Be Excellent To Each Other

Hope he makes it.

I'll certainly lob a pound in his direction.

That'll keep him in Vimto and boiled sweets for the month it takes to get bored of doing it.

FTFY.

Go for it Ange!

Well done Mali, I'm sure that you'll get something very soon.

In other news, remember that job interview I went for in Dec at the place I'm at now? No? Well, never mind. I was second in line to get the role and it was given to someone else, who hasn't started yet but has said she no longer wants the position...

Like buses they are...

A few people wondered why Russell brought a small pair of specs to my desk at work...

Oh, I dunno though. Credit where it's due; here's a business model that (sort of) works?

Not much shy of five grand now, which is a fair old wedge for doing precisely as he was before and (AFAIK) it's not as though he's leaving any other employment etc. See, I always knew he'd get this thing about wealth generation eventually.

Give him a pound you tight bastard!

Even when I disagree with Stu, he's a very good writer and I enjoy reading his work.

Actually, I'm seriously tempted to chuck in a few quid, even though I vehemently disagree with 99% of what he says (esp. about Scotland) *and* he loathes my guts. But hey, I actually regard him with a certain begrudging admiration despite it all; he's having a go and is making a success of it. Good luck to him, I say. He is a bloody good writer.

No, it is better. You can show skills/stuff that they might not be aware of . And you are working from a "turns up" baseline. Go for it, if you fit 60% of the description you will be fine. I think you will do very well.

Wimmins. Mad thems Innit?

Sounds like an interesting way to avoid income tax. One big payment as a gift, eh?

I was wondering just that. Surely the taxman would have something to say about that.

Got a client who is using that very site to launch a new product. The difference from Kickstarter is that you get the money regardless of if you hit your target or not. So whatever is being shown is guaranteed.

Oddly enough I spent much of our initial meeting discussing the Elite Kickstarter as a good example of how to drip feed information to keep interest up.

Crowd funding revenue seems to be as taxable as any other kind of revenue. Get to a stage where your turnover is 77 grand and you'll be up for compulsory VAT registration as well.

Meanwhile if you drink Vimto while working, it may be tax deductible. After all the teabags at my offices count as a legitimate business expense so why not Vimto?

And todays entry on "Is It Dimrill":

Looks like me and Joans's's'esrs's lovechild.

Fair play to Mr Campbell.

He's really got to grips with the David Cameron style of capitalism. There are few better examples of the Tory ideal of 'Do It Yourself' out there, and if he manages to avoid paying income tax whilst doing it then they may as well use his image for their manifesto. A true blue!

But hats off to the fellow. He's turned a very limited polemic writing style into money.

Hang on. I know "we" don't like him, but I'm not going to pretend that his writing isn't good.

I never knew him. Wasn't a devotee of the mags he wrote nor a member of WoS for more than a few weeks, just to play Halo.

His writing has always massively underwhelmed me. He can do a passable rant, but beyond having a shouty deconstructive shot at subjects, I've found his writing to be generally poor, but quick to play on emotions and nostalgia.

This is nothing to do with any vendetta or board bias; I have very little clue who he was, and his output in recent years has certainly not made me expect him to have an impact on the world any time soon.

But hey, I think 50 Shades of Grey is shit too, so what do I know?

I haven't read 50 Shades of Grey.

Fibs!

I'm with Curio. I only joined because the Bifgo forum had imploded and I wanted some more Digi fans to hang out with.

Me neither. Chick-lit.

Theatre tonight, have to attend MrsA's charity whatnots. Have to look interested. Hpefully, there wil be a bar.

What about pieces like this? No rants!

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.c ... island.htm

Or this? You could argue it's nostalgic but with good cause.

http://wosland.podgamer.com/this-is-bath/

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/pt1.htm

Or just have a look down here, a huge length and breadth of content over decades.

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/

I think he's a fantastic writer and whilst I don't have any particular interest in his Scottish Independence site I wish him the best of success with it.

And here's the Fairplay thing on fruit machines we worked together on.

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.c ... /index.htm

*shrugs*

It's okayish? Passable blog standard?

Well alright then point me towards some amazingly awesome writing that makes Stu look like a 'passable blogger'.

I realise it's a personal and subjective thing in a lot of ways, but his writing style really chimes with me and even when he's writing about stuff I'm not interested in, his style of writing carries it for me.

I dunno. Books by good writers? Essays by Christopher Hitchins? Anything by the likes of China Mieville or Nick Harkaway?

As you said, it's personal opinion and preference. He's okay at what he does, but it never struck me as anything spectacular.

I have never heard of China Mieville or Nick Harkaway.

Hitchens was good but arguably the ultimate polemicist.

P. J. O'Rourke is good.

Indeed.

I hadn't heard of him before I got to WoS (and I still have no idea how I ended up there). Some of his stuff is interesting some isn't, some of it's interestingly written, some of it isn't. Very much take or leave.

