Group News Blog: Year One

LOLcats: Elephant “JOY”. Courtesy of Maggie Jochild's Meta Watershed.

This Gig ROCKS

One year ago Group News Blog opened.

There's an expectation at ends of years, birthdays and anniversaries, that we writers will be able to bring something special, over and above our normal stuff.

Yeah... Well, sometimes we choke.

Right this minute one year ago -- it's 11 pm Pacific time as I type right now; this post is due in one hour and one minute -- and one year ago with 61 minutes to go we were choking HUGE.

Hubris was fixing a computer glitch. LM was massaging the title graphic. I was changing words and commas in my first post EVER while going insane as the minutes ticked down with everything not fracking ready.

Whatever. Problems, no problems...
At 12:01 AM I hit post and Group News Blog began.

At 12:01 AM today, this post goes live -- no, I'm not fracking ready (the sad part is, I'm not making a joke) -- and Year Two begins.

Our rankings -- Technorati of 9.5K, The Truth Laid Bear of 6.7K -- and being credentialed to the Democratic National Convention. It's all good (hell, it's fracking great!) but that's not the point. The point is, we pulled it off.

People were going to come check us out. It was a courtesy look. But no one was going to stay if the writing didn't cut it. (We were following Steve Gilliard for Christ's sake.) And there was NO time to get up to speed. We were either up to speed right now dammit or we lost our audience. The gig demanded professionalism and a massive work ethic from Day One.

Which people gave. LM, Hubris, Sara and yes, myself. Six months later we brought on The Littlest Gator and Evan; it's been a roller-coaster year.

We take what we do seriously because we take you seriously.

Not that we don't have fun, mostly. Sometimes. Yeah, okay, from time to time a few of us have a little bit of fun, okay? Alright, there's no fun. We slave, slave away in pits wearing unwashed rags eating gruel, trying to avoid pie fights. Pie? Oh Gods, what I would give for a bite of pie, something fresh to eat... We sacrifice our lives, the small bits of fun, free time, health and well-being we'll ever have, all so you, you there, the man wearing the Obama pin... yes you: we do it all for you. *sniffs*

No. No, none of that's true. Well, maybe it's true for the interns, but I don't really care about them. Oh, wait. There are no interns. They're on my agenda for Year Two. Ah, yes...

Year Two. *grins*

If you think Year One was cool, you haven't seen anything yet. Lots-a-coming.

Our first fundraising drive ever starts today and runs through July 15. There'll be a post, however please: be among the first to donate to support GNB.

Here's the bottom line on Year One for me...

This is the best gig, ever. I love what I'm doing. And you. (Truly.)

I work with amazing people, passionate about their work. Our readers take our writing seriously and hold us to high standards. GNB challenges me professionally; it calls on most of us (myself included) to actively use a lifetime of varied disciplines to take care of our readers and each other.

Thank you, and thank the GNB writers for an amazing first year. Stay tuned...

Year Two is going to ROCK.

There's more...

“Steve Would Have...”

People somehow still think they can get at me by saying:

• “That's not how Steve would do it,”
• “You'll never write as good as Steve does,”
• “Steve would never/Steve would always,”

and instead of reacting with “go fuck yourself,” I thought...

I'd tell everyone -- yes, you can get at me that way.

Not because I buy into negative views of myself.

Because I miss him too.

You're right... That probably isn't how Steve would do it.

You're right... I won't ever write like he did. And I love that you still read him, and that he lives for you in his words.

Steve would never/would always? Unless it's caring for Jen, his Mother, and hating the Yankees, I learned not to put limits on what Gilly would and wouldn't. He surprised me all the time. Especially with his love for Jen, for his friends, and especially how much he cared about you; not the News Blog, but the future of journalism.

So here it is:

You may throw Steve would/wouldn't around if you kinda lose it. It's really okay. I won't get angry with you, and hopefully, no one else will either.

What we will listen -- by declaration -- you saying is, "I really miss Steve." Of course, you can just say "I miss Gilly." That would be okay also. *smiles*

I'm Jesse, not Steve. My colleagues are Hubris, LM, and Sara (plus tlg and Evan.) Jen is not on the Masthead; she lives in our hearts.

We are the GROUP News Blog, not the News Blog.

You know how I'm sure you still miss him? We miss him too.

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Steve Gilliard: "How To Read a 10Q” series

Gilly's Famous Financial Series is Now Available

After the Colonial Warfare series, the biggest request people have had is, "where can we get a copy of the 'How To Read a 10Q' series?"

