Guest Editor 9/29/06

Hi everybody... as posted to the
AOL Journals main page and on the Message Boards, here are the Guest Editor's Picks for
September 29th, 2006:

Guest Editor Nelishia is no stranger to
family drama, according to Wishing and
Hoping ... She's this week's
Guest Editor. Check out
her weekend
picks:

*
Life
* In Perpetual
Motion
*
Daughters of the Shadow Men [Strong content
warning]
*
Reconciling Life
* Noon Mom
* Some of Me
* Bonus
Picks!

Click here to see Nelishia's
Guest Editor post with her own unique descriptions and additional
Bonus Picks. Don't forget, if you want your own
chance at being a Guest Editor, or if you have a blog you want me to see for a
possible feature, send me an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com.
Please don't forget to include a link to your blog. Have a great weekend,
everyone.

Thanks -- Jeff

Please Help Us Fix R8

You may have noticed a lot of the problems from the past few days have magically vanished from your Journal experience. That's because the Journals tech team has rolled the R8 code back until we can figure out what all the 'undocumented features' of R8 were, exactly, and how we can fix them.

As always, Stephanie Bergman has more on this in detail. If you are at all interested in helping us fix the Journals product, please visit her post and follow her instructions -- doing this will be a HUGE help.

Essentially, what we're asking you to do is go about your normal blogging business, but do it in the beta version of journals. All you have to do is add "beta" in front of your URL. For example, my journal is http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke and my beta URL would be http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke.

Stephanie explains more about what to look for, and steps to fix problems. We really need your help here, and appreciate all you can give us.

And again, thanks so much to all of you who reported problems to us and are willing to help us fix things. Every piece of information you give us makes our product better -- and therefore improves your blogging lives!

Enough Shovels of Dirt

According to a
news story winding its way around the Web, China now has more than 34 million
blogs, with 17.5 million
people considering themselves bloggers. Apparently the Chinese blogosphere has
increased 30-fold in size in the past four years.

The content of
most Chinese blogs skews heavily toward pop culture and daily life, as political
dissidents are known to suddenly "disappear" with a little help from the Chinese
government.

I
wonder if bloggers there have the same annoying things as Western bloggers. Does
the exploding Chinese blogosphere write about its cats or lunch (rice, again) in
a pink, blinking Comic Sans font?

Lockstep patriotism is mandatory in China -- although it's
spreading here, it's still optional. Do Chinese bloggers embed
animated .gifs of waving Maoist flags in their blogs, I
wonder?

It
drives me nuts that I can't speak Chinese and figure this out for myself.
There's a whole culture evolving and exploding over there, and we've got no easy
way to access it - infuriating to guy whose curiosity rivals that of a thousand
cats.

Virtual China
offers up a really fascinating digest of what's going on online in China -- it's
a window to the online East that I'll be looking through regularly. One recent
link from the page goes to Linese.com, an
expansive resource for people to learn about Chinese culture. Don't
think you're going to learn much about the political climate there,
though.

China's media policy is vaguely defined and harshly enforced to prevent a free
flow of information among its people -- despite China's desire to keep up with
technological innovation and communication on a global scale. Whether or not the
Chinese government likes it, the people are talking among themselves really,
really fast. The government may be able to prevent the spread of "harmful"
information now, but it won't be able to do it forever.

Like the
Chinese proverb says :"Enough shovels of earth -- a mountain. Enough pails of
water -- a river."

Tags: china, chinese bloggers, chinese blogosphere

Temporary Rollback to R7

So the latest is: the Journals team has rolled back the R8 Journals release to R7 while fixing the problems you've experienced/heard so much about the past few days.

You should be able to see your edit/add entry buttons now, and see your own screenname again in the upper right corner of your Journal. As always, please mail me or leave a comment if there are any problems.

Bug Fixes, Open Issues 9/27/06

The Journals Team has pushed through a
few bug fixes that should address some of the problems you guys have reported
over the past few days.

I'm describing them here in brief, but, as always, Stephanie
Bergman has more of the
story. 

Anyway:

- 'Blog This' was broken for pictures and some
other locales ... now it's
fixed.

- Your default name is no longer
"Journals" - you should see the the correct name when you log
into your journal.

-We have not been able to solve the vanishing Edit/Update Entry/Add Entry buttons issue yet, largely because we cannot
reliably reproduce the problem. We have found that clearing your cache and
deleting your cookies can fix it, but not in all cases. This is the Web equivalent of bed rest and
chicken soup, but it works, usually.

The Journals
team is elevating the issue and pushing hard for an immediate fix. I'm happy to tell
you more as soon as I know it myself.

And, as
always, if you have any problems, please tell me immediately. When reporting a
problem, give me as much info as you can: date, approximate time, how you got to
that problem. Screenshots never hurt, either.

We sincerely
apologize for this inconvenience.

Thanks -- Jeff

 

Hiccups in the SNS, Edit Entry Process?

Some of our editors are experiencing a
few hiccups when signing into and editing their Journals. I'm hearing that what
happens is that the editor(s) are being asked to sign in repeatedly and seeing
their screenname as "Journals."

Then they are occasionally experiencing a magical
phenomenon known as The Incredible Vanishing Update
Button. Apparently, the Update buttons appear on single entry pages, but not on the main Journal page. 

I'm told this is a result of some code changes in the R8 install this
morning -- workarounds that solved one problem but ... you follow me here.

Are any of you
guys out there in J-Land having this problem? If so, please either e-mail me or
leave a comment describing the situation in as much detail as you
can.

Journals R8 Install 9/26/06, Outage From 4-6 AM EST

Just a quick word: AOL
Journals R8 will go up tomorrow morning. This means a planned
outage from 4-6 AM EST, and really, not much else.
Most of the new features aren't things you'll notice as a user, I am
told.

Stephanie Bergman has the details over
here, but, knock wood, life should progress normally for you guys.

Why do I feel
an ominous chill when I type
that?

 

Virgin Festival Photos, Roundup

(This post has very little to do with blogs or blogging. It's
just meant to be entertaining.)

Man, I don't
know how y'all feel about great big rock concerts, but they make me feel pretty
much awesome all the way around. There's something about standing up and
sweating for 12 hours with 40, 000 other people that puts a smile in my soul.

It may sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm seriously
not. Loud, amazing music + a wide swath of humanity's excitement = one of the
best things about being alive, if you ask me. And my friends, this weekend's
Virgin Festival was up
there with eating homemade blueberry pie and free pit passes to NASCAR as one of
the best things a human could experience in late summer.

