Wanna Take A Peek Behind The Curtain?
I’ve been making some changes to Monk at Work lately, and I thought you might want to know why.
- I added underlines to the links in the posts, because Steve Pavlina brought my attention to the fact that some folks with a certain type of colorblindness couldn’t distinguish the linked text from the non-linked text.
- I added a mini-sitemap on the Services page, so if you know where you want to go, you can just go there. Thanks to Edward Mills for that one.
- I added a drop-down menu in the sidebar, so you can easily jump to any post you like. Awsom, huh?
- I’m scrapping the Most Conversational Monks section on the sidebar. But that requires a bit more explanation…
I already give link love through nofollow via Lucia’s Linky Love plugin (Andy Beard has a great round-up of nofollow here) and by thanking commenters for their comments on each post. I got that last idea from David Airey, who no longer employs the practice (but still uses dofollow); it is a lot of work, and I think of tossing it out all the time.
The point is, I give a lot of links out as it is, but I’m not enjoying my sneaking suspicion that some people are adding in comments just to get on the “Most Conversational” list. And that smacks of a greed that I don’t want to encourage.
I love community. I love conversation. But if my spiritual experience has taught me anything, it’s that the intention behind any action is the determining factor in its success. Comments for the sake of conversation, then — to enrich the lives of us all, whether by debate, disagreement, or agreement and taking it one step further — that’s what I’m interested in.
So, following Tony’s lead, I’m going to do away with the Top Commentators plugin (which I used for the Most Conversational Monks section). I’ve been wanting to lessen my plugin load as it is.
What do you think? Is there anything you’d like to see here to promote the level of conversation, or improve it in some way?
Off-Topic: My wife, Laila, is bringing her Flip The Sugar Switch workshop to a world-wide audience, by offering it as a teleclass. If you’re wanting help with emotional eating issues, sugar addiction, or want to heal any unhealthy patterns you’re carrying around in regards to food, you can get more details at http://lailakayce.com.
Want a podcast of this? Click here.
Image by cesarastudillo on Flickr, via Creative Commons license.
And thanks to all those who commented on the previous post so far: Jon, Dave Lucas, Liz Strauss, Slade, Joanna Young
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Intuitive purpose finder and meaning maker.
I still don’t completely understand nofollow. Could you explain a bit more for us novices?
Thanks for the tips on speeding up our sites.
I like the menu for past posts. I have my past posts listed by date on a separate page on my blogs, and I find it enormously helpful.
Nice work!
Hi Adam, I just read the post via your podcast. I loved it! I have to start using that feature on my blog!
In regards to your topic, my husband and I always discuss our desire to be guided by the following sentence. I forget where it came from, not from us.
“What you speak should be an improvement over silence.”
We both really like it, and not just because we are quiet!
Warmly,
Lorraine
PS-you have a great voice on your podcast.
Adam, thanks for letting us take a peek
I think you’re right on the risks of the automated plug in for top commenters. The thanks with the link that you do on your posts is exceptionally generous - but a lot of work. It would be beyond me I’m afraid.
I try to thank, acknowledge, involve my commenters in other ways - by visiting their sites, by leaving comments there, by highlighting extracts from the best comments (with links) in round up pages on what’s being discussed, by inviting them in to do some guest writing - well all kinds of stuff, but it’s organic, and it goes with the flow of other stuff that is happening on my blog or that I can do as I float round the blogosphere.
I don’t comment here (or anywhere else) for anything other than for people to recognise me (hello people!) and to join conversations that I think are interesting and value. You don’t need to link to me at all.
By the way, one of the things I like about your site is your archives. I guess you didn’t mention it as it’s been there a while but it might be handy for people to know about is it’s not immediately apparent from the blog page (you have to click the button at the top). I like the way you’ve organised the material and I found some great stuff there that’s been a help to me - especially in following up some of our conversations.
Joanna
PS If I could put in one other blog housekeeping point - on the “notify me of follow up comments” box - I’d prefer it to be defaulted to blank, so I have to click if I want comments. Sometimes I’ve forgotten to uncheck it but to be honest - much as I love the conversation, I don’t want it in my in-box. Just a thought. Don’t know what other commenters prefer
Jean, sure; nofollow and dofollow are the two options that you as a blog owner can choose when it comes to whether or not search engines will “pick up” the links on your site. Nofollow (standard among Wordpress, and some other platforms, I believe) means that links won’t count. Dofollow means they will.
There’s a movement among many community-oriented folks to remove the nofollow tags that get automatically added by one’s software, in order to reward the people who get involved in the comment box, by increasing their exposure in the search engines. The easiest way to do that is with a plugin (use the link in the post to Andy Beard’s site; he’s got a great list of them all there).
Lorraine, thanks; glad you’re liking the podcast. That’s a great quote — it reminds me of one from the women’s volleyball coach at my university: “Better the ball” (as in, you’re going to be involved, add something to it so it’s in better shape when it leaves you than when it came).
Joanna, yeah, adding all the links is work, but I’ve got it down to a formula now, so it doesn’t take me too long.
And since I didn’t really create the archives, I can say this without sounding big-headed: Aren’t they cool? That’s a plugin, too — Extended Live Archives. It’s a Wordpress thing, and I know you’re on Typepad, but maybe there’s something out there that would do the trick, perhaps?
Oh, and I’ll go fix that automatically-checked-box thing right now. Thanks for letting me know.
Sure, you bet. Most people’s sites automatically nofollow, and they have no idea.
Randa Clay has another explanation of dofollow and a badge at her blog (I decided to make my own little badge, which is up in the Community section of my sidebar; anyone is welcome to it, of course).