Category: Blogs

Google Reader is going away. I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of bloggers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Seriously, this is a big deal for bloggers. The only way I can keep up with everything is using some kind of RSS aggregator. I just don’t have the time to visit individual blogs, and Reader was a wonderful way to keep track of everything on any desktop, mobile device, tablet, etc. I’m looking for a PHP-based alternative, because I think if I migrate, I want to migrate to something I control. Years ago I used to use Bloglines, but I found Reader’s interface better and switched.

Caleb talks about how to deal with disagreement and people who meet who you end up loathing. I’ve run into very few people in this medium I genuinely dislike, and I mostly just ignore those people. I don’t get mad, I don’t put them on a blacklist, or otherwise bother. Hell, I didn’t even have a blacklist until this guy came along. I’ve never found it to be productive to harp on a disagreement until it becomes the stereotypical dead horse you just can’t stop flogging.

Sure there’ve been folks I’ve had disagreements with over the years, but that’s par for the course in a medium like this one. Additionally, people will tend to say things on the Internets that they would never say in a real life discussion, and you have to be mindful of that, and not hold it against people if and when you run across them in meatspace. Years ago when I played MMORPGs that was the rule; what happens on the game stays on the game. When you build an audience, you have more people sniping at you, and you get used to that. You have to have thick skin sometimes, and not take it personally. If you stand for something, you will make enemies, but not standing for anything is a worse, in my opinion.

The news cycle on gun control issues seems to be slowing down a good bit this week. I both welcome and fear this. I welcome it because it means I have more breathing room as a blogger. I fear it because it could drive complacency. We’re not, by a long shot, out the woods. But in the mean time, I can spend time Wikiwandering like Tam. Today’s interesting fact:

Because of the early divergence from the therian mammals and the low numbers of extant monotreme species, the platypus is a frequent subject of research in evolutionary biology. In 2004, researchers at the Australian National University discovered the platypus has ten sex chromosomes, compared with two (XY) in most other mammals (for instance, a male platypus is always XYXYXYXYXY),^[66] although given the XY designation of mammals, the sex chromosomes of the platypus are more similar to the ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes found in birds.^[67] The platypus genome also has both reptilian and mammalian genes associated with egg fertilisation.^[35][68] Since the platypus lacks the mammalian sex-determining gene SRY, the mechanism of sex determination remains unknown.^[69] A draft version of the platypus genome sequence was published in Nature on 8 May, 2008, revealing both reptilian and mammalian elements, as well as two genes found previously only in birds, amphibians, and fish. More than 80% of the platypus’ genes are common to the other mammals whose genomes have been sequenced.^[35]

What’s interesting about the platypus having reptilian and avian DNA is that we (mammals) did not directly evolve from aves. Aves are actually surviving dinosaurs; both are theropods. Mammals diverged from a common synapsid ancestor sometimes in the Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago. Theropods diverged in the late Triassic. Monotremes would seem to have been an early mammal that just never felt the pressure to evolve much since it branched off early from a common ancestor at least 167 million years ago, and probably farther back that that. I think it’s fun that birds are actually dinosaurs. If you’ve ever observed them, wild turkeys seem to move like something out of Jurassic Park. Which begs the question: did dinosaurs taste like chicken? Did they have white and dark meat? Also, what does platypus taste like? Would platypus eggs make for a tasty omelet?

Maybe it’s better if I stick to thinking about gun policy.

Much to Bitter’s dread, I’ve been thinking about updating the look and feel of the blog to a more minimalist theme, with a white background instead of the parchment look I was going for when we first made the name change last year. Bitter does all my graphics work and is the one who finds the right theme, and I’m very picky. I narrowly avoided being strangled when we went from “Snowflakes in Hell” to “Shall not Be Questioned” last year, so I have to balance my desire for a look and feel overhaul with the desire not to have things thrown at me, or have to sleep with one eye opened. I would not be changing the name of the blog, just changing the look and feel.

I had a few goals when we switched names last year. One goal was to stop having to explain the name of the blog to the uninitiated. The other was to help with bounce rate, figuring the name did not immediately lead to an understanding about the topic of the blog, and made people more likely to leave. A third goal was to take ads and make some money.

One can see from my bounce rate monthly average over the past two years, the goal of improving bounce rate has pretty much gone unmet. It was about 68-70%, and so it remains. Bounce rate is basically the percentage of people who come in, hit one page, and then leave (bounce). My understanding is that my current rate is about par for the course for blogs. There is trickery one can use to improve bounce rate, but I’d like to improve it through visitors legitimately sticking around, rather than through sleight of hand.

For the goal of having a more understandable name, that relates to the topic of the blog, I think that has largely worked. I don’t get blank stares as much when I hand out the blog’s business card, and I don’t have to spend time in the “elevator pitch” explaining the name of the blog. I don’t market directly to advertisers, but when I’m attending NRA, or other gun-related events as a blogger, I do like people to understand what it is I do. This year haven’t spent as much time meeting people in gun related settings as in previous years, so there hasn’t been a very large sample pool. But my experience so far is that it’s easier to convey “Shall not Be Questioned” than “Snowflakes in Hell,” at least to people who are familiar with the Pennsylvania Constitution’s right to bear arms guarantee.

The revenue goals I had for the change have largely panned out. We’re self-sufficient, in that the blog pays for itself. Given that I self-host, my costs are higher than most. Through agreement, Bitter actually gets the revenue from the blog, in exchange for helping me run it.

Overall the name change didn’t do everything I wanted, but I don’t think it was a huge mistake. Search traffic took a hit initially, because of the loss of Google love, but that has since recovered. My traffic otherwise has remained constant, and I’m pretty sure my pool of regular readers has remained about the same. Much like the gun business, I get my biggest traffic spikes when Barry opens his mouth about guns, or when the media start treating us like second class citizens. People, I think, flee to where they feel more welcome when the world turns against them. I think that’s a good thing. But I’m tired of the parchment look, and I’m wanting something fresher looking. I may not even get around to it this year, with all that is going on, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about, now that I have more time to think, over the slower pace of the holidays.

Nope, not blogging about cars, but blogging from a car. I got the MiFi set up, an inverter to keep the laptop topped off, and someone else doing the driving. So I guess we’ll see how this works out. I’ve been out of touch for a few days, so, balancing reading with the potential for motion sickness, I’ll be looking for things to write about.

… or nerd?* You decide.

* I should note that I am definitely not one to be throwing stones from this particular glass house, but I thought it was funny when you consider what our opponents paint us as being. I can imagine them scratching their heads wondering if those D&D modules come in handy at the local militia meetings.

Some bloggers have organized to raffle off a few gunny items for those who hit Tam’s Tip Jar, to help cover Tam’s medical expenses: