Who's Who in AOL Journals

Hi folks....

Okay, now I know a lot of you didn't really believe
me when I said that I was pretty much a writer and that when it comes
to Journals, I just push words around.

"Just who are these mysterious 'tech folks' he keeps punting questions off to, anyway?"

Well, one of them has just started a new blog, which will focus more on the technical side
of Journals (which will free me up to talk more about cool stuff that's
going on in the AOL Journals space and in the big sphere-o'-blogs), so
I thought I'd introduce a few folks who are involved in Journals and
have blogs (that I know about), and explain what we do.

First off, there's me, Joe Loong, of course. I'm Senior Programming Manager in the Community Programming Group. I program the AOL Blogs main page.
"Program" as we use it over here is more like a television programmer
than a computer programmer -- I pick things I want to promote or write
about, publish content, and of course, write this blog. I also gave
myself the title of "Journals Editor", though it doesn't really mean
anything. And I'm involved in helping folks at AOL integrate blogs into
their programming, especially starting their own blogs.
Blog: AOL Journals: Magic Smoke


Susan is the Journals Product Manager.
That is to say, she's in the Community Product Management group. A
product manager helps manage the process behind the product -- keeping
detailed requirements for enhancements to the product; translating the
requests from the business team, programming team, and members into
solid requirements for features; and generally working with a lot of
other different groups within the company.
Blog: In the Know



Yoel Crane is a Technical Project Manager
out in California. He helps ride herd on all the developers, QA
(Quality Assurance) testers, UI (User Interface) designers, systems
admins, database admins, etc...he also keeps product development
schedules, and lots of other fun stuff. [Edit: I don't know if he thinks it's "fun" stuff. I know I sure don't.]
Blog: The Daily Grind


John Panzer is a Senior Technical Manager,
also out in California. In addition to knowing a lot about the
technical side of Journals -- all the different components, both
hardware and software -- he manages all the developers who do the
actual work on Journals. He also knows a lot about stuff that's going
on in the blog world, including the various technologies and protocols
(past, present and future), that tie the Internet together.
Blog: Abstractioneer


(John is the larger of the two.)

Oh, and of course, there's the blogfather himself, John Scalzi. He's a contractor,
which means that he gets to work from his home in Ohio, and we pretty
much just pay him to do his thing. (This also means that he doesn't
have much to say in the day-to-day Journals product or programming
decisions, though we do get his feedback on stuff and run ideas by
him.)
Blog: By the Way


These
are just the AOL Journals people with blogs that I know about. My blog
and Susan's are pretty much "official" AOL Blogs; Yoel's and John's
are, strictly speaking, non-official, though I guess that distinction
means less and less nowadays.

I hadn't really pimped Yoel's and John's blogs to date, mostly because they run to the more technical side;
also, to be honest, I was kind of afraid they'd start getting a lot of
Journals tech support questions that they wouldn't be able to answer in
a timely fashion.

Frankly, I'd prefer that Susan and I act as a go-between
for that kind of stuff (since I think their time is a lot better spent
working on the upcoming releases, instead of dealing with questions
about how to use the add picture to your blog with File Manager or figuring out what's making your blog toowide, which Susan or I can handle pretty easily.)

(From
my perspective, I can always point to John & Yoel's blogs whenever
someone gives me static by saying that my entries are too technical and
hard to understand....)

Anyway, for technical questions about Journals, including feedback on current features and requests for new ones, Susan will be your best bet; if you've got a blog you want featured, or maybe you want to be a Guest Editor, you can keep telling me.

Thanks -- Joe

Wednesday Status Update

Hi folks -- here's a quick update on our current open issues:

* Patch Install:

The patch install went in this morning, without any problems of which
we are aware -- if you are experiencing any problems with Journals
post-install, especially with saving entries, please let us know.

The other change in the patch was the addition of the disclaimer text. I know it was written in passive voice (as was this sentence), but at least it's in plain English.

* Flash Takeover Ad Banners:

Product Manager Susan (I will announce her blog in my next entry) beat
up some of the ad people and made them swear that they wouldn't run any
more ads that extend beyond the 728x90 ad banner space. So no more flying motorcycles jumping
over your entries. [Update:
I realize that it's always possible that sometime in the future, either
by error or decision, that the ad folks overrule us and decide to run
takeover ads again. I just want you to know that we have expressed our
concerns about the flying motorcycles and are doing all we can to keep
them from coming back.]  I know you want the ad gone completely
and we are
still pursuing options to make them less intrusive, but the ad isn't
going to go away.

* Character Set Problems:
This is
the problem of characters with accents (and other special symbols)
displaying improperly (as gobbledygook). The tech folks have a fix in
QA testing -- it needs to go through additional testing cycles because
International is so involved (and affected). Right now, a Friday
install of the fix is possible, but not guaranteed.

* Archive Problems:

The fix to the inaccurate Archive counts and sidebar listings in the
monthly archive view should go into QA testing tomorrow. I will keep
you updated here as to installs. (Actually, I think Susan will start
taking over the more technical updates, but more on that in my next
entry.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tuesday Update on Our Other Open Issues

Okay folks -- here's the word on our other open issues (as noted, the
ad banner disclaimer and save fix will go live tomorrow morning):

* Character Set Displays Improperly:
We've
got a handle on the problem of characters with accents and other
"special" symbols not displaying properly -- if you want to get the geek update, it involves servlet engines, UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 (check out developer John's entry on this and our other open issues).

Suffice
it to say, the fix is being tested, and we hope to have it live soon. I
will let you know here when we have a date for an install.

* Inaccurate Archive Counts
The
problem of the wrong number of entries, and the wrong month's entries,
being displayed in the monthly archive view is still being worked on,
but the tech folks think they have a line on this problem, too. If
testing of the fix goes through okay, we should hopefully install it
with the the Character Set fix. Again, I will let you know here.

* More Info on the Patch:
As noted in my previous entry, the patch is still scheduled for 4AM tomorrow. Developer John, in his entry mentioned above, notes that what killed the patch the first time was a typo, so we should be set for the ad disclaimer and the save entry fix.

If you want to see the disclaimer in the beta environment,
you can go to the beta servers -- just stick "beta." on the front of
your Journal's address. For example, my blog's production address is

http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke



Its address on the beta server is:
http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke

In
addition to developer John's blog, there are a few other
Journals-related blogs I will show you tomorrow (after our successful
patch install, of course.)

Thanks -- Joe

Heads-Up: 11/30, 4-6AM ET: Install of Disclaimer and Save Fix (2nd Try)

Hi folks -- the tech folks are going to have another go at installing
the patch; it will start around 4AM ET, Wed, 11/30, and
should be done by 6AM. As with the last try, it will be a rolling install, so there will likely be a small outage, but there shouldn't be one big chunk of time where Journals is down.
 

I posted the details of the patch last week; it's the same patch, and will do two things: 1. Put disclaimer text under
the ad, and 2. update the location of some files used in authentication
(so that your computer is forced to get the new, correct files); this
is to solve the "can't save entries" problem, though hopefully, the old files should have expired out of your caches by now.



If you have Journals problems after the install, please post your comments to this entry so the tech folks can see them.



I should have a status update on our current open issues in about an hour or so.



Thanks -- Joe

Monday Status Update

Hi folks. Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Here's where we stand on our open Journals issues:

* Installation of the Patch:
As previously mentioned, the tech folks tried to install a patch on Wednesday that was going to do two things: 1. Place a disclaimer under the ad banner, and 2. Fix the "can't save entries" problem once and for all.

When
it was installed live to production Wednesday morning, they found a
problem that hadn't appeared on either the test or beta systems; the
patch was then backed out.

I am waiting on an ETA to see when we'll try to install it again, and will let you know when that happens.

* Character Set:
Despite working on the problem all weekend, the tech folks still don't have a fix in for the character set problem,
which is that extended characters (basically, anything other than what
shows up on your basic, American QWERTY keyboard -- stuff with accents,
special symbols, etc.) displays improperly.

