Twitter: Verified Accounts

Twitter is doing a Verified Account thing for celebrities using the service. Is this practical for them? Do they really want to be found? Some do I'm sure. I don't think I would. I'd like to be able to talk to friends or just use it anonymously, not being spied on and judged for every least thing I type.

It is nice for people who want to follow celebrities. I admit, I did look up Keanu Reeves this past week. Didn't find an account I thought really was his. But, how could you really know, unless it is verified. Keanu Reeves is likely to have an anonymous account, probably wouldn't even use his full name. If he was even on Twitter at all.

If he is though... he could Twitter me for a little conversation.

Celebrities on Twitter. Try the link, beware, it's kind of addicting and mind sucking. Like hearing a conversation at another table or three.

Cut Promotion Pollution on Twitter

Use Twitter Karma to get a list of those who follow you and those you follow. Why is this of any interest? Because you can see on one page which people are following you in return and which are just ignoring you - only keeping you as a notch on their bedpost.

I have three which I know are set up like Twitter newsletters. I am ok with them cause I read their blogs fairly regularly too. But there is one which asked me to follow them but is now not following me in return. Sorry, but there is no excuse for asking me to listen to your babbling and then putting a cork into it when it comes to listening to me babble.

Kind of a handy thing to run Twitter Karma. Lady Banana posted the link in her Twitterings.

Bringing Back Netscape

I've got one great reason to consider using Netscape as your web browser! It is no longer going to be supported. Why would this be a plus you might wonder.

Consider the last time you had to wait for your computer to stop automatically upgrading your current browser, yes, yesterday, yet again. Consider the frustration of having to wait while your web browser takes over your computer. I did all that and pretty much said some unkind things, out loud, too. I'm aggravated with Firefox's login bug that will not die. Flock is ok but it always pesters me to upgrade some nit picky thing, just as Firefox does. Seems everyday there is something else I have to wait for. Well, this won't do! I... am the important one here, not the minions I allow to serve me on this computer.

Yesterday I came across a site giving a last gasp tribute to Netscape, one of the early browsers and the main opponent to MSIExplorer in the legendary browser wars. Now Netscape is being mothballed, abandoned to go to seed. However, I see that as a huge plus. No more upgrades, no more updates, no more having fancier and bandwidth clogging features which I don't really care about.

All I really want is a web browser. It does not need to wash windows for me. It does not need to cook dinner or update my blog while I'm nuking something either. It does not need to sing to me while I'm online. It just needs to get from point A to point B without making me yell at it.

I downloaded Netscape 9 from an archive last night and I am already happy, happy, happy! I will not delete Firefox or Flock but in this computer Netscape is getting a second wind and it will be the ever bandwidth clogging browsers that get mothballed. Goodbye computer hoggers and space suckers! I am free... free to browse the web again!

Personas for Firefox

Mozilla Labs has Personas for Firefox

An extension that adds lightweight theming to your browser.

They are fun. Some don't work well. They are too dark for you to see your buttons through the pattern. One seemed to be too short to cover the length of my browser with the added toolbars. I've got one called Winter loaded right now. It looks pretty good.

Firefox is Broken

For the past few days my browser (Firefox) keeps dumping out all my logins. So that each time I want to do anything like add a bookmark to del.icio.us or see myself appear on bumpzee, etc I have to re-login. Even though I already logged in more than once today to the very same site. It is really getting highly aggravating. I have tried to find the cause for this, thought I may have changed some setting, but nothing is working. It's really bugging me. So much that I am going to try another web browswer today. Not that I am going back to MSIExplorer, that became too much of a clunker. I had a look at Opera but it is full of warnings for all kinds of little things and that got to be a pestery nuisance. So, something new, something... else.

About Dmoz

Now and then I read comments about Dmoz, the web directory run by volunteer editors. I was an editor from almost the time it began, before it was called Dmoz. Negative comments from people who want to get their site listed are common. You will always find them in any kind of discussion about web directories. Dmoz began as a good idea but it grew faster and farther than the available volunteers.

If the directory submissions could be strictly filtered we would lose some actual good submissions but it might out weigh the good in losing a tonne of complete garbage. If you could look into the submissions in one category second from the top or at the top, like Arts/Weblogs for instance you would find submissions for porn, submissions about monetizing your blog, submissions about travel to India and you might even find weblogs about the arts (dumped in the main category instead of the right subcategories). You would not be likely to find a site you would actually list in Arts/Weblogs. Maybe if you spent a couple of hours going through all the submissions... But you're a volunteer, how much time do you really want to put into Dmoz today. More than that, how long will your patience and interest hold up?

