Instructions for Telegram channels: why they are needed, how to use, what to read Editorial articles

What are channels

Telegram channels are practically a public page on Facebook or VKontakte, but with some features. Unlike a social network, channels:

• hang in the general list of dialogues, and are not highlighted in a separate news feed;
• “push” notifications about new entries, which, of course, can be disabled.
• have no comments on posts.

Typical scenarios for reading a channel are to go into it after being notified of a new entry, or read from time to time, when you have time, but read several materials at once. Active Telegram users (about 10% of them) gravitate towards the second option, newcomers or those who subscribe to 1-2 channels - towards the first.

Telegram channels did not appear immediately. Dmitry Dumik, founder of the Chatfuel service (which, among other things, owns the storebot.me bot storefront), told me the story that after the explosive growth in popularity of “content” bots that sent news to users, Telegram decided to build such functionality in a native format - that’s how the channels appeared.

One of the important features of channels, related to the architecture of the messenger as a whole, is a single view counter. The “eye” icon that is shown in the post takes into account all views in Telegram, wherever they were made: group chats, dialogues, other channels.

Hack: if you create a private channel, write a message there and repost it in the chat, the counter will show how many people read the message in the chat.

An option to use this hack is to write “pinned” notes on a channel, repost them in the chat and then “pin” them (with or without a push notification).

To summarize this part: a channel is like a blog or public page, only better.

Horrible assumption: people are dying not from Covid, but from the fierce fight against it

“Super-mortality” in Russia during the two years of the “new coronavirus infection” pandemic has exceeded half a million people. At least half of them did not die from the virus. Fighting a pandemic is more dangerous than a pandemic!

The “fourth wave” of the coronavirus epidemic not only does not want to subside, but is rising higher and higher. As of October 7 (data from the Stopcoronavirus.RF portal), 27,550 new cases of infection were identified per day, and 924 people died.

Statistics become the justification for introducing and tightening restrictive measures. In different regions of Russia, mass events are prohibited, QR codes are introduced for visiting sports clubs, restaurants and, in general, all places where people may gather, and all citizens over 65 years of age are forced to self-isolate if they are not vaccinated (such news came from Tatarstan).

So far, strict restrictions have been introduced in a minority of Russian regions, but a trend has been outlined. According to many experts, Russia is heading towards a new lockdown - perhaps not as comprehensive and destructive as in the first half of 2021, but significant damage to the economy and social sphere is expected.

Meanwhile, coronavirus is only one of the factors of “excess mortality” observed in Russia in 2020-2021. According to the official position of the Russian government (voiced back in February by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova ),

Mortality in Russia in 2021 increased by 17.9% compared to 2021. This is excess mortality, which includes deaths from covid. The share of deaths from coronavirus infection for 2021, where at the time of publication of Rosstat data the diagnosis of “new coronavirus infection” was clearly established, of the total increase in excess mortality for 2021 is 31%. And taking into account those who died from other diagnoses but had a positive test for Covid, this is 50% of the excess mortality for 2021.

So, no more than half die from coronavirus, but rather only a third of those who are currently classified as “excess mortality.” Attention, question: could it be that the deaths of others are not to blame for the epidemic, but for the measures taken to combat it?

Lies, damned lies and covid statistics

Statistics, including mortality statistics from a specific disease, are an extremely crafty thing. The same perfectly accurate data can quite easily be used to prove completely opposite theories. For example, experts today are asking an important question: to what extent can the situation in Russia be considered good or bad compared to other countries in the world?

You can manipulate statistical data in almost any way you like - for example, by noting that in relation to the population, the number of new infections in Russia is not that large. Head Mikhail Vinogradov notes in his blog:

In Romania, a population of twenty million, up to 15 thousand infections are detected every day.

The population of Russia, rounded, is approximately 145 million people. So, 27 thousand infections per day is not that much?

Here is another example of a brief analysis of statistical data. Well-known political scientist Pavel Danilin writes:

The world population is 7.89 billion people. The population of Russia is 145 million people. This is 1.8% of the world's population. On October 5, 7,677 people worldwide died from coronavirus. In Russia, 895 people died from coronavirus on October 5. This is from the global indicators of 11.7%. It is easy to calculate that in Russia people die from coronavirus 7 times more often than the world average.

Without stopping there, Danilin gives a specific comparison:

Russia is in the middle group of countries in terms of vaccination. In the Philippines, 5% less of the population has been vaccinated than in Russia, and the number of deaths is 10 times less than in Russia. The population of the Philippines is 111 million people.

