Things Complete

The new host is much better and coping with the level of traffic, in fact, traffic is increasing steadily and I think all the technical issues are done with.

The design is pretty stable although there are one or two improvements I will be looking at in the medium term

Contributing Authors

There are about 60 contributing authors registered on the system, although I expect only a small number will be regular posters. This is cool though, whatever suits, even one post is a great contribution.

This is very much work in progress and will develop over the coming months.

There is always room for more though, contact me if you want to join the party.

Things to Do

There are two things I am working on;

The first is an issue with comment moderation for contributing authors, its not a bug as such but it means that if you are a contributor you have the ability to moderate and edit every comment. I can restrict this, and have, but it means that all contributor comments go into the moderation queue. There might be a delay between you submitting a comment and it appearing.

The alternative is let the authors moderate and potentially, edit comments

Does anyone have any strong thoughts on the issue?

I am looking at external comment systems like Disqus as well.

Watch this space.

The second and more interesting thing on the to do list is improving access to the Think Defence archives and comments. One suggestion that surfaced was to have ‘themes pages’ that pulls all related content into a single page.

To partially address this we have the Tag Map, click here

As I go back through the old posts this will expand and become more inclusive of the older content.

I am also toying with a ‘Subject Space’

This is a single page view with the main subjects.

Linking of this page will be a series of subject pages, in this example, the Type 26 Global Combat Ship

Does the format look OK, content suggestions, how to organise and present the pages in the subject space, good idea, bad idea?

Let me know.

The post Redesign and Refresh – The Story So Far appeared first on Think Defence.

I will be adopting a phased approach to the refresh

Phase 1

The annotated image below shows the major design blocks;

ONE – Top Menu

This might change as we progress through the open testing but the current version is

• Home: pretty self explanatory!

• last 50 Comments; shows the last 50 comments across all posts. Although the formating does get collapsed and any embeded images/video surpressed the link will take you direct to the post AND comment

• Bookstore: Its an Amazon thing, if you are buying a book from Amazon ordering through here will take you to Amazon, be no different from normal but I will get a few percent. Every little helps

• Wall of Fame: The top 12 commenters, not attached to this to be honest so it might go

• Authors: This is evolving, as the contributing authors list grows a single menu will be a little unwieldy so in Phase 2 of the redesign I will look at something a little more sophisticated

TWO – Search

Erm, use this for searching for stuff

THREE – Latest Posts

A ticker showing the most recent posts on Think Defence

FOUR – Main Menu

The main menu shows the post categories and the obligatory ‘about’

• News and Information: Short news items, interesting images, videos and links. These should form the main post rhythm of Think Defence and will replace the open threads, which were getting unwieldy and difficult to follow to be honest.

• Analysis and Proposals: Longer posts with more research and analysis.

• Culture and Community: Films, charity, welfare and even the odd funny

• History: I am hoping to do more in this section but the category is self explanatory

• Parliament: Written answers, select committee and national audit office reports

• Administration: Anything to do with site updates and administration

• About: contains the small print, information on sources, how to become a contributing author and a contact form should anyone want to get in touch

FIVE – Connect with Think Defence

There is more to Think Defence than just the main web site, twitter, facebook, tumblr, flickr, pinterest and of course the RSS feed. You can also enter your email address to receive notification of new posts

SIX – Latest Tweets

If you like that sort of thing

SEVEN – What’s New

Similar to the ticker at the top but static

EIGHT – Last Ten Comments

Think this one is self explanatory as well

NINE – Authors

Select the author from the drop down list and you will be able to see all they have written. Think I have everyone on now but if anyone has written a guest post and they aren’t on the list, please accept my apologies and get in touch.

TEN – Favourite Subjects

One of the recurring problems I have is how to provide easy access to the nearly 1,600 posts and 80,000 comments. By using the tagging system I am going to build this list to include subjects that everyone is interested in. This area will evolve over the next few weeks.

A couple of people have suggested a ‘new to Think Defence’ and I will put it here when complete, it’s a great idea.

I would like to request your help here, what are the best posts in Think Defence?

Phase 2

Once all the reader feedback is in I will use this period to do the big fixes and changes.

Phase 3

The next phase will see further developments with the contributing authors as we are only just getting started with this. Phase 3 will also see a few ideas floated for funding support, digital downloads, donations etc.

I am not going to be making Think Defence a pay to access site

Summary

The migration process might take a few days and is not likely to be 100% error free so please bear with me and I know I keep saying this but let me know anything that doesn’t work or you would like to see changed.

Thanks for your patience

TD

The post Think Defence – Site Refresh May 2013 appeared first on Think Defence.

ONE

Think Defence is still only a blog, it is not a campaign for change with lofty objectives.

We don’t have to be too serious or take ourselves too seriously, the whole thing has to be enjoyable and interesting or it is not worth doing.

There is more than enough room for differences of opinion, errors and and ignorance but none for arrogance, closed minds or righteous aggressiveness.