I wrote the below comment in reply to yet another person bad mouthing Dmoz. Even though I quit Dmoz for a few reasons, I still think it has value and I still think the biggest problem is the quantity of junk submissions. There is no way a few volunteers are going to keep up with the volume. No way they would even want to stick with a chore like that. It's not fun. There are so very few decent sites that you come across that it is not even interesting work.

I was a dmoz editor for 8 years. The idea behind it was great but we were soon overwhelmed with garbage. In the end, there are only so many volunteers willing to wade through the trash to find something actually submitted to the right category and not just another splog or ad farm. In the current directory you are fed up in a week, all your beginner enthusiasm is gone. Most new editors quit. It's not like you're getting paid to do that job. I read complaints about dmoz like yours and I'm not impressed. Most often those complaining have the worst sites. Or, they have a decent site until it gets listed and then it changes to become craptastic and full of spam/ ads. Dmoz doesn't have enough volunteers to keep up with the submissions, to fix errors in submissions and to check sites again once they are listed. It's not the system that sucks its the crap that gest submitted that chokes the life out of the directory.

Wireless Grrl

Is wireless better than a standard internet connection? What is the difference? What exactly does wireless mean cause I've still got plenty o wires/ cables and cords. I've got it plugged in and I'm online using it. But I still have some reading to do when I get home tonight after work.

Graham might be here today so I might be driving into work today, that would be sweet! He is going to pitch a fit if he notices I'm spending more on the Internet connection though. I do have the plus that we should be able to connect my Mom up too, when she is back, without spending money on another account. Will have to figure out just how that works too.

I Resigned from Dmoz Today

It stopped being fun or interesting. Tired of getting email from sploggers who think I should list their great site full of ads. Tired of attitude from editors who don't seem to care about the sites they edit just being right or better than anyone else. I salute the old Dmoz and the people I knew then. It's not here any more and now neither am I.

I joined the Open Directory Project in November of 1998 so November of 2007 seems like a good time to leave. Sort of rounding out the date. I really enjoyed the first few years. The years after that were kind of like dealing with a bitchy old relative you just seem stuck with for some reason. I couldn't quite give up being an editor. I loved finding new sites, new ideas and new things to try and learn about on my own. But, the pettiness and back biting was always there. I felt I was always being judged and nit picked at. I had not felt appreciated or welcome even for a long time.

So now I'm gone. Maybe I will amass my own mini directory for the rural exploration sites. Not sure I want to take on another project though. I don't need to. I have the Flickr group and that is enough. It's really all I wanted, a local bunch to share photos and locations and maybe get together for coffee. So, it's all good.

A good time to leave when the categories I cared about most have pretty much fallen into dust or splog. Writers Resources is mainly splog, not much of real quality there any more. ASCII Art is covered in dust bunnies. It gets me sadder each time I have to delete an old listing gone by the wayside. Urban exploration is growing but I was told by another editor that I don't know what I'm doing there. She deleted a bunch of subcategories and listings I had done. That wrankled me.

Anyway, the end of the Dmoz era has cometh upon me. I won't miss it. I won't look back. I sure won't miss the old shedragon moniker either! I outlived that several years ago. :)

Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

From Reporters Without Borders - Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents.

Cyber Journalist - Blogging Code of Ethics

I was a Wicked, Evil Temptress

Posting early in the morning is like cheating, packing two days into one. I like it. A bit of cheating can be a good thing. At least I don't feel like I'm a complete hopeless goodie goodie. That would be sickening. This way I can still be friendly, optimistic, honest (but for the odd bit of cheating and lies) and not feel like a dork. Nice grrls get treated like mindless doormats if they let it happen. It seems people think anyone nice is also dense and gullible. I am not foolhardy. I will lie and cheat, just a bit. Just enough to keep myself from being easy. Easily fooled that is.

Even so it is funny when someone realizes I lied. They always look so surprised. Stunned even. It makes me laugh, inside my head where no one can hear. They really do think I'm such a goodie goodie. Fooled them!

People get caught up in the stereotypes they create for other people. I'm nice therefor I'm easily fooled and I can always be trusted. Morons! True, most of the time, at least 99% I am good and honest and all that stuff. It's that extra 1% that keeps me sane. Otherwise how could I live with myself.

Once upon a time in a land pretty much forgotten now with IM's running rampant, there was IRC (Internet Relay Chat) I was a queen of my own realm there. I let my wild grrl out of the closet and I did very bad things. Evil and wicked even. I hung out with other wild women and we were nasty to the pigs... I mean, men on the IRC channels. Oh sure, there were a few we allowed to be friends and not get tormented. Just a few, we didn't go overboard on the being nice or ladylike thing. Of course, I was not really good at being extremely evil. Being a virgin was a hindrance. Not because I never had intimacy but because I didn't know the basic mechanics of the whole thing. So, sometimes I had guidance from the rest of the pack. They didn't mind. Although only two actually knew I was a 30 year old virgin.

