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Are you in my “reader community?”

Some bloggers use sidebar widgets that show the avatars (or pictures) of recent visitors to the blog, along with the reader’s name and a link to the reader’s account (see picture).  These are reader communities, and I’m not a big fan.

I did use one of these services on Purplecar.net about a year ago, but I took the widget down.    2 things about it  disturbed me:

1. Not enough readers.  Only a few early adopters had registered at the one particular service to be in my community.  I stared at the same faces for weeks because the registered readers in my community came and went, and anonymous/unregistered users either didn’t show up in the timeline or a random blank icon showed up with the word “YOU!” and “JOIN MY COMMUNITY.”  Which leads me to reason 2.

2. Privacy.  What if the people in my reader community don’t want to be seen in the timeline as a recent visitors?  Am I really going to make them go to the service’s site, log out, then come back to PurpleCar?  Am I going to make them subscribe to PurpleCar via RSS?  Why would I want an unregistered surfer feel just the tiniest bit unwelcome?  Why would I make roadblocks like these for readers?  Let them come and read in peace.  If they want me to know they were reading, they can leave a comment or email me.

I can’t help but have a sinking feeling when I see reader community widgets on my daily travels on the ‘net.  Now they have community member counts at the bottom of the widget.  It screams “popularity contest.”   I can just picture the conversation between two social media friends:

MediaSnacker:”Oh did you see PurpleCar’s post?  I know you did, the one about auto DMs?”

Employee: “What?  You know I don’t have time to read blogs.  Come on. I thought you didn’t like her blog anyway.”

MediaSnacker:”Oh, yeah, I wouldn’t be caught dead reading that drivel, I just called to tease you.  You’re still reading it!”

Employee: “And how would you know? Did you hack my history?”

MediaSnacker: “No, I saw your icon on the reader community as a recent visitor.  BUSTED!”

Employee: “No, YOU’RE busted.  My avatar was last clocked there months ago.  You must have been there TODAY.”

While I’m a big fan of share-your-bookshelf type sites, I don’t share everything I read.  The public library is supposed to protect your borrow list, so I feel like I should protect my readers.  Let them read in peace.  Your reading material is sacred.  Seriously.  Drama aside, reading is a private endeavor.  I respect that.  I won’t expose my readers.  They can *ahem* expose themselves.

What do you think?  Do you use reader community widgets?  Why?  What do you think of them?  Do you know of any pros?  Please expose yourself by commenting.  🙂

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Twitter Updates for 2008-12-26

Powered by Twitter Tools.

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Music-inspired poetry on Blip.fm

Blip.fm is a song directory site where you can play music and add those titles to your DJ stream. What’s nice is that you can send songs to friends and you can attach comments to the songs. Today I was discussing Pachelbel’s Canon in a chatroom, so I went over to “blip” it.

Listening to the song, I wrote a small haiku:

a winter wedding
burgundy petals fall in
white snow as she runs

Friend me on Blip.  I’m PurpleCar over there, of course.  Send me your faves!

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Automatic Direct Messages on Twitter

So the proverbial poop hit the fan today on Twitter. It started with me calling out a new follower on what I thought was an automatic direct message (turns out it wasn’t). If you don’t know what Twitter is, skip this whole blog post.

If you know Twitter but don’t know what an automatic direct message (ADM) is, you’re lucky.  I’m inundated with them.

Here’s how it works: A person follows me. I get the notification in my email. I click on the link that takes me to that person’s Twitter profile. I read some of their tweets. I go to their website if they have one listed. I click on some of the links in their tweets. I usually follow back if they seem interesting and not spammy.

Here’s the part where it gets nasty. As soon as I push their follow button, the little bit and byte elves in the fairy machines in magic Twitterland run and get that user’s pre-made message. This is the dreaded ADM. The elves work their little hands off sending that ADM directly to my direct message inbox.

Mind you, this follower and I have never once conversed. I hardly know this person. And they followed ME first. It becomes evident why next.

They follow me, hoping for a follow-back. Once they get the lovely follow-back, they send a DM with basically the same info in their bio description on their twitter homepage. It’s a link back to their site, which is most likely selling something or promoting some brand or most likely their SEO services.

Sometimes, though rarely, these new followers immediately unfollow me after the ADM is sent. With those people it is evident that they just want to ADM people their websites. I sometimes block them after this depending how I feel that day.

So, back to the poop hitting the fan.

[continue reading…]

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Tax Rebates for PA Elderly, Low Income Families.

Tax rebates help.

Tax rebates help.

The people who need this information probably won’t see it on this website or in email.  Please print it out and pass it on to anyone you think may qualify (see the 2nd paragraph to learn who qualifies).  It’s up to us to keep our community healthy.  Let’s look out for each other, especially our elderly.  You can slip it in their mailbox or on their car windshield if you want to remain anonymous.

Property Tax/Rent Rebate deadline approaching

The application deadline for Pennsylvania’s Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program is Dec. 31. The program provides rebates for qualifying Pennsylvanians on the previous year’s property taxes or rent paid based on last year’s income. The program ending on Dec. 31 applies to income for 2007.

To be eligible for the program, you must be 65 or older, a widow or widower 50 or older, or 18 or older with a permanent disability. To qualify for a rebate, your household income [continue reading…]

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