Multibillionaire Richard
Branson put the festival on for no purpose other than to
create a music festival starring some of his favorite contemporary bands like
The Who, Gnarls
Barkley, The Red Hot Chili Peppers,
The Flaming Lips, Carl
Cox, 2 Many DJs and
more.

I was lucky enough to score photo credentials at the
show for AOL, meaning that I got to go right up to the front of the stage for
the first three songs of each band's act and snap like a maniac. Here's a few
shots, in no particular order, with some accompanying descriptive text.

This is Chris Ross and Myles Haskett of
Wolfmother,
heir apparent to AC/DC's spot on the throne as Australia's heavy rock kings.
They had an unfortunate time slot, playing at 1:30 p.m. -- well in advance of
rock 'n roll's waking hour -- but made up for it with a grinding, sweaty energy.
You could actually feel the air move in front of the speakers every time the
band slammed a note in unison.







Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is the
kind of band that you're either into, or you're just not. They've got an indie
hipster vibe, and it's true that they hail from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ground
zero for the vintage t-shirt set. One of those dudes lives in my good friend's
building, as it turns out. I've seen him in the lobby on and off over the years,
and then I'll be damned if I'm not shooting photos of him playing the keyboard
this weekend.




Live
hip-hop -- or really, any form of sample-based music perforemd live --
is really hit-or-miss. Sometimes it's just some bozo standing behind a
microphone, and other times it's a vibrant art form that really draws
on the crowd's energy. Gnarls Barkley was definitely the latter this
weekend, performing music made on a keyboard and sampler with a full
live band, including a string section. Dressed in faux Roman apparel,
singer Cee-Lo announced that Gnarls Barkley's new name was 'Chariots of
Fire." I was hoping they'd cover the 'Chariots of Fire' theme, but no
dice. Other than that tiny disappointment, the show was a jam.

 



When it comes to The Who's
performance this Saturday evening, the blogosphere reverberates with the hum of
universal truth: They've still got it. I
can't even get my arm to do that windmill move of Pete Townshend's and I'm only
30. They mercifully went easy on the new material and pushed out hit after hit
for the better part of an hour and a half -- and it was so awesome to see a sea
of faces rocking out -- all of whom were born after these songs had come and
gone from the charts.







If
psychedelic love were spread through amps like fire from flamethrowers,
The Flaming Lips would rule a scorched and empty
earth. Sort of. Maybe that metaphor needs work. What I am trying to say is that
no band could possibly match the giddy, tripped-out ecstasy that The Flaming
Lips mustered that night.

What you see above is an image
of Wayne Coyne, the band's guitarist, singer, and spiritural leader surfing the
crowd in a giant plastic bubble. Stage hands dressed in brilliantly colored
superhero costumes inflated the bubble and passed him over the photo pit, into
the crowd. Click the image above to see a video of Coyne bobbing around an
electrified audience.

The Lips played songs from their
past three albums, joyously exhorting the crowd to sing as loudly as possible.
"We want you to sing so loud that the Red Hot Chili Peppers (playing across the
field) say '[pl]uck it' and lay down their instruments," Coyne told the crowd.
We gave it a shot, man. This morning, former Journals Editor
Joe (who was also in attendance) asked me "Was that a band or a
cult?"

Coyne blasted the crowd with confetti, inflated a giant
balloon filled with more confetti with a leafblower (you could hear the pop over
the band) and led sing-alongs with a rubber nun puppet on his hand. Saucy ladies
in alien costumes gyrated alongside the stage while dancers in Santa suits
mirrored them across the stage. I keep coming back to 'electric' and 'magical'
as metaphors, but that's just what the show was. It was a birthday party on Mars
...

But enough of my perceptions. What kind of fun have
you had en masse recently? How have you aligned with thousands of strangers and
made your molecules vibrate in unison? Or, apart from all that -- what did you
do last that blew your mind?

Tags: Virgin, Virgin Festival, Wolfmother, Flaming Lips, The Who, Gnarls Barkley, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Guest Editor 9/22/06

Hi everybody... as posted to the
AOL Journals main page and on the Message Boards, here are the Guest Editor's Picks for
September 22nd, 2006:

Guest Editor Jennifer is an editor at
AOL Diet & Fitness. That's right: fitness
and computer use are not necessarily opposites. She blogs at
The Marathon Training Blog. Check out her weekend
picks:

*
The Better Body
Blog
*
Triathlete,
Goddess!
*
I Ate A Pie
* The
Running Chick With the Orange Hat
* Diet
Blog
*
Slice

Don't forget, if you want your own chance at being a Guest Editor, or
if you have a blog you want me to see for a possible feature, send me
an e-mail at JournalsEditor@aol.com. Please don't forget to include a link to your blog. Have
a great weekend, everyone.

Thanks -- Jeff

Journals Outages Now Fixed

You may have noticed sporadic outages and the
infamous "blue screen of death" when you tried to read or work on AOL Journals
this morning. If you're reading this now, there's a strong chance that it's been
fixed. We may experience some residual effects while the system recovers, but we
should be all clear for now.

Stephanie Bergman, our new
Journals Product Manager, has blogged more about
the problem over at BamBam!

She's a great source of information about things going on with the
Journals product, not just heat-of-the-moment emergency posts. And as always,
we apologize for the inconvenience the outages caused.

Spell-Check is Fixed

Hey all -- Spell-Check is fixed. Let the party commence. Now that I know you care, there's no excuse for sloppy spelling!

Dragonfly, Hippopotami, Blogger Tools

Every second today has been a glowing streak like
you see in time-lapse astral photography. I've had so much coffee that I am
slipping backwards through time, nimbly dancing through radiant
spaghetti stars. I am a dragonfly in an office of hippopotami, flitting around
giant creatures that are standing still.

But no
matter what I do, there's other stuff screaming to be done. Like this blog post,
meant for time-stressed bloggers who want to crack it out now now
now.

Here's two essential tools to do just
that:

A web-based alarm
clock. Just
set the alarm and leave the window open. The tone is the most grating,
aggravating sound I can think of, and impossible to ignore. I set it in
30-minute increments and focus on one task at a time. It
helps!

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategy
Generator. Eno and Schmidt are a musician and painter, respectively. Brian Eno
is the most famous for having produced U2 and the Talking Heads, and you may
know his song "Needle in the Camel's Eye" from the Velvet
Goldmine soundtrack. Schmidt, I know a lot less about.


