New Guest Editor's Picks for 9/30

Hi everybody. As posted in the Journals Message Board, our new
Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our
Guest Editor this week is Jodi, a mom of four who
likes to write, loves daisies and has 96
other things that you can learn about her. Her featured blog
is Looking
Beyond the Cracked Window, and you can see Jodi's top blog
picks in her blog
entry:

* Tidbits
*
Seriously,
Though
* Carpe
Diem
* Separation
Anxiety
* Sugar,
Spice and Everything Nice
* One-Way
Passage

Jodi's chose a theme of
autumn, though it's more of a feeling than a season
-- one of comfort, transition and change.



In other news, the tech folks put in a fix for the intermittent problem
of comment alerts not getting delivered, though I'm
still getting problem reports so it looks like they'll have to keep
looking.





Also, it looks like we'll be installing a fix next week to make

counters more reliable; I will tell you more about it when we get

closer to it.





Talk to you later, have a great weekend.



Thanks. -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Random Web Link Roundup

Hi folks...I originally wrote this in an e-mail to some folks here:

"Here are some Web links of interest that I don't know yet if I'm
going

to be able to use, but that you might find interesting." 



Then, later: "Hrm,
I guess this is a pretty bloggy format, so I guess I will post it. But you can
use it too."


Anyway, here you go:



* milliondollarhomepage.com

- Brit uni (as in university) student selling pixels
on this page at $1

per pixel (10x10, or 100 pixel mininum); he's already cleared over

$200K. (He has a blog, too.)



* www.HappyNews.com -
Nothing but shiny, happy news for people who can't
deal with reality. Read about it in Gawker, who could barely stop gagging. Not
sure if this is a put-on or not.



* www.ps260.com/molly/SHINING%20FINAL.mov
- Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'

(you know, "Redrum! Redrum!") remixed into a movie trailer for a

parenting comedy. It's a 9-megabyte movie
download...here is a mirror

site: http://waxy.org/random/video/shining_redux.mov
-- (http://waxy.org/links is where I read
about it.)



* www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1043


- "You really know you're a techno-geezer when..." Computerworld

columnist Robert Mitchell blogs about how different we are from young

folks who only know a world with the Web, cell phones and IMs. (Hey, you

kids....get offa my lawn!)



* www.boingboing.net/2005/09/29/thirty_buck_toy_amp_.html
- Boing-Boing entry about a $30 amplifier that kicks
the snot out of amps 10 times the price.

If you
see these links anywhere else on AOL...well, you can say that you saw
it here first. Thanks. -- Joe

AOLJournals Bot Is Back

Hi folks...the AOLJournals bot is back; our tech
folks contacted

the bot tech folks, who bounced (or rebooted) the bot (would that just

be "rebotted"?). It's working now.



If you haven't tried updating your AOL Journal or AIM Blog via IM yet,

it's pretty neat. It's most useful if you're away
from your regular

computer, or if you're using a cell phone with AIM or other mobile

device, but it can also be convienient for quick hit
entries from your

computer.

Here's how it works:


1. In your IM client, open an IM to screen name
AOLJournals (this goes for AIM bloggers, as well).
For you lazy people, you can click these links to pop an IM to the bot:

AIM Users | AOL
Users

(You can add
AOLJournals to your Buddy List, just like any other
screen name.)

2. Type a message, four words or
longer. This will be the body of your entry. Send
the IM:








3. If you have multiple Journals (under the screen name you're IMing

from), it will ask you to choose which Journal you want to publish
to:








(You'll see that I use the word "foo" a lot when I need text for a
placeholder or example. Here's the Wikipedia
entry on "foo".)





4. If you want to give the entry a subject (if you don't, it will say

"Untitled", which isn't all that helpful or attractive), send another
IM starting with subject: (you need the colon)
followed by your title:








5. You can also add music: and
mood: the same way. For

moods, you have to stick with our mood options -- it

will tell you what they are if you type a non-supported mood (we know

you want free-form mood entry). You can just type "help" to see the

list of commands:








6. If you send another IM with more words, it will ask you if you want

to add them to  your current entry, or start a new
one.








So that's how you use IMs to publish to your Journal.





