We need someone who has the time to become a permanent part of the Monomahkos family. Someone who knows WordPress and Google Analytics.
And if you can get email out of this crazy system I would be overjoyed.
I know you’re out there because one of you kind people responded the last time I looked for help and I wrote down your name but I lost it!
If you’re still out there, please send me another email: gail.sheppard@usa.net
If you can help us, you will get top billing!!! We will sing your praises at every opportunity!!!! We will take you out to lunch and invite you to dinner.
You need to see this:
https://hypestat.com/ Daily Web Hits
https://apnews.com/ 2,399,356
https://www.drudgereport.com/ 1,630,866
https://www.protothema.gr/ 1,248,787
https://www.newsmax.com/ 772,156
https://www.westernjournal.com/ 354,511
https://www.kathimerini.gr/ 295,874
https://www.americanthinker.com/ 121,852
https://www.tanea.gr/ 108,056
https://greekcitytimes.com/ 60,541
https://greekreporter.com/ 56,505
https://www.ekathimerini.com/ 31,882
https://www.goarch.org/ 17,160
https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/ 8,874
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/ 8,381
https://www.estianews.gr/ 4,831
https://www.ekirikas.com/ 3,878
https://pappaspost.com/ 2,125
https://www.thenationalherald.com/ 1,828
https://www.monomakhos.com/ 1,546
https://www.helleniscope.com/ 1,471
https://ocl.org/ 493
https://www.stnicholasflushing.org/ 7
https://hellenicnews.com/ 3
Oh, I am well aware of the traffic to the various sites. Not too long ago, we were up to 9,000 unique users a day on hypestat and cutestat.
Our traffic has dropped precipitously.
Our people are used to Googling our name and seeing it at the top of the Google page. Now, the only thing that appears is the name “Michalopulos Blog,” which is a bogus site. It will get you to our site though a “broken link” I am told so I don’t think we’re getting credit for the traffic.
“Michalopulus Blog” is #1 in Google when you do a search on monomakhos. Our blog, monomakhos, doesn’t even show up.
In addition, there are now a flurry of links out there, anywhere from 2 to 6, that people think are ours. They bring up pages with articles we wrote over a year ago. I don’t know enough about WordPress to fix it. I’m getting complaints from people that they cannot find our blog.
Plus, Google Analytics has been turned off. I have no expertise with this and you can’t contact them. I’d just settle for a referral at this point. Where does one go for help with these things?
I turned on the subscriber button thinking it would help. Within few days we had over 2000 people so I know people want to get to our site. They’re just not able to go through Google and find it the regular way. They have to go into the bogus “Michalopulos Blog” and access a link on a page that says it’s no longer valid.
We used to be #1 in Google under our own name. Now it’s that “Michalopulos Blog” page.
How can I re-subscribe?
I have no idea! I know there was an option for subscriptions that I enabled. Then they just started coming in. – We have a plan to move forward to resolved this and other mysteries. I will let you all know our progress.
Monomakhos.com stills comes up as the top result for me, when I search for “Monomakhos” on Google. It does link to one of your broken pages, but it’s easy enough to land on the homepage from there. It doesn’t take me to any “bogus Michalopoulos Blog”. Just FYI.
Now if I may add my two cents re: what may account for the precipitous decline in readership.
1) Comments that are too tightly moderated. Myself, and most of the people I know, often learn more from the comments section than we do from the article itself. This is true for the Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal, and whatever other major publication one may read. I’m sure it should also be true for little Monomakhos. Back in the day, George used to allow new comments to appear with sometimes only a half hour of a delay. Now he seems to do it only once a day, and he chucks half of them out. This prevents people from having conversations between each other, and leads to a stunted discussion. It’s sort of a drag, following any given conversation because it may unfold over a week, instead of an afternoon.
2) Losing people! Sort of the same as the “comment moderation” point above, but slightly different. Monomakhos really needs to hold on to its star posters. If you look at the history of engagement, it was highest when you had a lot of clergy and high-level professionals on the blog. It was edifying for us lumpens to see what the people in charge were thinking. Now it’s a lumpen echo chamber, or amen chorus. This is boring, and will eventually lead to a drop-off in readership.
Bottom line: if you want increasing readership, loosen up a bit.
We’re not losing people. I get notices every day since we turned on the subscriber button. We lost something with Google that does analytics.
