Blogging

Comment deletion

Steve Rubel asks why it is that not many blogging and other social media platforms allow commenters to edit or delete the comments they make on community based sites.

Everyone sticks their foot in it from time to time. If you do this
on your own blog, you can edit the post and take it back. You could
delete the post too, but it’s not looked on very positively. Still, if
you leave a comment on some other site, you very often need to live
with it. So you better think twice before lambasting your friend for
slamming Jethro Tull on his blog.

There’s really no reason why community sites shouldn’t offer this
option. It’s good for everyone involved. Three sites, at least that I
know of, allow you to edit or even delete your comments. They’re the
social saints.

These ‘social saints’ are Flickr, Blogger and Facebook.

WordPress doesn’t feature the ability for commenters to edit what they write. There might be a plugin out there that does something like that, I don’t know. But for me, it should be up to the blogger – the site owner – whether a comment is changed or deleted. A commenter can always send an email to the site owner, or add another comment clarifying things.

To my mind, the person that makes the decision on the site is the person that is responsible for it. There have been countless examples of bloggers getting grief for deleting comments from their sites – allowing others to do so just clouds matters and complicates things, especially when the deleted or edited comment has already become a part of a conversation.

[tags]steve rubel, blogging, comments[/tags]

Also posted at Performancing

Essential Blogger Tools

Via the 901am blog, I came across a post on Kineda outlining the tools every blogger should have:

You’ve started your blog and you’re up and running, but do you have the
essential tools necessary to be a blogging pro? Here’s a list of tools
I personally use that will improve your blogging experience and
productivity. Being well equipped will make you a better blogger, and
being a better blogger means gaining the respect and affection among
your weird and fuzzy blogging peers and readers.

Let’s have a look at some of the stuff recommended. Photoshop CS2. Dreamweaver. Mint. MacBook Pro. Hmmm – beyond the ability of this blogger to afford that kind of stuff, and many others too. Fair enough, WordPress (obviously!), Thunderbird and Firefox are also mentioned, so it’s not all a proprietary free for all.

Still, this got me thinking, and here’s my list. It’s my view that the democratising nature of blogging and social media should be reflected in the tools that can be used. So, my list is comprised of software and services with no charge, and open source where possible.

WordPress – the best blogging platform there is. And it’s free.

The GIMP – incredibly powerful open source image editor. Will do everything (and more) that a blogger could want to do.

Audacity – want to have audio on your blog? Edit it with ease and feel good that the software you are using is free as in speech as well as beer.

Ubuntu – why shell out for a Mac when an easy to use , quick and ultra secure alternative is available for use for nothing? Breath new life into your PC.

gFTP – an FTP client for Ubuntu. No frills and a very quick way of getting files online. Windows users can use FileZilla.

Firefox – the only sensible browser option. Use IE only for checking how your blog is rendered.

Gmail – I’m yet to see a better interface for webmail. Masses of storage mean you can sign up to as many mailing lists and email RSS feeds as you like. Spam filtering top notch, so you can leave your email address on your blog at will. Why accept the limitations of a desktop client?

Google Reader – suddenly the best RSS aggregator  around. Takes your feeds wherever you go.

These are the tools I use on a regular basis, and they serve me well enough. I personally don’t think having wish lists of expensive gear helps anyone – if anything, the thought of having to shell out on stuff for blogging is going to put people off.

It’s better to keep things free.

[tags]blogger tools, kineda, 901am[/tags]

Blog Woes and a New Start

Problems with the old blog mean that I have had to abandon it for now. At some point I’ll drag the old posts back through to this one. As it is, though, this represents a new start.

I’ve installed the latest version of WordPress, 2.1 – released this evening – though I was tempted by giving Drupal a go. Everything looks pretty good in the new WP, one of the best features is the new code editor, much better than the old one. Means you can correct the odd mistake that the wysiwyg editor produces.

It’ll take me a little while to get everything up and running again – sorting out a theme and getting plug-ins installed. Hopefully all my old favourites will be compatible with 2.1.

Still, I must’ve been doing something right before. Somehow my mug has ended up on 901am‘s shortlist of bloggers. Right next to Guy Kawasaki! Not sure I belong there at all…

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