About commenting

I've been a little bit of a hard ass when it comes to comments here. There's a reason for it; at least, there was. But, I've thought things through, checked how others are doing it, looked at the functionality available, and I'm modifying the comment policy here at this little blog.

My goal is to have honest, thoughtful, or humorous comments. Trolls? Don't have any use for them.

So, here is the new comment policy.

This is my personal blog. It is not your personal blog. If you wish to comment, I will allow your comment if you meet and agree to these guidelines.

• You understand that you have no right to comment. If you think you do, you're wrong. And probably a liberal who wants me to pay for your "free stuff." If so, just go away.
• Don't use excessive profanity. Things like "*******" and "#$%@&$#" are okay.
• You do not have to agree with anything I say. You should. But, some people. *sigh*
• Registration may be required. This includes a Google account or an account that supports Open ID, such as AOL/AIM, LiveJournal, Typepad, WordPress, as well as other services. If you use the Anonymous selection, sign your name, or the name by which you are known online.
• Keep your comments short. If you have a lot to say, say it on your own blog, and leave a short comment here with a link to your post. Don't have your own blog? Too bad.
• Certain HTML tags are supported. If you leave a link to a Website, include it in an anchor tag. Don't forget to use a full link, including the protocol (such as http://) or else the link won't work correctly.
• URL shortening services are acceptable for links in comments. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it.
• Comment moderation may be enabled for posts, particularly for older posts. That's where most of the spam shows up, and comment moderation helps control that.
• Comment moderation may be enabled during times a post attracts a large number of trolls. At least until I hunt the trolls down.
• A spam filter may moderate your comment. Do not leave another comment asking why the spam filter caught your comment. Ask Google. They run the spam filter.
• When a comment is moderated, I get an email letting me know. I'll review it as soon as I can.

If you do not agree to this comment policy, do not leave a comment.

Multiple violations of this policy will result in all of your future comments being rejected or deleted, regardless of whether such future comments adhere to the policy.

Here's the link to the page: http://www.basilsblog.com/p/comment-policy_28.html

Now, I'm wondering if I ought to turn comments off for this post, just to mess with you.

Nah.

Cleaning up teh blog

Last summer, I made a monumentous decision: I gave up teh WordPress.

All the lousy details are here. But I've used teh Blogger, teh TypePad, and teh WordPress for teh blog. And they all have their great points, and their weaknesses. Anyway, I've landed on teh Blogger again. But all these changes over the years have meant that some things need to be cleaned up. And I hate doing that. But, I gotta.

One of the most aggravating things is, during the transfer of some posts from one platform to another, I broke some links. How many links? Well, teh Google has a service called Webmaster Tools. And the latest report says I have 556 broken links.

Now, some of these links are to Websites that have gone dark. But the vast majority of them are links that are simply broken and can be fixed. Let me explain.

When we were on teh WordPress, we often made links like this:

• /2009/01/my-post/

instead of

• http://basilsblog.net/2009/01/my-post/

Why? Well, WordPress would automatically generate a TrackBack ping. And I didn't care for pings to my own stuff. Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference.

But, I knew that on a Web page, if you leave off the "http://" part, it would automatically put it there for you. That's why these are essentially the same link:

• /2009/01/my-post/
• http://basilsblog.net/2009/01/my-post/

And, that's why, if you've ever put a link in a Web page and left off the "http://" part, you got some odd results. For example, if I made this link:

• www.imao.us/about/

It would actually try to go to this:

• http://www.basilsblog.net/www.imao.us/

Don't ask why. It's how it works. So, today's tip: Always verify your links.

But back to this little blog's 556 broken links...

I had many links like that. Those are all broken. For two reasons.

First, on teh Blogger, if you put a link with no leading domain, and just make one like this:

• /2010/02/my-post.html

It will translate at

• http://www.blogger.com/2010/02/my-post.html

Because the interface where you write the post is on a blogger.com domain.

If all this is confusing, the thing to learn from it is, you can't take shortcuts with links on teh Blogger.

And I've got a butt-load of those kind of links.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

But, had I done the link in the standard way, I'd still have a problem.

WordPress uses a different naming style than does Blogger. So, the pages have slightly different names. And, on them Internets, slightly different means way different.

So, though I might have created some issues, if I had done different, I'd still have just as many broken links.

Today, I begin fixing the links. Because I care. Would any other blogger do that for you? No. Because they're selfish. And self-centered.

I bet they even have their own name in their custom URL.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes Part 3

Nothing major like the switch from Blogger to TypePad. Or from TypePad to WordPress.

Just an update to the WordPress.

And some behind the scenes re-work.

The net effect is that this little blog might look screwy for a little bit while software updates happen. Because I think I'm not going to simply upgrade, but to do a clean installation of WordPress software.