Does it follow from what has been said that our situation is absolutely terrible? No, Danilin is immediately objected that the Philippines is a country with a very young population, the average age of its citizens is 22.5 years, while the average age of Russian citizens exceeds 40 years. At the same time, the Philippines has a relatively weak healthcare system; there are simply fewer Covid tests carried out there than in Russia.

Comparing the situation in Russia with developed countries, however, suggests that the situation is truly serious. For example, in the United States during the entire epidemic, according to official data, 730,206 people died from coronavirus. In Russia – 213,549 people. The population of the United States is more than 300 million people, that is, the specific mortality rate per million population is comparable.

However, the situation in the United States is one of the worst on the planet. What should authorities in Russia do about these statistics? Should we be proud that we have not reached such a life? Or take an example from Western countries, which, having the same statistics, are taking increasingly draconian measures in relation to the rights and freedoms of their citizens? Here is one of the news of the day: in Canada, 300 thousand (!) government employees will be sent on leave without pay until the end of October if they are not urgently vaccinated. Are such measures needed in Russia?

It is very difficult to answer this question based only on the numbers of infections and deaths.

Here's a great example of how you can work with data. Chelyabinsk journalist Dmitry Morgules calculated the current chance of becoming infected with corona in his hometown.

The average statistical chance of becoming infected with Covid in the next 24 hours (currently in the Chelyabinsk region there are about 400 officially registered cases per day) for a resident of the Chelyabinsk region is slightly more than 1/100 percent (more precisely, 0.0114 percent). The chances of dying (about 27 deaths per day directly from Covid) are 0.0077 percent. It seems quite small. But this is every day. And there are 30 of them in October alone. And there are 85 left before the end of the year. Multiply. And think very carefully...

Once again, let us repeat slowly, this is very important: the chances of dying from Covid, even in the conditions of the “fourth wave” in Russia, are not so great. The chances of being included in the excess mortality statistics are either two or three times higher.

Did they kill the rest of medicine for the sake of Covid?

But why is this so? Today no one has a clear answer to this question.

From the very beginning of the “strangest epidemic in history,” many experts in the field of healthcare organization have suggested that the anti-Covid measures being taken, primarily the repurposing of hospitals, will lead to an increase in mortality among people who are not infected but suffer from severe chronic diseases. The number of planned operations is decreasing.

It turns out that it is impossible to perform some medical procedures that are important for patients with certain diseases. There are not enough places in intensive care units for non-Covid patients - and for those admitted to the hospital, the chances of becoming infected increase (remember in the quote by Deputy Prime Minister Golikova “those who died from other diagnoses, but had a positive test for Covid”?).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly, since the summer of 2021, demanded that the government ensure that patients who need planned operations and other medical procedures do not suffer. It is unlikely that the Ministry of Health - both federal and regional - will agree that the president’s orders were not followed. However…

However, in practice, the organization of the healthcare system to combat the epidemic occurred, as one industry expert put it, “in broad strokes.” An expert who asked for anonymity tells Tsargrad:

In a number of regions, entire regional clinical hospitals were and are being closed due to Covid. Such a decision always means that treatment options for patients, for example, with cardiovascular diseases, are sharply reduced. Naturally, they die more often. I cannot raise my hand to blame my colleagues from the regions for this: they are doing what Rospotrebnadzor orders them to do, that is, sanitary control. But can we say that the treatment of all other non-Covid patients has not “sagged” over the past year and a half? If they try to convince you of this, don’t believe it.

Doctor of Medical Sciences, co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Public Associations of Patients, Yan Vlasov, in a conversation with Tsargrad, gives a very harsh assessment of the situation:

This is the opinion of experts. Compared to 2021, this year, 2021, the volume of specialized medical care in the regions of Russia decreased by a total of 60%. More than twice. This is noticeable in almost every region of Russia.

Dr. Vlasov points out that there are at least two reasons for what is happening - these are the measures taken to combat Covid, and the ongoing changes in the compulsory health insurance system, compulsory medical insurance. The latter led, for example, to this state of affairs:

The Moscow center performs, say, 600 organ transplants a year. And in the regional, where, in general, everything is available for this, only two such operations are now planned for the year. Now think about how convenient it is for patients to definitely go to Moscow for surgery. And how the qualifications of a surgeon in the province who performs an operation “once a year as promised” are declining.

