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heidi

What’s new with this blog

by Andy DeSoto on May 27, 2008

Although things may seem quiet on the surface of www.andydesoto.com, I’ve been busy over the last week and a half implementing a bunch of improvements and changes to better suit the aims and reach of this site.  If you’re a new reader of the blog, or have dropped by once or twice already, here’s a list of some of the more notable new features:

  • Thanks to some gentle prodding by friend and frequent commenter Heidi Cool, the index page here is finally valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.  Soon, all the pages on this site will fully support interoperability.
  • There’s now an iPhone and iPod Touch compatible version of this site, thanks to BraveNewCode’s wpTouch plugin.  Revisit the site with one of these devices to enjoy the saucy Apple styling!
  • This site features two new pages: the Stream tab, which features all of my recent web activity; and the Live tab, which is linked to my Yahoo! Live account for when I’m video streaming, a feature I hope to take more advantage of in the future.  The Calendar page has been taken off the front page since it’s not as relevant in the summer.
  • As this site’s scope is pretty large, chances are good you might only be interested in one or two of the topics I write about.  To help with this, I’ve linked similar articles at the end of every post to ease navigation to related articles.  There may be content-specific feeds in the future, too.  Eventually.
  • I am now a member of ResearchBlogging.org, the premiere home for blogging about peer-reviewed science articles.  If you see a little “Blogging about Peer-Reviewed Research” icon on one of my psychology articles, you’ll know it’s serious stuff.
  • Articles on this site are now integrated with FriendFeed, the popular aggregator and social network.  You can leave or view FriendFeed comments for any of my articles, now– just take a look near the regular comment form on any post.

Hope you enjoy some of these changes!  As always, let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see new or changed on the site, just send me an e-mail or leave a comment.

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Why follow people you don’t know on social networking sites?

by Andy DeSoto on May 17, 2008

Okay, this entry is more an honest question than substantive blog post.  I log into any of the gazillion social networks I follow and I see a varying percentage of people I can say I truly know.  Let’s go through some of the networks I list on my Contact page:

  • LiveJournal:  I’ve actually met 100% of my LiveJournal friends.
  • Facebook: around 98%.
  • Flickr: exactly 31%.
  • Twitter:  probably around 5%.
  • Pownce:  maybe 1%.

So here’s my question.  Practically speaking, should these numbers should be 100%?  The folks that I follow on these sites that I don’t know personally run the gamut from completely unknown (for instance, Pownce user Cornelius Toole),  to great people I interact with semi-regularly (e.g., Eric or Heidi), to the ‘web celebrities’ such as Kevin and Leo.  But the thing is, my chances of coincidentally bumping into these folks are slim– shouldn’t I be focusing most of my limited time and attention on the people I’ll encounter in class, the store, or the neighborhood?

I am curious to hear why you think it’s a good idea to follow or not follow internet contacts, whether they’re interesting, friends of friends, or whatever.  I can see arguments from both sides, but I’m interested to hear what people think.  Is there a “real friend ratio” heuristic that you use?  Do you follow back anyone that follows you?  I’m curious.

Forward this post around, too, so it can get some extra exposure.  I want this to be as global a question as possible.

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