(As the subject of this post doesn’t read Welsh (I assume, perhaps wrongly), I thought I’d translate this post. Click here to go straight to the English.)
Blog Peter Black, AC. Am wn i, Peter Black yw’r unig Aelod Cynulliad sy’n cadw blog, ac felly, yr unig aelod y Cynulliad sy’n cadw mewn cyswllt â’i etholwyr yn y ffordd fwya effeithiol sydd ar gael i wleidydd yr unfed ganrif ar hugain.
Mae cynnwys ei flog yn wych, llawn o ddolenni diddorddol, ac dyw e ddim ag ofn mynegi ei farn ar faterion pwysicaf y dydd. Mae hefyd yn newyddiadurwr da. I gyrmyd ond un enghraifft bron ar hap, mae’n wneud y cysylltiad rhwng beth mae pobl yn dweud (Glyn Davies AC: does dim byd yn bod ar fwyd McDonald’s) a beth maen nhw’n wneud (Glyn Davies AC: derbyn llety mewn gwesty crand a thocynnau i gêm pêl-droed Man Utd/Arsenal gan McDonalds). Mae hyn yn stwff gryf iawn, ac mae angen mwy o flogwyr mentrus fel hyn arnon ni yng Nghymru, yn y ddwy iaith.
Y broblem yw bod y blog yn edrych mor ofnadwy o hyll, ac yn fwy bwysig byth, mor anodd i ddefnyddio. Dyw e ddim yn bosibl i wneud cysylltiadau uniongyrchol i unrhyw stori unigol ar y blog, naci i adael sylwadau ar y storiau (er bod e’n cynnwys linc ebost ar waelod bob un). Mae’n siwr bod ’na resymau ’da fe dros defnyddio’r dull ’ma o flogio, ond gan fod cymaint o ddewis o becynnau blogio llawer mwy hyblyg, haws i’w defnyddio, sy’n wneud gwefan sy’n edrych fel rhywbeth o’r ganrif hon, pam fyddai unrhywun yn aros gyda sustem fel hyn?
Prin bod angen dweud, does dim ffrwd RRS, felly unwaith eto, mae’n ynysu ei hunan rhag y bobl a fyddai â diddordeb mawr yn y pethau sy gyda fe i’w dweud, blogwyr eraill. Hyd yn oed os ydw i’n blogio mwy na lai llawn amser, fel yr ydw i wedi bod yn wneud yn diweddar, dw i ddim yn gallu cadw lan gyda bob blog hoffwn i weld, a dw i’n dibynnu mwyfwy ar wasanaeth RSS Bloglines i ddweud wrtha i pa blogiau sy wedi eu diweddaru. Mae blogiau sy heb ffrwd RSS jyst yn cwympo mas o’m golwg, oni bai mod i’n wneud ymdrech arbennig i ymweld â nhw bob hyn a hyn.
Dw i’n cymryd nad yw Peter Black yn darllen Cymraeg felly dw i am gyfieithu hyn o rant, a chynnig help iddo fe moderneiddio ei flog, os ydy e am gael blog sy’n cymryd mantais o’r offer newydd sydd ar gael yn rhad ac am ddim a fydd yn ei helpu cyrraedd mwy o ddarllenwyr. Gawn ni weld beth yw’r ymateb. (Mae mwy o stwff yn y fersiwn Saesneg nag sydd yma nawr, gan fy mod i wedi meddwl am fwy o bethau wrth ei gyfieithu. Ond dw i’n rhy flinedig i’w gyfieithu yn ôl. Gaf i bas rhydd, jyst am unwaith? Sori. Wna i byth ‘to.)
(Dydy Simon Thomas ddim wedi ymateb eto, gyda’r llaw.)
The blog of Peter Black, AM. As far as I know, PB is the only AM who keeps a blog, and therefore, the only AM who keeps in touch with his constituants in the most effective way a 21st century politician is able to.
The content of his blog is great, full of interesting links, and he isn’t afraid of expressing his opinions on the most important matters of the day. He’s also a good journalist. To take a random example, he makes the connection between what people say (Glyn Davies AM: there’s nothing wrong with McDonalds’ food) and what they do (Glyn Davies AM: accomodation in a fancy hotel and tickets to the Man Utd/Arsenal game, courtesy of McDonalds). This is strong stuff, and we need more adventurous bloggers like this in Wales, in both our languages.
The problem is that the blog is so darn ugly, and more importantly, so difficult to use. It’s impossible to link to individual articles on the blog, or to leave comments on the articles (although he does put an email link at the bottom of each link). And because he uses frames, even the monthly archives of his site aren’t obviously linkable. This means that not only is his site more difficult for other bloggers and readers to interact with, his pagerank on Google is being affected, so people are less likely to come across his blog when they’re searching for things that he’s been writing about. I guess he has his reasons for sticking to this mode of blogging, but with so many blogging packages available which are much more flexible and easy to use, and which create websites which look like they were made in this century, why would anyone stay with this roll-your-own system?
It hardly needs saying that there’s no RRS stream, so once again he’s isolating himself from people who’re likely to be interested in the things he’s saying, i.e. other bloggers. Even if I blog more or less flat out, as I’ve been doing lately, I can’t keep up with all my favourite blogs, and I depend on Bloglines’ RSS reader to tell me which blogs have been updated. Blogs which don’t generate RSS streams just tend to fall beneath my radar, unless I make a special effort to remember to visit them every now and then.
As I said above, I assume Peter Black doesn’t read Welsh, which is why I’m breaking the habit of what feels like a lifetime, and translating this rant. If he’s willing to accept, I’ll be happy to help him modernise his blog so that it reaches more of his potential readers, by taking advantage of some of the free tools which are now available. Even if he doesn’t want to take me up on this offer, I hope he’ll accept the above as constructive criticism. As I’ve said here before, it’s about time more politicians started using the web in the way he’s doing, and I have nothing but admiration for the way Peter Black is breaking new ground here and I certainly wish I could write as well as he does about the things he covers on his blog.
But in Welsh, obviously.