In biological terms, the stuff with accents looks like it's been puked up onto the screen.

As
noted, the tech folks are still working the problem -- it's caused a
lot of the non-U.S. journals to become basically unreadable, so this is
a high-priority problem.

* Archive Dates Counts and Listings:
This is the problem of inaccurate entry counts in the monthly archive view:

Also, in the monthly archive sidebar, the wrong month's entries show up in the navigation.

Both of these problems are still being worked on -- the tech folks are looking at database mismatches as the primary suspect.

* Ad Banners:
Outside
of the pending disclaimer install I mentioned above, I have nothing new
on the status of the ad banners. I know that the execs are aware of
your complaints and are weighing all the issues involved with the ad
banner placement, but again: Everything I see says the banner ad isn't
going away.

Over the weekend, it looks like there was a temporary outage
over at advertising.com, which is an AOL-owned company that serves up
ads all over AOL, including those on AOL Journals. This meant that
there were sporadic outages (now resolved) of the banner ads on your
Journals. It was a techncial problem -- we weren't toying with you.

Also
over the long holiday weekend, several different news outlets carried
the "You've Got Ads" story that originally ran Wednesday on WashingtonPost.com.

You know something's up when it rates its own Fark.com discussion thread.

Weblogs, Inc. CEO (and now AOL employee) Jason Calacanis
has weighed in on the issue in his blog, raising a lot of different
issues regarding transparency, the role of PR and corporate
communications, listening to members and more.

I'm not going to address Jason's points, since I agree with nearly everything he says.

For
my own part, I haven't injected a lot of my own personal feelings about
the ads in doing these blog entries, mostly because win, lose or draw,
I have to live with whatever happens.

(Incidentally, this has
led some people to speculate that I am gaining personally from the
presence of the ad banners in some way. I don't know how -- kickbacks?
A performance bonus? -- suffice it to say, I do not.)

There's
also been a lot of internal discussion and debate on why we did this,
how we did this, what we can do to make things right, what we would do
if we could, etc.

For the record, I don't like the ads, I don't get the business rationale behind them and I am personally against them. However, as they say: Talk is cheap.

I can rant and rave against the ad banners, but in my opinion, if they don't go away, that may give me a few points as an "Earnest, Authentic Blogger", but I lose several thousand points on the "You're a Big Dumb Hypocrite" side of the board.

That's it for right now; talk to you later.  Thanks -- Joe

Boss Bob's Boss Blog Blob

Hi folks -- have no fear; we will resume our regular Guest Editor's picks
program next week (And all our friends -- old and new -- with new
blogspot and other non-AOL blogs will be welcome to participate if they
so desire, both as Guest Editors and featured picks. This, of course,
means I'll need to find additional ways of highlighting just AOL Journalers, but such is life. We've got a few ideas in the works.)

I've
been crunched again this week and so I'm skipping the Guest Editor's
Picks, though this is more for reasons of the short holiday week than
anything else.

To help me out, my boss Bob, who is also Buzzline Editor (so I guess it should be Buzzline Boss Bob's Boss Blog Blob), has picked a bunch of blogs that are related to Thanksgiving and food -- both the Thanksgiving kind, and the equally delicious non-Thanksgiving kind. I added the blurbs, though, which means I can say I did Buzzline Boss Bob's Boss Blog Blob's Blurbs:

Taste of the South offers up a "Never-Fail Gravy", plus a bunch more fall recipes.

The folks at Two Minute Warning have some Thanksgiving tidbits gleaned from their collective consciousness.

Superchefblog is a foodie blog, by foodies, for foodies.

Spice's Recipe Box blogs to share her family recipes -- her current bunch are jams and jellies.

The latest offering over at My Recipes is a very timely cranberry...chutney? Interesting.

AOL Cooks!
features the AOL Test Kitchen, where the AOL Food Editor takes the
recipes she gets and inflicts them on us. (And it's been a while, hmmm?)

Food for Thought and More... leads off with Sweet Potato Pie.

And, over in Delores Kitchen, I see a lot of sweets: pecan rolls, blondies, fudge....

Also, all you last-minute cooks can check out Slashfood's poultry category, which has entries on  non-traditional turkeys, Thanksgiving safety warnings, eight turkey tricks and even turkeys in space (there are turkeys in space; unfortunately for them, they're irradiated and squeezed into little plastic tubes).

Also, lastly for right now, Journaler Kathy
had sent me mail saying that her blog was acting funny, though when I
took a look, I didn't see anything wrong, so I'm hoping a restarting of
the computer helps her out.



However, when I looked at her blog, I found
this entry which has a whole bunch of Thanksgiving-related Web links, so if you're looking for some seasonal sites to surf while you're fighting off your turkey coma, check them out.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks -- Joe

Pre-Holiday Status Update

Hi folks...unfortunately, it doesn't look like I have a lot to be
thankful about, at least when it comes to our Journals problems:

* "No Joy" on the Install of the Disclaimer and Save Fix Patch:
As previously mentioned,
the tech folks installed a patch early this morning to try to close out
the "Can't Save Entries" problem and add the disclaimer under the ad
banner.

The install, despite working perfectly in the
development and beta environments, worked quite improperly on
production, so it was pulled back.

Earlier today, the tech folks thought they had a lead on the problem, though that did not pan out.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday and moratorium, we won't be able to try the patch again until Monday at the earliest.

If you are still having problems saving entries, and our previously-recommended fixes of clearing your browser & TopSpeed caches still don't work, your options are kind of limited: 1. Use a standalone (or external) browser.  2. Post to your blog by sending IMs to the AOLJournals bot (I apologize for not mentioning this workaround before -- just send an IM to screen name AOLJournals and follow its instructions.)

If you're thinking of installing (or reinstalling) the latest version of the AOL 9.0 software
to try to fix the problem: Some folks have said it helped, others that
it didn't. If you do try this, be sure to install the new version into
its own, separate folder -- I've had reports from people who've had
problems, such as debug errors, from installing multiple copies of AOL into the same location.

The holiday & moratorium also means it's highly unlikely we'll see any fixes on our other open problems:

* Charset Issue:
Again, this is the problem where extended characters, like those with
accents, currency symbols, trademark and copyright symbols, and even
things like curly quotes, display improperly, showing funny characters
& boxes, etc.:

(If
you think it's bad here, the International Journalers are really
annoyed, because they use a lot more accented characters than we do.)

The only workarounds
to this are: 1. Not use those characters -- for example, make sure you
use regular quotes, not "smart quotes" (that's what Microsoft Word
calls them, the curly kind), or 2. Post to your blog via IMs to the AOLJournals
bot, which will also work. (Using the bot bypasses the Web interface,
so it will get around the Save Entry and the Charset problems)

* Archive Count and Date Mismatches:

Again, no update to the inaccurate monthly counts in the archive
navigation, and the problem of the wrong month's entries showing up in
the sidebar.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you, either on the technical issues or the whole other problem about the ad banners.


I'm going to try to check in a few times over the long holiday weekend,
but in the meantime, please have a Happy Thanksgiving, and safe
journeys to everyone traveling over the holiday. Thanks -- Joe

Update: Latest Patch Was Backed Out

Hi folks -- quick update on the patch (with the ad disclaimer and the path fix, which I talked about in my previous entry)
-- everything tested well in the development and beta environments, but
when the tech folks installed it live to production this morning, they
were seeing "XXX MISSING STRING XXX."



As you can see from last night's entry, that wasn't one of the anticipated features -- the tech folks tried to resolve it in situ, but it didn't work and they had to back it out.

I will post more info when I get it (and when I get into the office).

Thanks -- Joe

Heads-Up: 11/23, 4-6AM ET: Install of Disclaimer and Save Fix

Hi folks -- the tech folks just confirmed that the new patch just cleared testing. It will be installed early tomorrow morning (Nov. 23), starting at around 4AM ET and should be over by 6AM. It will be a rolling install, which means there may be some outages, but there won't be one big outage.

