WordPress – Thank god I'm an atheist.

Google Plus adds Tweet, Translate and Delicious to its Stream Post options… AND an ALERT to Delicious users.

New layout and functions — G+ New Functions in Posting in Stream

ADDENDUM: turns out this is a Chrome extension. But it’s great.

SHORTLINK: http://wp.me/p4njL-7x

As of this morning, several more functionalities showed up under posts in the G+ stream. Previously there was Plus1, Comment and Share. Now there are 3 more: Tweet, Translate and Delicious.

Apparently, not everyone has this functionality yet (same as with the advanced version of Hangouts). But I’m certain this one will roll our very soon to everyone. My page is http://gplus.to/quickdrawartist

This is significant on many levels, of course. One being that, as I’ve thought myself, Google+ will replace many things, but not Twitter, unless it buys Twitter. And if it does, it will probably have the same hands-off approach that it uses with YouTube. My perspective has been that Twitter has a special place and set of functionalities that “plays well with others,” including Google+. Twitter is clean, powerful and flexible and very well administrated. I have never been able to fathom why so many folks express the feeling that Google+ would replace Twitter. What was I not getting? At this point, I think it’s a safe bet that Google feels the same way about Twitter.

Very cool right? But Delicious? Why Delicious? Google already owns its own very good google.bookmarks.

DELICIOUS USERS, SEE THIS NOTE**

I think I know why, because Avos (owned by YouTube’s founders) has acquired Delicious from Yahoo and Google OWNS YouTube.*

As a long time fan of and early adopter of Delicious, this is great news on many fronts, to my mind at any rate. Delicious has some significant functionalities that Google.bookmarks does not. On the other hand, Google.bookmarks ties into the rest of your Google apps. So I think we’re going to be seeing a conflation of the two.

Lately, I have been bouncing miserably between Instapaper (it’s so fast and handy), Firefox bookmarks, and lately, with the advent of Google+, Google.bookmarks, while in the back of my mind wondering why I didn’t keep using Delicious. Probably because I’m allergic to Yahoo.

What would really even fantasticker would be for Google to also buy Instapaper and merge its sterling functionalities as well (and improve its folder function too, or replace it).

*http://www.avos.com/delicious-press-release/ YouTube Founders Acquire Delicious From Yahoo!

** This popped up for me this morning, so check it out if you have ever used Delicious: up “To continue using Delicious, you must agree to transfer your account information to AVOS by Friday, September 23, 2011. Click here to transfer now > https://secure.delicious.com/settings/optin “

Attention Delicious Users

Forum on best solution for hyper-local networking

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p4njL-3A

You are welcome to contact me directly at quickcard at gmail dotcom

This is a proposal for us here in the Neahkahnie area of Oregon, to come up with a FULL-FEATURED, EASY-TO-USE local online network to act as a community bulletin board for the Neahkahnie area. I’ve looked at Neahkahnie.ning.com and BBQ and I don’t believe that they meet criteria discussed here.

Now, WHERE SHOULD WE HAVE THAT FORUM about alternatives?  I created “Oregon Coast Network” in Facebook a while back. That could be one place. Or you can add your thoughts to this blog…..OR WHAT do you suggest? NOTE: at this point, I’m addressing WHERE/HOW to have the discussion ABOUT creating such a network.

I live in Nehalem, a very small community on the north Oregon Coast. We are neighbors to two other hamlets, Manzanita and Wheeler, also small. One is 2 miles north of us, the other two miles south, the whole are is called “NeahKahnie”. Our most popular “BBS” is called “BBQ” and is run by a very nice man. Here’s how it works, you send an email to bbq@nehalemtel.net and, if it meets the admin’s criteria, it will get emailed out to all the folks who have signed up for it.  Incidentally, few people use the Oregon Coast Craigslist precisely because it is NOT local enough.

Now the disadvantages of something like BBQ are obvious. At one point I emailed the BBQ admin about the possibility of collaborating on creating something less kludgy. BBQ has asked me not to quote their reply, but the gist of it was, why would I want to have something else when there already was BBQ?

