Recently in blogging Category
While I've always found the official Google blogs to be good sources of information they lacked interaction as comments were disabled.
They've now changed their policy and are accepting relevant comments
From what I've been able to work out they haven't enabled comments on all their blogs as yet and Google staff don't seem to be engaging with the public. So it seems like it's a bit of a one way street. (If someone can find me evidence to the contrary I would appreciate it)
Of course not all blogs accept comments and for some people there is a very good reason why they don't. Seth Godin, for example, provides a clear explanation on his policy and it makes sense. But if you do allow comments, shouldn't you at least reply to them?
They've now changed their policy and are accepting relevant comments
From what I've been able to work out they haven't enabled comments on all their blogs as yet and Google staff don't seem to be engaging with the public. So it seems like it's a bit of a one way street. (If someone can find me evidence to the contrary I would appreciate it)
Of course not all blogs accept comments and for some people there is a very good reason why they don't. Seth Godin, for example, provides a clear explanation on his policy and it makes sense. But if you do allow comments, shouldn't you at least reply to them?
Blogging company SixApart announced a major expansion earlier today. (They also quietly unveiled a new look for their main corporate site)
The company announced its acquisition of New York based Apperceptive who will form the core of their new services division. Apperceptive's team have not only worked on a lot of very high profile projects but have also developed quite a few extensions for Movable Type (I think I've a couple of them installed on this site!).
They've also announced a new advertising solution for both bloggers (publishers) and media buyers. As this is a new service I'd expect there'll be a delay before we start seeing it "in action".
Anil Dash's post on their main site covers their vision in some detail.
Earlier in the day Arvind posted an interview with Anil on the Blog Herald
The services side of the company will probably meet with a degree of criticism from some quarters, but it's not uncommon for software companies to handle a certain amount of this type of work inhouse.
Will this have a negative impact on the developers and consultants who work closely with SixApart?
Judging by reactions on the mailing lists probably not, though the company's detractors were vocal as usual.
What is interesting to see is the range of services that they are pushing. These range from basic installation and tweaking to a full migration and upgrade service.
While the $199 price tag may put off some people I can imagine that a lot of small businesses might be attracted. With the current rate of exchange it equates to a mere 125 euro for a blog "tune up".
They don't seem to be offering design services, which is a pity as I'd love to give this site an overhaul!
EDIT: Fixed a typo spotted by David Raynes' eagle eyes!
The company announced its acquisition of New York based Apperceptive who will form the core of their new services division. Apperceptive's team have not only worked on a lot of very high profile projects but have also developed quite a few extensions for Movable Type (I think I've a couple of them installed on this site!).
They've also announced a new advertising solution for both bloggers (publishers) and media buyers. As this is a new service I'd expect there'll be a delay before we start seeing it "in action".
Anil Dash's post on their main site covers their vision in some detail.
Earlier in the day Arvind posted an interview with Anil on the Blog Herald
The services side of the company will probably meet with a degree of criticism from some quarters, but it's not uncommon for software companies to handle a certain amount of this type of work inhouse.
Will this have a negative impact on the developers and consultants who work closely with SixApart?
Judging by reactions on the mailing lists probably not, though the company's detractors were vocal as usual.
What is interesting to see is the range of services that they are pushing. These range from basic installation and tweaking to a full migration and upgrade service.
While the $199 price tag may put off some people I can imagine that a lot of small businesses might be attracted. With the current rate of exchange it equates to a mere 125 euro for a blog "tune up".
They don't seem to be offering design services, which is a pity as I'd love to give this site an overhaul!
EDIT: Fixed a typo spotted by David Raynes' eagle eyes!
For the past couple of weeks I hadn't been getting any email notifications about pending comments on this blog, which is why some of them took so long to appear.
Since I tend to login to check for new comments every few hours and had also been hit pretty badly with comment and trackback spam, I didn't think too much about it.
I logged in just now and noticed more comments in the queue again, but no emails in my inbox.
So I decided to look into it a bit further and SSHed in to check logs.
Bizarrely they were completely empty. I restarted postfix and mail began to flow again.
I suspect that I broke the mail server slightly during an upgrade, but as it doesn't actually receive any mail I didn't notice.
So if you weren't getting any comment updates from here for the last while and suddenly got loads of them I apologise!
Since I tend to login to check for new comments every few hours and had also been hit pretty badly with comment and trackback spam, I didn't think too much about it.
I logged in just now and noticed more comments in the queue again, but no emails in my inbox.
So I decided to look into it a bit further and SSHed in to check logs.
Bizarrely they were completely empty. I restarted postfix and mail began to flow again.
I suspect that I broke the mail server slightly during an upgrade, but as it doesn't actually receive any mail I didn't notice.
So if you weren't getting any comment updates from here for the last while and suddenly got loads of them I apologise!
In order to preserve what little sanity I have left I've changed the way comments are handled on here slightly.
Since comment and trackback spammers seem to target old posts I've decided to automatically close comments on posts that are 6 months old or older.
The old posts that were attracting the odd comment were mainly to do with older versions of Ubuntu etc., so there's not much point in accepting new comments since the software has changed in the last couple of years.
The other reason why I'm doing this is because I made a boo boo the other day and turned up the spam checking a little too high. This meant that I may have blocked several legitimate comments and had to spend a couple of hours trawling through about 20k+ worth of spam comments to rescue them.
I'll update the comment policy of the site shortly to reflect the new "regime"
Since comment and trackback spammers seem to target old posts I've decided to automatically close comments on posts that are 6 months old or older.
The old posts that were attracting the odd comment were mainly to do with older versions of Ubuntu etc., so there's not much point in accepting new comments since the software has changed in the last couple of years.
The other reason why I'm doing this is because I made a boo boo the other day and turned up the spam checking a little too high. This meant that I may have blocked several legitimate comments and had to spend a couple of hours trawling through about 20k+ worth of spam comments to rescue them.
I'll update the comment policy of the site shortly to reflect the new "regime"
Ross from Tucows is a keen cyclist (and photographer) and is taking part in a charity cycle later this year. He's looking for a blogger to help promote the event and get them lots of coverage.
More details on his site
More details on his site
I came across this earlier this evening.
I don't use certain types of language in my own writing and have mentioned this more than once in the past, but can a company offering a blog hosting service suspend a site for language use?
Where exactly do you draw the line?
What exactly is "offensive"?
Thoughts on a postcard ....
I don't use certain types of language in my own writing and have mentioned this more than once in the past, but can a company offering a blog hosting service suspend a site for language use?
Where exactly do you draw the line?
What exactly is "offensive"?
Thoughts on a postcard ....
One of my pethates (I seem to have a lot!) is blogs that aren't
actually blogs. All they seem to have is the person's Twitter updates
and maybe their latest saved links.
Either blog or don't.
I don't mind if you don't post that often, but if I wanted your Twitter updates I'd just subscribe to that instead.
Either blog or don't.
I don't mind if you don't post that often, but if I wanted your Twitter updates I'd just subscribe to that instead.
I've got a few invites to Hellotxt and Jaiku available if anyone wants them.
Hellotxt is a nice little idea.
Their description sums it up:
Hellotxt is a nice little idea.
Their description sums it up:
HelloTxt is an aggregate of microblogging services through which the user can insert their messages on all main microblogging services in a simply and simultaneous way.Of course the downside to it is that it makes it all that much easier to spam the universe with your microblogging messages!
If you want a nice bit of memorabilia from last weekend's Irish Blog Awards and help charity at the same time, then check out this ebay auction
