Tag: site

meta

Thanks for Great Comments

Post author By David
Post date November 25, 2009
No Comments on Thanks for Great Comments

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One of my favorite parts of blogging is getting comments and discussion. I really like the tone of discussion that we have here, and sometimes I get comments that really make an impression on me. I finally decided to find a way to show those “best of the best” comments so that people who may have missed a particular conversation can see the great contributions made by others to our various discussions.

I’m using a plugin called Best-Of Comments to display those comments I select in the sidebar with a link back to the original comment. Feel free if you see a great comment to go add to the discussion, even if it seems to have ended.

Think of it as a way for me to say “thanks” for everything that all of you add to this site.

Tags comments, plugin, site

life meta State

A Huge (but Pleasant) Surprise

Post author By David
Post date May 18, 2009
2 Comments on A Huge (but Pleasant) Surprise

Every once in a while I check where this blog might be ranked in the BlogNetNews Weekly Influence Index of Utah political blogs. The list has been published weekly for the last 20 months and I used to watch it every week to see where I was ranked. I always felt good whenever I was in the top 10 for the state. I was even more excited on half a dozen occasions when I was in the top 5 (I was #4 once) which used to be displayed on the front page of BNN/Utah. As BNN/Utah began to expand and after I changed domains late last year my rankings became less consistent (meaning sometimes I was not in the top 20 anymore) and I stopped checking my ranking as regularly as I used to. When I looked today I was amazed to discover:
BNN/Utah #1

I was so surprised that I had to go look at the full list. I don’t think it was an error because the top 5 is still some select company.

May 17, 2009 Top 5 for BNN/Utah

Now I will return to more valuable content.

Tags blogging, site

life

Pursuit of Liberty Forum

Maybe I should call this a "pre-announcement" but I wanted to let everyone know that I am setting up a forum where anyone who is interested in talking politics is welcome to help shape my political thinking. The forum exists but will be taking real shape as I have time to shape it to meet my needs. I will have forums based on the governments over me and will not object if others want to create forums for other states, counties, cities, etc. I also plan to have forums on specific topics where we discuss the topic independent of a specific political entity. Feel free to register now.

I would heartily encourage anyone who reads and comments here to participate and help me shape my perspectives on issues I have not, and in some cases will not end up writing about on this blog. I admit that I start this with the selfish aim of taking advantage of the wisdom of this crowd, but I hope that it can become a useful resource for other as well. I will be encouraging people to participate here from groups that I get involved with such as a party or a citizens group (I hope to be involved in more such groups as I was before I moved).

Tags civic participation, connections, debates, discourse, forum, meta, site

meta

New Domain

I have been wanting to get a more suitable domain for my site for some time and I have been wanting to do some less political writing (family journal type) at davidjmiller.org. I finally took the plunge and purchased pursuitofliberty.net (I’m looking into getting pursuitofliberty.com, but while the current owner mulls multiple offers I decided to move ahead with something). I am leaving all the old posts on the previous domain, but that will start to be updated less frequently and less politically. I have imported all the posts of any political nature here and will continue to write politically as I have been doing – minus the really non-political stuff.

There are a few plugin glitches to work out (no classic posts listed at the moment) and I have removed the “politics” category since everything here is politics to one degree or another. I hope that everyone can make the transition smoothly with me so that all the great comments keep coming.

Tags site, technology

meta

Two Years (By One Way of Reckoning)

Post author By David
Post date August 14, 2008
5 Comments on Two Years (By One Way of Reckoning)

Last year I recorded my first year back to blogging. I recorded the statistics at the time and set a goal to average one post per day. In the last year I have:

365 posts
1364 comments
~20,000 spam comments (the spam count got reset when I upgraded to WP 2.5 so the count listed is 9100)

I have more posts this year than comments last year, more comments this year than spam comments last year, and obviously more spam comments (I’d hate to be ignored by the spammers). I have also imported posts and comments from before my 8 month blogging hiatus so my totals right now are 735 posts and 1749 comments (as a future point of reference).

I do not anticipate reporting statistics yearly, but anytime I do choose to do an anniversary post in the future I will mark the anniversary on June 23rd (the day I first started blogging in 2004) rather than August 14th. It’s been very rewarding to see more people commenting and helping to refine my thinking. Thanks.

Tags blogging, site, statistics

meta

One Year

Post author By David
Post date August 14, 2007
3 Comments on One Year

Today marks one year since I started this blog. Considering that I had done significant blogging in the three years before that you would have thought it would be stable, but I have been through 2 blogging platforms, 3 name changes, and a variety of styles. In that year this blog has had:

311 posts
360 comments
1355 spam comments caught

That’s an average of 6 posts per week. I’m hoping for one per day in the future. I don’t anticipate any name changes or platform changes in the future, but I am working on making a new style that will not have the major bugs with Internet Explorer that this one has. Hopefully it will have all the functionality of my current style when I get it up but I expect it to have a nicer layout and improved navigation. I look forward to an even better second year than this first year was.

Tags history, site, themes

meta

Stable Title

Post author By David
Post date July 26, 2007
1 Comment on Stable Title

Feeling that “No Working Title” was a disservice to my blog I implemented “Cause of Liberty” for a short period of time. I wasn’t totally satisfied with that and while playing around with words and fielding suggestions, I came to “Pursuing Liberty” and “Pursuit of Liberty.” Based on feedback from my best adviser (Laura) I went with “Pursuit of Liberty.” After letting it stew at the top of my blog for a while I have decided to keep it.

Tags site, title

meta

No Working Title

Following the wise lead of Laura I am changing the title here to be more reflective of my focus. I have been at this long enough to recognize the kinds of things that I write about here. For some time I have felt that “Recovering Technophile” was not a very good fit. I tend to write about political and social issues more than technology, or even anti-technology. The only problem is that I haven’t thought of an acceptable title yet. Suggestions are more than welcome for both the Title and the Subtitle.

Tags site, title