The tech folks are also working on alternate ways to publish to your

Journal, though I don't have anything solid to report right now. I'll

keep you updated as things progress.  Thanks. -- Joe

AOLJournals Bot Is Down

Hi folks...looks like the AOLJournals bot is down
(the IM robot

that lets you post entries to your blog via IM); when you try to send

it an IM, it returns the message, "I'm sorry. AOL Journals isn't here

right now. Try again later."





I've alerted the tech folks and will post an update when I get more
info.





Thanks to Jimmy, The Stupidsheet Guy, for the
report.  -- Joe

Blogging Hurricane Rita

Boy, didn't we just go through this? I'm having a bad case of
deja vu, here, though I'm sure not as much as the
residents of New Orleans, who are experiencing more flooding.

First

off, we might as well be proactive and get set to help those folks who

are being affected by Rita (as well as continuing to help those hurt
by

Hurricane Katrina) -- please, if you're able:

Donate
Now

If

there was any doubt, Hurricane Katrina pretty much proved the value of

blogs (and the Web in general) as a way to spread information in times

of crisis, so we have a pretty good model to
follow.

* Blog Herald has a list of good
Rita resources (blog-based and otherwise); instead
of stealing their list, I'm going to link off to it.



* One of their commenters also shares a Google Maps-based track of Rita (though
they add a disclaimer that for an official track,
folks should go right to the source, which is the National Hurricane
Center.



* Here's the Flickr photo group for "Hurricane
Rita"



* As before, here are some canned searches

on "Hurricane Rita" on some of the more promiment blog search engines

so you can find your own blog content. Here are some of the usual

suspects:

Feedster | Technorati | BlogPulse

In addition,
you can try Truth Laid Bear | Daypop |
Findory | Blogdigger | IceRocket

There

are a lot of blog search engines and lists out there -- the trick is
to

find one that you you feel consistently gives you the results you're

looking for, and use that as a start.

* The
Wall Street Journal, as part of their free
offerings, has a Storm News Tracker, which looks
suspiciously like a blog. (Also free from the WSJ, Walter Mossberg's
Personal Tech column has a feature on ways to keep your gadgets going when
there's no power from the grid.)



* Speaking of power outages, here's a little bit of humor gleaned from Hurricane
Isabel,

which hit the mid-Atlantic in September, 2003 -- it features

lessons learned, including: "I learned what happens when you make fun

of another state's blackout" and "When required, a Lincoln Continental

will float."



* Looking at things a little closer to home, here's the AOL
Journals search results for "Hurricane
Rita."



* Blogger John Scalzi has a roundup of some AOL Journaler's comments on Rita (and of
course, don't forget his latest Weekend Assignment, where he asks which
three nonessential items are essential enough to you that you'd grab
them if you had to evacuate.)



* Also, blogger The Real BigDawg asks and answers
the question "Why Don't We Just Nuke
Hurricanes?"



* On the Citizen Journalism front, here is
AOL News' latest photoblog for Rita



* Also from AOL News: if you want to help shape their news coverage, check out the
Daily Pulse blog; it's getting a lot of
traffic, especially in the comments
section.

Finally

for right now, if you have your own Rita (or Katrina) blog resources
or

entries and you'd like to share, please leave a comment with a link

below.

Have a great weekend, everybody -- including
those of us

affected by any of this season's hurricanes. We're with you. Thanks.
--

Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 9/23

Hi everybody. As posted in the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our Guest Editor this week is Kelly,
a single mom who used to be in the Air Force, and is now a math major
pursuing a degree in education. (Or maybe engineering -- she's still
deciding). 



Her featured blog is In My Opinion (its full name is actually In My Opinion, and Yes I Have an Opinion on EVERYTHING), and you can see Kelly's top blog picks in her blog entry:

* Christy's Thoughts
* Really Living
* A Survivor's Guide
* Miss O's Soapbox
* Bekah's Butterflies
* Am I Thinking That?

Kelly's
picks center around everyday people (to coin a phrase). Observant
readers will also note that the promo tag line I used on the Journals
main page is a reference to the Clint Eastwood movie of the same name.

I have a pending update about Hurricane blog resources, so stay tuned.

Thanks -- Joe


Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Blogging in the Funny Papers

Hi, folks. So, there I was reading the Sunday
funnies (on

Sunday, of course -- I'm running a little behind), when I came across
a

mention of blogging that I thought I'd share with
you.

