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However, my main issue with Second Life is that the only areas that have a decent amount of people are all adult-oriented. Places I've visited that don't have anything to do with sex are almost always empty with maybe only one or two other people around.
Maybe I'm missing something, but so far I don't see much value in Second Life.
But, yeah, that certainly is one problem with anything online. (The adult issue). There are clean zones. And as more of us get into Second Life there'll be more people to talk with.
Personally I don't think it'll really take off until they let us do audio chat ala what Xbox Live lets us do.
But, both of these problems aren't there in Xbox 360 land, so maybe that'd be a better experience for you.
For me, Second Life is cool because it lets you build your own world.
Scoble, can you get me a job?!
then i linked you to my blog: http://makemeswitch.blogspot.com where i told you about my wicked slow ThinkPad and how I needed an upgrade? wantedted to spread the word? i still have the emails if you want me to forward them to you again.
There’s another reason why he belongs to this thread: one of his initiatives along with Chris Yeh is the Silicon Valley Junto, which had an interesting lunch discussion about Happines. Since you appear to be thinking about these things nowadays, you would have been a good addition to our table, and you’d have enjoyed it too…
Damn, I managed to write a comment without linking to myself! – but it felt good:-)
No, I’m too selfish for that, here;s my piece about the “kid”.
I applaud your change to moderated comments. When a blog gets as many visitors as yours and when you reach an audience as large as yours it might be a wise choice to make this switch. As you pointed out, there are other ways to comment if you don't want to leave it here.
As far as your other change to improve your life, if you have not seen it or no one has linked it before, here is a site that you may find interesting.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/index.htm
Regards,
Anthony
I appalaud your desire to surround yourself with happy people but on this Easter eve I feel compelled to point out that the only truly happy, or better yet, peaceful people are those who are right with God in Jesus. Maybe you are looking in the wrong places for whatever it is you are seeking. The answers are in the New Testament. Give it a try. You might learn what life is all about.
Seeing Microsoft taking on iLife is interesting, though (in my meaningless opinion), a little fruitless.
Oh, but I think saying he's on Windows Live Search isn't entirely accurate. But he is doing some wicked cool stuff.
OTOH, you probably check back here every hour or so, so it's not as big of a deal....
http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect...
>Can someone come up with a technical solution to this besides you having to manage this by moderating things manually?
Well, Slashdot has community moderation, which is a technical solution. Me? This is my blog, so the responsibility ends with me.
I guess that's what makes it different than, say, our Channel 9 forums.
I in general I let anyone who challenges me post in my blog unless they are spammers, now if someone was posting negative stuff day in and day out I would ban their IP for sure.
Matt Cutts started doing this on his blog recently to cut down on the noise, I guess it makes some sense if you have a high traffic blog.
Hmm, but I don't know, I think I got a trackback deleted in here Robert and the post I made in my blog was fun, not negative, remember how this makes people feel or you might have an angry mob with pitchforks at your door!
I am sure you will find a balance Robert, enjoy your time away.
My main blog is political, comments have to be moderated, unless you want attacks by trolls deliberating trying to start flame wars, etc.
Of course, if a blog gets really big, and some political blogs routinely get 500 comments on a post, then moderating can't be done manually, and you do get the trolls.
I admire you for not being scared to "change".
But I hope a bad day of yours is not going to ruin a good conversation :)
It's hard to argue with you about this because you're doing it partly because it will make you happy. But perhaps you could have a simple commenting policy so it's clear what you will accept.
It's your blog, and while I think it makes it more interesting to have people challenge your thinking, its not clear what makes you unhappy.
So how about it? A list of the things that make you unhappy, besides, of course, being asked to write a list of the things that make you unhappy?
Good choice on moderation of comments, there are some people that are baiting you into badlands --not pleasant and serves no purpose but to serve their own needs.
I'm also curious to hear your responses on blog ROI, I'll be anxiously waiting for the podcast.
I'm in Second life, my name is Jerky Omelet
Does this mean we'll get a lot more 'MS / Vista / Origami / Xbox360 / Scoble is god' posts and less (gasp) naysayers?
I think I said in a comment previously that you might as well turn comments off completely - but moderation is probably a better option for you, as it allows you to directly continue the conversations (which you obviously enjoy) while getting rid of the constant sniping. Anyway who wants to snipe can get their own blog :)
Hell, my comment policy is even more stringent. See "The Happy Troll": http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archive...
Let's be serious, you're never going to delete a comment from Dave Weiner... or your other friends.
Just an idea, maybe matt from wordpress can work on it.
