Category Archive for ‘del.icio.us’ [MacStansbury]

Archive for the 'del.icio.us' Category

Fun with del.icio.us meta

Published

on February 11, 2008

A while ago, Jason Kottke started a del.icio.us meta feeding frenzy by posting the folks who bookmarked del.icio.us. While most of those came from the browser bookmark import, some of them actually went through the trouble of linking the site. Somebody noticed that there were quite a few recursive links, and had to get all smartalecy (however you spell that).

Today, the recursion is about 35 levels deep. This came as an outburst of people who noticed how deep the linking went, and kept trying to ‘win’ at internet. For those of you wanting to get in on the action, there’s a handy del.icio.us history bookmarklet that’ll show you who linked any page.

But, as smartaleky (still can’t spell it) people go, they noticed Kottke’s meta post got bookmarked on del.icio.us as well, and did what anybody in their smartalekäe (I’m not even trying any more) mind would do. They smartaleckeded.

As of today, that only goes three levels deep.

Smart Alec

Interesting story behind that thing I couldn’t figure out how to spell. It’s not the one word, it’s two. If my sources are correct, there was actually a person who came by that moniker in the late 19th century.

If the urban legend is correct, the guy’s name was Alec Hoag. Seems he got the title because, though he was a smart cookie, Hoag blew his graft scheme when he decided to filch the protection racket he had with some of the coppers on the take. I’m not sure what that means.

On the bright side, I know how to spell that thing. Yay! editing, huh?

Categorized:

Internet and del.icio.us

PSA: Kill me if I do a link post

Published

John Stansbury

on January 26, 2008

I’ve had some website or other for running on 8 years now. In that time, I’ve seen many a meme come and go, all sorts of bad ideas, and many good ideas. But mostly, it’s all been about the content.

Yes, that sweet, sweet content. Content is such a commodity these days that entire social networks are devoted to little more than getting you to create a profile (e.g. LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook). In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been deleting profiles like that. I’m not a commodity maker.

How that translates to this site is that I strive to produce the best content I can. Link posts are not good content. Link posts are what happens when you’re out of ideas, and you need something to keep loyal followers coming back. It’s what we, in the blogging bidness, call ‘weak sauce.’

Past tense, I’m guilty of copious link posts. A plethora of posts with nothing but sweet, juicy, low–effort link–y goodness. I was part of the problem.

Somehow, I figured I needed some of that blog content if I wanted to keep the peeps coming back. It turned out to be a losing game, and seriously not worth the effort.

For example, I had the ‘feature’ I called [Flagged]. The concept was that I was going to take the most interesting posts from my feed reader and put them on a page. From all my statistical calculations and website data, they were the lowest–performing post I ever wrote.

Plus, you know, people come to this site — and, from what I can gather, your site — to read me (or you). If they wanted to be somewhere else, they’d go there instead. Not everybody’s Glenn Reynolds.

So yes, I’m serious — shoot me. Right in the face.

So yes, I’m serious — shoot me. Right in the face. I don’t want to be part of the problem when the solution is so obvious. There’s almost no reason to chunk out a bunch of links and call it blogworthy. It’s people like that (my former self included) that make it easy to turn off the internet (at least for a little while).

That’s not to say that some people can’t link things up on the internet quite well. Some people gain quite a bit of notoriety for it (e.g. Glenn Reynolds, John Gruber). But they are the exception, not the rule. And — let’s face it — the only reason you’re doing a link post is because you’re out of ideas, isn’t it?

That’s what I thought. So, yeah. Right in the face. Make with the shooting.

Aside on del.icio.us

I heart del.icio.us — but it’s just a service. If I didn’t care so little about the links, I’d serve them off my own page. But the value of the link tends to go down, dramatically, with time. What I found, over the past two years, is that link traffic from trackbacks and Google tends to bring you no useful traffic.

That’s why I decided to go with off–site storage of the links. Disposable links like this don’t have a lot of staying power, honestly. People click them, then they’re gone. No sense wasting a lot of my time rebuilding the wheel, just for the hopes of getting some ad revenue.

Categorized:

Personal, Rant, Site Updates and del.icio.us

Where you can find me (the Linkness story)

Published

John Stansbury

on January 18, 2008

In 2006, it seems I started a trend towards using WordPress as a platform for writing and linking. The concepts isn’t unique, it’s just I’ve noticed more and more people moving to WordPress, and shutting the comments off. I’ve always thought that Movable Type is perfect for a blog written that way, yet people are ditching that platform to move to something that’s built for ordinary blogging.

The first page I worked on, when putting this site together in WordPress was a subdomain with its own catchy title: “With a linkness.” While trying to copy the more famous bloggers of the time, I was using tools that were wholly incapable of completing the task. Again, Movable Type was, and is, a better tool more adequately suited linking and logs. It wasn’t until I started looking at the different social networks that I found my solution.

One fateful day, I signed up with a del.icio.us account. Then all my questions were answered, and all my troubles were gone. I’d figured out how to make this happen. And as I ventured out into the web, my off–site link hosting led me to some other avenues of expression.

In 2007, I burned out, and rekindled, then burned out again. Subtle life changes made me care less for the adoring of my internet fans, and more willing to take some risks. In addition to taking risks, I’ve also grown tired of working for my social credits. That means that I’ve actually deleted some accounts, because they don’t fulfill any useful purpose, and they waste my time.

So, now down to three. There’s others out there, but I can’t remember (or delete) them all. But you’ll see these three mentioned more than once on the site, and featured on the Linkness page. Here’s a brief description of the services, and what conned me into using them.

Random outbursts of creativity, 140 characters at a time. Short–form micro–blogging, where brevity will force perspective. Can I tell you that I love this thing? Because I do. I love it.

I’m amazed at how I’m now able to record some of the (sometimes) crazy things I think of to write. That I have the chance to share my inanity makes it worth the hassle. I like it so much, you can see the latest update (or tweet, in Twitter parlance) on every page of the site.

The de facto leader image sharing and hosting service. Obviously, this is where the images go, but also the screenshots I take. It’s easy to hit the shift+command+4 and upload the stuff on my desktop. Though I’ve been hesitant to use it like this before, now I’m seeing how capturing images and showcasing them there, that way is the proper way to share.

That, and taking some proper photographs would require me to go outside. Can’t do that, can I?

Where I waste most of my valuable linking prowess. It’s mostly technology–related, but I do get some other geekery in there. It’s always great fun if you’re looking for somewhere to be diverted.

I’ve rolled all three of these services in one, through the miracle of “The Internet”. Now, you too can follow everything I do, say, think, or believe by simply adding this feed to your feed reader/aggregator of choice. And no, I’m not going to explain what a feed reader/aggregator is.

Follow me, join me, yada yada yada.

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