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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » A message from Mike Smithson
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » A message from Mike Smithson
In terms of audience and the length and quality of our comment threads the site is going through just about its strongest period ever. Inevitably the pandemic is keeping many people at home and PB has become a great place to come.
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Damn, Richard III
£50 on the way, OGH
I hope you’re not harbouring inappropriate thoughts about your nieces...
https://twitter.com/ProfTimBale/status/1252264843488440327
Anyway I bunged you 50 notes....and think you should still put these ads on periodically....I know the site is mostly populated by Brexiteer types with short arms and deep pockets...
But it's a really good site
That’s so kinky even SeanT would blink at it.
What I'm curious about is what the running cost of the site is. Does vanilla charge based on traffic or posts or storage? And what's the typical monthly cost and how much does it increase at times when there are high volumes of posts. I guess this might be commercially sensitive so perhaps not something to be posted but I'd welcome a DM.
I'm curious because I like to have a feel for these things, not because I'm going to set up something similar...
It was a fully paid up, out and out fury of jealousy.
Spend it on oil. Negative oil prices...? What the hell has happened to the world.
Thanks Mike and team, for all the work behind the scenes.
Above that it goes up a lot.
Currently we're on nearly a million page views in the last month.
Edit - That's just via the vanilla forums, and not including via the main site.
So we've more than doubled since January.
I just only have the stats for via the vanilla forums to hand.
Range at 30-tonne payload: 4,500 km (2,450 nmi)
Range at 20-tonne payload: 6,400 km (3,450 nmi)
The distance to Turkey is 2800Km. Given that the PPE is low density, the issue may also be volume.
However, I expected my sales of rare books to tank.
They haven't.
In some areas, they've gone up. Lower priced (£50-350), very unusual books are still selling really well.
My main problem is fulfilment. I can't send the books I've had orders for because the institutions that have ordered them are closed.
I'm unlikely to go overseas for the near future, airplanes, even in first class, they seem like ideal vectors to spread something like Covid-19.
If Covid-19 or something similar comes back in the future then I really don't want to be trapped overseas as the planes stop and get stuck in an overwhelmed health system like America or Italy.
Oh and I donated.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11438821/how-to-see-starlink-elon-musk-spacex-satelite-uk/
I suspect its partly because much of the trade is incestuous, within the trade. Because new sources (auctions, house clearances, private sales) have dried up, supply is limiting and prices are finding a new level.
Plus, lots of the customers are on fixed incomes...
And I have stopped spending. I don't mean, I've stopped spending on going out, that's taken as a given. I mean, I have looked at all the large discretionary purchases I was planning on making this year, from a new gaming rig, a refurbished bathroom, to another snazzy new watch, and said OK, that will have to wait. The jeweller has already phoned me desperate to know if I want to skip the wait list. But no. Apparently everyone else has had the same idea.
Unless it's absolutely essential or breaks, the money stays in my pocket.
And I am quite well off. I can only imagine what people who were living hand to mouth before all this are feeling.
The economy is in dire shape, it will get worse from here, I think only discount brands selling essential products have a chance of doing well or even surviving this.
This is a health crisis, but an economic catastrophe.
They think what will happen is once the lockdown is over people will go back to normal, or ignore social distancing, and the second wave will be much worse.
Let's be honest, we're all making plans to see friends and family once this all over, it'll be a collection of large parties at home and we're all buggered.
Work can be done from home via the various remote tools available, now that people being forced to adopt WFH are realising we can be nearly as productive for a lot less cost of travel and office space.
Presumably because the ADs can't give them away at a third of the price right now.
'Tis but a small fraction of my winnings from good tips over the years, though I did miss out on one famous 50/1 tip some years ago...
But more than the financial return, it has given me great pleasure arguing and punning over the years.
We’re cutting down our expenditure now because there’s nothing much to spend money on. However, that’s only temporary.
I’m planning later in the year to see what pride of possession purchases might be out there. I doubt I can persuade the household FD that we need a sports car but works of art might get budgetary approval.
It occurs to me as Mike and "co conspirators" don't get anything out of this, might not PB be turned into charitable status.. so getting HMRC top-ups to taxpayer contributors, as well as other possible tax breaks? We seem to have enough eminent lawyers on hand to advise.
Funnily enough although an important community resource right now I'm not so sure the quality of the debate is at its best. A bunch of people selectively quoting whichever epidemiologist most closely agrees with their point of view.
While most also, with a few notable exceptions, giving the government a free pass on whatever on the hoof policy seems most expedient at any particular time.
And donated, obvs.