Whenever I am tagged, it’s during a crazy period. So all the tag posts I ever write need to start with an apology. Yet I am sure Phil won’t be very disappointed in my making him wait for so long before completing this task that required a lot search through my “quote notebooks”. This meme is about sharing a little bit of your soul with those who are part of your life (be it online or offline) through quotes that have caught your eye and became part of you from then on. The road this meme took and the entries it generated are amazing! Start at Phil’s and keep on reading back and forth.

“It’s amazing what can be achieved through courtesy, friendliness and good humor” – Michael Cayne – People Photography

First of all, I should try to tell you who is in my life. That is such a tough thing to do. I could direct you to half of my blogroll, that would be easy. But it would take ages to get you introduces to all my friends who against my best efforts are still not in my online world. If they ever join us, I’ll make sure to let you know. In the blogging world…well, the list keeps growing! Some have left and there are occasional emails. Some, such as Bart and Mig, have been around for quite a while and are so close to my heart I cannot even begin to describe how much they mean to me. Others, such as Zu, I have known for a shorter while but I feel we can keep building on our relationship.

“A person should love the life he has chosen enough to call it his own in the end” – Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle

Some I’ve already had the pleasure to meet in person, others I know I will, and then there are those like Liz who I’ll probably meet and can’t wait to do so. So keep your fingers crossed! Each day we share thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences. It’s a unique type of closeness that’s worth nurturing and treasuring. So when choosing what to show and tell this time, I tried to look for something special, for passages that I loved so much I simply had to write down.

“A person should either correct a painful situation or get away from it” – Buket Uzuner, Mediterranean Waltz

In the end, I’d like to share with you some thoughts of mine I ran across while choosing my quotes. I don’t remember when exactly I wrote this, but I know it was something that struck me while reading, so it was hidden between quotes from the novel I was trying to finish at that time. As for tags, I tag all those who read this and think it’s something worth exploring.

I turn the pages as I want to turn thoughts. Away of what’s not important to me anymore. leave it all behind. Put it in its little memory drawer and let its share of dust fall on it. Simple! Then watch every bit as you would look through an old photo album. Some feelings, but still in the past, not part of the future anymore.

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The moment you start getting more traffic on your blog, those harvesting it for their own petty interests will show up instantly: spam commentators and trackbacks of doubtful quality. While comment moderation is something most bloggers are paying attention to, as it is easy to implement and dedicated plugins make it a bliss, there’s a different story for trackbacks.

First because having your blog quoted on a different site generally means your writing is appreciated and spread among new readers. Most of the times it comes from blogs with common interests, from bloggers who just happened to run into your article and love it or from friends helping you out in your promoting endeavors. Plus, if it’s a quote and if it gives proper credit, there’s no harm done!

But there are two types of link-backs I’ve ran across that can harm a blog more than you can imagine. And there are two things you can look for when trying to prevent such mischievous usage of your content:

• what quote is really linked to your name or blog name
• what else the blogger posts on the page where you’re quoted

Why is this important, you might wonder? I’ll share my experiences with you to better explain my point.

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It’s complicated! It’s the typical love-hate relationship. It’s a case study for couple counseling. It’s ultimately fascinating! Well, for me at least! We’ve been together ever since primary school. On and off, but we were always within reach, calling each other up when we needed it. Well, it was mostly me doing that…

Now that I think about it, writing was one of the few reasons I was treated as prodigy child. I wasn’t one, I was simply smarter than some, had talents others didn’t and was less of a menace than most. But apparently that’s enough to get praised about how smart you are, how well you write and the list could go on.

How did it all start, you might be wondering. Well, it started when I was 5. That’s when I discovered that if I tried hard enough and played the annoying child card, I could get a lot of stuff. Especially having parents teach me how to read and write. Not a smart choice, given I was getting bored a lot in my first years in school.

But then the miracle finally happened. I discovered putting my ideas on paper was a lot better than writing homework. I was about 11 or 12 and that discovery kept me quite happy during my spare time and some less interesting classes And then fame came along, at about 14, when one of my first novels got to be read by a few teachers and some colleagues. They liked it, I was happy they did.

I then realized it was a stupid novel and dropped it. And that turned into a long period in our relationship – I started to write a novel, gave it to friends and school mates to read it, they loved it, I realized I didn’t like it that much and dropped it. At about 18 I managed to finish a novel. I was really proud of it! A good friend wasted quite a few nights to write it on her computer and I then gave it to my Literature teacher. She was the highest authority I knew in literature critique and I was quite excited and well…I was going out of my mind waiting for her verdict. Continue reading

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Picture this! You find out about or stumble upon a really great new blog. You read a few articles and really like them. One of them is actually on a topic you’ve heard of before and were anxious to talk about with someone else. So you go to the comment box and try to post your thoughts. And then it happens: you’re asked to sign in. No matter how cool the blog is, your online time is still limited, creating accounts leads to profiles and to other steps you have to skip. What do you do? Sing in or click away?

I usually click away. If the blog really interests me, I’ll add it to my reader, but I won’t comments, so half of what’s so great about blogs, instant conversation, exchanging opinions and building connections, is completely lost. So here’s a list of reasons not to ask your readers to sign in before commenting: Continue reading

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When my friend Mig told me I should check JS-Kit out, I of course did as she never recommended something that wasn’t interesting and useful. And she once again was right. JS-Kit is indeed something to keep an eye on, widgets, but taken to another level and in no way limited to blogs. JS-Kit offers just the right tools to make your site visitor oriented and make it easy for those stopping by to provide feedback and comments.

You’ve got quite a few options to choose from: a Navigator showing your most popular works, Ratings to show you how good or bad a certain piece you’ve published is, Reviews and Comments for elaborate opinions and engaging conversations and Polls to quantify what your readers think. It’s all there, easy as copy-paste. But – yes, there is a but – there are a few aspects that simply puzzle me!

Usability and Design

I don’t quite grasp how a site aimed at revolutionizing web site development by introducing easy and customizable gadgets can pay so little attention to the details on their own site. The home page is what struck me most. There is no navigation bar and the About, News, Support and Your Settings links placed on top of the page look quite unfinished, or even worse, like some text ads that haven’t been tuned to fit the general design.

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