The objective of Think Defence will remain the same as it always was, simply an effort to get people talking in a sensible and informed manner about UK defence issues, no more, no less.

A place to listen, talk and learn.

TWO

I am going to slow down my own posting so I can both sustain the type of post I really enjoy researching and writing and experiment with a couple of commenters suggestions about sharing the workload.

THREE

One and two will not produce any real change, the same stuff, just less of it, I might even migrate it over to WordPress or Blogger to drop the cost down.

The following ideas will mean much bigger change.

In parallel with the longer and more considered articles from me and other guest posters I would like a kind of side blog format that sees a team of contributors logging in to Think Defence as contributors as bashing out Quick Posts on a regular basis.

What is a Quick Post.

If you go back to the contents of ‘this weeks links’, the Facebook image slideshow or a single YouTube video with a couple of sentences this is what I am talking about.

A single link or a collection of interesting images or media that are topical.

The open threads would close, these are usually pushed along by something in the news or something one of the commenters finds interesting.

If it is newsworthy or interesting, a new Quick Post would be the start point.

If I can get a group put together it means publishing these short posts wouldn’t become a chore for any single person, exactly what I am trying to avoid.

What would you get out of being a contributing author?

All the container images you could realistically consume in one lifetime!

OK, not just that but a chance to contribute to Think Defence content and of course my undying gratitude.

The absolute VERY LAST thing I want this to turn into is a chore for you, come and go as you please, take as much or little part as you want but basically, play some part.

The only condition would be that you maintain the sites security by not sharing login credentials etc. because in effect, I am handing over the keys to the castle.

Just as a quick aside, being a contributing author does not mean you would be limited to Quick Posts, you can post what you want within sensible limits but I would imagine the majority would be short, time sensitive posts in reaction to news and events.

FOUR

To support you in this, a login to the TD admin system and access to the about to be published Think Defence UK Defence Newsfeed to end All Newsfeeds to provide inspiration, up to date news and media.

The TD News Pipe will funnel hundreds of defence and related subject newsfeeds, facebook pages and media queries into a single sorted and de-duplicated feed that you can read in any newsreader, offline or online.

In addition to the News Pipe I will make available online my PDF and media library, it being fairly mahoosive.

As this grows I hope to make this ‘back room’ much more collaborative, much more than me just showing you mine!

You can always send in a guest post as well without being part of the team. Guest posts are great, I want more but don’t want barriers in the way either.

FIVE

To build this additional capability I am going to have to spend a bit of cash, more than I do at the moment.

Hosting, security, additional software and perhaps outsourced design work all add up and if we are going to build Think Defence then it has to be secure, well designed, unbuggy, fast, reliable and visually appealing.

I know many people like the current ‘agricultural’ layout but it is only sparse because it keeps server load to a minimum, its hardly a looker is it?

Also, being part of the TD team will not be linked to donations, time, money, both or none are all equal in my eyes.

Reluctantly, I might therefore as the TD readers to throw a few quid into a pot to help me along.

SIX

I don’t know whether these plans will work, whether people will put their hands up and pony up a few quid.

If not, it will be normal jogging, just slower.

If so, and I am actually pretty enthusiastic about building the TD Massiv, then I hope together we can push Think Defence out from its one man band (ably supported by guest writers and commenters) approach into something much better and collaborative.

This is an experiment, if it works great, if not, OK, I will just carry on but less frequently and accept a reduction in traffic.

SEVEN

I am going to ask for some very specific feedback to gauge interest before jumping

1. Would you be interesting in joining Think Defence as a contributing author?
2. Would you throw a few quid into the pot?

In addition, do you have any specific comments on this proposed direction, even if the answer is no to questions 1 and 2

The post Think Defence is Changing appeared first on Think Defence.

Think Defence was started by me as an antidote to some of the drivel in the mainstream media on defence issues, hoping to provide an environment to sound off, rant and generally provide an outlet for a subject that I care about.

Think Defence does not make me any money, far from it actually and it takes a huge chunk of my time but it is fortunate enough to occupy a rather interesting place in the defence debate and gets what is frankly, a huge amount of traffic.

I have no desire to step out of the limelight and am very wary of taking myself too seriously or assigning some importance to what is just a bloody blog after all but visit statistics and especially where those visits come from (you would be surprised) place a bit of a, self-imposed arguably, obligation to always be accurate, always be relevant, always be writing and be very wary of making a joke or offhand comment because of who it might upset.

There are no delusions of grandeur or over inflated opinion of worth, don’t think that for one minute, but when over a thousand a visitors a day arrive from Google having searched not for F35 or CVF, but the term ‘Think Defence’ I do start to wonder.

It would be remiss of me at this point not to mention those who contribute comments and guest posts, I made the point before and will keep on doing so, it is readers, commenters and guests writers (you know who you are) who actually make this place far far more than the sum of its parts and I owe a huge debt and indeed, an obligation to them to also.

