Associated Content to Start User Verification

As is becoming standard practice on my sites, Associated Content will be offering, nay, insisting that you verify your account via phone or text message. Their blog post, User Verification Launching Next Week, says this will start next week. It also outlines some pretty stiff penalties for those who don’t verify their accounts. The stiffest is losing all your bonus money.

Don’t let this slide folks. Read the entire blog post and beat the rush.

Associated Content Tip of the Day 26 Feb 2000: Promotion Techniques

Carol Bengle Gilbert dropped a great resource today with her Tutorial: Guide to the Basics of Content Promotion. Not only are the contents of the article spot on, the construction of the article is a template for effective web writing. You could read just the first paragraph and walk away with important knowledge.

Content promotion starts with the first strike of the computer key. Write content that facilitates promotion, and it will promote itself. The guide will show you how to make sure your content is doing its own self-promotion as well as introduce you to some helpful content promotion
tools to give your article a boost.

You’ll have to click the link to read the rest of all her great tips. My recommendation is read it, bookmark it, and read it about once a month. This is the kind of advice that never gets old.

Blog Spring Cleaning: Maintenance and Other Things

I just completed some long over-due work on the blog. Nothing exciting, just stuff that needed doing. It’s getting a little busy on the sidebars so I wanted to take a moment and point out a few things.

1. I joined Twitter. My five latest Tweets are on the left. I know you’re blown away. You can see my full profile/tweet-list by clicking the “I’m a Twit. Follow at Your Own Peril.” link on the left. I told Michy it was a bad idea for the world to be exposed to my unfiltered brain like this.
2. I joined Facebook. I didn’t include any sidebar links though.
3. I added RSS feeds for the blog to the right sidebar. Everyone wants a different option for following so, if you like RSS, there’s your monkey.
4. I changed the graphic for the subscribe feature. To the person who unsubscribed citing “Too many updates,” come on! I only post here 3 or 4 times a week. Compared to 99% of the blogs out there, I’m a pathetic loser. Won’t you come back? I have candy.
5. To my 3 new subscribers, “Welcome!”. You know who you are.
6. The Plagiarism Today link on the right is unchanged, but worth mentioning because it’s a great little blog.
7. The blogroll got a haircut. There were a lot of dead links in it and I added some blogs I found via Twitter. Note the links to John Cleese and Levar Burton. Burton is droning on about giving up smoking. I quit drinking last September and you don’t hear me pissing and moaning about it. Of course, you’ll probably pry my pipe out of my cold, dead, cancerous hands, but still, man up, Levar!
8. I shrank my RSS feed from Associated Content down to the last 5 article just because the blog layout is getting too busy. Still, I appreciate everyone who reads my rantings at AC. Y’all are the best. Rodney recently told me he like my off-the-cuff stuff the better than my polished pieces. When I pumped out Stupidity About Town and saw the comment responses, I had to agree with him.
9. I trimmed the Associated Content blog page down to just the add-on tools list and the tips articles. Give it a look because the new Payment Helper is there and it’s tax time. If you have a good tips article about AC, drop the URL in the comments of the AC page here and I’ll look into adding it to the list.
10. I put my new, cool AC badge on the left sidebar. Everyone at AC is calling this the udder badge, but I’m in the top 1000 again so I put it on the fridge.
11. I’ve noted that my HTML for Dummies series has been well received. Footnotes, Superscripts, and Hard Spaces is getting the lion’s share of the hits. If you have specific questions or would like to see a particular topic covered, just leave it in a comment.
12. For the person who asked about the top-right image and why it says, “Bob Says Slack Off,” You’ll just have to click the blessed head of Bob and explore. The Church of the Subgenius welcomes all. (Not for the faint of heart or anyone under 18.)

Other than adding a few new images, that’s the spring cleaning. Hope all is well on your street.

Kid, You’ll Move Mountains: Radio Interview 18 Feb

If you caught my review of Kid, You’ll Move Mountains’ CD, Loomings, you know this band is one to watch. Their calendar includes a radio interview on 91.7FM WMSE, Milwaukee, WI. The show starts around 2 P.M (Central Time) on Wednesday, 18 Feb 2009.

