I'm in a different time zone so technically, I'm not as late in posting as it looks. I'll also add that C.I. was working on an entry and wanted input.
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.
I know that's not always possible. I was lucky to spend it with a friend (C.I.) and I know that there are others who've lost their parents or other family members and the holidays can be depressing.
Even if you're surrounded with friends and family, it can sometimes be depressing.
I think the longer you're out of touch, the more depressing it can sometimes be. Some people worry about their weight or their relationship status or their job or any number of things that they feel will be judged.
Sometimes, though not always, those expectations of judgement are inner expectations. There was a woman who was miserable at the table today. I spoke with her after and she felt everyone was focused on the breakup she'd just gone through. Though the breakup was traumatic to her, I can honestly say that I hadn't heard one word of it.
What I had heard was how great the woman's hair looked and how wonderful the choice of wine she brought was.
Before anyone worries that I take my profession to every gathering, I don't. I had never met the woman before and I don't do instant therapy. We ended up on the same couch (I probably should have typed "sofa" to avoid therapy implications) and she brought the subject up.
After we spoke, she became much more outgoing and appeared to enjoy herself.
The point of sharing that (were she someone I did therapy with, I wouldn't share) is that many times we think everyone's noticing something or talking about something, but it's just going on in our heads. So carry that into next month if you attend any get togethers next month.
I'm also late because I was looking for the post at The Common Ills and couldn't find it. C.I. used an early draft that had been saved. The time was changed to reflect the time it was posted but C.I. forgot to change the date so it posted on Monday. It's being fixed now and I'll provide a link to it.
Again, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
I'm not doing tags tonight. I really don't like doing them but do them at Rebecca's request. Technorati doesn't read my tags and yesterday I e-mailed them pointing out that their automated reply stating I would receive a reply in a few business days arrived on October 25th.
That's a month ago now.
I thought I was having problems with my tags not being read by their devices. But being at C.I.'s, I've seen that's nothing compared to the trouble it is for C.I. C.I. has to publish and republish and republish again just to get Technorati to read the tags (while repeatedly pinging them). I'd heard about this but sitting there and talking to C.I. while this was going on, I got how much of a problem it was. In the mornings, for instance, C.I.'s used to posting both Times entries at the same time. Instead, they have to be published individually, twenty to thirty minutes apart. If they aren't, they aren't read.
Cedric was read at first and then, for no reason, Technorati stopped reading his tags. Wednesdays posts by Betty, Kat and Mike are tagged and their sites are usually read (they manually ping) but they're not showing up.
I'm starting to agree with Jim that it's a bunch of "crap."
C.I. does extensive tags by subjects and people. It is a huge headache (and C.I.'s very vocal while hunting them down).
Blogger is the program everyone in the community uses. It is supposed to automatically ping (if you set it up to). All sites are set up to. However, Technorati doesn't recognize the automatic pings. So members are having to be manually ping. (Mike manually pinged four times on Wednesday and it still never read him despite the fact that he also published and republished repeatedly.)
Should Technorati ever reply to any of my e-mails, I'll note it here. But I'm done tagging unless they can explain what I need to do that's not being done. (I'm following all their instructions.)
For almost two months now, I've tagged every post and they've never once recognized the tags.
I've also informed them (in three e-mails) that Rebecca's tags aren't read either. This despite the fact that she even has a Technorati code at her site on the right hand side of the page.
Rebecca's always attempting to figure out ways to help the community. This was a good idea but Technorati has never read Wally's tags. Right now Seth has tagged a post. Technorati reads only some of those tags.
I told C.I. that, my opinion, the posts should just be tagged (at The Common Ills) with "The New York Times" or "Democracy Now!" Anything else isn't worth it when some posts aren't being read and when it took four hours of publishing and republishing today just to get the first two posts read (eight hours after the fact).
If Technorati can iron out the bugs, I'll go back to tagging. But I know members who have been tagging and haven't had their tags read (despite manually pinging) are upset. I know Jim's arguing that tags are a waste of time. I know C.I.'s feeling has always been, "I don't want to tag but if it will help traffic to the other sites, I will do it."
So I think I'll be raising the issue Saturday night/Sunday morning when we're all working on The Third Estate Sunday Review. My vote will be the same as Jim's, it's not worth it.
It's benefitted Kat (while her tags were being read by Technorati). It's been a pain in the ass for The Common Ills to hear C.I., Ava and Jess talk (due to the visitors who are not of the left but are discovering the site via tags and writing nonsense e-mails). My attitude prior, and this was Rebecca's as well, is that if just Kat benefits from it, great. But Kat and I spoke Monday and she's honestly feeling bad that she's benefitted while others haven't.
The whole point of this is, if you're a community member and you're enjoying the tags, e-mail me or Rebecca to make a case for tags. Otherwise, I think they'll be dropped soon. If not this weekend, then shortly after. Again, if I hear from Technorati about the issue and it can be fixed, that's great. However, having waited patiently for a reply in the "next few business days" for over a month, I'm not expecting a reply.
Here's the link to C.I.'s entry. That's the only one I'm doing tonight. But I will include Mike's motto:
The Common Ills community is important and the Common Ills community is important to me. So I'll do my part for the Common Ills community.
At dinner, I was asked about the motto. Someone wondered if it was a pledge? No. There are three reasons for it. One, is the tag issue. A second reason is because of an e-mail request. The third reason Mike will go into (I believe on New Year's eve). But it's not a pledge. You'll see it at other sites and here. (Hopefully, I'll remember to post it repeatedly.)