It gives me a rather warm feeling seeing others taking a small crumb of inspiration from here and finding their own voice, expanding the debate into other areas, either here or in their own sites (Sir H and Chris B for example)

It enriches our discussions enormously to have people from the USA, Germany, Holland, France, Singapore, Australia and others offer their perspectives on UK defence issues, no man being an island and all that, regardless of the fact we are, in fact, an island.

Get to the point you waffling old fart!

What I am trying to say first is thanks to everyone but am at a bit of a crossroads because Think Defence is turning into a full time part time hobby that is weighing a heavy at the moment.

I need to get my mojo back so will be having a bit of a serious think over the next few weeks about what do.

What are the objectives of Think Defence, has it made any meaningful contribution, can it be any more than just another place for people who are interested in this stuff anyway, does it need to change format, frequency or approach and more importantly, have I converted anyone to the joys of containers, military bridging and Mexeflotes?

The outcome of my blue sky naval gazing thought showering may well be to just carry on normal jogging, but as ever your opinions are most welcome.

The post Thinking some more about Think Defence appeared first on Think Defence.

If you are so inclined, can I ask that you let me know;

1. What are the best bits of Think Defence, I will try and build on them?
2. What are the worst bits of Think Defence, I will have a sulk and then see if I can correct them?

Can be anything from site design, subjects covered, frequency of posts, multimedia content, guests and commenters, moderation or anything else for that matter.

Thanks in advance

The post A Think Defence Request – Your Blog Needs You appeared first on Think Defence.

Some great contributions and debates have been had this last few weeks, Chris and Sir H are blasting out some superb articles and I especially like the interaction we have with overseas sites like those run by Chuck, Sven and Sol, three excellent examples.

Traffic is rising, there are plenty of people linking to Think Defence from an assortment of defence forums and Twitter followers generate plenty of debate and interesting comment as well.

Great stuff, really, thanks.

It is the commenters and guest authors wither their differing but knowledgeable opinions that make Think Defence such an interesting place.

On the horizon at Think Defence towers is a thought provoking guest post on the TA, a conclusion to the UK Complex Weapons series (CAMM  and Fireshadow) and then I think it is on to SDSR 2015, SIMSS Part II and a look at ship to shore logistic, the complexities of the urban environment and expeditionary airfields.

It has actually been a while since I did anything container, pallet or bridge related so expect a handful of posts on those as well.

I might even take the baton from Monty and write something on airborne operations and then finally get round to my hair brain scheme thoughts on the future of armour.

If anyone has any specific requests, don’t be shy and remember, the guest door is always open.

The post Quick Thanks appeared first on Think Defence.

Categories I could think of, off the top of my head were

• Blogs
• Defence Equipment
• General Interest
• SDSR 2015
• UK Only Defence Issues

But if anyone wants to suggest more, please let me know (in the comments to this post for example)

This will evolve over time so keep checking back

Click here to view and submit

The post New Site Feature – Links Directory appeared first on Think Defence.

I have listened to the majority of Think Defence readers and commenters who preferred a stripped down theme that did away with the fripperies and concentrated on speed, ease of reading and content.

The site gets a Page Speed Score of 93% now, pretty nippy.

In making these changes I might possibly have just avoided having to upgrade yet another notch up the expensive hardware ladder.

A big thank you to everyone that has persevered and a special thanks to Oliver at Defense Industry Daily who offered me some space on their hardware.

A few highlights…

• Comment editing is back on
• Recent comments and the TD Twitter feed is on the home page but nowhere else
• The last 50 comments are still available here
• The logo is back
• RSS feeds remain unchanged at;
  • Posts; http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/feed/
  • Comments; http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/comments/feed/
• Typography should be spot on for readability now, have spent a long time on this aspect
• Comment and page pagination is activated

My next task is to wade through the archives and clean up some of the content and code to make it better suited to this design.

Then, I want to clean up some of the comments design elements,  implement a links directory (as requested), make a start on the SDSR 2015 collaborative system and actually get back into the habit of writing again!!

Thanks again all

The post Are we there yet Dad? appeared first on Think Defence.

The site is a victim of its own dubious success with traffic and processor use stretching beyond that of conventional shared web hosting. It is running at an aggregate of just under 3 million views per year now or somewhat less if you use a different calculation method (there is always a degree of variability in traffic stats), it is still too high though, however you tot the numbers up.

So, its time for an expensive new house, but in the meantime this is the basic stripped down go faster default theme with no bells or whistles that will hopefully do as an interim.

I know it looks a bit cack buts its low resource, should be pretty quick (let me know if not) and will fingers crossed stay up until I can sort out a new dedicated host.

Thanks, yet again, for staying with Think Defence

p.s.

Nobody dare say they prefer this design to the previous look

The post Getting the builders in appeared first on Think Defence.

Seems the recent design has pleased many but annoyed some.