The comic is the fairly awesome Candorville, by Darrin Bell, who is
himself a blogger. I thought it was especially
relevant, considering that it came right on the heels of the Blog Trends Survey and my entry asking
Why
We Blog.

I've excerpted the comic below;
you can find the entire comic on the Candorville
Website:



To
summarize, blogger Lemont has a freakout when Susan
says that she's read his latest blog entry, but leaves him to wonder
what she thinks about it.

Looking at the survey results, you could take a couple of differing
viewpoints:

* Lemont is the
exception

that proves the rule: He's one of those 3.8% of bloggers who "describe

themselves as blogging perfectionists, obsessive and
compulsive."

* Lemont is normal,

in that he's just like the 65% of us who feel disappointed when
someone

posts a negative comment to our blogs, so he just wants to
know.

* Lemont just overreacted
a

bit, since 40% of bloggers say "it is important to address messages

people have posted in their blog in a timely manner," and come on...

you can't just leave a guy hanging like that.

* Or
simply, that even though most bloggers blog for ourselves, we're not
machines: We still care about what other people
think.





So, what do you think?

In another comic venue, Gary
Trudeau's Doonesbury

has also recently covered some blog issues.  He's had a few
strips

on blogging, starting with issues that blogger Zipper faces with his
Krispy KremeDonut of the Month blog
feature:



In
four panels, Trudeau covers two important blog
topics:

1. The bit of blog
etiquette that says you don't steal
someone else's idea (at least, not without giving proper
credit)
2. The idea that folks feel
pressured to update their blogs (which the blog survey
debunks to

some extent, given that two-thirds or respondents say they don't worry

about churning out entries on a schedule, so therefore, no deadlines
to

speak of).

In the next day's strip,

Trudeau takes the issue of how TV news organizations are grappling
with

the challenge of how to integrate blogs in their coverage (or, as
skeptic

Jeff puts it, "What a concept -- take the unreadable
and make it illegible!").

Actually, in the weeks
since that strip was posted, CNN (a part of Time-Warner, as is AOL,
yadda yadda) has tried to go beyond just showing screenshots of blogs,
with Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room. 

I haven't watched it yet, since it's inconveniently broadcast from

3pm-6pm ET, so I don't know if the format works, though here is a writeup in Wired News.





Feel free to leave your comments below (you know you can't leave a guy
hanging like that.) Thanks. -- Joe

Using File Manager to Fiddle With Hit Counters

Okay folks...as mentioned in my previous
post, we've got the new Web-based File
Manager. Obvious benefits

of having it include the ability to upload and manipulate your files

without having to use your AOL client (also the ability to upload
files

to one screen name's space while you're signed on with another), as well as

being a lot easier to use than the old
tool.

Now, I'm not sure if this is an
unexpected benefit or an unintended
consequence, but the new File Manager also allows you to
change the count of your blog's hit counter. It will
be most valuable to those who've had their hit counters reset (due to
the write-lock
problem I talked about last week), but it also means that you
can have your hit counter read whatever you want it to
say.

I

will leave the moral and ethical implications for others to hash

out.... other than to say that, sure, you can have a hit counter that

reads 120,096 hits, but if you've got 3 entries and no comments, well,

perhaps you would be better off interacting with
other bloggers and telling your friends to read your
blog.

So here's how it works (it's moderately
involved):

1. Take the counter off your blog via the
Edit Journal button. It'll make things
easier.
2. Open the Web-based File Manager: http://hometown.aol.com/_fm
If you're not
signed in, you'll be asked to sign in with your screen name and
password.
3. Click "Browse My
Files"
4.

You will see a list of files that live in the top level of your
storage

space. Among them, you should see a list of files that begin with
".odometer"

(notice the beginning period), and ending with the name of your

Journal. (If you have multiple Journals with hit counters, you'll have

multiple .odometer files.)  [Please note: the filenames are case-sensitive -- if your blog has a mix of upper and lowercase letters, the filename will have to match; matching the capitalization, spelling, and punctuation is critical, or else this won't work.]

