weaselboy2.0:

serious? dont do that

Richard Bailey:

Shame.

The disgraceful thing is I still don’t know who you are. And don’t think I haven’t asked…

David Brain:

What no farewell tour?

Halloween Witch:

Guess you have landed some highly paid job then? Good for you … but remember just because you have a new lover you should not forget your old friends!

2. I had agreed - and I’m happy to admit this demonstrates a distinct lack of judgement and foresight on my part (who’d have thought?) - to a 10.00am meeting with the European CEO of one of the planet’s largest PR companies. It seemed to go very well.

Jonathan:

Are you going to “out” yourself in a glorious finale?

Sally Whittle:

Is this one of those fake goodbyes where we all say nice things about you, then you pop back out again and say only joking??

I’m not chipping in for the carriage clock just in case…

bon voyage…

tax dodger:

Huh? Really? A recent redesign and successful awards evening, growing readership and you are giving it all up? What’s happened? New job? Current one waking up to the fact that you adding a lot of ‘admin’ time on your times sheets? Come on, give us the scoop one final time!

Vice:

This all smacks of Andy Kaufman a bit to me . . .

anonymous:

This reminds me of a comment on TWL 1.0 - one about Heinz Salad Cream - they never intended to cease production, they just wanted to spark nostalgia amongst past and present consumers.

Bravo TWL.

butnowwhat?:

does that mean we all have to do some work now?

Not The Brain:

Is it me, or does this smack of libel suit?! Noooo…. get with the programme TWL! There aren’t enough places to have a proper, informal chat about our industry without being malicious about anyone. Everyone takes it far too seriously.

Ben Roome:

What’s this? Strumpette 2.0?

Stephen Davies:

Shame. It really is.

Prot:

I couldn’t be more distraught. Please tell me that you and Amanda Chapel are going to collaborate on the daddy of all PR blogs.

If this is the end, then you ended on a high. RIP TWL

itsme:

Wasn’t there a recent post about Penfold…. Chap leaving Edelman to start new job at H&K with a few months break in between?

Hmm, that would explain a few things. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the evidence:

TWL’s penchant for Edelman
TWL having a break of a couple of months giving time to run an award ceremony
TWL about to be too busy to run TWL
TWL’s lack of Penfold on his Facebook friends
TWL and Penfold never being seen in the same place at the same time.

Nick Booth:

Oh no, you can’t conclude it like this.

First the Sopranos has a silly ending, and now TWL.

Pull yourself together man.

Il Dottore Corporativo:

Seriously though. . . If the people want Monkey Boy to continue working at TWL, or any TWL at all, there’s got to be a way of funding it.

We all know that this is the fucked economics of user-generated content: give the people the means of production, but suggest that they eat cake (or air) for the next five years. . .

So we sit around chatting, waiting for a commercial infrastructure to grow up around all of this fantastic stuff. . .

And. . . it. . . just. . . slowly . . . dies on the vine.

Advertisers! Where’s your bottle?

TWL is probably approaching a full time job for one person. (Maybe others will replace Monkey Boy, but they’ll face the same problems…)

Then take a look at the few paid links on this site and ask yourself: do they reflect the popularity of this site? Or the community?

Where’s Durrants? PR Newswire? And the rest?

Assume PR Week has 50 paid links on its site. At £50 a pop per week, which is what some people pay, I make that £10,000 per month.

Now less than half of that amount would probably allow Monkey Boy to buy server space and feed his children the bananas they crave.

C’mon guys, don’t act all innocent. If you want to endear yourself to your customers, here’s how to do it: SPEND MONEY ON ADVERTISING…

Try this: next time any of you TWL devotees are in a meeting with a supplier, ask them why they’re not advertising with TWL.

Give them the site’s email address and tell them to get on with it…

User-generated content?

How about user-generated advertising?

Seriously.

Il Dottore

PS: Now what’s all this chatter about the retired Amanda Chapel emigrating to London to work in a bar? Presumably she’s thinking about something more upmarket than Spearmint Rhino…

Countrymember:

Bonne chance, TWL

**sets fire to branston pickle factory**

bin laden:

Shame - Im neither a tech pr or an IT hack but still find time to read twl - you will be missed

Anonymous:

What a shame. I agree with Il Dottore - let’s encourage our suppliers and friends in PR land to advertise, and keep TWL alive

spanner:

come on people - its just a blog. I too will miss reading it, but I’m sure I’ll get over it.

