Journals Editor Joe's Fourth of July Blog Picks for 6/30

Hi everyone -- I'm picking this week's blogs, with a little help from
Journals Editor Jeff and your submissions. (I will
post my picks to the Journals Main
Page and in the Journals
Message Board in a little bit.)

It should
come as no surprise that our theme this week is July 4th
Blogs. However, I do have to admit that my interpretation of
the "Fourth of July" theme is a little... flexible, though looking
back, it's somewhat similar to last
year's angle, which was "People Who Serve."

* Our first featured pick is
Liz of Journal HeroToHero.
Her blog is a chronicle of her work with HeroToHero.us, which collects
shirts from firefighters, police, and other first responders to give to
US troops fighting abroad. In her words, "NO politics, NO pro or
antiwar...  Troops in the desert are able to say 'Hey, that's
MY home. Check 'em out!'"

Liz just completed a
30-day tour around the country, visiting first responders, collecting
shirts, and taking tons of pictures -- see the entry
that kicked off of the tour.

For more
information about what's she's doing, check out HeroToHero.us

*
Journaler Myra uses her blog, Thin
Blue Line, to report on law enforcement issues. She
highlights news stories, reports on officers killed or wounded in the
line of duty, and also provides commentary on issues affecting the
police.

Her blog's name comes from a phrase coined
by 1950s-era Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker, who called
police the "thin blue line" that separates society from
chaos.

* Maria over at Maria's
Musings is employed full-time, yet also finds time
to be a volunteer firefighter/EMT. She also created the Web site for
her volunteer fire department, the Eastern Prairie Fire Protection
District in Illinois.

* Lest we forget,
service comes in many forms, as Journaler Patty
shows us; her blog is Tales
& Tails of New York, where she shares her
stories of animal rescue & adoption in New York
City.

* And of course, sometimes it's just enough to
be nice and do things for other people; Pam over at
On
the Bright Side compiles daily quotes, trivia,
poetry, definitions and bits of inspiration that she finds on the Web,
and presents them in her blog (346 entries and counting...
)

* Lastly, since the next Space
Shuttle launch is currently scheduled for Saturday, July 1st
(the next launch attempts would be Sunday, then Tuesday and Wednesday;
so, hopefully, we'll have astronauts orbiting on July 4th), here's a
space and astronomy blog: Journaler
Stuart is a self-described amateur astronomer and
published children's science author; his Journal is Cumbrian
Sky, and features plain-spoken, easy-to-follow
discussions of space and sky-watching topics.

(Cumbria is a
county [oops, not country -- Joe] in the northwest of England, and Stuart can also be heard on
his local BBC radio show -- here's his profile on the BBC
Web site.)

Also, here are a  few
other respondents from my call
for July 4th-themed entries:

* Journaler
Beth researches craft ideas and compiles them in her
blog, Holiday
Fun and Memories

* Blogger
Stacey dug into her High
Above Courtside archives to highlight "Fist
Fights of the Founding Fathers", featuring the American
institution of ass-kicking. (Par for the course, she features some
un-gentle language, so you are
warned.)

* 
Angela over at Lil'
Country Charm has a little piece of Americana for
use as a tag graphic for your blogs, Web pages and e-mails -- check it
out.

As always, please leave a comment in the
Journals or blogs that you read. Also, don't forget, if you want your
own chance at being featured, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com.
(Please include a link to your blog.)

Lastly, in a
bit of self-indulgence: Here's to wishing best of
luck to NASA for a successful launch of Discovery
(Mission STS-121), and a safe return of the shuttle and all
its crew.

Have fun, be safe, and have a great
Independence Day holiday.

Thanks --
Joe

Tag: Guest
Editor's Picks

The Great Donut Debate? (and Embedded Polls)

Morning folks -- in a strange coincidence (or is it conspiracy?), two of my cow-orkers independently brought donuts this morning -- Krispy Kremes and Dunkin' Donuts:

Which do my AOL cow-orkers prefer? Let's see:

However, this picture here doesn't tell the whole story -- in fact, it tells a completely wrong story, since cow-orker Chris brought three boxes of Krispy Kremes (I guess that makes him "Krispy Kreme cow-orker Chris"), and that's the second box you see there (which is mostly gone at this point, from what I hear).

I like both kinds of donuts, having grown up with Dunkin Donuts (good coffee, too), and being introduced to Krispy Kreme in college, so of course, I had one of each. Though I might have another Krispy Kreme to see what a few seconds in the microwave will do (Chris says they were hot, right off the line, when he bought them).

[Update: 11:53am: I forgot to mention that AOL Money & Finance blogger Hilary Kramer blogged about Krispy Kreme's stock back in May -- Krispy Kreme had gone public with a hot stock offering back in 2000, but they've hit a few bumps since then, so she marked it as one of her "Stocks to Sell."

Also, I have a stomachache right now. -- Joe]

Anyway, here's your chance to weigh in on yet another round of the Great Donut Debate; cast your vote in the poll and leave a comment with your rationale:

The ability to embed user-created polls in AOL Journals entries is a feature that's still in beta. You can play with it right now, though there isn't a clean, easy-to-use interface around it, so you are warned:

1. Go to your Journal in beta (add "beta." to the front of your Journal's address -- for example, http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke )
   
   
2. Create or edit a Journal Entry. You'll see a link that says "Add a Poll." A poll creation window will pop up -- give your poll a title, ask a question, and provide poll choices. When you're done, click create, and it will generate a poll URL (like http://my.polls.aol.com:80/ui/showPoll.do?pollID=2_898&style=blue)
   
   Copy that poll URL -- this is the URL that you will be including in your Journal entry, using an IFRAME (which is like a window you cut into a Web page that shows content from another Web page.
   
   
3. In your Journal entry, switch to HTML editing view (that is, make sure the pulldown menu on the left side of the formatting toolbar that says "View as" reads "HTML", not "Text")
   
   
4. Add an IFRAME, using the IFRAME HTML tags -- for example, here's what I used, which is kind of the bare minimum:
   <iframe src="http://my.polls.aol.com:80/ui/showPoll.do?pollID=2_898&amp;style=blue" height="280"></iframe>
   
   

As I said, we don't have an easy-to-use interface for this yet, which
is why it's a beta, so you will need to play around with the IFRAME
tags to make your poll (and poll results) display properly. Here are
the AOL
Search results for "iframe tag" that pull up resources
& tutorials on how to use IFRAMES.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: cow-orker, dunkin donuts, krispy kreme, aol journals, Embedded Polls, Journals Beta

6/29 Journals Status Update 2

Hi folks -- an update to updates:

* Earlier Journals Problems: The earlier problems resulting in intermittent blue error screens when trying to view or comment to Journals seemed to have gone away. It may have been related to Journals traffic -- we haven't gotten an issue summary yet. Currently, Journals appears to be functioning normally.

If you are currently experiencing Journals problems, please let me know in the comments or e-mail.

