175000

The total number of page-views on the Communist University web site is now close to 175000 (one hundred and seventy-five thousand!). That is the since roughly December. A “page” on this site is on average equivalent to ten printed pages of A4 with normal font size and margins. In addtition to the web site there are the e-mails and the blog. So at a fair guess this Communist University has propagated the equivalent of approximately two million pages of seriously good material since December. If the definition of a university is an institution that gets people reading seriously good stuff, then we qualify. For example: 18th Brumaire, 329; What is to be Done, 373; Origin of the Family, 316; Organic Intellectuals, 507; Speech by Evo Morales, 297; Revolution and King Gyanendra, 555, Jara on Zuma, 466; David Masondo’s Response, 261. These are figures of web page views. There are altogether over 1600 pages on the site. All this means that after only four months the Communist University has climbed to fifth place (in terms of page-views) out of a total of 3053 public wikispace web sites in the whole world. The set-up is simple. There is a web site, a blog, and a group. Material is uploaded to the web site, forming an archive. The blog links to selected items each day. Via the group, the blog is relayed to a list of subscribers. The subscribers link back to the web site to read the material. It is not yet possible to be certain why this works so well. But one can guess. Web sites alone do not attract very much traffic. They have to be advertised. The same applies to blogs. It is surely the addition of the daily e-mail distribution to this mix that makes it grow. People appreciate them a lot. They send messages saying so. And the links in the e-mails take them to the web site. So what the Communist University needs at this stage to make it grow even more, is a lot more subscribers for the e-mail distribution group. Please send lists of e-mail addresses of people who would be likely to accept and not reject the CU e-mails. If you should send such a list (to dominic.tweedie@gmail.com) I will add the addresses to the CU distribution with a message. The message will welcome them and say two more things at least: 1. The person can unsubscribe at any time, either directly (using the link given for that purpose at the bottom of every message) or by e-mailing me. 2. The person was recommended by you. In other words, “netiquette” (good Internet manners) will be observed at all times!