All Things Cahill

Blog

  • Having Blog Trouble…

    After my upgrade to 2.7.1 I found I had no visual editor.  After reuploading files, etc. I finally found that I’ve got an issue with one of my plugins.  Not sure which one, but obviously it’s one that interacts with the admin console.

    Steps to fix the problem if you have a tinymce editor in WordPress 2.7.1 that has stopped working.

    1. Refresh the page using ctl-shift-refresh (this is a “hard refresh” which will force everything to reload from the server, not from browser cache).
    2. Check if the browser has returned…
    3. Start disabling your plugins one by one and testing each time you turn one off, then do a hard refresh.
    4. If none of the plugins are causing the problem, delete wp-admin and wp-includes folders and re-upload freshly downloaded copies.
    5. Hard refresh again.
    6. Still have the problem?  Off to WordPress.org with you (or contact whoever handles web support for you…)

    (Update: the problem appears to be coming from Vipers Video Quick Tags – which is great, because I know he keeps up to date and will revise quickly.)

  • A Few Random Thoughts

    I’m deep into my February Funk…so I don’t have much to say right now.  The news isn’t great and looks like it could easily get worse.

    • Depending who you listen to, the cost of the government bailout is as low as 900 Billion Dollars (capitalized, because such a number deserves respect) or as high as 4.7 Trillion Dollars (figuring the cost of previous efforts, and the cost of t-bills to fund it).  
    • Never empty your weapon when a battle is just starting – I fear we’re spending at such a level here that we will have no further options if this doesn’t work.  I’d feel a little better if this was broken up and applied more judiciously.
    • We’re essentially trying to solve a problem caused by excessive personal debt and overly optimimistic lending by putting the Federal Government into massive debt.  The kind it will take them decades to pay off.  Sounds like a recipe for deflating the value of our currency to me.
    • We’re back to the same old games on Capitol Hill. with both sides claiming the other is playing politics.  I’d have felt better if President Obama had crafted the bill himself instead of turning the House and Senate crews loose to work their magic.  
    • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, unlike other states that are furloughing workers to save costs has voted to make 9/11 a paid holiday for all police.  Um…lest we forget, the attacks did not happen here…they happened in NY and over Pennsylvania.  
    • Meanwhile, they are now seriously considering raising the gas tax to the highest in the nation.
    • Worcester, MA is cutting down tousands of trees to combat the Asian Longhorned Beetle – pestilence for fun and profit.  Areas of Worcester are quickly becoming denuded.
    • First case of Ebola in US confirmed – wow, that’s what we’re missing, a good plague.

    Positives

    • Pitchers and catchers report to training camp on Friday.
    • The warm temps are reminding me that winter cannot last forever.
    • Paying off the massive Federal Debt will be my kids problem more than mine.
    • I’m still employed and love my job. 

    That’s it for now. Sorry, my usual font of optimism has run dry today.

  • Online Tulip Mania and Social Media

    We’ve reached a points where we now have both a major backlash against social media and at the same time an explosion in usage.  The problem from my point of view is very, very simple.  Too much discussion of what is and what isn’t Social Media, along with far too much hot air from the non-practitioners.  

    I’ve been saying for a very long time, call it Web 2.0, Social Media or whatever else you want, its just another tool in the arsenal of the community developer or web developer/designer.  

    Let me say that again, more clearly: Social Media is a tool which we employ where it makes sense and provides benefits to the overall project/community/site/etc.

    Yesterday, Bobbie Johnson, the technology correspondent at the Guardian.co.uk posted an article entitled “Why I am Finished with Social Media.”  In it, he chaffs at the “Twitter goes mainstream meme” resounding the net in the wake of the Christian Bale tirade last week.

    Nobody talks about people down the pub laughing about Bale’s expletive-laden bullying as a “social drinking sensation”. They don’t call people giggling about it on the phone as a “social telecommunications sensation”. They call it joking, or they call it gossip, because that’s what people do. Whether they do it online or offline, down the pub or on Facebook doesn’t matter. “Social media” is mainstream – we don’t need to claim any more victories for it.

    So, that’s it. I’m sick of “social media experts”. (If I know you and you are one, then obviously I’m not talking about you). I’m sick of “social media sensations”. And I’m sick of social media.

    He has a problem with the same thing so many of us have a problem with.  Just because it’s cool to focus on Social Media right now, doesn’t mean that everything must be measured in terms of Social Media.  The predeliction to see things from that narrowly focused point of view is a tell tail of inexperience.  Real developers and community managers are able to view things from a more balanced, more holistic point of view.

    In some ways I worry that we’re placing too much emphasis on Social Media.  As such we overvalue it to the point where I suspect it has become its own version of online Tulip Mania.