* Contrary to what I blogged earlier today, I was just informed that the Journals R7 Beta was not
rolled back this morning; there were other changes made, but the R7 beta is
still intact, so you can play with embedded video. Oops. Apologies for the
misinformation.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: journals status, uncut video, aol journals, aol journals beta, r7

Try the Moblogging (Mobile Blogging) Beta

[Update 8/15: Moblogging now works with your regular Journals -- you no longer need to go to the beta version of your Journals. All the instructions are still the same, though. Thanks -- Joe]

Hi folks -- I've been meaning to blog about a feature that went into beta in the Journals R6 release a few weeks back: Moblogging.

Moblogging is just short for "Mobile Blogging" -- the ability to post to your blog using a mobile device, such as a cell phone.

Now, you can already post text entries to your Journal from your phone, if you have AIM on your cell -- just send IMs to the AOLJournals bot.

However, with moblogging, you can also send pictures (and by mid-August, video) to your blog from your cell phone.

Plus, even if you don't have a cell phone that does pictures or video (like me, I have to admit, but it's on my list), you may still find moblogging useful.

This is because moblogging uses e-mail -- you get a special e-mail address for your Journal, and when you send e-mails to it, it posts the content of the e-mail to your blog.

So if you can send e-mail from your cell phone, that's great... but it also works for anything else that can send e-mail.

This also means if you want someone else to be able to post entries to your blog (group blogging), just give them the e-mail address. When they send mail to that special e-mail address, it will post to your blog. (That's what I meant when I said earlier that moblogging was "a back door into multi-author blogging.")

Obviously, this means you want to be careful who you give your blog's e-mail address to. (Though it's really easy to change.)

Here's how moblogging works:

1. Go to the beta version of your Journal. This means you just add beta. in front of your Journal's address. For example, my blog's address is: http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/
   
   To get to the beta, I would just add beta. to the front:
   http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/
   
   
2. Click the blue "Edit Journal" button at the top.
   
   
3. In the section marked "Manage Your Journal Settings," click the link that says: "Moblogging - Post to your Journal on the Go! BETA"
   
   
4. This takes you to the Mobile Blogging settings page. On the page, you'll see a box that says "This is your Journal's e-mail address:"
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. The e-mail address in the gray box is your Journal's e-mail address: If you send e-mail to it, it will post to your blog. The subject of the e-mail becomes the title of your entry; the body of the message becomes your entry; and any photo that's attached to the e-mail (not embedded in the body) will be in the post. (Note that you can only have one photo per e-mail.)
   
   Here's what an example e-mail looks like (I'm using AOL Webmail here):
   
   
   
   
   
   And here's what it looks like after it posts:
   
   
   
   
   Once your moblogged entry is live, you can edit it just like you would a normal entry. For example, after this one published, I changed the entry title, and took out the text from my sig line and the text banner that Webmail puts on the bottom.
   
   
6. If you need to change your blog's e-mail address (for example, you gave the address to someone and you don't want them to be able to post to your blog anymore), on the Mobile Blogging settings page, click the hyperlink that says "Get a new e-mail address." When you do this, you'll get a new address, and the old one will stop working.
   

Like I said, this is all a beta test right now, so play around with it and let us know what you think.

[Incidentally, you'll note that your moblogging e-mail address is composed of two short random words, separated by a number. This is to make it easier to remember than a long number, but still be secure enough that spammers orother folks can't post to your blog. If we just used numbers, spammers could just keep sending numbers until they eventually hit a valid combination.]

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: moblogging, aol journals, beta

6/29 Journals Status (R7 Beta Rolled Back)

Hi folks -- here's where we are right now:

* Blue Screen Error Messages: Things seem to have stabilized, though there are still problems coming up around 1% of the time (which is still a lot). The Journals team is still working on the problem.

* R7 Beta Rolled Back: The R7 Beta (which I blogged about here) was rolled back early this morning (which means it hasn't been the cause of any of our trouble since this morning). [Update: 6/29, 6:03pm: Correction -- I was just informed that the Journals R7 Beta was not rolled back this morning; there were other changes made, but R7 is still intact, so you can play with embedded video. Apologies for the misinformation. -- Joe]

The beta rollback means that you can't play with embedding video in your beta Journals any more, though video that you already did embed will still play (just don't edit those entries or you will lose the video.)

I will let you know when we get dates for R7 to be installed back into beta, as well as the production target launch date, when I get that info.

In the meantime, you can still play with the Tagging Beta and the Moblogging Beta -- both had been installed in R6.

I will get my entry about the Moblogging Beta up later today.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: uncut video, moblogging, aol journals, aol journals beta, r7

Don't Miss These Entries

Hi folks -- I don't usually do this, but I posted two entries that you might have missed so I wanted to point them out.

Because I posted the two from the Beta version of my Journal (one because I had to, since I was using a new feature available only in beta, the other because I, um, forgot), it means you probably didn't get a New Entry Alert for them:

* The first is an update on the Journals Beta and the pending features that will come with the Journals R7 Release, including embedded video players.

* The second is a call for July 4th themed blogs and blog entries. You can show us your own blog or highlight someone else's -- blogger John also mentioned this, but I wanted to make sure no one missed their chance.

Thanks -- Joe

Journals R7 Release in Beta

[Note: Scroll down if you're wondering where that rumbling noise is coming from.]

So, just over two weeks since the Journals R6 Release was installed, the Journals team has pushed Journals release R7 to beta, which means you can play around with it.

Now, depending on what's going on with the other Journals issues we're currently seeing, R7 is scheduled to be installed to production tomorrow, Thursday, June 29, during the early morning install window starting at 4AM ET. [Update, 6/28, 9:34pm: The R7 install is not going to happen Thursday. This means that due to the July 4th holiday moratorium, the earliest we're going to see R7 is next week, after the holiday break. You can still play with all the features in beta, though.]

You can see the R7 features on the Journals Beta right now -- just add beta. to the front of your Journal's address. For example, for my blog, the beta address is  http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke)

R7 is a relatively small release that includes a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff -- but that doesn't mean you won't be able to see a bunch of cool features. Here's what's in beta right now that you can play with:

* Object Tags (Allows Embedded Video): I will have to do a more extensive post with step-by-step instructions, but you'll be able to embed video players from our approved list (right now AOL UnCut Video and YouTube) into your Journal entries.

Here's my Memorial Day Rolling Thunder Video hosted on UnCut Video:

Basically, you'll just cut and paste the HTML code that invokes a Flash movie player.

Upcoming versions of the UnCut Video Player will have links back to the video's page (right now, it doesn't) -- also, at a future point, it would make sense for UnCut's "Blog This" link to embed the video player for you, automatically -- right now, it just does the clickable thumbnail.

Also note that right now, the UnCut Video player autoplays on load. This can be kind of annoying -- the mid-July release of the embedded player will have autoplay off.

* User-Friendly Journal Entry URLs: Right now, the URLs (Web addresses) of individual entries are not the most user-friendly things in the world. For example, here's the direct link to my cow-orker entry: http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1121.

Now, you can't tell what the entry is about just by looking at the URL, since it's just a number.

