Hello everyone. I want to share some news with you hence abandoning the pretentious first person plural style and going straight to the first person singular. This is the 501st posting on this blog and it’s one of the more important ones.
When I started twickerati in May 2010 I didn’t really know what to expect. I just felt there was an opportunity for someone relatively normal to witter on about Twickenham. Someone who was not linked to any political party, local society or interest group and who wasn’t even the sort of person who wrote regular letters of complaint to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, laudable as those things are. There was a lot going on in 2010: the future of the Riverside, shops opening and closing, the planned station redevelopment, schools issues and so on. In the first few months I got very few hits on the site. A mere handful, if the hand in question belonged to a small child. Then one day someone posted a comment on one of my stories and then someone else did. Thank you Maria, thank you Chris. I began to realise that it was not just family and close friends who were following my ramblings but that other people were actually reading them out of choice rather than loyalty. Amazing! Ditto for Twitter and Facebook. In those early days I thought I’d be happy if I got one thousand page views a month on the blog and one hundred Twitter followers. Fast forward five years and the site now gets over 5,000 views a week from an audience of nearly 2,000 locals. Often more. On Twitter, @twickerati now has over 9,000 followers… although you can of course buy that number for about $100 if you really care about such trivial things.
Most of those Twickenham issues from the early days are still relevant and continue to be the subject of heated debate in our town. However, after five years of posting fresh items once or twice a week and tweeting several times a day I’ve decided to scale things back. It’s just too time consuming given other things going on: family life, the day job, building work (maybe), other hobbies, and basically just life in general. There’s no money in local blogging, I can vouch for that, although had twickerati generated even a trickle of income I might see things differently. Has it all just been a massively time consuming hobby? A bit of fun? An addiction? A labour of love? A millstone and a bind? Yes, it’s been all of those things at different times and sometimes all of them at once.
“Boring. Get to the point”, I hear you cry. Well the point is that I will be cutting right back on new postings and closing existing threads to new comments. Perhaps I’ll dabble with the occasional High Street Update, opinion piece or write something about the Rugby World Cup. I just don’t know yet but I didn’t want twickerati to become one of those websites which just stops or becomes totally rubbish without any explanation. You deserve better.
It’s been great creating something that people seem to enjoy and I’ve met some fantastic people along the way. A few of you even wrote pieces for the site so thank you again for those. And hell, some of your comments have made me laugh too – plenty of them for the right reasons and some of them for the wrong ones.
This isn’t necessarily a complete end to twickerati but it’s the end of it in its current format and I’m certainly going to enjoy taking a bit of a break from it. Well, at least I think I am.
So, if you do want to know when a new post is published your best bet is to sign up for email subscriptions (there’s a box on here somewhere) and that will save you the trouble of returning time and again to the same tedious, unchanging page. The twickerati@gmail.com email will still be valid but please don’t take offence if your requests for publicising X, Y or Z gets ignored or if I take a while to reply to any other messages. It’s nothing personal.
Tweeting will be cut right back too. If you want to get in touch you can always find my other account on Twitter for the occasional tweet about football, running, cycling, Twickenham and other life-affirming matters. It’s here.
In the meantime, get yourselves hyped up and ready for Twickenham Festival (maybe we’ll meet there for a beer or two?), fresh arguments about the Riverside and town square developments, Heathrow battles, more El Brute shenanigans and a whole bunch of new shops opening and then closing down again. It’s what we all love about living here isn’t it?
I’ve really enjoyed the last five years of turning out regular Twickocentric updates and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. So, for the short term at least, thank you so much for your support Twickenham, it’s been a blast.
Russell
UPDATE 19/05/15:
Wow! Thank you for all you kind words, advice and suggestions. I really do appreciate them. I have said above that I hope this is not a complete end to the blog and I will consider some of the ideas you’ve made although I won’t be leaping into anything straightaway. Just to address a few of the points raised.
