Many in my WordPress community know about a wonderful writer and blogger named Kevin Brennan. His blog can (usually) be found at http://kevinbrennanbooks.wordpress.com/. Unfortunately, if you click on that link, you will get this (sorry about the lousy resolution):
Kevin doesn’t know why WP has suspended his site. I don’t know why. I read and re-read the Terms of Service. Regarding suspended blogs, WP offers this cheery message: “We take our Terms of Service very seriously and act on each and every feedback we receive in order to investigate potential breaches. Our terms are enforced on a daily basis, as we want WordPress.com to be a pleasant and safe environment for all of our valued users.” Yes, I understand “pleasant and safe” is important to all of us. But to just suspend someone without word, in effect, assuming that blogger is guilty until proven innocent, seems just a tad unfair.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of such a thing happening. But I don’t have any answers as to why it happens or what to do about it. Has this happened to any of you who happen to be reading this post? If so, what did you do about it? How do you avoid it?
I am making this post out of pure selfishness. I miss Kevin’s blog. If you have any insights or suggestions, please comment. Thanks :)
PS And, yeah, I’m listing a few “Related articles” related to Kevin’s blog so that, once it comes back, you can enjoy them :)
To start off this post, please vote in the poll here and then read my post. Please also share by reblogging, tweeting, etc. Thanks a bunch :)
I think I’ve gotten in over my head. Maybe because I’m such an introvert, I think that having multiple social media accounts is going to make me popular. It could make me a pest. I’m always wondering if I have gone overboard, or if I have a good balance of accounts, or if I’m lacking. Here’s are the social media I have accounts and why:
1. WordPress: Well, this is a no-brainer. It’s my platform, my soap-box, my “self-publishing” vehicle. It’s given balance to my marriage (now I no longer complain when my husband wants to go out star-gazing. His absence is my opportunity to write).
2. Facebook: I only started a Facebook account once I realized that that was where all the pictures of my grandniece and grandnephews were going. More than half of my FB “friends” are relatives (I have a lot of cousins, really A LOT of cousins) and we’re pretty spread out geographically so I don’t feel I can let go. And then I got a FB page for myself. If you want to see it, just click on the Like button to the right of this post. PLEASE! Click on the damn Like Button! I know something truly amazing will happen once I get more Likes! FB promised me that I could do more (although I don’t have a clue what that more is).
3. Twitter: I started twitting (I know, it’s “tweeting” but I like “twitting”) a few years ago, got bored with the endless chatter about what everyone had for dinner and dropped out. But I’ve dropped back in and I think I’m getting the hang of it. I’m following a lot of indie publishers, self-published authors, and the such. I really enjoy promoting other writers and artists. If that’s all I do on Twitter, then right now that’s good enough for me.
4. LinkedIn: This has kind of been an albatross for me. Again, I joined a few years ago, thinking I would eventually find it useful for future job searches. But my account (and network) is currently geared toward my daytime work. I recently adjusted my profile to include my blogging as an occupation (a change which caused some in my network to think I had actually changed jobs).
5. Red Room: Now Red Room is something that my fellow writers may want to check out. It’s free and you can post stories, articles, etc. as well as your blog. Unfortunately, it doesn’t interface with WordPress, so I have to remember to copy and paste my blog posts.
6. Tumblr: Because I can send my blog posts directly to Tumblr as I can to FB and LinkedIn and Twitter. I haven’t been very active on Tumblr. It’s not very easy to navigate and find people to follow, but when I do make the effort, it seems that Tumblr bloggers will reciprocate.
7. Google+: This is a frustrating one for me. On the one hand, Google+ allows you to create “circles” and you can select what you share with which circles. Sort of like the Groups feature on FB but easier. On the other hand, users seem to prefer that their Google+ connections comment on their original blogs (WordPress or Blogspot), not on Google+. And like StumbleUpon, I have to go back to my post and “share” it to Google+.
8. And now, to add to this soup of media connections, I’ve signed up for Klout. Undoubtedly, this will be just another way for me to agitate over my scores, my “popularity,” quantity over quality. I read about Klout through Randy Ross’s blog The Loneliest Planet. Randy provides a rundown of his social media accounts as well. His Klout score (at the time of his post) was averaging at 53. With just my Twitter account, Klout put me at 45 and I don’t have anywhere near the following that Randy does. So this will be interesting. Klout will take 24-48 hours to compile all my data and come up with a new score. I’ll let you all know if I turn out to have as high as a score as my President ;)
I’m attracted to this sort of data mining because I am a nerd at heart. Recently at my day job, I figured out how to write a stratified random sampling query in SQL Server 2005. You’d think I had won the lottery I was so excited over this. I guess you had to be there.
So what social media accounts you have? Do you actively engage in all of them, or just some of them? Outside of your blog, which ones, if any, have you found to be the most useful? Nerdy minds want to know ;)
They live close to our heart
Though we have never met
Friends from the ether
Connected by words
Read off the screen
Somehow we found each other
And decided to hang out
Creating bonds of virtual light
That dot the social landscape
Of the world of cyberspace
We share our pains and joys
Console the grieving and the sick
As if the distance is not there
Celebrate victories and milestones
With the sincerity of friendship
A family of the unseen
Is what many have become
Joined in words upon the screen
Which is enough
To forge friendships strong and pure
I am so done with Camp NaNoWriMo! Roughly 50,349 words completed as of last night ;) I say roughly because I used the opportunity to finish a previous novel so I had to add those words to the word count for my current novel which means I had to use a calculator because I’m a bit dyslexic with numbers and so the important thing is I made it to 50,000! And I actually have an ending with this novel. Yup, a beginning, middle and an end. That’s no small feat for me since endings are something I have always struggled with.
Now that I am thoroughly exhausted with banging at my keyboard, I have callouses on my fingertips, my fingernails are totally ruined and my butt is in the shape of a chair seat (tonight’s yoga class will take care of that, I hope), now I have to go to my day job and stare at a computer for a minimum of 8 hours. Frankly, not something I’m really in the mood for, but now at least I won’t be distracted by trying to squeeze in a few words every time I run a query that takes more than 5 minutes to process :)
I want to thank the support of all my fellow bloggers and campers out there who have urged me on. I plan to take the next month to reacquaint myself with the wonders of WordPress and add more pages to my blog, catch up with the adventures of my fellow bloggers, and not do any writing (other than blogging). I need a break and I have so many other projects that need my attention. More on those things later.
Marie at 1 Write Way 