Been a very busy week. Big news of the week, our van passed inspection.
Conversations around the web:
From: http://brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com/2008/12/tap-social-media-to-spread-happiness.html
Robyn quotes a researcher: Imagine a birds-eye view of a party: “You may see some people in quiet corners talking one-on-one,” Fowler says. Others would be at the center of the room having conversations with lots of people. According to the study findings, those in the center would be among the happiest.
“We think the reason why is because those in the center are more susceptible to the waves of happiness that spread throughout the network,” Fowler explains.
I replied: The funny thing is that happy people tend to draw a crowd and thus end up in the middle of the room. So maybe we have a self-perpetuating cycle?
Robyn: My sense is that the folks in the middle may have strong interpersonal intelligence… social smarts. Now that many folks have found blogs and other social media, their skills for humor, ways to express ideas, ability to support others’ ideas and savvy to present topics with w/audience in mind would rise to the top. Trick is they need SEO skills as well. So they’d need a dose of logical-mathematical intelligence, too. Hmm… I almost forgot verbal-linguistic – ability to write well. My thought is that it takes a fairly well-rounded person to make it in social media. Thoughts?
Me: I agree the skills and abilities you have listed are one way into the middle, but maybe not the only way.
The happiest people in the room still get drawn/pushed toward the middle by being surrounded by others, whether they have social skills or not.
Some people’s lack of verbal-linguistic, interpersonal and logical-mathematical intelligence is enough to make you cringe but they are still fun to be around because they are living proof that God has a sense of humor.
Robyn: Luke, hmmm… there’s much to consider in what you say. Loved the picture of God having a chuckle at times.
From: http://joecascio.net/joecblog/2008/12/23/wordpress-plugin-question/
Joe asked about building a page template inside a plugin.
I replied: Do you actually need a page template? Would a [short code] or two work? It seems like the user might want the ability to put this on the page with other things but it depends on how much you are doing on the page.
Are you wanting to replace/modify the template’s default header, footer, or sidebar? If so which ones and to what degree?
If you are not changing the header or footer, you can ask the user to create a blank page (and as a bonus they can name it whatever they want) and insert your shortcode and save it.
For example the user would type [Open-Microblogging] as the only content of the new page then your plugin would replace the short code with a whole page of code. You can include tabs, forms, ajax, and… well… everything.
Again, the only limit here is that you are keeping the theme’s header and footer, because you can modify the sidebar separately.
References:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pageview/ (another way)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-media-page/ (plugin using similar method)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blogroll-links-page/ (older shortcode method)
From: http://www.wordsellinc.com/blog/marketing/help-luke-gedeon-hit-100-comments/
Brad wrote a post to help me reach my first 100 comment post. Then we had a fun conversation in the comment section of that post. Click here to read it.
From: http://cjones-somethingwitty.blogspot.com/2009/01/failure-isnt-always-bad-thing.html
Caleb talks about the idea of commenting just to comment so you can reach an artificial number.
I replied: So are you saying I should have gone for 500?
The funny thing is that neither Brad nor I were originally going for 100 until the comment stream was getting long and someone else decided to push for it.
In Brad’s case, Robert Hruzek started the push and I joined in. Then with mine it just looked like it was going to 100 without me so I mentioned it in a different post and Brad decided to push me on toward one hundred. I also learned a lot about communication in the process.
The numbers really don’t mean anything on their own but sometimes they push us to do things we would not do otherwise. And doing the steps to reach the numbers lead us to accomplish things that do have value.
For me a challenge to post daily has forced me to learn to communicate more better.
I have communicated with CEO’s, politicians, and people living around the world that I would never have met except through blogging. This number goal has pushed me toward something great that I would not have done if the goal had not been concrete.
Caleb: I agree. I really didn’t mean that you shouldn’t shoot for a specific number. I just think that it becomes kinda pointless when the only reason there are comments is to reach a number.
Personally, I kept coming back to your page for the sake of the conversation (and because I’m home on Christmas break with nothing better to do). But I noticed that some of the comments were there solely for the sake of the number. The ones that say stuff like “just dropping by to help you reach 100″
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m all for numbers if communication is actually happening. Otherwise it’s like having 100 lawn mowers. It’s cool that you have them, but you really only need one.
Does that make any sense at all?
Me: I guess if the same person stopped by and just said hi each time, that might get a little pointless but in this case, that quick visit meant a lot because of who it was.
We do the same thing in in-person meetings sometimes. We might just say hi while passing them in the hall, or even go out of our way just to say hi. It is a way of saying, “hey, I am still here, and I am still interested in talking to you whenever we have time.