Would I consider a collaborative thing? Yes, but as you’ve seen above, it’s a time consuming enterprise and previous requests for contributions have generated a bit of interest but only occasional end product. Regular writing is quite a commitment. I’d also want to ensure the ‘ethos’ of the site remained even if writers’ styles differ.
Can these things make any money? I have generated some money (about £1,500 in total) for charities Spear & Shooting Star Chase but as many a ‘real’ business knows, turning site views into any kind of regular money can be hard work. And of course the returns get smaller if they get split several ways. Sponsorship? Maybe but it needs to not affecting the editorial, he said whilst enjoying a delicious, refreshing Twickenham Ale.
Anyway, I don’t want to give too much thought to new ideas immediately but if people are serious about getting involved in something new then a pub-based discussion might be appropriate in a while.
Thank you all once again and bye for now.
Twickerati 
Gosh, what will we do without Twickerati? More to the point, what will *I* do without Twickerati? Your witty, informative blog posts have allowed me to breeze into my home town (I grew up in Twickenham but live in W9 now), catch up with friends & family and not bat an eye lid when they tell me a mains water pipe burst outside Sandy’s. ‘Yeah I knew that. In fact I watched the video on Facebook…’
But more importantly, its allowed me to keep up with the comings and goings of the town I love. Well done Russell…and come back soon!
Will really miss the information about our Twickenham, Being tucked away on the Dera Estate often the info is garbled and your site soon puts it right.
Thanks for all your hard work
K
Thanks Richard. My first name is Dorothy so I am not hiding behind a pseudonym.
I note from google searches that you have a habit of whining about trivial matters such as parking, litter and noise.
May I suggest you do some voluntary work instead as you appear to have plenty of spare time on your hands that could be put to good use.
I notice yet another posting of mine has been removed by the mod. Outrageous.
Then you are not googling hard enough…anyhow this is about Twickerati not us.
Now back to the silence…
Mr Edwards. Take off that silly dress.
Dorothy dear, did your mummy never tell you that if you can’t say something nice, then perhaps don’t say anything at all? This isn’t really an appropriate thread for being nasty, now is it?
Yes Russell, will you ‘Do a Farage’ and un-resign? 😉
Twickenham will be a much sadder place without the Full-Monty Twickerati. Thank you very much for all your hard work over the years. Twickerati is a great asset that not only manages to broadcast opinion but also vital information about what is happening in the town and community. It has helped create much more awareness of what is going on around us and tells us who’s up to what.
Some of the information you publish isn’t easily accessible or available anywhere else and you have been successful in being the catalyst for a number of campaigning issues.
I know nothing about the bottom-line of web publishing, but I can appreciate the huge amount of time it must take to edit, compile and layout all the content. Then on top of that are all the technical issues and costs involved.
Creating a revenue stream through advertising seems a logical way of funding such a site but another important issue is how can one person do all that work?
I guess bringing on board more people to deal with the running of the site would be a help.
So are there any little Web Elves (as opposed to Trolls) out there that would be willing to step up to the plate and give you a hand, or could it be run as a collective?
As a point of interest Teddington has a similar sort of website called Teddingtontown.co.uk, a non-profit site for the Teddington community, but without Twickerati’s witty and excellent discussion threads. It has some advertising but how do they run that?
I hope I’m an ‘elf’ and would happily contribute some expertise in web monetisation allowing those with a way with words and their ear to the ground to keep this alive. At the very least a hyperlocal beverage to discuss would be very welcome.
At the same time, I strongly empathise with Russell’s position on this and total right to step away. I am adding my voice to the many gently suggesting some form of collective support while respecting that this suggestion may look and feel like it’s heading in the opposite direction to the one Russell is seeking.
That said, the phrase ” …had twickerati generated even a trickle of income I might see things differently’ gives a glimmer of hope as I believe ‘at least a trickle’ is achievable and this could be the needed lifeline just out of frame in the iconic ice-cream van photo.
