I experienced some technical difficulties with RSS and Feedburner feeds for two of my blogs, including AmBlogger. Finally got around to fixing it, so feeds are back up! Whew… Thanks to Eric for pointing this out but it was sure sad to see “0 readers” show up on my Feedburner chiclet.

How did I fix it? I don’t really know. I checked out FeedMedic as Eric suggested and resyncing solved it for one of my blogs, for AmBlogger, I thought the plugin was not compatible with my recent WordPress 2.0.2 upgrade, after reloading and re-activating the plugin, it worked again? In any case, I like to look forward, not backwards. Back to the usual programming!

S Shreyas is hoping to start a new trend at his blog Chrono Tron. He is hoping to start a meme-like link-and-spread called the Neo-BlogTree.

His explanation makes it seems interesting, but its not anything that hasn’t been done before. I’d also argue that Bloggers link and read each other in a way that is more like a net rather than a tree.

At the risk of being labeled as a chain-link spam (discussed in comment # 4 on that post). I will still link to his post and also technorati tag the designated keyword. I wonder if anybody on his list has actually linked back. It is an obvious link-bait attempt since he’s linking to only the famous, well-known and those who are considered ‘A-lister’.

I’d be surprised if ProBlogger would link to Chrono even though we were both brought up in his post. Not surprisingly I wasn’t targetted, but ironically, I’m the one to respond. Am I just gullible or what!

Oh no! Not another AmBlogger WordPress theme modification involving Darren and Rachel!

Did I have you for a minute there? Seriously, history is not repeating itself. But I thought, since the WordPress theme here used is called Zen Minimalist, why not be a minimalist and reduce the number of timestamps appearing in the comments? I’ll only keep the timestamp for the post for now.

Initial reaction? I don’t miss it. What do you think?

Announcement
By the way, I’m actually working on my own original AmBlogger WordPress Theme that I will let everybody use if they like! Is that a shocker? I don’t know when I will finish, but check back to see the final product when it’s ready!

Am I The William Hung of Blogging? LOL. I wish I thought of that analogy! CitizenCircus has written a post reflecting on the AmBlogger / ProBlogger fiasco. I wanted to point it out because of the wonderful metaphor!

No, I’m not upset, I’m very amused! Why would people take themselves so seriously? It’s not like I’m getting paid 6 figures! Hope you enjoyed comparing myself to William. Honestly, do I actually resemble him?

January 1st is for the children of the sun. Today is the day for those who celebrate the moon’s glory! The Lunar New Year is not only celebrated by myself but by many other Asian ethnics as well, so to simply say Chinese New Year is a little bit of an inaccurate statement in this political correct world.

To celebrate, AmBlogger will be going on hiatus for the next 48 hours. Blogging was always meant to be fun, I don’t know how much fun it will be if I ever took it as my work (go pro). Here, I wish for every Amateur Blogger out there to be able to inspire and get inspired through their Blogging, help someone discover and also help themselves rekindle their passion, in the Year of the Dog.

Speaking of Dog, I love that Google has changed their logo for the Lunar New Year. They’ve always cared about the little things, the little details and included every one in their celebrations. That’s why they can differentiate themselves from other search engines, and built a community following.

Many other Blogs have also reported on Google’s Holiday AdSense themes for the Lunar New Year. I won’t repeat or repost what they’ve all said. My view about Google slowly moving towards using images in their contextual text ads is that they seem to be on the right track! It’s a no-brainer that images draw your attention, and attention is always welcomed where advertising is concerned! The point is not to be annoying with those images. A cute dog faded into the background can only help, not hurt these. If your site has been showing these ads, what were the clickthrough results? Do Share!

[Note: RFC stands for "Request For Comment". I would like to solicit opinions. If you think this is a link bait, you have the right to refrain from linking to this Blog]

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion provided an interesting morning read while I was sipping my coffee. The short post covers the fact that Ed Kohler is publicizing a “hack” to boost your Technorati profile. The hack works by proactively pinging Technorati about sites that link to you who may not have pinged Technorati themselves. Steve is of the opinion that its unethical to ping for other people. While Ed believes you deserve the recognition should they choose to link to you.

My RFC is whether AmBlogger should go ahead and optimize for Technorati? I am pretty sure that AmBlogger will be elevated to the top 100,000 Blogs on my Technorati profile if I choose to do such an optimization? To me, it’s very weird because that would mean AmBlogger would trump my own personal site VinceChan.net, which holds sentimental and personal value for me.

What is the debate?
There are quite a few sites that have linked to AmBlogger due to the “Copyright Wars” recently that have not shown up in Technorati. There are also many sites that refuse to link to AmBlogger. I believe its the right of the Blogger to link to whomever he/she pleases. But if you link, is there also an implicit release of permission for the linkee? Can we link to anyone we want to without any moral issues? What are the rights of the linkee versus the linker? The arguments seem to center on this because Steve is fighting for the linker while Ed is fighting for the linkee.

To modify an old saying, “Mob me once, shame on you. Mob me twice, shame on me…”. This RFC is to prevent me from making another bad decision. What do you think?

Due to the ProBlogger / AmBlogger fiasco, I’ve no doubt made many people unhappy by my decision to peek into Darren’s stylesheet and applied some minor changes. Yes, it seems weird and stupid but I was looking for the “Bizarro ProBlogger” look. The color change of blue was the exact hexadecimal opposite of his color orange.

I’m not offended by the comments posted on both Blogs. Long ago before the internet revolution, I remembered this medium called BBS where much harsher words were spoken. An old fashion flame war was fun to some, stressful to others. Nothing I haven’t seen or heard.

How did I feel through this ordeal? I wasn’t phased by the peer pressure, or the colorful languages. Did I learn a few things? Certainly! I hope others learnt some too through the observation process. (more…)

ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, contacted me through my Contact Form a couple days ago and I’ve been too busy to respond to him until now. I’m honored to receive his correspondence but truthfully I’ve been expecting him to come calling anyday now!

Darren wanted to approach me about the design of AmBlogger.net which is very very similar to his ProBlogger.net. You would not be inaccurate to consider this a copy or spoof of his website. I’ve informed him of my pending response and will definitely offer him a forum to respond on AmBlogger if he so desires. In fact, let me iterate my interest in getting fellow AmBloggers to join in and contribute to AmBlogger.net. This site is here for you!

Where should we start? Why do I choose to respond in a Blog? Simply Link Bait? (Update: If you think that’s the case, please don’t link to this post) I think there are a issues here at play here that are begging to be examined. What are the copyright issues? Darren himself has been a fair reporter and has written a few posts on this particular subject:

• Clipmarks and Copyright
• Using Other People’s Content
• Copycat Blogging - Open Mike
• Copyright and Blogs - 14 Guidelines
• BlogStars - Infringing CopyRight since 2005
• Are Explicit Copyright Notices Necessary for Weblogs and Web Pages?
• What to do When Someone Steals Your Blog’s Content - Blog Plagiarism

To formulate my response, I decided to re-examine why I adopted this design in the first place. I also wanted to address the issue of web site design copyright? Lastly, I should be accountable and let Darren know about my response in simple terms. (more…)