A Few Housekeeping Bits and Pieces

16. July 2008, 5:35 pmblogginglightening

Image via WikipediaThere are a couple of small “housekeeping” matters I wanted to fill you in on. It seems easier to simply put together a post detailing the bits and pieces I really want to say. Apologies for the “boring” nature of this post. Some days the “boring” stuff just needs to be said.

COMMENT MODERATION

Some of you will have come across a message when you try to post a comment which indicates you’ve used a word from my spam filter in your comment which may result in it going to moderation.

Unfortunately, spammers don’t limit themselves to nonsense or objectional words in their spam comments and so some regular words are also in there.

If you click on the button “yes, post my comment”, it will go through. INCLUDING the word my filter has picked up.

If your comment doesn’t appear (and it’s not your first comment - 1st comments ALWAYS go to comment moderation) you can use the contact form listed in the tabs in my header to let me know.

I apologise for the inconvenience but this seems to be the least intrusive way of dealing with spam right now.

PARTIAL RSS FEEDS

There is a temptation to set your blog to partial RSS feeds in an attempt to force readers to click through to your blog. Some people do this for advertising dollars (or cents), some to help their statistics and some because they think people will comment more if they are forced to visit their site.

I don’t want to rant and rave about this one because what you choose to do is your choice. It’s your blog.

Here’s my problem. Some blogs I really like choose to only publish partial feeds. And I just don’t have the time to click through to every blog that I read. So when it comes to making hard choices about which blogs I will and won’t read, those with partial feeds are the first to go.

Publishing a full feed might reduce your visitor statistics in the short term but it will increase your loyal readership in the long term.

Like I said, it’s your choice whether or not you publish a full or partial feed. And it’s my choice how I choose to spend my time. Sadly, those who only publish partial feeds are the blogs that tend to get culled from my reader when I need to cut back on how many blogs I read.

ADVERTISING

My apologies for anyone who has had annoying little boxes (that supposedly are NOT pop ups but are very close to it) appear on their screen. It’s taken me by surprise and I’m in the process of looking into that. I think it’s a new thing BlogHer are trialling. To be honest, they don’t pay me enough to be that annoying. Hopefully I can get it sorted out sooner rather than later.

THINK THAT’S ALL

HELLO???? Are you still awake??? Thanks for bearing with me. I hope that’s helped to clarify a few things but if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to say so.

P.S. I KNEW I’d forget something. If you have a blogger blog that uses a pop up window for your comments, I cannot comment right now. Don’t ask me WHY but the pop up window won’t open fully enough for me to comment. I’m REALLY sorry. I have NO IDEA what is going on or WHY this is happening.

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10 comments:

Jayne, 16. July 2008, 19:08

I now have a strange yet over-whelming urge to consume large amounts of processed meat products…
Kelley, 16. July 2008, 21:17

I hear you about the visiting everyone that comments blog. I am having a hard time with it too… will have to quit AB I think cause I don’t think I have been there for a month!!!

I have even noticed a few people that have been regular commentors have removed me from their blogrolls, probably dummy spitting from me not commenting on each and every one of their posts.

Meh.

Blogging is supposed to be fun, NOT a competition.

Smootches babe for finding the happy medium.
lightening, 16. July 2008, 22:04

Jayne - ROFLOL. I HATE SPAM!!!! Both kinds!!! But couldn’t help but laugh when Zemanta offered me this picture.

Kelley - blogging absolutely SHOULD be about having fun. About being true to yourself. I imagine it would be ultra hard keeping up with all your comments!!!!
Dina, 17. July 2008, 0:35

I was wondering about the word filter thing.

I have no idea what the partial rs feed thing is or what that means–so if I have it, it’s totally on accident. I don’t think I have it.
teeni, 17. July 2008, 2:19

Hi Lightening! I think I use a summary feed. But the reason I do use that is not necessarily to get people to click through (although it is flattering to get more hits, obviously), but because I’ve found those scraping sites that steal your material and repost it without giving you credit tend to somehow get your content through those feeds a lot easier if it is a full feed. Since I made mine a summary, I have not found many (if any) sites doing this to my blog. I just thought you might want to know another reason people may do this. Because I think most bloggers and writers find content theft even more heinous than spam, if that’s possible. But I can see your point of eliminating those as a first wave too. Just as long as mine isn’t included in that wave. LOL.
Jenn, 17. July 2008, 2:33

I’m totally with you on the partial feeds. I know that people should be able to do what they like with their blogs, but on those days when I only have time for a quick look through my feed reader, those partial posts go unread. And when there’s a bunch of days in a row when all I have time for is a quick look through my reader, then those partial posts end up being marked as read, even though they haven’t been read. Sometimes I just don’t have the time for all that.
Widdle Shamrock, 17. July 2008, 10:31

I don’t even like the LOOK of spam.

Gosh, my blogroll needs updating too, I go blog jumping and forget where I have been. I used to visit everyone daily, now I can’t.
lightening, 17. July 2008, 12:35

Dina - most default settings are set to full feed. Yours are a full feed.

Teeni - yes, I have heard that reasoning as well. I can kind of understand it. Personally, I just choose to ignore content scrapers. I tend to follow the lead of the more popular bloggers and most of them continue to offer full feeds despite the issue of content scrapers.

Jenn - that’s what happens to me as well. It has to be an extremely good blog for me to persevere and even then, I DEFINITELY read the content LESS AND comment LESS because of it.

Widdle Shamrock - are you familiar at all with feed readers? I don’t know if you read Lightening’s Blogworld at all but perhaps I’ll write a series about them. It SAVES you a LOT of time and helps keep track of what blogs you want to read on a regular basis.
A Juggling Mum, 17. July 2008, 21:31

Hi Lightening,

I’ve had the same problem when commenting on a few Blogger blogs. When the window doesn’t open up enough just scroll down using your arrow down key and you should be able to type in your comment

Rachel xxx
lightening, 17. July 2008, 21:53

Rachel - thanks, I will try that. Mine seems to be too narrow and the little box that usually lets me expand the window doesn’t work. But the cursor keys might still work - I’ll see.

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