Wordpress 2.5

Just upgraded to Wordpress 2.5. I am very impressed. I didn’t realise how old and stuffy the old backend was. This new look is very fresh, easy to use, I really, really like it.

My Wikipedia Prank

My Wikipedia spam lasted 20 days.

My strategy: I posted on the List of Awareness Ribbons page on Wikipedia on the 18 September 2007. I suggested that wearing the green and blue ribbon was a symbol of support to people with ‘centophobic tendencies’. I referenced this fact with a link to http://www.centophobia.com/fromprank/.

This sneaky addition was removed on the morning of 8 October; 20 days later. My prank was quite clearly spam and yet it still remained for 20 days. While the List of Awareness Ribbons page isn’t necessarily a hugely popular page, you would wonder how long it would take for less obvious changes to be corrected. I just hope no school children (or from my experience, university students) were reading this article during this time period.

Why did I do it? Because I wanted to know how efficient Wikipedia is. Tell me about your experience with Wikipedia. Do you love it?

A quote I had to share

A quote I just had to share:

It is sheer magic that I should be able to hold a one-sided conversation by means of black (and pink) marks on paper a webpage with an unknown person halfway across the world. Talking, broadcasting, writing, and printing are all quite literally forms of thought transference, and it is this ability and eagerness to transfer and receive the contents of the mind that is almost alone responsible for human civilization. (Beatrice Warde, Graphic design and reading: The crystal goblet. 2000.) - my alterations.

So don’t be centophobic. Go forth into the world, and share the “contents of the mind” with others.

A non-post

I haven’t blogged for over four weeks!

I just don’t feel like I have anything to say at the moment.

It is interesting how for the first six-months of this year I was really interested and willing to give some of my time to write on this blog, and then I just stopped. It is like something happens and you don’t have the same motivation to write about current issues and events. I mean I still think about the things I blogged about like religion, advertising, politics and media but I just don’t have the same drive to spend time writing my thoughts and opinions down.

Interesting phenomenon. It probably has a name like ‘blogging fatigue’, or something and has been studied down the minute detail.

Maybe I think my opinions don’t matter. If my blog is for me, and not for a wider audience, why should I publish my ideas rather than just think about them? Or, if my blog is for a wider audience, why write down my thoughts if I don’t know who is reading them and what they think about them? I have had only a few comments on my blog this year, is it really worth the effort for one comment. Where is the conversation, the dialogue?

Who really cares; I stopped blogging. One day I will start again.