Blogospherics
•Going through changes
Traffic. Drumroll. . . My first ever traffic report. Mac-a-ro-nies has had more than 12,000 visitors.
RSS.This blog now has an RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed. The advantage of RSS is that it lets aggregators pick up blog entries. That enhances the possibility someone will read an item on the blog or link to it.
I have no idea whether the syndicator I am using, BlogMatrix, is considered good, bad or in-between. My one complaint after three days of use is the need to remember to 'ping' BlogMatrix to submit updates manually.
Farewell, wretched box. Mac-a-ro-nies no longer has a 'check this box to open new windows' function. That is because the box rarely worked. I've run into the same problem at other blogs and found it frustrating. I like the idea of the check box. It allows a reader to look at an embedded source or another blog without losing his place in the blog he is currently viewing. However, the function needs to actually work to be useful.
Half a Google. On a related note, I am not pleased with the Google search functions for Mac-a-ro-nies. It brings up fewer than half of my blog entries. I don't know why. Perhaps this is because the archives are chronically damaged, like those of most bloggers who use Blogger Basic. Or, perhaps there is a registration feature I am not aware of.
•Ruffini revisited
Ater giving the matter more thought, I realized I had overlooked a likely motivation for Patrick's entry. I explained my belated insight in an email to another blogger.
I think Patrick's intention may have been merely to brown-nose Right Wing Higher Beings. But, even for that purpose his entry doesn't make sense. If someone tells me I look 18, I know two things. That person wants to flatter me and that person is lying. I suspect some of the people Patrick set out to flatter know they don't write particularly well. So, it was a blunder for him to attempt to score points with that entry.
As that blogger pointed out, the ploy did work to an extent. Glenn Reynolds, he of the insatiable ego, gave Patrick the much sought after link from the InstaPundit.
Joseph Deumer is swifter than I am. He spelled a rat right after reading Ruffini, seeing an equally unsavory motivation in the fellow's effort to spend gold from straw.
Look, I don't read Den Beste or LGF, though I have looked at both of these blogs from time to time. Some writers you read for beauty, some for sense: so I don't read either Clueless or LGF. How many times do you have to step in dog shit before you learn to look out for it & keep your shoes clean? I hadn't been aware of Ruffini before this week & I find the the sort of broad sociological generalizations he spins completely useless. Ruffini is engaging in an act of public self-congratulation.
Rick Heller of Smart Genes, who tries not to favor one blogging hemisphere over the other, picked up the same odor.
Patrick Ruffini's rant that the top conservative bloggers are beautiful prose stylists and otherwise superior to the lefties reminds me of the Dale Carnegie truism that the sweetest sound in the English language is the sound of one's own name. In a similar vein, the echo of one's own words are deep, insightful, and stirring.
I believe there is a lesson in this episode for myself and other new bloggers. Yes, one wants links to larger blogs. But, if one reveals oneself as a sycophant other bloggers notice. In my experience, people don't really like sycophants, so one is probably doing oneself a disservice if one chooses that route.
I've always had a problem with not respecting authority figures as much as they think I should. So, I don't expect to score brownie points with flattery in the blogosphere. If I say something about someone it is because I think it is true. I realize the examples of good analytical writers I cited below are mainly small to mid-size blogs. Perhaps I would have ingratiated myself by saying all of the liberal Higher Beings are "beautiful prose stylists," but if I had, I would not be Mac Diva.
•Beware of Blogger New
Fellow users of Blogger, I have saved you considerable irritation by tesing Blogger New. Thought everything about Blogger was kind of old and cranky, didn't you? They say it ain't so and are offering a new version of the popular but imperfect program to prove it.
Monday, April 21, 2003
The Dano [Blogger New] Rollout Plan consists of three phases. Starting today, select users will be able to create a Dano blog. Current BloggerPro users will have Pro features enabled in their Dano blogs.
The next phase, to start in a week to ten days, will allow users to migrate their existing blogs over to Dano.
Finally, in about a month's time, all blogs will be transitioned to Dano. This includes the blogs, their posts and templates.
For more information on everything Dano, please see the FAQ.
Blogger recently announced it had ended the preview period and will begin messing with our blogs.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Nearing the End of Preview : Thanks to your bug reports we are now nearing the end of the preview phase. We have some remaining issues to fix and will then begin the migration of blogs to the new version. This will happen in stages so don't worry if your blog is still using the old Blogger. There will still be updates here as to our progress. Also, as part of the road to final release, we've stopped the opt-in migration process.
My experiences with Blogger New were less than wonderful. It does not work with the blog writing tool I've been using for about a week, Chronicle Lite v1.2, and may not work with yours either. Efforts to post to Blogger New were often fruitless when I tortuously typed everything into the Blogger window. Unless this changes, I predict an increase in lost entries. Several features, including The View Blog tab, were disabled, making my attempt to use Blogger New even more awkward.
It does not appear we have a choice about being migrated to Blogger New. Considering the problems with archives and links that are the norm for those of using the current Blogger Basic, I hope the move is an improvement instead of more of the same.