It used used to seem strange to me that people would ask, “how are you doing” without pausing to here the answer. I have since learned to reply, “Hello, Yes, it is a beautiful day.”
Twitter:
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studio747 How to upgrade WordPress the easy way: http://tinyurl.com/86zeoa *Love* it!
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lgedeon Silicon Valley is sooo 2008! They are like totally stuck in last year. Do you think they will ever catch up with us, the New England geeks?
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lgedeon Well twitter has not gone down yet, but it is still 2008 in San Fran. They are so behind the times.
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lgedeon Happy New Year! 7 minutes later. That was a looong kiss
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lgedeon Looking at hour-by-hour weather. It is going to be -5degrees at 5am. There are little ads in the box for each hour. 5am – Top 10 Campgrounds
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lgedeon I wonder if Stephen Case has a relative named Justin??
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lgedeon My new years resolutions: Write short posts. Ask more questions. Any others I should add?
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sondernagle Any strong opinions on services for NPO looking to seek $ donations online? WordPress friendly widget option would be ideal. Thanks.
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lgedeon @cc_chapman right there with you almost my wife is suffering the same fate
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cc_chapman Last day of the year and it starts with….a dentist appointment. Oh joy.
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lgedeon I predict Twitter is going down in 24 hours with everyone trying be the first tweet of the new year and/or saying Happy New Year.
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giddytab Oh wow. It is supposed to be -7 degrees tomorrow evening! Brrrrrrr!!!!!
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MariSmith Set up your name, domains, key words, etc on http://tweetbeep.com – works just like Google alerts!!
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lgedeon @MichaelHyatt Trial version of Swift Publisher for Mac will not print but you can test it to see if it will do what you want.
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lgedeon oh well, ran out of room for a
at the end of the last post. Guess i will find out in a minute if anyone is listening |
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lgedeon Ever noticed how self-centered and arogant non-Americans are? They always think their way is the only way without questioning their own view
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MichaelHyatt I’m beginning to think about a blog makeover. My think my design is stale ( see http://is.gd/eefj ). If you have an opinion, DM me.
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lgedeon Does your brain really believe anything it hears often enough? I have heard that frequently, and I am starting to believe it.
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lgedeon Good friends don’t let you do stupid things… alone.
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lgedeon @MichaelHyatt I have not tried Swift Publisher, but it has recieved good reviews. http://www.belightsoft.com/… …
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MichaelHyatt Several people have recommended Microsoft Publisher, but if I have to use Windows (gag), I’ll just stick with Corel Ventura.
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alfredtwo @MichaelHyatt You need MS Publisher. Not sure there is a Mac version though.
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MichaelHyatt Neither illustrator nor Photoshop are good for longer documents. This one is 12 pages.
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lgedeon @MichaelHyatt I really like InkScape for light design
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MichaelHyatt I’m trying to create the wedding program for @MegHyatt‘s wedding. Word is not quite adequate; Indesign is overkill. Hmmm.
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lgedeon @jimthomason I still take an ibuprophen every few months
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jimthomason Out w/ a dear friend who answered 2 calls & 7 emails at dinner. I won’t carry a Blackberry for this reason; I gave up drugs in ’79.
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lgedeon @sscarver just went back to the site. I get it now. http://tinyurl.com/a43s2h
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sscarver sarcasm doesn’t work so well in writing. Tough for a sarcastic person such as myself to grasp.
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lgedeon Not at mad at all. I was just a little confused.
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amaaanda I just left my car running in the driveway for 7 HOURS. Went out to heat it up before Iwet out for coffee… forgot about getting coffee
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hmason I got to explain hierarchical clustering today using two coffee cups, a notebook, and napkins as props. I miss teaching.
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lgedeon Wow! Our kleenex box got the snot beat out of it.
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Related posts:
Hi Luke, These extended post conversations are a lot of fun, don’t you think? They sort of take on a life of their own. I hope we have many opportunities to engage in these discussions on other blogs throughout 2009.
Brad, They are a lot of fun. It is also cool to see them cross over from the blog to twitter and back, like the one with sscarver.
I am sure we will have plenty of opportunities in 2009, and plenty of things to talk about.
For just a minute, I started to think about what might be some of the main topics of long discussions in 2009. Then I remembered that so far the long discussions have not been related to current events so it could be anything. I guess we won’t be talking about the Beijing Olympics or Sarah Palin though.
BTW, what is your new childhood dream for comments? 500? 1000? 50 each on five posts in a row? I think, mine is 5-a-day for a month.
That might be a while, though. I am going to have to get more consistent at writing interesting stuff. Some of my post are so interesting, even I would not bother commenting on them. Posting every day keeps the creative juices flowing, but sometimes the post is full of pulp.