Go Further with the Sex Blogger Community

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Presentation of SBC


Early in the life of this blog I proffered the opinion that while adequately presented as a blog the information held within SBC could be more easily accessible as perhaps a forum, or similar format.


Frankly I’m still of that opinion. As one post is added at the top of the blog others become submerged in the archives. This causes pertinent and useful information to become inaccessible to newer readers/members who might not be aware of its existence.


So I pose the question again. Is it not more appropriate to present SBC as a knowledgebase of some kind? Thus allowing multiple threads to be easily searchable and obvious to a user entering the site.


I’d love to know your views on the subject.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Re-posts

How do feel about reposts?

I have a list of my favourite posts on the sidebar, but would it be poor form to pick up some of the others that aren't listed?

What's your own policy?

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Alternatives To Blogger

The vast majority of bloggers begin with Blogger. This is a two-edged sword because while there are huge numbers of bloggers on the system, a read-made community to explore, there are restrictions with content, formatting and expandability.

There are other blogging platforms, some who’s authors will host the blog for you (like on Blogger, what I’ve referred to as vendor hosting below), some who require you to have a server on which to host the software and some allowing you to do both.

Each has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, each aimed at a slightly different type of blogger. Most are free, as are themes and skins, but some aren’t.

b2Evolution

Main Site/Info: http://b2evolution.net/
Download: http://b2evolution.net/download/
Documentation: http://b2evolution.net/about/features.html (features page)
Vendor Hosting: N/A
Templates: http://skins.b2evolution.net/
Further Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2evolution
Programming/DB Environment:

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 4.1 (or higher?)

bBlob

Unfortunately the site http://www.bblog.org/, that I have as the source of this SW no longer resolves, if anyone knows if it still exists perhaps they could email me.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 4.1 (or higher?)

Blojsom

All Blojsom info can be access from this wiki : http://wiki.blojsom.com/wiki/display/blojsom3/About+blojsom

Programming/DB Environment: Java/Flat Files

Blosxom

The Blosxom web site is currently inaccessible (http://www.blosxom.com/) this may be another vendor/project that’s fallen by the wayside.

Programming/DB Environment: Perl/Data Files

Ellis Lab (Formerly PMachine Pro)

No longer under development, but you can get a free download from http://ellislab.com/.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 4.1 (or higher?)

Expression Engine (Ellis Lab)

This is an interesting one see http://expressionengine.com/ for details. The basic system is free, but I don’t know how basic that is :). The rest of the system has to be paid for.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 4.1 (or higher?)

MoveableType

Start here http://www.movabletype.org/ for al MoveableType info. I don’t know too much about this one so if anyone has any experience of it …

Programming/DB Environment: Perl/Several DBs, incl. MySQL, Berkeley, Postgres

Nucleus

I tried Nucleaus once, but couldn’t get along with it. From the version I saw it’s more of a Content Management System than a straight piece of blogging SW. Now that may be exactly what you want and I believe it has a very loyal following. See here for further rinfo http://nucleuscms.org/

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 4.1 (or higher?)
Trivia note: There’s a disclaimer in the FAQ section of their site because “At least one [unnamed] terrorist organisation” has chosen Nucleus for its website. As they point out there’s little any GNU/GPL software provider can do about who uses their SW.

Pivot

See here for details http://www.pivotlog.net/. Pivot is free and does not require a database to run, like Blosxom and Blojsom.

Programming/DB Environment: PHP4.0.6/Flat Files

Serendipity

I’ve never used this but here’s the site http://www.s9y.org/.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL or Postgress with PHP

SPIP

Details here http://www.spip.net/en . The system uses PHP 3 and MySQL. Worryingly your server must understand the .php3 as being a PHP file which is odd as it’s been deprocated for years and can cause compatibility/security issues. Asside from that the site’s logo is a cute flying squirrel :D.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL with PHP 3

Text Pattern

Details available here http://www.textpattern.com/.

Programming/DB Environment: MySQL 3.23 and above with PHP 4.3 and above

WordPress

We use WP and we love it. The system can be used as a basic piece of blogging software or you can tweak it with widgets or custom code (if you host it yourself).

