Blog ging

Amy Flanagan came to bytes of information in theshortestblogintheworld  a decade ago. Shazzie wonders aloud whether she has 'the longest blog' having started in 2000.

The Richest lists the ten top earning bloggers

1. Michael Arrington
2. Pete Cashmore
3. Mario Lavanderia, 'Perez Hilton'
4. Vitaly Friedman
5. Timothy Sykes
6. Jake Dobkin
7. Collis Ta'eed
8. Gina Trapani
9. Matt Marshall
10. Ewdison Then, 'Slash Gear'

Top 15 most popular blogs

1. Huffington Post
2. TMZ
3. Business Insider
4. Mashable
5. Gizmodo
6. LifeHacker
7. TheVerge
8. The Daily Beast
9. TechCrunch
10. Perez Hilton
11. Endgadget
12. Cheezburger
13. Jezebel
14. Deadspin
15. Kotaku

As we saw in the last post, even social media companies' blog
The format differs in some significant way that allows them to relax and be candid. Whether users know of these behind-the-scenes reveals is another matter.

 

Blooger, Blagger, Blogger

There are (more than) a few things to note

• with the purported move away from blogging to other forms of social media, blogging platforms are shutting down
• some platforms have been swallowed by bigger or more successful platforms
• blogs are more detailed
• blogs are more strongly theme-based, except when they're not
• some outmoded blogs actually tell you you are trying to access unsupported code
• blogging platforms, especially the amateur chancers, have been frequently hacked 
• the attempt to make it explicit that this is a blog has led to misadventures where even other bloggers suggest that it is Blooger the scooter firm who are hosting blogs or lack the patience to find the compendium instead of relying on serendipity
• Facebook and Twitter are disqualified as being blogs:-
• those tweeting or posting things on Facebook have in the main never gone or livejournal or otherwise blogged
• blogs are either community-based built around a specific theme or they are idiosyncratic; the work of one crazed individual
• MySpace can be - or could be, before it became a music service limping behind iTunes and Spotify - considered as a host for blogs along with other aspects, a slight distinction from ones dedicated to showing the blog alone
• marketers tend to use a combination of other formats in conjunction with their blog, if they use a blog at all

Then there is the concept of the clog, a blog that is rarely updated, just sits there with stale information

Blog train

1. WordPress.org
2. WordPress.com
3. Blogger
4. Tumblr
5. Medium
6. Squarespace
7. Wix
8. Joomla
9. Ghost
10. Weebly

More Blogging Platforms

Posterous	TypePad
Movable Type	Drupal
ExpressionEngine	Open Diary
LiveJournal	Xanga
DeadJournal	Ning
Bebo	Identi.ca
Plurk	Jaiku
hi5	Tripod
PHP Nuke	Windows Live Spaces
Wheatblog	Penzu
EggBlog	FlatPress
LifeType	LoudBlog
Serendipity	Pixie
glFusion	Textpattern
BlogHarbor	Open Salon
b2evolution	Blog CMS
Blosxom	Nucleus CMS
Pivot	SPIP
Dotclear	Globber
Habari	LiveStreet
Pblog	NibbleBlog
Open Blog	PluXml
Pritlog	SweetRice
Zomplog	Croogo
Blogware	Compendium
Bloog	cpedialog
i-hereblog	Dropbox
Picoblog	Vosao
JoeyB	PinaxCombo
Project Picky	Micolog
Toon-Blog	Django Tech Blog
Byteflow	MightyLemon
Kukkaisvoima	Jeeran
Splinder	Roller
Bricolage CMS	Blogsmith
Scoop	Blog.com
BoastMachine	Super Simple Blog
Webmobo	WikyBlog
Blogr	Blogabond
Blogetery	Blogster
Multiply	vBulletin
InsaneJournal	Terapad
Tblog	Friendster
Edublogs	Wikispaces
Aeonity	Blogates
Bravenet	eHow
Google Sites	HubPages
ISeekBlog	PBWorks
Squidoo	Stikipadd
Thoughts	Jurnl
Dreamweaver	Apple's MobileMe
Oxite	Blog Engine
DasBlog	Microsoft Sharepoint
Kontain	Blogspot.es
GitWrite	Toto

WP Beginner dot com furnished that first list and John Saddington, trying to win the Internet the second. This second john do(es) win a sizable representation with this comprehensive list even feeling it has to include Twitter, MySpace and Facebook
There are still more platforms like Mephisto but I think this is a creditable effort on his part. That's why I - a sometime records management consultant, library technician and team leader of student records - have left it all in this random order.

