today. You can see Why Fiji Is Crying sandwiched between YOU BEEN BLINDED and Tennis Planet. What does this mean? It is hard to say. Wordpress's page says that they top blogs are "ranked here according to a special formula". The formula is not revealed.

This certainly demonstrates that Fiji's anonymous political blogs, with all of the questions that they raise, are extremely popular - in fact, Why Fiji Is Crying is likely the most popular blog in Fiji.

P.S.: If you are interested in trying to draw more readers to your own blog, check out Matt Huggins' 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read. Keep blogging!