Main site/Info: http://wordpress.org/
Download: http://wordpress.org/download/
Documentation: http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
Vendor Hosting: http://wordpress.com/
Templates: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
Further Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress

If you are thinking of paying for your own site ensure that your host supports the correct Programming/DB Environment as listed above.

If anyone knows of any more or has any information about these systems supplemental to that which I’ve covered pleas let me know and I’ll add it to this post.

Personally I believe that Blogger or WordPress hosted by WordPress is a good place to start, especially if you have limited technical knowledge, but as you mature as a blogger you may wish to consider the alternatives. That’s not to say you should switch away from blogger but it’s always best to be aware of the alternatives.

In addition to those systems listed above there are of course the new Vlogging sites (YouTube for example allows Vlogging), but that’s another post …

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Blogger template loads with errors

I have been trying to make some changes to my template with the new "drag & drop" features, but now the template loads with errors and there's no way to add a new page element. Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, how did you fix it/report it to Blogger?

Joyscape – Another One Bites The Dust?

Has anyone any idea what happened to Joyscape? The site has effectively disappeared, a few days ago you could still see some sections but now IE refuses to show anything at all.

Across the Web people are asking the same question. So far, nobody’s answered.

I've emailed them but I'm not hopeful of a reply.

Labels:

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Blog Admin

Couple of quick questions.
1. Has anyone found a substitute for blogrolling? It seems to be completely useless these days.
2. Any resources for instructions on customizing the new blogger templates? My usual technique of searching for key text doesn't work very well. (Besides Wordpress...)
3. Any thoughts on locking/unlocking site counters. Ethics of browsing other peoples site counters? I've occasionally found some very cool sites by browsing the to/from links from site counters.

Thanks!

EDIT: How do people keep their blogrolls up to date? Spent over an hour just clicking through all of them, and several have changed since then.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Potentially Dangerous Site

I received this email on Friday 01 June 2007 at 13:41 GMT:

Dear bloghub member,

Many have asked about uploading their site photo to your listing
at bloghub.com .

As of today, we have finally fixed the upload photo problem.
Login to your account @ bloghub.com and upload your photo if you have not do so.

Some secret to share with you.
Lsting with a photo get twice more traffic than one without any photo.

We hope your blog will get more traffic from our directory.

Have a nice weekend.

Btw, join me and other fellow members at our public forum at www.bloggerhub.com . See you there.


Regards,
jayzee
admin

Need cheap web hosting, shoutcast, dedicated server or web design ?
Reply to this mail if you have any question or visit www.mxhub.com for our latest offers.

No longer with bloghub? Reply and we will remove you from our directory completely.


I thought it suspicious as I have never registered with this site.

When I clicked on the link to the site the error above was reported by McAfee. I did not of course allow the script to run. I would also advise anyone receiving this email not to click the “unsubscribe” link as my experience of such sites tells me that they may also contain suspicious scripting.
I would be very wary of this site and not advise anyone to go near it.

Tips for avoiding dangerous sites:

  • Don’t follow links on unsolicited emails, in fact don’t follow any link unless you trust the source of the email or web page its on.
  • Don’t try to “unsubscribe” by following links, this a) just confirms to spammers that your email address is a valid one and b) often takes you to a page with a software bomb on it.
  • Watch out for bad English or inconsistencies in the text. E.g. “Dear bloghub member” – “Login to your account @ bloghub.com”, but the site URL is “bloggerhub.com”. The first sentence too reads very badly too.

I have checked the email and it came from a sever in Texas at 72.36.253.130. So I'm assuming it orginated in the US. (helo=devil.xtardns.com)

WHOIS tells me that the registration is anonymous:

Domain Name: BLOGGERHUB.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL:
http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS1.XTARDNS.COM
Name Server: NS2.XTARDNS.COM
Name Server: NS7.XTARDNS.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 15-mar-2007
Creation Date: 10-dec-2004
Expiration Date: 10-dec-2007