For example, if my blog's address is http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/MagicSmoke -- my blog's odometer file will be .odometer.MagicSmoke


(4b. If you just want to reset a counter that's not working, just
delete the .odometer file and put your counter back on your blog. It will recreate itself automatically from
zero.)
5. Right-click and save
the odometer file you want to change to your computer. If you
can save it as a plain text file with a .txt extension,
that would be best. (Also, if you're using Mac OSX, you might have to delete the period in front of .odometer in order to save the file. You will need to add it back in step 14.)
6. Using Notepad or another text
editor,

open the .odometer file you downloaded.  You'll see that it's
just

a plain text file with an eight-digit number (no commas). This is your

number of hits: If you have 1,235 hits, the number
in your .odometer file will read:
00001235
7. In your text editor, change the
number to what you want it to show. Make sure you use just
numbers,

and include the zeroes in front to make it 8 digits. And make sure

there aren't any spaces or anything after the number. I'm not sure how

picky this is. 


8. Then, save the file with the same name -- make

sure you have it as a plain text file (.txt).
9.
Looking back at

File Manager, you should still be at the top level
of your folders.

Delete or rename the old
.odometer file. (Click the blue Change button next
to the old .odometer file, then click "Delete This File" in the right
column. It will ask you if you really want to delete the file -- click OK.)
10. Click the "Add More Files"
link in the upper right corner.
11.

Upload the modified .odometer file you just made, by browsing to it,

selecting it, and hitting the blue "OK" button to upload
it.
12. In

your file list, find the modified .odometer file you just uploaded. It

will probably look like .odometer.yourjournalname.txt
13.
Click the blue Change button next to your new .odometer file, and click
"Rename This File."
14. Rename the file to remove any extensions at the end of the filename.
For example, if my

blog's address is http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/MagicSmoke, the .odometer file should be

.odometer.MagicSmoke (with nothing after the blog
name) -- make sure there's a period (no spaces) in front and behind the word "odometer"
15. Go back to "Edit Journal" and add your counter back onto your
blog.


That's it, you should be done -- your hit counter should
say whatever you said it should say.

(The

reason why step #1 was "take off your hit counter" was because if

people hit your blog while you were doing all this, it would just keep

recreating your hit counter, which could make it tough to swap in the

new one you made.)

Also, FYI, while I was writing
these

instructions, I tested putting in 99999999 as my
number to see what

would happen. After you hit 99,999,999, it'll just roll over
to zero --

just like a regular odometer.

Whew,

hope this helps. Let me know if you have any problems or if there's
any

way I can streamline these instructions.

[Update: If you've tried these instructions but it didn't work for you -- you need to be veeeery careful with the filenames -- it's very picky about matching the capitalization and spelling exactly.

If you look in your file list, you will probably see a few different versions of the .odometer file. As an example: If my blog's address is http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/TestJournal/
then my odometer file needs to be named .odometer.TestJournal

If I try to name it .odometer.testjournal (note the capitalization doesn't match), it's not going to work -- the .odometer file will be recreated, starting from zero.]

Thanks. -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, file manager, hit counters, journals tips

Web-Based File Manager Is Here!

Hi folks...just got some good news from the product folks.

In a comment to my entry last week on hit counters, Ryanagi asked why the AOL UK folks had a Web-based File Manager, and we didn't.

Well, we do now: The Web-based File Manager is finally here in the US! http://hometown.aol.com/_fm

What
this means is that you can manipulate your files from any Web browser,
without having to use Keyword: FTP (or running a standalone FTP client
over your AOL connection). It's an easier way to get big, frameless photos into your Journals.

This is especially good news for our AIM Bloggers, since they also had 100 MB of Web space, but had no way to get to it...until now.

What this also means is that you now have the power to fiddle with your hit counters,
to restore "lost" hits (and, if you want to make yourself feel more
important by pumping up your hit count, well, you can do that too if
you really want to.) Read on.

First off, a few caveats:

* Consider this a public test.
We will be telling more people about File Manager, and adding it to the
navigation later, but first the tech folks want to observe how it
performs in the wild. [Update: 9/27: We should be good to go now; go wild.]

* Web-based File Manager does not
completely replace FTP; there are a few restrictions on the size of the
files you can upload -- each individual file you upload can't be bigger
than 500K, and your total for each upload (you can upload 4 files at a
time) can't be more than 1 megabyte.

* I've been getting some "Sorry, We Can't Find That Page" errors; hitting reload eventually does the trick. [Update: 9/27: We seem to be much better now.]