I am thrilled to report that Steve Baldwin, formerly of Netslaves, now of Ghost Sites of the Web, has done an enormous amount of work, and restored Steve Gilliard's 10Q series, making them available for everyone:

"How to Read a 10Q" Financial Reporting Series.

All of Gilly's writings that we know of (including the 10Q series) are easily accessible through our web page The Writings of Steve Gilliard -- 101.

To make it easy to find, we have linked the Writings page over to the right, directly under the MEMORIAM header. The Writings page is also linked from Gilly's Wikipedia page.

We will continue to update the Writings page. Just drop an email and we'll make the change.

Everyone else -- want to read Gilly? Hit the link on the sidebar.

And right now, don't miss out on the 10Q series. It will teach you which of your stocks are great, and which are junk. In this economy, that's something you need to know.

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I Like These Guys

Regional Blogs Are The Best!

I love people who know what they're doing: pros.

Mark Gisleson's been linking us for about a month: Norwegianity.

Norwegianity's ranking is ...still... ...barely... ...not for long, sucka; October's moving day!... a little higher on Techorati ranking than GNB's ranking. Clearly it's not blog-whoring "Link me. Link to me with your powerful voice and throw me traffic."

*strains myself laughing*

It isn't we don't have traffic. Just...when he started throwing links to us he had (and still does) more traffic than we do. Yet there were his links, every few days.

Eventually I started taking them as a complement to our writing. I know. Shocking.

Open networks. The center of a network is everywhere. Tell truth to power. Yada yada blah blah blah. But he's got a higher ranking than we do. Don't you understand? He's linking to us all the time. What does he want?

This is what growing up in a hierarchical religion-school-gang-home-the-Army does to you. Makes you go arrrrgh! Well, to me anyway.

It can't possibly be someone relatively our peer is linking because he finds us valuable? Because Hubris Sonic posts timely pieces with analysis' of Iraq to knock your socks off...and shoes. That Sara Robinson's pieces are deep and thoughtful and with a heart. That I pour my self in to my work, love all of you with enormous compassion, and it breathes through; it shows. And that all of us. Each of us. We're blessed to have Lower Manhattanite, our Chief, National Affairs Desk and don't you think that title is by design, that LM writes here.

What a gift it is to work with these talented people. Really, you have no idea how lucky, how over-joyed I am, how every night I drive home, my face breaking into a smile knowing I'm about to turn on my computer and crank out the work: I get to go play with them.

So you'd think I wouldn't freak when week after week, two, three times, pow, ka-boom, ker-whamo, there's Norwegianity, showing up in our link logs. Not even the lazy posts (not that we ever have lazy posts); just the good stuff. Or the stuff on point to what he's talking about over there.

I frequently spend time checking out blogs who link us. Sometimes I even comment. Did a whole hour post on some kid's high-school English assignment. Thoughtful, careful, really terrific comment. Little twerp not only never responded in comments -- worse, he stuck with his basic (totally like stupid) premise. High school students will not change their mind about a goddamn thing once it's made up. (No, I'm not talking about my daughters. Why do you ask?)

My point was...is...I check out who's linking to us and often surf their blog. See how lamely they're distorting our posts in pursuit of their totally vapid arguments.

This Norwegianity blog just seemed to like us. I mean, Drifty likes us. But he's been deranged since the accident. (Send him money.) And Sarah's Orcinus, well, she makes Dave put up the link.

Eventually I just got used to it. We're being linked from Norwegianity. Wow.

They seem pretty cool, too, for people who live up in the middle of a State which gets to like, a zillion below all winter. Not only do they have great regional coverage -- blogs with nifty names such as apple juice and After School Snack -- but they give national coverage and comments also.

I like these guys.

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Now With Real Glistening Vibrafoam

12%
More GNB

It's a new week, we're in a good mood, and to celebrate, we're giving you absolutely free of charge, 12% wider pages than yesterday!

This is the first change to our layout since we opened July 1.

Here were our first posts:

• Doc -- Welcome,
• Hubris -- 77% & Baghdad Death Map, and
• LM -- "Wal-COME!".

We're happy with how things are shaping up. A solid group of you read GNB regularly (about 25,000 a month) and the numbers keep growing. And no, not just because we posted about Vanessa Hudgens naked. (Although it didn't hurt.)