Am going back to the drawing board and having another think, the redesign was done for the right reasons and a great deal of time and money expended but I am still not 100% happy with the results.

Hence, I have decided NOT TO REVERT to the old version but go into another round of redesign. There comes a point where flogging a dead horse becomes counter productive but the negative comments have been noted.

Just as an aside, if you look at the bottom right of your screen you should see a counter and Plus symbol. This is an indicator of posts you haven’t read since you last visited.

Try it out, let me know if you like it.

In the meantime, and whilst I am tinkering again, have a look here

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/commenter-wall-of-fame/

Get you gravatars sorted

www.gravatar.com

UPDATE #1

OK then, I think that’s it

A bit of cosmetic styling for post content but after what was a lot of bloody work, am pretty happy!

The post Another Update appeared first on Think Defence.

The current design is OK but as ever, continual improvement is a good thing.

Anyone got any suggestions?

UPDATE #3

Comment pagination, noted, added to the list

UPDATE #4

So, not a big hit then but once the layout and typography gremlins have been sorted out you will love it, moving with the times and all that.

on to the things to do list

Invalid security token error

Comment box colour too light

Recent posts not visible

Two columns on post pages looks cluttered

Improve comment pagination with numbers not just ‘older’ and ‘newer’

Comment editing back on

Recent posts to show post and link to comment

Improve contrast on posts and comments

Advertising, sorry, it pays the hosting bills

Improve imagery on recent posts

Better open thread navigation (thinking of just having a single thread, what do you think?)

Better RSS information block for groups, posts and comments

Check the width issue reported by Green Flash (welcome to TD by the way!)

Link colour in posts

Better access to monster posts to bring them out from the tiddlers

Comment spellcheck

Purple not any shade of blue, light or dark, for the headings

UPDATE #5

Another update for you long suffering TD readers…

First off, a bit of background.

For regular Think Defence readers the old linear format allowed you to easily view the last ten posts in sequential format. Although this was great for the regulars but there were two problems, first was for the occasional reader the home page, which is the main landing page, the 11^th post would be pretty much hidden for the grazer. Second, some of the really detailed posts which have an enormous amount of research and take a great deal of effort, are easily lost under the quick image and news posts.

Having a gridded layout with multiple categories provides greater accessibility for all types of visitors and ensures that the posts I put the most effort into don’t get swamped.

The new design is also called ‘responsive’ which allows dynamic resizing depending on the resolution of the viewing device, whether that is a desktop, laptop or mobile device. The mobile viewer is the same as before in presenting a highly summarised view but if you switch that off (at the bottom of the page when viewed on a mobile device) you can view the full fat page. A tablet, a mobile phone or any other mobile device can be used with its native browser if required. This design provides both options.

On to some of the specific objections and observations raised in comments…

Spell checking in comments, it should work, I have tried it and it seems OK. You can also use the inbuilt spell checker now available in all modern browsers. I have restyles the comments to make them more readable, spacing, margins and background colour. There is also a paginated display as comments are split into blocks of 50.

I have killed off the footer blocks; they didn’t add much and make the page crowded.

All the sidebar blocks have been restyled with smaller text and more contrast. The recent comments has the author highlighted and a link to the comment

Menus should be pretty much done now, all open threads completed

Restyled the main content and headings to make it a bit more compact with additional contrast and got rid of the Google fonts for the main body which might have been causing problems with older browsers. Have done a spot of research on readability which has driven the original font and colour combination but this revised version should hopefully be better for most.

The top bar is for featured posts, those that I want to keep the conversation going on or as above, are the crown jewels.

On single post view I have narrowed the page by eliminating the second sidebar, readability on web pages dictates a fairly narrow and tall presentation rather than fat and wide.

There are still a few things on the to do list but I haven’t done this lightly, the site is getting more and more traffic from users on mobile devices and the old layout was a little limited in that respect.

Please bear with me

The post Redesign appeared first on Think Defence.

Am at just under 12,000 words so far, will be complete shortly

Standby

Standby

The post Not Fishin appeared first on Think Defence.

Feeds

I have swapped the feed engine from Feed Burner to native RSS.

The Think Defence news feed is now at

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/feed/

and the comments feed to

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/comments/feed/

You can also view the Think Defence RSS post and comment feeds in a new service called Feedly;

http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/feed/

http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/comments/feed/

If you have a mobile device you can also use Feedly on those

Search

The old search system was not brilliant so have upgraded it and the search field should now display results as the term is typed.

Table of Contents

On long posts a table of contents is now auto generated, hope this helps with navigation. The table of contents is published just before the first heading, for an example, click the link below

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/11/the-tank-is-dead-long-live-the-tank-part-4-sdsr-army-2020-and-the-challenger-lep/

Because it is auto generated on posts with 4 or more headings I haven’t looked at all posts that qualify so let me know if any don’t work or you think the settings need changing.

