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Link Love

Link Love

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A moment to pause and thank….

Darrell at the Blog of the Grateful Bear for a very interesting set of interchanges on the death of Falwell (Jerry Falwell, Rest In Peace | Jerry Falwell, Rest In Peace: Part 2). Yours is the far better thing.

Joseph Nechvatel (the lively and brilliant) picked up my post on some of his work and put it up on his website, as though I were an actual art critic. If I had known he was going to do that, I would have been much more pretentious, used lots of made-up hyphenated words, and called for theoretical back-up. John’s the art critic in the family. I’m just appreciative of your viral creativity and creative virality. Wish we could spend more time with you. Should we try to set something up in Atlanta? Add another city to your list.

Jolly Roger at Reconstitution, The Vagina Warrior, Brutal Woman and Llama Fodder picked up on my post May She Be the New Jesus, so to speak. It’s turned up on a couple of forums, and somebody submitted it at StumbleUpon. Hit a nerve, maybe, on both sides of the debate.

Lord Matt, in Big Black Dog is Silent, expressed gratitude for all of us sweet friends who backed him up and assured him that he wasn’t exactly alone in dealing with stalker/troll/bully issues online. I didn’t actually offer much in the way of help, but I did make sympathetic noises. Sometimes it just helps to know you’re not alone. Glad it’s resolved, and that you got a bit more sleep. Watch out for burning camels.

Last – and this is an old one – Mark Glaser on MediaShift quoted me on the issue of moderating comments (this was in the wake of the somewhat controversial shutdown of comments at the Washington Post last February). Yes, I think there should be commenting guidelines, and all comments should be moderated.

In the particulars of moderating, your ideas varied from automated tech solutions to human ones. Heidi N–, who blogs at VirusHead, said she believed that human oversight was crucial to block all spam and people who practice drive-by abuse — the old curse-and-run.

“The other issue is that the owner of the domain has to be the decision-maker with regard to what can be published on their site,” she wrote. “They have every right, and a certain obligation, to maintain an appropriate level of discussion. Sometimes the line is blurry, and rather than censoring someone’s comments, I have tried to use the comments as an entry point to further discussion. There have been a couple of cases where I felt I needed to put an end to an escalation.”

Thanks muchly to some offline friends that have recently visited the blog and commented. I’ve just reconnected with Gerald, who is a dear friend from my days in Iowa City. We’re both in the South now, but just that little bit too far to pop in for dinner (hope you come and visit soon). I am looking forward to reading some of Paul’s writing (how’s the novel? tell Tina to add commenting to her blog! Are you guys ever coming back?) John E. moved from Atlanta to Jax longer ago than I want to think about now (miss you!). Big hugs to my oldest friend Mary (did you ever think we’d be friends for more than 40 years? Who knew we’d become such liberals?).

Love the Sphere-ing it

Love the Sphere-ing it

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Did you notice that I’ve added a new plug-in under the sociables links at the bottom of each post?

The Sphere related plug-in is easy to install. It interconnects blogs and other media sources.

Try clicking one of the Sphere: Related Content links – a pop-up window will show you links to content that it thinks might be related to what you’ve posted. Very fun!

Get and rate Sphere: Related Plug-in

See all my Plug-ins.

More Blogthings Quiz Meme Fun

More Blogthings Quiz Meme Fun

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You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist. People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you. You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words. Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.

You Are a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

You life your life in a free form, artistic style. You are incredibly creative and at times, quite messy. Deep down, you are a kid at heart. And you aren’t afraid to express it.

Your best friend: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Your mortal enemy: The Club Sandwich


You Are 50% Extrovert, 50% Introvert

You’re a bit outgoing, a bit reserved. Like most people, you enjoy being social. But you also value the time you have alone. You have struck a good balance!

Your 1996 Theme Song Is: Ironic by Alanis Morisette

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought … it figures

Your Sensitivity Score: 50%

As far as sensitivity goes, you’re a lot more in tune than most people. You can’t help but be touched by what’s around you – good and bad. But when things do get really bad around you, you are strong enough not to break down.

