DISQUS

Games? Dating? Hobbies? Is this guy 14?

Bob, in December Chris Pearson decided just to fold magazine functionality into Thesis 1.4, and do away with the name Cosmo (which, incidentally, is the name of an existing WordPress theme when last I checked). The problem is, a week or two ago, out comes Thesis 1.4, and according to one source, the DIYNinja blog ( http://is.gd/hB2J ), it falls short of his promise. (Disclaimer here: I have yet to really open up the package to see its progress toward "magazinehood".)

I'm with Timothy. I think Mr. Pearson's perfection is the enemy of his good with regard to a magazine theme. And while I've been one of those waiting for the past 6 months for it, I can completely sympathize.

Relating to your point 2, "Big Fish, Small Pond," you come close to using the dreaded word "fishbowl". As is evidence by things like this post and its many comments, a lot of your fellow travelers are sometime collaborators, sometime audience, sometime suppliers, sometime clientele. Depending on one's message — that "passion" one blogs — these circles of people will overlap less and less. When my DutchNewYork.com effort is running on all eight cylinders, the community (tribe?) will likely be people whom Jeff Pulver's dinner guests have never heard of, except for me. (This is a very good thing; I'm not complaining!) In a way, Chris, you have it easier, since your circles of micro-fame share many of the same people.

That was fast. Now you're right back to pointing at the camera and telling me what I gotta do. What if my gut tells me I should get into social media gradually?

So I catch myself frequently yelling at the hordes of Vaynerheads, or whatever you call yourselves. I'm decrying your putting this guy on a pedestal, setting this guy up as some all-knowing, all-seeing guru. The actual gurus of Hinduism were little tyrants; each sought to make a mob of enslaved clones of himself, to follow around and have them do his bidding. You don't want a guru. Gary V doesn't deserve gurus. Don't mimic this guy! He doesn't know what you know!

What's that? Gary agrees with me?

That BASTARD! (hehe)

This whole thing is astonishing to me. I don't know a single person who would fly across the country to spend a weekend at my place, to see me, not just to save money on crash space. These people don't know how lucky they are. How this is possible on Seesmic just baffles me.

It's good to be Gary V., isn't it? Why should anything bother you? You're independently wealthy. You've got people eating out of the palm of your hand. People are throwing you work. Well, my day sucked. Because I'm not Gary V. I don't have a job. I'm yelling at the world as loudly as I can, and it's like I'm in a wooden box six feet underground. Turn the negative of unemployment into a positive? It's amazing how truly out-of-touch with reality you can be, yet act exactly the opposite. And they all buy it.

Once my site (DutchNewYork.com) gathers some monetary steam, and/or to help that along, it will assist in a Hudson Valley tourism spike leading up to fall '09, the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's entrance into New York Harbor. Of the ideas I and a tourism-savvy brain trust will come up with, I must remember invitations to key bloggers who like to travel. Thanks for the notion!

It goes without saying (or maybe not!) that anything packaged in individual units with a group price, such as "6 for $1.29", is for sale individually, for fewer than six.

Thank you! Or should I say, THANK YOU! The temptation is strong to recall for all these whippersnappers the days before all this social media stuff.

The other day I asked the same question to Cheryl Smith: I wonder how it is you make any money, what with all this writing for the general consumption. But you must keep enough for the clientele to keep them happy, or you couldn't pay your server bill. I'd love to see a negotiation in action, as it seems like a mysterious process, though understandably confidential.

To get rickwolff.com I spent about $28 with GoDaddy to stand ready as my agent and grab it the minute it expired, which it did the day it said it did, without a grace period. I can't picture how Terminal would have helped, but then, I think I've used Terminal once, and have a healthy respect (i.e., fear) for it.
Once, when I was shopping for an already-held domain name, I went to the stated site, which invited me to make a bid greater than $10. So I bid $12. Then it asked for a bid greater than, I think, $90. I declined. Is "hagglebot" a word?

The least commercial of reasons: to make friends. Last year, from a confluence of things (not as bad as it sounds), I was in the position to want to make a new set of friends whom I wouldn't need my wife's help meeting. (Avoiding a long story here.) At first, the loudest voices in social media were the marketeers, offering an alternate use of the channels. What I first wanted, and still do primarily, is the use that marketing is the alternative to. And yet, as a graphic artist in a marketing department where I think I've overstayed my welcome, one where my strategic input is not wanted, personal branding is now a concern; fortunately I hang with a crowd that's already all over that.

Chris Brogan unwittingly channeling George Carlin. Spooky.

Not as a result of reading this post, you understand. Coincidentally, earlier today.

That's funny. I went to my BlogLines account and saw I had about 7000 unread items in it. I just unsubscribed to everything. I wonder if I'll miss any of it.

So brief is sexy, eh? Thank you, Twitter!

My wife works as an LPN in the neurology department of a central Westchester medical center. She gets patients from all around, from a variety of socio-economic levels. Your narcissist describes the folks from Chappaqua (yes, Clinton Country). Appointments mean nearly nothing to these (usually) bored housewives. And if their controlled substance won't get them through a three-day weekend, an exception in state law must be made for them and my wife must call in the prescription. With their position goes an assumption of some kind of personal power; if they make enough noise, they think they'll be served -- even though nothing in their experience with the center has borne that out. This is what my wife tells me about when I ask, "So, how was your day?"

If anyone does exactly what I do, but differentiates in an indirect factor—say, he's more personable—he wipes the floor with me. So you're darned right I'm different. I'd better be!

I assume you saw that video I pointed you at, of Clay Shirky's address to the Web 2.0 conference. He described the utopian hands-off attitude on a particular "alt" discussion group in the pre-Web days of the Internet. And how indelible was the negative example among those who experienced it, that at least, they all said to each other, nobody will ever let anything like this happen ever again. Goes to show you.

Without my glasses on, I see a photo of you holding your eyeballs in place in your skull, and the title "Awaken Your Superhero." New meaning!
I love that you had the sense enough to actually illustrate such a blog post.

Computer tech. Economics. Marketing. Jeeeez! Chris, can I borrow about one-third of your brain now and then?

Oh, I got it now. What he did was not only steal computer time but steal table time as a "sponsor". I didn't read carefully, and walking by the table, I had no idea myself. And the owner of the computer has protested. Got it. Don't mind me.

Not supporting this Smojo guy, just revealing my ignorance. He walked over to an unmanned computer and posted 1:16 of video? Is that all he did? Did he power it up? I'd hate to hear later that he used my >$1000 machine without my asking, but was anything broken? Obviously, I'm missing a point. Please elucidate.