Popular Posts

The popular posts widget is back

Speed

I have implemented a few extra tweaks to try and improve speed

The post Think Defence Site Updates appeared first on Think Defence.

The post Merry Christmas appeared first on Think Defence.

Back soon

The post Still Fishin appeared first on Think Defence.

The post Gone Fishin appeared first on Think Defence.

Cheers everyone

The post A Quick Thank You appeared first on Think Defence.

For almost 30 years Doug Beattie has served with the Royal Irish Regiment. His first job was guarding Rudolph Hess at Spandau Prison. Years later, in 2003, he was RSM to Colonel Tim Collins in Iraq. Yet none of what went before prepared him for Afghanistan 2006. Doug went to do a desk job. But the now-captain ended up leading British and Afghan forces as they battled to take the Taliban-held town of Garmsir. A mission planned to last 48 hours instead went on for two bloody weeks. Somehow Doug and his handful of Brits survived. Not so many of the Afghans. An Ordinary Soldier is Doug’s story, and also theirs.

For his bravery Doug was awarded the MC. The tale didn’t end there though. Due to leave the Army in 2007, Doug actually stayed on, going back to Afghanistan in 2008. His exploits during this second tour are recorded in Task Force Helmand.  Doug did eventually retire as a full-time soldier, but did not sever his links with his regiment or the Afghans. He returned to ‘Afghan’ in a TA role in August 2010. 

What some of might not know is that Doug also has a blog with a collection of brilliant posts, click the image to visit

An Ordinary Soldier – Click to visit

The good news is I have managed to persuade Doug to write a guest post (or hopefully two) for Think Defence and join our ever growing band of contributors.

Now whilst we are waiting, go and buy his books on Kindle or dead trees

The post An Ordinary Soldier appeared first on Think Defence.

FEEDS

Comment Feed; Using the Comment RSS feed allows all comments to be seen in one place, click here

Email Alerts; You can get Think Defence posts delivered to your email address directly, enter your details in the subscription box on the sidebar or at the end of each post

Recent Comments Page; I have improved this so the comments page now shows the full comment and clicking the comment title takes you directly to that comment on the post in question.

COMMENTS

Nested comments; you can now reply to individual comments and it will nest to a maximum of 5 levels. I have also darkened the comment box displays

Comment Editing; increased edit time to 10 minutes and changed the delete behaviour to delete immediately, instead of sending to a delete list. Fixed the bug where the popup didn’t work in all browsers

Post Comment URL Feed: Each post now has a comment RSS/Newsfeed so you can follow the comments for a single post as a news feed.

Click the menu as per the image below

Comment Pagination; I have tried various combinations but I think the current setup work well enough

External Comment System; had a look at Disqus etc but there are too many downsides to justify the move so sticking to the native comment system for now

Comment Rating and Likes; The ones I looked at tended to interfere with the comment editing feature which I know gets used a lot so unless there is a massive demand will stay away from this as well.

FORUM

Having considered the options and feedback I have decided to stick with things the way they are so no forum.

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, FLICKR and PINTEREST

You can now connect with Think Defence using these social networking, communications and image sharing sites;

Facebook Page

Twitter

Pinterest

Flickr

The Facebook page is pretty new I am going to see how it goes but the others I used quite a bit now.

You can also share a Think Defence post with others on Facebook or Twitter for example by clicking on the relevant icon at the bottom of the post

NEW TO THINK DEFENCE

There is a load of posts going back a few years that are the sites gems, not just from me but some of the best posts are from guest writers. These often get lost so I am going to create a ‘new to TD’ section that will include links to the quality posts and a general information and guidance page and links to other blogs and websites.

Any suggestions for content would be gratefully received because I think we can make this a pretty decent start point for anyone interested in UK defence matters.

ADVERTS

A final word on adverts; because Think Defence has quite a lot of traffic and in order to maintain the flexibility and customisation features on the site I decided a long time ago to self host. Not using Blogger or WordPress, for example, means that whilst the overall experience is better, the hosting fees, template customisation and security software etc has to be paid for.

This is why there are adverts not to keep me in racy pictures of ISO containers

Despite the rumours and accusations, the RAF is not funding this site so if an advert takes your fancy, click on it, every little helps as they say.

The post Think Defence Site Updates appeared first on Think Defence.

Click the image to visit

The post A Blog to Watch – Defence with a C appeared first on Think Defence.

So although I have always avoided the idea I find myself being more open to creating a Think Defence forum and wanted to get some opinions from the TD regulars and if possible, those lurkers!

The main question I have always asked is does the Think Defence ‘brand’ warrant a forum, that might sound incredibly pompous for which I apologise in advance but whilst there are loads of great forums out there such as PPRUNE, ARRSE, Rum Ration, Warships 1, Mil Photos, Tanknet, Key Publishing and many more they tend to be either service centric or very broad in their outlook.

Is there a space for a UK centric, friendly and multi service defence focussed forum?