Like most radio stations these days, you can listen to WMSE on the internet. The radio station’s site is www.wmse.org. Tune in and give a listen. I’m sure it will be fun. The band does an awesome mime and ventriloquism show on the radio. In the meantime, you can listen to a few tunes from Looming at the Kid, You’ll Move Mountains MySpace page.

Naked Eye Astronomy: February Sky Pretty Reminder

Just a reminder for you early risers, 16-18 February 2009 is a great time to catch Mars and Jupiter in close conjunction with Mercury in the area to boot. You’ll have to get out just before sunrise and have a clear eastern horizon, but it’s worth the effort.

Full details in my post from 29 Jan 2009. Share it with someone you love. It’s a great opportunity to introduce the kids to astronomy and start their education early before they have to go to school where everything is dumbed down.

Stupid is as stupid does…

…And stupid does a lot this week.

My latest stupid offering to stupid Associated Content on a stupidly beautiful day where I’m wishing I could have my stupid self somewhere stupid else…

Stupidity About Town: The Real Life Adventures of a Smart Ass in a Dumb World. Come join me in spotting stupidity about town. Pictures encouraged.

One stupid thing that didn’t make the article was my recent forced upgrade to Internet Exploder 7. It was forced on me and my computer rebooted with no warning. Within 1 hour, I had security updates in the auto-update queue. Yar! Microsoft blows!

Stupidity for Dummies

Get your copy today and join the herd.

Associated Content Now Culling Article Heard

Associated Content has started removing articles. You read that correctly. They are removing articles without so much as a “by your leave.” The AC forum is lighting up with panic posts. In this blogger’s opinion, the indignation is real and righteous. AC isn’t giving the contributors any specific reason for the removal, but they have outlined some general rationale.

AC added this section to their FAQ:

Why was my content removed from the site?
Associated Content reserves the right to remove any content, before or after publication, which does not adhere to the Submission Guidelines or Terms of Use. Common reasons for content removal include:
1. Inclusion of affiliate links
2. Overtly promotional content or links
3. Sexually explicit or inappropriate content
4. Plagiarism
5. Images that do not follow our guidelines
6. Quality problems (poor grammar, spelling or does not meet the minimum word-length requirement – poetry excluded)
7. Formatting problems (content not broken into paragraphs; over-use of bullets, underlining, bold, italics; inclusion of byline or title within the content)

AC Admin also add this note in an out-of-the-way forum post:

If you think something was removed in error (i.e. it doesn’t violate any part of the Submission Guidelines or Terms of Use), send an email to community@associatedcontent.com and make sure you include the approximate title of the article that was taken down.

Though AC is well within their rights, they are going about this in all the wrong ways. Here’s where it is all falling apart.

No Warning
The removals are catching contributors completely off guard. AC isn’t alerting the contributor any way, shape or form. The authors are just discovering the missing articles by sheer luck. The removed articles are denoted on the contributor’s content report by a different color, but that’s it. No email. No intra-site message. No reason given. The article just disappears like a fart in the wind.

Bad PR
As AC Admin posted, the author has the option of emailing community@associatedcontent.com and asking for the removal reason, but that takes time. While waiting for an answer, the frustrated and enraged author will most likely post something like “AC removed my article and they suck big donkey balls.” The blogosphere is fueled by pissed-off people and AC is going to see some really bad PR from this.

Oops!
AC has already returned some articles which the accidentally removed, but the view count did not return with them. In these cases, the views will be restored to their original count when the next update happens. That can be up to 5 or 6 days in the future. In the meantime, more blogging will take place as the author worries if they will get their accrued numbers back. Worst case scenario, they rant-blog about how AC stole their money.

This Kool-Aid Tastes Funny
As with most things AC, not all the staff is drinking from the same Kool-Aid pitcher. The staff removing these articles is using a loose set of rules interpreted by their individual mood. Some removals have been for blatant violations while others seem to be the victim of a mid-afternoon, low blood sugar level. One AC staffer was totally unaware that article removal and a few other issues were even occurring. It still amazes me how few staffers read their own forums.