Either way – a massive thanks to Russell and (almost all) commentators over the years for the very special combination of information and entertainment. Hyperlocal beverage anybody?
WordPress.com blogs are free to set up and run, so there is no money cost to stop others having a go. I have contemplated this myself but have concluded that the commitment of time and energy – and good humour – required to do the job properly is more than I can offer. My focus would in any case be on East Twickenham and Richmond and borough politics rather than its extensive cultural and sporting scenes..
I created a single issue blog last year:
and was surprised how easy it was to learn to use the WordPress toolkit as I needed it.
Twickerati has attracted a wide range of highly opinionated commenters – I urge them to have a go and see how they get on.
Thank you for Twickerati – enjoy your sabbatical and come back soon . .
WordPress and Blogger are the two most popular template driven tools, easy to use, easy to setup. Both dissuade advertising. Google ads are also frowned upon within these tools. Google ads only make what could be described as pocket money. (£3 per month if lucky). Monetisation is difficult. If you could make decent money from a blog then I am sure many of us would be doing it. Many newspapers and individuals have asked themselves the same question. It boils down to advertising or subscription.
Ah, Mr Brand, so you’ve finally come clean! I suspected it was you all along with your anti-Ukip/lefty/righty/anarcho-syndicalist/neo-nazi/extreme socialist/ Friend of Dorothy bias!
On the other hand, Russell, what a performance for the last 5 years. Communitarian, tolerant and inclusive, this blog demonstrates the value of those civil virtues simply by its existence and your commitment to it.
Brilliant. You’ll be missed.
Mike Hine
(Ps In the noble tradition of a well-known sane and rational political party, if we refuse to accept your resignation could you not just ‘unresign’?)
Many thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in to this blog. It’s been very informative and very much appreciated. Fingers crossed for the occasional update from Twickerati Towers.
What a terrible shame, I really enjoy Twickerati. If funding is an issue look at Tibdit for an online payment scheme, people donate pocket change amounts but it all adds up especially with 9000 followers.
I have only been reading Twickerati for a year or so and I thoroughly enjoyed every article – especially the wit. Please enjoy your “rest” and I look forward to reading the articles when you do have time. Please don’t give it up totally.
Apart from your informative and excellent writing style, you have made a great contribution to awareness in the locality at a time when the Richmond & Twickenham Times imploded and decamped to Sutton. Your support of the Twickenham Community Market initiative was most welcome. Thanks and come back soon.
Best Regards
Alan
Thanks for everything! I haven’t really commented much, but thanks so much for all your hard work in keeping everything going. It’s been really good to get news of what’s going on locally.
It must take up a load of time though, so enjoy your break and good luck with any other projects.
Standard of writing in the comments section is always very good. As Mr. Physicist suggested perhaps the readers should become writers for a while to see how it goes.
I could do an article on what constitutes a scientist…
Hello Russell – I hope this is just a mini break. Though I haven’t been a regular contributor for quite some time (who needs another politician hijacking the comments threads) I’ve been a close watcher of the various discussions some of which even made the national press. Without Twickerati we’d never have had GardenGate; a sobering thought.
I hope you’re back soon – not least for the vital public service you provide in ensuring those who seek to represent local residents don’t get too big for their boats……BOOTS!
It’s always good to hear from Gareth Roberts, especially now that he is
el supremo of the local LibDems, so, best I watch my Ps and Qs lest I have to hunker down in my cellar yet again!
Nevertheless, since I am a doughty old soul, lets not forget the Riverside sell-off, CO2/CPZ tax scam and the relentless council tax rises under the LibDems. It makes Lord True’s “vanity” boothouse project seem a bit insignificant in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t it?
Oops, that may upset some of the Gloriana protesters, of whom I was one, so I hope they will remember the effort and money expended by those of us who were also determined to stop Lourie’s equally vain Riverside project.
Alexis
PS: Hugs and kisses from your fans Gareth!