Here's what's going to be installed:

* Save Entry Fix:
Many
users have been having problems saving entries to their Journals. The
problem was fixed on the server side (incorrect files were replaced)
and the server caches were flushed, but the bad files may have
remained, stored in caches on your computer. This would have caused you
to still see the problem.

One fix was clearing your browser & TopSpeed caches, which should have fixed the problem for most people (unfortunately, a lot of people wouldn't know or didn't hear to do this).

To
remedy this, this patch will force your computer to get the correct
version of the files, by telling it to go look for the correct files in
a new location. This will bypass any cached versions of the incorrect
files still stored on your machine.

* Advertising Banner Disclaimer:
Several
changes to the header design will be incorporated to visually
distinguish the advertising banner from the user-generated content
below it:

The AOL header (which is seen by users outside the AOL client) will be changed to have a dark blue background.

More
vertical space and a light blue horizontal line is going to be placed
between the advertisement and the AOL Journals header.

A text disclaimer will go under the ad. It will read, "Ads are not an endorsement by the blog author."

I
have asked the tech folks to keep an eye on the comments to this entry
-- If you still have problems saving Journal entries, or experience
other problems with Journals after the install window ends at 6AM,
please leave a comment so the tech folks can be made aware of it.

Thanks -- Joe

Agile Software Development and Upcoming Journals Releases

Hi folks -- the tech fix I posted to resolve the
"can't
save entries" problem

seems to be working for most people (please let me know if it doesn't

work for you -- I know there are some folks out there who are still

having some problems, including some odd ones -- problems, not
folks).

Also, I don't have any updates right now on
our other open technical issues or the ad
banner controversy, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about
the Journals development process, and what it means for
upcoming releases.

(I'd
originally planned to post this last week, but had to table it for
obvious reasons.)

Now, earlier in the year, the
development team had incorporated aspects of agile software
development, which basically means that instead of saving all
the big changes and new features for one big release
per development cycle (for example, a year or 18 months), we're going
over to more frequent, but smaller releases -- say,
every 4-8 weeks.

(Here is more than you ever wanted
to know about the nuts and bolts of agile
development from Wikipedia.)

Since it's
pretty much a matter of more, smaller sips vs.
one big gulp,

the end result is about the same: The same overall amount of work is done, and of

course, smaller fixes and maintenance work occurs along the way in
both

cases. So why do it?

Here's a recent
Dilbert that asks the question a different way:

The advantage of agile development
lies in its...agility.

That is, priorities can be adjusted based on what's going on in the

world, user requests, new technologies, industry trends,
etc.

For

Journals, it pretty much means we'll be rolling stuff out in releases

(hopefully) every 4-8 weeks (and we will be announcing launches before

we do them, which was the plan this time around, only we
botched it).

We're

aiming for monthly (well, near-monthly) releases that extend out

through the first quarter of 2006 right now, though of course all
dates

are tentative and subject to the real
world.

One Big Caveat: It's
always tricky launching stuff at the end of the calendar year, because
we're subject to staff outages, and more
importantly, moratoriums

-- if a launch date slips a day or two into a moratorium, then you
have

to wait until the moratorium is over, which could be days or longer

(like the week between Christmas and New
Years).

Tying specific features to specific releases
is always a risky business,

since features get reprioritized, dropped and generally moved around

all the time, so I won't go into the specifics of each release until
we

get closer to confirmed launch dates.

Things that
are being worked on include (this is a mix of features from different
releases out to February, in no particular
order):

* Rostering
Improvements: Manage who can read your private Journal,
simply by picking people or groups from your Buddy
List.
* Tagging: The ability to label posts
for easier categorization
* Moblogging:
Mobile blogging, the ability to add photos, text & even
audio/video from a mobile phone
* Skins:

Something to let you change the look & feel of your Journal
via

customizable skins -- we'll probably have a predefined library at

first, followed later by full user customization
*
Draft Posts: Saving drafts of entries
*
Shared Journals: Multiple authors can post to a Journal, or
group blogging.
* Other Things: Making it
easier to blog about someone else's blog entry ("Blog
This"); improving the help resources;
making sure we ping blog search engines (so your
blog entries get picked up in searches and feeds); and making it
simpler to show your online presence in your
blog.

Also, I am trying to get an increase to the
"All About Me" character limit squeezed in somewhere.


I'm cherry-picking

the stuff that I think will be of most interest to you (I'm guessing

you don't care as much about the infrastructure stuff, as long as we

don't break anything). I don't see anything on the map that's likely
to

generate any controversy (unlike the ad
banners).

Anyway, like I

said, I will be talking more about specific features in specific

releases as we get closer to the dates, so hopefully I will be able to

tell you more about what we're going to get with R3
in December.

Let me know if you have any questions
or technical problems with the current
release.

Thanks -- Joe

Monday Status Update and Clearing Your TopSpeed Cache (or Footprint)

Hi folks...here are some updates on our open issues. Nothing major,
I'm

afraid. Sorry for the delay -- I was waiting to hear from the tech

folks on a few things (primarily the procedure on clearing your

TopSpeed cache, below [Update: which I have now
added.] I will post more info as I hear from
them:

* Ad
Banners:
Nothing new to tell you. We're working on
displaying disclaimer text, but everything I see says the banner ad
isn't going away.

Also, BusinessWeek's Blogspotting
did a followup
entry on Saturday about some of your
boycotts and other protests in response to the ad
banners.

* Character Sets Not Displaying
Properly:
This

is the issue of extended characters (accents and other symbols) not

showing up correctly. As mentioned, the tech folks tried a fix but it

didn't work. No update at the moment.

*
Inability to Save Entries:
The

tech folks really think that the problem of being unable to save

entries is fixed on their end. Because of cached files that are stored

on your computer, your computer may not be "seeing" the fix, so you'd

still be having the problem even though it's
"fixed."

The tech

folks are working on installing a patch that will force your computer

to get the correct version of the files, by telling it to go look for

the files in a new location. This should happen by Wednesday. If you

don't want to wait (and why would you?), you can try clearing your

caches yourself.

There are two types of
caches we are concerned with. You will need to clear
both:

Cache 1. Your
Web browser cache: This one is easy to fix. Go to
AOL Keyword: Browser
Settings, click the text link that says Internet
Explorer Settings, then in the section marked "Temporary
Internet Files", click the button that says Delete
Files:

Cache
2. Your AOL TopSpeed cache (or footprint):
This one depends on which version of the AOL 9.0 software you have
[Update: I added the instructions for AOL 9.0 SE
users] :

1. If you have AOL 9.0
   Safety & Security Edition: This is easy,
   but you need to have the most recent version of
   theAOL 9.0 software. Go to AOL Keyword: Browser Settings. You
   should see two tabs -- one for "TopSpeed" and one that says "Clear My
   Footprints." Click on the Clear My Footprints tab,
   then click the Clear My Footprints
   button.
   
   
2. If you have
   AOL 9.0 SE: You can use the AOL System
   Information Utility program, which comes with your
   AOL:
   
   * In the Windows Start Menu (usually along the
   bottom of your screen), click the Start
   button.
   * Click Programs, then
   America Online, then AOL System
   Information:
   

   

   
   *
   In the AOL System Info program, click the Utilities
   tab, then click the Clear Browser Cache button.
   Despite the name, the TopSpeed guys assure me that clicking this button
   will also clear the TopSpeed cache:
   

   

   
   You
   might need to restart your computer after doing
   this.
   
   [Update: 
   
   Clearing your footprint should fix the problem, so the following
   
   instructions have been superceded, but I have left them in for future
   
   historians] If you would like to disable AOL TopSpeed, go to AOL
   
   Keyword: Browser
   Settings. Uncheck the box next to
   "Optimize Web browsing using TopSpeed technology:

   

   This
   
   
   should tell your computer to stop using the TopSpeed cache, which will
   
   force it to get the correct version from the
   servers.
   
   

Please let me know
if this fix works for you, or if you're still having
problems.

