Alan’s Kiloblog

At Wired right now is a piece of raw link bait, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004. The author says that blogging is dead. He says that blogs were once personal scribblings and insights, but they’ve now given way to pro-blogging marketing efforts. Need proof that blogging is dead? Look no further than Jason Calacanis who shut down his blog with much chest pounding. It is no surprise that the author finds blogs to be commercial and impersonal if he reads Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble.

I am considering moving the WordPress blog on ThinkNOLA so that it is the landing page and changing the URL structure. This is to create smaller URLs that are easier to cut and paste into email.

What has kept me from putting WordPress as the base is that I always imagined a different application there. An application that still exists primarily in my imagination. I’ll let that go. When the time comes, I can incorporate the existing URL structure into the new application. This is aligns with the attitude that content and archival is important, and that new code should respect the cumulative efforts of the user base.

Now, I am concerned that redirections will suck out some of my Google Juice, especially on the few articles that are rock stars in my mind. Articles about AmericaSpeaks are slipping anyway.

Ryan Vis said something about how by virtue of being a redirection, the landing page for ThinkNOLA.com is invisible to search engines.

Is is best to rework ThinkNOLA to accommodate the usage patterns of New Orleanians. They need URLs that won’t break in email. I don’t like using tinyurl.com with it’s mystery meat URLs. That can’t do much for my Google ranking.

People will copy and paste URLs into other forums, and if they don’t break, then incoming links to ThinkNOLA.com will increase.

An example of admitting a mistake with a strikethrough in the Think New Orleans web site.

I’ve Added Textile

I’ve added a Textile plugin to the Think New Orleans WordPress installation. I’m considering whether or not to teach Textile instead of the WYSIWYG editor. That editor is such a horrible thing. People learn a little Wiki markup, and they are far more effective.

I Like Textile

It is easier to use. Easier to edit. I am probably going to be able to get more writing done. I am slowly learning Textile. There is [a nice Textile syntax reference at the web site of Brad Choate]. I’m able to move faster, because I’m not fidgeting with angle brackets. Much faster when I’m not dealing with the ugliness of that WYSIWYG editor. It is horrible. Hard to train. It creates a lot of work when you cut and paste.

This is pretty much a stream of conciousness post, now.

What Is Wiki

bq.. The simplest online database that could possibly work.

That was a blockquote.

It Wasn’t Easy

First, I had to find a proper plugin. They’ve gone out of date since WordPress 2.0, probably because people have been choking down that horrible WYSIWYG editor. I found [Brad Chote's Textile 2 plugin for WordPress], but it wouldn’t work. The Think New Orleans WordPress installation starts crashing. Turns out that it’s an issue where the code does something that PHP 5 will no longer allow. Had no idea how to fix it. Didn’t want to learn.

I grabbed a copy of Jim Rigg’s Textile 2 implementation and replaced the Textile class in the Brad Chote plugin with this latest and greatest Textile class. Now Textile is working fine.

I’m concerned about using the Textile plugin, since I’m afraid it might format older posts that might have something that Textile thinks is Textile markup. It seems unlikely.

Now I’m comitted to the Textile plugin, however. If you are reading this and find it has some strange formatting, I’ve subsequently bailed on Textile.

Now I’m going to play with Instiki and have a complete suite of Textile enabled applications. In the mean time, I can draft things using [Writeboards].

One common form of aside in my blogging is a quote of another blog. In a proper blog entry, blockquotes are usually indented text. In an aside, I’d prefer they were inline.

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.

In the Simpla tempalte running here on Kiloblog, I’ve made the blockquote element display inline and italicized when it is displayed as an aside. An inline quote is usually surrounded by quote marks. I wanted to add the quote marks only if the quote is displayed inline. Thus, I used the CSS before and after pseudo classes to add the quote marks when quote is dispalyed inline.

For OS X, the best uploading tool is the Flickr Uploadr that is found on the Flickr tools page. It is the uploader that Flickr offers, the default. To upload from iPhoto, you simply drag and drop your photos from your iPhoto album. Very easy. Simple interface. The most stable of the uploaders that I have used.

For the run off election, I am going to use Constant Contact to create an email newsletter for Nick Varrecchio. I am going to replace the FeedBlitz signup with a Constant Contact signup.

FeedBlitz permits the import of existing mailing lists. Lots of harsh words about appropriate use, but they must feel comfortable with their users. Users that originate spam are a nightmare for mail administrators.

I’ll create an “interest group” called weblog updates in Constant Contact. If people are so interested, I’ll add them to FeedBlitz.

Wish there was a system that was more tightly integrated, however.