Community is where you make it

Tag: Twitter

  • Hello Mastodon

    With my “favorite” billionaire doing his best to destroy Twitter, it seemed like a good time to try an alternative. I’m now @blogan@pdx.social. Give me a follow. I might even post something.

    Hope to see you there!

    Update: I’ve already moved Mastodon servers, from mastodon.social to pdx.social. I updated the link above to my new address. Hope to see you there.

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  • Free “Star Naming” is ending

    Many years ago, I noted that you could name a star and get the name recorded in the Library of Congress for free — with just a tweet. This is possible because every single tweet is currently being recorded in the Library of Congress.

    The Library of Congress has announced starting January 1, 2018, it will only record tweets on a selective basis.

    You still have a few days left. Name any star. Create and print your own certificate.

    Most importantly, go outside, look up, and enjoy the night sky.

    Update. I wrote on Facebook in response to a friend who noted this could be “the perfect anniversary gift”:

    You’re not limited to naming just one star. In researching this post, I found a bunch of star registries. Most of them don’t claim to get them “registered” with the Library of Congress, just recorded in their “registry.” I have a Google Sheets spreadsheet handy… ;-)

    For that matter, you’re not limited to naming just stars. Name a galaxy. There’s one 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda that you could (re)name. Then, in a dark spot on a romantic summer evening, you could find 200-400 billion stars honoring your love — no telescope or binoculars needed. :-)

    Update 2. If you’re lost in the night sky, I have a book recommendation for you.

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  • Luis Suarez’ Twitter Unfollowing Experiment

    “What if Twitter decided to drop off the count of both followers and following? Would you still make use of it, like you are doing today? Imagine if Twitter decided get rid of that vanity metric, so that we would focus more on the conversations themselves, i.e. on topics, hashtags, events, etc., etc., do you think you would still be making use of Twitter and enjoy the overall experience as much as you are doing nowadays?”

    Luis Suarez

    Luis Suarez tried the interesting experiment of unfollowing everyone on Twitter and using Twitter lists instead. He documents what he learned in the process.

    It’s interesting how ego plays such a big role in social media. I remember when I first removed visitor analytics. Would I still write if I didn’t know whether people visited? Would it matter?1Unfortunately, web analytics has been replaced with email subscriber analytics. MailChimp dutifully informs me every time I get a new subscriber, or lose a subscriber, and my subscriber count.

    It’s tempting to try Luis’ experiment. What do you think?

    • 1
      Unfortunately, web analytics has been replaced with email subscriber analytics. MailChimp dutifully informs me every time I get a new subscriber, or lose a subscriber, and my subscriber count.

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  • Reid Wiseman on Twitter

    Reid Wiseman on Twitter

    Reid Wiseman is posting some amazing pictures on Twitter — a recommended follow.

    He posted this cloud-free image of the northwest just this morning.

    Image credit: Reid Wiseman, NASA astronaut.

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  • Retweeted By The Instapundit

    Retweeted By The Instapundit

    Ha! Retweeted by the Instapundit. My Twitter life is now complete.1Being retweeted by Ron Coleman is pretty cool, too. :-)

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      Being retweeted by Ron Coleman is pretty cool, too. :-)

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  • Fake Followers on Twitter

    Fake Followers on Twitter

    According to StatusPeople, I have “only” 3% fake followers on Twitter. That sounds like a lot to me (who are they?), but it’s nothing compared to Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

    How many fake followers do you have? Find out here.

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  • My New Christmas Profile Picture

    My New Christmas Profile Picture

    With the Christmas holiday season upon us, it’s time to unveil my new Christmas profile picture. I’ll be using this online everywhere: here, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Quora, Gravatar, etc.

    Ho! I hope you like it. *<:-)

    Update: Oops! I almost forgot Disqus and IntenseDebate. Corrected. *<:-)

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  • A Zippy Blog

    You might have noticed blogan.net is a little zippier. A few things have changed recently:

    • My web hosting service moved my site to a new, faster, shared server. Thanks, WebHostingBuzz! This is what inspired me to make more changes.
    • I combined my print CSS into my regular CSS file. One less file to download.
    • I removed all the Facebook, Twitter, and +1 social media cruft. It’s amazing how much these slow down a page load. They also allow Facebook and Google to track when you visit blogan.net.
    • I installed W3 Total Cache. Very full-featured with caching, minifying and setting expires for browser caching.
    • I removed a bunch of plugins, with the hardest to remove being Easy Fancybox. It’s very pretty, but includes multiple JS, CSS, and image files.1I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep Easy Fancybox disabled. It would be nice to have a quick Lightbox alternative without a bunch of support files. I haven’t found one yet… Maybe the minification will make it a non-issue. Yeah, that’s it. ;-) Update: I wasn’t able to keep Easy Fancybox disabled. It just works too well on posts with large galleries of pictures. Adding it back dropped my scores to 95.
    • I started using Cloudflare.2This seems to be causing a “Network Error (tcp_error)” using the standard proxies at work. WHB doesn’t think it’s their issue.
    • A little while back, I started using WP Smush.it which losslessly compresses uploaded images automatically.

    I think the results speak for themselves: a YSlow rating of 100!

    • YSlow Perfect 100
    • PageSpeed
    • 1
      I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep Easy Fancybox disabled. It would be nice to have a quick Lightbox alternative without a bunch of support files. I haven’t found one yet… Maybe the minification will make it a non-issue. Yeah, that’s it. ;-) Update: I wasn’t able to keep Easy Fancybox disabled. It just works too well on posts with large galleries of pictures. Adding it back dropped my scores to 95.
    • 2
      This seems to be causing a “Network Error (tcp_error)” using the standard proxies at work. WHB doesn’t think it’s their issue.

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  • Unfollow Friday

    Twitter got too noisy for me.

    Today I pulled out the machete and started hacking. I unfollowed:

    • The “meta-tweeters” who tweet only about tweeting and how to get more followers1Yes, I recognize the irony.
    • Those who I’d followed only because they’d followed me first
    • Those who tweeted about things that used to interest me, but not anymore
    • The companies whose products/services I don’t use anymore
    • Those who don’t interact with others
    • Those who use Twitter only to announce new blog posts
    • Those who haven’t tweeted for months (even a few who had never tweeted!)

    The difference is amazing. My Twitter stream is filled with people I know and the topics I like.

    I think I’ll keep that machete handy.

    Have you considered an unfollow Friday?

    Maybe I should have just linked to my Twitter Landing Page. Actually, I’ve edited my Twitter Landing Page in response to this post.

    • 1
      Yes, I recognize the irony.

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  • If you’re on Twitter, you should follow @TSAgov

    If you’re on Twitter, you really should follow @TSAgov. As they say: “We pat your groin. We see you naked. We’re the doormen to the sky. Why? Because everybody is a terrorist.” While you’re at it, don’t forget to follow me.

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