The Eco-Center of WordPress.com

I like to sign comments on other blogs, and I’m always kind enough to actually read people’s posts and reply to them. I just commented on one of the WordPress.com blogs which are listed in the Dashboard’s area. There I noticed upon checking the source code that they apparently implement for all off-site links the nasty and disgusting rel=’external nofollow‘ element in their A HREF-Tags. What’s that supposed to be? Am I not good enough? I understand to be marked as „external“, but facing the „nofollow“ argument upsets me. Especially in the case of being a registered user, it makes no sense to insult me like that.

I’d burn anyone down to hell for doing such to me – if I could. But here sanity strikes back again, I’ll leave it as it is. However, I already used my user name and have manually edited the URL from my BeLoved blog to lead to my main blog here at the MikeSchnoor.com. This is not a wrong move of keeping your profile up-to-date, or is it an act of evilness if you enter something else than a xyz.wordpress.com account? Further, it is not leading to any problematic spam because I have been officially invited with a Golden Ticket to WordPress.com! So where’s the point of that? I wonder if I should write a Feedback on this or rather not to waste time on this…

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News.Com: Blogs and German Content

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This morning I’ve spend some time reviewing the new CNET News.com layout, and of course I set my main focus on their Blogs section and the German tech news area. I guess I was inspired by John Roberts from their own product development team – thanks for noticing me! Let’s see if you’ll catch this feedback.

CNET’s Blogs
Fortunately, their authors write alot. They really do and its an interesting news grabber site. So far I’ve observed hundreds of blogs, yet within their main Blog site are things beneath the content. First of all, reaching the blog section is easy by using the main navigation-bar. At that point, I’ve been directed to excerpts and summaries of their entire totality of blogs. These excerpts lead to the articles or you can click at a major category for further topical research within these themed blogs. So far so good, now comes the problem.

  1. Leading RSS Feed
    I cannot aggregate the entire blog section via RSS (or any other feed). CNET is only offering to aggregate the categories as independent feeds or the other main non-blog-related categories at their site. And I’m not likely going to add every to my RSS aggregator! On top of this, the link to their XML led to a 404-not-found page.
  2. Comment Requirements
    I understand the legal issues that come along once you’re allowing your visitors to comment on the site, but I’m not interested in using a fully-featured CNET account for this. On the other hand, the Pingbacks/Trackbacks are available for everyone. Where’s the comment regulation on these? Seems like a puzzle of illogicalness…
  3. Main Page
    Yes I’ve been rambling about the main blog section page already above. But in comparison to the individual categories (blogs), the same layout would be applicable. Without information about how many comments already exist and who wrote the post, I’m less interested in clicking to expand the post.

The German Section
I’m not going to doubt the integrity and quality of ZDNET as a sister site for CNET. Please let your readers know the publishing date of the linked articles. They already do it on their own site, and if a sister site offers to integrate their feeds to you guys at CNET, I’m sure they or you can modify the final appearance on how their feed appears on your site, or not?

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WordPress.com: They got me!

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Today I received my invite by Anonymuis to become a WordPress.com-User! I was quite excited to test-try-and-error the newish system and created my new account named BeLoved. I plan to write on this account with a third person perspective, and aggregate thoughts which don’t really belong to the MikeSchnoor.com at all. But as being a user on WordPress.com, I noticed a few things that keep upsetting me. Not in an angry way, but I’m missing functionality from this installation here. While the optical illusions of the new semi Web2.0 interface are quite handy for adding new posts and editing the old ones, there is no chance to install plugins or other themes such as a fully customized one.

On top of this, I made the following two feedbacks to the WordPress.com administration:

Redirect Problem
Upon using „http://beloved.wordpress.com/wp-admin“, it redirects me to „http://wordpress.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=%2Fwp-admin%2F“… ;) Its no real problem for me, but perhaps for other people, since the redirected URL won’t let me sign up with my username.

User Management?
There seems to be no chance to add more users to my account on this multiple-user-based plattform. I mean – I cannot maintain the blog being accompanied by my beloved girlfriend, and my original thoughts about creating the BeLoved-Blog cannot be met anymore. Is there any chance of being able to add a sub-user to my account or is this one of my irresistable hopes and wishes?

I’m curious on their answers, and we’ll see what happens with my BeLoved account.

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News.Com Redesign

I like the current look of CNET’s News.Com. Now if they’d have some more Web 2.0 features like i.e. Microsoft’s Start.com, the effective art of customizing a news website would be completed.

According to The eStrategyOne Buzz,

[…] The new site is bolder in both graphic design and content. The navigation includes two sets of header tabs. Some of the old familiar tab names are missing, but the new scheme allows CNet to add personalization, and separate tabs for their newsreader, blogs, and Extra stories. The new design is horizontal than vertical, and provides more emphasis on the photos or illustration for the lead story. […]

Of course this is just a beta phase and can change back anytime.