It was really interesting play truth or dare on IRC. Men loved to ask raunchy questions and see how they could trip me up. Not that they knew... they just noticed I was a bit less technically plain spoken and because of this I very seldom picked a truth question. I couldn't hardly answer them, could I? Unless they asked about something I could do by myself. That I knew about quite well. That isn't what they usually asked though. So, I picked a dare. They liked that too. Other men must have heard about us, we had quite a following. They really did invent some daring dares. I did most of them. Some were foolish and a fool should be fooled if he is that bloody stupid. Sure I ran outside naked... no sorry I don't own a web cam or any other kind of photo software... what a shame... Poor drooling male.

I miss IRC and my days as a wicked, evil, temptress. I don't miss the men. Hard to miss them when they never left, just changed venues. I think they are all on the free online dating sites now. If they are anywhere else I'm just not seeing them. I don't do the online chat stuff any more. I never did like IM's. I don't want people thinking I'm available 24 hours a day. When I check email I'm available, not before. Still, I wonder about the other women I knew then. Whatever became of Liz from Australia who moved to the US and was battling cancer last time I heard from her. Then there was Vixen who met men and had them all falling in love with her but she never wanted to do anything real with them. She was an online grrl only. Those are the two I most remember of the women. I think of a couple of the men who were friends but I'm sure they moved along. I hope so. There were a lot of lonely people there and that was more than 10 years ago. A long time to feel outside and alone.

Maybe some of this online dating hell is fate snapping back on me after all my wicked ways towards those trolls on IRC. But I don't really think so. The women on the chat were there for romance, mostly all of them wanted to find someone to love them, be there with them eventually. The men however were all leading with their cocks. I never met one who was really sincere about wanting to meet and get to know a woman, other than parts of her: breasts, pussy and etc. That's why we were so mean really. It got to be sickening how shallow and perverted and selfish they all were. Some women needed to help balance things out and torture the piss out of them. We made it a game to see which of us could piss the trolls off the most and the fastest. I did pretty well. Not sure I was the best, but I did have fun laughing where only the other wicked women could see.

I'm putting this out there, like a message in a bottle. Maybe one of those women will see it and remember those days on IRC when I was SheDragon and they were... I'd tell you but that would be cheating. ;)

Protesting Pop Under Ads

ASAP A Stand Against Pop-under ads!

My name is Joe Jenett. I feel the use of pop-under advertising on the web is invasive and downright unfriendly to users.

I am troubled by the presence of such advertising campaigns on many news sites, portals, and free hosting providers who implement pop-unders on their members' personal pages. Though I agree that advertising revenue is important, there are other ways to advertise that don't so blatantly assault users.

Sure – there are ways you can block the pop-under ads, and the popularity of blockers certainly reinforces the fact that the ads are annoying. But it's the attitude toward users by those who force pop-under ads upon us that I stand most firmly against.

If you have a website and want to support the ASAP! initiative, save a copy of a support button, put it on your own server and link it to this page. As an alternative, you may use a simple text link that says "ASAP!"

They should give an explanation about what pop under ads are compared to all the other general run of the mill spam. Firefox blocks almost all pop up or under ads for me. I nearly forget they exist.

Old Ribbon Campaigns

That Internet Thing:

Save the...

What comes to your mind first?

I think the oldest campaign of "Save the..." was for saving whales. But, I could be wrong and likely I am. Causes and issues are as old as time. I'm sure cave people had some kind of 'save the...' campaign with the start of the wheel. People either want to avoid change or want to bring change.

Every campaign has it's passionate supporters looking for new ways to promote their cause and get it noticed and kept in the public eye.

Ribbon campaigns had their heyday. Then they spread into a fetish almost on the web. You still see a load of pink ribbon graphics around the time for the breast cancer campaign.

There were endless others. Some real causes and important issues but a lot of them were rubbish, useless campaigns and campaigns against having ribbon campaigns. Some people just have too much time it seems.

What would your cause be? What do you feel that driving kind of passion about or need to change?

Three campaigns which I most remember as web ribbon campaigns were Save the Dragons, Fight the Fear and the ASCII Artists Ribbon Campaign. Save the dragons was about dragons, of course. Fight the Fear was about Pagans supporting religious tolerance. The ASCII Artist Campaign was about keeping the initials on ASCII art, keeping the artist credit on their work. The ASCII art campaign is still going, at least, the site is still loading and perhaps active even. The other two have disappeared as far as I know.