Thanks -- Joe

Update Pending

Hi folks -- FYI, I have an update pending: I'm just trying to get some
status updates on a few technical issues from the tech folks. I will
post as soon as I can get the info and put it in a useful format.
Thanks -- Joe

Journals Editor's Mix of Six Picks

Okay, I realize that it's completely self-serving, but since everything blew up this week and I didn't get a chance to go through the regular Guest Editor routine, and since everyone is already cheesed at me (including Jim, the most recent blog picker), I figured that it would just be easier
if I selected the featured blogs this week and not call them "Editor's
Picks" (even though some of them are quite good). So, here they are,
the Journals Editor's Mix of Six Picks:

(First off, if any of the AOL Journalers shown here don't want to be featured, just let me know and I will take your listing off. I have also sent out mails to that affect.)

In no particular order, here is my Mix of Six Picks:

* Marty's Stream of Warped Consciousness
Marty Gallagher is an interesting fellow. For a while, he was the fitness live-chat guy for Washingtonpost.com.
He's got a no-nonsense way of looking at fitness that boils down to
three elements (the classic "tripod"): weights, cardio and nutrition.
Sure, it's not original -- it's not supposed to be. But it works, and
he adds a certain elan that only a "Purposeful Primitive" who reads Chekov, hikes firetrails and rails against the show "The Biggest Loser" can bring. Oh, and this is his blog.

* Rebuke the World
I've been watching Raven's
blog for a while (and not just because she kept sending me mail every
time she updated her blog at the outset -- I don't recommend that).
She's been blogging since March, and she originally started out
focusing on giving advice. Her style was a little rough (I hope
she doesn't mind me saying), but in her later posts, you can see her
branching out to topics of philosophy, religion, politics, race and
more. All pretty heady stuff, well presented. Not to say I agree with
everything she says, but isn't that the way it usually is?

* Digg.com
This one is kind of a cheat,
since I was planning on doing an entry just on this site, anyway. It's
not like they need the publicity -- Digg is a collective links blog
that's on a pace to out-Slashdot Slashdot. The Digg difference is that articles get to the front page, not by the decisions of some editorial board, but because they're voted
on by the participants. So far, so good -- I see a diverse mix of
links, from techy stuff, current events, tabloid stuff. It's an
interesting exercise in collective wisdom and I will be writing
more about it and sites like it in the future, but just know now that
it's a good list of stuff that you can find before it hits the rest of
the blog echo chamber.

* Morality and the Law
Just on his job title alone sounds pretty impressive -- he's a Probate Referee for the Superior Court of California -- but Stephen
looks at issues of morality and legality (and where the two realms
cross and part). Naturally, since he's looking at such complex topics,
his posts can be rather lengthy, but they're fascinating reading --
very absorbing and well written, in logically organized and
easy-to-digest chunks.

* The History of Theodore Barnes by Nelson Pierce
Honestly, I'm a little leery about looking at teen blogs. Yes, I know: No one understands you
and what you're going through. Plus, stylewise, a lot of teens prefer
eye-bending colors, teeny low-contrast fonts, and lots of flashy
sparkly animated images -- probably because they know adults can't read
them easily (damn their young eyes!) Anyway, none of that applies to Hannah, who seems to be a relatively well-adjusted senior, despite the odd blog name. Oh, and one of her recent entries suggests she's a fan of  Pearls Before Swine, so she's got that going for her.

* Untitled States
Last,
but not least...well, it's not even a blog, but I'm pretty sure the
editor will let this one slide. At first, it may not seem like much --
it's just an interactive Web site that lets you add your own text to
template images, which you can then drop into your blog. For example:

That in itself is cool, but there are other sites that do that kind of stuff. However, the proprietor of the site is Lore Sjoberg (there should be an umlaut over that o in "Sjoberg"), and he deserves a lifetime achievement award just for what he did as a founder of the now-defunct (but archived) Brunching Shuttlecocks.

So
that's my five. I mean six. I could bore you with more of my bloggy Web
picks, but that's it for now. If you're still reading this, thanks for
indulging me. I especially enjoyed the chance to do some writing today
that didn't include the words "I'm sorry."

Have a good weekend everybody. -- Joe

Friday Status Updates

Hi folks...here are some updates on our open
issues:

*
Authentication:
The

authentication fix seems to have worked, so it looks like the Int'l

folks have their blue owner buttons back. However, this is still

subject to our favorite bug...

* Inability
to Save Entries:
As mentioned, the Spider
Ops

cleared the server caches, which should have fixed things, but each

time the tech folks think they have the problem licked, we find out

that the fix has helped some people, but that others are still stuck

with it. Obviously, we haven't found a silver bullet yet, but the
techs

are still working on it.

* Character Sets
Not Displaying Properly:
This

one also affects International Journalers disproportionately, since they use

more accents, umlauts and other extended characters. (They're kind of funny that way.) U.S. bloggers
will

still see the problem if they use these or other characters, such as

the copyright or trademark symbol, the yen or pound sterling symbol,

etc. A possible solution was tested and failed, so the tech folks are

continuing to look into it.

* Ad
Banners:
I don't really have anything substantive to
add about this from my post
on Wednesday.


I'm sorry if this makes me unresponsive. As far as I
know and from everything I've heard, the 728x90 banner ad is staying on
all Journals.

However, we are actively
pursuing one of the suggestions you sent, that of adding a
disclaimer

below the advertisement that acknowledges that you, the blog owner,

didn't have anything to do with the ad placement and don't endorse
it.





I know many of you are already doing this on a per-entry basis or in

your blog titles or descriptions; if we are able to get it done, I

would guess that our language won't be as strong as what I've seen

around, though.

Furthermore, I know that our senior execs are
aware of your displeasure -- and this was before the story was run by
BusinessWeek's
Blogspotting -- I am glad the blog press picked it
up.

That's about it for right now. Thanks --
Joe

Update: Status of Saving Entries?

Hi
all,

the tech folks implemented two fixes, both of which they think were

affecting the ability to save
entries.

The first fix involved
authentication

from inside the AOL-client. It caused the blue owner buttons to not

show up when you went to your Journal using the AOL
software.

It

was fixed for most U.S. users on Tuesday. However, International

(non-U.S.) users continued to have problems; after a config change
that

just went live, they think that authentication should work for all

clients now. (If any U.K. or other Journalers can check in and let me

know if this is the case, it would be
helpful.)

Next, the tech folks have just informed me
that the Spider Ops group (now
that's a name) has finished clearing a bunch of
objects from the server cache,

which they think was causing our second problem, which was that owners

would see the blue buttons, but they would be unable to save new or

changed entries.

Previously, we had asked people to
clear your

browser cache, clear your footprints (this is your TopSpeed footprint,

which is another form of cache), and if that didn't work, to delete

your cookies and rebuild your AOL Adapter.

If the
tech folks are correct, the cookies and the adapter probably wouldn't
help anything, though they won't hurt, either.

If
you were having problems saving entries, can you
please:

1.  Clear
your browser cache again. (I know I've said this many times
over the past few days.)

2. Use the AOL
System Information 2.0 utility to clear
your footprint.



[Update: You will need to have AOL System Info 2.0,
pictured

below -- if you have AOL System Info 1.0...I'm trying to track down
the

procedure for that. In the meantime, try turning off your AOL TopSpeed

cache -- see instructions farther down, below the graphic]



To do this, open the AOL System Info utility, either by
clicking

the AOL icon in your system tray or click Start > Programs
> AOL

> AOL System Information. When you're there, click "Utilities",
then

in the "Browser" section, next to "Clear All Footprints", click
Clear.

3.
You may need to restart AOL or reboot your
computer.

Instructions for Temporarily
Turning Off Your TopSpeed
Cache:
1. Go to AOL Keyword:
Browser
Settings
2.
Uncheck the box next to "Optimize Web browsing using
TopSpeed technology:

Please let me know if you can save entries now, or if you are
still having problems.  Thanks -- Joe

More of Your Feedback on Problems and Ads

Hi folks,

Here are some additional items raised by Journalers.