With R7, we will be getting friendlier entry URLs -- they will automatically incorporate the date of the entry, as well as the title of the entry, into the direct link URL. For my cow-orker entry on beta, the URL is: http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/02/13/about-my-cow-orkers/1121

As you can see, the front part of the URL is the same; after "entries", though, you get the date posted, and then the title of the entry (with dashes instead of spaces -- it will truncate after a limit), followed by the entry number. (The entry number was kept at the end so that the tech folks don't have to completely rework the database).

Also, some characters (like question marks, double quotes, etc) will need to be stripped out or URL-encoded in order for the URLs to work.

Old-style entries will redirect to the new ones; also, if you change the title of your entry, it will automatically change the URL, and the old URL will redirect so it won't break (which is nice).

If you don't have a title in your entry, that part of the URL will just be"untitled."

International will also get this change.

* Moblogging: It worked, it didn't work, finally it works again and is ready to go into production. As I've been ready to say several times, moblogging is just short for "Mobile Blogging" -- the ability to post entries (with pictures) to your blog using a mobile device, such as a cell phone, by sending e-mail to a special address. I just tried it out on beta and it works, so I will publish my moblogging instructions entry after the launch.

* Additions to the HTML Whitelist: In addition to the Object tags being added to the allowed list, there will also be enhancements to the HTML Whitelist (which defines the sites you can use Javascript from or IFRAME).

Seeing as how I still haven't been able to yet get to that entry on the earlier whitelist additions (the Technorati embed widget works, some of the others don't, at least when I tried), I will have to get to this.

Anyway, as noted, I owe you step-by-step instructions on the Moblogging and Embedded Video items, though I will probably wait until they've been installed to production -- it's scheduled for tomorrow, and I will let you know if the timeline changes. [Update: As noted above, the install isn't happening until next week at the earliest.]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: uncut video, moblogging, aol journals, aol journals beta, r7

Open Issue: Journals Database Errors

Hi folks -- okay so here's where we are:

The Journals tech team has been working on a database problem that started around 6pm tonight; the problem will cause users trying to view Journal entries or post comments to get the blue error screen about 3% of the time.

Also, earlier, there was a problem that caused the admins to "fail
over" to the backup database, then "fail back" (this was what caused that "month of missing entries" that happened earlier -- those entries should be back now).

For those people who are still missing entries that were posted during the time we started having problems, I will need to check with the admins to see if those are going to be restored.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Are You 'Missing' Entries in Your Journal?

Hi folks -- I've gotten a few panicked reports from Journalers that as many as a month's worth of Journal entries are "missing" from their Journals main pages.

However, when I take a look at their Journals, I see all the entries.

This leads me to believe that something screwy is going on with Journals, but that your entries are not actually missing (that is, they're still in the database, they haven't been deleted or anything).

I have alerted the Journals tech team and will report back when I hear something.

If you are experiencing this problem, please let me know via e-mail or in the comments below, with a link to your Journal.

[Update, 7:28pm: The Journals folks "failed over" to the backup database and then "failed back" -- your missing entries should be back. They're still checking to see why this happened. Please leave a comment if you're still seeing a problem. Thanks -- Joe]

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

For the Fourth: Fireworks Photos and Your July 4th Blogs

Well, it's safe to say that most of us US-ians are gearing up for the
Fourth of July. In a twist that kind of deflates my stock joke ("They tell me the
Fourth of July is on July 4th this year"), lots of folks also get the
day off on Monday, July 3rd.

I will actually be one of those
folks, so just so you know, it's going to be a short publishing week next
week.

Fireworks Photos: If you're going to be trying to take pictures of fireworks (crazy, I
know), check out these tips on How
to Photograph Fireworks -- it's advice geared to those with
digital cameras, and it includes:

• Use a
  tripod
• Scout out locations
  beforehand
• Choose proper settings for ISO, aperture
  and shutter speed

Yes, for best results, you'll need to switch from Automatic to Manual
shooting, but it's not that big of a deal (hope you saved your camera's
instruction book, though.)


Incidentally, this particular link was featured on the Netscape
Beta, which has been reworked into a social
link-sharing site.


Show Me July 4th-Themed Blogs: Speaking of link-sharing and
July 4th, since my earlier calls for July 4th-themed Guest Editors went unheeded, I'm looking to feature at least six blogs
(or blog entries) that have a July 4th theme this week, which we'll be
doing instead of Guest Editor's picks.


If you have a blog or specific blog entry that would fit into a July Fourth theme, or want to recommend someone else's blog thtat does, tell me about them in the
comments or e-mail me directly at JournalsEditor@aol.com.


For our purposes, a "July Fourth theme" is pretty open-ended -- whatever you can come up with and reasonably justify. Examples off the top of my head include:

• Military Service
• Summer Vacation
• Lifeguards
• Patriotism
• Barbecue
• People Who Have to Work on the Fourth
• Public Service and Public Servants
• And more!
  

Priority will be given to people whose blogs we haven't seen before, but we'll look at everyone.

FYI, I'm in the process with coming up with a plan to rework the Guest
Editor's Picks and also come up with new ways to highlight
great blogs -- nothing solid yet, but we'll keep you in the loop and
ask for your suggestions and feedback.


Thanks -- Joe

Tags: independence day, july fourth, aol journals, guest editors picks

That Strange Thing in the Sky That Hurts My Eyes

Hi folks -- I saw something of a mystery coming in this morning -- it was some strange sort of bright, fiery ball in the sky. I took a picture of it:

Upon later investigation, I determined it was the "Sun," though don't be alarmed -- there's a good chance it will go back into hiding tomorrow.

FYI, looking directly at the sun, especially through the viewfinder of a camera, is not recommended.

Also FYI, this photo is coming to you courtesy of an AOL Pictures Permalink -- check out my step-by-step instructions on How to Add AOL Pictures to your Journal using Permalinks. (Although I do admit to tweaking the HTML a bit to center the image and add an ALT Tag, which is the alternate text that shows up when you rollover with your mouse -- it's meant as a placeholder while the image loads and is also read by screenreaders used by the visually impaired.)

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: AOL Pictures Permalinks, AOL Journals

Drama, Manufactured and Historical

So, I usually check in on the currently featured Guest Editor's blog over the course of the week, mostly to make sure that the Guest Editor (in this case, Kate) hasn't been driven power-mad or gone over the deep end.

What did I find? A summary of the latest episode of the British version of Big Brother 7,  followed by a four-entry series on the Mytilenian Debate, which we surely all remember from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, whereby the ancient Athenians grappled with the question of whether or not to execute the entire male population of a rebellious state (and then enslave the women and children).

Forgotten your Greek history and want to know how it turned out? Perhaps you will want to skip ahead to part four of Guest Editor Kate's entry.

Clearly, Journalers are a varied-interest bunch.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, guest editor, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Big Brother

About That Moblogging Beta...

So, I just got word from the Journals developers -- the Moblogging Beta, which I keep mentioning (like in the "good news" portion of this entry -- which I guess ain't so good anymore), doesn't work again, so there's no real point in trying to explain how you use it at the moment...