(Seriously, while the traffic spike (an additional 50 thousand) was, um, like totally awesome, we don't count those numbers in what I'm talking about here. Unless one of y'all is going to arrange for some cute star or starlet to be in a nude photo scandal once a month just to make GNB's numbers look good. Really...we could work something out.)

Other changes coming...

We've been working on adding a "There's more..." so you don't have to scroll through the posts you (gasp!) don't want to read. Probably still a month out. It's a thing.

Also two or so months out is a Search function. We're waiting for a special piece of hardware to arrive in GNB's Tokyo datacenter. Once it's here, no more "well, I think it was in August and LM wrote it. It was really good, I wish I could send it to you." Yeah, we feel your pain. Every day when we try and link something from the past in new posts.

We're redesigning the Labels feature to make them more useful in searching by catagories. Instead of the 50-60 labels we currently have with more being added ad hoc almost daily, we're coming up with 20-25 labels which will let us serve multiple stories for years to come. For example, instead of "Biking", "TDF" and "Soccer", we'll just have "Sports."

Donations. Some of you have asked about donations. Thank you. But not yet. Let us get you totally, completely, utterly hooked first. Then we'll start hitting you up. Doncha know... the first one's always free. Same with advertising. It isn't time yet; we've still some growing to do.

In the meanwhile, if you want to help GNB, here are two actions you could take now:

a) Send posts you like to people you like. Let people know we're worth reading.

Nothing beats word of mouth from people you trust. We're not saying spam people. Do that and we'll kick your ass. But if there's something great you dig? Spread the love. Especially to people who have blogs. We love us the blog love.

b) Got a hot tip, a good story, something you think is GNB's style? Don't hesitate to let us know.

Our Contact information is at the bottom of every page. We love hearing from you. No kidding, many of our best stories come from the hot scoop from readers like you. Give us the word. Your letters help tell us to what you think we should be paying attention.

We're working to make the Group News Blog... well, home.

Hope you like the extra space.

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I Can't Stop Watching

Click for high def

The Coolest Tech Ever -- Blogger Play

I can't stop, literally can not stop watching Blogger's totally rad newest & coolest.

Warning: Go to Blooger Play and your life will screech to a halt.

Blogger Buzz

Today we’re pleased to launch Blogger Play, a neat little toy we’ve cooked up to show you photos and blog posts as you’ve never seen them before.

Shortly after Blogger launched photo uploading two years ago, one of our engineers whipped up a web page that would show us the pictures that were being uploaded in real time. The result was fun, often beautiful, but above all, compelling. We couldn’t stop watching.

Over the years we’ve kept this photo scroller as part of the Blogger offices, on a monitor or projector, as an interesting (distracting?) slideshow, and a reminder of the diversity and vivaciousness of Blogger blogs. The fame of the scroller spread within Google, until one day we were asked, "so, when are you launching this?"

"Um...," we replied. But we knew a good idea when we heard one. We got our UI people to come up with buttons and fadey effects and we got our engineers to make the whole thing fast and robust. A bit of work later, and now we can share it with all of you:

http://play.blogger.com/

Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it. We also wrote a Blogger Play FAQ with more information.

A caveat: we use many techniques, including Google’s SafeSearch technology, to keep the images clean. Nevertheless, on rare occasions an image that you may find vulgar or obscene will slip through our algorithmic filters. Google does not pre-screen the images that appear in Blogger Play, nor is it responsible for their content. To report a terms of service violation, you may fill out this contact form.

See a photo you think cool? Hit the stop button. Click on the photo. The blog the photo came from pops up in the next tab. Stunning.

Not to mention an awesome source of amazing photos, for example the fireworks up top: click on photo to see it in full glory. I've got another four of five shots from the same blog to be used some other time I need great firework shots. How great is that!

I'm tempted to throw up another monitor simply to scroll these photos 24/7. But then I'd never get any work done.

My highest recommendation. (Instantly Addictive.)

Updated 4:00 pm PT (7 :00 p.m. ET):

For three hours I've flown though literally thousands of photographs, hundreds of blogs, stopping when ever a photo caught my attention. I've been unable to stop, in fact, it never occurred to me to stop. I was completely lost in the flow of photos racing by clicking chosen photograph to blog then back to photographs streaming through me.

Just one of the many interesting points is, at least half of the photos which caught my attention led to blogs not written in English. Most of which I had no idea what the language was.

• Are more than half the blogs on Blogger not in English?
• Are non-English speakers better photographers than English speakers?
• Do non-English writers put up more photographs than English writers? Or, to float a complicated theory...
  