* More Trouble With Archives:
Journaler Vickey
informs me that, in addition to the Archive monthly entry counts being
incorrect, if you're reading an archived entry, the right sidebar that
shows the rest of the month's entries are instead showing entries from
the next month.

For example, in this entry of mine from October, the listed sidebar items are all from November (despite what the sidebar header says).

If
I had to guess, I would say the miscount and wrong month problems are
related -- I've passed this info along to the tech folks, who don't
have to guess.

* An Easy Way to Block Ads?
I got this item from Connie, over at Thought Salad. Celeste, over at My Day and Thoughts, has cleverly found a way to block the ads from Journals, using AOL's own Pop-Up Blocker (AOL-only link), which you can access at the bottom of your Web browser window (I believe this requires AOL 9.0 SE). 



In addition to blocking pop-ups, you're given the option to block "animated media" from specific domains.

I tried it, and it works. You can see the instructions at Celeste's entry.

However, I noted a few potential problems:

* This will only block Flash ads; the ads running in the 728x90 right now are mostly Flash, but if there are any that are just gifs (even animated gifs), jpgs,
or any other non-"animated media," you will continue to see them.
(Please note: I am not involved with selecting what shows up in the ad
spot, or any ad spot. In any case, I doubt that you would suddenly a
sudden rush away from Flash ads and towards gif and jpg ads, since
interactive ads are worth more to advertisers.)

* Additionally, if you do this, you will block all animated media
from AOL.com.  "That's great!", you might say. However, Flash and
other "animated media" is used in a lot more stuff than just ads -- for
example, the Face Wall on the Journals main page uses Flash, as do some polls, media players, games and other features.

I
took a look to see if you could block the specific subdomains from
which the ads are served, but it doesn't appear that our popup blocker
lets you do that.

So, anyway, to summarize: the pop-up blocker workaround will work a lot (not all) of the time, and there are some tradeoffs, which I've listed above.

Of course, this won't mollify a lot of the Journalers who are unhappy about the ads -- there is the principle, of course, but also the practical reason
that folks who haven't opted to block animated media from aol.com
(either by choice, indifference or because they use another browser)
will still see the ads.

* Blog Ads Survey/Poll
Speaking of polls, Gullspirit has created an AOL Blogs/Journals Ad Banner Poll; you can read more about it in her blog entry.

It's a pretty well-built poll, though I have some nits to pick, looking purely at the poll methodology (sorry, I was a poli-sci major):

* Some of the questions are a bit leading, and I think some logical options are omitted.
* Statistically speaking, the sample is self-selected and non-random, and the sample size is relatively small.
*
I notice the wording of some of the questions has changed since the
first time I saw it, with intervening votes cast. Changing a poll
in-progress makes it harder to do an apples-to-apples comparison. [Updated:
Gullspirit notes in the comments that the poll results were reset after
the questions were changed, so this comment is unfounded.]

I'm not trying to slam the poll, I'm just noting a few potential trouble spots. Anyway, it's open until Monday midnight ET, and is another way for you to voice your opinion.

Thanks -- Joe

Update on Open Technical Problems

Hi all,

Here is the status of the current known technical issues related to the R2 release:

* Inability to Save Entries
After investigation, the tech folks found that there are two separate, but related problems in authentication that is causing users (both in the US and abroad) to not be able to save entries to their Journals.

These
problems are primarily affecting Journalers using the AOL client
software, because it involves how the new authentication scheme sees
AOL client users.

It wasn't discovered in testing because if you
authenticate successfully externally and later test from inside the
client, you won't see the problem.

The presence of two distinct
problems explains why the procedure of clearing one's browser cache and
footprint works for some people, but doesn't work for others.

The tech folks are working on installing a fix. I will let you know when it goes in.

* Inaccurate Entry Counts in Monthly Archives
The
number of entries that show up in the monthly view of your archives may
be inaccurate. For example, here is what I see when I look at my archives:

It's
only showing one or two entries per month. The tech folks think it may
be a database mismatch and are working on the problem.

* Character Sets Not Displaying Correctly
Certain
character sets are not showing up right. This means that letters with
accents, umlauts, tildes and other modifiers will not display properly.
This is obviously affecting International Journalers in a big way. Here
is an example:

(That means "last entries", incidentally.) I don't have an ETA of a fix yet.

If you're having Journals problems not listed here, please let me know. Thanks -- Joe

This Is an Entry About the Ads

Okay folks -- this one is an entry about the ads: the 728x90 banner ad that was placed on the top of all Journals yesterday as part of the Journals R2 release, and the resulting furor that it's set off within the J-Land community.

First, right off the bat, I can't say what you most want me to say, which is "The advertisement is going away."

I
can't speak for upper management, where the business decisions get
made, though I can share my thoughts -- and yours -- with my own
bosses.  And I haven't heard anything that suggests we will be
rolling back the ads. (And yes, I know it's the old "Decision is made
above my pay grade" saw, but just because it's lame doesn't mean it's not true).

Your reactions to the ads have been universally negative, though there has been a range of negativity: A very vocal portion of folks absolutely HATE-HATE-HATE the ads; I have been told to resign; some of the more extreme wording has likened the ads to "rape"; there have been threats of lawsuits and I've seen calls (that I hope are at least half-joking) for vandalizing the property of advertisers whose ads have run.

Needless to say, these folks don't expect to remain AOL Journalers, or even AOL members much longer (more on that in a bit.)

(To top it off, it really, really didn't help that certain things broke as we installed R2. For example, authentication problems caused the edit buttons to disappear for a while and there are still people who can't save entries. This is really bad, and I am very, very sorry -- we should have done more testing, especially with the different versions of the AOL client. And then there's that whole unwelcome surprise thing, which I have also apologized for. But this entry is about the ads issue.)

Next, there are the people who have an extreme dislike
of the new ad placement, but might not leave their Journals, especially
if we can do things to make the ad placement less annoying. Some of
your suggestions have included:

* Letting blog owners opt-out of ad placements.

* Using less-garish ads, or text ads.

* Giving blog owners a piece of the action,
either through a third-party administered ad program like Google
AdSense, or maybe a direct payout from AOL. (On the flip side, some
folks think that this whole ad thing is a scheme to introduce a premium
"no-ads" fee for Journals.)

* Adding some sort of disclaimer to the ad, showing that the blog owner doesn't endorse the ad placement, or even giving blog owners a choice
as to what kind of ad shows up. For example, if you blog about working
at Company XX, and there's an ad running in your blog for your chief
competitor, Company YY, you would be upset about the ad content, even
if you were generally okay with the idea of ads in your blog (which you
probably aren't).

These are all good ideas, some of which
we've discussed internally before and some that we haven't, and we are
examining all of them, though I don't know if we will be able to
implement any of them.

There are other people who are neutral about AOL placing ads in their blogs -- they don't care one way or the other. I don't see very many of those right now.

And of course, I don't see anyone who says "I love the new ads!" If they do, they probably work in the advertising industry.

Of course, there's been a furious flurry of blog posts, comments, e-mails and message board posts. (I hope that as you do this, you continue to send your feedback to the feedback address we've set up, JournalChanges@aol.com, which I can't stress enough is not a dumping ground
for your e-mails -- it's set up because I don't know if any
high-powered AOL executives are going to see the comments you post in
my blog, whereas with the e-mail, we can collect your feedback directly
and share it with our executive team.)

There's also at least one petition that I know of, as well as various boycotts, embargos on Scalzi's assignments, blog blackouts and more.

Here's some of the sentiment we've found in your posts, comments and mails:

* Over at What the Hell...?, jeffcomedy uses the following analogy:

"It's
the equivalent of going to a hair-cutters, getting my hair all nice and
trim and spiffy.  I pay her and while I'm walking out the door,
she nails a coupon for Starbucks to the back of my head." (Thanks to
Suzie for calling that one out.)

