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Why do we* write Posts on The Standard?

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, February 26th, 2022 - 28 comments

Why come here to comment?

Some notes on moderation

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, February 6th, 2022 - 23 comments

A few notes and suggestions on moderation on The Standard.

Now on WordPress 5

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 am, December 30th, 2018 - 12 comments

Just upgraded to Wordpress 5.02. There were a couple of minor tweaks required on our site for old posts, but nothing earth shattering. Proceeding on to changing the theme after 8 years.

An Introduction: Matthew Whitehead

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, October 25th, 2017 - 39 comments

A brief introduction to a new contributor.

Offline this morning for a short time

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, June 6th, 2017 - 9 comments

Updated: The server will be shifted when its network link gets shunted to a new location. That will happen sometime Wednesday. So the site will be offline when it does as I have to physically pick up the server and reconnect at the new location.

Completed

TPPA national day of action

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 13th, 2015 - 26 comments

Saturday November 14 is a national day of action against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.  Details of all protests are set out in the post.

Standard Changes

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, September 30th, 2015 - 190 comments

Nothing to get all het up over…

TPPA Rally – Downtown Auckland, 1 pm TODAY

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, August 14th, 2015 - 65 comments

A reminder that the Auckland TPPA march is on tomorrow at 1 pm starting from Aotea Square.  The US consulate is that worried that it has issued a warning to US citizens!

Radicals, Reformists or Revolutionaries? Ideologies of the Left.

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, August 14th, 2015 - 62 comments

James Gluck is doing an academic study of the ideologies that exist on the left. He is asking for those interested to participate in a anonymous online survey.

The end is near for IE

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, April 16th, 2015 - 25 comments

Internet Explorer is now less than 15% of the sessions on this site. However it accounts fro nearly half of the development and testing time for the legacy variants. Microsoft has a replacement in the works, which should get released soonish. But I’m tired of wasting time on a crap browser. I’m dumping it now.

The Standard on Facebook

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, December 1st, 2014 - 25 comments

A number of changes are being considered by the authors of the Standard and the first is a dedicated Facebook page.

Q&A with Andrew Little 3pm Sunday

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, October 10th, 2014 - 39 comments

At 3pm on Sunday, Andrew Little will be on The Standard for discussion with questions from our audience of ardent left-wingers, greens, those who are just interested, and the odd troll with a fenestration obsession.

800,000 Comments

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 24 comments

Well that time rolled around again today some time. We are now past 800,000 comments. It seems like only yesterday that we were at 700,000. But it turns out that was just over 6 months ago.

David Cunliffe two-way on Sunday at 4pm

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, June 28th, 2014 - 61 comments

David Cunliffe will be putting up a post on Sunday earlier on Sunday. He will be around for some two way interaction at about 4pm-5pm. It will be similar to the previous session last month. However he has put more time in his schedule.

Being media again

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 47 comments

I’ll be in Wellington from the 4th to the 7th for the Labour party congress on the 5-6th. I’ll be on a media pass again which will relieve me of the duties that I have usually had to undergo as a delegate, like having to think too much. This will be the first congress I have attended as media. I’m expecting to have a lazy time watching others work. If you’re around Wellington, come and see David Cunliffe’s speech on Sunday. He is promising a big speech about what he and Labour will be taking to the voters this year.

Time to do the authorisation notice

Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 8 comments

This site frequently has opinions from authors and comments promoting promoting political positions and telling people who they should vote for or not vote for, and why.  I’ve been making the site conformant to the rules about 3rd party promoters. You have a few days to comment on that before I start treating nuisance complaints as being a reason to get banned from commenting. Speak now or hold your peace until after the election.

😈

The Human Cost of Inequality

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, May 18th, 2014 - 131 comments

The Sir Douglas Robb Lectures for 2014 start tomorrow evening in Auckland. These three free lectures are being given by the authors of “The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better”, a book much hated by those amongst us who would prefer that societies either didn’t exist or were more unequal and tilted in their favour. Based on many of the trolls here on this topic, it’d appear that most Act supporters and many National supporters appear fall into this category.

Cunliffe interacts on Tuesday evening (rescheduled)

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, May 12th, 2014 - 45 comments

Update: Rescheduled for Tuesday 5:30.
David Cunliffe will taking some time to write a post and engage on comments about it tomorrow evening. The topic will be about David’s “vision for New Zealand and how we get there”. The post may be up earlier, but the earliest that David will be able to respond will be about 5:30pm and then only for a limited period of time. The post’s comments will be fully moderated, so read the rules in this post about what is acceptable.

