Disqus - Latest Comments for SeekGround

Re: The problem with social media for most people

felix — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:10:40 -0000

I agree with you completely - it's a balance between a UI that caters to the power users v one that caters to the mainstream. You can already see this happening on most of these sites who are engaging in redesigns.

Re: The problem with social media for most people

SeekGround — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:36:40 -0000

Awesome post which speaks to my own experiences. I would go one step further and state that most of the main, main street will have difficulty with the more nuanced settings and the rest will not engage in a meaningful way due to privacy concerns.

Re: http://blog.louisgray.com/2009/03/facebook-drops-walled-garden-opens-up.html

SeekGround — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:18:43 -0000

I just hope they do a better job of explaining this new openess to users. It is one thing to give status updates to your friends but something else entirely to give them to the world. Due to Facebook's former reputation the average user may not recognize that things have changed.

Re: Is web anonymity the last refuge of fools and idiots?

SeekGround — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:15:06 -0000

I see that I am right. I have been called a fool and an idiot. I respectfully disagree with the conclusions that you have drawn Steven. It is too easy to lump everyone that is trying for anonymity into one category, isn't it? We are faceless; therefore, we have no feelings, have no online reputation to be smeared, and perhaps are feared because of the very unkown nature of our real life identities. There are certainly way too many people that are careless with their words or that speak disrepctfully. But this is true everywhere in our society today, I believe, not just online and not just by the anonymous. Is there not a difference in your view between those of us who pick a name, sticking with it, and those who scattershot names like they were disposable?

Re: The Internet hive and a new kind of privacy

SeekGround — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:22:43 -0000

Great points regarding being responsible for what we reveal about ourselves online. However, how do you protect your privacy as other people in your lives are more careless? Be it a blog post, a facebook comment, a picture or some other data element. I have noticed a trend of people being careless not just with their own privacy but also with others.

Re: Spending the day....

SeekGround — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:54:11 -0000

Skipped Hellboy. Spent the evening watching Nascar instead.

Re: What is cloud computing?

samj — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:38:36 -0000

Actually most of us have broadband (at least at work) and there are solutions like Gears for offline access which are great for road warriors.

That said, just as us developers should have regard for accessibility, we should try to keep our interfaces lean and mean.

Re: Twine

SeekGround — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:58:04 -0000

Thank you for the offer but I have since become a member.

Re: Google Reader allows me to (surreptitiously) alter the text of any article.

SeekGround — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:22:06 -0000

Great presentation of this problem. I agree that it has the potential to cause great mischief.

Re: Google Reader with Notes - reinventing the wheel

SeekGround — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:10:45 -0000

good points. Also, they did not add the new note functionality to the mobile version of google reader. Regardless, if the note doesn't appear as part of the shared feed then it will be next to useless as far as I am concerned.

Re: What is cloud computing?

SeekGround — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:21:34 -0000

Great write up. You touched on a topic that I have been thinking a lot about the last few days: "it relies on one very simple thing - ubiquitous global broadband access." I spend most of my time in a city where I have broadband access with personal wifi at home and something faster at work plus wifi. My MotoQ cell phone internet access works super fast in and near the city. In short, I feel connected while in the city. I also spend time, particularly on the weekends, in a area that I would describe as in between. The area can no longer be described as completely rural but neither is it describeable as city. That happens to be where I am tonight. Here, in a location that I also consider Home, we only have dial up internet access. Typically we connect at 26.4 Kbps. Also, motoq internet access seems slow and sluggish. As a result, I don't feel the same connectedness as when I am in the city. If I lived here full time, I would be forced to invest in high speed which is a much more expensive proposition for this location. So, what about the people who could not afford the higher expense? That is where the digital divide really begins to show. But even for those that could afford higher charges, they have to be exposed to the possibilities before they will make the investment choice. What's in it for them? So, "ubiquitous global broadband access" that is financially feasable for the majority of Americans (and Canadians) sounds great to me. It seems to me that the infrastructure for this type of service is not quite in place as of yet but will be in the not to distant future.

Re: louisgray.com: Should Bloggers Open Up Their Statistics?

SeekGround — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:05:52 -0000

you asked why we don't share out site statistics. My response in general is human nature. We don't want to put ourselves out there in a way that other people are not.

I don't actually have a stars package myself and are not that familiar with what's available. Is there a package out there that provides a comprehensive picture of blog activity or does it take a compilation of multiple sources to get a true picture? I do keep an eye on the basic metrics available through various services because of curiousity and obsession.

I don't think that the average reader is interested in a blog's stars. I know i'm not interested in seeking out a site's metrics. Although I don't mind if you want to push the info out. Readers may actively seek the informtion if they are looking for information to build their own readership or ad revenue.

But then I am just an insignificant gnat in the wild and wooly woods

Re: I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica

SeekGround — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:23:50 -0000

Kunal - You get a silver star for customer service, but Tom Panelas gets the gold star for sending me an email at 11:45 PM last night. In both cases, the Britannica team, is leaving a positive impression in the Customer Service department. If the following is not enough detail just let me know.

