Drops of Blood » Blog Work

Paddling Through a Spam Tsunami

Carolyn Bahm — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:50:19 +0000

I’m getting hammered with spam on this site all of a sudden. It’s overwhelming Akismet, and the spam program I just installed, Defensio, is still on a learning curve about what constitutes “spam.”

For now, so that I can get something done (other than deleting email notifications about waiting spam), I’m *temporarily* disabling comments on all posts. I’ll look at this further tonight and see if I can find a better solution, though! See updates below.

(And for my random thought of the morning –”spam hammered” could actually be spammered. And this is a spamergency!)

Update #1: An online pal — who’s about to become a BELOVED online pal if this works — just sent me a link to a different plugin with a glowing recommendation. So I’m re-enabling the comments and trying Cookies for Comments instead. Yay!

Update #2: Just tested that plugin. I didn’t see anything amiss as a regular user on the site when I posted a test comment to this post. I’m hoping the solution is this simple — it blocks the spammers without hassling commenters. *crossing my fingers*

Thank you, Donncha, for the tip!

I’m Giving Away Entrecard Credits — Get Yours!

Carolyn Bahm — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:50:57 +0000

I’m pulling out of the Entrecard system for several reasons, but this blog has got an accumulation of 3,967 credits that I need to distribute before I go. So here’s the deal of the day:

I’ll give you 100 Entrecard credits just for signing up for this blog’s RSS feed or email feed, until I run out of credits. That should make 39 new readers happy, and the 40th will get a tinier slice of the pie (67 credits, or more, depending on how many dropped cards I get in the meantime). Use one of the giant orange buttons in the top right corner of my site to sign up. And please leave a comment on this post with the name of your Entrecard blog so I can send you the credits!

My leaving isn’t an indictment of the Entrecard system — I like many of their recent improvements, such as the ability to link multiple blogs. (But I do *not* like their weird new ad pricing system. FYI.) I just am trying to pare down my computer-facing time, and clicking through a promotion system like this just isn’t as fun or profitable as other projects I could be doing. So I’m spreading the EC love with this giveaway before I go.

Note to current advertisers: I will leave the Entrecard widget in place until your ads have run their course, don’t worry. I won’t back out of a deal! )

Thanks, Entrecard visitors! )

[tags]free Entrecard credits, Entrecard giveaway[/tags]

Entrecard “Power Dropping” — Fuhgeddaboutit

Carolyn Bahm — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:58:10 +0000

I’m calling an early end to the Entrecard experiment. I’m disappointed and tired of the system’s glitches. I’ll continue to use the system as a useful way to find interesting new blogs to read, but no more clicking through hundreds of blogs to rack up the points and to raise my blog in the category ranking to — my ultimate goal — drive more traffic to my blog.

If you’re an interested Entrecarder, you can read the rest of my post on this topic on my other blog. The good news is that the blog will continue (and I’ll have more time to do it). Just no more yammering about Entrecard on a regular basis. )

[tags]Entrecard, powerdropping[/tags]

Entrecard Glitchy; Making Me Itchy

Carolyn Bahm — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:17:49 +0000

Experiencing another Entrecard glitch with my blogs today; see details here on my other blog. Anyone else not getting credits for cards dropped today?

Update: OK, this is now old news. I guess it was their system just glitching for everyone, based on comments I read in the forums. And it’s now working again. (I mainly put this post up here and on my other blog so that other card-droppers would know I wasn’t just being a slacker.)

[tags]Entrecard glitch[/tags]

Upgrade in Progress … Nope, It’s COMPLETED!

Carolyn Bahm — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:46:30 +0000

I’m in the middle of a WordPress upgrade to v.2.3.3. Let’s all pray together, shall we? I royally mucked it up last time and was rescued only by my domain host’s fab tech support (I’ve used addr.com for years — highly recommended). If you don’t hear from me for a day or two, it’s because I’ve done it again and am sitting here, just smacking my own forehead and trying to think of all the synonyms for “idiot.”

Nah. Lightning couldn’t strike twice here, could it? *gulp*

Here’s crossing my fingers. And my toes.