Here's what happened: The AOL Pictures team is working on some new stuff, and they pushed out another build. This build doesn't work with the Moblogging Beta (AOL Journals moblogging depends on the AOL Pictures integration to work), and because the Moblogging Beta is just that -- a beta, or test -- work to move the AOL Pictures product closer to production is more important.

So, the Mologging Beta test is on hold for now. If you do want to play around with Journals Beta features, don't forget that the Journals Tagging Beta is open for Internet Explorer Web browsers, which means that most of you can play with it now.

Don't worry, my entry about Moblogging will keep -- I will post it when we're able to play with it.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: moblogging beta, aol journals

eBay Sniping and You

From the Kind-of-Obvious Department (as well as the Everyone-Else-Is-Talking-About-It-So-I-Might-As-Well-Too Department): USA Today had an article this week about how South Korean physicists have used mathematic modeling to prove that 'sniping' on eBay auctions works as a successful bidding strategy.

For those unfamiliar with the term, 'sniping' is the practice of not bidding in an online auction until the last few seconds before it closes.

You can do it manually, but there are also programs (such as the free jBidWatcher, which I've used and like, though your mileage may vary) and online services (both free and paid) that take the tedium out of it.

Why does sniping work? If every bidder on eBay were a rational bidder (rational in the game theory sense, it's not a value judgement), it wouldn't.

The way eBay auctions work, you're supposed to enter the maximum amount you'd be willing to pay, and eBay will automatically raise your bid for you until you hit your limit (this is called proxy bidding).

The problem is that irrational bidders do silly things, like not enter their maximum bid at the start (remember, it's hidden), or get into bidding wars and go over their "maximums." This provides an opportunity for people who snipe to save money when they go against irrational bidders -- it won't really help if you go against other rational bidders. (The article also mentions how sniping can be good for sellers, too.)

The Slashdot discussion thread has some good angles on this. (FYI, on Slashdot threads and other message boards that feature moderation levels -- where users can vote or rate the quality of other people's comments -- I usually browse at a middle level, like posts rated 3 or higher on a scale of -1 to 5... it tends to filter out the flames, trolls and trash posts.)

Anyway, if you bid in online auctions, check it out.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: slashdot, ebay, sniping, jbidwatcher

CLEARED: Journals Issues Due to Rostering Problems

Hi folks -- just got the word from Ops -- the rostering problems that were affecting AOL Journals have been fixed; you should be able to view and comment in other people's Journals normally, as well as add and manage readers to your own private Journal.

Reminder: In the event of a Journals outage, since this here Journal will also be affected, you should check out the Journals Message Board for updates. (When we're not having problems, it's also a good place to meet other Journals and talk up your own blog.)

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

6/27: Journals Issues Due to Rostering Problem

Hi all -- here's some new information regarding our Journals problems this morning:

It looks like we have a rostering problem that's affecting a bunch of systems, including AOL Journals.



Rostering is the process that says when someone can or can't do
something (like, some folks can read your private Journal, and everyone
else can't).


At first, I didn't realize the extent of the problem -- as I've mentioned, I primarily use the external, standalone Firefox browser for my Web browsing, and I was able to use it to view and edit my own Journal (this doesn't seem to work for everyone).

However, when I tried to view other people's Journals, I experienced the same problems as everyone else.

Hitting refresh multiple times until you see the page you want kind of works, though I wouldn't call that a workaround.

I will continue to post updates as we get them. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

6/27 Journals Status: A Bad News, Good News Sort of Thing

Morning all -- another wet one today, though I doubt that was the cause of any trouble with Journals you may have been experiencing this morning, around 7 or 8 AM ET. Journals was apparently down -- I am waiting to hear from the tech guys and will let you know when I do.

We're back up now (as you can see), though I see that we are still having a problem with Private Journals -- private Journalers are currently unable to Add or Manage Readers to their Private Journals, getting the blue error screen.

[Update, 11:01AM -- It looks like AOL in-client users and some others are still experiencing problems trying to access Journals main pages. It looks like a rostering problem. The tech team is working on it.

In the meantime, I am able to update my Journal and view other Journals using a standalone browser (I use Firefox, but I also tried the external Microsoft Internet Explorer browser -- here's how you use a standalone Web browser as a workaround) -- Joe]

I've notified the tech folks and will let you know when I hear back.

That's the Bad News. The Good News is that the Moblogging Beta, which I was originally going to blog about on Friday, is now fixed.

In proof that some significant chunk of the universe is against me, the part of the AOL Pictures/AOL Journals integration that makes Moblogging (Mobile Blogging, the ability to update your blog with text & pictures, via your cell phone & e-mail), broke on Friday.

That problem was now fixed, so the Moblogging Beta should now work. I will show you how as soon as we get these other problems squared away.

Please let me know if you are experiencing other problems with your Journal.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Moist Monday

Hi folks -- greetings from a moist Monday. Make that downright sodden, as it's been raining for most of the weekend, and has in fact caused flooding problems up and down the East Coast, with more rain on the way.

I don't have any good pictures to share of local conditions, but check out the CNN story for all sorts of submerged car goodness, as well as stories of how different parts of the federal government based in DC are all sorts of shut down.

Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 6/23

Evening, all. Here are the new Guest Editor's Picks, as posted to the Journals Main Page and announced in the Journals Message Board:

Guest Editor Kate is an Irish wife & mom living in Scotland. She started out as a scientist, and now focuses on humanities and writing. See her "favourite" blog picks (a few of Kate's picks feature a naughty word or two in an entry, nothing too horrible):

* A Couple of Nomads
* Words Just Fall Out
* Weightwatchers Watch This
* The Mad, Mad World of Peregrine Arkwright
* My Life But Not as You Know It...
* The Paramedic's Diary

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Thanks -- Joe
Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Stormy Weather Ahead (Plus, Sidebar Material)

Gee, this looks like it's going to be fun:

7-Day Weather Forecast for Sterling, VA

Keep in mind that weather forecasts are generally worthless outside of three days (except if you live someplace with really consistent weather); people just like seeing all seven days.

Still no word on the Moblogging Beta, which is definitely hosed right now.

I will get this week's Guest Editor's picks up later today, so stay tuned.

Also, a reminder -- check out the links in my right sidebar for "How To" instructions and tutorials on some of the more common issues and problems that Journalers run in to.

For example, I've gotten e-mails this week from a few different Journalers who've run into problems where something in one of their entries ended up making their Journal really wide -- I have an entry dedicated specifically to that in my sidebar: How To: Find What's Making Your Blog Too Wide.

If you think of a topic that might make good material for a helpful sidebar entry, please let me know.

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: AOL Journals Tips

About That Moblogging Entry I Promised...

Folks -- I was planning to do an entry tonight talking about Moblogging (Mobile Blogging -- the ability to post pictures, text, etc. to your blog using a mobile device, like a cell phone). AOL Journals Moblogging is in public beta right now, but apparently the beta isn't working for me at the moment.