Your Japanese Name Is…

Ayame Kimura

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Kaili Kai

You Should Travel to India

You’re a passionate, gusty traveler – and India’s gritty urban centers won’t scare you away. Maybe you’ll take in the Taj Mahal, eat the best curry of your life, or attend a huge street festival.

You Are A Maple Tree

There’s not anyone in this world quite like you. You are full of imagination, ambition, and originality. Shy but confident, you hunger for new experiences. You have a good memory and learn easily. You are sometimes nervous and always complex (especially in love).

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!
Thinking Blogger Award for VirusHead

Thinking Blogger Award for VirusHead

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I’ve been selected for the Thinking Blogger Award! Jolly Roger at Reconstitution was kind enough to name me as a Thinking Blogger.

Virushead Thinking Blogger Award

VirusHead – Heidi is a recovered Jehova’s Witness and first rate progressive thinker. She covers everything from warm and personal to wretched and Presidential.

Thank you, JR! You’d have been on my picks, too, but I suppose that tagging you right back wouldn’t be in the spirit of the thing.

The Thinking Blogger award is actually a meme, but it’s a clever one because it challenges you to name – and describe – five more blogs that make you think. Surfing around in the list is very fun.

I’ve been swamped under a couple of freelance projects, but I’ve finally got a few minutes to participate. So….

5 Blogs That Make Me Think

  1. Bitch Ph.D. – A kind of sister in spirit. Love the header image – cheers me up every time I see it. Edgy, witty, personal, professional, entertaining – it’s like reading my dream best friend’s diary. I was very upset to have missed her recent visit to Emory. John met her, but I would have appreciated it more. Bah!
  2. Hail Dubyas (An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum) – A cunning combination of satirical cartoons and well-written commentary. About once a week, this makes me break from my zombie-like computer stare into a grin and giggle.
  3. Pandagon – I know, but I was reading Pandagon and Shakespeare’s Sister++ before everybody else knew them because of the whole Edwards thing. Amanda’s Pandagon blog is a treasure to me. That’s all. Reading it is never a waste of my time. I love her thoughtful flippancy.
  4. Theospora (Oh, God, Grow Up) – Stimulates chains of fractal reflections. We have some common ground, and the differences are always instructive and helpful.
  5. Prose and Thorn (The Place for Pointed Prose) – Sometimes acerbic, always progressive essays. Beyond the content, I enjoy PB’s creative turns of phrase.

Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award!

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

  1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
  2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme
  3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

++I’d name Shakespeare’s Sister too, but it’s now a big ole’ group blog at Shakesville. Check it out anyway.

Geeking Out

Geeking Out

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Here at VirusHead, I have a different host than at work. If any of you use WordPress at Yahoo Small Business, this post will interest you. If not – really – skip it.

I had to spend almost two days addressing the problems of upgrading WordPress at Yahoo Small Business hosting. Even now, I can’t really update any of the plugins that came with the Yahoo installation because of some funky permissions thing they do.

The first time I tried to upgrade, I could no longer access the blog at all. All that came up was a blank screen in the browser. I couldn’t find a solution. I gave up. I backed up the database with MyPhpAdmin, and recreated the blog at Yahoo.

I was only able to upgrade thanks to the resources at the WordPress codex and users’ forum and some very helpful advice from the comment left here by Ray on the previous post,. WordPress has upgrading instructions here, with common installation problems here.

I’m not sure I would recommend that you even try to upgrade unless you’re really comfortable with the things on the following list. Yes, it’s very much out of date, and so are the plugins. It might make more sense just to have more people giving Yahoo some feedback on servicing their WordPress client offer. Believe me, I would rather have done a one-click update like I do on my own host!

I’ve documented all the bits and pieces. In case you really need to do this, here’s how.

