Last night, Fri., Spaghetti and meatballs.  I use Dreamfields pasta, it’s the only higher in fiber, lower in carbs pasta, I’ve found, that tastes pretty close to traditional pasta.  The meatballs were little frozen ones from Aldi.  They are as good as any other frozen meatball.  Not sure how much mystery meat is actually in them but they work for portion control.  Anyway it was good.

Tonight, hamburgers made with real moo-cow meat!  I think steamed Brussels sprouts will go with them so I can claim some healthiness.

Tomorrow night, Sun., probably one of those frozen skillet meals.  The kind that has 1 oz. of meat with pasta and veggies all together.  Fast and easy.

Bookmark: SubtoMe Wordpress Plugin.

This is pretty slick.  It makes subscribing to your blog’s RSS feed really simple for people.  I know there is a warning it maybe out of date, but I just installed it on both my WP sites and it appears to be working fine.

H/T: Indieweb dev chat.

Like: One-Line Languages

Really interesting post with a lot of stuff I hadn’t thought about.  The Indieweb.org bot in the chat rooms, “Loqi” is pretty cool.

Since I’m splitting my posting time between here and Indieseek.xyz blog I thought I would post some of the selected posts you may have missed over the last two weeks, on Indieseek.xyz:

Building a Multi-Directory Based Search Portal

Use Any Door You Want

Finding Your Directory Niche

Building a Local Directory

Thoughts on a Directory of Hyperlink Nodes

How to Build a Town News and Event Portal

Thanks for reading!

Bookmark:  Search engines still dominate over social media, even for millennials

New research suggests when information gathering really matters, users turn to search engines.

And i don’t have a problem with this except Google has 90% of the search market.  Monopoly.

It would seem blogging is just about money.  At least that is the sad message I get from top bloggers.  I set out to find some articles on “how to blog” and ran that search in several search engines.

Mojeek how to blog

Duckduckgo how to blog

Millionshort how to blog (this with the top million sites removed)

(All open in new tabs.)

I found one or two.  The vast majority of those articles all involve money and they fall into one of two camps: 1. articles written to make money on affiliate sales for blog hosting and domains, 2. articles about how you can start blogging in 20 minutes and start making money, oh and buy our ebook, sign up for our course on making money by blogging.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge a blog that has one or two ads on it, so long as they don’t get in my face, and I don’t begrudge some blogger for using affiliate links if they are going to link to a product anyway.  It’s when the quest for money starts dictating the purpose of what we write, the purpose of the blog, and I start to have problems with it.

Does anyone know of or has written a “how to blog” article that is not about the money?  It could be for beginners or more advanced bloggers.  If you do, post a link in the comments, or ping me with a URL. I’m curious.  Thanks.

Like: How to Truly Optimize Any Blog for Web Search

IMHO this is the real deal for solid, practical advice for optimizing a blog.  None of the recommendations made in this article will harm you, none are extreme or risky, they are a good solid start on the basics for any blogger. And none of this is particularly difficult to implement.  This article is worth bookmarking.

Source: This article is listed in Indieseek.xyz > Internet > Blogging

This was also posted to /en/blogging.

Like: Can blogs rebuild America?

I’m not talking about all of us launching political blogs. I’m talking about reigniting our independent spaces once again. Turning up the volume on our individual voices and real-life stories, sharing our values…creating an alternative to the mass media (now social media) messages and memes that keep floating to the top.

H/T: Brent Simmons

Bookmark: Webrings are Not the Answer | by mariteaux

Somebody else has reservations about webrings. This in regards to Neocities.  I have similar problems with webrings.  However, I wouldn’t get too locked on to webrings being the only solution.  Maybe they will work in Neocities.  Maybe they will make the nostalgia buffs happy.  The inportant thing is to experiment and have some fun.  I suggest going to Webringo.com, the last fully functioning webring host, start a ring, get your friends to join and have some fun.  Webringo has some tools to address some of mariteaux’s worries (dead link code checkers, pure html ring codes) to make managing a ring easier so play around.

I guess my point is, you don’t really know until you try.  If webrings can be made to work anywhere it’s at Neocities, they are a very inventive community.