* A bunch of folks
have also made ultimatums (to paraphrase): "Roll back the ads or we're leaving (and
you've made us so mad, we might leave anyway)." Patrick of Patrick's Place has put together a link list of AOL Journalers who have created new blogs at other blog providers.  A popular alternative is using a combination of the Blogger tool and BlogSpot hosting, which are both free blogging services that are owned by Google.

* Some others have suggested canceling their AOL accounts and recreating their blogs on the free AIM Blogs
platform, which gives you the same familiar features, for free (though
it does carry the association with AOL, which some people have sworn
off).

* There have also been folks who've pooh-poohed
my "poor li'l cog in the corporate wheel fighting for the customer" act
(except it's not an act), but (allow me to be self-indulgent for a
moment) do you think I wanted to be on the receiving end of
all your complaints about the ads? Yes, I know, no sympathy for the
devil and all, but just know that I'm no troll.

Anyway, this has been a pretty long post, and I know many of you stopped reading at "right off the bat",
but I wanted you to know that we are following your feedback and
reading what you're writing; we're sorry you're unhappy with the
decisions we've made; if anything changes, I will let you know; and in
any event, I hope you keep blogging, whether it's with AOL or someone
else.

Thanks -- Joe.

This Is Not an Entry About the Ads

Okay folks, as the subject says, this isn't an entry where I will talk
about the 728x90 banner ads on Journals. I will post an entry a little
later this afternoon.



Right now, I just wanted you to be aware that I am reading your
comments and I'm not trying to duck
your questions, it's just that there is very little I can do about it
personally at the moment (other than pass your feedback up the chain of
command, not off to some e-mail dumping grounds). However, what I have
been doing is to trying to get the save entry
problems fixed.



I got a comment from randlprysock, where she describes a procedure using the AOL System Information utility to clear her cache, footprints and rebuild the AOL Adapter. Here is her blog entry: http://journals.aol.com/randlprysock/AdventuresFromFlorida/entries/1255



Since the procedure listed involves multiple steps, some that we've
mentioned before (clearing cache), some that we haven't (clearing
footprint and rebuilding the AOL Adapter) as well as rebooting the
computer, we can't be precisely sure which of the steps is the one that
does the trick (if it indeed does the trick).



If you try the listed procedures, it would be helpful if you can let us know if it worked for you or not. 



As noted, I will talk about the ads in another entry later today.  Thanks -- Joe

Update on Saving Entries

Hi all; I got a mail from the tech folks, who think they have a line on
the problem with saving entries -- a fix went in last night. However,
I'm still getting a lot of reports from users who can't save their
entries from inside the AOL client software.

If you're still having trouble, you may need to clear your browser's cache & cookies (even if you've done it before) -- to do this:

1. Go to Keyword: Preferences
2. Click Internet [Web] Options
3. On the right side, where it says "Related Settings", click Internet Explorer settings
4. In the area marked "Temporary Internet files", click the button that says Delete Files -- This will clear your browser's cache.
5. Then, also click the button that says "Delete Cookies
   
   

Please let me know if this helps or not. I've told the tech
folks that people are still having problems and asked them to keep
investigating, but I've just confirmed with one of my co-workers who
was having the same "can't save" problems this morning (who's not on
the Journals team) that clearing her cache & cookies fixed it for
her.

Thanks -- Joe

How To: Use a Standalone Browser With Your Journal

Hi all. Here's how you can create new entries and edit your Journal, even when you're not using the AOL client software.

The front-end of AOL Journals is just about completely Web-based, which means that it's all Web pages. Generally, AOL Journalers access Journals from inside the AOL software, but there's no reason why you can't use any standard external Web browser -- you just have to sign in. (When you use the AOL software, you're automatically signed in.)

This can be a useful workaround when there's an AOL client problem, but it's also helpful when you're away from your usual computer, or even if you want to sign on with one Screen Name on the AOL software and want to work on a Journal that's on another of your screen names (just like you can use Webmail to check multiple e-mail accounts simultaneously).

To do this, all you need is standalone, or external, Web browser, like Firefox (which I'm partial to because of tabbed browsing and a lot of useful extensions), Netscape or the standalone version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (Internet Explorer, or MSIE, is on just about every Windows machine out there, so it's always an option.

To open Microsoft Internet Explorer,
1. Go to the Start Menu
2. Click Programs, then Internet Explorer.

This should open up the standalone version of Internet Explorer.) 

There's also AOL Explorer, which is a standalone browser that also hooks into a lot of AOL features, but it's pretty much still an external browser built on MSIE.

Anyway, no matter what standalone browser you use, if you know the address of your Journal, just go directly to it (if you don't know your blog's address, I will tell you a shortcut in a second).

When you get to your Journal, there should be a link in the very top right of the page that says "Sign In" (it may show the screen name that last signed in there); go ahead and click it:

This will give you a little sign-in dropdown, which is the newer sign-in behavior; it's a little more convenient than the old version (which went to a destination screen -- you can still get to if you want -- just click the "Standard Sign In Screen" link). It will show you Screen Name and Password fields:

Type your Screen Name and Password and click the Sign In button.

When you've signed in, you should have the signed-in, owner's view of your Journal, complete with the owner's blue create and edit buttons. 

Here, you're able to do everything with your Journal that you can when you're editing your Journal inside the AOL software.

(You should also be signed in if you've signed in elsewhere with your Screen Name, like if you've been reading your Webmail.)

Now, if you don't know your blog's address, one thing you can do is go to the Journals main page (the shortcut address is http://www.aol.com/blogs) & sign on like I mentioned above. After you sign in, it should show you a widget listing all of the blogs you own under that screen name, which you can then click to edit.

Thanks -- Joe

Having Problems Saving Entries?

Hi all -- I'm still getting reports of users unable to save entries (both new entries and changes to old entries).


This morning, Journal owners using the AOL software weren't being
recognized as owners of their Journals when they went to their blogs --
the blue buttons weren't showing. That particular problem was
fixed, though this one may be related. If you are still unable to save
entries, please let me know.

The following information will help us figure out the problem:

1. What version of the AOL software are you using (for example, AOL 9.0, AOL 9.0 SE)? What operating system do you use (like Windows XP, or Mac OSX)?

2. What happens when you click the Save button?
Does it give you an error message, or does it just sit there? Also,
does it show anything in the status bar at the bottom of the browser?

3. Are you on a dialup or high-speed connection (like cable or DSL)?

4. Have you tried deleting your browser's cookies? Did that do anything? To delete your cookies, from AOL:

• Go to Keyword: Preferences; click "Internet [Web] Options"
• On the right side, click "Internet Explorer Settings."
• There
  should be a button that says "Delete Cookies" (note that this will
  cause you lose information stored on your cookies, typically Web page
  customization or saved login info, which you'd just have to retype the
  next time)
• Hit "Delete Cookies" to delete your cookies and see if that helps at all.

5.
Have you tried using a separate, standalone browser, like Firefox or
the external version of Internet Explorer? Did that help, or was it the
same? (I will post an entry shortly about how to work with your Journal
from an external browser).

Any information you can provide would be useful. Thanks -- Joe

R2 Status Update: Issues and Your Feedback

Hi folks...here's an update on some of the issues swirling around relating to today's R2 release:

* Brief Outage: We had brief period starting around 12:30pm, where Journals were inaccessible because they were timing out. This was due to a log overflow problem and should be better now.

* Missing Owner/Edit Buttons: This problem, where users inside the AOL client were unable to create new entries, edit old ones, or edit their Journals (basically do the normal things a Journal owner can do), was caused by an authentication issue related to the switchover. The tech folks pushed through an emergency install, and it should be fixed.

* Journals Bot: Still getting error messages trying to post via IM using the AOLJournals bot. This is being worked on -- estimated time to repair is later today.

* International Journals: Non-U.S. Journals cannot see comments or add them. This is also being worked on; I don't have any additional info.

* Feedback on Ad Banners and Other Items: The team has created a screen name to collect your feedback on all the Journals changes, including the new ad banners.