Okay, now here's how it works:

1. From any Web browser, go to http://hometown.aol.com/_fm; if you're not already signed in, you'll be asked to sign in with your screen name and password.

2. When you're signed in, you'll see the File Manager Main Screen:



3. Youcan either Browse My Files (work with your existing files) or Add New Files. I'm going to start out with Browse My Files:



This will start you out at the top level of your FTP storage space -- all the Web files you have stored under the screen name you're currently signed in with.

You'll notice in the upper right corner that it will tell how much storage space you're using (and how much you have left).

Looking
lower, you'll see files (such as your odometer files), and if you have
folders or subdirectories set up, you'll see those, too -- to look
inside a folder, click on the folder's name (for example, I have an images folder).

To view a file, you can click on its file name; to download a file you can also right-click the file name with your mouse and choose "Save As" to save it to your computer.

On the right, you can also see links to Add files to this folder, and also to Create a new folder. (Creating subfolders makes it easier to find files if you have a lot of them.)

4. Now, to edit, rename, delete or otherwise work with a particular file, click the blue Change button to the right of the file name.

5. The button will change into an arrow, telling you that you're working with this file. Also, the options on the right side will change, letting you View, Delete, Move, Rename or Copy that file:



Selecting
Move, Rename or Copy will ask you for more information (what folder to
move it to or what new name to call it); picking Delete will ask you to
confirm that you really want to delete that file.

6. If you want to upload a file, you can click Add More Files, which will give you a screen like this:



Note that where it says "Add Files to Folder"
will show the folder you're going to put the files; if you've got
another specific subfolder you want to put it in, you'll have to back
up a step, find or create that subfolder, and choose Add a File from
inside that subfolder.

(In fact, I used File Manager to upload
these screen shots, and I forgot to move to the images folder before I
uploaded them, so they went up to the top level folder. 
Fortunately, it was easy to move the files, as described above.)

7. You can select up to 4 files to upload at a time. No file can be larger than 500K, and the max total filesize for all 4 files has to be under 1 megabyte (as
mentioned, if you need to upload files bigger than that, you'll have to
use Keyword: FTP or a standalone FTP client over your AOL connection)

8. When you're ready to upload everything, just click "OK."

That's pretty much all there is to it. Play around with it and tell us what you think.

Oh,
and once you've uploaded those pretty pictures to your FTP space? To
add them to a blog entry, when you're creating or editing a blog entry,
click the blue Add Pictures from Hometown link, then select the file you want.

This entry is going a little long, so I will tell you how you can futz with your hit counters in the next post. Thanks. -- Joe

[Update: You can now use a standalone FTP client program (as long as it supports SFTP) to upload and manipulate the files in your Web storage space. This gets around file size limits -- see my entry with full instructions on how to do this.]

Avast! Heave to and Prepare to Be Blogged! Arrrr!

Ahoy, mateys! This here being Talk Like a Pirate Day, ya hereby be directed to set a course for pirate-invested waters. Smartly!

First, you'll want to learn the lingo.

Then, make your regular name walk the plank and get your own pirate name; I, for example, am either Ham-Hands Casey or Cap'n Milt Swiftknife.

Next, even if your co-workers...er, shipmates don't have a Jolly Roger
(that's a pirate flag for you land-lubbers) handily stashed away, you
can still dress the part. Any basic drugstore will have an eyepatch
(not to mention the ever-earlier Halloween displays); that and a
bandana will take you far. So assemble a raiding party on your lunch
break.

Now that you're a proper pirate, take a photo of yourselves and go muster up with Cap'n John in the Monday Photo Shoot

Have at it! Arrr! -- Cap'n Milt Swiftknife.

Why We Blog

So, for my last update of an action-packed day, I just wanted to call your attention to the results of a survey that AOL conducted. The survey asked folks, "So why do you do this blog thing, anyway?" (I'm paraphrasing.)

Now,
you and I know that there are as many different possible answers to
this question as there are bloggers, but you can tease out some
patterns. Check out this writeup of the Blog Trends Survey (adapted by yours truly). You can also check out the press release, but mine has a pretty graphic that Jason did.

