Happy Blog Day 2007
Blog Day is two years old today. If you've never participated in a Blog Day, here's what the founders have to say about why it was started back in 2005.
BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day
dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and
areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to
their blog visitors.
So, without further ado, here are a few blogs we think you should check out:
TEDBlog - Technology, Entertainment & Design -- all things
important and amazing
OKDork.com - Marking and tech buzz written by a team of outsourced
labor overseas (and guided by the mad genius Noah Kagen)
Tim Ferriss's Blog - Author of the 4-Hour Workweek shares great tips,
stories and interviews
Fred Wilson's A VC Blog - Master VC, music nut and "The King of Bling"
New Scientist - Great tech/science coverage -- if only they would give
full descriptions in their feed!
orgtheory.net - Distilled accounts of advances in sociology and network
theory
Gridskipper: San Francisco - Cool/odd things to do around my fair city
AirFareWatchdog: San Francisco - Great deals for when I just need
to get away...
laughingsquid - great coverage of San Francisco counter-culture from Scott Beale.
www.waxy.org/links/ - Andy Baio consistently finds the best of the web and somehow sums it up in a single sentence.
Anil Dash - I've been reading Anil for years.
blog.jonudell.net/ - Stuff to mull over on the drive home.
www.mcsweeneys.net/ - I wish I could say I had the time to read McSweeney's everyday
David Allen - Author of Getting Things Done
As you can tell from my list, I'm getting into GTD lately.
Now, it should be noted that most of our engineers can't count, and sent in more or less than 5. And, as Eric turned us all onto LOLCatz, I'd be remiss not to mention ICanHasCheezburger.
Otherwise, I've enjoyed perusing all of these sites, some were great, some very helpful, and some, erm, interesting ones as well. I can't believe how many of us read valleywag. Our dirty little secret is out, I guess.
Now, off to look at all of your picks.
Hot Member: Schnaars
One of the coolest people I've met since my move out to San Fran, Scott Schnaars, is this week's Hot Member. Besides being just an all-around great guy, he's also got an incredible story (plus, he's got 2 of the most adorable kids in the world, and coming from a gal with 4 of the most adorable kids of the world, that's saying alot).
Scott's wife, Holly, was diagnosed with cancer and he's been sharing their story with the world via Hope for Holly. An excerpt from one of his latest posts, about a few nights sans kids:
Like our Hawaii vacation, this one was cancer free. Like Hawaii, if
the subject comes up, it is simply This Silliness. As in ‘Once This
Silliness is over, we will take a long vacation.’ or ‘I’m tired of This
Silliness and I don’t feel well.’Right now, This Silliness is causing some major problems. The side
effects of chemotherapy have been less than pleasant. Holly has been
experiencing major stomach cramps and more than a bit of neuropathy,
but still remains insanely positive and upbeat about beating This
Silliness. We know that we will. We know that we are winning this
fight. Unfortunately, This Silliness has gotten some punches in during
this round.
Knuckle Sandwich, another of Scott's blogs, is also a fab read that just really makes you feel like you know him, even if you aren't lucky enough to do so in RL (real life). As well, if you want to take a stroll through what it's like to full-scale tear out and remodel your home, Scott's Home is something you'll want to see as well.
I can't recommend their sites enough, especially if you have a loved one struggling with cancer (and sadly, who doesn't?). Visit Scott's personal profile and leave him a message.
If you have a suggestion for a future Hot Member, please let me know at robyn@mybloglog.com.
Blog Day Coming Up
Blog Day is coming up this Friday (see their MyBlogLog community).
For fun, instead of just having me pick out 5 great sites to spotlight,
each member of our team is going to show off their own fav blogs.
Are you participating in Blog Day this Friday? If so, leave me a
comment. I can't wait to get introduced to your favorite blogs!
Say Goodbye To Alexa Redirects
This will affect only a small portion of our users, less than 1% of our users, .13% to be exact, but we still wanted to post this to the community at large. We are stripping all Alexa redirects so that each community using an Alexa redirect as their Url will now instead point to the blog in question.
We think this makes more sense for members who want to see what your actual url is and it's better for you from an SEO standpoint anyway.
Hot Member: Derami
Kurt contributes to one of the most entertaining sites I've had the privilege to spotlight here. Web Urbanist is a feast for those who are fascinated by surroundings.
One question at Web Urbanist drew me in from the most recent post:
Have you ever been drawn to the calm beauty of abandoned buildings, or
even tempted to explore forbidden structures in the urban landscape?
Who hasn't? I know that my being a history nerd made me really love this site, but even those of you who don't have an interest in The Troubles or the homeless may find this site intriguing because of posts that show off street art and favorite images from Stumbleupon. The site is a visual feast.
Go check out Kurt's profile, Derami, and view both of his communities, Web Urbanist and All Sux Dot Com. We owe Kurt a huge round of gratitude for making the Wikipedia entry happen, and the least we can do it show off his great, great site. Plus, he's kinda cute too 
If you have a suggestion for a Hot Member, please let me know at robyn@mybloglog.com.
MyBlogLog has a Wiki Entry
If you want to add your 2 cents to the article, please note that it's always helpful to add more references or to link to more categories. Here's what the MyBlogLog member who spearheaded the effort to Wikipedia-ize us mentioned we might need:
Thanks for the love Wikipedia!
The Transferable Community
An observant blogger noticed today that allowing users to change their Url and Name at will could be damaging to the community's members. In essence, communities could rack up thousands of members on one topic, and then the community owner could switch over to a completely different url and name and hood-wink their current members into effectively joining a new community they had no interest in joining.
We've discussed this in house, and we'd like your take on it. My first thought is that allowing people to change their Url and Name is important, and we'd like to keep it for users who move from one blog platform to another. However, we have to find a way to protect the members of that community from finding out later that the site they joined to learn about horticulture is now a joke site.
We considered sending a community message to members of your community automatically when you change your url or name. What are your thoughts on this? Don't you deserve to know when your favorite mommy blog becomes a political blog? Should any user be able to go from a photo blog to a med shop and retain their users?
Our observant blogger suggested something less invasive, just warning a
community that any changes to name/url are monitored and that you will
not be allowed to reinvent your community, at the expense of your
community members. This one sounds good too, we just need your help deciding how best to respond to this. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Where Santa Hangs During the Summer
It's a little early to be thinking of what you want for Christmas but when you do, now you know where to go! Don't be surprised if you find Santa showing up in your Recent Reader roll. He's *always* checking his list of who's naughty or nice.
Please don’t adjust your set
Update: We're up and running again. Thanks for your patience everyone.
We had a little hiccup this morning throwing everyone's profile pages into blank, white, space. The Recent Readers badges are working fine and our hamsters are logging your stats just fine. It's just that you can't see them yet.
Stay tuned here for updates while we continue to work behind the curtains
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