PPS: Unless she has a private channel, I’m surprised not to note any thanks to Twickerati from Doc Burningham.
Doc B has used this forum as a sort of pulpit to pump out her anti-Tory, pro LibDem stuff ever since she stood, albeit unsuccessfully, as a Riverside ward Councillor – poor form but perhaps she’s away.
I agree with Adam. Get some advertising!!! You will be missed. So sorry to see you go 😦
Local advertising of course 😉
you will be greatly missed in my inbox, have always enjoyed your, comments, points of view and of course humour. thank you for all your effort and hard work. bye
Good work Russell, been a great read.
Maybe you should ask for volunteers to set up a panel of like minded contributors who could share the burden.
Very sad news.
With 5000 views a week, you should be able to generate some advertising income with a discrete banner ad at the top of the page. I’d much rather the inconvenience of scrolling down than the end of an informative and well written site covering subjects that directly affect me.
Please don’t go!
You’ve done a great job, Russell. I always assumed your time and efforts were at least partially funded by the chamber of commerce or some local business association. Enjoyed reading the blog (from north of the A40…never mind the 316) and trying to make sense of the issues and squabbles from a non-local perspective. Like all the other TwickFolk volunteers we parachute in from elsewhere to run our music events at the Patch. Labours of love can be damned hard to shake off! Thanks for your support and all the retweets over the years. All the best with your endeavours and pursuits…whatever you do at least keep writing!
Thank you for all you’ve done with this great site over the years. And heres hoping you don’t just disappear…!
Twickerati, could you not leave us a light to shine in the night sky when we need you? Along the lines of Batman, perhaps a silhouette of the ice cream van? Please? reflect-
Any of these things are highly likely in the near future :
The Blue Baron announces plans to widen the Eel Pie bridge for s shopping and luxury housing development. Lord Stirling just happens to be available.
The RFU advertises the next 7s match as a chance to “Drink and party for 3 days just like wot you do in Ibiza ” while reassuring locals our views are listened to.
Heathrow announce plans for a fourth runway
Barry Edwards attempts to stir up hatred of Canada geese.
Please. Leave us a signal!
I agree wholeheartedly with physicist’s comment:
“Gosh, what will we do without your informative and humorous missives ? Can you continue in some kind of editorial/commissioning role, inviting others to contribute ?
This is certainly the best local site I’ve ever encountered”.
Please don’t leave us high and dry!
Thanks for everything Russell. You will be missed. I totally understand your taking a break, but I can’t help thinking that you may not be able to resist the cut and thrust of it all once the World Cup starts. Just imagine what fun it will be! All the best, and hope to see you around.
It’s been great. If only our local newspapers (and I include the Standard) were as informative and well written.
As a wise man once said “So long and thanks for all the fish”.
We’ll miss you – Twickerati was a great asset for Twickenham – but more than that we wish you health an happiness in everything you find time to do instead. Enjoy the sunshine!
What a shocker! I’d always wondered who was behind Twickerati. In what is clearly complete naivity I’d assumed it was a writer who had, cleverly -and perhaps magically – turned his or her good skills into a smart little business providing a fantastic community service for the good people of Twickenhan, while at the same time living the good life leisurely working from home with a backtrop of fabulous river views. For such community service surely does deserve to be appropriately rewarded! By the sounds of it it was actually all done from the goodness of the heart – which should be a good thing but totally shatters my illusion that one can make a living doing some good.
So thank you Russell for the last 5 years, for all the blogs, the tweets and retweets; for your wit which always makes me laugh; for turning LBRUT into El Brute (genius!); and most of all for making me feel part of a community. I hope you can still treat us to a High Street Update once in a while.
Thanks Russell. You’ve done a great job.
I’ve always looked forward to reading your posts.
Completely understandable decision as others have said…
Great writing style by the way: clear, understated and witty – don’t waste it!
All the best
Bill
Thank you for the past 5 years. I’m so sorry to hear you made no income and are having to scale back. I didn’t realise you were just 1 person! Hoping for a reprieve as you’ll miss your followers far too much!