StopPress and comments

Written By: - Date published: 5:13 pm, February 25th, 2014 - 12 comments

I did a email interview with Damien Venuto of  StopPress (an online advertising industry mag) a few weeks back. It has now been put up online if anyone outside of that industry is interested. I’m in my usual pleasant, widely expansive and egotistical best with my beautific face beaming out at you

Stop the TICS Bill – Meeting

Written By: - Date published: 12:59 pm, September 20th, 2013 - 6 comments

Can Wellington outdo Auckland for the revival of town hall meetings? Come to an urgent Stop the TICS Bill meeting on Monday 23 September, 7pm at Old St Paul’s, Mulgrave St.

The Gosman (hypocrisy) ruling and other policy changes

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, September 17th, 2013 - 134 comments

This may be shades of getting over-Apple’d as they mercilessly flay people on iTunes with their gargantuan pile of boilerplate each time they change a line.

However there are a couple of policy changes on this site that people should be aware of.

Inequality lecture series

Written By: - Date published: 5:06 pm, September 12th, 2013 - 10 comments

Napier (tonight), Gisborne, Rotorua, Hamilton, Whanganui, New Plymouth, Nelson – even one in Auckland!

Robert Wade

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, July 8th, 2013 - 4 comments

As promoted by the Fabians, Professor Robert Wade is speaking across the country on Inequality and the ills it causes. Tonight in Auckland, Thursday Dunedin, Friday Christchurch and next Tuesday Wellington.

Iain M Banks: Bugger!

Written By: - Date published: 6:34 pm, April 4th, 2013 - 38 comments

Iain Banks has cancer and is expected to only have a few months.  Damn this is bad news.  He is one of only three authors whose books managed to survive my move into ePubs last year and the donation of large quantities of my science fiction paperbacks.

Lecture: Why Aristotle would own a surfboard

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, March 27th, 2013 - 4 comments

Professor Christoph Schumacher will look at the question “Should we be aiming for continual economic growth within a finite environment?”

Date: Wednesday March 27, 2013
Time: 6.00-7.30pm (Lecture commences at 6.30pm)
Venue: Sir Neil Waters Lecture Theatres, Albany campus, Massey University

Project complete (at least for the moment)

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 28th, 2013 - 37 comments

Project code is complete and getting stamped on the hardware.

I have some time for maintenance and writing at last…. So put in your wish lists.

Oh and this is a warning to trolls. I have time to measure you and comment on your obvious lacks and deficiencies again 😈

Upcoming talk on Canadian student uprising

Written By: - Date published: 3:44 pm, January 11th, 2013 - 6 comments

This Sunday hip hop artist and political activist Darius Mirshahi will be speaking in Auckland about the political situation in Canada and how the left are organising to resist Neo-Liberalism. Later he will be performing material which has lead to attention from Glen Beck and the Canadian police.

Take the damn chocolates AWAY

Written By: - Date published: 2:54 pm, December 26th, 2012 - 24 comments

I’m about to start doing some substantial site changes. So don’t get worried if the site disappears for a few minutes at a time. Most of these changes are targeted at increasing the privacy of both the site and of the people who use it. It is a really good day to do it. Traffic […]

Fabians lecture tonight

Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, December 3rd, 2012 - 5 comments

TPP Out of the Shadows – What they won’t tell us and why we should be worried about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Lori Wallach and Jane Kelsey will deliver presentations and take questions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) at 6.30pm at the Old Government House Lecture Theatre, University of Auckland.

Drinking Liberally – Hamilton

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, October 24th, 2012 - 14 comments

Drinking Liberally

Great to see Drinking Liberally starting up again in New Zealand. And in a new city, Hamilton. There’s nothing to stop people getting Drinking Liberally started up in other cities again. It’s pretty much just a matter of finding a venue, maybe organising a speaker, setting up a Facebook page, and asking your friendly Leftwing hub blog to tell everyone about it.

Fabians: Social Democracy in Aotearoa

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, September 27th, 2012 - 10 comments

Next Monday evening in Auckland, Professor Peter Davis will present a seminar asking what does social democracy have to offer in addressing our current discontents (loss of sovereignty, emigration of some of our best and brightest, commodity-dependent standard of living, structural deficit, inability to retain our key assets, solidifying underclass)?

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