When did I allow comments to appear with sometimes only a half hour of a delay? It was always hit or miss with me because I worked for CVS as a floating pharmacist often 12 hours a day and then would commute home. Now, two of us are approving comments.
If you don’t mind my asking, who were the “star posters” back in the day?
> I worked for CVS as a floating pharmacist
Floating? George, you’re not supposed to sample the merchandise! O_o XD
Too funny. I’ve only seen George “float” maybe once or twice but never at work. He is very much by the book. I had hoped it would be like Nurse Jackie but I was disappointed! (Kidding, of course.)
“Now it’s a lumpen echo chamber,
or amen chorus. This is boring,..”
Thank you. I must try harder…
We’re probably all over the target. He’s still here.
We’re not losing activity or readership. We’ve lost the ability to pick up the traffic. You need analytics to do that and for whatever reason it’s been turned off.
We pass on almost 100% of our comments. The only ones we “chuck” are those that are insulting.
Guys, the only reason I mentioned a precipitous decline, is because of what Gail Sheppard wrote above regarding the visitor count being 9K just recently (now it’s at 1,500 or so). I’m saying what I feel could attract more people and lead to a more lively discussion, but I may be wrong.
I still stand by the two points:
1) More frequent approval of comments. Maybe 3 times a day? A sort of early-bird, lunch, and late night batch. This would lead to much more engagement, I’m sure. I can imagine this would be a great drag on the owner’s free time, but also am sure that there are many volunteers which would do it for free (and Monomakhos should still vet them).
2) Keeping the “stars”. Since George asked who I consider “stars”, I’ll provide my very subjective list: Michael Bauman, Monk Silver (I think that was his name, this was years ago), Anonymous Priest (again, not sure if that’s the exact name), Stankovich (apologize but can’t remember his name, but he was very well versed in patristic texts), Father Webster. As you can probably tell, I’m terrible with names, but I hope these all ring a bell for long time readers of the blog. Basically anybody who’s active in the clergy or monasteries, or steeped in the Traditional texts – to me – was great to have around.
End of the day, the blog is yours and you’ve managed it well enough over the years without input from yours truly. Just wanted to use the opportunity of this technical post to make some suggestions I’ve been “sitting” on for quite some time.
Христос Воскресе!
Thanks for the feedback, Howie.
Some of the people you mentioned do still come on the blog. But people change. Their interests change. And we’ve changed. Instead of George and I working behind the scenes as we did in the past (I used to write for him under his name), I’m more present as myself which has definitely changed the tone on the blog. I will admit that. I don’t like people using their keyboards as weapons. If it were up to George, he wouldn’t moderate anything, but not everyone has the fortitude for that sort of exchange. I certainly don’t. I can be direct. Too direct on occasion. But I can’t help him do what he’s doing here so he can do other things if I’m uncomfortable with it. People can say just about whatever they want as long as they don’t insult one another.
George is a connector. Because of his job situation in the past, he hasn’t always been able to indulge that side! Now, it’s different. The blog is important to him, obviously, but he is doing more than the blog. For example, he is pretty much a regular guest on Father John Peck’s podcast on Monday nights, has been on his own podcasts and participates on others, as well.
In addition, our house was set up to be a waystation for people in the Church. I’m going to have to have George give you all a video tour. We have one room and bathroom set up for primarily men with an icon corner. We have another that is set up more for women. There is an office upstairs and what I hope will one day be it’s own studio as it is quite large. Many clergy and monastics have stayed in our home. This week we’re having a bishop and then an abbot, a nun, a soon-to-be doctor who recently joined the Church (his journey into the Church is fascinating, almost biblical), as well as a younger women who is about my daughter’s age whom I invited over for a “girl’s weekend” where all we’re going to do is eat and watch TV documentaries which we both love! And then in two more weeks my daughter and her boyfriend will be here. – This is an unusual week, I’ll grant you, but we really enjoy hosting these things and getting to know people who share our love for the Church.
In addition, George goes to a LOT of the services in the Church he missed all those years he traveled all over OK. – Our lives can get busy.
On occasion, God has allowed us to be involved in truly miraculous situations because of the blog and George’s connections. All these activities are the reason we welcome people to use our site to write good stories. But other people are busy, too.
