So, in continuing to stamp on occasional fires in my blogs, Dave N. noticed that one of the WIST quotes we were discussing yesterday was missing.

Odd.

Poked around a bit more.  One that I'd entered in on the same page yesterday was missing from the author (category) archive, too.

After much poking and prodding, I discovered that:

1. Any quote (entry) with a citation (title) that started with a quotation mark was vanishing.
2. I was only seeing ten entries the page, regardless.
3. If I took out the sort-by-title parameter, I still got only ten, but a different ten.

Aha.

Turns out that one of the few significant changes in MT4 was the whole archiving stuff.  Some of the results:

1. If you don't specify otherwise, an archive (e.g., a category archive) will only show the default "show N entries" value for the blog.  Which, in my case, was 10.  When I changed it to 1000, all the quotes showed up, huzzah.
2. The old pagination stuff I had previously didn't get brought over -- so my loooooong archives in my regular blog are not paginated.  That's something I need to fix in the future by using MT's new built-in pagination power.  (See: swapping out for all new templates again.)
3. But the problems I was having with my date (monthly) archives not working has magically been fixed, as has the problem that was in there with the Previous/Next entries at the top.  So that's a win.

And so it goes.

Now, all I need is like two unoccupied days when I can replace the templates and get them cleaned up and looking the way I want, and I'll be in great shape.  I just don't think that's going to happen this month. :-P

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So I got an e-mail from someone at my WIST account.  She started off very complementary:

Thank you for sharing all those quotes, maxims and aphorisms that you’ve collated through the years. I like the idea of WIST. Keep up the good work!

So far so good.  Then the kicker.

Is it possible to ask a small favor in return for a donation of $30?

Uh-oh.

Turns out she, as a representative of some foundation or another (of an Eastern religious persuasion), wants me to include a quotation from some teacher her foundation represents, with a citation back to the foundation's website.

Now, the quotation itself isn't a problem.  A bit bland and undistinguished, but not objectionable.  If I ran across it online, I might consider putting it into WIST.

But putting it up in exchange for money seems ... well, wrong.  I'm not doing WIST to make money (fortunately), but it seems improper to post a quote and link in exchange for reimbursement.

So I think I have three alternatives:

1. Write the person back saying that they are welcome to send a donation (have I ever gotten the WIST donation info up yet?  Ah, interesting -- I haven't), but I cannot put up a quotation and link in exchange for that.  If she chooses to make a donation, and at some later time I go back and look at the quotation (after getting over the unpleasant emotional association) and judge if it's suitable for posting, and if the link to the home site is a reasonable item to include.
2. Put up the quotation but leave off the link.  Leave it up to the person whether to make a donation.
3. Put up the quotation and the link, but also include a "disclaimer" that this is a paid sponsorship.  That's the most straightforward, but it establishes a precedent ("Well, we know what you are, now we're just haggling over the price") that I'm not comfortable with, even with full disclosure.

Of, of course, I can not put up the quote, because, honestly, it's not that good.

Thoughts?

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I was surprised, and a bit dismayed, to run across this article in PC Magazine.  It seems that the .info Top Level Domain (TLD) has become a haven for spammers and malware artists, to the point where Microsoft Live Messenger is blocking messages that contain the string ".info" in them.

Microsoft claims that there was a "malicious advertising effort" targeting Windows Live Messenger users. The messages had URLs with "either .info or another URL," and the site they led to asked for the user's Windows Live user ID and password. If the user complied, everyone on their contact list received the string.

Pretty standard worm stuff. But Microsoft went on: This was not a Microsoft sponsored effort, and in order to prevent the spread of it through our service, instant messages that include the words ".info" and a few additional key words have been blocked. This action may block some safe, reputable sites and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers; however, given the circumstances this action was necessary. We are investigating options to ensure legitimate domains that have ".info" in part of their name and other key words are not blocked and will have an update to share in the near future.

Never mind that there are plenty of perfectly legit .info domains.  Like www.mta.info, the site for New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.  Or, as another example, www.wist.info, my quotations website.

The problem seems to be promotional policies by groups that manage the .info TLD.  By offering .info domains at cheaper prices than .com domains (sometimes even free), it makes it easier for spammers to buy up blocks of them. 

The number isn't huge, but it's been enough to provide a reputation.  Based on a McAfee study released in March:.

The ".info" domain ranked first among generic TLDs for its percentage of risky sites, at 7.5 percent, McAfee said. The domain also hosts many Web sites that send "spammy" e-mail, the vendor said.