The
survey asked 600 bloggers from around the Web a bunch of questions
about why they blog. Now, if you're only listening to the navel-gazing
of the blog elite (the "blogerati") or follow along with the typical
blog stories in the mainstream media, you might think that we're all
blogging to break the latest big news exclusive, or we've all got thousands of readers, or that we're all trying to get rich and famous from blogging.

(Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to pooh-pooh citizen journalism, by any means -- it's a very important phenomena and we want to do what we can to encourage it and highlight its power.)

It's just that the reality is, when you ask people why they blog, they say:


* We like to share our thoughts and feelings (54%)
* We like to talk about our lives and interests (50%)
* We do it because it's cathartic, or a kind of release -- in other words, it makes us feel better (50%)

On the flip side:


* Only 16% of bloggers are interested in journalism
* 12% are trying to break news or get a jump on gossip
* Only 8% do it to expose political information

You can read the rest of the survey bullets yourselves. I would characterize it as saying that people blog for themselves, and while they may be mindful of an audience of friends and family, they're still primarily doing it for themselves.

One
other bit that I found amusing: 66% of bloggers don't feel pressure to
do frequent updates of their own blogs, but about the same number (65%)
say they do pay attention to how frequently other bloggers (the ones they read) update their blogs. ("I don't care how often I update my blog, but you better update yours....") A little bit of "do as I say, not as I do."

Anyway, check out the survey results; there are more neat factoids
("A small number [3.8%] describe themselves as blogging perfectionists,
obsessive and compulsive") and ask yourself why you blog. I don't think
there are any wrong responses.

Have a great weekend, everyone. -- Joe

Fun With Hit Counters (Note: Actual Fun Content May Vary)

Okay, folks...here is an entry on that ever-popular question, "Hey, what the [heck] happened to my hit counter!"

Recently, Jackie, she of some very popular reality TV blogs, including Big Brother 6 Live Feed Report & More, kind of let us have it (and we deserved it) because her hit counter crashed, going from over 370,000 to bupkis (nothing).

Now,
your Journal may not be getting that kind of traffic, but the problems
are the same. I asked Ian why this keeps happening (Ian isn't the
Journals Product Manager anymore, but he still has Hometown stuff,
which is where the counters fall under) -- this is what he says:

"The
number of hits is stored in a text file within HT [Hometown] (called
odometer, if you go into your HT space you can see it). When another
hit is recorded for a Journal, that file is overwritten and incremented
by 1. When the hit counter is being updated very rapidly, the file will
attempt to overwrite itself while it is already overwriting itself. This is a write-lock, and the file blows up
- at best it resets to zero and at worst breaks the hitcounter
altogether, thus serving a broken image that we see as the end result."

So, that's the why -- the next part of the question is "So whaddya going to do about it?"
There are a few different courses of action for fixes being proposed,
but none of them can be implemented immediately (they all require
development and infrastructure work.)

If you want to avoid this
problem entirely, you can try any one of a number of free, HTML-based
Web page counters on the Web -- they just can't use Javascript, and the
HTML you use to get the counter in your About Me area counts against
your overall character limit (we know you want to get that raised, too).

Believe
you me, no one over here likes that fact that our best answer right now
is "go use someone else's counter", and the team is working on it. We
will keep you updated.

If your counter is broken right now (that
is, showing a broken image), try removing it from your page and
re-adding it (from the "Edit Journals" button).  If that still
doesn't work:

1. Go to Keyword: FTP
2. Click "See My FTP Space"
3. You should see a file that starts ".odometer" and ends with the name of your Journal.

4. Delete this file. (Highlight it, click "Utilities", then hit "Delete").  Note: Be careful while you do this. Also, note that this will recreate your hit counter from zero.

Thanks. -- Joe

An Update on Missing YGP Photos

Hi folks...here's an update on the problem of some folks missing YGP
photos from their Journals. (Note that this isn't the problem of
"broken" images, which can happen if you copy and paste the URL of a
YGP pic and insert it into your Journal -- this may work for a while,
but if the URL changes on the back end, it'll cause your image to
break; this is a problem where the YGP module vanishes from the page
entirely.)



The YGP teams and the Journals teams banged their heads together to
figure this one out. It looks like a Journals database problem that
affected some people after the big database transition.



The
good news is, if they're right, your YGP photos should still be there
(just not showing up in your Journals).