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Blog Crush – Is this some „Bullshit Overload“?

This sounds evil, but is not intended as it. I decided against the „blog crush“ thing made up by Darren. It’s in my eyes somehow worthless because its just another push-and-pull promotion for blogs.

Let me point out why I think so, and why I believe I have a very different opinion on this matter compared to all the readers of his (or my own) blog. I’m not going to use all points, but those that just… make me wonder if that push-and-pull promotion is nothing else but a game for bored kids.

you like the way they blog
I read over more than 200 blogs each day and scroll through various ones each day and night. But there’s not been something in a blog that would make it so uber-special for me to like somebody that much to admire them for what they do. Writing is an art, writing is a profession, and writing can be personal or anything else. But to admire one for what they do will not help yourself with your own writing, or will it?

their RSS feed is at the top of your list
Well, with that increasing number of RSS feeds, I could list about a dozent of authors who are good at their work, and as many who are not. If I’d judge in a radical way, none of even the blogrolls should ever exist.

you leave more comments on their blog than you write posts on your own
I like giving comments, but as an author of a blog, you should clearly maintain your blog and not increase the comments of somebody else just because he/she is your beloved author. Where will this end, would one expect to be invited to co-blog?

you let them know about posts you’ve written in the hope that one day they’ll notice you
Trackback, Pingback – the most beloved tools for every advanced blog author. Why should I email somebody about something I wrote if I can ping or trackback them in a modest way? The author will notice it – either by finding that ping in their moderation queue or by reading their own comments.

So this is it. While I know my daily reads and love to read them, there’s no benefit of endlessly promoting other people with this or that campaign. Why? Because they clearly do not understand how much value that brings for them – as in new readers. And on the other hand, most people do not visit those who link to them at all, nor acknowledge what other authors do.

Considering this above, I’m not in favor of having a blog crush. Why should I admire people for being what they are? I am who I am, and this is equal to what any other blog author or reader is. There’s nothing special in all of us but ourselves. No need to admire this ;) On the other hand I could easily transform a couple of blogs of my daily reads into a blog-crush related post. But who needs such? It’s yet another link farm development. In the end, traditional methods are much better than these push-and-pull campaigns.

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Stromberg bei Raab

Heute hat Christoph Maria Herbst dem guten Stefan Raab die Show gestohlen. Recht so, denn der Mann hat noch unverbrauchten Witz und Charme! Nebenbei bemerkt: So schlecht wie in den letzten Wochen war TV Total noch nie gewesen. Den bisherigen Höhepunkt im Metier des unterbeleuchteten Hirnstübchens bildete die Wahl-Show vom Samstagabend, und die gestrige Koalitionsabstimmung. Was für ein schädelhöhlender Blödsinn, den sich ProSieben immer noch leistet.

Meiner Meinung nach ist es nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis man die Sendung absetzen wird. So eine langweilige Show hat man selten gesehen, und selbst als wir damals live in der Show waren, hat es niemanden richtig begeistert. Die Kinderclub-Zeit von TV Total ist vorbei. Mach endlich Schluss, Stefan!

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Opera 8.5 as FREE Download

From today on, Opera will be free to use without their advertisement banners. The alternative to both Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer comes along with tools and functions such as Small-Screen-Rendering, Pop-Up-Blocker, Tabbed-Browsing, Download-Manager, E-Mail-Client, RSS-Reader and a Chat-Programm. There you go, this is a step ahead for the Norwegian company. I consider free software as an essential for the web, and without advertising their free software, a company in our modern world will probably be unable to survive for the longer.

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Maybe…

… I should move to Italy. That was like the thought of the night. You might probably wonder why but the reason is kind of simple after the elections in Germany: Nobody there seems to take the politics serious. Since I’m starting to get tired of the politics in Germany, this might be another option… besides the fact that I don’t speak Italian. Well it is one of the few places the Germans invaded – besides Spain, especially Mallorca, Greece and the Turkey. I think even in Mallorca I could have more fun. At least they got some more sun then we got in Germany in every way. Or did anybody got another recommendation for me?

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Being a Blog Pirate

Ahoy, bilge rats! T’day is Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrr! Sippin‘ my grog and thinkin‘ about preparing to board my lovin‘ beauty Katharina in two weeks. But now, get a hold of that night. Aye, I guarantee ye, I’m goin‘ to sleep well with that grog! :D Arrrr!! Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest— Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest— Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Ayyy!

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German Elections 2005: Other Voices

There’s been many thoughts about the German Elections 2005 within the German blogosphere. However, I noticed that many other blog authors had some thoughts about the political disaster in Germany. I’d like to list a few articles that caught my attention as a loose list:

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