SiteAdvisor submits an e-mail address to Web sites and counts how many e-mails are received. Users have a 73.2 percent chance of receiving a spam e-mail by giving their address to a random ".info" site, McAfee said.

The ".com" domain -- created in the 1980s -- came in second for risk, with 5.5 percent of its Web sites considered questionable, McAfee said.

I'd hate to think that I ended up  building WIST in a "bad neighborhood." I'm not planning on moving the domain any time soon -- but I will be watching.

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It's been a bit over a month since I rebooted the WIST (my quotations database) site, and it's going well -- visits are up decently, and I've been getting 3-5 quotes in, on average, each day (thus making the RSS or feed-by-mail a good deal).

My interest in the traffic is not just vanity -- WIST is very much a labor of love and potentially a very nice source of info, and I'm jazzed to think that people are actually making use of it.

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I now have notes about the most recent WIST updates in the Elseblog section of the sidebar.  I'm usually getting 2-5 quotes in there a day (and updating several others as I go), so it's worthwhile tracking it (and being reminded, myself, of it).

Rather than have links to the individual quotes, I'm just linking to the front page.  I'm showing the links with the author names (for the sake of space), but the first few words of the quotes are in the alt/title text if you hover over each link.  Feedback welcome.

I'm hoping this will drive a little more traffic over that way.  Remember that if you like what you see there, WIST has an RSS feed, a Feedburner-enabled e-mail feed, etc.

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There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The New York Times Magazine, "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer," p. 24 (25 Apr. 1971)

(via WIST) 

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Woot!  I've plowed through the glitches, blown through the installation, and, hot damn!, the New, Improved WIST is now online on its own domain again.

And, again, I say, woot!  And, about time!

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If you get a chance, knowing that only the most discriminating and intellectually/aesthetically superior of folk visit this blog, take a gander over there and shoot me back some comments here.

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I have at long last finished (99%) my revision to my WIST ("Wish I'd Said That!") quotations database/site -- at least to the point where I can invite visitors to my blog to an "open beta" to thrash out any issues.  I need your help in this.

Basically I've gone from long text listings of the quotes included into simple blog entries, to having all the quotes in their own MT entries with authors as the categories (which simple concept turned out to be a lot more difficult to do than planned). That's added big complexities to the whole setup (though for good goals), and I need your assistance to confirm I've gotten everything as it should be.

• WIST v2 (beta)
• WIST (the current version) (for comparison)

There are still a few things I need to do, but they can be done in parallel with the beta.  I welcome any feedback as to (in this priority):

1. Things that don't work.
2. Thingss that are missing or should be added.
3. Things that could work better/easier.
4. Things that might not be working right.
5. Aesthetic critiques.

The emphasis is on the actual site/structure issues (vs. content).

Feel free to note anything you run across here, or at appropriate comment opportunities over there,   I'll be monitoring both locations.

When all seems ready, I'll do a conversion over to the official wist.info site, which should be fairly painless.  There are also a couple of things I anticipate doing at "go live" (including some of the quotation site webring bits, adding some Feedburner stuff).

Appreciate the help

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I'm actually feeling quite refreshed this week, after a long, but enjoyable, weekend.

Things on my list:

1. Figure out with Margie what Kitten's summer schedule is going to look like.  There's Girl Scout Camp stuff, there's Extended Grandparents Visit stuff, there's Vacation Bible School, there's Franklin Friends, there's a plethora of bits.  Need to map it out and start getting orders in.
2. Now that I'm done with archiving everything out of Outlook, I need to do the same out of Thunderbird (still).
3. I'd really like to finish work on the WIST blog/site.  I got stalled with some weird archive listing issues, and I need to just dedicate an evening to working on that.
4. After a weekend of comfort food, luau/Easter, and Anniversary grub, I am seriously back on the Geek Diet. 
5. Catching up on my blogroll/Google Reader list.  Paring out some of same (no point in keeping stuff I'm not reading).

Lent is over, but my "thing" for that period -- cleaning the dishes and pots and pans from the sink and counter every night -- continues.  A comfortable and pleasant good habit, pleasant in terms of liking having an empty sink and clean counter from it, as well as the sense of domestic virtue it conveys.

All in all, it looks like a busy, but good, week.

Filed under :: Blogging :: Home Improvement :: My Computer :: School Daze :: WIST
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