On a second note, Live Academic is really good. When it's out of beta, I'm recommending it to a few librarians I know (I'm maintaining a site for them currently).
On a third note, do you think you can figure out, perhaps get a Channel9 video on, what the heck the upside down "V" symbol in Vista is supposed to mean.
On a fourth note, I'm off to do something interesting. :)
On a fourth note, why'd you stop drinking coffee? Does this mean your traditional Starbucks Wi-fi stops are a thing of a past now?
Perhaps there's a green tea pub around Seattle that serves a nice dish of Wi-fi? :)
Vivek: my cholesterol level is too high, so making lots of changes in my life. I'll try to get a Channel 9 video on that, though.
Stefan: it's very possible that I'll delete a comment from Dave Winer or my other friends if they don't add anything to the conversation here.
I will allow the odd off the wall thing through - if only to let others return the discussion back to a more sane level and so demonstrate the 'wisdom of crowds' is alive and well.
Good for you Robert.
Try and replace the word "value" with "joy", and see what that changes. Joy doesn't always spring from value (a relative function) or even happiness (a transient state). Being a father (like me) you know what joy is - now see how that translates into work product, specifically software. It's astounding to me how joyful the best products/services truly are, and how that translates into communities that *create*. Maybe that's what was bumming you out about some of the comments you were seeing.
Good luck with the shift. It's an important world-view mod.
Thanks for the change.
What is it the Vista debacle that helped bring you to the realization that you needed to moderate comments? I think things definitely got out of hand in those threads on both sides.
It wasn't the Vista debacle that caused me to change my policy.
I recently dropped coffee for a week and found that hot water with lemon was actually pretty good. A lot of the coffee or soda thing while working is just a reflex micro-break kind of thing for me, and sipping a hot liquid did the trick.
Robert...oy, read what I wrote. I didn't say "Knowing the questions ahead of time makes things better". I said, "I imagine being able to answer questions when you’d properly prepared was a LOT more fun than having to grasp at the first thing that popped to mind."
"Properly prepared" is not the same thing as "Knowing the questions ahead of time". It means things like knowing your audience, and if they all come from a single or small number of companies, or the same industry, knowing how what you're talking about applies to them. So instead of having to grasp at straws, you can come up with coherent arguments that are applicable to your audience and their needs. It's been my experience that an unprepared speaker can't handle anything BUT canned questions and prepared responses, and ends up doing a remarkable imitation of a motorboat: but-but-but-but....
That's why you got burned by Werner, was because neither of the two of you were prepared to answer questions about blogging as they applied to Amazon. You went in like a couple of kids in a daisy field and got nuked. This time, you were prepared, had useful information, and had a much better day.
The move to moderate is a good one. You should have done it a long time ago. It is your blog, Robert. You've put so much into it and done so much good with it, so the blog should not bring you grief.
Good to see you having fun with it again.
Now that's conversation!!
Regards,
Shri.
PS: I know this one's gonna be nuked ;)
There's one or two people that do this on an infrequent basis. I'm not sure how this amounts to making the whole blog "upsetting and unreadable"
What I fear has happened is that Microsoft has put down an edict that since blogs are a public face of MSFT they should be moderated and project the best image of the company. So what this, and other Microsoft blogs, are going to amount to little more than watered down PR for the company.
About time.
I hope you mean, no more blindly critical people posting on my blog, etc. No more arguing with fools.
Because if you mean literally, no more unhappy people, that's a little loony isn't it? If you're happy 100% of the time, you're not living in this world.
And seriously, let us know how the soda thing turns out. As a member of the same generation, a lot of us grew up drinking soda, then getting a serious caffeine addiction in college/early career with Mountain Dew/Jolt, and I'm betting you're the same. So you could be an inspiration to all of us addicted programmers/Internet junkies. This is when the personal side of blogging is really interesting - finding commonalities 1,000s of miles, religions, languages, cultures apart.
Wow, this post is definitely big. I really took some time to fully read this and you really mix tons of stuff into a single post, all without no connection whatsoever. I dunno if others like this or not but I kinda admire this style, cause it's like a roundup.
Moving on, to the topic of controversy, the comment moderation thing. I'm not really opposing it cause I've seen that people have been a bit hard on you Mr.Scoble. But I've always believed in the freedom of the blogosphere and my say is that you must let people see all sides of a coin. So what if someone curses you?? You must have enough confidence to face him off... But do tell me, what is the main reason for this move of yours? There's something else... But one thing, this is gonna give you one headache of a job that too counting your blog's popularity.
