Going to the Army
Oct 8, 2008

In Singapore, all guys have to serve in the army for a mandatory two years. And so, I’ll be going into the army on Thursday.

As such, for the next two weeks, I won’t be online. After that, I’ll be online mainly on weekends, I think. So the blog isn’t going to be updated as much. I’m going to miss being able to blog everyday, and I’ll miss the conversations with all of you.

That said, I’ll still be around, the blog will go on, but I just won’t be able to update it daily. I’ll still update as much as possible, though, so I do hope that you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed, or by email. It won’t take much from you, you won’t even notice it’s there when it’s not being updated.

I hope you’ll stick around, and not forget me. I’ll still be contactable by email and all (albeit a bit less responsive), and so, feel free to email me if you ever want to talk or anything.

Comments in RSS
May 30, 2008

This is a WordPress plugin I added to my blog a while ago. I really like what it does, and I’ve been spreading the word about it as much as I can. Thanks to Pelf for sharing the plugin with me, and to Jeriko for developing it.

What it does is basically it embeds the comments into your blog’s feed. There is quite a bit of a lag time (maybe one of you smart folks could help improve that?), but it’s still better than nothing, in my opinion. And it makes it easier for your readers to keep track of the conversation.

Here’s what my feed looks like in Google Reader, with the plugin:

I personally think it’s really useful, so I wanted to share it. I’ve uploaded it since Jeriko’s original page doesn’t seem to work (at least not for me). You can download it here. All you need to do is to upload it to your plugins folder and activate it.

Irregular Blog Posts
Mar 27, 2008

Mitch Joel sparked an interesting discussion about whether blogs and podcasts should update regularly. There’s huge value in the comments there, so you should check it out.

I just thought I’d add my take here. I think the biggest hurdle is the adoption of RSS. When RSS gains mass adoption, it’ll change things.

And I personally don’t think content needs to be that regular. I’d rather updates come when the blogger/podcaster has better ideas.

Christopher S. Penn made a comparison with Seinfeld:

If Jerry Seinfeld’s show was on whenever he and the cast felt like it, how popular would it have become? Jerry Seinfeld’s show had great content, but part of what made it a success is that the audience knew when and where to find it, every week, same channel.

Personally, I disagree with him on this. The difference is that Seinfeld’s show (one of my favorites, by the way), was only available at that slot. You couldn’t get it after that. You can get blog content whenever you want it.

I think a better comparison would be with book authors – authors don’t write on a schedule, they write when they have ideas.

That’s my take. I think the nature of New Media should allow posts to be less regular. But without mass adoption of RSS, that change won’t come that soon.

Or maybe I’m missing something. What do you think?

Blogs vs Static Websites
Mar 8, 2008

Problogger recently asked the question of whether blogs have killed conventional websites. Shana Albert (among many others, I’m sure) added her thoughts to the question.

In the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch Joel asks Seth Godin about the controversy over Seth’s blog (the issue with not having comments and all). Seth’s response? Listen to the podcast and see. It’s definitely a worthwhile listen.

All this is to point out the comparison between blogs and conventional/static websites. What separates a blog from a website? What makes a blog a blog? Comments? RSS?

And more importantly, does it really matter?

Because personally, I don’t think it does. I think it’s just a matter of style. What do you think?