reflections

I’m back.

It seems like ages since I was last typing a blog post. It reality of course, it’s been less than a month - but I’ve always found the speed at which the Blogosphere (and Internet in general) moves a little disproportionate to the rest of life anyway!

So what to write about then? I’ve drafted several posts during the last two weeks, but none of them seemed worthy of the comeback piece I was looking for. Then it occurred to me: I may never get back into a writing routine at all if I keep searching for that illusive perfect post. So I decided just to write something, and I hope that it helps me to slip gently back into my blogging groove!

As you may have gathered, I’ve been rather busy since I last wrote! I’ve been working on the beast that is Britster, created several websites for one marketing company, another site for a different marketing company, eight commercial HTML newsletter templates, a site for a paving company, developed my own digital mixing application and started writing a book. Not bad for a month away eh?

I’ve really missed all the friends I’ve made through blogging though, but I’ve been reading all my favourite blogs via RSS so I haven’t missed out on everything that’s been going on! It’s been hard though - not having the time to comment, answer tag memes, or respond to guest blogging opportunities. On the plus side, I’ve managed to gain about a hundred new feed subscribers during my absence - thanks for your support, whoever you are!

And as I rapidly approach this blog’s six-month anniversary, I’ve begun to really appreciate everything that blogging has given me - from the friends and useful business contacts, to food for thought and raucous laughter. It’s been an exciting journey - and long may it continue to be!

What does the future hold for this blog then? Well, I’ve got loads of ideas for articles (making inspirational notes while working means that I have a long list now), and I intend to write about them on a regular basis. I’ve still got lots of paid work to do (the next month is dedicated to a core rewrite for Britster, and getting the site live on November 1st) - but I’m going to be making time for my blogging too.

Thank you to everybody who’s sent messages of encouragement, or joined my feed, or commented on posts, or simply waited for me to sort it out! Your support is truly appreciated, and I promise you that it isn’t misplaced!

Here’s to the future…

Share This

SixApart have finally released a new beta of their blogging and content management system Movable Type. MT 4.0 is the first major release of the software since 2004 - and comes with the interesting news that SixApart will be moving the application to a GPL open-source licence before the end of this year.

Ironically enough, up until the release of MT 3.0 many users treated the software as open-source - despite the fact that it wasn’t official. When SixApart decided to enforce the licence with the release of MT 3.0 it caused widespread outrage, and this may have been one of the things that took WordPress from obscurity to popularity.

The new version of Movable Type is radically different from previous versions though, with more than 50 new features - including an installation and upgrade wizard, more powerful templating, new bundled themes, and a redesigned user interface. It also integrates social media by offering simple ways to get photos, videos and audio into posts - and there’s a new ratings framework too. Scalability concerns have also been squashed with database caching - increasing the chances of surviving the Digg effect unscathed.

My Personal Experience

I download the new beta yesterday - but gave up after two hours of failing to get my new blog to display! I had to manually change CGI permissions in the root directory, set up the required MySQL database, and figure out where Sendmail was located on my server - before I could even get into the Control Panel!

The admin stuff does looks great though - with an excellent Dashboard and drop-down menu navigation. Given how much has obviously been ‘borrowed’ from WordPress though, it’s a shame it doesn’t even come close in terms of intuitiveness! It took me ages to figure out how to do anything - which might not be a problem if you’re totally green to blogging!

I’m not stupid when it comes to the Internet; I develop in PHP myself, and I’ve been using pre-written scripts and database applications for at least 8 years. I also followed the Getting Started Guide to the letter - so it’s not like I’d done something wrong! Perhaps WordPress has just made me lazy, with it all being so simple…

Special technical note: please DO NOT install MT on to the same domain as your WP blog (even if it’s in a sub-directory). It puts an index.html file into the root of the domain, which typically takes precedence over the default index.php required for WordPress. What you end up with is the MT blog coming up instead of the WP one, if you view it from the root of your domain (i.e. http://paulenderson.com). Feel free to comment if you need more on this, or if you’ve screwed up your blog like I did!

Conclusion?

Moveable Type 4.0 is definitely a step in the right direction - and it’s heart-warming to see SixApart taking the GPL route. But they’re not going to suceed in drawing people away from WordPress until they’ve seriously improved their backend. Perhaps I’ll give it another go once it’s out of beta though…

Share This

Let’s be honest here - we all love getting some link love, especially if it’s in return for something we’ve done personally, like commenting on other blogs. And am I the only one who logs into their WordPress dashboard just to see what new back-links pop up? Didn’t think so! So what if all your hard work was for nothing?

Background

NoFollow is an HTML attribute that can be attached to a hyperlink. When present this tag effectively tells search engines not to allow the link to effect the link target’s ranking in their index. It typically looks like this in use:

< a rel = “nofollow” href=”http://www.w3.org“>

Google announced in 2005 that links using this tag would also not have an influence on the link target’s PageRank - and MSN and Yahoo (as is typical) followed Google’s lead. Their intention was to reduce the appeal of comment spamming, but it doesn’t work. Spammers don’t check for the tag because they don’t care about their ranking in a search index - and generally leave the job of spamming to automated robots or real people who get paid a pittance for doing it, and neither cares about back-links.

The engine’s arguments no longer hold weight though. Since Google adopted it’s stance on NoFollow, plugins like Askimet have been enhanced to such a level that comment spam can be controlled. These days all the NoFollow tag really does is prevent link love (the life-blood of the blogging community) from being given back to your readers and commentators.

