Policy schmolicy. I finally typed up the guidelines in my head for when to name people on this blog. Several of you have asked me about it, so here it is.

People often ask me about the process of how I blog, so here’s a bit about that.

On my laptop, I use NetNewsWireLite as my main aggregator. I can update the contents, they store automatically (some indefinitely, some for a specific period of time), then return later to read them and blog. At last count, I had about 850 unread items in about 100-120 sources. (Don’t let that number scare you: it’s an accumulation of items over a few weeks. I don’t think I’ve ever zeroed out that aggregator. I had it down to about 200 unread items a few weeks ago. I probably get about 50-100 new items per day. Some sources, like the Librarians’ Index to the Internet or the ResourceShelf, might dump in a lot of new content, but I don’t have to read everything. NetNewsWireLite is easy to skim.)

I also have a folder in my e-mail program called "Blog This" where I drop e-mails I receive from discussion lists, friends, etc., containing items I would like to blog. I think I had between 13-20 there.

Using methods like these is great because I’ve been so busy lately, I often can only grab a few minutes to blog. Remember those days when I would do 3-7 posts a night regularly? Yeah. *j sings "All those days are gone."

It’s nice to have tools to do some of the knowledge gathering and storing for me because it’s very easy and fast for me to go into my aggregator or e-mail client and pull out something I marked for blogging and just haven’t gotten to yet.

I’m learning one of the giant problems with my method, though. Now that my laptop is in the shop and may not get repaired until Tuesday, February 21, I don’t have access to that stack of stuff. I actually have to work to find stuff to blog about. (That’s kind of a joke, actually. I almost always have something to blog.)

There’s something to be said for using online aggregators (not that I was against them; I just don’t prefer them) or at least setting one up with a duplicate or very similar OPML file. If the aggregator attached to this blog worked as well as it did a few years ago, I would be seeing a lot of the content I subscribe to on my desktop. Unfortunately, I think those days are also over.

Are you thinking, “Well, duh?” I’m not. What being an official affiliate means is that I’m now officially listed on the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Web site as having a real connection to them–not just one that many people know about, etc., etc. I’m excited about the recognition. I love the Berkman Center. They do such amazing and cool things. It’s great to be able to say that I’m officially connected to such a place. When my buddy told me about the decision this afternoon, I didn’t stop grinning for a long time.

sj is also now listed there, too. Congrats, sj!

It’s difficult sometimes to believe that I first ventured over there about three years ago because Dave Winer told me about the blog group. Difficult to believe because time flies and it doesn’t fly all at the same time. And now that I know so much more about the exciting things they’re doing, I sometimes wonder why I didn’t venture over there sooner.

Maybe I need to say that this isn’t the same as being a fellow just in case there’s any confusion. It doesn’t come with any money or anything like that. It’s recognition for my volunteer work there and the ways that I support the center. I’ve helped run the blog group for … I can’t remember how long. Is it 2 1/2 years? 1 1/2 years? I provide some user support for the blog server, too. I write about Berkman stuff. I go to their events. I’m involved in Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation community, which is becoming more and more of a Berkman thing because Berkman is supporting Wikimania this summer and Jimmy Wales, Wikip/media founder, is an official fellow.

Ugh. I was gonna call my Mom to tell her. And now it’s too late.

Addenda 2/10: I did call my Mom tonight after blog and social technology group. She’s proud of me. = )

Check out what Dave said about my role with blog group:

"… [N]ow’s a good time to say how much I appreciate her support and enthusiasm over the years. Thanks!"

Thank you for getting us all together in the first place!

2/11: Wowza. Scott’s post about this recognition is going to have me blushing for days. Thanks, man!

2/12: Take a look at Steven’s post about how I rock. *j blushes He makes some excellent points about the value of librarians getting involved in projects outside of traditional librarianship borders. I agree with him about the importance of us reaching beyond "the walls of the library." I’ve noticed a shift toward that in my own activities during the last year or so. Most of it happens because people I know are involved in interesting projects and somehow get me involved in them, too. Not only can it be fun, but it can be great marketing for our profession, too. I can’t tell you how many times people in these other groups tell me I’ve changed their perception of librarians.

Congrats to Gary, too!

2/16: Wow. Even Jay thinks I’m awesome. That’s kinda big ’cause, well, Jay’s pretty darn awesome, too. He’s also been involved in the blog group for a few years.