But I digress. The two artists developed a pack of cards
meant to jog the brain while stuck on a creative problem. The above link goes to
a web-enabled version. Some strategies may not relate, but others will hit right
home.

Every blogger runs out of stuff to write about, or
wants to be more interesting than he is. These Oblique Strategies are, in my
mind, a great tool for applying pressure to a stuck mind when pressure is
needed, and relieving pressure when there is already too much.


Let me know how it works for you. If you like, use the
Strategy Generator for your next post and leave me a link to it in the comments.


Or, you could just tell me to stop being all artsy-fartsy
and I'll understand.

Journals Down, Back Up

This is the best kind of
Journals outage to report -- one that is
already fixed. The Journals product was down this
morning for roughly 10 or 15 minutes, but now it's back, fingers crossed.

Thanks to all
of you for your e-mails and board posts alerting us to the problem, and we're
sorry for the inconvenience.

New Guy, New Links, Same Scene

Hey there people -- I'm Jeff, and I'm the
new voice/programming lead for AOL Journals, and appropriately, I'll be running
the show here at Magic Smoke. For those of you that haven't met me yet (or "met"
me yet), this is what I look like:

Rather, that is what I looked like last Thanksgiving. But I don't
change my look much. (This was actually taken for Talk Like a Pirate Day.)

I'll be doing all the same stuff Joe
did -- highlighting member content, offering helpful tutorials when I can,
stepping onto a well-worn soapbox to opine about things I have enver experienced
(this is a blog, hello), and above all else -- giving you links to talk about.
Like these:

Bill Clinton's appearance on 'The
Daily Show'
A Lamborghini as a
centerpiece
In
honor of [that day]: Pyrats!
Dr. Seuss'
Taxidermy

That's all for now -- see you very soon.

--Jeff

One-Legged Man in a Production of 'Riverdance'

Hey, folks. This is Journals Editor Jeff
in my first posting on the Magic Smoke Blog. As Joe
explained, I'll be filling these shoes now.

Things are a
little hectic as I get myself switched over to fill these shoes, and I'm busier
than a one-legged man in a ... contest. So I thought I'd just entertain you guys
with this video of an old lady firing a machine gun from her wheelchair until I
get settled in.

It's some kind of metaphor for some
aspect of life, but the real meaning escapes me right now ...

Well, I Guess That's All Folks ...

Okay folks, I guess that about does it for me. The next entry you see here should be coming from Journals Editor Jeff, who'll be tickling the keys starting tomorrow.

Before I go, I just did some checking through the Magic Smoke archive listings, and here's a few tidbits I found:

* My first blog entry here occurred on May 13, 2005

* Since then, I've posted 583 entries (well, 584 counting this one)

* That's an average of 34 entries a month

* My most prolific posting month was January, 2006, with 64 blog entries.

To get these numbers, I just went to my most recent monthly archive page, copied the monthly totals from the sidebar, and pasted them into a spreadsheet for some quick number crunching.

There are a whole bunch of other stats I could bring up -- Editors Picks and Guest Editors run, photos of myself posted, questions unanswered, outages reported (and cleared), etc.

Or, I could bring up different events -- hurricanes and terror attacks; the ads fiasco; blogger tributes; comment spammers; Live 8; and a whole lot of stories about people busted for blogging.

But, you know, the archives are going to stay right where they are, so you'll be free to relive the past whenever you feel like it. I get the feeling it won't be all that often, because Journals Editor Jeff has got a lot of great stuff planned.

As for me, I'm not going to be going that far -- all of the Community products and programming folks work pretty closely together. I'll be focused on the AIM Pages product, starting on the AIM Pages Team Blog among other things (it's currently an AOL Journal, though as noted, we're probably going to switch that to another blogging platform in the near future).

And of course, I'll need to create a new AIM Pages profile (since Jeff is going to take over the Journals Editor profile).

Anyway, thanks to everyone for making this such a great experience. Please keep blogging, and I'll see you in the funny papers.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, journals editor

How To: Make and Edit Hyperlinks

Okay folks -- now that I did an entry on the difference between Text view and HTML view, the stage is now set for my entry on how to create and edit text hyperlinks in your Journal entries.

I've been having a hard time with this entry, since there are a bunch of different ways you can add clickable text hyperlinks to your Journal entries and I'm trying not to overcomplicate things.

However, no matter which method you use, when you make a hyperlink, you're doing two things:

1. You're giving the Web address (or URL) the link will go to.
2. You're saying what the label of the link -- the blue underlined text -- should read.

Depending which method you use, these may both be done for you automatically. What they all have in common, though, is that you can edit all the hyperlinks in Text view, just like you would any other text; as long as it stays blue underlined text, it's still a clickable hyperlink.

Let me back up a step.

Say you're creating a new blog entry, and you want to include a hyperlink to my entry on how to fold a dollar bill into a ring, because it's just that cool.

Method 1: Favorite Place Heart
The easiest thing to do is drag the Favorite Place heart from my dollar bill blog entry, and drop it in the Journal entry you're writing:

When you do this, it will automatically grab the address, and use the title of the Web page as the text of the link. In this case, the link text is "Make a Bling Ring Out of a Dollar Bill (Plus, the AOL Pictures Beta)."

If you want to change the link text, you can edit it just like you would edit any other text.

Method 2: Copy and Paste a Hyperlink
This one is pretty straightforward: If you find a clickable hyperlink in a Web page, IM or e-mail (like this), you can just copy and paste it into the blog entry you're writing, then edit it as needed. Easy peasy -- just make sure the link you're copying goes where you expect it to go.

Method 3: Copy and Paste a Web Address
Or, say you just have the Web address of a page you want to link to. Just copy and paste the URL into a new entry of yours. Because you're in Text view by default, if you're using the AOL software or the standalone Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, it will recognize it as a Web address and automatically make it a clickable hyperink -- you don't have to do anything else:

But gee, that's a pretty long hyperlink. In fact, with long Web addresses that don't have hyphens in there, they might be so long that they stretch out your page and make it too wide.

The good news is that since you're in Text editing view, you can edit the hyperlink text just like you would any other text:

There's just one thing to be careful with -- when you're editing a hyperlink this way, make sure you replace the whole link address; otherwise, it will think you're just trying to fix a part of the link address, and it will change the linking address for you, and what you end up won't work.

I'm not explaining this very well -- you'll have to try it out.

Method 4: The Insert Link Button
You can also just use the Insert Link button, which is the little button on the formatting toolbar with the globe on it. (Globe = World = World Wide Web. I think the next revision of the toolbar will use a little chain-link icon -- it seems to be more widely recognized.)