(NOTE: I’m not calling for the abolishment of BBQ, but it since BBQ is the only online community de facto bulletin board, it would be nice if we could at least announce the issue there).   This was my response, I have edited it for clarity:

“… BBQ is great, and I’m sure it will be around for many more years. For folks who absolutely hate to learn anything “new,” BBQ will be all they will ever use. BBQ has the strength of having been here first and is of great benefit to the community. (but) BBQ, and services like it are basically a central clearing house for thousands of individual emails…It’s as if every time you had something to say to one (or just a few individuals), it had to be broadcast to 300 people, in the hope that those you were addressing would also see it, while 300 other people are doing the same thing. “  I believe that a lot of local people are left flatfooted. They do not like to use BBQ and yet, we cannot announce a FORUM to discuss ALTERNATIVES in the only CURRENT FORUM: BBQ.
Some of the disadvantages of the BBQ “technology”:

OVERSTUFFED EMAIL BOX. BBQ is not a listserv, so emails flood users’ email box, unsorted and before you know it, you have thousands of emails in your inbox, instead of their being on an outside SERVER, as in a genuine listserv.
SECURITY: If someone hacks into a mediated service, like BBQ, a hacker gets ALL the addresses on the list, and the entire membership is therefor vulnerable to hacking and viral attacks, spam etc. Saying that it has not happened yet is like saying you don’t need to use a safety belt because you’ve never had an accident.
Users are at the mercy of the provider taking a vacation, being ill, or just not feeling like forwarding messages that day, or YOUR message specifically. Social Networks (Facebook, Google groups, Ning, Yahoo groups etc) is AUTOMATICALLY ADMINISTERED, and not dependent on an individual’s health, presence, or mood.

THE ALTERNATIVE, should have NONE of the above disadvantages, and have the following features:

Hyper-local (but can be connected to other hyper-local nodes. So “our” hyperlocal would encompass from Manzanita area to Wheeler, for example.
Posting is INSTANT and not sent to an intermediary. This is comparable to the difference between having a phone as a party line and just being able to pick up the phone and call someone.
Listings can be SORTED during the posting process. You can find what you are looking for FAST and EASY, BECAUSE IT’S INDEXED (“threaded”).
LISTINGS ARE ON THE SERVER, NOT YOUR COMPUTER, NO NEED TO PURGE, EDIT, SORT CLASSIFY, USE UP MEMORY ETC

At any rate, in terms of there being a local electronic bulletin board, BBQ was here first, and has become the default superlocal networking site. BBQ has “First-mover advantage” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-mover_advantage). “First Advantage” is very powerful. In general, no matter how much better the second (or 3rd, 4th) contender is, people tend to stick with the “first-arrival.” eBay is prime example. Not a great company, I can testify to that, but the first one out of the gate.

Hosni Mubarak, no longer living in de- Nile

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p4njL-3k

DING DONG THE BITCH IS DEAD!!!!
I predicted he’d do it by Feb 9. I was a little off. Sudan still in the hands of ex-dictator’s right hand man. i dont think the Egyptians are gonna let anything like that happen to them, no mubarak jr, no usa/approved bullshit and whoever leads is NOT going to get Lumumba’d (new wrd). Inch’allah, there will be no Ford to pardon this asshole, but I don’t care, becos I don’t think he’s gonna be able to fly the coop w/ billions to Switzerland. Hundreds of lawyers and doctors flooding the streets of Cairo, wow, how cool. I made another prediction back when the Internet was a baby, that it was the most important event since the printing press and people looked at me like I was crazy. My hopes have always been that the Net would set the world free. Governments are gonna have a harder and harder time covering their pathetic scrawny ugly butts. The Internet is the AntiBigBrother. Now if we can just figure out global warming, overpopulation and the dying planet, we may look forward to the next 7 generations. VENCEREMOS!

