Occasionally, I have posted stuff on Posterous and Tumblr because I didnt really feel it ‘belonged on this blog, it wasnt worthy or it was a throwaway one-liner and not a proper blog post. As I subsequently deleted my Posterous account (as I didnt like their negative campaigning against Tumblr), some of this content has now been lost forever.
I think, from now on, I will post everything on this blog where it's under my control.
I am about to embark on migrating this blog from WordPress to Django-Mingus because I simply cant stand the WordPress Compose Post interface (if you can call it that).
This exciting move comes less than two weeks after I spontaneously decided to ditch Habari after the lack of a functional 'Auto-Save' plugin caused me to lose 17 minutes work.
You may say 'I'm reading this in my preferred RSS reader so please don't bother me with such minutiae'.
However, when I migrated from Habari to WordPress a month ago, I flooded you both with my most recent posts duplicated so this is just prior warning that similar oddness may well occur as I endeavour to hook up the new blog feed to FeedBurner.
This may or may not signal a period of blog hopping and I'd like to say this ~~will~~ may trigger a series of interesting posts about which blogging platforms I considered and discarded and top tips on planning and executing an efficient blog migration.
One of the reasons for the reduced blogging frequency, Kenneth, is that I spend every waking hour devoting time to the thorny problem of monetizing this humble blog. Previously, I experimented with Adsense but sadly the revenue stream was insufficient to enable me to retire.
I am now pleased to announce the results of my research and contemplations.
Do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Be patient. Wait. Don't get frustrated. Just wait.
Sooner or later, you will receive an email promising you riches and wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
In return for posting a link to a Web site, I am going to receive a goodie bag containing the following:
'The Retro Sweets Pile comes to you packaged in a clear bag.'
...which is very important as if the goods were packaged in a brown bag, people might think your were receiving sex aids through the post.
Prepare yourselves for a bunch of unobtrusive links to mindless, desperate UK based SEO agencies appearing shortly. Prepare yourself for a bunch of anecdotes about tooth decay and late onset diabetes.
Rich Manalang is taking a back seat and suspending some but not all of his online activities which is an interesting exercise I will follow as it unfolds. Or, rather I wont, because he won't be blogging about it. I suppose I could always email him at work.
I suspect Google Buzz was the final nail in his Web coffin. It certainly was for me. The privacy issues, the multiple, loud and prolonged orgasms from the Technorati, the same old avatars gradually showing up in my 'Friends' list quickly followed by the immediate same sense of 'Emperors New Clothes' and the inevitable post coital cigarette: 'How was it for you, darling ?'
Rich's decision to take a step back interests me as in the past, on at least two occasions, I have gone slightly further and committed Web 2.0 suicide. This entailed spontaneously and maliciously terminating a bunch of accounts on FriendFeed, Tumblr, LinkedIn and elsewhere. Of course, it didn't last and in due course I miraculously resurrected myself - but after slightly longer than three days.
What I find slightly odd about Rich's decision is that he will preserve 'IM and email' - I presume he means in order to work but maybe he includes personal use too - but he then goes on to include Google Reader as he finds 'GR adds order to the chaos'. I agree completely although I think the experiment would be much more interesting if he ditched GR and idle Web browsing for that matter too.
I suspect if I embarked on a similar exercise I would revert to scanning my small set of favoured Web sites. I also suspect, and it sounds slightly counter intuitive, that I would find lots more to blog about. Of course, Rich can't blog more because blogging is also suspended during this hiatus period. I also find this odd as he states outputs (5%) are much more valuable, but greatly outnumbered by, endless, mindless consumption (95%) so it would be interesting to see whether his outputs increase as a result of his self-imposed exile.
Some of the varied and bizarre keyword searches leading visitors to this site merely confirm this blog is the ramblings of a confused madman. Here is a selection from the start of the year
That was the year that was. Statistics for 2009 with the comparative numbers for 2008 in brackets.
This conversation didnt actually take place but it could have.
Last week, friends and I were discussing µblogging in the pub. Well not µblogging exactly but two ladies had recently discovered Facebook and were talking about the pros and cons of this wonderful social network.
One lady said: ‘Oh and another thing - I really don't like the ‘Jenny is…' status update. I just don't get it.'
The other lady replied ‘Yeah - that bit is stupid. I am hardly going to write down ‘Marilyn is…just off to Asda for the weekend shop'.