Have really appreciated your blogs. They’re funny, entertaining and most informative. I can understand just how much of your time this has taken. You’re very talented. Thank you.
I am sad to hear this, but understand how time consuming it must be. I am a Twickers native, but moved to North London for 18 years before moving back to the fold 4 years ago. Finding this blog when I returned was such a joy, I have truly enjoyed your witty writing and found it incredibly useful.I (selfishly)hope that when you read how appreciated your labour of love is, you may reconsider. In the meantime, thank you for all the laughs.
Shame to see you go – always entertaining and interesting blog – but totally understand why. Enjoy the Twickers Sunshine 🙂
And when Twickerati went to sleep, all his friends went to sleep.
Boanages and Alexis were just ornaments on the mouse organ
Edwards the toad settles down malevolently behind his magnolias.
Purple Haze and Riverside Voter are just rag dolls.
Dorothy clicks the heels of her ruby slippers and finds herself back in Millwall
And, when he goes to sleep, even Twickerati himself is just a Twickenham man – cycling, watching the rugby and generally doing good.
But we all loved him.
Hear, hear !
Thank you for the last 5 years. I do understand your decision. Thank you for giving us a platform to voice our opinions. You are a great writer. I have laughed, been incensed, celebrated, rejoiced and been through all gamut of emotions from your very informative write ups and accompanying comments. All the best and look forward to those occasional postings.
Thanks for all your work Russell/Twickerati, I always enjoy your sharp and witty writing about local life, you will be much missed. I hope you enjoy your break and look forward to your occasional posts.
Thanks from me too – I’ve thought of the Twickerati site as pretty damn useful for finding out what’s going on and for us to have a platform to deal with issues. I’m sure it was definitely a big influence re getting the Gloriana problem sorted. I’m afraid I didn’t even know you were called Russell till today – feel a bit bad about that, though I’m not sure why! Anyway, good luck with whatever takes over from this and I do hope you will still continue, even if less frequently. Lots of love from me and do call in if you’re out and about. It’s no. 2.
Just want to say good on you, and good luck, Russell! Twickerati is an excellent blog and your tongue-in-cheek posts will be missed. I’ll certainly keep reading & following on the off chance of occasional future posts. Here’s wishing you all the best and I hope you enjoy having some increased time to dedicate to other life priorities.
Congratulations on a unique, witty and wonderfully enjoyable blog Russell. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would scan his FB timeline ignoring the dross whilst hoping for a new High St update.
Your site will be missed but I do hope you return. And if you ever asked for paid subscriptions, I’ll be the first of many to chip in. To make it worth you while.
Thanks Russell. You’ve been a fab contributor to the fabric that is our Twix.
Five years that have made a real difference to our community and given a lot of people a chance to ventilate their voices, not always as wittily as you. Thank you.
Was that a sigh of relief I heard from the Blue Baron……
Gutted to read this Russell, you were the first person to publically support our new business and we thank you hugely for that. Your tweets have kept us informed and entertained about all manner of things Twickers, and you will be missed, but completely support and understand your decision …maybe now we’ll all think about the important things in life…
Thanks for the articles, sorry to see the blogs demise, best wishes in future ventures.
John
I echo the words of ‘physicist’. Funnily enough I was thinking about Twickerati yesterday and how it has fulfilled a community need. Some years ago I read an article on blogs and websites, the article suggesting that the way forward was for (hyper) local websites.
Twickerati met this criteria perfectly and over the years has attracted not only the local ‘internauts’ but also local politicos who want to keep their finger on the social pulse. I concluded that Twickerati had come of age and that the aforementioned article was probably right.
Monetisation is always difficult on the web with advertising or subscription being the only options. Not just a problem for the lone blogger but also for the likes of News International and The Guardian. Blogging can be good for the aspiring writer to move on to paid work but I do not think that was your purpose. This is what happened to a blog that I used to follow from 2007 – 2011 – the blogger now works for a commercial media outlet.