Unlike ‘Il Dottore’ I’m not convinced that TWL’s retirement has huge social media implications either….

Muttley:

No! Someone pick up the baton! quick!

Great stuff, TWL. We spoke the other night at your great gig. Don’t be gone long.

Spin Bunny:

I was better.

Fiona Blamey:

@ il Dottore: he wasn’t actually charging for the ‘paid’ links, bless ‘im. I offered and everything, but the last time we communicated he hadn’t got his rates sorted out yet.

I’ve ditched my blog about five times in the past five years, but once a blogger, always a blogger, I reckon. I don’t think this will be the last we see of TWL or his monkey-suit. Hope not, anyway.

Martin Allen:

Bah humbug. What a damp squib of a leaving post. Put a crimp in my Halloween that has.

Il Dottore Corporativo:

Spanner

I don’t think anyone’s talking about TWL closing down, are they?

Anyway, sorry, I committed the cardinal sin of enthusiasm, didn’t I?

So let me just settle down on my seen-it-all-before, oh-so-resigned post-modern cynical arse once again for a minute.

“It’s just a blog”.

Well yeah, I guess so. A bland little outpost of corporate tedium. A careerist ad hoarding.

Actually, I for one was much, much happier sucking down all of that lovely juicy high-protein trade journalism from Hackmarket…

. . . just like IT managers love the cut-down sold-out content of Blunt Media and the Irridescent Digeridoo Group.

Social media implications? Sorry if this offends your shoe-gazing nothing-matters worldview, but there *is* a small but important point at stake here.

Do you want your news filtered by the increasingly impoverished trade arm of Big Media — bean-counted, hollowed-out, simultaneously arrogant, morally anorexic and scared to tread on toes… because that’s where that world is going, my friend. Rapidly, and in a handbasket.

Or do you want Nice Little Monkeys of your own stripe building a place where we can all swing on trees, hold different views, poke fun at each other and sort out differences via a bit of sharp-edged Monkey Fighting? (ie: debate).

You know, it should be fairly easy for a bunch of people with a bit of influence to find a way to support TWL on a sustainable basis via advertising…

. . . And no, before you ask, I’m not TWL, or part of TWL, or really anything to do with TWL.

Just a well-wisher without much influence who admires what the TWL founders have done.

Er,on the whole…[Gets back in seated position on post-modern arse…]

Chris:

Ah. The World’s Leaving…
That’s sad.

Melanie Seasons:

Didn’t you *just* redesign the site too? Come now, you need to get your money’s worth out of it at least!

tax dodger:

Just to add to the coinspiracy theorists out there I reckon itsme got it nearly right. I reckon it is not that Penfold has moved on and rather it is that TWL is going to Penfold’s previous den and that the CEO s/he met with the other day was none other that our very own David Brain. Yup, TWL off to Edelman I reckon. Just wait for the PRW announcement……

spanner:

dottore - commentary like that must surely qualify you as the perfect replacement for TWL. How about it?

Apologies for my cynical, post-modern bottom type-thing, but its still just a blog….

Ben Tudor:

Oh noes! Say it ain’t so…

Jess:

Gutted. RIP, Monkey Boy.

JT:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/aug/03/weblogs.uknews

…the statistics show not everyone who starts a blog stays the course. Although the blogosphere has doubled in size in just over five months, only around half of all blogs are “active”…

Old article but it tells a story, a shame that such a fine forum has become just another statistic.

Il Dottore Corporativo:

Spanner,

Nice one. Does the jujitsu come naturally or do you have to work at it?

I’m far too soppy for the job.

What’s needed is a Juande Ramos. I’m more the Harry Redknapp type.

Dottore

Fiona Blamey:

@JT: This article gives a more up to date picture of what’s happening with the blogosphere (it’s a few months old now, but I can’t imagine that much has changed):

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2007/04/blogging_growth.html

spanner:

Dottore - I’m afraid you lost me with the jujitsu reference, sorry. I still reckon you could do it though. And anyway, you can keep your post-modern namby pamby football managers - what’s really needed is a ‘Brian Clough’….

Il Dottore Corporativo:

Cloughie. Now you’re talking…

Jujitsu — turning your opponent’s energy against them…

spanner:

Dottore - I think I’m with you now…but, I thought that was Aikido..?

Il Dottore Corporativo:

Er, both I think. Oh, anyway, stop being so bloody picky.

