Blogs and Bloggers

As Nick Wilson writes on the Performancing blog: ‘Wow, what a start to the year‘. Let me try and get this in some kind of order:

• Performancing announce their metrics package in unsustainable and needs a buyer
• PayPerPost steps in to buy the package and the Performancing website, there is blogosphere uproar
• The Performancing editor is rebranded as ScribeFire
• PayPerPost drop out of the purchase, and the metrics package will be released to open source
• Nick Wilson resigns from Performancing and is replaced by Chris Garrett
• Chris announces that Performancing’s ad network will close, to much bafflement
• Two days later, Garrett is gone and Wilson apparently back!

It sure has been a crazy time, and Performancing has almost been like a mini blogosphere soap opera. I’m sure the guys there are gutted about this, and it is a shame. Why?

Performancing was/is/will be again a great site. It was a proper community of bloggers, giving an example of how Drupal can be used to forge great togetherness online. The blog editor is a super tool and an example of software written by bloggers for bloggers – not forcing functionality upon users. Furthermore, those involved, like Nick Wilson and Chris Garrett are good people, and it would be a shame to lose them. As Darren Rowse notes:

I loved Performancing the most when it was just a blog. They produced amazing content and generated wonderful conversations. Perhaps it’s time to go back to that?

The idea appears to be to go back to the days of Performancing as a blogging community. This is Good News. It looks like ScribeFire will remain separate, which is no bad thing, but it will be cool if the Performancing community looks after it. In Wilson’s words:

• We are still interested in talking to potential partners that could help us relaunch our adnetwork – there is a ton of functionality never released and I’d love to have conversations with serious players re the possibilities.
• ScribeFire also needs some help. Jed Brown has gone MIA and we need some hlep talking it further.
• We still plan to open source Metrics, but there is no firm time frame
• And lastly, but by no means least. I intend to correct some of the mistakes I’ve made with community functionality and management here at Performancing, and again, am entirely open to suggestions and partnerships that will take us forward in 2007

Wilson was obviously unhappy with the direction Performancing was taking in his absence, and all credit to him for stepping in and trying to sort things out. Let’s hope Performancing goes on to bigger and better things in the future.

Technorati Tags: performancing

Sorry for the lack of posting in recent times, folks. Here’s a biggie I missed out on reporting: the release of WordPress 2.1.

I’ve installed it over on my personal blog, and I have to say it’s a great release that has sorted out a number of the issues people have had with previous releases. Some of the new stuff includes:

• Improved rich text editor with tabbed window for code editing
• Spell checking
• Autosaving of posts
• Ability to have a static home page without needing a plugin
• Improved attachment uploading
• Export and import of other WordPress blogs
• Nicer log in screen
• Slightly confusing link management that ties into post categories

WordPress is easily the best open source blog platform out there now, and probably the best full stop. A giant slap on the back for the developing community.

[tags]blogging, wordpress, wordpress 2.1[/tags]

The popular open source CMS Drupal released its latest version today. I’ve been using a release candidate version of the new release on a couple of sites-in-development for a few weeks now, and can confirm that it’s a huge improvement on the old one – two big plus points being the beautiful new Garland theme and the graphical installation.

Drupal is a superb piece of software for community building – it includes traditional CMS, multi-author blogging and forum software all in one super-customisable package.

Technorati Tags: drupal

Mike Arrington posts that the Performancing Metrics deal is off:

It’s not often that a company announces the acquisition of another company and then subsequently walks away from the deal, but PayPerPost isn’t a typical kind of company.

In a post on the PayPerPost blog today, the company said “We…dug into the Metrics platform and regretfully found that it wasn’t what we were looking for right now.” That came just a week after the official announcement of the acquisition.

Generally speaking, responsible companies “dig into” the acquisition target before they announce a deal.

Nick Wilson at Performancing puts a slightly different spin on it:

After much discussion, we’ve decided that the deal proposed by PayPerPost just isnt right for us or our community. It’s regrettable that we should part ways as I still feel that Dan and Ted are stand up guys breaking new ground, but in the end, the deal was just not right for them or us.

On his personal blog (which is wonderfully profane, as are his expletive-ridden podcasts), Nick is a little more candid:

It’s a huge relief not to have to lose Performancing.com.

We’ve made our mistakes, now it’s time to crack on…

Chris Garrett, another guy involved in Performancing – though not a shareholder – gives his view, again seeming relieved that the deal is off:

• I am pleased because I don’t think the two communities, Performancing members and PPP members, actually overlap or make as good a fit as PPP assumed they would.
• I’m looking forward to an open source Metrics and I will work on it given time
• For me the best news is that Performancing.com is staying with Nick. We put a lot of work into building the site and community, with a terrific group of members. The Performancing domain and brand is hopefully still a valuable asset

Good news though, rather than find a new buyer (which might be hard now anyway), Performancing Metrics is being opened up to the community and made open source. Cool.

What form it will take will be unknown for a while, but I reckon a small metrics service that each site hosts for itself would be a good route to go down.

Performancing for Firefox will remain ScribeFire – excellent news, it’s a much better name and can give focus to the blog editor as a project in its own right.

Two things come out of this. One is that not only is PayPerPost a crappy idea for a company, it’s a pretty crappily run place if this mess is anything to go by. Second, the breakdown of this deal will be good in the long term for Performancing, Scribefire and the bloggers who will use the future open-source metrics.

Technorati Tags: performancing, payperpost

Word Count Journal might be a good option if you would like to start a blog, but aren’t sure how you will manage the words. A blogging NaNoWriMo, anyone?

Sometimes a little bit really does go a long way. In Word Count Journal, by gradually building up your writing stamina and discipline, you will see just how easy it is to get a whole lot done. By simply writing a set number of words each day, every day, you will write a whopping 66,795 words at the end of one calendar year. Little by little, through the power of series, the total of your written words will add up to more words than contained in the average novel.

Quite frankly, the thought of reading a blog where the words have to be dragged out of the author in this way fills me with horror, but I guess for someone who isn’t sure about dipping their toes into blogging waters, it might just help.

But then…a WordPress.com account is free. Go there instead.

Technorati Tags: word count journal, wordpress