Twitter addendum

I actually get some time at my other job to read magazines that are, uh, not really held in high esteem. I came across an "article" about Twitter and how celebrities use it to comment on all sorts of things and people can follow these tweets without having to be a "friend" like you would have to be on Facebook. It occurs to me that Twitter, and possibly the reason I don't really like Twitter, is perfect for marketing a personality. Even if that personality is not a person. One day, and I don't think it will be that far in the future, there will be enough people on Twitter to make it a worthwhile marketing platform. And then, not too long after that, everyone will stop following anyone or thing on Twitter because it will be like carrying around a bunch of annoying advertisements trying to sell you on something.

Thing 27. Twitter

My Twitter username is bananahaynes. I would have posted a widget, but then I'd have to change my settings to "public" and frankly, I don't want to. I have enough relationships online and off, thank you very much. I finally signed on for Facebook and I have a very love/hate relationship with that. Twitter, to me, is like Facebook with only the status updates. I've stopped actively pursuing anymore "friends" because I can't handle the time or mind clutter. And for me to be a part of a constantly updating social network will drive me effing nuts!

I actually signed up for Twitter quite a while ago because I wanted to see if I could understand it. I do, now, but for it to actually work for the things I'm interested in, such as friends' lives, they too would have to sign up. And I think I know three people who actually use it, and one who has ever updated. I then signed up for a feed suggested by More Things On a Stick and one of a local fellow who has a great personality and seems to really, really like twittering. Problem is, I just don't care. I have more than enough useful and non-useful information running through this brain of mine to be bogged down with minutiae. I fully agree with David Lee King who says basically that if you are into it, use it, but otherwise it's fine to just know about it. Like many of these Things, I am very thankful to be aware of the technologies. Twitter is the sort of thing that libraries could use, but not unless there is someone on staff who would be able to do it all the time and not until a good portion of their patrons are following the feed. This may be something that will take off in the future, but for now I think it's a bit over-hyped.

Thing 26. Join the 23 Things On a Stick Ning

I've been putting off writing about the Ning, mostly because I don't really see it as being that great. I mean, if all the information about 23 Things came off of that page, maybe it would be a place that I would visit often. As it stands, there just isn't anything there unique or useful or entertaining enough for me to want or need to visit it that often, if at all. I joined in the second round and I commented and I read some stuff, but this is just another thing for me to have to check and keep track of, and that takes away from my productivity.
With that said, I guess I could see making one for some sort of community page or something. It's the sort of thing that isn't really useful until it is, I guess. Profound, huh? I do notice that with the advent of More Things that there is more activity on the Ning, making it more interesting, so maybe I'll continue following it through the entirety of More Things and comment on it at the end.

Just an Observation about RSS feeds and Design

I read most of the blogs that I follow straight off of my Google home page where I have a RSS reader installed. Most of the entries come up full-text and I never even see the web page that the text is from. Of course, I check my blog posts to make sure that they look okay from the reader, but AFTER ALL THAT WORK to update and add to my page none of it is even represented on the reader. If I was trying to sell something or get people involved in something and the page was part of that theme, I would really want to try to remember adjust my settings so that people would have to go to my page to read the entire entry.
Now, I'll admit, I find it super annoying when I am required to do that, but at the same time, for favored pages, I grudgingly do. I guess the best answer to all of this is to make sure that the content is just as strong as the aesthetic and the bells and whistles.

Thing 25: Bloggers Toolkit

Oh geez. I spent what seemed like ten hours looking at widgets, trying them out, making them work, and making them fit my page. I spent WAY too much time looking at things that were broken, useless, or ridiculous. I ended up adding a favicon, a search bar, a subscription feed, a widget that turns my posts into a podcast, and a widget that pops-up mini-screens over the links on my page.

I ended up rejecting many widgets mostly because they came with advertising attached. I guess that's the downside of free widgets; I despise ads because they make the page so cluttered. In fact, I'm not sure how long I'll keep Odiogo, the podcast widget, and Snap Shots, the pop-up box widget, because both of them add a visual element to the page that I don't like. The podcasts themselves are hilarious, though. They're all wooden and mis-pronounced in a charming, robot kind of way.

The really great widgets were the ones that could be added with one click. My favicon was a little more complicated and even now seems to only work intermittently. Also, during the customization part I had no idea what to put in for number of pixels that I wanted the widget sized at. Mostly, I'm pleased with what I found, and I'm still thinking that Lil Wayne widget would have looked SO good...

New Newbery Medal! And an R. I. P.

Congratulations Neil Gaiman! I haven't read The Graveyard Book, but it's always nice when someone who lives (kind of) locally wins an award. I've only read Coraline and American Gods by Gaiman. I thought American Gods was really pretty amazing, but I had major trouble with Coraline: it was so terribly unsettling. It figures that it is now a Major Motion Picture, one that I probably will not see.

On another note, John Updike just died of lung cancer. It's like the passing of a national treasure. Dude wrote SIXTY-ONE books! I didn't always like his stuff, but he sure knew what he was doing. And, despite the fact that it was pretty fluffy, I did like The Witches of Eastwick, so there.

Thing 24: Refresh Your Blog

I did, a little bit. Refresh my blog, that is. The thing is, I liked it a lot before and I don't think many of the changes I did are that interesting. I did, however, learn that if you want to use a template for Blogger that is XTML, then you must unzip it first. Granted, I have very little idea what that means, but I still got a new template only to get rid of it because I didn't really like it that much. I'm going to be looking around to see what I can find and maybe change this one of these days.

Anyhow, on to commenting about blogging itself. I have blogged twice since I finished the first round of 23 Things and frankly, I just will not be blogging unless it is for something like this. I love reading blogs, but I don't love blogging. I read tons of them and comment when I'm moved to. I find new blogs all the time and follow them on my feed, deleting and adding as I see fit. Really, I love blogs.