Please send your feedback to JournalChanges@aol.com -- doing this will allow us to collect all your feedback and channel it to the appropriate teams.

Please note that this is for feedback comments related to the new Journals feature release only -- if you have technical problems to report or other Journals-related issues, please send me e-mail.

Thanks -- Joe

R2 Is Here

Hi folks...here is a long-awaited update on some new Journals features.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was supposed to be a heads-up letting you know about the changes ahead of time, but I got the dates messed up, so here's what we've got.

First off, I haven't said much about specific release dates previously because they always move.  For example, this release had been significantly delayed due to problems found in testing -- the launch date had moved so many times, I wanted to wait until the day before we were sure to launch before I said anything.

It typically works better when you don't screw up the date.

As to specific R2 problems, here are some updates:

* Spellcheck: This is only supported for Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, so if you're using another browser, you probably won't be able to use spellcheck.

* Owner/Edit Buttons Not Appearing: Some AOL in-client users aren't seeing their blue owner buttons for creating entries or editing their Journals. The tech folks are investigating. In the meantime, a workaround is using a standalone browser, like Internet Explorer, that's separate from your AOL client.

If you are experiencing other problems, please let me know.

Next, I know you're unhappy with the new 728x90 ad banners on top of all AOL Journals. I presented my best arguments to my management as to why we were better off leaving things as they were, but as you can see, I was not persuasive enough.

A tiny comfort is that since the ad infrastructure was already in place, it required very little work to turn them on.

Next, this release, called the R2 release, is the first of a series of releases that you will be seeing on close to a monthly basis. R3 is scheduled for December; R4 for January and R5 for February. All dates and features are subject to change, so I don't want to get too specific, but here is what we're working on:

• Custom Skins - The ability to customize the look and feel of your Journal with graphic templates and a drag-and-drop interface


• All About Me Character Limit -- The ability to have more characters in your All About Me area


• Moblogging -- Mobile blogging, this will allow you to send pictures, text and eventually video to your blog


• Shared Blogging-- The ability to have mulitple authors to a blog


• A Whole Bunch of Other Updates -- Including a lot of infrastructure changes you hopefully won't notice; updates to give you better rostering for your Journals, and more

Now that the R2 release is out of the way (barring the pending fixes mentioned above), the following releases should go a lot more smoothly. I will keep you in the loop -- as I mentioned, dates move and features shift, so I will try to tell you a day or two before a firm install date.

I will also try to talk more about the new, shorter development cycles later today.

In the meantime, please keep sending me your feedback and problem reports. Thanks -- Joe

Journals 2.0 R2 Release Is Live (Oops on My Part)

Hi folks -- quick update right now -- I will post a followup entry with more details as soon as I finish writing it. 

The Journals 2.0 Release 2 (or R2) is live now. I had originally meant to pre-message you to give you a heads-up, but I screwed up on the date: It went live around 5AM today, the 15th -- I thought it was going to be the 16th,  so instead of being able to give you a warning, I have to tell you what you already know. I apologize for my mistake.

Again, I will go into a lot more detail in my followup post -- here is the topline on the changes:
* Spellcheck on Journal Entries
* 728x90 Ad Banner added on top of all Journals: (AIM, AOL, public, private, editor and member)
* Bug Fixes: Included is an reduction of the displayed Comment Alert length -- we think this was a cause of some of the Comment Alert non-delivery problems. Also, the problem of text not showing up in archived entries on blogs with black backgrounds has been fixed.

Open issues related to the installation include:
* Posting via IM (to the AOLJournals bot) may not be working
* Display of your Journals on the Journals main page module may be having intermittent problems
* Other problems including inability to save entries in certain browsers.

Like I said, I will post a followup entry with more information.  I apologize for the (or my) confusion.

Thanks -- Joe

Meeting Bloggers Who Make a Difference

Hi folks...this afternoon, I got a chance to meet Paul Dadge.

He
works for AOL UK (doing Community stuff), though you might not know his
name. However, chances are you know his face, because he was captured
on film in what became an iconic photo from the London transit bombings in July (you can see the Time magazine cover behind him):

Paul,
a former firefighter, was on his way to work when he got caught up in
the events of 7/7, helping people injured in the attacks. (Here's an AOL UK Community page -- AOL in-client link only -- and my own blog entry from back in July.)

You can read his eyewitness account in his blog, which he continues to update today.

Paul is in town to be honored at an anti-hate benefit concert and gala
at the Kennedy Center tonight; he graciously came by the office for a
meet-and-greet, so I was also able to get a photo with him:

Congratulations to Paul on his well-deserved award, and best wishes for the rest of his travels in the U.S.

Thanks -- Joe

The Perils of Vanity Search

Morning folks...previously, I've mentioned ways for you to attract more readers, as well as a completely specious way to measure your blog's value (based on the number of blogs that link to you).

I've also mentioned some downsides of people seeing your blog.

Here's another possible outcome when people find your blog, courtesy of Friday's Candorville comic:

Also, while I'm on the topic of comics, check out this week's Aliens vs. Predator (which occasionally features some rough language and geek-only humor) which has a nice vignette based on spam subject lines.

And check out today's Pearls Before Swine, which isn't Web-related but made me laugh, anway.



Talk to you. -- Joe

Blogging the Paris Riots

Hey folks....I'm a little bit (okay, a few days) behind the the news cycle, but I still wanted to talk about the rioting in France.

I like to think that it allows me to be a bit more contemplative, less reactionary.

Things seem to have calmed down a bit (at least in terms of the number of cars torched) and maybe people are chilling for Armistice Day; however, CNN notes that Paris police are wary of planned disturbances on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Wired.com reported
(in a widely-picked up story) that French authorities shut down several
blogs that they claimed were inciting violence, which was worrying to
many French political bloggers.

Cops are also apparently worried about rioters planning via SMS text-messaging, which I guess gives the term flash mob a new meaning.

Reacting to the Wired story was a Slashdot post on Thursday. Going through the comments, even at moderation level 3, gave me a headache.

Like most things, the situation in France is tres
complicated; besides the issues of race, poverty, immigration policy,
ghettoization and cultural assimilation (or the lack of it), we've
got  fears of exploitation by radical Islamists, France's long and
sordid colonial history and their post-World War II rebuilding program.

Throw
in a bunch of "I told you so's", general antipathy for France and the
French political system in certain circles and a whole bunch of other
factors...well, like many things, if the answers were easy, the
problems would be fixed by now.

For background reading, I'm finding the Wikipedia articles on 2005 Civil Unrest in France and Social Situation in the French Suburbs very informative (yay, wikis), though I'll note that the latter wears a content warning right now, saying that the neutrality of the article is disputed:

Over at Publius Pundit (link via Instapundit), there's a long but good look at some of the reactions in the European press, as well as a look at the question whether this is an opening for radical Islamists.

Speaking of reactions from the foreign press, I was over at Watching America,
which is a great site that rounds up and translates articles from news
outlets around the world, so Americans (pronounced "murkins") can see
how foreigners (or at least the foreign press) sees us.

Related to the riots, they've got a few stories from French paper, Le Figaro (French-language), written by their Washington correspondent. One is a look at urban policy after the LA Riots & in NYC; the other asks whether American methods can work in France.



Both articles are pretty interesting, especially in seeing what evidence and conclusions an "outsider" draws about America.

Anyway, that's it for now. Talk to you later. -- Joe

New Face Wall Is Up

Hi folks -- the new Face Wall, or Gallery of Bloggers, is now up on the AOL Blogs main page, which means we have 16 more smilin' faces for you:

We
have noted a little publishing quirk, though; people keep seeing the
previous version. It may be a caching problem or a publishing glitch.



If you're seeing the old lineup, try hitting refresh (you may need to do this a few times).



If you're not seeing the Face Wall at all, or are seeing placeholder
silhouette images, you're probably on dialup. The flash files aren't
that big, but for some reason, it's not playing nice with some dialup
folks.