We don’t have time (translate: “I” don’t have time) to get people to dial it back. I don’t enjoy the process if it’s fraught with infighting which I guess can be construed as “exciting.” Life is exciting enough IMO. I do feel you, though. I’ve been a part of communities that for whatever reason have changed and it’s hard to accept it when it’s something you used to enjoy and it’s no longer available. The blog HAS changed.
But it hasn’t hurt our numbers. Our numbers are not being reported. Our traffic is being redirected. If you look at Hypestat you’ll see when we turned on the subscriber option, our numbers went up to where they probably are most days. We just need to connect Google Analytics back up.
Plus, George had I have had a hailstorm of annoying things that have taken up our time as of late. ATT&T has ruined our property. It’s actually slipping! We’ve has to get legal help with that.
You know what? I’m wondering if we can create a type of ‘Basement Monomakhos” where we can partition off a part off our site for the kind of discussion you like and I’ll let you run it. Would you be up for it?
Whoa!!! I think this would be such a great idea (within months I’m sure Monomakhos would shoot up in the rankings, and you’d find a whole bunch of new people here). Really, truly a great idea. I’m sure it’ll get ugly at times, and maybe on certain occasions you’ll regret having done it at all – but the positives will still outweigh the negatives.
Now, as to myself… I must humbly refuse. I think I am too “compromised” with my allegiances, to be an honest arbiter of the “Wild West comment section”. I think, in an ideal world, you would have a guy like Misha, and guy like Lipper, heading some kind of co-moderation council – and hoping that the two cancel each others biases out. However, I doubt you could get those two to sit on a moderation council for free, spending their entire time arguing with each other. So, maybe just one person at a time is more realistic. For example, a day shift guy, and then a night shift guy – like on most forums.
I would open this discussion up to the wider readership, and see what comes of it.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to me, and for the consideration given to my suggestions.
All the best!
Well, we can look into it.
I remember Dr Stankovic and Monk James Silver. Often enough, they were both quite aggressive, rude and/or patronising. I always wondered why that was.
We’re taught to be gentle and patient etc. and yet these two seemed to not even make an effort – and yet I have no doubt that they understood the faith much better than me, and knew exactly what they were doing.
What am I missing? That the above two fellows behaved somwhat unrestrained in that way, and that we now have talk about wanting to increase the potential for that kind of behaviour again?
For me personally, I’m truly as rude and aggressive as the next guy, but according to my understanding of the faith, I believe I must try to be just the opposite. But is this the (mis)understanding of someone who’s still relatively young in the Church, who doesn’t get something that’s too subtle for him?
One of the main reasons I ask is that Dr Stankovic and Monk James weren’t the only Orthodox who came off this way. On several occasions, I’ve also seen it on people in real life, including experienced priests etc., and I’m positive they wouldn’t do it if they shouldn’t, which is to say, it’s more deliberate than the occasional slip we all have, leading me to think that it must be ok, and yet I don’t know why.
If anyone understands what I’m saying and would explain a thing of two to me, I’d be grateful.
RE: “What am I missing?”
Nothing, my friend. You have missed nothing.
The teaching of the Church is based on the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church which are closely tied. In our Tradition, we have Saints Peter and Paul as examples of how we are to conduct ourselves. St. Paul rebuked a practice of St. Peter. St. Peter saw the justice of the rebuke and the disagreement was resolved. I think what’s important is St. Paul was not rebuking the person of St. Peter.
There is also an abundance of information in the Scriptures about how one should conduct oneself, but I like 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
George and I are having a discussion about this.
Thanks Gail. A wonderful part of scripture that
Well, common sense is not abrogated. Bear in mind, St. Athanasius once punched someone for heresy. We’re not Vulcans or Gandhi. Sometimes the “gentle, meek and mild” thing gets overstressed.
Misha, in writing what I said, I wish I had have mentioned how I understand the place of righteous anger and also the need (if I can call it that) to be real, human, not fake or plastic, or carry on with a sickening kind of piety. Within all of that is where St Athansius’s actions fall and yet what I was trying to describe was something else, namely, the almost constant aggressive or rude behaviour by certain Orthodox, who, because they surely must know better, could be thought of giving that behaviour legitimacy, in which case, I’d like to understand how that can be – if at all.
Persistent rudeness to everyone is…
persistent rudeness to everyone.
I think punching for heresy is fine!
Dr. Stankovich came to mind, as well as the other ones that you’ve listed.
There was also someone posting a lot of incoherent and impassioned word salad under a dedicated handle. It was so bad that it was good.
