1. What exactly is twickerati?
In a sentence?
It’s news, comment and ill-informed opinion on local issues for Twickenham residents, aka the twickerati.
In 2 paragraphs?
Twickerati is a Twickenham based website for all those people who had hoped to find out something about life in Twickenham only to be faced by lists of plumbers in Hounslow, references to the “home of rugby” and a bunch of sites where, yes, you really can be the first to review the Pizza Express in Kingston. And, when we say local Twickenham website we really do mean local – we’re talking TW1 and TW2 thanks very much. It’s all about the ‘hyperlocal’ these days… apparently.
Twickerati aims to be informative but not too serious, vaguely humorous but that’s rather subjective, positive but not overly so and something else which has yet to be defined. Probably something about fostering a community of common interest and promoting Twickenham, particularly local shops and businesses. Either that or circulating unsubstantiated rumours. And that’s where you come in.
2. Keeping up to date with twickerati
If you want to keep up to date with new postings on this blog you can subscribe for email updates (look to your right ->)
Or just follow twickerati on here, on Facebook & on Twitter
3. Commenting and contributing
If you want to comment or let us know what’s going on around the town, there’s no need to register just click on a comment box and let it all out. Try to be a bit polite, and remember that your opinions are visible on a public forum.
If you want to contribute an article or short feature, even better. Just get in touch by posting a comment or emailing twickerati at gmail. Go on, you know you want to and it’s all free.
If you want to tell others, then please do so. The more the merrier.
4. Who writes twickerati?
Hard to say really. Oh, go on then… it’s produced by a dedicated team of professional writers, web gurus, and marketing experts who all work 24/7 to bring you the best news and views about Twickenham town. And the name? Suffice it to say that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Alcohol was a contributory factor.
5. Legal bit
All material on this site is copyright Twickerati. The exceptions to this are:
ii) the feature pieces written by other contributors who retain the copyright to their work
iii) the Flickr photo stream where, obviously, the rights to the photographs are determined by the photographers.
Material on this site cannot be used on other sites without express permission of the copyright holder. If you wish to use content from this site for non-commercial purposes permission will (probably) be given. If you wish to use it for commercial purposes, it probably won’t be. If in doubt, ask. Simples.
Comments from readers reflect their own opinions and not those of twickerati. Common sense should prevail. If in doubt, be normal. Gratuitously irritating, offensive, libellous or just plain boring comments will be deleted although no liability is accepted for oversights on this front. If you’re unhappy with something, let’s talk about it. We also reserve the right to delete any comments for any reason we damn well like. And if you have a guide to a better set of T&Cs, let us know!
And finally… If you want to add a complimentary comment about the site then you can do it on this page if you really feel the need. But if you want to ask a question or tell us some news then use the “Your News” page on the top menu bar. Thanking you kindly.
can you do a review of local independant takeaways – I’d love to see people thoughts on the best Fish & Chip shop – I know what mine is and would love to give them a great review on here as they need to get more local support but i am not sure where i could put a review
Try http://twickerati.wordpress.com/features-index/ to see the review items we’ve already done. Nothing on chip shops yet but scope for your comments on Chinese, Indian & Italian
What is this I hear about the planning application for 500 2/4 bed tents being allowed on the Richmond College grounds on the Chertsey Road to accommodate 2000 Olympic athletes with catering/shop/gym facilities etc..Is this true?
I have no problem with Chris’ comments. Most are reasonably well informed, most are biased (but aren’t we all), and some are hilarious (not necessarily his intention).
But, uncommented links to the local LibDems website seem gratuitous.
Can anyone post a link directly to their website on twickerati? For example, can the piano bar advertise their services in this way?
To the LibDems credit I have to say there is a hell of a lot more local stuff on their site than the Twickenham Cons’ site (which fails to mention Twickenham Riverside, the Station or the Catholic School!).
‘Can anyone post a link directly to their website on twickerati? For example, can the piano bar advertise their services in this way?’ – non-political hyperlocal resident.
Well I guess that is up to Twickerati himself/herself. I am not aware of any rule that states blogs should be apoltical, non biased and that commentators have to abide by some rigorous code that does not allow them a view nor to link their website – biased or not.
In the case of the piano bar, it is probably unlikely that they would post their url here. But it would be up to Twickerati to allow/disallow it. Anyway I hardly think Chris’s links to his website is comparable to a link to the piano bar.
Yes I agree on the Lib Dem website…it certainly is the most locally vibrant of all the local political party websites and so credit where credit is due.
I appreciate the generally non-political views of twickerati.
But I have to ask – is twickerati going a bit Lib Dem these days…..in promoting chris squires direct links to the local yellow party’s website (eg ‘chris squire on about’).
Two other features of WordPress is that people who have previously commented on stories can then post new comments without them being moderated first and can link their name to their own URL. The Chris Squire / Missing Link comment is relevant for the general site information about time stamped URLs and was approved on that basis. Using shortlinks is the way ahead. Not convinced that allowing that comment to stand constitutes “going a bit Lib Dem”. And as people can see, Chris likes commenting on this site, Mumsnet and others. The site is quite popular with some Lib Dems but plenty of others too, including the apolitical and the apathetic. It would be great to see Lord True Blue, the Duke of York (House) do battle with Stephen “The Yellow Knight” Knight on these pages but we’re still waiting on that. Or maybe they already are but using pseudonyms. To quote Toyah: It’s a mystery. (And of course all of these comments might well get deleted at some point).
I do not think that you can say that ‘ Twickerati’ promotes Chris’ links. In the ‘leave a reply’ box you are invited to put your email and website. This is for people to promote their own websites political or otherwise. To question the fact that a reader of the website chooses to promote their own website is tantamount to censorship.
I do not know Chris and do not necessarily support the Lib Dem’s, however if ‘Twickerati’ reports on local political happenings it is not surprising and indeed most welcome that a partisan might put forward their opinion. Are you suggesting that only people with no political affiliation should put their point of view? What would be the point of that?
I for one am grateful to Chris for his opinions and links. Whilst you do not need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand Chris’ political persuasion he always puts forward relevant information. Being a webmaster himself it is again no surprise that Chris utilises the internet (as all parties do – some more succesfully than others – Labour are an internet disaster in their efforts with the new fangled media) to inform and discuss issues.
Finally it is only the local Lib Dem party that actually goes as far as to link to local websites and blogs from their website thus actively promoting them, whether the local sites are pro Lib Dem or not.
So as far as I am concerned Chris’ postings are welcome and informative though I do not necessarily agree with them. That would be the point of these sites…to discuss issues. And yes…if Twickerati’s dream comes true (pun) and the local leaders choose to debate in their own own names online…who was the first to do so…actively promoting the media for such discussion…well it was Chris.
The page http://twickerati.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/richmond-twickenham-school-debate/#more-5106 has gone missing.
One ‘feature’ of WordPress is that story URLs contain the date. When changing the publication date (to raise a story back up the timeline) it changes the date in the URL and so old links don’t work. That story is now here:
http://twickerati.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/richmond-twickenham-school-debate/
Fantastic site! Just what I have been waiting for, finally I can get some truly local news from the internet and not just “Meet Singles in TWICKENHAM” that google seems to throw up.
Keep up the good work.
Chris
I stumbled across this site and I’m very impressed. I’m American and I live in Texas, but I enjoy such local news. It makes me feel a bit like I live there (which I haven’t done since 1972!). Does one person write the main page? I really like the humor. Keep up the good work.
Excellent site! Fun and informative at the same time..I am checking it every morning
Fantastic site! Lively, informative and useful.
Just stumbled across your site for the first time, and love it. Keep up the great work.
Many Thanks