Another Wordpress plug-in
There are all sorts of Wordpress plug-ins out there; some make you wonder what the person who wrote it was thinking, others are indispensable, must-have pieces of code. Then there’s a third group, those ones that you look at and initially aren’t sure about but when you actually start using them you realise that they could be really good.
Such a one is WP Auctions, which basically lets you turn your blog into your very own eBay just by adding a widget to your sidebar. No fees to pay, so you can list as many items as you like as often as you like. If you’ve got a bunch of stuff cluttering up the garage, why not install WP Auctions and see what happens?
But it’s not just your unwanted clutter that you can offer on WP Auctions; why not offer your expertise to others? For instance, if you know a lot about CSS and web design, you could offer that to your readers. Or typing services. Or anything intangible that you know how to do and which other people would pay you for. The only limit is your morality (and perhaps the law…)
I’ve started using this widget today and there’s a couple of auctions running in the sidebar for you to check out.
New Theme
It had to happen at some point; I got bored with the previous theme (which was a hacked about version of Blueline, in case you’re interested). So I’ve been taking a look around at some others that are available and I’ve plumped for this one - Ad Clerum 1.0. I like the clean-ness of its lines and the headline pictures. (There is a version 2, but I prefer version 1).
I have made one or two small changes; what is now a red body background was a grey striped pattern, but that wasn’t kind on the eyes so it had to go. I’ve also changed the post footer so that it shows both tags and categories, as well as my usual disclaimer and links. You’ll see that you can now subscribe to the RSS feed from the bottom of each post.
I’ve also changed the default comments file so that I can continue to use Brian’s Threaded Comments, which I think is a much better way of managing comments. I have, though, hacked about with Brian’s file to change the way it displays certain information. It doesn’t add anything to the functionality but I think it presents the comments in a little bit more of an informal way.
I’m also making more extensive use of Daiko’s Text Widget, which means that I’m able to turn off my side boxes for some parts of the blog; if you go deeper into the site, you’ll notice that the ads, ranks and other stuff disappear and you’re just left with the blog stuff. I have all that stuff on the home page as it helps to keep the revenue up without taking over too much, but I’ve decided that it shouldn’t be on the other pages. Hope you like the change.
Let me know what you think of the theme, and whether it works OK for your operating system / browser / screen size, either by using the contact form or by leaving a comment.
Playing the game
Anyone who’s read any of my posts over at my BlogSpot blog will know that I’ve developed a bit of an interest in online gambling - poker, roulette, backgammon; if you can gamble on it, then I’ve probably visited at least one site that offers it.
In actual fact, it’s probably more than one site - and that’s where the problem can come in. After all, an online casino is not like a real one, in which you can judge its credentials from the staff and the building. Online, they could be anyone. Which is why it’s always good to have a review site like onlinecasinobluebook.com to help you out.
If you’re looking for an online casino, poker room or even bingo hall then check ‘em out. Read reviews written by people that have actually used these sites. And get a heads-up of what sort of joining bonus each one offers. An excellent resource that you should bookmark if you’re in the market for some online gambling fun.
This post is sponsored by onlinecasinobluebook.com.
Defensio gets an update
One of the best Wordpress plug-ins out there, Defensio, gets a minor update today to version 1.5.1. If you haven’t yet got it installed, now would be a great time. As I’ve written before, Defensio is way better than Akismet from both a usability and - at least as far as I’ve been able to tell - accuracy point of view and is well worth checking out.
The update deals with a little niggle that I had with the widget (I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, as they said that they’d already been working on it when I asked about it) that meant it did not display in accordance with the settings selected by the user. Now, it will happily sit on the left, right or centre of your sidebar - and you can have it in light or dark too. I know, a little thing really but it’s the little things that are important.
As soon as Wordpress have updated themselves, you’ll be able to find the download at:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/defensio-anti-spam/download/
Do yourself a favour and get it as soon as you can.
Update: Wordpress have now updated their site, so you can download the latest version.
On commenting
Over at This Time, This Space brightfeather has a post today about “Who owns blog comments?“. It’s a longish piece, but worth a read as it presents an interesting perspective on the various issues that surround electronic publishing.
Because I feel it is (at least in part) in response to discussions that have been going on at the Wolfs Howl Forum regarding editing of posts, I wanted to understand brightfeather’s position and see how it compared to mine. Whilst I can’t fault most of what she says, I think I do have to make a few observations of my own. Usually I would have done this as a comment on her blog, but as this is likely to be a long piece, I thought I better not take up all her webspace with it.
Firstly, I have to say that I agree with the basic theme of copyright protection - whatever you write (and however you publish it) belongs to you. No-one else has the right to edit, re-distribute or attribute your writing without your consent. There are those that argue that if your blog publishes a feed then you are asking people to re-distribute it; this is a specious argument that has no grounding in actual fact.
In line with that is the understanding that when you comment on a blog or a forum, no other user should have the right to edit what you have said - provided that what you have said does not contravene previously available guidelines about what is considered to be acceptable. Even if they do edit your post or comment to remove something that contravenes those guidelines (for example, if you’ve been racially abusive), they should include a note in the original comment to that effect.
But there are, I think, two other ideas up for discussion here as well. The first is control over what you’ve written. If it’s a post on your own blog, you never have to relinquish control because you can always edit it. If it’s a comment on someone else’s blog, you lose control the moment you click “Submit” and from then on it’s there for all the world to see whether you like it or not. Posting in a forum thread is different, though, because your ability to edit or delete your posts can vary from board to board.
For instance, at The Wolfs Howl, I’ve recently introduced a five hour limit on editing and deleting posts. I did this (after asking the opinion of other forum members, and after looking into the way other forums operate), because there were instances of posts being edited after they’d been replied to - which then changes the whole tone of the discussion. What I wanted to do was stop people editing or deleting posts after they’d been viewed or replied to, but the software doesn’t allow that so I’ve had to introduce time-limited editing.
The reason I wanted to stop this was because, to me, forum threads are conversations; they’re the electronic equivalent of having a chat with someone. In a conversation you may think carefully about what you say before you open your mouth (or you may not), but once you’ve said it that’s it; the words have been uttered. If you haven’t said it clearly, or if the other person misunderstands, then you have to say something else to clarify. You can’t go back and unsay your original words - they’re gone. Forum threads should be the same way.
The second idea up for discussion is that of reserving the right to change your mind. This, I would have thought, is a given - we all reserve that right, and the right to think differently from each other. I may have misunderstood, but what brightfeather seems to be saying is that because she may change her opinion on an issue at some point in the future, she must retain full control over her published words, wherever they may have been published, so that she can update them. Our whole lives are a continual learning process; today’s popular opinion may be tomorrow’s laughing stock. That shouldn’t prevent us from saying something today. But tomorrow, when we realise that we were wrong… just move on. No need to edit, just say “That was me yesterday, this is me today.”
Electronic publishing is perhaps more likely to throw our old opinions back at us, because of the way in which it hangs around waiting to be re-discovered when an old post gets re-read but what difference does that make? Yes they are your words, and yes you still own them - but that doesn’t mean you still have to believe what they say.
Update: After I published this entry yesterday, I got an email from brightfeather to let me know that I was wrong; her post was not about discussions we’d had over at The Wolfs Howl Forum but was triggered by what has gone on over the last few months at the Wordpress.com forums. So, sorry to brightfeather for getting the wrong end of the stick there. I expect that she’ll drop by herself to give us a fuller update in due course.
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