[Update: Dodged the lightning! But the upgrade didn't fix a problem I've been having with links. The GUI doesn't work; I have to go to the "code" tab to insert them manually for some reason. Will have to hit the forums for that. *sigh*]

[tags]WordPress 2.3.3, WordPress upgrade[/tags]

Site Additions: Writers’ Quotations, Contests, and More

Carolyn Bahm — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:29:03 +0000

I just realized that a recent update to a new WordPress theme, Dark Rituals, left me without some of the customization I had in my old theme. Whoops! So now I’ve added back a link for my RSS feed, as well as my Creative Commons license.

And it occurred to me that I also haven’t mentioned some of the recent site enhancements that you might miss if you’re an RSS subscriber and haven’t visited the site lately. Drop by and check out:

A list of upcoming writing contests, in the bottom left sidebar
My new and ever-expanding page of 200+ quotations for writers, which also fuels the random quotes that pop up in my front page’s right sidebar

In the future, I’ll mention in a post when I’ve updated things like this so no one misses out. )

[tags]writing contests, quotations for writers[/tags]

New look for DropsofBlood.com – check it out!

Carolyn Bahm — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:56:11 +0000

If you read this web site via a feed aggregator (and I don’t blame you — that’s how I do most of MY surfing), please take a sec to visit the site and look at the new design. I picked a new WordPress theme (Feather Pen 1.0) and implemented it today. The old one was great; I loved all the blotchy red blood drops of Fractal Red, and it suited my site to a T. But it was the *graphics* I loved, not the typography. The problems were:

The type was too small and I hated futzing around with the coding to fix it.
The leading between lines was just too small, and the page looked crowded.
I didn’t like the headline style; ditto on trying to fix it.
I had trouble making the bullets line up right on unordered lists.
I was ready for a change.*

*Girly moment: It’s like trying on new clothes just because you want to. Oh well. See how this new look suits you. I think it’s eminently more readable.

ARRGH UPDATE: I just realized that I deleted some coding. Trying to fix now.

WHEW UPDATE: Fixed. I think.

[tags]new WordPress theme, new blog design[/tags]

My Blog’s Readability

Carolyn Bahm — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:10:36 +0000

I thought this was a nifty little test, and it’s in line with my writing experience. As a former newspaper journalist, I know that the readership sweet spot is around the 8th-grade level (or at least it used to be, way back when I worked at newspapers).

Get a Cash Advance

Miss Me?

Carolyn Bahm — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:38:35 +0000

Gee, you abandon a blog for two months and the old brain is too dusty to even think of good excuses for being gone so long. Let’s just blame business travel, the start of the school year, and too many items on the to-do list lately. Sometimes I think my older daughter’s not the only one in the family with ADD. But I’m back.

Sorry to say that I abandoned the ”Seventy Days of Sweat” writing challenge in the meantime. I was a fool to think I’d be able to keep up blogging and writing while on a weeklong business trip and then a week at Disney with the family. I came back with blisters on my heels and dust on my computer.

But hey, this summer I did figure out why my computer kept inexplicably shutting itself off. My stupid screensaver. No more inexplicable shutdowns since deleting that program. Sheesh. I’ve been cursing this problem for more than a year, convinced my motherboard was going out.

In writing news, I haven’t written a lick on my murder mystery since late July/early August. *grimace* More than just a lack of dedication to keeping butt-in-chair, I’m suffering from a point of view crisis. I’m writing a story that has a really despicable bad guy in it. The person who offs him has a really good reason for doing so and is the most interesting person so far in the book. But if I get inside this killer’s head, it won’t be a murder mystery anymore; the reader will KNOW who did it.

So I’ve been standing off to the side, frowning at my story for a couple of months now.

Time for action. I’ll start writing again tomorrow morning even if I have to start from scratch. *shudder.*

[tags]not writing, POV[/tags]

Update from the Land of the Oppressed

Carolyn Bahm — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:42:47 +0000

Since I’m not Catholic, I suppose I can’t legitimately send up a Hail Mary. But I will squeak and try to look sheepish.

Just wanted to say for any readers that I will be back online soon. Currently getting over two weeks of business travel + family Disney vacation where I foolishly thought I’d have time to blog … and am now handling a cold, a bad eye infection, the back-to-school rush, two sick children (different minor ailments), and a monumentally full inbox and deadlines at work.

By Friday, I should be back on track (says the optimist). See you then. (And Sven, I haven’t forgotten about you, either.)

I also will be writing some heartfelt thanks for books and other goodies I’ve recently received too. TTYL!