It is no small task to setup and maintain so would be looking for volunteers but there exists several software addons that can integrate forum posts and blog posts and vice versa so a blog post can kick off a forum thread for example.

Thoughts, feedback?

The post A Think Defence Forum appeared first on Think Defence.

Growing pains!

The post Gremlins appeared first on Think Defence.

Guests and Commenters

My first post had a grand total of zero commenters but as the readership has grown some of the posts have approached truly monstrous commenting proportions, one might expect a Telegraph or Guido piece to get over a thousand comments but not some obscure defence blog which demonstrates the interest in the subject matter out there. It is great to see that people want to take the time to comment and engage with a conversation, which can only be a good thing, especially given that the vast majority of those comments are insightful and relevant, from a broad range of very knowledgeable people.

Some commenters are regulars, some pop in from time to time and some only once but the variety and quality of commenters is the jewel in the TD crown, cheers everyone.

There have also been guest commenters who have presented differing views than my own, great stuff, let’s have more of the same.

There are also a range of guest authors that add real value and depth to the site, again, a big Thank You is due.

There is always room for more though.

Highlights;

• Same Difference, The 66 Is Back
• A Tale of Two Chinooks
• Future Lynx, Wild Cat or Fat Cat
• Operational Utility Vehicle System
• Osprey, Capability v Cost
• The Nimrod Saga
• TSR2 A Step Back in Time
• Why FRES UV Still Matters
• Falkland Islands Demining
• Battlefield Medicine, Afghanistan
• Forward Presence and Littoral Operations
• WWII Defences in Suffolk and Inter War Field Defences
• Hovercraft
• RAF Squadron Manning and A Case Study on the Danish Army
• The Changing Fortunes of Field Defences
• The Future of Libya and The Pocket Division

Balance, Accuracy and Going Against the Prevailing Narrative

I started Think Defence as a reaction to some of the shockingly poor defence reporting in the mainstream media, especially with regards to major programmes, the shiny arse civil servant theme and off the shelf equipment costs. I will probably do a bit less on the more lurid civil service related stuff now that the Pinstriped Line has started blogging, he does it much better than me anyway but this is subject area in general I am going to stick with.

Highlights;

• My first post; Are We The Only People That Like The A400 and a later prediction
• UK Cuts Exercises, An Alternative View
• Buying off the shelf is not a silver bullet; The Dangers Of Someone Else’s Shelf, An Off The Shelf Lesson and another
• Right in the middle of the 2009 Afghanistan helicopter controversy, On The Subject Of Helicopters
• When Super Tucano’s were all the rage, Cheap CAS Is An Illusion and Is The Super Tucano A Practical Option
• Shiny Arse Civil Servants
• Poppy Nazis and Supporting Our Boys
• Rank Inflation and again
• The Cost of a Blackhawk Helicopter
• Iraqi WMD’s Found
• Testing the veracity of the FRES British to Its Bootstraps Claim
• MoD Spin
• Cold War Relics,
• Thoughts on why the F35B was always the best choice for the UK, mid 2010, later, here and here
• The Falkland Islands And Our Pants
• The Pro and 7 Cons of An RAF Voyager
• Warfighting, a Plea
• The Post They Tried to Kill
• Springer, When UOR’s Go Bad

A Broad Outlook

I try and maintain a broad outlook rather than specialising so I might publish a post on a charity, a handful of pictures or videos, comment on a news story, an in depth look at issue or even a few thoughts on the future the variety will continue.

As much as it is possible, I also try and maintain a non service centric bias. If ones position is to be biased then anyone disagreeing could be construed as being equally biased but I don’t see it like that. I might slip off the middle line from time to time so apologies for that.

Highlights;

• A spot of D Day history; before, during and after
• Unmanned logistics UAV’s, here and here
• The Light Protected Patrol Vehicle,
• Actions on IED, The Hurt Locker UK Edition and If WWI Was a Pub Fight
• Riverine and Littoral Concepts
• Is Talisman Too Little Too Late, On the Subject of IED’s, Flails and the Pookie
• FRES, here, here
• The Men in Scarlet
• Another Look at Towers and Blimps
• Energy Security and Defence,
• Royal Marine CB90’s
• Defence Diplomacy Done Right
• Infantry Close Combat and Small Arms Calibres
• Counter Port Denial in Libya and Naval Mine Countermeasures
• Is It Time to Bring Back the Medium Bomber
• What Can You Do With 50 Bits Per Second
• On The Subject of Strategy and UK Energy, Food and Trade
• Future UK Maritime Patrol
• The Type 26
• Multi Role Brigades
• Watchkeeper Then and Now
• Vehicle Mobility and Protection Considerations

A Path Less Trodden

If Think Defence does have a USP it is that I like to cover subjects that no one else does, combat engineering, containers, water supply, logistics and other suitably obscure areas.