When you're creating an entry, type some words that you want as the clickable link text:

I can use "This is stupid" as my link text since it's my link and my entry.

Then, click and drag with your mouse to highlight the words you want as your link text, then click the Insert Link globe button:

This will cause a box to pop up. Paste the Web address you want the link to go to in the box:

You've just created a clickable hyperlink, which you can then edit normally.

Tip: You can also hyperlink photos this way -- in the editing view, highlight it with your mouse, then click the Insert Link button and paste the link address into the box.

Method 5: Hand-Coding the Links
Lastly, you can hand-code your hyperlinks. It's the most tedious method, but it gives you the most control over your links.

First, making sure you're in HTML view, type:

<a href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke">This is a link to Magic Smoke</a>

What's all that mean?

• The <a href=" bit says "This is the start of a hyperlink"
• http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke is the address the link will go to
• The "> says we're done with the address (which was between the 2 quotes)
  
• This is a link to Magic Smoke is the part that is going to show up as the blue, underlined clickable text.
• </a> says "Whew, we're done with this link."
  

When you save your entry, the link will look like this:

This is a link to Magic Smoke

Anyway, I think that about covers it. I hope I didn't confuse anyone.

Since I usually work in HTML view except for formatting tweaks, I usually hand code my links, but you should feel free to use whatever method you like.

One tip: Be kind to your readers -- test your links after you publish your entries to make sure they work. (You can right-click to have the link "Open in New Window" -- that can save time if you're checking a lot of links.)

Another tip: The Undo command (Control+Z) works when you're editing your Journal. Trust me on this one.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Tips, making hyperlinks

Editing in Text Mode vs. HTML Mode

Hi folks -- hope you all had a good weekend. I just wanted to get in a last tutorial before Editor Jeff takes over.

Of course, the tutorial I wanted to do is how to edit hyperlinks, which means I really need to do this one first -- the difference between editing your Journal in Text View vs. HTML View.

(I've mentioned this in a bunch of earlier entries, but I've never given it the standalone entry it deserves.)

When you create or edit entries in Journals, there are two editing views -- Text view (actually Rich Text view), where your entry mostly looks the way it would after you hit Save; and HTML view, which exposes the usually-invisible HTML tags.

(HTML is the language that controls the way a Web page looks and acts. It ranges from the really simple tags, like <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i> tags, to tags that make hyperlinks clickable and insert pictures, to more complicated tags to add CSS styles, create tables and more.)

AOL Journals shows you the Text view by default (which means it hides the HTML from you). Editing in Text view is quick and easy (plus you can use the other formatting buttons on the toolbar) and is just fine for most people.

So why would you want to switch to HTML view? Editing the HTML directly gives you more options and more control, and it lets you do some stuff you just can't do in Text mode.

For example, if you want to add a table or an IFRAME, or add some styles using CSS, you need to be in HTML view. If you try to paste in HTML when you're in Text mode, Journals won't recognize the HTML code as code, and it will just show up in your page all ugly-like.

So, to switch to HTML mode, look in the formatting toolbar, and change the pulldown menu  from "View as Text" to "View as HTML" (see the animation below):

Notice how the buttons grey out in HTML view. You can't use the toolbar buttons when you're in HTML view.

Here's what it looks like with some HTML example code. First, here's the Text view:

Then, when I switch to HTML view using the pulldown menu, it reveals the invisible HTML tags:

So, that's it in a nutshell. Text view = Easier. HTML view = More control. Just be careful -- if you're not too sure about HTML, try creating a test Journal to play around with, so you don't mess up the layout of your real Journal.

(In fact, here's one use for HTML view -- sometimes, people will copy-and-paste something from another Web page into their blog. What they don't realize, though, is sometimes they're also copying invisible HTML table or CSS style tags. Occassionally, this can really screw up the layout of your Journal, in really unpredictable and odd ways. If this happens, looking at your entries in HTML view can sometimes reveal the culprit.)

I'm not going to do an HTML tutorial here -- since HTML has been evolving for over 10 years, there's a lot to talk about. Fortunately, most people (including me) can get by with knowing a relatively small amount of HTML.

Here's a mostly current list of the HTML tags that you can use in AOL Journals.

If you want some basic HTML resources, try this Webmonkey page: The HTML Basics.

Also, here is the Open Directory's listing of beginner HTML tutorials.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, aol journals tips, aol journals how to, html vs text

Some Changes Are Afoot

Hi folks -- I have some personnel changes to report (and no, they're not going to make me President of the AOL Audience group to replace Ted Leonsis, who announced that he'll be stepping out of his day-to-day management gig at AOL at the end of the year -- get the word from the man himself in Ted's blog entry, which includes the e-mails that went out to employees.)

In case you missed his blog entry, yesterday was Journals Technical Project Manager Yoel's last day at AOL -- he's heading off for another job opportunity, which means he'll be switching from the AOL Daily Grind to a fresh, new non-AOL daily grind. Best of luck to Yoel.

Also, in case you were wondering why we haven't heard from Journals Product Manager Susan in a while, she's transitioned over to work on the Ratings & Reviews team (Internet Explorer users can see the "thumbs-up" ratings widget that team did in the Message Boards). We'll expect all sorts of neat things from Susan and the rest of those folks.

Stepping into the role of Journals Product Manager is Stephanie, who's been really active to date on a lot of Community stuff (see her AIM Page profile). Stephanie's blogging over at BamBam!; stop by and say hi when you get a chance (though she can't answer until Tuesday -- she's traveling at the moment).

Whew, that's a bunch of changes right there. But wait, there's more!

At big companies, it's not uncommon to have a lot of horizontal movement among employees (no, not like that), as new opportunities become available (in addition to other things like reorgs and such).

All that's just a long way to say that, after about a year and a half doing this, I'm going to be stepping down as Journals Editor -- I'll be moving over to do stuff for the AIM Pages product, doing a lot of what I did (or tried to do) for Journals -- talking about product features, outages and fixes; creating tutorials; passing feedback to and from the teams that actually do the work; highlighting users; talking about stuff going on in the blogosphere; using any excuse to blog a picture of myself -- all that good stuff.

Of course, I'll be doing a blog -- I'll be working with the existing AIM Pages Team blog at first, though we'll probably switch platforms at some point.