H/T: Web-Site-Ring

In reply to: Distributed Digital Transformation | Ton Zijlstra

Source: Read: Distributed Digital Transformation | Chris Aldrich

Yes Ton you are right.

We need to learn to see the cumulative impact of a multitude of efforts, while simultaneously keeping all those efforts visible on their own. There exist so many initiatives I think that are great examples of how distributed digitalisation leads to transformation, but they are largely invisible outside their own context, and also not widely networked and connected enough to reach their own full potential. They are valuable on their own, but would be even more valuable to themselves and others when federated, but the federation part is mostly missing.
We need to find a better way to see the big picture, while also seeing all pixels it consists of. A macroscope, a distributed digital transformation macroscope.

Yes we need a macroscope.  The first practical thing that needs to be done now is to publicly catalog all these initiatives as a first step in building that macroscope.  Part of that cataloging (indexing) requires defining just what is a worthy initiative and explain it. Then we we figure out how to network.  And part of it needs to be practical, boots on the ground stuff, because we don’t have infinite time to come up with perfect solutions.

Those steps I listed above, are doable right now.  Somebody needs to start. If there is a way I can help, let me know.

RIP Findx.  I came across the announcement just now while investigating why searches were not working with them.  I just discovered FIndx about a month ago and now it’s gone. This makes me sad.

You should read the announcement above.

Some takeaways:

1. The open source Gigablast search engine script is not up to the job, they say.  Good to know if you are starting up a search engine project.
2. It is very hard to get people to switch away from their preferred search engine.
3. Too many major sites block small legitimate search engines by default.
4. The web is awash in a sea of spam and it’s very hard to sort that out.
5. Crawling the web, building your own search index is very expensive.
6. Building a competent crawler is very hard.

Google Chrome is the most popular browser in the world. Chrome routinely leads the pack in features for security and usability, most recently helping to drive the adoption of HTTPS. But when it comes to privacy, specifically protecting users from tracking, most of its rivals leave it in the dust….

This is a very well written article from EFF.

This is a test so disregard. My last post shows no Title on my blog even though Post Kinds it’s marked “Article”

The only things different are I used the “Press This” bookmarklet to capture the URL and I used the new syndication links to post to Indieweb News which is part of several new updates to that plugin. I have never seen this behavior before from using the bookmarklet.

The video below is of interest to SEO’s, webmaster’s trying to create their own informational websites, and the Indieweb.  The video, featuring Rand Fishkin, is 32 minutes long but packs a lot of current information.  I agree with Rand through the first 2/3rds of the video where he is making his case. I disagree with his conclusions in the last third because I’m not an SEO, I don’t have clients that are trying to sell things and I’m not trying to sell things.

via The Future of SEO is on the SERP | BrightonSEO 2018 - YouTube

Why this matters to:

1. The Indieweb: Rand touches upon the social network silos, and how they are increasingly not linking out. They want to keep your content within their walled gardens.  Google is now doing this too, especially in mobile search.  This is not by accident but by design.  This is why I keep hammering away that Google is one of the the bad silos that the Indieweb should be concerned about, especially with Google controlling 90% of search traffic.  When the social network silos implode we will still be left with Google as the Gatekeeper.
2. To Content Websites and Webmasters: we see in the video, that on the mobile SERP, Google is just posting their own information or information scraped from our sites and reused as their own without providing any click through links to the originators. eg. weather, celebrity news, sports, travel and tourism, food and dining via Google maps, accommodation etc. and its growing.  Commercial content websites which rely on ads to pay the bills are not getting many ad impressions if Google borrows their content or or otherwise fails to provide click through traffic.  As Rand points out the tacit agreement with search engines (I call it the Search Contract) is that in return for providing content and letting search engine crawlers use our bandwidth to index our sites, the search engines supply traffic.
3. Commerce Websites: This is where Rand and I part ways.  His conclusions are probably realistic if you are trying to market a product because Google, the social networks and Amazon are all putting you in a squeeze play.  It’s the money making sites that hire SEO’s and good SEO’s have to do what is in their client’s best interest.  In this instance you have to play the game, when your business depends upon sales, it is probably not the best time to launch an anti-Google crusade.

Conclusions

It explains why I think decentralized search is so important for the Indieweb and the general health of the web and why we need guerrilla search solutions.

robots.txt

This was also posted to /en/indieweb.