  • First, update your plug-ins (Akismet will update itself in the upgrade).
  • Use the WordPress backup plugin to do a backup of your WordPress directory. Download it for safekeeping. You can also use your friendly ftp program to download the entire WordPress directory onto your hard drive, too. You’ll need this if – after all – you change your mind about upgrading.
  • Use MyPHPAdmin to export a back up your WordPress SQL database, too. Make several versions if you are unfamiliar with this. Make sure that use the right character set for export. If the upgrade fails, you’ll need this.
  • Go to the WordPress dashboard and disable all your plugins.
  • VERY IMPORTANT: From your WordPress backup on the hard drive, open the current wp-config.php file in the main directory. Delete the line “Define(’WP_CACHE’, true); //Added by WP-Cache Manager” and then save the file. Also save a copy of it under another name, like wp-configorig.php. You’ll need this file later.
  • Edit wp-config.php file in the main WordPress directory that you downloaded and change DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD with your yroot user and yroot password (the username and password you set up to administrate your databases. Ftp the new wp-config file.
  • Now run upgrade.php by browsing to http://YOURSITE.com/YOURBLOG/wp-admin/upgrade.php. It should succeed, in theory.
  • However, before you go any further, look at your blog and make sure it’s there. If you get a blank page, then you’ve put the wrong yroot user and password in the config file. Make sure it’s right and try again.
  • You may have to play with the permissions settings in MyPhpAdmin. Make sure that you have any needed permissions. Customer Care can help you with this part if you run into trouble.
  • If none of this is working for you, you’ll have to download the latest version of WordPress, ftp it up, and then run upgrade again.
  • Assuming that your blog is up, check to make sure that your category links and other links are displaying. If you see an error like [Unknown column ‘link_count’ in ‘where clause’], you’ve got to detour at this point (a web search on the exact phrase of that error will give you a sense of how many blogs are affected). If you’re upgrading from the version at Yahoo, there has been a major change in the way categories are indexed. I haven’t been able to find the perfect fix for this if the upgrade doesn’t do it, but there are two suggestions. The first didn’t work for me in MyPhpAdmin on Yahoo – perhaps because of yet more permissions issues, or maybe an older version of MySql – but you could try it because it’s probably the better fix:
    Run this SQL query:
    ALTER TABLE --database--.wp_categories ADD COLUMN link_count BIGINT(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 AFTER category_count,
    ADD COLUMN posts_private TINYINT(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 AFTER link_count,
    ADD COLUMN links_private TINYINT(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 AFTER posts_private;
  • The second suggestion did work on Yahoo, but I hope it doesn’t mess anything up:
    First, save your home copy of wp-admin/upgrade-functions.php under another name, like you did with the wp-config file. Then, edit the original file and delete where it says
    // We are up-to-date. Nothing to do.
    if ( $wp_db_version == $wp_current_db_version )
    return;
    Ftp it up and run upgrade.php again. Then upload the original version of the file to restore it.
  • Now, go get the wp-configorigin.php you saved earlier. Rename it back to wp-config.php and ftp it up.
  • In your blog template, replace the current call for your blogroll with < ?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_after=&title_before='); ?>. Some of the older tags have been depreciated.
  • Enable your plug-ins one by one to make sure they are compatible. If something breaks the blog, use ftp or the online file management at Yahoo to delete the applicable folder from the wp-content/plugins.

Another problem that surfaced: The bottom navigation on the index page disappeared. Some think that it has to do with plugins as well. I’m not running a “sticky post” plugin, which seems to be the primary problem for others. There is also a thought that there might be an incompatibility between the upgraded Akismet plugin and the Yahoo hosting. In my case, I finally figured out that I needed to remove a hand-coded call to the FAlbum plugin (which isn’t enabled) on the Index page.

I still have minor problems. Do not attempt to use the newer version of the WP Cache plugin or the Yahoo version of the Customizable Permalinks Plugin! Keep them disabled or they will break the blog, and you’ll have to go back and do a lot of this again. You’re pretty much stuck with the versions of third-party plugins that Yahoo gave you. If they included them, it’s probably because they have set it up in some special way – if you update the plugin, it probably won’t work anymore. If you know workarounds, please comment.