What You Can Do

1. Check your Content Tab. Removed articles are highlight.
2. Don’t panic. If your content didn’t break the rules (above), email community@ and ask them why it was removed.
3. Be honest. If you know your article broke the rules, don’t be an rant-ass.

What AC Can Do
A better job. I tried to tell them removing articles without giving the author a reason was a bad idea. It’s clogging their forum with dozens of cloned panic threads. It’s clogging their inbox with pissy panic emails. It’s eventually going to lead to serious PR problems.

1. Get your removal squad on the same sheet of music.
2. Send an email and/or intra-site message with the reason for removal.
3. Be pre-sponsive and not responsive. Don’t act like jack-booted thugs.

In Your Facebook

This weekend I relented and joined one of those hideous social networking sites, Facebook. All the cool kids were doing it. What really got me there was a combination of two things. 1. My good friend, Bubba*, joined Twitter at my insistence and posted, “Wondering why I need Facebook & Twitter. 2. My sister-in-law sent me an invitation to join Facebook. Oh, and then 3, my eldest daughter signed up looking for her aunt. She never found Auntie, but that’s another, long, long story that’s still in litigation.

I struggled with my cybersoul for a few hours. I eased my digital conscience with the fact that it wasn’t MySpace. I took the plunge.

Then spooky things started happening.

• Within 30 minutes, my roommate from my freshman year at Harding University found me on Facebook. We hadn’t corresponded in about 12 years.
• One of his Facebook friends (my replacement since I didn’t return to Harding as a sophomore) eerily lives here where I settled in Alabama. We probably have crossed paths without knowing.
• I found several workmates. That’s not so spooky as it is inconvenient for them.
• Then today, a guy I haven’t worked with or seen in 20+ years pops up. I still feel bad about giving him the chicken pox all those years ago, but he has a kid so no harm, no foul.

The really strange part about joining Facebook was the seemingly total absence of any of my relatives. Either none of my cousins are internet savvy or I’m just not Facebook-savvy enough to find them. Of course, there is always the chance they are intentionally hiding from me.

I’m still discovering the ins and outs of the site and enjoying the massive email inbox overdose. I know where the Facebook email filter is, but the emails are helping me navigate while I learn.

One thing I did that is a rarity for me was post a photograph of my self. It’s not that I’m grotesque. It’s not that I’m shy. It’s not even the restrictions of the witness protection program that have kept my face off the net. The truth is, I’m the one who always takes the pictures; therefore, I’m rarely in one.

I’m still wondering about some Facebook features like what you have to do to have fans and not just friends. I’m hesitant to join any of the groups, save that old college radio station, KHCA, I used to work for. I haven’t checked out the gift feature, but have poked a few people. I did hook up my Twitter account so that it echos on Facebook. (Thanks @Kessbird for the memory jog.)

If you’re on Facebook, look me up. There aren’t a slew of people named Barefoot. I’m easy to find.

Oh, here’s that picture. Someone left a comment that said I look annoyed, but I was just concentrating on something I was reading. I do that. Words and stuff hurt my brain.

---

*I know what you’re thinking. The writer is in Alabama so of course his buddy is called Bubba. In my defense, Bubba is from Mississippi.

I thought it would be a quiet Tuesday night

That’s not a normal noise. That’s a loud, base thud. That sounds like it came from my front yard. Why howdy, Mr. Lincoln.

All that ran through my head as I put on my coat, opened my front door and discovered a new Lincoln and two stunned teens in my front yard. We don’t have any snow or ice so the kid had to be doing a wee bit more than 25 MPH to end up where he did.

He failed to negotiate the curve one house up. He came up the neighbors drive, skidded, spun about 160 degrees, whacked the pine tree, bounced back a little, and finished 180 degrees around. At first I’d thought he’d come from the other direction.

The pine he hit is about 3 feet in circumference and 60 feet tall. It wasn’t budging. The mark kind of looks like a heart. Maybe I style it up and make a nice Valentine’s Day surprise for my wife. Here’s the winner:

My pine tree. The winner

And here’s the loser.

My pine can beat up your Lincoln

What looks like mud in the picture is actually pine bark and needles. Who said Tuesday were boring?