(Note to those reading this via RSS - you’ll have to click through to my blog for this to make sense.) A week or so ago, I added a little code to the right sidebar of the rexblog that displays the photos of those who visit this page who are registered on a social-networking service called MyBlogLog.com. I was anticipating some problems with it as I’m leary of anything that has the potential of displaying a graphic on this site without at least chance of me previewing it. Despite my doubts and fears, so far it has been fun to watch who shows up over there. For example, I just noticed the photo of a person who got lots of money from Google today. That’s pretty cool that you can write a post about someone and then see their photo pop up as they come see what the heck you’ve written. It might not work on a heavily traffic’d site with dozens of photos streaming by, but it sure helps add a little hominess here. And it’s one of the first things I’ve seen that makes me want to actually visit a blog rather than read it through a newsreader.
Technorati Tags: mybloglog, social media
October 31st, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I have a post on MyBlogLog brewing in my mind too. I think that my site might not have enough traffic for the images to be meaningful at all. I have had it installed on my blog for 3 or 4 days and I only have 3 pictures showing
October 31st, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Jackson, I wouldn’t be so quick. I just surfed by your site and saw the avatar of one of Web 2.0s best-known VCs.
October 31st, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Jackson,
At MyBlogLog, we find that blogging about the Recent Readers widget and encouraging people to join your community works well to get things kicked off. It’s also our job to get so many people into the system that all your readers happen to be there, even if they are very casual about your site. It’s early, but we’re working hard and might be able to deliver that goal over the coming months.
Scott
October 31st, 2006 at 7:35 pm
See, Jackson. It worked for me. I blogged about the widget thing and one of the founders drops by. This whole social-networking thing is really dandy.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:13 pm
“It might not work on a heavily traffic’d site with dozens of photos streaming by, but it sure helps add a little hominess here.”
This is actually one of the things I’m happiest about. Faces in the reader roll are fleeting, like footprints on a beach. The widget enables you to temporarily leave your mark on a site, but it’s not something that lingers for a long time. Too much permanence and it becomes creepy. The goal of MyBlogLog is to provide a catalyst for engaging readers and authors (or readers and readers) without becoming to obtrusive. It sounds like it’s working out well here
“It worked for me. I blogged about the widget thing and one of the founders drops by.”
Two! If you get Todd to swing by we’ll need to award you some sort of prize
October 31st, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Wow, Eric. You’re real. (Note: Eric is the default contact when one signs up on MyBlogLog). I wasn’t ready to buy a Tee-shirt or anything, but earlier today I “un-contacted” Eric (before this whole thread began) but left the door open for Eric to re-contact with me if he’d did it in a non-defaulting way. Well, short story long, after his drive-by commenting here, I’ve decided to rejoin the fold of Eric’s 17,000 contacts.
November 1st, 2006 at 2:04 pm
We didn’t start the “Eric is MyBlogLog’s Tom” thing for the first week or so and during that time, there was nothing cooler than getting an email saying that someone made me their friend. Then I became everyone’s friend and stopped receiving those emails. This makes my day.
November 15th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
[...] A few weeks ago, when I added the MyBlogLog feature to this blog (the service that allows me to display the photos of site visitors over in the right column), I mentioned that I am leary of anything that has the potential of displaying a graphic on this site without my ability to block it. “Eric” — the MySpace Tom of MyBlogLog (if you have to ask, it’s not funny) was nice enough to drop by that post and then e-mail me about my concern. He assured me that a blocking feature was in the works. Apparently, it is now available, as when I move my curser over a photo of a visitor, an “x” appears. Click the “x” and it’s bye-bye. (I’m not going to explain why this is an important feature as I don’t want to encourage the misuse of the service I envisioned some might try before this feature was added.) The feature hasn’t been mentioned yet on the MyBlogLog blog, so I guess it’s new. (Note: I won’t be removing the photo accompanying this post as it is Patrick, the rexblog’s director of hackogology.) (Note #2: Join the rexblog “community” if you’re registered on MyBlogLog.) [...]