But don't fret -- I'll be leaving you in good hands -- Journals Editor Jeff, who currently blogs over at Pixel Pusher, will be taking over AOL Blogs programming. In fact, he'll be taking over this here Magic Smoke blog and everything associated with the Journals Editor screen name (like the Technorati profile, etc.)

I'll let Jeff talk more about what he plans to do with Journals programming, since it will be his show to run -- he'll have the flexiblity to adjust things as he figures out the best ways to talk about Journals, highlight Journalers' content, and talk about stuff going on in the blogosphere, etc. (expect good big things from him, now that I won't be holding him back).

If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see in this blog and on the Journals main page, please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail.

Anyway, I'll officially be turning the keys to this here blog over to Jeff next week, so I wouldn't count this as my farewell entry just yet. (Plus, I can see myself doing the occassional guest entry, because I still have a lot of items I never got around to blogging about.) But I just wanted to give you a heads-up, and to thank everyone for making this such an interesting experience.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, journals editor

How Are Blogs Like A-Rod? (Plus, Submitting Links to Social Link Sites)

Hi folks -- as he is wont to do, comic-stripper Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine has another strip featuring blogger Goat:

Click to see the whole strip. It's kind of painful.

It's a not-uncommon theme in Pearls -- non-blogger Rat gives blogger Goat significant grief because no one reads his blog. Here's another one from last week:

Now, between this entry and my entry yesterday about how to dissuade yourself from blogging, an incautious person might think I'm trying to discourage folks from blogging. Far from it -- I'm just trying to get people into blogging for themselves (and the people who they know).

Adulation from strangers is always a bonus, but don't get into blogging for this purpose alone (because that way lies disillusionment). If you blog for yourself, you should never be disappointed.

This is not to say, of course, that you can't tell people about your blog; put a link to your blog in your mail and message board signatures. Participate in other people's blogs, and they will naturally check yours out.

Also, if you're able to handle rejection and have a thick skin, you can always try submitting a notable blog entry to a social-link sharing site (such as Digg, Fark, Netscape, Del.icio.us, Reddit, etc.) -- just make sure you understand each community, what kind of links it features, and know their particular rules of the road and submission etiquette before you start submitting stuff willy-nilly.

As blogger John found out when someone submitted his Bacon Cat entry to social link sharing site Fark.com, it's a way to drive tons and tons of traffic to a site in a short amount of time. If that's what you're going for.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: bacon cat, social link sharing, pearls before swine, blogging, why we bog, stephan pastis

Blogging: The Only Winning Move Is Not to Play?

Morning, folks -- here's an item that's on the Google customized start page today: How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger.

It's a wikiHow article (a wiki is an online reference that anyone can contribute content to and edit -- wikiHow focuses on "how-to" tutorials and such) -- it's the polar opposite of those "So, you wanna be a blogger?" type of entries, because it specifically tries to discourage you from blogging:

"What a buzz all the bloggers are making these days! It seems like just about everybody is pouring their musings into a text box. Are you feeling tempted to start a blog of your own? Here are some ways to bypass the trend.

1. Find five completely random blogs, and read them daily for a month. After thirty days, you will absolutely dread your self-imposed requirement to read all that dreck. Any blog you create will most likely be on par with what you've been reading. Don't put anyone through that.
2. Consider that your voice, even if it is truly a good one, is a tiny peep against the massive wave of tripe out there. The odds of anyone you don't already know finding your blog are low."

It goes on. Yes, it's tongue-in-cheek. (Especially the "go write on a wiki" bit of wiki-evangelism.) No, I didn't contribute to that wiki entry.

As with all of these types of things, though, there are kernels of truth, like blog for yourself and for your friends (don't get into it because you want adulation from strangers), and all that other good stuff, but what it really gets down to is:

Blog if you want to and how you want to -- don't go by what some talking head (including me) says about blogging. If it's right for you, great; if it's not, that's okay too.

Thanks -- Joe

(Incidentally, the headline is a reference to Wargames, which they're apparently working on a sequel for.)

Tags: wikihow, reasons for blogging

Health Good News/Bad News (Plus, Using Blockquotes)

Hi folks -- here are two health news links from the BBC News that I saw in my morning  perusals (as is glaringly obvious, I'm a little behind today) -- I present them in good news/bad news style:

* Weightlifting:
- Good News: Lifting weights on a regular basis has many proven benefits, including strengthening muscles, increasing bone density and boosting your metabolism.
- Bad News: It may also increase the risk of glaucoma.

From the article:

"Brazilian researchers found lifting heavy weights was linked to a temporary increase in pressure within the eye - especially when holding the breath.

They say that this could increase the risk of glaucoma, as the condition is more common in people subjected to frequent changes in eye pressure."

Bonus quote:

"Mr Wright said glaucoma had also been linked to trumpet playing, and to wearing neckties too tightly."

So, like they say, always remember to breathe.

(This is a theoretical danger for me at this point, since I haven't been to the gym in about a month.)

* Bicycle Helmets:
- Good News: Wearing a helmet while cycling protects your head and reduces the likelihood of head and brain injuries in a crash.
- Bad News: A study suggests that cyclists who wear helmets are more likely to be struck by vehicles.

The study's author suggests that drivers see helmet-wearing riders as being more predictable, and thus don't give them as much space, leading to more collisions. So I guess the moral of the story is to wear a helmet, but be unpredictable.

- Bonus Quote:

"To test another theory, Dr Walker donned a long wig to see whether there was any difference in passing distance when drivers thought they were overtaking what appeared to be a female cyclist.

While wearing the wig, drivers gave him an average of 14cm more space when passing."

As always with these kinds of things, they're just single studies, so take them with the appropriate amount of salt.

Incidentally, here's an HTML formatting tip: for a bunch of text that you want to indent, like a quotation or other block of text, try using the blockquote tag.

I use blockquotes pretty frequently -- it formats a paragraph with leading and trailing indents, like so:

This is blockquoted text. As you can see, it's indented on both sides. It's kind of an old-school HTML tag. Here is my entry that lists more HTML tags that you can use in your entries.

To use blockquotes, make sure you're in HTML editing mode: you'll need to change the pulldown menu in the formatting toolbar to say "View as HTML" instead of "View as Text":

Here, I've changed the pulldown so I'm in HTML view.