Here's the workaround:



1. Edit your old entry (or create a new one)

2. Click the blue "Add Pictures" button

3. In the selector screen that appears, click the second tab, the one
that says "My Pictures on AOL"; that should show you all of your YGP
albums, and if the tech folks are right, your missing photos should
still be there.

(3b. Another way to view your YGP photo albums is to go to http://pictures.aol.com and view your albums from there.)

4. If your photos are still there, you can add them back to your Journal entries.



Like I said, it's a workaround. The tech folks are still investigating,
but if you want to see your photos, it would probably be quicker if you
added them back in using the method above. A pain, I know -- sorry for
the inconvenience.



If you don't see your YGP Journal photos in your YGP albums, please let me know.



Thanks. -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 9/16

Hi everybody. As posted in the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our Guest Editor this week is Nettie,
a Jersey Girl who's from the other side of the Atlantic (the
Netherlands). She's a photographer, the wife of a commerical fisherman
and keeper of Jersey Girl Journal. Check out Nettie's top blog picks in her blog entry:

* Mortimer's Cafe
* Ocean Simplicity
* Hestia Homeschool for Young Wild Women
* Sara's Days
* Bicyclemark's Communique
* The World, My Playground

Nettie's picks follow an "I" theme: blogs that are Interesting, and some that are International.

I
have a few more updates I have to get done regarding YGP photos, blog
hit counters and a new blog survey; also, don't forget that Monday is Talk Like a Pirate Day (arrrr)!

Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Disappearing Photos? We Want to Know...

Hi folks. We're getting scattered reports of YGP photos disappearing from Journals. The photos were entered using You've Got Pictures (the blue "Add Pictures" button when you're writing an entry.)



If this happened to you, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment. Be sure to include the following information:



* The address of your blog

* When the photos disappeared from your blog



Providing this information will help the tech folks track down the problem.



Thanks -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 9/9(ish)

Hi everybody. Sorry for the delay in posting; as mentioned in the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our Guest Editor this week is Ken, an author and psychiatrist; his blog is Thoughts From the HEADoc. Dr. Ken explains what the name means in his blog entry. Of course, he also talks about his top blog picks:

* Kevin, M.D.
* Orac Knows
* Follow Me
* Further Ironies
* The Squiggler
* Markham's Behavioral Health

Ken's picks center around medical and mental health issues, as well as featuring a few doctors blogging with opinions on things other than the strictly medical (shocking, I know).

Here's a bonus photo of Ken -- we used it in the Alert (since it wasn't big enough to use on the main page:

In other news, we've got a good number of submissions to our Katrina: Messages of Hope photoblog, though we can always use more. (If you've submitted already, we're still processing pics.)

That's it for right now, I'll talk to you later. Thanks. -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Katrina: Messages of Hope

Hi folks -- apologies for not getting more updates in here this week;
I've been working on getting the fruits of Scalzi's previous Weekend
Assignment up in a standalone, ongoing photoblog, which you can now find here -- 
Katrina: Messages of Hope:





We're
trying to get the word out, not just to AOL and AIM bloggers, but
anyone out there who wants to participate; you don't even have to have
a blog.



Just take a picture with a note of support (after donating to disaster relief if you're able, of course), then send the picture to us so you can be added to the ever-growing list.



Many thanks to John for coming up with the idea; to Jason for doing the
great header art, and to all of you who've participated so far. Please spread the word, and keep those photos coming.



Thanks. -- Joe

Heads-Up: Brief Journals Outage Planned for 9/9

Hi folks -- the tech folks report that they'll be doing some work on
the Journals database starting at 4AM EDT on Friday, 9/9; it will cause
a 30 minute outage.



During this time, you won't be able to
access your Journals, instead getting the blue "Journals Are
Unavailable" screen.



Apologies in advance for any inconvenience.  Thanks. -- Joe

More Katrina Blogging

Hi folks. Well, it looks like much needed relief is finally starting to
arrive in quantity at New Orleans and other affected areas.  As a
reminder, if you're able, please do what you can to contribute funds to
relief organizations, such as the Red Cross. (You can find a list of hurricane relief organizations at Network for Good.)

Here are some other Hurricane Katrina-related blog & Web sites of note:

* AOL News's Katrina Photoblog
is still trucking along, featuring member pics from all over the region
(including the one I'm going to use on the Journals main page).