Popurl is a freaking great site, I love it!!
As for change, I like this wise old saying "Change is the only thing constant in this world". Beautiful irony!!
Robert, I agree that moderation is not only your perogative, but essential. I use plugins that help deflect the obvious spam-fests, so there's not a lot of work on my end.
What appears to be at issue is not so much the quality of the conversation, as you seem to be hedging* on what standards are being applied to make that determination, but of the commentors themselves.
In other words, this seems to be about effectively removing Christopher Coulter and Dmad from your comment threads. I have no personal knowledge of those two, and will not comment futher about them other than to note their absence in this thread.
So conversationally, and in seriousness: Was that the intent, or a side benefit?
* Cite: "Vinnie: my value filter is set pretty low."
To date, I have still not figured out how trackbacks are supposed to work. :) I know that's a ghastly confession, but there it is.
I too have a blog here on Wordpress, but I haven't started using it yet due to a technical issue. My current blog, http://spaces.msn.com/adayinthelifeofaperson/Pe..., exists pretty much to perform the function alluded to by its title, "A Day in the Life of A Person With a Disability." That is, it provides glimpses of the things I encounter during a day. As such, the blog is mainly copies email and other correspondence. That makes the ability to email entries to the blog a useful feature offered on MSN and absent on Wordpress. I haven't yet figured out an alternative that doesn't require a change in my basic modus operandi. If blogging requires a fundamental change in how you do things, you're more likely to burn out.
I also share the question some readers have voiced about just what constitutes an unhappy person in your view. The subject matter of my MSN blog, for example, deals with challenges I slog through almost constantly. There are days when I feel like I'm trying to swim in concrete, :( and my entries reflect the degree of difficulty involved. Of course, there are also good days. :)
If, by "unhappy people," you mean certain "trolls," my experiences have taught me how to deal with them. You engage only as long as doing so suits your own purposes. Beyond that, you are correct in forcing them to use other forums to air their "views." This one happens to be yours. :)
Scott
Not sure if you've seen this yet, but basically Anil Dash has your back on the comment policy change thing. For my part, I don't think it's censorship in the least as long as you're not deleting people for respectfully disagreeing with you - and I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't do that.
And by the way, good for you for getting into exercise and such. It's a fantastic way to get balance back into your life and keep things in perspective. You should try yoga.
Best,
Teresa
Awareness of the importance of health is key, find your zen place dude! :)
Thanks Robert
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=91-...
its only $5 and can be read in an afternoon. Its not prescriptive like most self help books, but it is full of good ideas and concepts that are pretty easy to ingest and over time apply. I still open it up every now and then and read parts of it.
As for the idea, its a great one - we have been avoiding the 'crazy makers' and focusing our energy in relationships with people who contribute value to us and the world. It is hard of course, but life is much more peaceful and we are much happier as a result. Life is too short to waste with people who are sucking away your time and energy...
what's the main value in commments? for you? for visitors? I'd expect this to raise the value.
For anyone who's interested to hear the entire event, this page on our site http://www.baventurepartners.com/news/index.html has links to the streaming audio file, or to iTunes, or the podcast can be found directly at iTunes by searching for "BAVP".
Thank you again!
The podcast or streaming audio file for the event is available from our website at http://www.baventurepartners.com/news/index.html
You can also find the podcast at iTunes by searching for "BAVP." Even though we had mike problems at the event, the recording is clear, if long, because there were so many questions.
Thank you again
chris@mailtest.netspeed.com.au
Chris
I have a Best USA Beaches site. It pretty much covers The Best USA Beaches.
Come and check it out if you get time ;)
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lso@nessie.fr
I'd like to express my opinion about these blog comments. I consider them very ineresting and useful for visitors. Because there different people and every of them has the own opinion and his own thoughts. And sometimes you can find out something very interesting and unusual.
I also quiet agree with the fact that people may write something meaningless and it is necessary to delete it.
Good luck in future!
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like you, I went through a period of my life where I was faced with some major decisions.
..and here I am - in thailand.
happy memories.
http://www.podnosh.com/blog/2006/10/23/the-web-...
So mixing with happy folk is very fine line to draw when deciding how you'll weed out the relationships which clutter those 150 chunks of headspace.
The good fellow :)
tell me about it. despite repeated submissions to their ad feedback network, nothing. I am just dying with this crap. oh man, no idea how to get away from this nonsense
Does this refusal to be around unhappy people create greater unhappiness for those people, thus furhter isolating them from others? How does that impact society? Family?
Then view them at my time of convenience?
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