His email:
I just saw your post. From reading it I'm wondering if you have somehow been inadvertently toggled between our standard web site (www.britannica.com) and our new one (http://www.britannica.com/bps/home), which we're gradually making a transition to. The subscription code you got was supposed to take you to the new one; it looks a lot nicer, so that's where we're sending our new subscribers. In a few months this new one will be the standard.

Here are the John Donne articles in each:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16917...

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933/Jo...

Is this what seems to be happening?

Tom

My response:

Tom,

Without a doubt. I believe that when I first registered I landed at the old version where I spent some time familiarizing myself before and while writing the post.

I then closed down internet explorer after publishing the post so that I could be signed out of Britannica to view where I was sending my readers. Unfortunately I discovered that copying and pasting had junked links in the citation area and in the all important John Donne article reference. I should have caught those problems before publishing. Since I did not, my bad linkage probably landed in all of my rss subscribers' feed readers.

Being in a rush to fix the problem in the unlikely advent that I could beat the speed of light/internet, I was thrown for a complete loop when, upon signing back into Britannica, landing somewhere completely different.

I did not take time to look around much at the time as I was too busy trying to fix the post. I still had a problem in the new version with the link that you provide for me to copy confusing the wysiwyg editor but I worked around that using the html editor.

I did notice that the new version looks sleeker but it is noticeably slower to load when you use a slow connection as I happened to be using tonight. I need to look around some more before deciding for sure which version I like better. As long as all of the same features are there, i'm sure that the new version will be fine. I didn't see the same kind of in depth information that was on the original home page such as the iphone announcement but i'm sure I just need to look around some more. Is there a page that is optimized for windows based mobile phones?

Looks like you just need to fix where first time registered users land if you intend for them to land on the new version.

Thank you,
SeekGround

Re: I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica

SeekGround — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:02:20 -0000

Dave - Thank you for the feedback. I'll take another look at the second version based on your positive assessment.

Re: I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica

Dave — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:49:45 -0000

I do not have a subscription and followed the link from your post and got a full article including web sites, mla citing, and images. I then went to your earlier link and although the earlier link loaded faster, I found the second version to be much easier to navigate and read.

Overall, I think it is a big improvement.

Re: I Do Indeed Qualify for Encyclopædia Britannica

SeekGround — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:34:20 -0000

Turns out that the links within the post itself highlight the different versions that I experienced as I described in the update proving that it wasn't all in my imagination.
The first version (as shown by the citation examples in the post) looked like this one:
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9030933/Jo...
The second version (as shown by the links presented at the end of the post) looked like this one
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/16917...

Still scratching my head over this one. Can you see two different versions? Which version do you like better?

Re: Do I Qualify?

SeekGround — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:03:30 -0000

You are right. I have it. Thank you!

Re: Do I Qualify?

SeekGround — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:01:50 -0000

Got it! Thank you!

Re: Do I Qualify?

tpanelas — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:58:03 -0000

Does this e-mail address work? If so I'll send you the subscription
stuff right away.

Tom

Re: Do I Qualify?

SeekGround — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:04:54 -0000

That's good to hear. So, where is my registration info? I registered shortly before writing this blog post. I also sent a follow up e-mail this morning.

Re: RSS Volume And A Twitter Shift

SeekGround — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:26:32 -0000

'slow down in order to to fast' has become a theme in the nascar cup race with the cot cars. Yeah, I can totally see how that could also apply to information consumption. However, I am a subscibed (once again) to the rss consumption practice of subscribing more feeds but don't try to read every post. I find that if I want to know what's going on all I have to do is peruse the first few pages of google reader, friendfeed, and twitter messages and I'm pretty much caught up. Time permitting I dig deeper and link through for more in depth information.

Re: Now using DISQUS commenting system

SeekGround — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:02:14 -0000

I for one very rarely commented on blogs pre-diqus. Now I pan to make an effort to comment on blogs which use disqus. I love the whole concept. I like it as a commented and as a blogger having also implemented disqus on my blog.

Just curious, did you decide to follow me on disqus for any particular reason?

Re: All For The Sake Of Page Views And Money

Corvida — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:28:03 -0000

I'm not referring to every review at all, but for things that are hot off
the press, I tend to research who's already blogged about it and I would
hope that professional networks do the same. If anyone did every review,
we'd probably never get a chance to blog.

Re: All For The Sake Of Page Views And Money

SeekGround — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:24:21 -0000

wow. My immediate reaction? Take my friend's side and gang up on mashable which leads me to believe this topic will be this weekend's memo. I also applaud and agree with you're current stance for why you blog. I also agree that the big time bloggers and bloggers in general often fail when it comes to citing sources and giving credit. . I must say though that I disagree with the notion that such bloggers must research before posting their own review. I can also see where they could have nor read your post before writing their own. I personally often fall behind on my reading and miss several hours or even days of subject matter from the various services that I try to keep up with. In fact I don't think I read either you're original review or mashable's.

Re: Why I unsubscribed from Robert Scoble’s Friendfeed

SeekGround — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:21:19 -0000

So each of us are able to tailor our FriendFeed, Twitter, and blog reading experiences to meet our own needs. Seems like the best aggregating services provide us with this ability. This means we never know if we are sharing new or stale info with our friends and followers.