Figgis:

I agree with Spin Bunny - that blog was better

See you later TWL - enjoy the new job, and when you start posting again I look forward to seeing H&K laced through every second story….

Richard Millington:

It’s been a pleasure having my employment opportunities destroyed by you.

Keep well.

spanner:

Richard - don’t be so modest, you must also take some of the credit.

James:

Chin up Richard, you’ll be fine. You’ve undoubtedly learned a heck of a lot more this year about how PR really works than most of your fellow students. And probably some humility to go with it - which many grads could seriously do with. You’ll have a great career in PR, if you still want one …

Never The Twain:

T’is true though. TWL had got a little vicious lately.

Jess:

Does anyone else keep coming back here, just in case it was all a bad dream?

Prem:

Yes Jess.

Seems its not though.

I love that everyone seems to be trying to squeeze the last out of their TWL experience by posting the longest comment chain ever on this post!

Prem:

Maybe as its moderated it is our way of making TWL continue his work through some method.

weaselboy2.0:

i have to work now. its rubbish.

anonymous:

Shit, poo, piss - just seeing if this is actually moderated. Saying that, ‘C***’ got posted numerous times so it’s not as though TWL gives (or gave) a flying f**k.

countryboy:

Shame… but there’s still something to be gained here… to go down in history as the last ever person to post on TWL… and this could be it

Shaggy:

That’s a comment, not a post.

spanner:

surely its a post, but in the form of a comment…?

Not The Brain:

Oooo. Handbags.

We’re just gonna keep shouting into the empty void, aren’t we?

Dan:

hello? hello? is there anybody out there?

Prem:

Rather interesting that we are all still out here. Except, that is, TWL.

What does that say about social media?

Nothing maybe.

Except that blogs without a blogger are like a class full of school children left in the National History Museum after dark, once their teacher has left. But without fun with dinosaurs.

(I would like to apologise for this post, but hold it up as an example of what happens to perfectly respectable PR folk when their lunchtime distraction is taken away from them…)

JT:

Did anyone take up the share offer to fund the development of this new site? Are these shares now worthless?

spanner:

maybe TWL is really Asil Nadir and he’s run off with the cash…..

countryboy:

bananas

anonymous:

Pomello

Nick Booth:

So why did he spend all that money getting a web site designed?

I’m sure there’ll be a follow up

Meanwhile, if you want to win a prize just for having a rant about the trains, go to www.late4work.co.uk

You could win anything from hardback edition of Alistair Campbell’s Diaries, through a Phillips shaver, to a bra for men (donated by Love Honey)

Anonymous:

So Mark Pinsent did get offered a job by Edelman. What a shame at so many levels.

Mark:

It’s lovely to know that my professional life is of concern to people other than me (and the wife, who handles ‘outgoings’).

If it’s really of any interest, I’m a freelance consultant. I have been for four years and I suspect I will be for a good while yet. It suits me. I’m currently working with a number of different agencies and client companies - as I always tend to be - and I’m always meeting and chatting to people about potential work.

Edelman? I’ve worked with them in the past and suspect I probably will in the future. In fact I had a very nice lunch in Paris on Monday with Jonathan Hargreaves, so who knows? But we’re not doing anything together right at this minute, and I haven’t been offered any sort of full-time position (by anyone).

Funny, I had PRWeek on the phone last week asking me if I could confirm the rumour that I was about to join H&K! I guess they’d been reading the comments here at TWL, put two and two together and got the usual five. I was tempted to confirm it, just for a laugh.

JR:

shurely shome mishtake. gutted.

Anonymous:

…..welcome back.

Nick Booth:

Well can you do a Frank Sinatra style series of final curtains?

I quite miss your postings.

SpiderJ:

WTF? I go away for a couple of weeks and Strumpette has wandered off and now TWL. Who is going to keep me entertained now?

Life just got a bit more grey… and now it’s bloody raining, too.

S

weaselboy2.0:

My name is Weaselboy2.0 and I am a World’s Leading addict. even though there is no new content.

Not The Brain:

Me too. I should remove the bookmark from my bookmark bar. Really I should…

itsme:

aaagggghhhh, this is bollocks…. I miss TWL more on a Friday. And I’m fed up with this 68 post thread. Is it possible for whoever’s administering this to give us a new thread please where we can link to funnies to keep us entertained. For instance….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sgQYDJ3tQo

(Quite an old one but I never tire of it!! God, what does that say about the kind of person I am?)