Congrats, Mimi.
You’ll find her here.
Mar 292010
Mar 212010
I’m making a couple changes, and here they are.
First, having the ability to get stats at server level has shown me that Statcounter misses literally hundreds of visits each month, so I am setting out visit count back to zero, effective 2/28/2010, and we’ll count afresh for the new location. However, the tools I have do make it difficult to associate an individual visitor with a visit number, because it’s listed by IP address. Therefore, I will be retiring the old award for thousands of visitors and institute a new award for every 500th comment. If that comment is mine, the award with a link in the sidebar will go to the person who posts the next comment after mine.
I installed the AddThis plugin yesterday to make it easier for you to share Politics Plus articles at your favorite social networking sites. Each article now has a ‘share’ link clicking it brings a few common choices. Clicking ‘more’ gives several dozen choices, including many that I’ve never heard of, so I trust your favorites are there. I hope you will support this blog bu using it frequently.
Mar 102010
Here are the results of our first poll at the new location, the Comment Format poll:
And here are your comments:
From Otis on March 6, 2010 at 3:45 pm.
I voted 3, but 4 is fine. At some point, someone has to make a new point to stop the nesting. It is a pain to read, otherwise. I have been to blogs where everything is smashed up against the right side of the page and makes for difficult reading.
From Marva on March 3, 2010 at 7:24 pm.
3 nesting allows a response, then a response to that. After that, it becomes an argument.
From SoINeedAName on March 3, 2010 at 3:16 pm.
I’m assuming that “nesting” is like a branch algorithm that shows who responded to a previous Comment.
If this has anything to do with our feathered friends, you should probably demand a recount.
From TomCat in reply to SoINeedAName on March 4, 2010 at 9:49 am.
You assume incorrectly. A nested comment is one like this one. It shows by position and indent that it is a reply to you.
Although 5 levels won the plurality, I assigned ‘”Don’t care to mid-range and settled on 4. I have made the change. This will facilitate your ability to have conversations with each other here in a way that you won’t have to keep scrolling up and down to keep track. To see when your comments have received a response, without filling up your inbox, you can subscribe to comments using RSS. To do so, go to “Comments RSS” at the bottom of the right sidebar.
There is a new poll up. Enjoy!
Mar 092010
I know these topics are unrelated, but both are short.
Last night’s Rachel Maddow show was one of the best exposés of GOP obstruction, lies and sellout to Big Healthcare that I have seen. I considered posting all the videos here, but that’s too much. instead, here is the link to her show. I strongly recommend it. Click Here.
The avatar you see in my comments here is a Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar). They work not only here, but also in all WordPress blogs. They are easy to set up and use. Click the link above to visit the site. Register (no SPAM), using the email address you enter hear and on other blogs. They will send you a confirmation email immediately. Once your registration is confirmed, upload as many images as you want. Chose one. From then on, whenever you enter that email address in the comment form at a website that supports Gravatar, including all WordPress blogs, the blog will use the image you selected.
Mar 072010
Since it’s a slow news day here’s a brief update on the blog. Although I’m sure I’ll be tweaking here and there, this is format for the immediate future. I have added a Rules page an an About Me page. They can be accessed by clicking the Pages tab on top or using the widget at the top of the right sidebar. Please read the rules page. Clicking the Blog tab on top will return you from any other page.
What suggestions do you have?
Mar 042010
Here are the results of the “How do you like our new digs?” poll.
And here are your comments.
From Oso on March 2, 2010 at 8:02 pm.
Looks great Tom. You’ll need to drink more coffee to stay up replying to your new posters. Unless you outsource the job to Lisa G ?
From MadMike on February 28, 2010 at 7:49 pm.
Yup! I’m a big fan or WordPress for its versatility. Good move TC. Now I have to remember to change my BR.
From Gwendolyn H. Barry on February 28, 2010 at 4:12 pm.
TC, you’re doing a great job… and you’ll be increasing your traffic flow… very important! Good work, looking forward to completed site!
From Josie on February 28, 2010 at 2:16 pm.
I rather liked your old blog, because I am used to it, but I think this one be good too.
From Lisa G. on February 28, 2010 at 10:21 am.
Please move the comments to the bottom though. I’m lazy and hate having to scroll up to make a comment.
I voted with the majority. ;-) Lisa, it took me a while to figure out how. Better?
On our current poll, for the benefit of the technically challenged, nested comments allow comments to be either general (to all) or specifically related to another comment, like this:
Lisa’s comment.
My reply to Lisa
Lisa’s reply to me.
Oso’s reply to me.
Sue’s reply to Oso
My reply to Sue
Marks comment.
Any questions?
Mar 032010
When you comment here there are three fields to fill out. Name (handles are OK), email address (I promise to never give one to anyone without specific permission from you.) and Web Page.
Some of you have been leaving your web page blank. It benefits you to fill it, if you own or write for a blog. First it helps me to return your visit. Second, it gives others a way to follow you back to your blog if they like what you have to say, increasing your readership.
I know that typing in a whole URL is a pain. To get around that, I use a free macro program called Short Keys Lite. There are others available too.
Please read the next article down. It’s very important.
Mar 012010
Politics Plus returned to the Internet on September 5, 2009 as a brand new blog. Our first six months show an excellent increase in activity after a great start.. As of Midnight we have had 39,836 visitors. Last month, we had 6,224 visitors, down 2,186 from January, a decrease of 26.0%. We also have had of 48,139 page views. Last month we had 7,570 page views, down 2,564 from January, a decrease of 23.3%. This averages to 222/270 visits/views per day, down 49/57 from January. I’m a bit disappointed. In addition to being a shorter month, the decrease in traffic is largely because of me. My month was so busy that I lacked the time to reply to comments and return visits. I always did, but not in a timely manner. I’ll do better. Here’s a graph of February visits and views.
Here’s a graph of visits and views since we reopened. at the old site.
Here’s a graph of how long people are staying while they’re here. It covers only the last five hundred visitors.
And here is our most recent ClustrMap, last updated 2/20, showing our readers from all over the world:
Our new Clustrmap starts from scratch.
Our 34,000th through 39,000th visitors, respectively, were Jolly Roger, Ivan, Tom Harper, Bee, Teeluck and Sky Girl. You’ll find a special section in our sidebar honoring them and linking to their blogs.
Our Technorati authority is zero. We’re brand new. After six months they never did update us at blogger. Maybe they will here. To verify that we exist Technorati needs a verification code in a blog post, so here it is.
BR7RPBSKA8BS
I expect a huge hit in the stats department in March, because we moved. We were a solid blog. Now were just another new blog. Google hasn’t even crawled us yet, so our articles don’t show up in search engines. This is all OK. Just as we built the second reincarnation of Politics Plus, so we shall build the third.
So please keep linking the articles you like here to your blogs, facebook pages, stumble upon pages, etc. When you see material you like here, the operative commandment is: “Thou shalt steal!!” Please do link back though. Hat-tips are much appreciated.
I use the terms “we” and “our” while referring to Politics Plus. Since this is a one-person blog. I assure you, I’m not doing so in the royal sense. The we in Politics Plus includes all of you. Without your presence and comments, this blog would be pointless. Newcomers repeatedly praise the quality of the comments here. Whatever success this blog does and will enjoy is because of you, so please congratulate yourself.