    I remember Alan McKee telling us in screen writing class one time: when the audience can see the tools you use in your writing, such as a metaphor, then you’ve utterly failed (not quoted directly, but from memory).  I will take that and say that when someone views your community or site as a “Social Media Experiment,” then you have failed.  Experimentation should always be part of your efforts, and when users see the machine behind the curtain, things have gone wrong.

    Social Media is a wrench.  Don’t try to use it as a hammer, but do use it where it makes sense.

  • Friday Music Video: Bow Thayer & Perfect Trainwreck

    Bow’s playing at the Lucky Dog in Worcester, MA on Green St. tonight at 9pm  – I’m fairly certain I’ll be there (wife’s birthday as well…).

    If you want to hear some truly original music, Bow’s the guy for you.   This cut is called “In the Pines.”

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lteVNrQ0-uo[/youtube]

  • Monetize This…

    As our economic downturn continues, it’s become very apparent that the buzzword for the year is going to be Monetize.  That means just about anything we’re doing (as web developers, designers, community managers, etc.) is going to be expected to pick up the yoke and plow the fields from the start.  That’s a lot to ask in a field like social media and social networking where the 800 lb. gorilla, Facebook, has just entered it’s 5th year, with 110 million registered users, but has yet to produce a net profit.

    110 million users, no net profit – that’s right.  

    Esteban Glas shares my concerns on this in his post “Train Wreck: Social Media to meet Commerce in 2009.”

    I’m prepared to witness a ton of experiments that will make me want to go and live as a hermit in some obscure and inaccessible cave with no internet access. Dire situations require desperate measures. This can be the recipe for:

    1.  unprecedented originality or, much more frequently:
    2.  nasty efforts that smell, look and taste like desperation.

    That is exactly the smell I am picking up around the web right now: desperation.  

    The other day I saw a post on twitter that astounded me from Mack Collier (via Tony Santos):

    “Communities do not come together around the idea of being monetized.”

    My comment to that was very simple:

    “Smart onliine communities realize they risk becoming unsupported or orphan communities if they can’t be monetized. “

    I’ve seen it in several situations where an absentee owners community was purchased and the community was generally thankful to know that someone was placing some value on them, and at the very least, would continue to pay the server bills.  Notably, the Reel-Time.com was generally quite positive during the Namemedia.com acquistion of the site last May for exactly that reason.  I don’t know how many realized how close they came to becoming digital orphans, had that deal not gone through.

    The problem is that not all our actions can (or should) be subject to monetization.  Sometimes our actions are simply for the betterment of the community, and that, in the end will have an affect on our bottom line, but we’ll have a hard time tying that action into a concrete line item on a balance sheet.  

    The other problem we end up with is that ideas get rushed through to market before they’re even half baked.  Again, I’m seeing some initiatives online that I can tell were never specified properly, or even run through a few rudimentary use cases, because if they had, they never would have seen the light of day.  

    Yes, we should be able to monetize the sites and services we provide.  This isn’t public radio, it’s commerce and we have every right to make money of our creations.  That said, the question of who really owns a community comes into play.  I’ve often heard cries of “free speech” while I moderate my forums, and my answer is almost universal: it is not free, and I have the hosting bills to prove it.

    We’re going to be seeing a lot of new “monetization” experiments this year.  We need to stand firm, shine a light into the dark places, and call out the efforts that are wrong.  Social media is still an experiment, and if we don’t take ownership of it, we’re in danger of someone creating a mutant virus that will infect the lab and kill us all.


  • Great Customer Service: Harbro Auto Sales and Service, Webster MA

    A couple of weeks ago, almost to the day that my truck had its “tire nearly falls off on the Mass Pike” issue, my wifes ’05 Chevrolet Impala started to overheat.  It looked like a classic thermostat problem so I was going to do it myself, until I opened the hood and found they’d buried the inlet under half of the engine plumbing.  No worries, I thought, since I had to go to Harbro to rent a car for commuting while the truck was fixed.

    My wife bought the car from Harbro, and her family has done a lot of business with them in the past.  They swear by them with a level of dedication that  is rare for a used car dealer.

    I’ll make a long story short.  As is often the problem with cars, the initial diagnosis and repair on the car, a bottom outlet pipe replacement for the cooling system didn’t fix things.  Instead we found ourselves staring at a head gasket job (at 58k miles, not something you expect).

    Mark Hare, Ken (the service manager in Webster) and the whole Harbro team stood by the car, and their work.  They did the second fix at a great price, quickly, and lived up to every bit of the reputation they have with our family, and friends.

    These folks are a model of what auto service and sales should be.  They pride themselves on customer service, and in doing so have earned my business in the future.