Spending time

Why maintain a blog when the smart money says nobody reads them? Because it is a form that fits. I once envisioned a blogger's take on all those people's almanacs he digested and the philosophy behind them. After all, you are less likely to question the presence of the eighty thousand Sikhs in Australia if you know they have been here since 1830. I got this from watching Compass and that doesn't depend on a blogger adding his bit to the mix for value. Anyone else watching could have taken the same things away with them.

If you have a message to impart there's now not only Facebook but a host of other social media.

1. Facebook
2. YouTube
3. WordPress.com
4. Instagram
5. Snapchat
6. Tumblr
7. LinkedIn
8. WhatsApp
9. Twitter
10. TripAdvisor

The thing to take away from that though is that blogging is in the mix. Blogspot sits outside the Top Ten and Tinder, which is for a specific purpose and (presumably) time-constrained use. You don't swipe right after you've found the one.

13. Yelp
14. Flickr
15. Pinterest
16. Reddit
17. MySpace
18. GooglePlus
19. StumbleUpon
20. Foursquare/Swarm
21. Digg
22. Periscope
23. Delicious


Read more »

Dim bulb, Dip shit

The whole time I was working up that example I was thinking "Must remember to say 'dipping your lights', not dimming" and look what happened.
This not only explains why that first hyperlink takes us to a technical readout of household lighting but illustrates how limited conducting all your own research on the Internet can be. It's not the search engine's fault but the result is still as mooted.

If you go onto a number of search engines to see who the most experienced person is, as I did, then you see all the points at which they differ and intersect. Not of interest to someone in formal studies or engaged in a challenging occupation and knows their stuff but good clean fun for the idly curious.

It was on Yahoo that I came across a hundred year old pilot who has amassed 57,635.4 flying hours, more flight time than any living person. This is very much in the vicinity of what I was interested in seeing, and not because pilots have appeared on a few of our posts.

My normal go-to Google didn't have this, unless it was further down, neither did Bing. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for 'most experienced person' and Twitter twitters away as it does. Would this encourage me to do more searches on the Yahoo search engine? Well I do think that it did well to place the pilot so high out of seventy three and a half million search results. And they have the most experienced CIO into the bargain. Whatever that is.

Test Stickler

So you're confident that you have the experience to work in the hothouse, a good knowledge of the road rules, skill in drawing circles. There's one other thing we've not considered, the test. Considering the number of tests I've sat for various jobs and shortlists, how could I forget?

A test on the day, apart from running the risk of making the candidate unduly nervous, can help verify the details of the resume. A test on whether you can grow gardenias, is liable to examine knowledge, experience and skill. Time constraints may require you to convey during interview or in writing, your claims as the company or screening agent don't have the time or facilities for you to demonstrate. This method of testing also explains why geography students aren't sent out on rickety homemade rafts to show how they can plot their course and reach their destination.
One should be wary of a sole reliance on the written; being asked to write an essay on dimming your lights could be as much about testing your essay writing as it is your grasp of when and where to dim your lights. If you're an English major it will be one, a prospective driving instructor the other.

Perhaps this is a bad example as a driver accreditation authority is more likely to ask you to either list on the spot or jot down, the essay form is redundant. Thinking of correct layout wastes time when there is so much other practical testing to do.

It would be wise to test a manufacturer of brass buttons on the lathe before giving them the job. Being able to sell shaving soap does rely on knowing how it differs from shaving cream. Or why do it?

Cross train

All the disciplines and desirables are made up of a cross between education, training, experience and skill

• You can have experience in teaching geometry
• You can have training in teaching trigonometry
• You can have a skill in algebra
• You can teach arithmetic to future rally car trainers
• You can train people to improve their comprehension
• You can be experienced at training your pronunciation
• You can train your pupil to develop a skill in grammar (or should that be 'their skills in grammar')
• You can teach a driver who is used to an automatic, to use a clutch
• You can train someone in geology based on your experience
• You can possess a skill in putting your experience to good use 
• or be experienced at putting your skill(s) to good use
• You can be a skilled and experienced teacher of trainees 

Outside the education and training sector, you can again have a combination of the above, leaning you to one vocation or another. It is the job of the interviewer or silent partner to see how useful that will be; what you 'bring to the table'. Further convincing may be required, depending on relevance and outcomes.