As noted before, we're still trying to make it a little more dialup-friendly; I will keep you posted.



The gallery will update depending on the number of usable entries we get, but it will probably be weekly or bi-weekly.



Thanks -- Joe.

New Guest Editor's Picks for 11/11

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

Our
Guest Editor this week is Jim, a comics-loving
writer whose travels have landed him outside Chicago. Check out his
top
blog picks in his blog, Skelligrants:

*
Francesco's
Life
* Midlife
Matters
* The Wizard
of Ahs
* Change
of Subject
* The Comics Curmudgeon (formerly Josh Reads the Comics)
* Blog of a
Bookslut

As I mentioned in the board post,
I'm playing with the Journals Alert format to try to make it
more useful, especially the e-mailed
version.

Instead of just a link to the
AOL
Journals main page and this here blog, I want to also use it
as a platform to bring up other blog topics. It'll be kind of a
mini-newsletter,

though when I say mini, I mean it -- the body text is limited to

something like 4,000 characters (that's characters, not
words).

It's scheduled to go out at 6:35pm ET
tonight (click to subscribe)-- please take a look
and let me know what you think.

Got a few more blog
updates pending...thanks. -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Friday Happenings

Hi folks. First off, as blogger John mentioned, today is Veterans Day, so be sure to thank a vet (I'm going to call my dad later today).

Next up, our pal Jamie, Mister Irrelevant himself, scored himself another appearance on ESPN2's Cold Pizza -- you can see Jamie's scathing self-criticism,
as well as some photos of the TV screen (I took a bunch of photos,
including a few of Jamie watching himself on screen, but I messed up
the exposure on most of those) in his blog entry.

If static photos don't cut it, try this simulation:

Got a few updates on the schedule for today, talking about some happenings in the big ole sphere-o'-blog plus this week's Guest Editor update, so stay tuned.

Thanks -- Joe

Sign of the Endtimes? (Or: Your Rights, Online)

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds ledes it this way: "Cats and dogs, living together?" --the purveyors of RedState.org and DailyKos.com, who are about as far apart you can get on the American political spectrum without moving in with the tin foil helmet brigades, have co-authored a letter urging lawmakers to dump HR 4194,
the "Internet Anti-Corruption and Free Speech Protection Act of 2005",
because it doesn't do enough to protect bloggers and citizen
journalists.

The concern, in light of the recent defeat of HR 1606, the "Online Freedom of Speech Act",  is to preserve the free speech rights of politically-minded individuals who want to talk policy and politics on Web sites (both group and individual) without having to submit to onerous Federal Election Commission restrictions.

Have
no fear, the partisan hackery and headbutting will continue on both
sides. Which I guess is the point of hopping in bed against this bill.

Thanks -- Joe

Seniors Blogging in the News

Congratulations to Journaler Ray White, more famously known as Dad of Dad's Tomato Garden Journal, who was one of the featured bloggers in an AP story about senior citizens blogging.

The story's been picked up by a lot of news outlets. Here's the ending quote of the story:

"In
the two years since 92-year-old Ray White started Dad's Tomato Garden
Journal, the blog has been viewed more than 45,000 times. Some of those
who click on the site are regular readers who know they can rely on
White six days a week.

White's daughter, Mary White, said the
blog keeps her father interested in life. When his computer is broken,
''he's just like a different person,'' she said. ''He's sad.''

The blog connects Ray White with friends he's never met in England, Portugal, Germany, Canada and all 50 states, he said.

He's continually surprised by the response.

''You'd
be surprised how many questions I get during the tomato season,'' he
said. ''There's always somebody having a problem. I try to answer all
those questions.

''It's just like one big family.''"

A
lot of the focus on the blog world has been on how the younger
generation, especially kids who've grown up with the Web and Instant
Messaging, have taken to the blogs.

This story and all the
people represented within it are reminders that blogging can be
fruitful for everyone. And of course, it shows that old dogs can learn new tricks. 

Thanks. -- Joe 

Busted for Blogging?

So I was browsing the online pages of my alma mater's newspaper, when I came across an intriguing-sounding editorial, "Facebook-based citations violate trust."

Apparently, last month, some NC State undergrads were busted for underage drinking by their RA (Resident Advisor), because she found pictures in Facebook (the student-oriented social networking site) of them apparently engaged in alcohol-related shenanigans.

I hadn't heard of this story circulating around the blogosphere yet, so I did a little more digging and found the original story, a followup article, and an outraged editorial in the NC State newspaper, the Technician.

I
can't speak to the validity of the allegations (for example, some of
the students claim they weren't even holding booze in the pictures --
they were just near it. Also, one of them uses the old "That wasn't my
beer, I was holding it for someone else" defense...always a winner), so I'll take a look at some of the editorial reactions
by other area universities, and then look at some of the broader
questions of what happens when people see stuff you put online that you
don't necessarily want them to see (the "wrong people" question).

The Chronicle editorial is pretty weak (sorry
guys). To paraphrase, "We're students, you should trust us, you're
going to ruin the online community, everybody does it, don't hold us
accountable and go worry about real crimes."

Luke McIntyre over at UNC-Greensboro has a good opinion piece in the Carolinian Online, though it's behind a registration wall -- here's the link anyway (you can use BugMeNot).

It mentions that some NC State students have protested the nature of the evidence, saying that digital photos can easily be altered,
and then photoshopping pictures of the RA who ratted out the students,
adding beer cans, beer bongs, a beer helmet -- basically, a lot of beer. He also mentions a similar incident that happened at UNC-G, only with alcoholic captions, which kinds of limits your deniability.

The outraged editorial at NC State
is...well, outraged. It also protests the photo-only evidence ("That's
not beer in the glass -- that's an unidentified liquid!"), which,
carried to its logical conclusion, ends up disqualifying the use of any photograph as evidence.

It also sputters on a bit about student privacy...yeah, um, weren't these photos published to a social networking Web site?

Over at the UNC-Chapel Hill's Daily Tar Heel, the Board Editorial is a little more tut-tutting and a little more cautionary about posting information where it can be seen by anyone, including the dreaded 40-year-old, heavy breathing stalker guys.

Okay, so I'm conflicted. On the one hand, NC State potentially punishing people for pictures that they (or others) posted online is pretty weak. And I don't know if the university's judicial system, or their housing policy, is fair, or if the RA was overzealous.

On the other hand (puts on cranky old guy hat and knows I'm going to get flamed for it)... folks, college students are adults, and this is how adults are treated.

NC State's Office of Student Conduct Director Paul Cousins (you know he must be a popular guy right now) makes a point (which I think is a little overblown) that the whole Abu Ghraib prison investigation started on the basis of a few digital photos.

Over at urban legend research site Snopes.com, they've got a whole section of racy stories that spread over e-mail, voicemail and fax (in pre-internet days), including a few that caused people to lose their jobs --
just because they sent a saucy e-mail that got forwarded all over the
world (again, some sexual content follows -- you've been warned -- here, here and here. For nonsexual e-mail escapades, check out these recent stories of folks losing their jobs over flaming e-mails about ketchup and a ham sandwich.)

All this is just a reminder that people pay attention to what you put online, for better or for worse.

And here's the thing about digital content: Once it's put up, it's potentially out there forever.

Maybe it gets picked up in a search engine's cache, or the Internet Archive or someone out there saves it to their hard drive.

Maybe that photo that you think is hilarious
now, that your best buddy took of you while you were passed out face
down hugging the toilet, next to a beer bong and a half-smoked bowl,
bareassed and covered with black Sharpie (note: not a personal anecdote) -- maybe that's not going to be so funny 5 years later when you're trying to establish your business bonafides.

But sure, all those are future regrets, which you can worry about when you're old. (Like, 30.)

For right now, it's just wise to remember: People will see what you put online.
Whether it's because your mom stumbles on it, or someone with a grudge
against you sends a link, or just plain bad luck -- if you post stuff
online, people will see it. It's the nature of the beast. So just think
a little bit while you post.

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

Tag: Busted for Blogging