is a Dutch

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

founded on 10 April 2003. The logo is a pink coloured

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

within a

circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

. In the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of languages by total number of speak ...

, the term "geen stijl" (literal translation: no style) is used to describe an act by a person or organisation that lacks style or manners. often uses a provocative tone when referring to other Internet sites and blogs. Commenters on the site are called ''reaguurders'' which is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the Dutch verb ''reageren'' (meaning reacting/commenting) and the adjective (meaning cold/unfriendly). Famously, in March 2005 launched a plan to unseat the second Balkenende cabinet. announced on their website that they would bus people from all over the country to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, where one of the cabinet parties was holding a convention. These people could sign up as new party members at the convention, and vote against the party's participation in the cabinet. This hoax created a media uproar; even the

NOS Journaal NOS Journaal is the umbrella name for the news broadcasts of the Dutch public broadcaster NOS on radio and television. The division of the NOS responsible for gathering and broadcasting the news is known as ''NOS Nieuws'', and is based at the Med ...

of the public television reported the event. At the height of their existence, the blog attracted around 75,000 visitors each day and was one of the top 10 news sites of the Netherlands. This popularity has receded somewhat currently, with being ranked as the 60th most visited website in the Netherlands, with an approximate global position of 12.000. In comparison, the website of the Dutch state-sponsored news network NOS ranks at about global position 5000 and is the 29th most visited website in the Netherlands, both . The most visited Dutch news website is Nu.nl as of same date according to Alexa.com, at position 25. On 17 March 2006 the Telegraaf Media Group took a 40% interest in . The editorial team of Dominique Weesie and Ambroos Wiegers both owned 50% of the shares, against 30% after the takeover. The deal was claimed to be worth €2.6 million. Not long after this deal, Telegraaf sold their interest after having changed their mind, retaining ownership of the site Dumpert. Other websites owned by were closed due to lack of visitors. Dominique Weesie said that he saw a market for a tough-talking,

politically incorrect "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

blog, when he started in 2003, because existing blogs used language that was too vulgar for the mainstream media. One feature of the blog is the use of intentionally misspelt four-letter words to reduce their shock effect. The site has been criticized for the

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

and extreme nature of the comments it allows readers to post. Both the editors and the readers of have invented a wide range of names to refer to immigrants to the Netherlands that are generally considered to be stereotypic and derisive. They also use insulting words for right-wing people they believe to go over the mark though and in recent years inappropriate reader comments are ''jorissed away'' (as they call censoring of posts by their mods – the best-known of these used the nickname "Joris van Loghausen"). In combination with Weesie's network, who had been a reporter for the major Dutch newspaper ''

de Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; ) is the largest Netherlands, Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief since ...

'' for more than 10 years, this has proven a successful formula. soon followed up with web videos featuring Rutger Castricum as star reporter. In May 2006,

internet service providers An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

began boycotting after the blog had published secret and private documents of Bonairean

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

Ernst Wesselius. claims it obtained the documents via the P2P software

LimeWire LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated m ...

, although investigators did not find this software on Wesselius's computer (but since LimeWire runs on the more general

Gnutella Gnutella is a peer-to-peer network protocol. Founded in 2000, it was the first decentralized peer-to-peer network of its kind, leading to other, later networks adopting the model. In June 2005, Gnutella's population was 1.81 million computer ...

P2P network, he may have had any other software application that connects to Gnutella as well). The ISPs stated that "this is a one time action, because the publication has infringed our sense of ethics". Access to the site from Bonaire has since been restored. started working on the television program SteenGeyl with public broadcaster BNN, in 2007. founder Weesie stated they were to spend "taxpayer's money." However, a dispute arose over the timeslot in which the program was to be broadcast, and production was halted. Two years later they started a successful campaign to get their own public broadcasting organisation under the name PowNed, which began broadcasting on Dutch public television in September 2010. In May 2017 more than 100 female journalists, female politicians, actresses and other women called for an advertisement boycott of . The stated reason was because of the sex fantasies, some violent, that appeared on numerous occasions in the comments section.

GeenPeil

In 2015 launched , a group which successfully campaigned to organise a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on the EU-Association Treaty with

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Notes

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.geenstijl.nl Dutch news websites Dutch-language websites Internet properties established in 2003 2003 establishments in the Netherlands

GeenPeil

See also

Notes

External links