Month: August 2004

Categories
Social Media Weblogging

Technorati, Technorati, wherefore art thou Technorati

I remember once being critical of TypeKey because (as I said at the time) centralized services don’t scale. Those who didn’t agree pointed out the excellence of both Google and Technorati to demonstrate how well centralization works.

This week, as I noticed comment spam in a TypeKey controlled blog, I thought back on that argument and still believe that centralization doesn’t scale. True, Google seems to be the exception, as it takes a licking but keeps on ticking (though it has faltered a time or two in the recent past, and lately it seems as if you have to wade through sellers trying to get to useful information). As for Technorati, though–I can’t be the only one who wonders if this service will ever be able to re-capture it’s former glory, as days go by searching on both keyword and URL, only to get less than useful results.

I feel like I’m kicking baby squirrels again being critical of Technorati — I like Dave, and think he’s providing a very useful product (which, I should add, is not costing me penny). I’m glad he got VC funding, and a great gig at CNN. And I like the fact that Dave never gives excuses when things go wrong.

But today was the first day in six that I got anything back for my weblog and this afternoon the results will most likely differ wildly from what it was this morning. This is seriously cutting into my ego surfing, forcing me to take drastic measures.

I’m warning you Dave — if you don’t get Technorati fixed soon, the squirrels get it.

Cute squirrels begging Dave for help, saying they're road kill without it.

Categories
Social Media Technology Weblogging

Exit door

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I wanted to to thank those (Steve, Loren, Liza, Tim) who have volunteered their weblogs for conversion for my upcoming tutorials on weblog tool independence. This is in addition to those who are offering space and installation of MT 3.1.

I’ve been asked if because of this series I’m thinking of switching back to Movable Type; what I’m going to do with this weblog moving forward, I’d prefer to leave for the denouement. (Sorry Marc – no peeking at the end.) The purpose of the series isn’t to sell one weblogging tool or another, as much as it is to sell the idea of weblog tool independence.

Sam Ruby once said, and I can’t find where, that the first thing to look for when evaluating a weblogging tool is the exit. Most tools provide an import utility and instructions, but very few provide an easy to use method to export entries into a format consumable by other tools. In fact, Movable Type is one of the best in this regard, though it’s also relatively easy to export from Blogger.

Weblogging tool lock-in serves no one, not even the tool makers. If a person feels they can’t easily move their weblog to a different tool, but they’re also not happy with the one they’re using, they’re going to be vocal in their criticism of the tool; this is the only outlet they have for their frustration. A better approach would be to give them an easy out, so they don’t feel ‘trapped’.

Moving the data is only part of the battle, though. The tough part is handling the differences in tags, functions, and plugins. But there’s a method to the madness, and the tools are more alike than unalike when it comes to processing that data they all hold in common.

Of course, none of us wants to have to spend time moving to different weblogging tools; we’re here to put deathless prose and pithy comments online, not spend time fiddling with technology. Still, it’s hard to be creative when your software crashes, your writing disappears, your post takes forever to publish, your host shuts your weblog service down in a hissy fit, or you’re fighting off hordes of comment spammers who clutter up your space (not to mention taking down your server with the force of their attacks).

Categories
Political

Etern-urh-Internment Debate

I listened to the debate between Eric Muller and Michelle Malkin on radio yesterday. It was interesting to hear views normally only read.

Muller was very knowledgeable, but sometimes his legal background got in the way. For instance, when he asked Malkin to name one Japanese-American in the internment camps who was arrested for espionage, I think he was expecting Malkin to respond with the answer she did, but then he’d have time to cross-examine her response. Debates don’t work that way, and the issue was left hanging.

Still, he came off very confident about his background in the topic. Frustrated a couple of times, but confident.

I thought that Malkin started out fairly strong, but ended up sounding rather dogmatic and very defensive. It was as if she was reciting facts memorized for a history test, rather than arguing from any real depth of knowledge. She seemed comfortable until a point when the program had to break for commercial, and that seemed to rattle her. She came off sounding abrasive from that point on, only softening when she felt she received a phone call that supported her position.

I would say this debate did not end up a positive experience for Malkin. Perhaps this explains why last night she came out with a rather petulant sounding challenge for Muller and Robinson. The gloves are now off, but, frankly, does anyone care?

This dog has rolled over, and the bunny is dust. The blogosphere holds for no man or woman, and this story has done been played, and the drummer gone home for the day. He went home with the fiddler who played the good-night song for the saga of Kerry and the Swift Vote –urh– Swift Boat Veterans.

Good, golly Miss Molly, but politics is certainly getting mighty dull around here. With a Presidential election nine weeks away, I thought we’d have so much to talk about: Iraq and unemployment, health care, the deficit and the environment, gay marriage, racism and religious intolerance, and the growing nightmare of AIDs and genocide in Africa–not to mention there are still a lot of people in this world who don’t trust us.

Whatever reach was made between this topic and today’s events has been stretched beyond stability; popped, like the gum bubble of an overenthusiastic teen. Japanese internment as excuse for racial profiling has been chewed, and the flavor is gone; time to stick it under the table and move on.

Sigh. If this continues, I’m going to be forced to bring out the old squirrel photos in a desperate attempt at entertainment.

Squirrel with tail to camera saying, 'you call that a cute butt? This, this is a cute butt.

Categories
Just Shelley

Relative terms

It’s dangerous to use relative terms such as hot, cold, sweet, salty, better, or worse. Doing so leaves the door open to miscommunications.

For instance, I found today that my interpretation of the word ’short’ doesn’t agree with my hair stylist’s interpretation of the word ’short’. My idea was shoulder length, layered (since my hair is thick and wavy); her’s was Anne Heche.

Categories
Weblogging

Oh dear but this is sad

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

With some of the current unpleasantness going on in the WordPress support forum and elsewhere, I’ll focus more quickly on getting the WordPress to Movable Type format export finished. This doesn’t mean I’m encouraging people to move, as I really like WordPress. And it doesn’t mean you’re locked into moving back to Movable Type: most major weblogging tools provide utilities and instructions for importing MT formatted weblog data.

(That’s why I will only support the MT format–using Atom is just a way of showing that you’re geeky. Sorry, but why focus on an export format not supported by most tools?)

However, some of the decision making can have some pretty adverse impacts on the non-geeks who just want to use a weblogging tool that works and doesn’t get them spammed. I really like WordPress, and respect and like many of the people who work on and help support the tool; but right now, there are a lot of growing pains and a little too much arrogance associated with the core community, and this isn’t good for the tool.

(I wonder if I just lost my volunteers for my upcoming tutorials?)