I have to ask the tech folks to take a look to see if there's a problem with the beta or if I'm just doing something wrong (I know Product Manager Susan has been moblogging photos to her private test blogs for some time now) -- I'll finish and post my moblogging entry when everything is resolved (hopefully tomorrow.)

Thanks -- Joe

Jakob Nielsen on Blogs vs. Newsletters

Hi folks -- here's a bit of contrarian opinion about companies, blogs and RSS feeds in this week's Wall Street Journal (link via Slashdot, which as always, has an interesting discussion thread) from usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

Mr. Nielsen is an influential, but also very polarizing, personality when it comes to Web page design. For example, if you look at his Web site, you'll see that it's pretty much all text, with minimal formatting.

(I'm a big fan of text, and I do agree that a lot of designers get carried away out of touch from users. However, I'm not a purist like Mr. Nielsen. In fact, I think his site's main page is amazingly annoying, for all its simplicity and speed.)

Anyway, here are a few tidbits from his Wall Street Journal interview, where he gives his opinions on how companies use technology like RSS to talk to users and customers:

• Most people still don't know what "RSS" is. "News feeds" is a better term (a feed lets you subscribe to something; your blog entries, your eBay auctions, your sports scores -- all of these things can have feeds, which you can subscribe to and read in a feed reader. It's a good way to organize information from a bunch of different sources.)
  
  
• There's a place for traditional newsletters; blogs aren't perfect for everything.
  
  
• Blogs are conversations... but only for your most fanatic readers. For more periodic communications, a newsletter on a regular publishing schedule might be better.

Personally, I think Mr. Nielsen is taking a very limited view how companies can use blogs, seeing them strictly as a one-way distribution mechanism ("one-to-many", to use the jargon).

However, that loses the importance of what makes blogs "conversations" -- interactivity; listening to users's feedback, responding to their suggestions, and participating in the broader discussion going on in the world (through comments, links to other blogs, etc.).

If you just want to have a newsletter; well, just have a newsletter. Buteven then, there are still advantages to the blog format -- searchable archives, primarily.

Also, with things like New Entry alerts, the line between a blog entry and a newsletter gets kind of blurred, anyway. And the ability to subscribe to a blog's feed means that if you're already using a feed reader, you can just add that to your routine, instead of going off to e-mail.

Just some food for thought.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: Jakob Nielsen, newsletters, corporate blogging

Adding Photos to Your Journal With AOL Pictures Permalinks

So, back in October 2005, I did an entry explaining why you shouldn't add photos directly to your blog using AOL Pictures.

I'm not going to recreate the entry -- essentially, at the time, AOL Pictures wasn't designed to support hosting of pictures for Web pages. If you tried to add photos to your blog outside of the AOL Pictures integration, it would work for a while, but eventually it would "break."

Well, you can forget all that now: Go crazy with hotlinking pictures that are in your AOL Pictures albums. Here's how.

A couple of weeks ago, the AOL Pictures team instituted permalinks, which means you can now easily include AOL Pictures photos in your Journals -- the big kind, not the gallery thumbnails with the border.

Here's the description of permalinks from the AOL Pictures team's blog entry:

"Essentially the Permalink feature gives you a direct URL to an individual picture.  You can then embed this picture anywhere you want to -- on your blog, in an ebay auction page,  on a web page (like hometown, myspace), in an email."

Bonus: Your AOL Pictures photo storage space is unlimited -- if you use AOL Pictures for your Web storage, it doesn't count against your 100 MB of Web storage per Screen Name.

Here's how it works with your AOL Journal:

1. Create an album and upload pictures to AOL Pictures.
   
   
2. Select the photo that you want to put in your blog. You'll see a hyperlink that says Permalink -- click the link:
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. When you click Permalink, a box will pop up with the Web address (URL) of the picture. This is where the picture "lives." Click the green "Select" button, which will highlight the URL:
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Copy the URL of the photo to your clipboard. You can do this by either right-clicking and selecting "Copy", or using the keyboard command Ctrl+C (hitting the Control key and the letter C at the same time).
   
   
5. Go to your Journal. Create a new entry or edit an old one. Click the Add Image button -- it's the little camera icon on the right of the tool bar:
   
   (Note: You can only click the camera button when you're in "Text" editing mode -- the pulldown in the left of the formatting toolbar will say "View as Text".)
   
   
6. In the box that comes up, paste the URL you copied from before. (Either right-click with your mouse and select Paste, or use the keyboard command Ctrl+V (Control and the letter V)
   
   
7. Hit "OK", and you should see the photo in your blog:
   
   
   
   
   

That's it. If you've used another image host like Photobucket or Imageshack with your Journal, the process is pretty similar.

Also, as the AOL Pictures guys write, you have your choice of several sizes. Right now, you have to fiddle with the URL; for example, here's the direct link to my example photo:

http://links.pictures.aol.com/pic?id=4e607JbBEZLErHOc03-PRMjgOisi-MHfY1lOv4xQp5Fd3Ig=&size=l

See the "size=l"? (L is for "Large"). That's the large size, up to 768x512:

If you change size=1 to size=m (M is for Medium), you will get the medium size, up to 384x256:

Or, size=t -- (T is for Thumbnail) -- gives you up to 160x106:

And lastly, size=s (S is for Small Thumbnail), up to 96x64.

It's not the most convenient thing in the world, but it's a start.

Anyway, play around with the AOL Pictures permalinks, and see what you think. The AOL Pictures folks are working on a lot of stuff and they want to hear from you, so see what's new and check out their blog: The AOL Pictures Blog.

[Update, 6/22: Journaler Csandhollow reports that animated gifs you upload to AOL Pictures won't display the animation, so if you want to put animated gifs in your Journal, you'll need to continuing using your Web storage space, via File Manager, SFTP, AOL FTP or a standalone FTP client over your AOL connection. Thanks for the report.]

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Pictures, permalinks

This Is Not an Update

Hi folks -- sorry for not posting yesterday, we had an offsite meeting for a good chunk of the afternoon -- I didn't think there would be any connectivity, so I didn't bring my laptop (mistake).

I will have some hopefully relevant and not too dry stuff up later today.

Thanks -- Joe

Blogging for Fun and Profit (or, "Man [Behind] for the Dixie Chicks")

Following up on my last entry, here's a blogger who's managing to combine both business and pleasure in his blogging: an article in today's Washington Post [use BugMeNot.com to read], profiles blogger Junichi Semitsu, who's spending all summer on the road as embedded tour blogger for the Dixie Chicks.

When he's not touring with the Chicks, Mr. Semitsu is a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, though he also has a "pop & politics" blog over at Poplicks.com

According to the article, he has a free hand to talk about whatever he wants, though his posts are vetted for privacy concerns.

In a side note, the photo used in the Post article is cropped a little... differently than on his blogs. This is because he's wearing a black t-shirt that says (ahem):

"Man Ass for the Dixie Chicks"

As they say, nice work if you can get it.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Dixie Chicks, Junichi Semitsu, poplicks

Blogging for Business & Pleasure

Hi folks -- I'm still catching up on a bunch o' stuff from over the weekend, so here are two quick tidbits on blogging, one for business and one for pleasure:

* First, business (always business before pleasure, right?): Blog The Undersigned has a good summary piece on "Why Business Blogs Are Important."