  • Photo.net on Photographing the Super Bowl

    photo_netI’m not a great photographer, but I know a few. Photo.net is an online community of professional, semi-professional and very serious amateur photographers. Today, Hannah Thiem has a great story up that she worked with Sports Illustrated’s Bill Frakes about shooting the Super Bowl. It’s absolutely tremendous – a must read.

    When you’re working with a team, that’s exactly what you have to do. Work as a team. The SI photographers were spread out all over the field and my job was to provide a high, graphic angle of the game’s big plays. Being part of team also means holding your position and taking care of your responsibilities. I was in a position where I couldn’t move. They were counting on me for that angle and to move would have jeopardized the coverage in this case.

    When Lamar Woodely forced a Kurt Warner fumble to effectively end the game it unfolded right in front of me.

    Similarly, when Santonio Holmes made his amazing sideline catch, Al Tielemans was right in front of him.

    She’ll be posting more installments of the story over the coming days – covering not only the emotion of the event, the drama, but also the technical aspects  of how the pros cover the big events.  Very interesting stuff.

    (Disclosure: Photo.net is a Namemedia.com website.  I work for Namemedia.)

  • Facebook Privacy Settings – a Must Read for Facebook Users

    The Unofficial Facebook Blog brings us a post that all Facebook users should read “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.”  It’ll help you navigate the proper settings for your Facebook account and help you to find a way to show your work compatriots one level of info, while showing your personal friends another.  It’ll also allow you to friend your family members without worrying they’ll be reading about all your antics with your friends (Hint, hint, hint – Christina?  This one’s for you…).

    A sample:

    I can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. For those not aware of what friend lists are, Facebook describes them as a feature which allows “you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.”

    There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists:

    • You can add each friend to more than one friend group
    • Friend groups should be used like “tags” as used elsewhere around the web
    • Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them

    I’ve been working with social media for a long time, and frankly, I’ve seen few things that were so convoluted and hard to understand as Facebook Privacy Settings. I suspect the space shuttle, or even an IBM Websphere server might fall into that group, but not much else.

  • Open Discussion: How to Crowd Source Weekly Fishing Reports

    cape_led-july27

    (Update: In thinking about this, I believe my fundemental problem is that while I’ve crowd sourced content generation, I am now at a point where I need to crowd source some of the content entry, formatting and editing tasks…)

    I’ve been editing the Fishwire Reports at Reel-Time.com since 1995.  The task has generally been hugely manual, requiring tons of my time, most of which has happened over the years between the hours of 4am and 9am on Friday mornings.  In short, a really bad system.

    The Scenario:

    We cover 6 distinct regions throughout the northeast.  Each area is the responsibility of a different writer, although last year I wrote the reports for two regions.  The reports each contain around 6 subregions, such as “Boston Harbor” or “The Cape Cod Canal.”

    Generally on Tuesdays I send an email out to my sponsors (generally area fishing guides) and regular contributors.  Then over the next two days the reports and images come back in via email.  If the weather is good, I probably have close to enough for a report.  If not, I go into our forum and look for posts that contain info from the general area.

    I do a ton of cut and paste, much of which requires me to use notepad as an intermediary, since half the email comes in with nasty word or other formatting embeded.  Also, I get many of the images at full res, as many of the guides don’t have or don’t know how to use Photoshop.  Hence photo editing is a huge component of the task.  The images are generally optimized, have a caption added, and get a photo credit.

    Then I put together the best of the images to use as the story leads for the homepage.

    The current system, if it could be called that, is custom coded php that dates back to the dark ages.  I plan to move most of the non-forum components of the site to a highly customized version of WordPress that we use for many  of our sites.   If needed, I have the capability to make WordPress stand on its head and dance.  I do a LOT of WordPress development.

    The Question:

    My big problem is that I only see moderate improvement in the process no matter what I do.  Essentially, we’re managing a crowd sourced report here.  Many contributors, a writer, a photo editor,  and an editor.   How are other people doing stuff like this without having to use so many different skills?

    The readers and sponsors really like the personal touch the writer gives the report.  I wouldn’t want to go to just a directory of reports, that’s been tried and failed repeatedly.  In fact, our presentation is one of the big differentiators.

    Can you see a better way?  Do you have examples of how others are doing this in new and better ways?   Or should I just look at getting a couple interns to make it work manually?

    As always, I look forward to the shining light of your collective wisdom…

    (Oh, I’ve had a suggestion: why don’t you just do a blog – the short version to the answer is that I did that in 2004 as a test and found that only a very small subset of sponsors would post, so I ended up cutting and pasting again.  Plus, the subset that did post was way over represented on our site.)

  • Friday Music Video – Little Feat

    Old Folks Boogie…in honor of my new found old friends on Facebook…from the 1977 appearance on Midnight Special, with Lowell George, of course…

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_nFwwjBlEc[/youtube]