Anyhoo, I hope it is more au revoir rather than goodbye…I can imagine that it can be time consuming and a rest is always welcome. Nonetheless the combination of humour and seriousness I think you got right. I think you have got to an interesting position, and it would be a shame if Twickerati were to go completely.
Thanks for your five years Russell, my kids who’ve now moved away have enjoyed keeping up with what’s going on here through Twickerati. You’re a lovely writer and have a career in journalism ahead, you do a great job of staying impartial. Well done,
Chris, Strawberry Hill
Hi Russell
Totally understandable. You have done a fantastic job. Thanks so much. Until next time!
All best wishes,
Phil
It will be missed!
Dear Twickerati/Russell, This blog has been brilliant, fun and relevant and I will miss reading all of the Twickers news and comments, very much. 5 years is a long time and you deserve a break, however! I do hope that you might feel re-invigorated as time goes by and that there might be a periodic flurry of voices on these pages, once again. The Gloriana era was one of your finest, I feel and contributed in no small part to uniting hearts and minds, to defend our wondrous Riverside from bonkers peers of the Realm! Have a FAB summer, resting upon your well deserved laurels … sounds like a line from a Carry On film … Carry On … on …. on … :D))
Ah Twickerati, thank you for giving me something to giggle over on the journey to work and genuinely helping to build our local community. Looking forward to the occasional post. Amy
You have done a good job with Twickerati, and I quite understand that you can’t have it taking over your life. I do hope that Twickerati does indeed continue, as I believe that it does a useful job as well as making entertaining reading. Your supporters should take over from you, to keep things running. Good luck with the rest of your life!
The blog has certainly had it’s day as many of the postings are vitriolic and wedded to a particular political party. For example, when I posted a comment about UKIP it was deleted yet others posted comments about UKIP and nothing happened.
If a blog is to have any form of credibility the moderation must be consistent and impartial and not based on political connections.
Russell thank you so much for running the blog. It has been great fun and a really useful way of raising community issues. I think it has also become a force for good. I will miss your clever and funny pieces and wise moderation especially when we are all arguing our heads off.
Thank goodness the moderation has been light in touch and always good humoured, informed and very much appreciated, unlike……….
ODFO Dorothy perhaps back to Millwall, you lost all credibility when you suggested those that did not want to put up with the rugby rubbish, human waste etc.. should get a life.
I have nothing but praise for this site and I know exactly how much effort is required to run it and run it well.
So to quote a quick google search…Open your mouth only if what you are going to say is more beautiful than silence….
And please note I have not hidden behind a pseudonym and I believe my response is more beautiful than silence..
Good day to you and thank you once more to Russell.
Out
I don’t know how you’ve managed it Russell, you’ve done an incredible job. You’re a great writer, really entertaining, acerbic and witty and your voice will be very much missed. I’m just one of the many people who follow and enjoy reading Twickerati and we all hope you’ll find the time here and there to check in with us. Winding up must have been such a hard decision to make, but I guess we can all imagine how much this must take out of your life. Thanks again for everything you’ve done for our community.
Janis from Lovers Lights
Gosh, what will we do without your informative and humorous missives ?
Can you continue in some kind of editorial/commissioning role, inviting others to contribute ?
This is certainly the best local site I’ve ever encountered.
Physicist you read my mind. Was thinking perhaps some way of spreading the responsibility and perhaps making the site more profitable? So so sad to hear this but also totally understand….
Many thanks Russell for all your witty postings over the years, I certainly have enjoyed them. Why not opening the blog to other contributors?
Thanks for Twickerati – I have enjoyed reading your comments about a town we lived in 35 years ago and in which our daughter starting living there a year ago. Good luck with all those other activities kept at bay by your work on the blog.
Keep writing – it has been good fun being in contact with you
All the best
Pat Yonwin