As I've noted before, companies that blog have a separate set of considerations and challenges when it comes to blogging (as opposed to regular, individual bloggers), and this article lists out some of the reasons why blogging can be good for companies.

* Now, for pleasure (mine, mostly): Wired columnist Lore Sjöberg (whom I've blogged about before) wrote about "You and Your LiveJournal and You", which is list of Dos and Don'ts written by and for the stereotypical LiveJournal user. For example:

"Don't reject friends. Seriously, unless someone has killed someone you know, or said mean things about you personally, it's best to keep them on your friends list at all times. If you started discriminating, you might be known as the person with only 34 LiveJournal friends, and everyone will know the truth about you."

Of course, as anyone familiar with his other stories knows, this is all written as satire (or is it parody? I was never good with the definitions), though it's kind of funny to see the commenters to the article who don't quite get the sarcasm.

Also, though this article is written specifically at LiveJournalers (as with many stereotypes, there are bits that are kind of accurate, and others not so much, and there are always exceptions), there's a lot in the article that's pretty transferable to other blogging/social networking sites.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: corporate blogging, livejournal, lore sjoberg

New Guest Editor's Picks for 6/16 (Plus, a Sneak Peek at Next Week)

Hi everyone. Here are the new Guest Editor's Picks, as posted to the Journals Main Page and announced in the Journals Message Board:

This week's Guest Editor, Penny, is an Ohioan (by way of Long Island) who likes reading, Van Gogh and her iPod. She's also a cancer survivor. Stop by her blog, Penny's Place and see her top six blog picks:

* Photo Trek
* Head Clutter Heart Whispers...
* Coastal Comfort
* The Braswell Blog
* Katie Jane
* Wishing and Hoping, Praying and Believing

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog.

I'm still looking for Guest Editor candidates who are interested in doing a July 4th theme, so please drop me a line if that sound like you.

Also, there's a lot of stuff that I need to get to next week; here's a sneak peek at upcoming topics:

• AOL Pictures: Permalinks, unlimited photo storage space, and Journals -- What it means and how to use it.
• Moblogging: Mobile Blogging is in Beta -- How to send pictures and more to your blog from a phone (plus, a back door into multi-author blogging)
• Following up on the HTML Whitelist
• More on UnCut Video
• And of course, much, much more
  

Have a great weekend, everyone, and Happy Father's Day.

Thanks -- Joe
Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

'Pearls' on Bloggers and Comments

Check out today's Pearls Before Swine comic (excerpted below), which features another blogging theme:

I won't spoil the punch line for you, but as our friend Homer Simpson says, "it's funny because it's true!"

This reminds me of an e-mail conversation I had last month with my cow-orker Kenny Hill of the Worth Repeating blog, which covers Gay & Lesbian themes (as well as American Idol, in season).

Kenny whin...er, wrote: "My Idol comments are down this week. Is insecurity a standing side-effect of blogging?"

Here was my response:

"Choose the answer you prefer most:

1. It's kind of a chicken/egg thing.
2. Correlation is not causation.
3. You get used to it once you embrace your irrelevance.
4. All of the above."

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: Pearls Before Swine, Kenny Hill, blogger's comments

Joe Explains Social Link Sharing Sites (Except Not Boring This Time)

Morning, folks -- so here's followup on the entry I did yesterday on social link sharing sites like the new Netscape Beta.

By reading the comments, I can see that I wasn't quite getting through to people. This is because my explanation, while technically-sound and expertly-crafted, was also really, really boring. And dry. Bloodless, even.

Folks -- don't let all my boring "user/editor moderation model" stuff fool you -- with social link sites, it's pretty simple. Do you like it when Jay Leno features funny headlines? Or when the local news does their "Weird News" segment? Social link sharing sites do all that and more, plus they're faster and cover a lot more ground. They work like this:

1. All users can submit links to Web sites they like, hot news articles, odd stories, good blogs, funny videos, etc.
2. All users (or in some cases, a select group of moderators) can give submissions they like a vote or "thumbs-up"
3. The submissions that get the most votes get pushed up higher (like to the front page or top spot).
4. Repeat.

(Each submitted item also has a comments area -- in most cases, users can also vote on other people's comments -- again, with some variation of the "thumbs up/thumbs down".)

Okay, you might say, that's how they work. So what? Why would I want to visit one?

Here's why: Social link sharing sites are FUN.

This is because you have hundreds or thousands of people submitting links to stories that are weird, funny, stupid, stupid-but-funny, interesting, heartbreaking, useful -- any combination of those and more.

Plus, people who want their submissions to get seen and voted on put a little work into them, trying to craft a funny, attention-grabbing headline, or finding something that's just really neat that people might not know they might like, with an angle that will make them want to check it out.

Here's a kind of lame example from me: There was a USA Today article that I would have missed if I hadn't seen it on Digg yesterday -- it was about an 18-year-old NASCAR driver who got his start playing driving video games and racing go-carts.

There are few things I pay attention to less than NASCAR, but it was an interesting story.

So there's the whole serendipity factor. It's a great way to procrastinate, or find something new.

As I used to say, "You're not bored... you just need better bookmarks."

More importantly, social link sharing sites give you control. If you only want to see the highest-voted stuff on the front page, that's fine.

However, if you want to burrow through the lower-voted stuff to find a diamond in the rough, you can do that too. And if you want, you can also submit your own stories that you think people might be interested in and see how people react.

It's a different way to gather and show off content -- it depends on lots of people submitting stories and voting on them, instead of just a few people at the top.

Go to Fark.com, slashdot.org, digg.com, newsvine.com, or www.beta.netscape.com to see this in action (each uses a slightly different angle and a different community flavor, but it's all about the links.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Netscape, Social Link Sharing, Digg, Slashdot, Newsvine, Fark

About the Latest Weekend Assignment

I just published the Journals Main Page promo for blogger John's latest Weekend Assignment #116: Things We Share With Dad. (Just in time for Father's Day, of course.)

Can I just say that one of the reasons I like working with John is that he gives me such good material to play with?

He provided the photo -- I just wrote the headline and copy.

Please note that this is funny only because we know (well, we're pretty sure), that blogdaughter Athena is not actually a patricidal maniac.

Also, she's still a little too... little to smother blogger John with a pillow.

(Unless he was drugged first, of course.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: AOL Journals, John Scalzi, Father's Day, Weekend Assignment

Social Link Sharing and The New Netscape Beta

Hi folks -- so a bunch of sites broke the news last night that the new Netscape Beta site launched as a kind of Web 2.0 social links/news site:

http://www.beta.netscape.com/

There are several different kinds of social link sites; all are centered around users submitting links; in editor/moderator models (like Fark or Slashdot), editors associated with the site select items that are featured.

In the user-moderated models (like digg.com, more on that in a second), users vote on submissions, and the higher-voted or more popular items percolate up to the top.