However, this is not all. The current fight against Covid will have not only immediate but also long-term consequences for the entire healthcare system. These consequences will be felt for many years to come. One of these problems is related to the fact that graduates of medical institutes in 2021 have en masse found work as physician assistants (that is, undergoing residency) in the “covidariums.”

They are heroes, they work in “red zones”, they went there consciously, they, by the way, receive salaries much higher than they would receive in ordinary hospitals. The question is: what will they learn there and how will they work after the system returns to normal?

There is no answer yet to this question, which is increasingly being asked on the sidelines of various events.

So what?

The reason for excess mortality in Russia is not so much the epidemic as such, but errors in organizing the healthcare system during the fight against the epidemic. Combined with the panicky anti-epidemic measures that are being taken in the regions, the situation is becoming simply terrible. There is no doubt that people are at risk of contracting coronavirus and dying from pneumonia. But they also (and especially those in risk groups) are subject to constant stress - and from the fact that they are forced to vaccinate. And from the fact that they are deprived of the opportunity to lead their usual way of life.

As if this were not enough, these same people are becoming less likely to receive specialized and qualified medical care for other diseases that suddenly turn out to be less important than the notorious Covid. There are not enough doctors for them - too many work in the “red zones”. And when the “red zones” finally become regular hospitals again, it will turn out that many young doctors have not received the necessary qualifications for further regular work.

How long will it take for the healthcare system to clear up the consequences of “the strangest pandemic in history”? How long do we have to wait for the day when the mortality rate drops to normal levels for our society?

More on the topic:

NO VACCINATION - FIRED. RISKS OF THE FOURTH WAVE OF COVID

THIS IS WORSE THAN A CRIME. THE POPULATION IS AGAIN SUBMITTED BY QR CODES

EXPOSING THE LIES ABOUT CORONAVIRUS: HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE BEEN LIEED?

Tsargrad plans to publish a series of materials about the main problems of Russian healthcare.

Why is a channel better than a blog or public page?

The question of why a channel is better than a blog or public page from the reader’s point of view has many answers and all of them will be correct.

In the end, it’s elementary that on social networks most of us are already subscribed to a huge number of different pages that compete for advertising budgets in order to get to the first place in our feed: on Facebook this has been happening for a couple of years, VKontakte has started recently, but the fact is a fact: there is too much garbage in our feeds. A channel is exactly a subscription to notes. Don't like a brand, don't add as a friend, and don't join a club of soda lovers. I came in and looked, if you’re interested, you subscribed and you receive content on this topic.

For active Telegram users, a large number of channels and chats in the dialogue list can create difficulties. For Android systems, there is a special Telegram Plus client that can divide content into tabs.

But the question of why a Telegram channel is better for a brand, a social media specialist or for the author of a “blog” needs to be considered in more detail and point by point.

Viewability of notes on channels can reach 100% of the number of subscribers. Usually at the level of 60-80%. The overall reach can be significantly higher, because any reposts - to other channels, group chats and even personal correspondence - are taken into account in the view counter. Compare this with 10-15% of coverage in the chronological feed on VKontakte or with the scanty, around 5%, free reach rates on Facebook. If you have a channel with 10 thousand subscribers, approximately your entire audience will watch your post within a week. To achieve similar free reach for a non-viral post on Facebook, for example, you would need to have about 200k likes on a public page.

Telegram has virality. Notes are also “rummaged” through other channels, in group chats and in personal dialogues. As the Telegram ecosystem develops, the potential for virality will only grow.

Typical “rummaged” publications. Reach is 2 and 4 times higher than the number of subscribers.

Hack: publications related to Telegram itself are the best to get right now.

• According to our estimates, 90% of the Telegram audience in Russia is not yet subscribed to any channels. This is primarily due to the lack of tools for “discover,” that is, search and discovery of sites.
• In fact, how do you know that messengers, in principle, have blogs and public pages, not to mention public and non-public group chats (and bots), if you are not a reader of vc.ru? Accordingly, the potential for growth is very large even if Telegram in Russia in principle will never grow, which, of course, is not the case.
• There are already ways to both manually and automatically promote your channels to the active Telegram audience. For example, the Telegram advertising exchange from Combot and Sociate.ru, recently announced on vc.ru, various channel catalogs - mostly manual, but automatic tops are also appearing, which I will talk about below.
• Channels can already be monetized, and brands can get some of the best value for money users from them. Large author “blogs” sell advertising privately; for “medium” blogs, an exchange is being launched that will allow them to earn both for the development of the channel and for bread and caviar.
• Prices: Our tests show that the cost of actions on Telegram is now one of the most attractive on the market. A click “inside Telegram” (that is, on channels, chats or bots) costs from 1 to 5 rubles and conversions to subscriptions or starts are up to 95%. This creates a great opportunity for brands, even if overall audience size is modest.