Network Solutions (the host) has added automatic WordPress installation to their hosting packages. The installation here was before they added that, and was the traditional upload and overwrite method of installation and update.

When we were at Dreamhost (yes, I still like them, and use them on another blog, by the way), I liked the automatic installation and update process they had. Now that Network Solutions has added that feature, I'm going to take advantage of it. And I'm going to do that by way of a "from scratch" installation.

We may be getting into "hey, y'all, watch this" territory, but hey, what the heck, huh? What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, we'll see.

So, if anything looks different or screwy, that's why.

Cutbacks

Just a quick note to the millions and millions of fans out there ....

This little blog is not shutting down. Sorry.

It's just ... taking a breather.

No, we won't stop posting here. But we're probably going to do less of the "chore" posts.

I'm talking about the morning blog roundups. And Headline News.

Recently ... actually, for some time ... doing both of those items has been a chore. Well, most of the time. Oh, sure, sometimes it's fun. When I'm not rushed. But, when I'm rushed -- and that seems to be most of the time -- it either gets done half-assed ... or it doesn't get done.

When it doesn't get done, I feel bad. When it gets half-assed done, I feel bad. After all, you don't deserve a half-ass version. You deserve the whole-assed version, right?

Anyway, for the time being, this little blog will reduce posting. Maybe what's going on around here ... or not. Maybe Headlines ... or not. And maybe Blogrolling ... or not.

But I bet there'll still be writeups about the Catfish and the Biscuits. Happy happy joy joy.

Leaving Well Enough Alone

When things are working, what do you do?

Change them, of course.

That's probably the reason I changed Web hosts recently.

Not that I've abandoned Dreamhost. No, I like Dreamhost. I really do. And I still use Dreamhost for ItsAPundit.com.

But I've moved this little blog to Network Solutions hosting.

I've used Network Solutions for some time now. I've registered my domain names (currently, 11) with them for some time now. And my package includes Web hosting and email. So, as long as I have the service, I thought why not use it.

Let me reiterate, there was nothing wrong with Dreamhost. That's why I'm keeping my account with them. Their hosting of ItsAPundit works just fine. The whole process of people setting up their own blogs automatically works very well.

But, I like to try things out. So, I moved this little blog to Network Solutions.

That will cause some problems, to be sure.

For example, mail sent to my basilsblog.net address won't work for a bit.

Also, links to the old address format (such as http://www.basilsblog.com/?p=3263) might end up at unexpected posts ... or nowhere. Links to the newer address format (like the one you see when you click on the name of this post) work fine. That's why I went to this format several months ago: I knew this move was coming.

Most of the hits to the old address formats are kids (or grown perverts) looking for Jamie Lynn Spears naked, anyway, so no big loss.

What's the upside?

To me, I get to play with different Web hosting services.

To you? Actually, I don't see an upside to you. Sorry.

Open TrackBacks now means Open TrackBacks

I've been mulling over TrackBacks for a while. And I've decided to do something a little different.

Effective today, we do not require a link to any post labeled Open TrackBacks in order for a TrackBack to appear.

Now, this only applies to Open TrackBacks posts. It doesn't apply to Headline News, or any other category of posts.
Here's the details. If you want to submit one of your posts to one of our Open TrackBacks posts ... go ahead.

It is not necessary to include a blurb about our post in yours. While we are always grateful for links, but we no longer require links to have your post appear via TrackBack on an Open TrackBack post.

This only applies to posts tagged Open TrackBacks.
If you submit a TrackBack to a post that is not labeled Open TrackBacks, we stll require a link in order for it to appear in the list.

If you choose to take advantage of this new policy, great. But do keep in mind that the spam-fighting software we use will likely moderate or otherwise queue your post for approval if you don't include a link. Heck, sometimes it even moderates TrackBacks even if you include a link. But, we'll get around to checking the queue after a little while. And we'll approve the TrackBack.
Previously, we checked your submission, and if no link was evident, we deleted your TrackBack.

As of now, we will approve such links to Open TrackBack posts, whether or not you link to us.

Why the change?

Well, it started when it became apparant that some of the bloggers that I like just don't seem to get the whole concept of TrackBacks. Had it been bloggers I didn't like, I might have never given it a second thought.

But I did. And it seemed the thing to do.

After all, I'm not blogging or offering posts in order to get a link. Oh, I like links. They're the life-blood of blogs. Well, links ... and money. Like the little PayPal form at the bottom of the sidebar that I've had for a while but never mentioned. And only mention now as way of illustration.

Anyway, I'm not doing this for the links. But I'm benefitting nonetheless.

So, I'm sticking with the traditional TrackBacks policy ... which is how and why TrackBacks were invented to begin with ... for most posts.

But, Open TrackBacks mean just that: Open. Link to the post. Don't link to the post. I don't care. They're open.

But the rest of the posts, follow the TrackBack Policy, okay?

Thanks.