It is my experience that Thanet blogging has encountered something of a wall in reaching the people of Thanet. There is no one specific reason for this but thankfully there are a few things we can do.

The first of these efforts I have undertaken is to reach out to Thanet people on FaceBook. To your left (all things being equal) should be a facebook "Fan Box" for Thanet Blogs. The fan page is powered by the most popular RSS/Blog application Networked Blogs on which a lot of Thanet Blogs are already listed.

By becoming a fan of Thanet Blogs a person will get all the sites headlines right into their FaceBook home page.

This allows us to reach out to our non blogging local friends and invite them to the world of Thanet blogging as a whole. This is to everyone's benefit as we all get a little more exposure and maybe inspire a few more new bloggers.

I will be looking at how else a blogger can get noticed in Thanet blogging as this question has been asked of me by a few shy persons.

Together we can overcome this invisible wall and take Thanet's blogging to new heights.

Myth: Thanet Star is a place for random links. I'm not sure where some lazy SEO types have gotten the idea that Thanet Star is a place to dump links but they are very wrong. Evidence of abuse by any UK based ISP will always be reported and I am open to the idea of pressing charges of Computer Misuse regardless of where the spammer lives.

Fact: Thanet Star is a blog. A form of participatory journalism. Thanet Star is (using the wikipedia) a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Myth: Thanet Star is "out to get" INSERT NAME HERE. Certain politcial figures have been observed acting like berks. When they grow up and take responsibility we'll stop talking about their bad behaviour. I'm not out to get anyone but I'm not going to shield someone from the fall out of their own freedom to be a plonker.

Fact: Thanet Star is run for profit. I freely admit that there might be some bias in that I will gravitate towards popular topics and topics that might lead to advertising deals for the blog or contracts for my company. However so far I do not feel this has compromised my neutrality. Read sponsor Thanet Star for more on the subject.

Myth: Thanet Star is purely political. Thanet Star is about Thanet. Thanet is a political entity as well as an island (in name at least) so some content is political. However I also like to look at the subject of blogging, SEO and other technical points too.

Fact: Thanet Star needs support. It's true without the support of businesses and locals within Thanet it is fairly pointless me writing for you. Your attention and opinion as readers is massively important to me. You are the reason to write.

Myth: Thanet Star is only written for the money. If I were only interested in money I'd have a blog about Poker, Pills and Porn because they pay best. I chose to write about Thanet because I care about Thanet. Thanet matters to me. The truth is that it costs more to run Thanet Star than I earn in the average month so it is subsidised by my other business activities. It does not cost a lot to sponsor Thanet Star and there are significant benefits in doing so.

Fact: £20 a month is all it would take to start sponsoring Thanet Star. For this you would get some high profile exposure (if you wanted it) for you business, blog or favourite charity. I'd also give you a write up so everyone knows in whose name Thanet Star is sponsored. Read sponsor Thanet Star for more.

Myth: Anyone can sponsor Thanet Star. It's true that most people from Thanet are most welcome to sponsor us and it is true that some bigger businesses would be welcome too. However, I have standards and as such would not accept sponsorship from just anyone. Local businesses are most welcome but certain less reputable, uh... fire starters, need not apply. I'm sure you get where I am coming from. Read sponsor Thanet Star for more.

Myth: Matt B is ECR. I'm sorry folks but I'm a strong advocate of not using blogger.com for any worthwhile blogging undertaking. ECR was here long before me and is far more satirical than I. I'm not even sure where this idea came from.

Fact: Thanet Star is a highly popular blog. Thanet Star has, from the outset, been a popular blog. Feedburner report an RSS based readership of 240+ people. Given the low RSS take up it can be estimated that this is maybe as little as 5% of the total daily readership. The only blogs to keep pace with this level of readership appear to me to be ECR, Big News Margate and Naked in Thanet (the blog) and maybe Thanet Strife.

Myth: Matt hates Simon Moores. As the primary writer for Thanet Star my aim is to report newsworthy information, to add commentary & analysis to local events and be interesting. If Simon happens to be the news then that is what I report. I have never met Simon so it would be hard to actually hate him.

While I cannot picture myself buying Dr Moores a pint at the local pub it's got little to do with it - If David Greene did something I considered to be shady I would report that too. I admit that Simon's actions on wikipedia were offensive and I disapprove of his approach to SEO & web promotion but that is hardly grounds to get excited. Any "beef" I might have with Simon is completely non political and mostly a mater of him doing something worth talking about.

Fact: slightly controversial content is good for a blog. I'm sure that is why Simon is saying such things about me. That or he has a persecution complex caused by no longer being the big daddy of Thanet blogging. That title is always open to whoever can be the most interesting and talk about Thanet at the same time.