I then interjected: ‘But you don't have to put down minutiae after the ‘is…' part'. You can put anything. For example, I might choose to write
‘Norman is….seriously considering jacking his job in, pursuing his dream and opening a record shop'.
They looked at me as though as I was mad. My mate sighed and said ‘Right - who's up for another ?'
Jenny stared at me as though I had two heads and said ‘What ? You're going to open a record shop ? In these tense and difficult times. Are you serious ?'
I have experimented at various times with both Tumblr and Posterous which are hosted blog services. I tend to view them as useful services for a scrapbook style blog, a linkblog, a lifestream or even a fully fledged blog. If I was starting a blog today, I would probably use one or the other.
Posterous, in particular, has been getting a lot of coverage recently and I like the ease of use, the 'Post by Email' facility and continue to follow developments with interest.
I often describe Posterous as a 'blog for people who don't want a blog'. For example, Uncle Harry doesn't even know what a blog is and certainly doesn't need a blog. However, Uncle Harry is also perfectly capable of attaching photos of his sailing holiday in Greece and emailing them to his daughter, brother, wife, friends and colleagues. He could do this using Posterous and, lo and behold, without even knowing it, he now has a blog.
Posterous is a hosted blog service and until recently, was limited to a single, universal theme. This didn't particularly bother me as I quite liked the plain, minimal looking Posterous design.
I also felt the default Posterous theme actually helped to reinforce the Posterous 'brand'. Whenever you encountered a Posterous blog, you could immediately recognise it as such.
However, custom themes were a frequently requested enhancement by (potential) users so Posterous have finally added support for your own themes including pre-built designs, custom header images, full HTML customisation and interestingly, the use of Tumblr themes.
Now I suspect that supporting 'Tumblr' style themes out of the box was a master stroke. Posterous users immediately have a wealth of pre-built, attractive looking themes available off the shelf, free of charge.
Tumblr have even helpfully created a theme repository for Posterous users. You just find a Tumblr theme you like, copy and paste the HTML, dump it into Posterous and you're done.
You now have a lovely, stylish professional looking Posterous blog that looks identical to a lovely, stylish professional looking Tumblr blog.
I love the way TechCrunch uses the the term 'leverage' to describe the addition of this (almost seamless - some blocks are not supported) integration with the Tumblr theme engine.
Of course, all themes are just HTML and CSS but I can't help wondering whether the Tumblr development team and their own band of loyal and passionate users feel quite the same way about this wonderful, new addition from Posterous.
Anyone suffering from the desire to communicate what they are doing or thinking every minute of the day in fewer than 140 characters is best described as a twat.
Janet Street Porter calling me a 'twat'. Possibly my proudest moment.
I prefer to define µblogging as 'an infinite byte stream of inane drivel' but I also enjoyed Stephen Fry's post on the same subject:
'40% of Twitter is “pointless babble”, which means of course that a full 60% of Twitter discourse is NOT pointless babble, which is disappointing.'
Early Jurassic - Mum takes you to playgroup, kicking and screaming and your friends are forced upon you. Free milk at 11 am.
Cretaceous - Primary school. You go round to Roberts for tea and Robert comes round to your house for tea. Painfully shy in female company.
Middle Monolithic - Secondary school - you hang out with the kids who play football and avoid those who threaten you with knives at the bus stop.
Triassic - Football, gigs, pubs. The best time of your life. With the best friends of your life. None of them will ever do FaceBook but that doesn't matter.
Late Mesozoic - University - no real strategy here. If someone stands their round, then that's good enough.
Web 0.1 (alpha) - Usenet, flame fests, email using elm on an amber VT100. Avoid people who use VMS at all costs.
Web 1.0 - IRC is just like a Friday night in the pub. There will be fights at closing time.
Web 1.0 - surf the internet, send large attachments (amusing photos) to colleagues every Friday afternoon.
Web 2.0 - social networking. Accept blindly absolutely any friend request. Approach complete strangers and ask them to be your 'special friends'. Friendship isn't friendship - it's a bragging contest.
Web 2.0 (beta) - Follow Scoble's example and be slightly more selective. Cull thousands of so-called 'friends' in futile attempt to avoid information overload.
Web 3.0 - Twitter - the endless, interminable byte stream of inane drivel. Until Stephen Fry signs up which makes it all alright. Stalk celebrities.
Web 3.0 RC3 - Finally it dawns on you.
Web 4.0 - The end of the world. Social Networking dies and we all adjourn to the pub (again) and play board games.