Some of the changes I’m not too crazy about in this new version of Manila are to the aggregator. The links to the source, a way to isolate that source in the aggregator, and sometimes permalinks and comment links are all gone. Many times, when I find something I want to blog about in my aggregator, I’ll go to the real source before writing. Since things can disappear, get edited, etc., it’s just wise to do that. Now, it takes me longer to get there because I have to find the source, then find the content on my own instead of just following a link from the aggregator.

It’s difficult to know whether those changes to the aggregator are intentional (though why someone wouldn’t want a link to the source in an aggregator is beyond me) or just another bug. I was secretly hoping the missing links were a browser issue, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

A few of you have asked me about getting e-mailed responses to comments. In Manila (this blog platform), you have to jump through a few hoops to do it.

1. If you aren’t already a member of the site, join. Membership has its privileges.

2. Log in.
3. Comment.
4. Go to the discussion group.
5. Find the comment for which you want notification of responses and click on it.
6. If you’re logged in, you should see the option to edit your comment, post a response, and, at the bottom of the page, a box you can check to receive notification of responses to the comment. Check the box and click Submit.
7. Check your e-mail every minute to see if someone has responded. (Uh, I was just kidding about checking your e-mail every minute …)

This process would be much easier if there was a box on the comment screen for the option of notification.

I tried this with a recent comment on another blog, but it didn’t work for me. Maybe your luck will be different.

"We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary."

Hugh’s words explain another reason why I blog and do some of the other activities I do, like public speaking, teaching, and helping people with their weblogs.

Our Manila server has been getting hit hard with comment spammers again. I guess maybe they read my post about comment spam the other day.

Here are some features I would look for in a blog platform that would help me monitor and eliminate comment spam and spammers.

1. If there’s a membership list, like what Manila has (I think mine is private. It lists members and their e-mail addresses.), I’d like to be able to view it by who has joined recently, not just alphabetically by e-mail address. (Anytime someone comments on this Manila blog, they automatically become a member.)

2. The discussion group, which shows recent comments, is an easy way to monitor comment spam. It could be improved if, like other areas of this blog, there were a check box next to each message and options to do mass deletions. Reight now, it takes about three or four clicks beyond getting to the discussion group to delete a message. It’s possible to delete comments in the comment box, but you have to get to the comment box first. Since the discussion group provides an easy way to view new comments, it makes sense to have an easy way to delete comments there, too.
3. Maybe having some box where people have to type the letters in an image isn’t the bad idea I think it is.

The comment spammers have been at it again pretty aggressively lately, so I’ve been doing a lot of comment deleting. Sometimes, I’m not always sure what’s comment spam and what might be a legitimate comment. Usually comment spam follows a few patterns.

1. The number of messages. In an hour, I might get 15-200 comments. Things like that never happen to me in real life, so it must be spam.

2. Praise. Many are very short and say something like "Nice site. Good job!" and include a link to something completely irrelevant.
3. Gibberish. Some are just a string of seemingly random characters.
4. Vagueness. "Here’s another site you’ll like!" just doesn’t make me want to go visit.
5. Randomness. "I drink coffee, too!" on a post about Wikipedia … ?

I fear that I’ve probably deleted someone’s well-intentioned comment because it resembled comment spam. Try not to take it too personally. Sometimes, I really can’t tell the difference.

If you want to make sure your comment on this blog sticks around, don’t do the things I’ve listed above in your comment. Make it clear to me and our community why you’re commenting. (Most of you do this already.)

I know some of you use the comments to try to get in touch with me or other community members. Some of those comments seem fairly random at times. Just try to be clear and I should be able to sort it out from comment spam. And if I can’t and I delete your comment, drop me a line and be specific about which comment I should restore.

I’ve been pondering that old question about what to put on an about page again. If you could ask me one question (within reason–there are certain things I refuse to answer), preferably about blogging, my career, news or special librarianship, or something related to my professional persona, what would it be?

Wow. I don’t think I’ve seen trackback spam before. If only there was some easy way to comb through thousands of entries looking for trackback spam to delete them … There’s an easy delete option. Finding the spam will be a challenge.

I wonder if Technorati can help with finding these spam posts. There probably isn’t really anything I can do to stop a spam blog from linking here, though, is there? (Ugh.) It’d still show up in a “what links here” search.