These are not all the reasons, but to summarize what has already been written: it’s worth a try, the audience on Telegram is high-quality, the level of presence of Digital and IT specialists in it, in Russia, is at the level of specialized sites (if the Affinity index for the “software” category is 300% tells you something, then yes - this is it).

Affinity index data is compiled based on traffic to the web version of pages with group chat statistics and primarily reflects indicators for the “active core” of Telegram.

What in the world? The popularity of channels in the world directly correlates with the popularity of Telegram. It is most popular in Iran - all the largest channels are concentrated there. If you look at one of the directories of Iranian channels, tele-wall.ir, you can see that popular channels have about 1 million subscribers, while all viewership figures remain at the same level as for small channels.

About digital TV channels, setting up your TV and the letter “A”

Communicating with subscribers of the Transinform enterprise, we noticed that foresters often ask the same questions. Some of them will be answered today by Igor KROKHALEV, an engineer at the Operations Service of the Transinform enterprise.

– What does the letter “A” stand next to the TV channel logo mean?

- Lately, advertising everywhere says: “if you see the letter “A”, then you are watching an analog channel, and it will soon be turned off.”

The presence of the letter “A” in the corner of the screen when broadcasting TV channels on our cable network does not necessarily mean that you are watching this TV channel in analog mode. This would be true if the authors of the statement supplemented such a popular phrase with one, but extremely important adjective “essential”. Not just “analog”, but “terrestrial analog”.

Subscribers who have entered into an agreement with the Transinform enterprise and pay a subscription fee do not receive TV channels either on individual or collective terrestrial antennas.

TV channels are broadcast on a digital cable network. Without exception, we receive all TV channels from different satellites in digital format. Both with the letter “A” and without the letter “A” - they are all digital. We specially convert some of the digital TV channels (namely 43 TV channels) into “analogue” using special equipment, so that subscribers who have either outdated CRT TVs or the cheapest LCD TVs, which do not have the ability to receive digital channels, can receive a television picture on the screen. For everyone else, we recommend watching TV channels in digital format.

– When will we switch to digital television?

– The answer to the question may surprise many residents of our city. Transinform subscribers have been able to watch TV channels in digital quality since August 2004! At first, digital TV channels came in addition to analog ones. Now all channels in the network of the Transinform enterprise are digital. There are 120 of them in total. And only some of them are duplicated in analog format. By the way, from November 1, 2021, the list of analogue TV channels has been expanded.

– How to connect to digital television?

- There are several ways. The first, and easiest, is to purchase a digital set-top box in DVB-C format. These are not the set-top boxes that are mentioned in the advertisements on the central channels; they (the set-top boxes) are capable of receiving a signal only in the DVB-T2 format (digital terrestrial television standard).

In the Transinform cable network, TV channels are broadcast in the CABLE digital television standard. And set-top boxes need to be purchased or rented from the company’s subscriber department. The advantages of this method are as follows:

• the set-top box can be connected to any TV, whether old or new;
• Setting up the set-top box is very simple: you can do it yourself or you can bring it to the subscriber department of the Transinform enterprise and update the list of channels for free;
• The set-top box allows you to watch both open and encrypted TV channels. I'll talk about encrypted channels a little later.

And another method that is suitable for those who have a modern TV that supports the DVB-C format. Such television receivers have a slot for installing a CAM module with a conditional access card. This device, similar to a plastic card, is used to decode encrypted channels. The presence of such a socket is the main and mandatory sign of the TV’s ability to tune in to digital channels. The installation location of the CAM module can be located on the left, right, or top in the TV body. It can either be closed with a decorative cover, or in the form of an additional adapter on the back of the TV.

– How to set up digital TV channels?

– Each TV has its own menu. The principle of setting (no matter what - set-top box or TV) is as follows. At a frequency of 498 MHz, in addition to several digital channels, the so-called network lookup table is transmitted. This table contains information about all other frequencies on which all other digital channels are broadcast. As an example, I’ll tell you how to set up TVs. A feature of setting up TVs from this company is the need to fill out a special table - “Cable search parameters”. Without this information, online search will not work. But, having filled out this table once, in the future you can search for channels whenever you want. The search takes less than a minute.