Highlights;

• Voluntary group focus; Holidays4Heroes, BLESMA, Gardening Leave and
• The beginning of an obsession with the humble Mexeflote, here and here
• Ship to Shore Logistics
• Pallets and Containers, again, again, again, and again
• The End of the Mashy Wagon
• Logistics Software
• Airdrop logistics
• Block Paving
• A Floating Container Port
• On Soft Ground
• Pallets East
• Whatever Happened to Multidrive
• Can We Have Our Bridge Back Now Please
• Military Water Supply
• The Atlantic Conveyor and Port San Carlos FOB
• A Ship that is Not a Frigate, 4 part series, start here
• My huge piece of work in 20 parts on the history and application of UK Military Bridging, start with Part 1 (am particularly proud of this series)

Stats

From a standing start with zero marketing funds the site so far this year has had just under 300,000 visitors and 750,000 page views.

We have also been through multiple design changes and hosting locations as the site grows.

Hope you enjoyed that romp through the back catalogue?

The fact that Think Defence is on the Defence IQ Blogging Award Shortlist has of course, nothing whatsoever to do with this post.

Just sayin

The post A Think Defence Summary appeared first on Think Defence.

I wanted to get in touch to let you know about the Defence IQ Blogging Awards which aims to recognise and reward the industry’s top bloggers and the efforts they go to in order to keep us all informed.

Nominations are now open and I wanted to let you know personally that we are welcoming nominations from across the defence industry. There are six categories in which to enter your chosen blog in to:

• Information Operations
• Cyber (Security, Warfare, Strategy)
• Counter Terrorism
• Maritime Security
• Regional Defence
• Defence Industry

So if you write or read a blog, which you believe deserves special recognition – get in touch now! For more information, visit the website www.defenceiq.com or let me know if you have any questions.

To enter a blog, provide the URL, a short description of why the blog is great and what category you want to nominate it in to and email it to samantha.tanner@iqpc.co.uk or let us know on Twitter @DefenceIQ.

You can enter as many blogs as you read or write but hurry – nominations close at 14:00 GMT on Wednesday 6th June 2012.

The winners will be chosen by the Defence IQ panel and announced on Thursday 14th June 2012.

Don’t forget these as well

http://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.co.uk/

http://defense-and-freedom.blogspot.co.uk

http://snafu-solomon.blogspot.co.uk/

http://rpdefense.over-blog.com/

http://kingsofwar.org.uk/

http://www.informationdissemination.net/

http://elementsofpower.blogspot.co.uk/

http://xbradtc.wordpress.com/

http://dalyhistory.wordpress.com/

http://theaviationist.com/

http://elementsofpower.blogspot.co.uk/

The post Defence IQ Blogging Awards appeared first on Think Defence.

And so began a two day email conversation with person or persons unknown at the Phoenix think Tank.

I first started my love in with the Phoenix Think Tank when I wrote an introductory post, sharing their existence with the Think Defence readership. They then popped up again in one of my rants about service politics and finally I responded to one of their papers about naval aviation.

Having seen their supporters behaviour on other web forums I was more than prepared and so it came to pass; a number of different commenter ID’s were used either to be critical of the post (which I relish), make comments about terms and conditions or how I was attacking the PTT without justification. Seemingly unbeknownst to whomever was making these comments under different names, the site software records IP addresses, host names, that kind of detailed techy stuff

You could have knocked be down with a feather (not) when it turned out they were all the same.

It’s typical trolling behaviour that anyone who runs a blog knows about, nothing to get too flustered about but rather pathetic and sad.

The reason I wrote the Naval Aviation, Blogs and Think Tanks post was because I was fed up with reading one sided opinion masquerading as fact that sought to airbrush the contribution and sacrifice of personnel in other services.

Maybe it was in my ‘angry phase’

In that particular post I used extracts and links back to the Phoenix Think Tank website to provide a backdrop against which I would counter some of their published materials.

I put a lot of effort into that post and I think pretty much everyone regarded it as a balanced, reasonable and above all else, factual representation of history without personal attack or innuendo.

It was also coincident with this post that I had a password reset initiated on both my Twitter account and the administration login account for Think Defence. I know I didn’t do it and it doesn’t happen by accident. The IP address range was again, broadly similar but I am no forensic information security analyst so I made no assumptions; merely that it was the first time it had happened, and incidentally, it has not happened since.

A coincidence, nothing to see hear, move along.

As with most of these things, time marched on, there were container stories going begging after all.

Fast forward to this week and the email from the sites contact form.

The subject line for this email was the rather grandiose

Breach

And from none other than

Phoenix Think Tank Legal

Of course, this is an attention getter, shit, what had I done now.

The essence of the email was that they had received complaints about me infringing their copyright in regards of ‘factually incorrect comments, use of logos, papers, articles and links’. There was a bit of legalese but basically because I had not sought or received permission I was requested to remove them.

Was I seeing a spot of trolling, low level harassment or something more official?