* mgno.com is the blog of The Interdictor,
a guy who's been in New Orleans since Katrina hit; he works and blogs
from a Web hosting provider's facility, so he's had access to generator
power and lots of bandwidth to post webcam pics, video and lots and
lots of eyewitness reports.

* HurricAid is a blog focused on different aspects of the relief efforts.

* There's a Katrina Help Wiki -- a wiki, as you'll recall, is a kind of group Web site, where anyone can contribute content.

* The Biloxi-based Sun-Herald blog has more information about Southern Mississippi, including a list of more Katrina blogs.


That's it for right now. If you have your own Katrina blogs or
resources you'd like to share, please tell us about them in the
comments.



Talk to you later.  Thanks. -- Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 9/2

Hi everybody. As posted in the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Our Guest Editor this week is Maryanne, an artist who works in many mediums (media?), including her blog, My Feelings Are Real....

Here is her blog entry, where she talks about her top picks and more:

* Riehl World View
* Ellipsis
* I Shaved My Legs for This?
* Grains of Sand
* Jottings From the Sticks
* Poetry Dance

In other developments, regular readers -- heck, even casual readers -- of the Journals Message Boards
(which are a great resource for sharing tips and telling people about
your Journal) will notice that they've been converted over with the
rest of the Computing boards to the Message Boards 3.0 interface.

The primary difference is that you can see up to 20 posts in a thread at once (it's a user preference you can set), which is nice -- it's a lot less clicking.

I'm feeling my way around the Boards 3.0 interface, just like you; a few notes answering questions I've gotten:
* Spellcheck is coming in the 3.1 release, though I don't have a schedule..
* To start a post on a new topic, click "Add Thread"; it's up near the board description.
* "Mark Board Read" is gone for now but will be added back in at a later date.
* Hyperlinks in sigs should have carried over; however, if you're changing or creating a new sig, you can't include clickable hyperlinks. I've asked the product team if they can get those back in, though no word yet.

I
was never a big fan of the previous Web boards -- they were pretty much
an HTML port of the FDO boards (and not a very good one, at that). I
like the Boards 3.0 interface a lot more, though I'm still getting used
to it.

That's about it for right now. I will get in a quick Katrina update before I head out. Talk to you. -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Blogs and Disaster Relief

With the ongoing human tragedy that's going on in Louisiana and the

Gulf Coast, it seems a little trivial to be tapping away at my
keyboard

right now, talking about blogs, but it's about all I can do right now.


First

off, if you haven't yet, please, please donate to the cause of
disaster

relief. There are a lot of people who are going to need a lot of help,

so please give if you're able.





As previously mentioned, Network for Good

has compiled a one-stop shop of organizations that are helping

hurricane victims; they're all reputable charitable organizations, so

please:

Donate
Now

Next up, here are a few
notable examples of things going on in the blog
world:

* The entire Tulane
University Web site has gone over to a status update
blog

* Instapundit,

typically a politically-focused blog, has gone over pretty much

exclusively to listing out flood aid resources that are recommended by

bloggers all over the political spectrum: Instapundit.com.

*
Here's the Slidell Hurricane Damage
Blog

* You can find a good round-up of
news stories and other resources at Al's Morning Meeting -- it's a daily
digest of stuff that journalists and other news-minded folks can use
for potential stories.

* Nola.com
continues to have stellar coverage of the situation in New Orleans;
they also have a Web board set up for people
looking for missing persons.

* The AOL
News folks have launched a photoblog for Katrina Photos; you can see
other examples of citizen journalism and photojournalism in my previous
entry on citizen journalism.



There's obviously tons and tons of blogs and blog-related articles out

there, so please feel free to share items you've found in the comments

below.





Lastly for now, please don't forget:

Donate
Now

Talk to you later. -- Joe

Investigating Private Journals and New Journals

Hi folks...if you're having rostering problems with your Private Journal (that is, if you're having problems adding or removing people
who can read your Private Journal), please let me know via comments
here or in an e-mail to me. (Please include whether it was created as
private, or converted from a public Journal.)



We had been seeing some odd things; the tech folks put in a fix, and would like to know if anyone is still being affected.



Also, if you're having any sort of trouble with a Journal that you just
created (such as you can't add an entry), also please let me know
so I can pass the info to the tech folks.



Thanks -- Joe