Just a few site notes…
Joelle said in the early morning on June 2, 2007 while listening to Bebel Gilberto - Azul
Good morning, my little chickadees! 
Before I run off to the post office, I wanted to make a few notes about the site and all that meta-type juju.
Firstly, I fixed my RSS feed, so it should be working just swimmingly now. If you would prefer to use atom, that can be arranged, so let me know and I’ll slap it in there, too, though RSS should do quite nicely. (Tip: you can also use the “Bookmark” button on the left to add this site to just about any bookmark/social networking service around. They have a bunch listed and you can do it with just a couple clicks!)
Secondly, I’ve added tags and ditched categories completely. It’s kind of an experiment, as categories felt so limiting and to put it bluntly, were a pain in my ass. To the curb with them, I say! I’m digging the tags, so it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.
The word “thirdly” seems weird, so I’ll just keep going…
You don’t have to register anymore to comment here, but it’s encouraged if you don’t feel like filling out your goodies all the time. I have also dumped the “upload your own whack avatar” feature and opted to use the handy tools available to me through gravatars. This site is gravatar-enabled, so if you don’t have one, get one! They are handy-dandy!
For those of you who aren’t familiar with gravatars, you can assign a global avatar (that little icon next to your name in the comments) to your email address (for free) through their website. Then, when you comment on sites that are gravatar-enabled (like this one!) and use that email address, presto! Your avatar appears automatically.
Isn’t technology grand? We have no flying cars, but by god, we have gravatars.
Moxie Design Studios™
from Wisconsin, USA
W00T! Finally! No, seriously - F.I.N.A.L.L.Y.!
Great to see ya back blogging here - - excellent set up and look for the site (of course!) Have you on my Bloglines now - -I think I have to re-blogroll you, too. Yay
So glad to see you are back. You’ve been missed.
from Mouseville™ • Cocktail: Amaretto Sour
Unless of course the gravatar site no worky. Sigh… I shall take my martini glass and like it. Welcome home!
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@robyn: yeah, I noticed that. Wha’ts up with that, eh? I tried to access it this morning and it gave me the finga. maybe they’re doing some maintenance…
@BJ: thank you! I’ve missed blogging.
@Lisa: Thanks! There’s a little blogrolling thingie-majigie on the bottom left there.
What’s with you kids and this new fangled RSS stuff? I didn’t have RSS when I was a kid! If I wanted updates, I had to wait for the evening paper!
Seriously, all I get is this: “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.”
I’m trying to add it to my “My Yahoo!” page but apparently I am too lame to know what I am doing…
Gravatar? That name sounds so… I dunno. 80’s crap sci-fi-ish?
“For the love of Pete, Lt. Zapheron, do NOT turn on the Gravatar! NOOO!!!”
Cool idea, though.
from Virginia Beach, VA
I have been using the tags too, and so far I like them a lot. I have not ditched the categories yet…
What are you using for your last fm in the sidebar?
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Cath: you take the link and put it in your feed reader to subscribe. Without it, you can’t see anything.
Though, it should say something. I’m able to read the feed in Google Reader. I’ll investigate and see what’s up.
@soapbox: well, I’m using EE’s magpie feed parser plug-in and my last.fm recent tracks feed, but for some reason, it’s not updating my last.fm content. The parser updates the Moxie feed down below in the pink area and it updates other stuff i have, but for some weird reason, last.fm is still showing the stuff I listened to a week ago. lol.
I’ve put in a help ticket at last.fm to see if they can help a girl out because it’s worked for me before. And, according to Google Reader, it’s updating the feed, so I’m not sure what the deal is. I’ll keep ya posted.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Cath: Here you go!!
You rock! Thanks for holding my hand…
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Cath: you are quite welcome!
from Home is where the heart is, lady!
I feel so out of the loop with Wordpress. Is EE the best thing since pockets?
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Peggy: Wordpress is great, too. Especially for those looking for something right out of the box, which is it’s real draw I think — and really, it’s hard to beat free.
But, ExpressionEngine is, by far, my favorite platform. There’s so much flexibility with it and it’s more of a full-blown content management system than just a blog software. Though, you can create feature-rich sites with Wordpress, it generally requires a bunch of plug-ins and stuff. EE comes loaded with stuff right off the bat and you don’t need to know PHP at all to make it go.
They do offer a free version called EE Core. It’s really the same thing as the full-blown licensed version of EE, just without the member features and email/communication modules installed. It’s got all the other good stuff, as far as I know. You might check it out if you’re interested in seeing how it all works.
from SD CA (this week) • Cocktail: Red Headed Slut
i want tags for my blog! i’ll buy you drinks if you do your magic.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@chickrawker: I’d love to apply tags to your blog, but it’s a module I had to buy from Solspace.com. If you buy the license for the module, I’ll be happy to install them for you when I get a spare moment.
from Orlando • Cocktail: Sit-Down Straw-Rita
Welcome back, Joelle!
I’m really lovin’ the color scheme for this layout, btw.
Joelle, I use Google Reader for my feeds as well, but I’m increasingly dissatisfied with the way I can organize all the feeds I read.
Have you used anything else, or do you have any tips on how to make my experience better?
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@joz: I sometimes feel that way, but overall have really enjoyed Google Reader. I organize everything into folders based on topic, so I’ve got “design”, “designers”, “blogs”, “news”, “goodies” (which has stuff like recipe sites or cute overload… things that aren’t really blogs — though some might argue — but that I want to stay updated on), etc.
Have you tried organizing your feeds into groups?
from Home is where the heart is, lady!
Thanks Joelle! That sounds super fab. I may try the free and get acquainted first with it.
Yes, I’ve got my feed into various groups; but I dislike how it just alphabetizes the groups. Unless I’m missing something and there is a way to do it in Google Reader, I’d like some control over that and be able to put certain important blogs up top other than naming them AAAAAblogs or something stupid like that.
The other issue I have is that I read A LOT of blogs and subcategorizing the blogs hasn’t helped me so far. Maybe I just need to read fewer blogs.
from bremen, germany • Cocktail: gin & tonic
i just registered but of course the gravatar site still doesn’t work…
well, i’ll just have to be patient i guess
Ditto. I registered and then went to grab a gravatar, but the site is down.
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@joz: yeah, I had to pare down my reading, too, unfortunately. I just don’t have enough hours in the day… lol.
@kim and maria: yeah, of course when I link them, their site is down. lol. I’ve been waiting all weekend for it to come back up, but no avail. Hopefully it will be back online soon.
from Mouseville™ • Cocktail: Amaretto Sour
It’s back up. Now I’m me. Whee.
Pssst...any chance you could sweet talk Mikey into fixing HIS feed now? :-D
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Laura: it should be fixed. we did it a few days ago.