Mmmm, intrigued and confused I asked for more information, what exactly was the nature of the complaint?

The response was very polite, asking that I remove the three posts in question and any links or documents, again citing the fact that I had not asked permission. It also made clear that previous comments purporting to come from them or represent them were bogus but the IP address similarity issue was not addressed, perhaps it is irrelevant anyway, again, I make no accusation or even assumption and fully appreciate that a similar IP address and hostname actually means very little.

As this was going on I was having a few second thoughts about carrying on with Think Defence anway and reviewing old content as part of the site refresh.

I decided to question the reason for the request, point out that linking and reviewing content on other sites is part of the natural way of doing things online and that the PTT site carried a post from Sharkey Ward in which through the medium of innuendo kind of accuses me of being a ‘vested interest’

Cuts both ways, I thought.

Again, I offered them a guest spot on TD, rather than getting chippy, lets wade into the debate and have at it.

Despite the email address being the same I was now discussing things not with PTT Legal but E-Administrator, a subtle change.

The response was that I should seek permission and if anyone posts as them on TD I should contact them. They also said that the post on the PTT’s site was from a contributor and therefore not their responsibility. It was this last thing that I thought most laughable, trying to establish some sort of ‘nothing to do with me guv’ defence because it was a blog post and not a published paper did have a certain comedic quality to it, somewhat at odds with their assured legal stance in the opener.

We then had a conversation about the creative commons licence, copyright law as applied to ‘Fair Dealing’ reviews and a conciliatory note about over enthusiastic followers of the PTT and their commenting misdeeds.

It was all very pleasant and professional and we agreed to simply remove all the posts in question from both sites and draw a line.

To be honest, I thought this was all very reasonable.

On reflection, we shouldn’t be attacking each other and there is room for all flavours of opinion so as a gesture of good will on both sides we agreed to be nice to each other, remove the posts on both sites and they would forward a request to Sharkey Ward asking he remove the post from his blog, let’s wait and see on that one.

The posts on Think Defence are gone although I will probably republish the history one without reference to them.

The temptation was, and still is a little, to be less than reasonable; I understand the concept of fair dealing as applied to linking and extracting content for the purposes of review and criticism so getting emails from the grandiose ‘PTT Legal’ doesn’t actually intimidate me one jot but instead the sheer pompousness made me chuckle .

But I then I paused and asked myself this question.

If they object, what good does it do for Think Defence or the wider debate to ignore it?

My answer was, it does no good.

I want Think Defence to promote sensible discussions, not be critical of others contributing to the debate, however much I fundamentally disagree with them and find much of their materials objectionable.

When I look around the internet at other defence forums and the see the regard in which the Phoenix Think Tank is held, whatever I might say is irrelevant, they have enough problems to deal with and a reputation to rebuild.

They have their opinions, I have mine, I relish discussion (last count, 48,000 comments on this site) and they don’t, but good luck to them.

To cut a long story short, as a measure of good will, I have deleted the three posts they requested to be deleted, agreed to cease linking to their content and forgotten about past behavior.

I find the lack of engagement rather sad and the over inflated pompous attempts at censorship quite amusing but it is not something I want to expend energy on.

So, peace in our time and a new calmness has descended on Think Defence towers.

Off to the F35 decision, post haste.

UPDATE:

I re-published the original post without references to them

http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/05/the-post-they-tried-to-kill/

UPDATE: 20 July 2012

So it would seem that the Phoenix Think Tank has packed its bags, I can’t say I will miss them because to be perfectly honest, I think they did more damage to their cause than furthered it.

However, if we have a look at their updated website they have published this comment;

N.B  An opportunity exists for some investigative journalism into the conduct of a group known as “Think Defence”. It maybe discovered that the website is not as unbiased as it claims to be and has significant support and direction from various study and support groups of a specific service.  It may become clear on closer inspection that the reader can identify a certain anti-naval obsession with the group and as a group which always made it clear what we supported we feel after some of the overly aggressive and questionable tactics used against the PTT and some of its contributors that we have alerted you, the reader, to our opinion of that website and its editor(s). 

I did ask them for an explanation, especially given the fact that we agreed what I thought was a mature and amicable response but nothing heard so far.

They haven’t even got the balls to say RAF instead of ‘specific service’ which is exactly what they actually meant and no doubt they will get their arses in their hands about the fact that I have extracted the comment from their website.

I have pondered what to do about this

Should I respond to their accusations of being funded and supported by others (I wish), acting aggressively (I do believe it was they that threatened legal action because I shredded their nonsense on a regular basis) or inciting others to do a spot of investigating (go on then)

Or,

Should I just shake my head, laugh at the rather sad and pathetic parting shot from a rather sad and pathetic organisation that had ZERO credibility with anyone but themselves and move on?

I think the latter.

HA HA

See ya lads

The post A Conversation with the Phoenix Think Tank appeared first on Think Defence.