Below are the titles to 10 blog posts that never saw the light of day (as noted in the Drafts section of Wordpress).

1. Small Kindnesses
2. Why follow?
3. Rivalry
4. Out of Sight. Out of Mind.
5. Simile and Metaphor in Hip Hop
6. A Million Penguins
7. Disclaimer
8. A Broken Record Store
9. Time was. Time is. Time shall Be.
10. They Found the White Gene

Seth Godin wonders:

In a world where twitter and facebook and blogs can spread an idea around the world in a few seconds, how do you have a conversation with someone in confidence?

I hadn’t really really thought about it until a few weeks ago when the contents of one of my emails (one I thought was private) found its way into a blog post.

Seth proposes that we include “NFYB” (Not For Your Blog) in emails that we want to remain private. While I like the idea, unless it finds widespread usage, the acronym is a bit clumsy.

I saw the following footer the other day on a listserv that I am on that I thought hit the mark.

This e-mail is [ ] bloggable [x] ask first [ ] private

I like the third category here that Seth NFYB doesn’t address, namely, that I wouldn’t mind certain people blogging the contents of a private email if I trust them and/or have talked to them about what they intend to blog.

Either way, I think it is a fascinating point that will only become more important in the future. Until shared cultural norms are in place, being explicit about the intended audience of your emails cannot hurt.

I created another blog to hold onto all of the things that I am finding and loving, but losing somewhere in the gaps between delicious, my blog, and the favorite button in various applications (think Flickr and YouTube).

It’s basically a scrap book of my discoveries which I intend to fill with photos, videos, quotes, lyrics, and other found items that I don’t want to lose or forget.

Anyway, it’s at http://www.fullfathom.org.

We’ve discussed the etymology of fathom before.

Thank you! We appreciate your interest in Mike Oliver. Unfortunately, due to the current volume of memes being circulated and the discrepancy in the number of “things you don’t know” being sought, we are unable to post an individual response to your inquiry. Please rest assured we read every inquiry we receive and we appreciate your continued support!

Sincerely,

{mikeoliver.org}

ps. For a list of things that are known about Mike Oliver (as of 2004), please visit the about page.

I just added a (perhaps temporary) feature to the sidebar of the blog called “That’s What’s Up.” It’s primarily for my friends and family so they can know where I am or what I am up to if they want to meet up. I am interested in experimenting with ways that a blog can drive real world traffic. So, until I get bored with it, or I decide I don’t want to broadcast my whereabouts, I will be updating this section.

That’s What’s Up is powered by Twitter and Alex King’s Twitter Tools. Thanks Alex.

Update: Yikes. I need to make my wordpress editor a bit longer. I deleted about two parapgraphs from the original post that I wrote (and thought I deleted) before figuring out what it was I was trying to say.

Can someone please explain why Snap.com’s Preview Anywhere is a useful feature? People are adopting it in droves, so I must be missing something. To me, there are two major drawbacks which make the feature not worth any of the benefits.

First off, by the time I have moused over a url, I have already decided to click it. Blogs that have enabled Snap create, what I believe to be, a huge usability issue. The problem goes something like this.

1. I place my mouse over the link in order to click it.
2. Just as the browser is about to load the new page, a square box flashes in the corner of my eye.
3. My brain says “what the…”
4. The new page loads.
5. I click the back button to see what that square box was.
6. I mouse over the link and see a sreen cap of the new page I just left.
7. I click on the link again to return to the new page.

Secondly, it would be useful if I could get a preview of the actual content I am being directed to. That would be… um… fresh. But getting a screen cap of the look and feel of the site with outdated content from the last time Snap took a snapshot is… not so useful. As I mentioned above, I have already decided to click the link. This decision was mostly based on my trust in the source (i.e. the author) who has pointed me to a particular page. Is a screen capture of the site really going to cause me to second guess the author’s suggestion?

Now that I think about it, this would be an extremely useful invention for email. Sometimes I get strange spammy sounding emails from my friends and if I could preview the link in that context I would love the feature. But as implemented in blogs and other trusted sources, this feature seems intended to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

As an aside, “free preview” cracks me up. I assume Snap means that the tool is free to bloggers to provide previews. But I always read it as they are providing me with a “free preview” of a website, which is, of course, already free.

Update: Brad Feld mentions that Snap claims to have over 40,000 users. Despite that, Feld decided to remove Snap from his blog and AskTheVC. Fred Wilson threatened to remove the feature a week ago, but hasn’t pulled the trigger as of this morning.

Yesterday I commented on a post by Seth Godin here on this blog. I did this because Seth chooses not to enable comments (which is totally cool by me). He has enabled trackbacks however. I drafted my thoughts and published the post. In Wordpress this is all one has to do to join a conversation. But when I returned this morning to see how the conversation had progressed over night, my post was nowhere to be found.

It took me several minutes to realize that my post hadn’t registered as a trackback because Seth uses Moveable Type (MT). Why is this significant? Wordpress (the platform that powers this blog) automatically handles trackbacks. When I publish a post, Wordpress attempts to notify the blogs I have linked to. If it is successful, then my post is registered as a trackback and the author I have linked to is notified. Similarly, whenever someone links to a post of mine, Wordpress notes this and includes the trackback along with any other comments that have been left on my blog. In short, whenever I want to join a conversation, all I have to do is post my thoughts. Like the good wingman that he is, Wordpress magically handles the introductions.

The same is not true for Moveable Type. Each post on an MT blog has a trackback url that is different from the permanent link of the post. Before I could join the conversation on Seth’s blog, I had to locate the trackback link of his post. Then I drafted my post - linking to the permanent link of the post for human readers - and then had to add the trackback link (the computer readable reference). The trackback link has to be entered into an obscure field in the Worpress Admin screen which, presumably, exists solely to trackback to posts on MT blogs.

It’s not a huge deal, but little platform quirks like this inhibit the natural flow of conversation. When I link to another blog, in my mind, the gesture has been made. Moveable Type’s trackback process is like telling a woman you like her shoes and then, upon returning home, drafting a handwritten letter to the same effect.

Update: And sure enough, I forgot to add the trackback to for this post!

A classmate of mine recently launched Volenti Non Fit Injuria. And 110 West 3rd is diving into the fray. Soon, we will rival all those damn Michigan bloggers

Anyone have any notable good or bad experiences with having a non-anonymous blog? I think I am going to stop this nonsense soon, and just publish under my name, but I wanted to hear any suggestions or anecdotes you all might have before I do so. Feel free to send me an email or use the comment system.

Best,

Dispositive

Bret just launched a new photo collab. Tim, Doug and I will be helping out, posting funny pictures found out in the world or online.

Update: Tim. Thanks for putting this together.