So, let's fill out the table:

start frequency 498000 kHz end frequency 498000 kHz symbol rate 6750 modulation QAM128

Filled it out. Exit this menu. Click “automatic search”. From the three proposed search options: “analog channels”, “digital channels”, “analog and digital channels”, select the “digital channels” option, click “next” (possibly several times), wait for the search to finish and exit the menu. The setup is complete.

In other TV models the principle is similar. Select the search type: “fast” or “network”. Enter the same values. Additionally, on some TVs from LG, for example, you can check the corresponding menu item “digital channels only.” Maybe "skip analogue". Let's start the search.

If you were unable to set up digital channels, you can always make a request by calling 2-67-87. A competent specialist will come and set up the TV. The service is paid.

– Why doesn’t half of the channels show even after tuning?

– While flipping through the channels, you may notice that the channel name is there, but the TV has a black screen, possibly with the words “coded channel”, “CAM module not installed” and the like. This is because some digital channels are encrypted. To view them you need a special key - a conditional access card. The card is installed either in the set-top box or in the CAM module, which was discussed above. Each card has its own individual number. It can only decode those channels that the subscriber himself has selected. In addition to the 67 open channels, you can connect another 53 encrypted TV channels.

All encrypted channels are divided into “packages”, and when subscribing, the subscriber can choose only those that are interesting to him. It is worth saying that there is now a special offer: it is profitable to choose, the cost of which is 75 rubles (in addition to the 175 rubles subscription fee).

Best channels

For dessert, a selection of useful Russian Telegram channels and ways to find more of them.

• “Telegram marketing” @tgmarketing - all about the development and promotion of channels, chats and bots in Telegram and other messengers from the author of this article.
• “Interesting Articles” @bestarticles - a daily selection of the best articles on the Runet from Mikhail Kafanov (relap.io).
• History porn @historyporn - no, it's not porn, it's about history.
• Naked science @nsmag - about science from the publication of the same name.
• “Lentach” @lentachold - yes, the same one. By the way, I set a record for the fastest growth, if I’m not mistaken, 16 thousand subscribers in 4 days. This is another demonstration of how few people know about the very fact of the existence of channels. It goes without saying that this entire audience already had Telegram and was using it, and did not register for the sake of Lentach.
• “Russian Marketing” @smmrus is a channel about digital marketing from Semyon Efimov from KudaGo.
• “Technology, media and society” @brodetsky is the author’s channel of Andrey Brodetsky, editor-in-chief of Apparat. The content follows from the title.
• “Pasha and his procrastination” @abbsol - the author’s channel of Pasha Fedorov, ex-editor of vc.ru, now works at Netology. Pasha writes about how to write correctly and write, and not suffer from bullshit, in general.
• Sinodov.com @sinod - an author's view of IT from Yuri Sinodov, founder of roem.ru.
• MDK @mudak - well... yes. It is he. The same one. Official. And yes, it’s funny there—the humor is different from what’s on VKontakte.

Bonus for those who are already... well, 16. Sexy Geek Girls Photos @sexygeekgirlsphotos - they have all superheroes with boobs, and boobs with superheroes. For those who appreciate it. I'm subscribed.

How to manage channels

There are several subtleties in running a Telegram channel that need to be taken into account.

• To post links, it is worth using shortcuts from time to time, such as goo.gl or bit.ly. This way you will better understand conversions from the channel and your audience. Google, for example, gives the geography of clicks in the abbreviator.
• It is strongly recommended to “bring” users out either to mobile applications or to mobile versions of websites. 90% of the audience uses Telegram from mobile devices.
• Try markup. To post markdown texts, use special bots, for example @markdownrobot. The result is in the screenshot. You can use bold or italics, make friendly links in the text, and so on.

• Choose a time to post. The peak of activity on Telegram is Thursday, on this day the number of active users increases by about 5%. The most inactive days are Saturday and Sunday; according to our statistics, the number of active users decreases by about 10%, views of notes in channels by about 20%, and the number of discussions in group chats sometimes drops by half (depending on the chat). At the same time, on the weekend someone may well find time for a longread - if it were convenient to read them on a mobile phone.
• You can use the channel as a platform for announcements and leads to articles “outside”, but the most popular channels do not force subscribers to go somewhere for the main content. Treat Telegram as a self-sufficient platform.
• Don't overdo it with media content. At least for now. One of the features of the current Russian Telegram community is that texts are still being received. But you don’t need scary longreads either; they still read diagonally.