So bad it was good! I think I know who you’re talking about, too.
As for me, I just come in every now and then to give a Galician/Transcarpathian vote in favor of Russkiy Mir.
I remember him well and know to whom you’re referring. His comments were bizarre yet strangely deep. Sometimes I would laugh out loud, then think to myself, wow, he is awesome and good for him for speaking his mind.
I personally prefer the “slow comments.” Much in our world is fast and anything non-urgent that requires us to stretch our patience is, in my opinion, beneficial. There are some downsides but overall it kind of feels like the internet version of sending a postcard, to me. Slower but higher quality information, especially since it gives people some time to think over what they said.
You and me both, Sarah.
One possible issue with Google Analytics is they are transitioning from Universal Analytics to GA4, the newest version. UA will be entirely defunct in July, but functionality has been declining for the last couple of months. My company got on GA4 not long ago and our analytics are up to speed.
Google may also penalize sites in their search results that don’t “get with the program” so to speak, assuming the sites not to be serious about what they do if they aren’t bothering to upgrade.
Alas I only barely know enough to be dangerous so I wouldn’t be able to help, but I’m sure there is plenty of documentation online for how to upgrade this, if it is indeed part of the problem.
You know more than I do! We’re suppose to get it fixed next week. For whatever reason, it wasn’t hooked up at all.
Christ is Risen!
Wish I could help with the techie stuff but it vexes me whenever I wade into it and I have time concerns.
Somebody needs to go in and reroute google searches that simply mention “monomakhos” to the home page rather than the “monomakhos blog error page”. If you click on the highlighted home page link on the error page, it takes you to the home page, but there is no reason for that error page to constitute a middle man.
I doubt you’re losing much traffic because of this. If you type in “monomakhos.com” the home page comes straight up.
I don’t I’m losing anything it is just being redirected. I need to get rid of one site, though. Apparently, malware thinks it’s a threat.
Dr Joseph Mercola says pigs in the U.S have been injected with mRNA since 2018 and that cows are next on the list.
I do not know what exactly his evidence is for the pig injections, as that was kept behind a pay wall, but it’s fairly clear that cows being injected is at least something the little idiot gods are seriously considering.
As to whether or not anyone eating the meat of an injected animal will then be injected themselves, nobody knows too much about that at this stage.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/04/joseph-mercola/beef-producers-panic-over-mrna-vaccine-news/
2018 World Pork Expo: Merck Animal Health Launches SEQUIVITY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7oc0THI_OE
[Video – 04:23]
‘ … a revolutionary RNA particle technology from Merck Animal Health,
is at the forefront of vaccine technology designed to combat this ongoing risk. ‘
The link is supplied in footnote 1 to the Mercola article.
“I do not know what exactly his evidence is for the pig injections”.
Try this:
SEQUIVITY
https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/species/swine/sequivity
‘ A REVOLUTIONARY SWINE VACCINE PLATFORM
SEQUIVITY is a custom swine vaccine platform that helps you take on existing and evolving disease challenges using RNA particle technology.
The SEQUIVITY platform creates custom prescription products such as:
PCV2 vaccines
PCV3 vaccines
Rotavirus vaccines
Sapovirus vaccines
Influenza A virus in swine (IAV-S) vaccines
Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) vaccines
KEY BENEFITS
TARGETED
SEQUIVITY only targets swine pathogen gene sequences of interest.
SAFE
Doesn’t replicate or cause disease, delivering pathogen information to the immune system safely. There’s no need to transfer or handle live material like autogenous, killed or modified live vaccines.
DYNAMIC
Targets existing and evolving swine pathogens, including diseases not covered by conventional swine vaccines.
FLEXIBLE
Allows for the creation of multivalent formulations by blending RNA particles to target multiple swine pathogens in one shot. ‘
“Doesn’t replicate or cause disease”…?
Now where have we heard that before?
They probably started working on this campaign in 2021. A LOT has changed since then. Even their pictures are terrifying. This may be a “seemed like a good idea at the time” Dylan Mulvaney move.
So you lied about being vaccinated to the state pharmacy board? Maybe they will pull your license for spreading all these lies about healthcare. Name
GEORGE C. MICHALOPULOS
10511
07/26/1984
05/20/2022
06/30/2023
Immunization?