How Does This Affect Me?

By default, WordPress (and almost every other blogging platform) automatically adds the tag to all links from user-generated content - such as comments and trackbacks. But support for disabling the NoFollow tag is growing - with many highly-regarded blogs promoting the movement or implementing the change. Andy Beard has even set up a Bumpzee community for DoFollowers!

It’s worth noting that Dougal Campbell (one of the WordPress core development team) has also recently installed a DoFollow plugin on his blog, so perhaps we’ll see WP options that allow it to be done without a plugin!

What Do I Need To Do?

Wordpress. Install and activate one of these plugins: DoFollow, Dofollow (WP Plugin), or Link Love (my personal choice). That’s it - simple!

Blogger/Blogspot. Follow this guide.

Typepad. Follow this guide.

Moveable Type. Follow this guide.

If you want to put a graphic onto your blog, to show that you’re a DoFollower, then Randa Clay (one of the most significant promoters of the movement) has created a logo, and made it available in a choice of colours! Chances are that you’ve already seen her graphics popping up on blogs you read daily - and I strongly suspect that they may end up as a non-official standard!

If Randa’s buttons aren’t to your liking, then Charity at Design Adaptations has also produced some full-size buttons, and Asgeir has made some smaller ones!

Conclusion

This is something that all bloggers should seriously consider implementing! It’s not hard to do, and it means you’re doing something nice for your readers in return for their comments - which will probably end up encouraging loyalty to your blog, and give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside!

Have you already made the change, and did you notice any increase in spam (or real) comments as a result? If not, do you plan to make the change - and what else do you feel could be done to improve the situation?

[Thanks to Zep and J David for commenting on my previous post]

Share This

So, today is the OneDayBlogSilence. It’s a noble idea, suggesting that bloggers should keep silent for a day in memory of those who died at Virginia Tech (and thoughtfully including “all the victims of our world” in case that wasn’t enough). I’m sure the idea will receive massive support from the blogging community, but I’ve decided not to take part.

I’m not shunning the idea out of disrespect - in fact, far from it. I simply think that the blogosphere at large is both powerful and intelligent, and capable enough to plant the seeds needed to prevent massacres like VT from happening again - and I think the best way we can do this is by doing the complete opposite of keeping silent!

It seems ironic to be writing this post at a time when the media has already got bored with the topic. The BBC’s World News page currently makes no mention of anything even vaguely related to the tragedy - choosing instead to concentrate on topics like Australia’s cricket win and how Scientist’s have reversed memory loss. Much more important subject matter, obviously. Now, I’m not suggesting that every news channel should talk about VT every day - but, with the unfathomable power it wields, wouldn’t you think that the media could perhaps do something constructive about it - and force the people who can change things to do just that? They seem to be able to do it for other reporters, so why not for the people who died at VT?

If the media aren’t going to change things for the better, then maybe we can? Blogging is growing at a fantastic rate, and ‘ordinary people’ are beginning to make use of blogs as official sources of news, so perhaps we’re actually in the perfect position to bring forth a change of public opinion - one which reverberates back to the halls of power in every country, and in every tongue? It doesn’t matter what your thoughts and ideas for preventing a repeat of VT, tell everybody about them - and keep on shouting about it until you’re blue in the face! Your ideas will probably differ to mine, and to everyone elses - but surely the whole point of blogging is to open new channels of communication, and to defend your viewpoint - isn’t it?

I will just say that I find it hard to believe that there are some people out there in the world who truly feel that the Virginia Tech killings only happened because the students were unarmed. According to them, if VT had not put a ‘no concealed weapons on campus’ rule in place a year earlier, and everyone had been carrying guns, then there wouldn’t have been so much bloodshed. For the record, I don’t agree… If a single soldier carries a gun then only a few will be wounded, but if every soldier is armed then it becomes a war.

So, what do I think might actually help to prevent a tragedy like this happening again? Well, I strongly feel that Cho’s mental state played a massive part in what took place.

For example, did you know that the campus Professors and administrators were forbidden by federal law to discuss Cho Seung-Hui’s emotional and psychological problems with his parents? The vast majority of college students are over 18, and technically autonomous - even though many are still living with their parents’ support. Their medical information can’t be shared with anyone without their permission. Senator Rosalind Kurita from Tennessee is trying to pass a law that will change this. The Senator’s nephew committed suicide during his first year away at school, so she knows first hand how access to medical information and psychological profiles would help prevent deaths. She is heading up an initiative that would allow college students to sign a waiver granting their parents access to medical information in a time of emotional crisis. The program is currently being tested at Middle Tennessee State University, with plans to expand to every college and university in the state starting this autumn (fall).

Cho was mentally ill, showed signs of violent thoughts, wrote plays with violent and graphic undertones, and he was a loner. Did he get the care he needed though, not just for his sake but for the safety of others?

As our world continues to expand, we are forced further from our neighbors, our co-workers, and our families. Perhaps we should start reaching out more often, with greetings and positive words - and perhaps we should be giving time to those who we thought we had no time for? If we do this then we will be creating a better role model for our children, who will then have the ability to bridge social gaps and avoid repeating past mistakes.

In closing, I would like to send my sincerest and heartfelt sympathies not only to the family and friends of those that died, but also to Cho Seung-Hui’s parents and family. I cannot begin to imagine the sorrow that either group is currently dealing with, nor what they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

Thank you for your time.

Share This