This will put you in HTML editing view, where you can type in HTML tags to help control the layout, formatting and behavior of your blog entry (as well as show you any existing HTML or CSS tags that would normally be invisible):

Above, I've enclosed the sentence "Here is a block of indented text" within the blockquote tags --  <blockquote> starts it, </blockquote> (see the slash?) ends it -- it just means "treat the stuff in-between these tags as a block quote", just like <b></b> means "make the stuff between these tags bold")

When you toggle to text view, it will hide the tags, but you can see that the quoted text is indented; blanks lines have also been added before and after the quoted text:

Blockquote is a handy way to do simple indented text, to help organize or set apart particular bits of text.

If you want to experiment with blockquote tags, just paste the following HTML code into your Journal (or a test Journal) and play around with it (make sure you're in HTML mode when you do this):

<blockquote>Here is a block of indented text.</blockquote>

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blockquote, aol journals, HTML tips, glaucoma, weightlifting, bicycle helmets, journals tips

9/11 Remembrances on the Web

Well, here we are, officially 5 years later.

I've already blogged my personal memories of 9/11 (as part of blogger John's Weekend Assignment -- see his great followup entry, where he highlights some of your responses -- also see Editor Jeff's memories, which he just blogged), so here's a little bit about what else is going on in the blogosphere and on the Web:

* As I've mentioned several times before, the 2,996 Project is dedicated to honoring the memory of each of the 2,996 victims of the attacks, by having a volunteer blogger write a memorial entry about each person. (I know a bunch of AOL Journalers are participating, some of whom I highlighted in my previous entry.)

It looks like the 2,996 Project web site can't handle the traffic right now -- you can see the Google cache of the participants list; if you're a participating blogger, you might also want to add the Technorati tag 2996 project to your entry, so that people can have another way to find it and the other tribute entries.

* Lots of folks have said that 9/11 was the watershed moment that really showed the value of blogs and other online social media. Recent examples include Wired News: "9/11: Birth of the Blog", and Poynter's "Sept. 11, 2001 -- The Day the Web Grew Up."

The Poynter article also has a lot of great links to 9/11 resources, including:

• Online News Site Screenshot Archive
• WhereWereYou.org, a collection of firsthand accounts.
• The Library of Congress's Sept. 11 WebArchive
• More Archived photos, newspaper front pages and magazine covers at september11news.com

* Netscape News is also highlighting some 9/11 resources, including Wherewereyou911.net, another place where you can add your remembrances to the collective memory of the Web.

* Watching America features translations of foreign news articles from all over the world; today's includes editorials and commentary remembering 9/11. It's sometimes eye-opening to see how differently the news media in other countries looks at things, and today is no exception.

* Also, I wasn't sure if I was going to do this, but all morning, I've been dipping in and out of CNN's replay of their realtime video coverage from 9/11. It really brings back the confusion of the day.

* Again, to find your own content on 9/11 on blog search engines, try Technorati, AOL Journals, Feedster and Sphere.

Don't forget, if you want to do something positive today in memory of the victims of 9/11, check out Network for Good and make a pledge to help via MyGoodDeed.org (see the MyGoodDeed.org profiles on AIM Pages and MySpace).

In the blogosphere, your voice can be just as valuable as anyone else's, so join the conversation -- whether you're leaving a comment, or sharing your own "where were you" memories, or posting in your own blog.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: 9/11, aol.com, 2996 project, mygooddeed.org

Remembering 9/11

I'm going to use blogger John's Weekend Assignment #128, 9/11, Five Years On as the starting point for this entry, then keep it going.

It starts out a little self-indulgent, hope you don't mind.

Now, I've don't think I've ever blogged about my memories of 9/11. Five years ago, I was the AOL.com home page programming manager -- I did the content for the www.aol.com main page. Back then, there wasn't much content on the main page (compared to now), but it was still enough to keep one guy -- me -- busy.

I was getting ready to leave my house at around 9am, when I got a call from Gina, one of my co-workers. She'd asked me if I'd been watching the news. I hadn't, so I turned on CNN.

One of the towers was smoking, and the caption said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I let out a laugh of disbelief (there's a Soul Coughing song, "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago," that starts with the lyric, "A man, drives a plane, into the Chrysler building" -- it was all I could think about).

I told her I was on my way in and turned off the TV. To this day, I'm not sure if I'd just missed watching Flight 175 hit the South Tower, or if it has already been hit. Either way, I'm glad I didn't see it happen live.

The office was just about 15 minutes away. I listened to the news on the way in. Like most people, I'd thought it was some small plane that had hit; as I kept listening, I realized just how wrong I was. I started driving faster.

I pretty much skidded into the parking lot and ran to my desk. I had to get the home page updated -- there were two autofed My News top headlines, but I needed to get the promo spot, as tiny as it was -- as 63x63 graphic with a few lines of text -- updated.

Now, the Internet Archive has some versions saved of AOL.com from back then (here's 9/14/01 -- you'll need to turn off Javascript, or it will redirect to the current site).

(The Archive shows the non-signed in view of AOL.com -- back in 2001, we focused on AOL members who were coming from inside the AOL client software, or who signed on from the Web to check their Webmail. Since we were concentrating on members, when we took the other advertising off the page, we left a big honkin' [for its time] billboard ad up on the non-signed in view. That's what shows up in the Archive, of course.)

Anyway, the photo department folks were on the ball, so I was able to publish my promo quickly. I guess I knew that this was important, so I saved a local copy of the page (screen shot below):

We later pulled off all the advertising, including that "Sign on a Friend" text promo, but that hadn't happened yet.

A short time later, we got the word to evacuate and go home. The parking garage was chaotic, and after a few minutes, I just decided to stay; I wasn't trying to be stoic -- I just didn't see the point of going home (sorry, Jeff K. -- he was my boss at the time.)

I headed up to the AOL Newsroom, found a empty cube with a view of the TV and set up. Looking back, I was just glad to be keeping busy, even if it was ultimately just updating a few lines of text and some photos on a Web page. It kept me from staring at the events on the TV.

I remember at one point, Steve Case came in; he called us all into the News conference room, thanked us for being there and told us keep doing our jobs.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur. We were hearing all kinds of stories -- car bomb at the State Dept., the USA Today building had been hit (it turned out to be smoke from the Pentagon across the river).

Eventually, I went home. I didn't sleep well.

The next few days were all about trying to keep up with the flow of information, and to get it out there. This included a request from Pentagon public information folks to add contact info to the main page, which we did, gladly (the Pentagon is only about 30 miles from here -- lots of folks who work there live in the area):

Like I said, it was just pushing words and pictures around, but I later figured out that a few hundred thousand folks, maybe more, had clicked through to the news and help resources that we'd linked to. Sure, they would have gotten it from somewhere else, but it made me feel less useless.