I’m testing sales @ http://onlyafewdollars.com

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p4njL-3c

This looks like a great sales venue, my sales so far, my thank-god-i’m-an-atheist t-shirt, and an offer to do instant art. They site went up this january, and they are very communicative and helpful. I gave them some web-usability ideas which they jumped on. Very gratifying, that. My posts there: Thankgodimantheist T-shirt and Create Instant ART

Facebook vs. WordPress, Naked Emperor Syndrome

Shortlink: http://wp.me/p4njL-2u

John C. Dvorak says in “Why I Don’t Use Facebook” that FB is “basically AOL with a different layout and all the same retro problems.” Check out the article for yourself, it’s worth the read.

One quote:

“Facebook is retro because, like AOL, it’s retro by its nature. It’s a closed system. Some people like a closed comfy system and others don’t. I, for one, don’t. If I want a personal webpage with all sorts of information about myself, I’ll go to WordPress.com and make one. By doing this, I don’t turn over any data, control, or information to an onerous third-party to sell, use, or exploit. I can close down the site when I want. I can say what I want. I can pretty much do whatever.”

My two cents. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, and I will continue to use it. But I also think that it’s popularity reflects some of our societal “dark side” as well. It has to do with how our society thinks about “convenience.” For most people “seeming convenience” trumps “real convenience.” The price United Statesians pay for the privilege of consuming (up to now) 80% of the world’s resources is that we pay for this “privilege” with blood and treasure (and our souls, metaphorically speaking). The trade-off for using something like Facebook may sometimes be parallel. Sure it’s fun, but in Facebook, our comments drift every which way *, we remain insecure about our security, and we get screwed when we try to use their advertising (subject for a later blog) and and and… So yes, I still use it and often enjoy it.

BUT I’m blogging more and then adding links to the blog into Facebook. This way, I can have a safe threaded ongoing dialogue with anyone who cares to join me here. Is it harder to login or register with WordPress? No, it’s about the same, maybe simpler: just make up a username, and add password and email address (worried about security, get a “trash” email address from Gmail). In terms of security, I’ll put my money on WordPress.

Going back to Dvorak’s comments, here’s how I’d put it. WordPress is to Facebook as Gmail is to classic email, as voice mail is to an answering machine, as email is to faxing, as the phone is to a telegram. They are not only better, they are: 1. qualitatively superior, 2. have features that alter the meaning and functionality of the technology (ex. a car is NOT a horseless carriage).

There are always the “early adopters.” What’s interesting is that the “newer” technologies get so bollixed up. That’s why I like Macs, for example (another blog), it gives us a new technology, but tries to save us from a “horseless carriage” mentality about what we can do with a computer. And I think, that’s why I don’t like Facebook.

Speaking of technology evolution. Here’s a phenomenon that illustrates some of these issues very nicely. I moved from Portland Oregon to a tiny town (pop. 240) on the coast in Nov 2009. The most popular networking tool for the local community is an email system. We’re talking pre-bbs technology here. You sign up and then send anything you want to disseminate to this (very nice) guy who shall remain nameless. In return, you receive anywhere from 15 to 40 emails A DAY that he forwards from all the other members. It’s right up there with shooting geese with a rock. But try and get something more useful going? Good luck with that. Because people have finally wrapped their heads around the fact that email is useful (and not some dadburned newfangled toy) NOW, they won’t budge from there (the First Mover Advantage).

And so we’ve moved from Ning, to MySpace to Facebook. Meanwhile there’s WordPress.

One more thought for now. My guess is that Dvorak prefers Android over the iPhone. He likes “open systems.” Whereas I’m happy to sign over – when the trade-off makes it worthwhile – some of the flexibility that an open system offers (in this case) to the end-to-end simplicity and cohesiveness of the mac environment, whether it iPhone, iPad, iMac etc. WordPress, in contrast to Facebook, however, offers the best of both worlds. It’s internally cohesive, but you can add bells and whistles easily without having to be an IT-class brain.

* Yes, I know about Notes, and I’ve also created several FB pages, some of which have really taken off and meet a need.

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