What's going on in the Netscape Beta is kind of a blended model, with "anchors" editorially picking user-selected and -voted stories to highlight in a "Recommended" section. (Anchors will also add follow-up content, participate in round-the-clock live chats and more.)

I won't pretend to try to capture all the thoughts about this floating around the Web, other than to pick out a few items.

TechCrunch (a blog that follows Web 2.0 stuff) called it a "Digg-killer," to which I would say "Don't believe the hype."

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I reference Digg.com a lot -- it's pretty useful when it comes to surfacing links.

And of course, the comparisons of the new Netscape Beta to Digg are inevitable -- it was very obviously inspired (many might say "stolen") from Digg.

Digg users are going pretty ape[stuff] over this in the Digg comment thread [content warning] -- I think they may be taking the "Digg-killer" thing way too literally.

Honestly, it's a big Internet out there, and there's plenty of room for all kinds of social link sites. For example, Digg is very tech-focused (though not in the same way that Slashdot is), and it also has a reputation, fair or not, of not having the most-useful discussion threads.

Blogger, writer and TV & movie personality Wil Wheaton shows up early in the Digg comment thread; he says "This isn't a zero-sum situation...."

No one's going to force anyone to use the new Netscape, and I wouldn't expect a lot of crossover between the Netscape audience and the Digg audience. Diversity is good; competition spurs innovation, and to complete the cliché trifecta, a rising tide lifts all boats -- in other words, this exposes a lot more people to social link sites.

[Bonus tidbit: Mr. Wheaton also writes for the Weblogs, Inc. blog Card Squad -- that almost makes us cow-orkers.]

Mike Davidson of social news site Newsvine expresses this sentiment a lot better than I in a post on the Newsvine blog -- raising awareness of new developments in social media is a good thing.

For other takes on this around the Web, see Jason Calacanis's blog, the Slashdot thread... oh, heck, here are some search results on "Netscape":

• BlogPulse
• Google News
• Sphere
• Technorati

Anyway, I've created a profile on the Netscape Beta (their registration is independent of any AOL or other screen names), though I haven't done anything with it yet. I will have to play around.

If you play with the Netscape Beta, feel free to leave a comment here, or over at the Netscape Beta Feedback Form.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Netscape, Social Link Sharing, Digg, Wil Wheaton, Slashdot, Newsvine

I'm Sorry, Britney...

Here's a bit of fluffy fun from the folks over at the AOL Comedy Viral Video Blog:

Apparently, the teaser clips of Britney Spears's pending interview with Matt Lauer (you can get a sneak peak at TV's Top 5 -- 6/15 Edit: The interview isn't there any more, sorry)  have got the guys and gals over there feeling so overwhelmed by guilt for the nonstop ragging, gossiping, stalking and thinking she's an bad mommy, that they feel the need to publicly atone.

So, inspired by SorryEverybody.com, they've starting posting photo apologies to Britney.

Here's my contribution:

(The "Please Don't Crash Journals Again," of course, refers to the Britney-based Journals outage back in April.)

Want to post your own photo apology to Britney? Post a photo (say, to your blog? Yeah, that would work.) and leave your URL in the Viral Video blog's comments (not here).

Sorrowfully -- Joe

Tag: Sorry Britney

Flag Day & Some Photo Tips

Hi folks -- blogger John beat me in getting up a Flag Day entry (in a big way, since I got sidetracked by the Journals entry edit problems this afternoon) but here's a shot of the flags outside AOL HQ in luverly Dulles, VA:

Flags: US, Virginia, AOL

As anyone who knows U.S. flag etiquette knows, in a group like that, the U.S. flag should be displayed on its own right, which this one is (to an observer from outside).

On a photo note, I've talked about the advantages of digital cameras before, not the least of which is you can keep shooting and reviewing photos until you find the one that's right.

In this case, I took 10 photos before I found the right one, mostly because there wasn't enough wind to show the flags.

Why You Should Resize Photos
Now, with my camera settings, the original photo downloaded from my camera was 1600 pixels high x 1200 wide. This is really big, especially if you're just going to use it in your blog. For a three-column Journal, 450 pixels wide is about as big as you can go without causing a horizontal scroll (most monitors are 800x600).

The original pic was also 447 K, which is big for a single photo, even in the broadband world.

(Why take it so big in the first place? If you have the storage space, it's always best to shoot big, because you can always crop and resize a big pic later; you can't really make a small photo bigger and still have it look good.)

Now, you can technically mash a huge photo like this into a smaller space without cropping or resizing it, but it's not a good idea. As the saying goes, it's like "putting 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound bag."

For example, when you try to scrunch a photo down without actually resizing it (you can do this by adjusting the HTML image height and width attributes to say, "Even though this picture is really 800x600, squish it down to a space that's only 600x450"), it's going to look jaggy.

Here, I did a minimal amount of editing of the photo, then cropped it to focus on the flags, and resized it to 450x600.

JPEG Image Quality vs. File Size
JPEG is the type of image file most usually associated with photographs. (You'll typically see GIFs for graphics, and of course animated GIFs.)

At the default Photoshop "High" setting for JPEGs (on a scale of 1-100, "High" is 60 -- the higher the number, the better the quality, but the bigger the file size), it was just 64 K. (At quality 100, the photo would be 120K, double the size.)

I may not know a lot of math, but 64 K is a lot better than the original 447 K. It's faster for you to upload, and it's faster for your viewers to download.

Of course, if you save a JPG photo at too low a quality, you will see JPG "compression artifacts" -- kind of squiggly, jagged, blocky areas on the photo. Photoshop and other photo editing programs often give you a way of comparing different quality levels, so you can find the smallest file size that gets you the best-looking image.

Enought photo tech talk. Here's one more of the flag photos, which I like since it tells a kind of visual joke:

Get it?

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL, Flag Day, Photo Tips, AOL Journals

Fixed: Editing Journals Entries

Okay folks -- the problems with editing Journals entries & displaying
comments on Journals main pages have been fixed.

This should also fix the AOL Pictures/YGP issues some folks were seeing (please let me know in the comments if you're still having problems).

 

Right now, it looks like that the security fix that the Journals team added this
morning had (was?) an incomplete build, so it broke some of the
Javascript-dependent features on Journals.

 

The team rolled back the fix, so your Journal should function normally
now.

Of course, this means that if you had the original problem of bits of your Journal's description text duplicated in your header, you'll see that again. If that's the case, the previously-identified workaround applies -- use single-quotes instead of double quotes.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for reporting the problems and helping us find a workaround.
 

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Workaround for Editing/Deleting Existing Entries

Hi folks -- the Journals tech team is still working on the problem of editing your entries from your Journal's main page.

In the meantime, Journaler Knightbek (Bill, The Wildcat) found a workaround: You should be able to edit/delete existing entries by going directly to the entry (by clicking the "Link to This Entry" direct link) and clicking the edit (or delete) button from there.

 

We seem to be having problems with some of the Javascript-related functions on
Journals's main pages.

More info as we get it.

Thanks to Bill for the workaround.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Problems Editing Journals Entries (Plus, a Fix)

Hi folks -- I've been getting reports that Journalers are unable to edit or delete existing entries.