When the weekend came, I went with a friend of mine to a temporary Salvation Army distribution center that they'd set up in Alexandria to help support the rescue and recovery efforts at the Pentagon. We just wanted to do something concrete, even if it was just taking shopping bags of donations from people and putting them in the right spot in a warehouse so they could be packed up and shipped out.

There were more a lot more people than they needed, people who just wanted to help. They didn't turn anyone away.

I knew what I was doing was just busy work, but it was gratifying to see so many people who wanted to help, and so many people who were donating stuff. That's one of the things that I want to remember most -- people wanted to help.

****************************

I think that for this 5-year anniversary of 9/11, there's a reemphasis on remembering what happened that day. Maybe it's because of the movies that have come out recently, or the troops abroad at war. Here are a few things that are going on around the Web and blogosphere:

* The 2,996 Project is a tribute to the victims of 9/11, where volunteer bloggers are posting memorials for each one of the 2,996 victims. They've already gotten at least one blogger for each memorial, and they're going around again.

AOL Journalers participating in the project include Andi, Raven, Gigi, Donna, Jackie, Delaine, Barbara, midmofreeper, Christine, Kathy, Nat, Cindy, Millie, Kathy; there are a bunch of others -- many will be posting their tributes on Monday.

* Al Tompkins over at Al's Morning Meeting takes a look at how some of the changes felt immediately after 9/11 did or didn't last over the long term.

* AOL Book Maven blogger Bethanne Patrick highlights some of the books about 9/11

* As I mentioned, you can use the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to search to find Web pages before, during and after 9/11 (or most other dates after 1996).

* You can remember 9/11 by donating over at Network for Good; also, you can make a pledge to help via MyGoodDeed.org (you can also check out profiles for MyGoodDeed.org on both AIM Pages and MySpace.

* Also, search for more blog content on 9/11 on blog search engines, Technorati, AOL Journals, Feedster and Sphere.

I'll be updating this entry with more links and resources, so please feel free to leave me a link in the comments.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: 9/11, weekend assignment, aol.com, 2996 project, mygooddeed.org

Only the Lonely?

Okay folks, I've been avoiding this story until now, but it just got more interesting this week.

Over the course of the past few months, a new "It Girl" appeared on social video-sharing site YouTube. She was a homeschooled 15-year-old girl, posting video blog entries for the first time using her webcam -- she went by the name Bree and had the username lonelygirl15:

Lonelygirl15's first video posting.

She's perky and cute (for some reason, the terms "big-eyed" and "doe-eyed" keep getting used to describe her), and because of this, she started getting an insane amount of attention and a legion of fans.

Now, as is typical with this kind of Internet celebrity, people kept wanting to find out more about her, especially as word spread to the press (like the Times of London).

There were, however, doubters. Besides being too cute, people started twigging to little details: The video looked a little too good; she didn't talk about anything current; what was with the mysterious references to religious rituals (not to mention a framed photo of occultist Aleister Crowley); oh, and did we mention that someone registered her domain a month before the first video blog post?

A trio of folks from one of her Internet message boards (yes, she had fansites and message boards devoted to her) set up a sting, involving checking IP addresses and her MySpace profile. They found out that e-mails from "lonelygirl15" were originating from Beverly Hills-based Creative Artists Agency.

"Bree"'s creators came clean on one of the fan message boards (which is now down -- you can find the text of their post on blog sociologist It Girl Danah Boyd's blog). They claim they're all filmmakers and that "Bree" was conceived as some sort of high-minded art project ("Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us..." blah blah blah), though especially given the CAA connection and the occult references in the video, it's hard to figure this isn't indeed a viral promotion for an upcoming horror movie or as part of an Alternate Reality Game (as many have speculated).

Reactions around the Internet range from "I knew it!" to "You fake !@#$%"; sample some commentary from Metafilter (including this one that suggests they really blew the reveal); the Fark thread and even the Wikipedia entry.

I suppose now is the right time to do my own reveal: The editor you know as "Joe" is actually an amalgam of seven different people in three different countries; together, we assemble and publish the incessant blather and occasional useful tidbit for this blog....

Okay, I would finish that bit, but I know that people don't read, sarcasm doesn't come through well in text, and someone might actually take that paragraph seriously. So I just wanted you to know that, yes, I am real.

It's "blogger John Scalzi" who's the complete fabrication.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: bree, youtube, lonelygirl15, john scalzi, danah boyd, viraladvertising

The Downside of "Let the Fans Decide"

An L.A. Times article picked up by other papers talks about what happens when a minor-league baseball team lets the fans pick the starting lineups (link via voting-based social link sharing site Digg -- as some commenters in that thread point out, just because something uses voting, doesn't mean it's using the "digg model.")

The Schaumburg Flyers, a minor-league baseball team in Illinois, are letting fans vote online to pick the starting lineups as part of an Internet reality show.

Ostensibly, this is an experiment to tap in to the "Wisdom of Crowds", but come on: It's a publicity stunt.

Well, the team is in last place, but attendance is up. A lot of folks, including the players and manager, aren't happy, though, since...

Well, there's no diplomatic way to put this: They aren't happy because the fan-voted lineups mostly suck:

"When LivePlanet producers handed him the fans' lineup, [manager] McCauley erupted. After playing every game the first half of the season, Josue Lopez, a slugging first baseman from Trabuco Canyon, Calif., was riding the pine. Cole, the center fielder, was starting at first base, where he hadn't played in four years, and backup catcher Ryan Walker was manning third base (McCauley had listed the players as eligible at those positions but had no idea fans would start them there.)"

Part of the problem is that everyone's vote counts the same, so whether you're a hardcore fan of the team, casual baseball watcher, or complete baseball know-nothing, your vote carries the same weight. (Then again, I guess you could say the same thing about political elections.)

In subsequent games, the voting Web site listed statistics and manager's recommendations, which has smoothed things out, though the team still isn't doing so good.

On the plus side, they should be thankful that Monponsett isn't voting, or else the outfielders would be equipped with sniper rifles or something.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Schaumburg Flyers, digg model, wisdom of crowds, monponsett

The Ultimate Blog Post?

Back on Wednesday, Lore Sjöberg, formerly of The Brunching Shuttlecocks and now a columnist/blogger at Wired News, posted an item titled "The Ultimate Blog Post."

Not only is the article packed with very funny (and painful) observations about blogging ("Creating your own blog is about as easy as creating your own urine, and you're about as likely to find someone else interested in it."), he's posted a list of ultimate perfect blog entries for some of the more popular blogs and social link sharing sites out there.

