Dear friends,
I have good news: It is now possible for you to talk directly with me on my Telegram channel!
As I have already explained in the past, my have canceled my mailing list and replaced it with a Telegram channel. I have spoken to my friend (Fedor) who so kindly created the channel and we decided to add a interaction capability to the channel. However, and especially in these times of massive troll actions, I have also decided the following:
- The channel will be open to ALL to read, but
- ONLY those who will sign-up will be allowed to participate in the conversations
In other words, the CONTENTS of that channel will be open to all, as per the Saker Community ethos, but only those vetted by me personally will get to participate in conversations.
This is how this will work:
Those of you how want to participate in our conversations will have to email Fedor at the following email address:
These emails will then be forwarded to me and I will decide on a case by case basis.
I fully understand the problems associated with this approach. First, only those whom I have already got to know in the past will be allowed to join (at least initially, see below). So if you want to join and we never interacted before in the past, you will have to introduce yourself to me and I will decided whether you qualify or not. Obviously, anybody either acting like a troll or trying to spam the channel will be immediately and permanently kicked-out.
I am sure that some of you will not like these limitations and as the (horrible) expression goes when a US corporation lets you down or screws you over, “we are sorry for any inconvenience” (just joking, I really hate this expression). Seriously, I will say this: if you can think of a better way to include as many people as possible while EXcluding all the trolls and other PITAs then, by all means, post a suggestion below and I will absolutely consider it.
Okay, your turn now. Please let me know what you think and if you like the idea, please email Fedor with a sign-in request.
Stay safe and kind regards to all
The Saker
PS: FYI – my friend Smoothie has opened a unmoderated COVID19 board here: http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2020/04/sicky-covid-19-board.html#disqus_thread
That’s pretty cool.
Congrats on the telegram channel, that is awesome.
Cheers.
Also,
Happy Easter.
Blessings of peace be upon us, God willing.
Very good to get rid of the trolls.
I think this is going to further the quality of the discussions.
Would probably speed up person to person communication.
You already have a Telegram account which has a whole bunch of your posts. Is this the same thing as what you are making?
Hi Roger,
The main channel that publishes the articles of the site will remain unchanged.
A private discussion group will be linked to it, everyone will be able to join the group and read the content but only authorized members will be able to write.
The Saker Telegram Channel :
https://t.me/The_Saker
@The_Saker (inside Telegram)
The Saker discussion Group :
https://t.me/TheSakergroup
@thesakergroup (inside telegram)
While I don’t plan to try to post comments, I love this idea and look forward to reading them.
And speaking of reading, thanks for the reminder of Smoothie’s blog. (I really needed some sooth-saying by Smoothie right about now. Thought for the day for me: Noblesse oblige. Indeed.)
What is your take on Pavel Durov, his brother Nikolai, the creators of Telegram?
They founded Telegram after being ousted from t he Russian version of Facebook they created, V Kontakte.
Do you see his actions opposing investigating the Euro-Maidan and refusing to block Alexei Navalny’s page as that of a principled libertarian or as part of the Russian 5th column?
He was forced out of VK but walked out a multi-billionaire. I see the proposed constitutional changes forcing him to abandon any dreams of the Russian presidency if he ever had any.
From a technical perspective the encryption aspects are appealing, as well as the open-source coding with a GNU public license. Is the software being developped as a philanthropic exercise?
As this is a cloud based service, what happens if and when the political or financial fortunes change?
I think it prudent to have a way of archiving the various discussions independently of the offered infrastructure. Is that feasible?
I sure do NOT endorse Durov or anything else he or his company does. I see Telegram as a “better than Whatsapp” and used often. For my own messaging I would prefer Signal or Silent Phone, whom I do trust much more.
Looks I am a card carrying member of both the FSF and the EFF, and a total fanboy of RMS, but I cannot impose that on the rest of us. Also, that Telegram channel was “pre-created” for me by Fedor and I had nothing similar at my disposal. Finally, remember that this channel is totally open to everybody, so issues of confidentiality are really minor here.
Have I answered your question to your satisfaction?
Kind regards
The Saker
Smoothie is great! Very enjoyable to read him!
Btw the first comment I saw on his thread was about Zerohedge
“Interesting to notice that “anti-empire” Zerohedge has gone full blown anti-China after the Coronavirus. Now its more like Trump reelection media masquerading as being anti-system media”
My thoughts exactly! We seem to lose blogs every now and again so it’s important to share when there is a new & good one.
Not familiar at all with Telegram. Will definitely look it up. Sounds promising, thanks Saker & Fedor!
ZH never was impartial news/analysis provider. They had some good years around 2009-2014 but since then are captured in the Bannon network. Tyler (creator and owner of the platform) is bulgarian with very shady past who is been subpoenaed for long line of court hearings and suits in Bulgaria.
yet they post A LOT of very good stuff (and some bad ones too, including the China bashing ones).
I read ZH every day
cheers
Me, too but they are akin to broken clock and since Trump inauguration are 100% Bannon/network outlet, and they even give bad fin advices to their readership. Just another facet if the lie network.
G gets it.
Zero hedge is definitely heavily influenced by the Bannon represented wing of the empire. The bot accounts are so easy to spot. Definitely pick and choose which articles to hype and comment on.
I do give them credit for at least publishing some of the real news. Gotta keep Tyler Durden alive, at least for sake of pretenses.