I've confirmed this behavior and have passed this along to the Journals team for investigation and fixing.

Editing your Journal (like changing your settings) or adding new entries appears to be unaffected.

In the meantime, just do what I do: I never make any missteaks.

In other news, the problem with double quotes in the Journals description text causing duplicates of the text to show up in some people's headers should be fixed (it was installed this morning).

I don't know if the two items are related.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Status of R6 Fixes (AOL Pictures and Double Quotes)

Hi folks -- here's the current status of our open items from the Journals R6 Release:

* AOL Pictures/YGP Fix for AOL UK and France Journalers -- the AOL Pictures integration with AOL Journals broke when R6 was installed. The fix for this will be installed tonight -- scratch that, it was just installed-- it was a "rolling bounce", so there weren't be any widespread outages.

If you are an AOL UK or France Journaler and you were having problems with AOL Pictures, please try giving it another shot.

* Double Quotes Breaking Journals Descriptions: This is the problem I mentioned previously where using double quotes and line breaks in your Journal's description would cause a duplicate chunk of text to show up in your blog's header. The fix for this will be installed during the day tomorrow (Wednesday).

You might not think this is a huge deal, especially since there's a workaround for the problem (use single quotes instead of double quotes); however, it's a priority fix for the Journals team because this problem has other potential impacts.

* Journals Main Page Design Tweaks: This is not, strictly speaking, part of the Journals R6 release (actually, it has nothing to do with R6), but we decided that now would be a good chance to clean up the look of the Journals main page (http://peopleconnection.aol.com/journals), which was starting to develop gaps and holes in the layout. (My fault, of course.)

We pretty much just re-arranged the elements of the page to make them fit better. The main Dynamic Lead promo area now uses Flash, which is not my favorite thing but it seems to work.

Also, we're currently featuring the feeds from three Editors' Blogs in the tabbed module directly below the Journals widget.

In addition, we've got a Featured Member Feed in the lower right section of the page -- the feed module pulls headlines directly from your blog's RSS or Atom Feed. As noted, we're trying to find new ways to feature more of your publicly-available Journals content, and using Feed display modules is just one way to do that.

There are also a few other single-column modules at the bottom of the page that we will be using to feature various items, including member Journals, news and items from the big ole sphere o' blogs, Journals-related features and tips, etc.

Plus, the page now has some room to grow vertically, whereas before it was getting to be very uneven.

Because the page is modular and easy to update, we will be playing around with different layouts to suit the programming features and content that we're trying to cover.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Problem With Duplicate Description Text Showing Up in Header

Hi all -- a few of you have sent in reports of portions of your Journal's description text being duplicated and showing up at the top of your Journal. The following are examples from Journals The Mean Streets
and The Strawberry Patch:

The Journals tech folks have identified the cause of this problem -- it's happening if you use double quotes ("these") in your Journal's description. (Actually, it involves double quotes and line breaks -- I use double quotes in my Journal's description, but not line breaks, so I'm not experiencing this problem here.)

The team has logged this as a bug (so thanks for your reports) and will be working on a fix that involves "escaping" double quotes that show up in your Journal descriptions.

In the meantime, until this is fixed, here's the workaround: Either remove the double quotes, or replace them with single quotes. (You can even use 2 single quotes in the place of a double quote: '' vs. ").

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status

Journals R6 Release Successfully Installed

Hi, folks -- the Journals R6 Release was successfully launched this morning during the install window (4-6AM ET).

The install went pretty smoothly (or so they tell me -- I was asleep), though there are still some problems, including open issues with adding photos from Hometown and AOL Pictures/YGP for UK users.

The tech folks are working on this one -- in the meantime, you can still add photos via the Web-based File Manager (here's my step-by-step instructions on adding photos with File Manager).

If you encounter any problems with Journals, please let me know in the comments and I'll make sure the tech folks see your reports.

I previously wrote about the features in R6; in summary:

* The most visible change for US users is the new AOL Journals header with the integrated Journals Search box.

It works pretty well, though over at blogger John's By The Way..., Journaler Teeisme57 notes that the search results also pick up keywords from the titles of the Journal entries that show up in the right sidebar navigation.

Also in the comments, Journaler Deslily isn't keen on the extra vertical space added by the integrated Search box. Maybe in a future release we can make the Search box  appear/disappear using Ajax or something.

On an FYI, I will note that "Search This Journal" won't return anything on a Private Journal, which is a feature (or at least works as designed), not a flaw (since the content of your Private Journals is not spidered by the search crawler).

* You can now use HTML Table Tags in your entry (though AOLer Josephmaaz is evidently not a fan of this practice [scroll to the comments]) -- using tables to force specific layouts is kind of a hack -- it's one those silly things we users do to make things look pretty, instead of paying attention to official specifications and definitions.

He also has some other suggestions for Journals in his comments, which are quite long.

* The HTML Whitelist has been updated (a whitelist is an "allowed" list, versus a blacklist, which is a "disallowed" list); AOL Journals is now allowing the use of Javascript to enable certain specific features by third-party providers (you and AOL are the first two parties -- a third party is someone else).

In order to use these third-party features, you will need to visit their sites, read their documentation, register (if needed), then snag the bit of Javascript they give you and include it in your entry or All About Me area (it depends on what you're trying to do).

I will need to try all these out myself in my blog and do a more detailed post about this (though you'll still need to do your research), but for right now, the features you can use include:

• BlogMap
• Del.icio.us Tag Cloud & Linkroll
• StatCounter
• SiteMeter
• Tailrank
• Technorati Embed

We're trying to get a sampling of the key functionalities that people are interested in; the whitelist should be expanded with each release.

In addition to the Javascript side of the whitelist, we've also added to the list of sites you can include in an IFRAME; the current list is:

• Flickr
• Gabbly
• Technorati Favorites

IFRAMEs are kind of an advanced HTML, so if you don't know what all this means, don't worry about it. With this and the Javascript stuff, the team is working on ways to make it easier integrating content from other sites into your Journal.

* Tagging Beta: The tagging beta test now works for Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, so please play around with it. Here's my entry where I explain about how to use the tagging test.

* International Journals Status: As noted, banner ads have been added to the tops of AOL Canada and Mexico Journals, though this is still being looked at.

Also, International Journals have finally gotten the Alerts length fix -- a while back, it was determined that AOL Journals was sending too much information to the AOL Alerts system for new entry and new comment alerts.

If the length of your entry or comment was over Alerts's limit, the Alert would break in nasty ways (either failing to deliver orgoing to the wrong template).

With the Alerts length fix, delivery of new entry and new comment alerts should be much better.

In terms of features, International Journals are still behind US Journals; International Journalers will have gotten the updates to the HTML whitelist and table tags, but that's pretty much it from this release.

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I still need to get the status of a few things (including the Moblogging beta), and I'll be updating the layout of the  Journals main page later today, but I wanted to get this post out now.

As noted, please leave comments with problem reports, whitelist suggestions and other feedback.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status, Journals R6, AOL Journals Beta