By "ultimate perfect", he means the single blog post that most closely fits with the stereotype of what the blog usually writes about, its style and its readers. Sure, it's all based on gross generalizations, but it's also damn funny. For example:

Slashdot: AMD, SCO patent MP3 over TCP/IP, sue ATI, EA. Microsoft probably responsible somehow.
Daily Kos: Bush caught in three-way with Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.
Little Green Footballs: Bush enjoys triumphant three-way with Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.
Cute Overload: A kitten licks a puppy while the puppy licks a bunny.

Okay, so if you don't read those blogs or haven't heard of them, they're a bit in-jokey and you might not get it. Then again, you can probably follow the gist of things -- Slashdot is wildly techy/geeky, Daily Kos is wildly liberal, Little Green Footballs is wildly conservative, and Cute Overload is wildly cute.

What would the Magic Smoke ultimate blog post be? I'm not certain -- probably something like: Journals Editor Joe posts a photo of himself that's marginally related to some AOL Journals feature.

Do you have an ultimate blog post for your blog? What would it be? Let's hear about it.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: ultimate blog post, lore sjoberg

Doogie Howser, F.B. (First Blogger)?

Here's an item featured in Wonkette ("Politics for People with Dirty Minds"), the politics-gossip blog that also serves as sort of a DC-local blog: in Bathroom Reading, DC-area blogger PR Slave DC posits that 'Doogie Howser, M.D.' was actually the first blogger.

If you remember, each 'Doogie Howser' episode ended with him typing a diary entry on his computer (which, if I recall correctly was an IBM PC clone, with a blue screen with white letters -- your classic WordPerfect style).

The show started in 1989, so there was an Internet (yes, folks, there was an Internet before the World Wide Web -- remember Gopher, newsgroups and telnet?), so it's theoretically possible that he was sharing this thoughts online, not just for himself --  which would make him the first blogger by about 5 years.

The folks over at Retrojunk.com have posted the show's intro on YouTube, where you can hear the dinky synth theme music and everything:

(Speaking of Wonkette, it looks like they've gone over to an open, but moderated comment system. Previously, they'd had a whitelist of invite-only approved commenters. Since they're high-traffic and post a lot of flamebait, they get a lot of foul comments, so they have to do something to prevent comment spam and curb vulgarity -- you know, so people will stay focused on the vulgarity in the blog entries.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: doogie howser, wonkette, first blogger

Journals Alerts Problems Should Be Fixed

Hi folks -- okay, so the problem with Journals New
Entry and Comment Added Alerts not being delivered should be resolved.
Sorry it took so long.

I will spare you the
technical jargon (since I don't get it myself -- it's all sybase and
switchers and OCS libraries and such) -- looks like the Ops folks made
a change on Friday, that through a chain of different processes and
systems, eventually caused Journals Alerts to stop being
delivered.

The problem was traced back and fixed
Wednesday night, so the changes should have fully propagated to all
users now. Please let me know if you're still having problems with
Journals Alerts non-delivery or any other Journals Alerts
problems.

Generally speaking, the Ops folks avoid
installing things on Fridays, especially Fridays in front of long
holiday weekends, just to avoid these kinds of situations. (Even if you
have people on-call, the exact person you need to figure out or fix
a  problem may still be unavailable.) Presumably, they thought
that the change they made last week wouldn't impact any front-end
systems, though unfortunately, it did.

Sorry for
the inconvenience.

Thanks --
Joe

Tags: AOL
Journals, AOL
Journals Status, comment
alerts

The Evening News Just Got Perkier

So this is old news by now: Katie Couric made her debut on the CBS Evening News last night. There are reviews all over the place -- here's TV Squads', and it looks like that right now, TV Newser is covering nothing but Katie.

They also posted the first five minutes of her first broadcast on YouTube, which is a good thing, as I don't watch the network evening news shows.

Now, there is a blog angle on all this; they have a blog for the show: Couric & Co. Looks like Greg Kandra, the blog editor, is doing the bulk of the posting.

Of note is their Rules of Engagement -- basically, their statement of what they're going to allow in the comments on the blog:

"There's legal language nearby. Here's the plain English: no libel, slander, lying, fabricating, no swearing at all, no words that teenagers use a lot that some people think aren't swearing but we do, no insulting groups or individuals, no ethnic slurs and/or epithets, no religious bigotry, no threats of any kind, no bathroom humor, no comparing anyone to Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot. We expect lively debate, but comments should be polite and civil. No shoving or shouting. Please.

Yes, what is not allowable is subjective. But it's our blog. We're providing the field, the football and the goal posts. We can move them at will, or take them away."

As with many high-profile, high-traffic and especially political blogs, dealing with comments is going to be an ongoing hassle/challenge, so folks will be keeping an eye on how they deal with comments.

After the orgy of comments in the first few posts, things seem to have settled down a bit.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: katie & co, comments policy, katie couric, cbs news

Update on Alerts Status, Plus Scheduled Maintenance, 9/7, 4AM ET

Hi folks -- sorry, overdue on a status update: New Entry and Comment Added Alerts are still displaying problems (though, again, not for everyone); the Journals teams and the Alerts teams are poring over the relevant logs to try to find the problem.

I'm trying to help coordinate efforts, though I can't be sure I'm not just getting in the way. Indications seem to point to a problem on the Alerts back end, but it's not certain yet.

We'll keep you posted -- sorry for the inconvenience.

On an unrelated note, I just got word from the Journals database folks that they'll be working with the Journals database servers tomorrow morning during the 4-6AM ET install window, as part of normal database maintenance.

Journals will be down for about 5-10 minutes within this window, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Status, comment alerts

Following Up on Unfinished Business

Here's some links following up on... other links:

* The Reason for the Zidane Headbutt - Remember that headbutt in the World Cup? You know, soccer? That sport with the funny ball where they can't use their hands? Well, Marco Materazzi, the Italian player who was mouthing off to France's Zinedine Zidane immediately before the infamous headbutt finally came clean with what he said.

Contrary to earlier speculation, it wasn't about Zidane's momma -- it was a sister joke. Completely different.

* Um, Didn't He Die? - According to reports, director Ridley Scott wants to team up with Russell Crowe again to make a sequel to Gladiator.

* But Wait, There's More! - Arthur Schiff, the guy who came up with the Ginsu  knife and father of the modern informercial as we know it, died last week.

More stuff tomorrow. Some of it may actually be useful.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: unfinished business