I think people who grew up with someone's writing (all the Amiga people) are more likely to be a bit more excited by it.

I was going to give him a quid, until he started writing about himself in the plural

Mieville and Harkaway are primarily novelists, who occasionally write non-fiction. They win awards a lot.

Oooh, Patrick Ness. He's good too. Multi-award winning author and reviews books for the Guardian.

There's no doubt that 'Do It Yourself' wealth creation within the private sector is *indeed* a Tory Gold Standard. If only more people were able to do this, I'd say we wouldn't half be in as much trouble as we are now, and our economy would be vastly more resilient, diverse and all the richer for it.

However, tax avoidance most certainly isn't a Tory ideal; I'm really not sure why people keep bashing Cameron with this, since he's been the one trying to change years and years of this culture (whose current tax law loophole origins most certainly originate from the 13 year Labour administration).

For my part, I'm delighted by this. It's all too easy to forget that there's a real world man or woman behind someone's internet persona or avatar, with real world problems and fears. This has always been Stu's dream - to earn real, substantial money by being his own boss, writing/blogging on the net and following his passions - and he's achieved it, all off his own bat. He's identified a gap in the media marketplace ('quality tabloid' Indy publication), whipped 'em all up in a frenzy and nailed it just at the right time, just after the first payday of the New Year and after a crescendo of activity. That's good business sense and he's succeeded where so many others have failed: the monetisation of his blog.

Good luck to him. But my nugget is staying in my pocket.

.. & the whole world breathes a sigh of relief...

I've shied away from reading anything on his WoScotland site because, despite having enjoyed in the past his rants about shit that doesn't matter (i.e. computer games and sweets), you were usually aware that whatever angle he argued from was skewed to his own peculiar (angry) preference and circumstance, and could forgive that in return for the entertainment.

Example: I remember a review of the ipod touch or iphone where the general impression given was that the device was a massive failure and Apple were out to persecute Stu personally because it fell over when you had more than 100 pages of free games to organise. (slight exaggeration to make point).
However, having a bit of common sense and an overview of the thing myself, I was able to discount this as completely irrelevant. But I don't have the capacity to do the same thing with the myriad of ins and outs and obscure legalities surrounding devolution. So I'm just a bit wary of that persuasive polemic style here.

That said, I will now make an effort to read some of his articles in case this is being unfair...

No, I think that's entirely fair. But there's clearly a market for grossly over-simplified, biased polemic nonsense - just look at the Daily Mail and all the other tabloid press. Stu is hardly unique in being a purveyor of such material; people are prepared to pay for it, and he's "pressing <COLLECT>".

I thought you were considering "subscribing" yourself

Well, yeah, for old times sake etc. I figure I owe him that much just for the lulz for the last 10 years, plus I'm genuinely pleased he's sorted this for himself. For me, that overrides all.

With that amount of backlinking you've pretty much guaranteed an "appearance" now.

Thanks in advance.........

I believe its called the Richard Littlejohn business model. Find a group of narrow minded bigots, whip them into a frenzy and milk them for all they are worth. All while spending most of the year not actually living in the country you are writing about.

I know what you mean but personally, if people will pay good money for a given service, let 'em pay! Milking people is what business is all about, in the final analysis? If it happens to be pursuing something that'd you do for nothing anyway, and is your passion and playing to your strengths, then so much the better. In any event, even as an arch Unionist, even I'll say the media is, as a whole, seriously biased in favour of the 'No' position; sense of fair play dictates that people should be able to access the other side of the argument too. Let's hope he can deliver on that score; I'm expecting at least partial success.

I'm on record as disagreeing with just about everything that's been said and done on that blog. In fact, I've been chucked off it. But this is all very much in the 'unreal' sphere of internet larking about, at least for me. I'm not ultimately arsed. In the actual *real* world, I'm still glad to see him, as an actual real human being, realising his dreams and making a financial success of things.

Just bit into a rotten bit of an apple. Am I going to die?

No. You'll fall asleep sounded by 7 Gaywoods.

Then I will awake you with a tender kiss.

That's a very mature and gracious post Cavey, and it's why BEEX needs folks like you around.

I just don't get the antipathy towards Stu here. Yeah he tried to charge people £2 to use his forums once, and he called people cunts, and, erm, seriously, what is it that he's supposed to have actually done to upset people so much?

Even with this latest idea of his, we see veiled threats about 'Oooh the taxman will be interested in this' and raking over old coals that should have died out years ago.

And yet, whilst some people on here are bleating and pissing and moaning about him. He's raised nearly £10,000 in 24 hours from his own readers to help support and promote a campaign he passionately believes in.

So who's the cunt then, eh?

He's raised the money to pay his rent and heating bills. The blogging is free.

Lets quote an entirely anonymous poster from the Elite thread:

Stu may be many things. A liar or a cheat he most definitely is not.