Like via 11 Things Not to Buy Before Black Friday | PCMag.com

Some good advice here.

I’ve been installing and setting up a DokuWiki.  My hosting ISP provides automatic install for 4 different wiki engines and Doku is one of them.  This is not something I do everyday so I’m being methodical (read slow) because it’s easier to get it right the first time rather than undo mistakes. At least for me it is.

Impressions:

1. I’m impressed with Doku so far.  Like most open source scripts it’s not quite as polished as a commercial script but it’s all very straightforward and workmanlike.  It does not feel half finished.
2. The instructions are well written.  Even I could understand them.
3. Doku has a plugin system similar to Wordpress.  All the essential plugins are already installed on the default installation.
4. Adding new plugins to extend and customize worked smoothly.

Why Wiki?

Blogs are fine and have their place, but they are linear.  Wiki’s create something closer to a static site but the navigation gets built automatically as you create pages.  I like that part.

I really won’t have a final judgement on Doku and wiki’s in general for a few weeks until I’ve started writing and editing.  The setup of the script is just a one time thing,  It’s the everyday use of the thing that is important.  But in any event, if you want a wiki, I don’t think you will go too far wrong with Dokuwiki.

In Reply to: Directory Features. Kicks Condor.

I’ve worked out a search index that’s entirely done in JavaScript

If you chose to go with a search feature, I was going to add you to the search engines at the bottom of Indieseek’s SERP like I did with Wiby.me.  That way I could share traffic - like someday when I have traffic, with your directory.  So, please, add working out a search string for that js search to your bucket list of future stuff to do.

But in any event I think your adding search is wise.  I gives the end user options.

I think one of my primary questions these days is: will the future be blogcentric? I feel like things are going to change. Although they could get more hyperactive.

I think our choice of tools is widening.  I’m going to experiment with Dokuwiki.  And you really need to check out Federated Wiki.  It’s that copying feature, in essence “forking” another persons post, that really caught my eye and made me think back to all your conversations with h0p3.  Anyway, I think blogs are just one tool in the box.

Features:

We talked before about these.  Right now on Indieseek I have ratings (stars) and Comments enabled.  I addition to the public using them, I intend to use them to write comments about certain sites on things I notice or recommendations I may have about the service or thing.  This means I can be more neutral in my descriptions of listings.

On the usability front: since I added Indieseek search to my browser, I notice I search my own directory more!  Interesting that I’m that lazy. Heh.

Weather: Mild high 50’s F., no rain, no wind.

Takeaways:

One kid upon getting what must not be a popular candy bar, “Oh, my mother will like that.“  :-)

Some kids were pushing the upper limits on Trick or treat age.  Heard from down the block, “Wait, you’re in college!”

Real policeman walking the block during the thick of it.  Smart move, you can see and hear and hear of things on foot that you won’t hear in a squad car.

Volunteer Fire Department patrolling around in the small trucks in addition to the police.  More eyes and ears.  These guys aren’t getting paid for this either.

It’s great living in a small town.  I know every cop on the force was out last night, plus the Fire Dept, and the Ambulance crew was at the station ready to roll just in case they were needed.

Plus all the kids were just unfailingly polite.

This is the stuff that gives me faith in America.  Washington D. C. is not the real world.  THIS is the Real World.

The Only Civilized Thing To Do

Down to my last 4 candy bars, I considered fixing bayonets and holding valiantly for the next half hour. That seemed a little extreme when your opponents are only two and a half feet tall.  Water to the garden hose had been shut off in the basement days ago for winter so that was not an option.

In the end, I handed out the last of the candy.  Turned off the porch light and beat a hasty retreat inside and locked the door. It was the only civilized thing to do.    🎃

Bookmark: Welcome Visitors

A nice light wiki founded on two principals: mixed content and profligate copying to encourage creativity. If I’m understanding this right, Federated Wiki users can copy pages from other users put them on their own wiki and build upon the ideas they have imported.  Hence “Federated”.  Something like that.

Federated Wiki seems to fill the same wiki niche as TiddlyWiki.  Like TiddlyWiki, it can be installed on either a personal computer or a web server.

H/T to Greg McVerry for this.

This was also posted to /en/wikis.

