In case you haven’t noticed, our ticker surpassed 500,000 hits some time last evening! Not bad for a blog that just started on December 12th. Here’s to everyone who has contributed and/or dropped-by since that time. Cheers!
In case you haven’t noticed, our ticker surpassed 500,000 hits some time last evening! Not bad for a blog that just started on December 12th. Here’s to everyone who has contributed and/or dropped-by since that time. Cheers!
I’ve been watching the numbers and I did notice yesterday. It is quite an accomplishment in such a short period of time. Just goes to show the importance of the issue.
It’s a nicely designed blog, easy to read and maneuver around. Great format, and more importantly, awesome contributors!
How do we start a thread?
Christophe, do you have a WordPress account? You need one to start threads.
I find it difficult to follow. most of us just end up posting on the recent threads. Not easy to find old posts.
Wait until the number of Renunciants reaches 500,000 — and the implementation of FATCA will provoke it.
@Ben Franklin
I agree or FATCA is stopped. I actually think FATCA is becoming more likely. More info to come.
@Tim,
Good luck with your trip to Boston.
They may eventually try to put some window dressing on FATCA but they will not repeal it.
Too many ivy leaguers have made it their pet project.
Congratulations to all on a BIG accomplishment to reach 500,000 hits so quickly. Good work to you Canadians that conceived and created this blog. I am glad you got moderated or shut out of whatever Expat Forum you were on before here. You didn’t need them. It was their loss and our gain! Well done!
@Chester12
I agree that there is a little bit of difficulty with quickly finding older posts in Word Press, and I too lose track of where something was said previously and it is difficult to find. I sometimes have trouble finding my own, let alone someone else’s!
If I had my wish list for Word Press to improve on, these would be my top 3.
1. The search function could be greatly improved by providing all relevant results in list format and not reliant on the Poster choosing correct tags. The current method of returning a group of posts that you then have to click back through is very cumbersome. Maybe a search function that uses google to search Isaac Brock would improve on this.
2. I wished previous Posts were listed by month like Blogspot does, instead of the difficult to read calendar format. It should be arranged in Windows Explorer tree drop downs, so you can quickly see and read through them to select what you want. Right now, in the calendar, you can only select the entire day, and then click slowly backwards or forwards to find what you are looking for.
3. I also wished there was a way for you to edit replies on posts where you are not the originator. This would give one a chance to correct typos and grammatical errors that you only see after you hit enter! I make too many mistakes I wished I could go back and correct! 🙂 I try to do that for others when I see them on one of the posts that I author and can edit, and would encourage others of you that are Author’s to do the same on their Posts.
If Word Press could improve upon 3 those things, I would be a happy camper. However, like every blog format this one has it strengths and weaknesses, I suppose, so have learned to live with the limitations of this one.
I’ve found Brock posts through Google.
@bubblebustin
Right you are. That is how I first found Brock in early February. Continues to happen frequently. Google FATCA or U.S. citizenship based taxation and several ‘Brock’ posts will come up.
@tiger, I’m no tech expert, but I think that’s because Google’s got us profiled. Google thinks I’m a 60 year old male, when I’m 56 and female. Too much politics in my searches I think (is Google sexist?)
@bubblebustin
I had never thought of it that way. I am a 68 year old female. Wonder who/what googles thinks I am. Google could be sexist!
@Just Me and All;
It’s not really a panacea, but if you search the internet using a search engine like Google, by putting “isaac brock society” enclosed in quotes, plus AND plus whatever keyword you think might be in the thread, it does sometimes work to locate or narrow it down. When you get to the page, then I use Edit, Find, from the browser menu to locate keywords on the page – and cut down on skimming the whole thing. Not foolproof, but something.
ex. try:
“isaac brock society” AND FATCA AND canada
or,
“isaac brock society” AND irs AND canad*
using the canad* will get you canada, and canadians as it replaces the variations in endings if the * is placed after the ‘d’
@badger
thnx…
I will try that next time instead of that ridiculous Word Press calendar option… I have seen things come up on Google before, but wasn’t exactly sure of the format to make it Isaac Brock specific.
I use the “cntrl F” Find function all the time in the browser to find what I am looking for on a page, and that is very handy keystroke to use…
Thanks for the tips.
Of course, that doesn’t help the newbie arriving on Isaac Brock if they don’t come with Google search skills .. Word Press could still improve their product with a few changes for functionality I am sure there is someplace that I can make suggestions, and I probably should send them in instead of just complaining 🙂
@all It is good that we passed the half-million mark, we are a good team, united by a set of mutual problems, however I am concerned that for serveral months our weekly average of hits has an average of something just under about 30,000. I didn’t calculate this, I just eyeballed the graph (See http://wordpress.com/my-stats/?unit=1&blog=30314356 I don’t kinow if the link will work for everyone).
If we are really going to get the word out we need to see our hits to increase steadily, not rest stable as now.
Any ideas?
More emails and comments on line from each of us with links back to Isaac Brock.
@Just Me, right you are. When I comment I don’t always include the link here. Will make sure I do in the future. Personally, I think hits will increase, as more people are learning of this fiasco. I know there are still plenty of people that do not consider themselves US citizens and are therefore not affected by this. When they receive their wakeup call they’ll go on the search like I did and find this amazing place. I do often mention it on my blog – not that that’s highly read or anything, but I do use it to spread the word of this site.
just turning off email notifications.
The Isaac Brock Society should come with a warning: “Highly addictive”!
Just noticed that Isaac Brock Society was mentioned on another blog. That helps with the hits!
I was not aware of the problem in the US. I had heard it for Israel, and the IRS increased the number of audis there.
http://blogs.angloinfo.com/us-tax/2012/05/10/another-kind-of-overseas-tax-cheat-non-filing-of-fbar-is-surely-the-smaller-sin/
@christophe- I would have thought they preferred Mercedes (sorry!)
@Christophe Thanks for pointing that blog out. I went and put a comment there. I didn’t see any others. It is in moderation, so we will see if she posts it.
Seems unlikely that illegal immigrants would file tax returns in the US. Usually these people want to stay hidden from the authorities and are afraid of being deported. I am not sure about how widespread the problem she’s reporting is…