Yes
***
[Editor Note: Based on what you provided, you know George is in good standing with the State Board of Pharmacy in Oklahoma because it says so right under the information you copied and pasted. http://lv.pharmacy.ok.gov/osbpinquire/RegDetail.asp?TypeAndCert=R-10511
Where it says, “Immunization? Yes,” it means George is able to provide immunizations. It has nothing to do with his personal immunization status.
Pharmacies, i.e. retail (customer walk-in) pharmacies that do not work with facilities that participate in Medicare or Medicaid programs, are not included in the list of providers and suppliers to which the vaccine mandate applies. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/new-rules-on-mandatory-covid-19-vaccinations-applicability-to-pharmacies
Suggesting George lied about anything to the State Board of Pharmacy is flat out defamation as you declared something you knew to be false in an attempt to damage both George’s personal and professional reputation.
We are publishing your remark to discourage you from posting something like this again, here or anywhere else, and to discourage anyone else you might have carelessly spoken to from taking this fantasy any further. If I do see or hear anything about this again, I will turn you into the authorities.]
So what do people think about eating meat from an animal that was injected with mRNA?
I don’t think it would matter, frankly, for a number of reasons.
I don’t think they’re going to have much success with it. It has killed animals in prior studies. It does not block the transmission of anything. It’s short-lived, lasting only months. It causes all sorts of negative immune responses. The public has been spooked by the whole mRNA thing. (I certainly wouldn’t buy meat associated with it.)
In terms of our health, it would depend on the proteins involved, I guess, but any viruses or germs they’d might inadvertently create in the animals would be killed when you cooked the meat. This may be another scare tactic to get us to stop eating meat for “climate change” and the environment.
This is a campaign that probably started in 2021. It’s one of those things they’ll one day say, “It sounded like a good at the time.”
In a manner of speaking, having never met a conspiracy theory I didn’t at least consider, I’d suspect these people of injecting the livestock with mRNA for whatever dangers it could pose to people who ate the meat/drank the milk – dangers such as infertility, heart problems and gene therapy.
If there’s any truth to that, I’m not sure that the shots being ineffective at stopping diseases in animals would trouble them…and yet I’m just beginning now to see what you mean: while the establishment might want to harm humans and not care about the wellbeing of the animals they use to do it, it would still have to go through farmers who aren’t in on it, and who do care about their animals and whether the injections are safe and effective, in which case, the project would have to be abandoned – you’d hope.
In the meantime, interesting to see that you think cooking the meat (and presumably pasteurising the milk, which is relevant where I live) would ‘kill’ the shot. That’s the million dollar question, after all, and so it’s good to see that that’s what someone thinks.
In support of this, perhaps, is how pork is said to have been injected since 2018, and yet (assuming this was pretty widespread from the start) no excess deaths seem to have been identified until after the shots were given directly to humans.
With all that said, like you, I think I’d be giving meat from animals injected with mRNA a wide berth – at least until something happened that changed my mind.
Thanks for the response!
I didn’t mean cooking the meat would ‘kill’ the shot. But it would kill germs or viruses that might inadvertently be created in the animal by the shot. As an example, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) can be 99.99% inactivated in only a few minutes at 158 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ah. I see. Well, something is better than nothing. And yet, at the same time, if it’s not everything, then it’s probably best we just give that meat a miss
Don’t know yet.
Though, in principle, not in favour.
Indeed
I wonder if Fr. John Peck could help.
Good idea! He helped George create the website. We’re going to talk to him.
Eco-friendly way to destroy facemasks pioneered in Scotland
https://archive.ph/oCcJT#selection-1451.0-1451.59
PPE: Protect the Planetary Environment
Turn your used facemasks into CO2
Brilliant! 🙂
Tucker Carlson Has Been Fired
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Admbn2ciKDk
Oh dear!
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr:
https://www.facebook.com/rfkjr/
‘ Fox fires Tucker Carlso[n] five days after he crosses the red line by acknowledging that the TV networks pushed a deadly and ineffective vaccine to please their Pharma advertisers. Carlson’s breathtakingly courageous April 19 monologue broke TV’s two biggest rules: Tucker told the truth about how greedy Pharma advertisers controlled TV news content and he lambasted obsequious newscasters for promoting jabs they knew to be lethal and worthless. For many years, Tucker has had the nation’s biggest audience averaging 3.5 million — 10 times the size of CNN. Fox just demonstrated the terrifying power ‘
Now, what will Trump say?