After Gutenberg drops and we see the damage to Wordpress and after Known blogging platform reaches a stable ver. 1.0, who’s going to start a turnkey, managed, Indieweb hosting service?

I mean you choice of Wordpress (with all the Indieweb goodness plugins and themes* already installed) or Known ready to go.

It won’t be me but it seems like a natural extension.

*Themes:  Folks that’s another thing.  Indieweb needs more certified, exemplified, notarized to work with Indieweb WP themes.  Not “kinda sorta” work but work.  The Indieweb is big enough now we need 3 - 4 working themes.  And they need to be in the Wordpress.org theme directory.

I went looking for banner maker software the other day.  First I looked at free online banner makers, because I’m cheap that way, but most looked either broken or like dodgy email harvesters.  The better ones required a fee to actually download your creations, and they still looked like dodgy email harvesters.

So I went looking for dedicated banner making software and found two that caught my eye:

1. Banner Maker Pro - is an old friend.  I used an early version of this over 10 years ago, and only abandoned it when I quit using Windows computers for the Mac.  I missed not having it.  BMP is easy to use and even I could make a banner pretty quick. I’m really glad this is still around.
2. Banner Design Studio - this is new to me.  My preliminary look around suggests it comes with a lot of extras.  If I was going to sell stuff or sell ads that might be important.  If I had a local directory and was selling banner advertising on my own site it would be important.  The screen shots of the UI look like something I could master.  At the sale price it might be worth it.

• I’m blind to most Text banners and links.
• I’m blind and annoyed by too many slick banners plastered all over the page. It’s just noise.
• I’m really annoyed at anything that pops up and overlays the content of the page.
• Auto playing video ads are the Spawn of the Devil.
• I do notice one or two modest graphical ads on a page, tastefully presented and not too corporately slick.
• Slick ads don’t get my attention, they are a dime a dozen.

I have four reasons for eventually wanting to make banners:

A.  At some point I’m going to have several websites plus this blog.  I want to somehow share traffic between different parts of this blog and those other websites.  I also have causes that are important to me and friends who have websites that are important and I want to share traffic to them.

B. I’m old school, I think websites like my directory and all organizations, causes, movements, should offer a couple of different size banners and buttons that other webmasters can use to link back. They may never be used, but then you never know who is going to really dig what you are doing and link back so give them options.

C. Graphical banners are good for branding. Better than text.

D. I have banner rotation ability built in to my scripts or as a plugin.  I might as well use what is sitting there for free.

In Reply to: Deplatforming and making the web a better place

Yes.  This is one part of the process and a good first step.  The Hippies complained about the 1950’s being too rigid and repressive, but at least most of the crackpots of the extreme Left and Right never got a platform beyond a mimeograph machine and handing out pamphlets on street corners back then.  Deplatforming is long overdue.

But the other part, is the current state of journalism.  All too often, editors and reporters from reputable media outlets, seek out reactions, comments or statements from these extremists which also gives them mass exposure and legitimacy.  I suppose it helps ratings, but that too has to stop.  They need to have better editorial control.

The Wiby search engine is building a web of pages as it was in the earlier days of the internet.

 

Wiby.me  is currently dressed for Halloween with a black and orange theme.  Normally it’s plain old black on white.  The costume is good because it shows that somebody in minding the store at the Wibyplex and perhaps is an homage to the old days when webmasters dared to use black backgrounds.

Wiby is a search engine for HTML pages.  The way web pages were coded before CMS’s and Javascripting everything took over.

Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost. In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercial pages that overcrowded everything else.

Try it.

H/T to Kicks Condor for finding Wiby.me and sharing.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

Robert A. Heinlein

I always looked at being a webmaster as being like the owner, programming manager, DJ of a radio station.  Which is pretty cool if you think about it. You can create anything and each page is like a different show or episode.

Somehow it felt a little more fulfilling back when we were coding our pages ourselves in HTML, even if we were using MS Frontpage.  Making a new page on an all static site required some planning before you started.  Today, everything is handled by a CMS or blog script, it all looks the same, kinda boring.

OTOH those blog scripts make writing so much easier and faster.  But I’d love to see a blogging platform that let you change backgrounds and templates and stuff for each individual post on the fly.

Still, I have this itch to break out Netscape Composer and create a page.  Might do.