• Are non-English speakers living inside a deeper cultural bond with their families and friends, more of a societal & workplace commitment to life being lived now (child care, six weeks of vacation, no need for both parents to work full-time) and thus find themselves living more fully inside the world all humans have the opportunity to live in than English speakers (who tend to focus on their work to the exclusion of life) -- this non-westernized (non-English speaking) being-in-the-world reflected in their art?

I don't know. I'm in pure speculation mode.

What I'm sure of is, I doubt non-English speakers make up more than half of the blogs... yet I clicked on the photos I liked... and wham-o, up kept popping non-English pages. Huh.

Curiouser and curiouser. There's a Ph.D. thesis in here waiting. (Yeah, I said it first. Make sure you credit Group News Blog, me, and send virtual and physical copies of your thesis.)

Let's do a little GNB investigating...

A request for everyone -- and I warn you again it is very addictive: please take the time to comment on Blogger Play. Even if you don't normally comment. Even if you normally just read posts and we never hear from you.

Please... this has got me bugged:

• What were the blogs you went to like? Did you lose yourself in any of them?
  
• How addictive for you was the flow of the photo stream? At fast or slow speeds?
  
• Language? English, non-English; what were they (rough guesses are fine)?
  
• Overall experience? Comments, freak-outs, stuff you learned? Or wonder?
  

Thank you for your time. For me, it's a trip. And a bit of a freak out. And a really, really cool tool to go exploring with. Only problem is, one moment I turned it on, next it was three hours later and "hey, what happened?" Got a lot of pretty photos y'all see some of later. And food for some posts. But not really how I'd planned my Saturday. *gulps*

I look forward to your comments. I really do want to know for as many of you as possible -- again, even the thousands of you who normally only read -- what happened for you when you checked it out.

Thank you.

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We Fight On

The GNB Banner & Blog Design

We've been open going on two months now and I just noticed I never gave public credit to the people who designed everything.

The GNB Banner was built by Lower Manhattanite (click on the photo above to view in HIGH resolution) with the nose cone of the AC-130U Spooky taken from a design by the amazing Driftglass (photo also clickable for HIGH resolution.)

If you look at Driftglass' version in High Res (below), you'll see there are some numbers & a letter on the nose cone, which LM transfered over when he grabbed the nose cone and put it onto the version which graces our cover today. We have no idea what it symbolizes, except knowing Drifty I'm betting it calls out to Gilly. But that's just me. Any guesses?

There's the beautiful old bomber for Steve, a Spooky to bring in close support fire for grunts in trouble, and my personal favorite, a dustoff. *smiles* All bursting off the page through the sky through breaking news. Wonderful work LM.

The design of the blog itself was done by Hubris Sonic. I love how subtle the flow is between all the elements, how the text shows up so perfectly against the background, how the colors match each other, how the Section Headings both stand out but also don't overpower their background.

We've got simple clicks letting you email us, contact us, find out about copyright, and (eventually when we're bigger) donate. As well as go to the archives and other stuff. Also our blogroll is simple enough not to overwhelm.

I think this is one of the most elegant blogs I've seen. Cheers and congratulations to Hubris Sonic & Lower Manhattanite. With a special thank you to Driftglass. Please join me in a praising the guys on a design that leaves me happy day after day after day. We'd love to hear your comments on our blog design for good, not-so-good, or stuff you'd just like to see improved.

Finally, if you have a guess what Drifty's tribute on the nosecone means, hit us in comments. 'Cause I've spent too damn much time puzzling it. Y'all are smart people. So figure it out and tell me already. Please.

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On Being a Professional

Introducing the GNB Essay Series

I -- and perhaps my colleagues -- will be publishing essays periodically. Some long, some like the one below are shorter than this intro.

These essays aren't our normal format or topic. We know we're a political blog primarily and appreciate your patience as we find our voice, the one which is the Group News Blog, not The News Blog. Primarily politics but some other stuff, reflecting who we are as individual writers and also who we are as publishers. We're not quite certain what that means either. That's what I mean by finding our own voice.

Essays start somewhere, meander here and there, make some points along the way and then end. Paul Graham gets much of it correct. Hopefully their truthiness is clear by the end of the essay. I don't even especially write essays for you; I write them for me.

Essays are a tool I've used most of my life to reflect. The understanding in my head is almost never the understanding I have after speaking with others. After writing on an issue, especially after rewriting at least four to five times (which is the essential part) my understanding is always sharper and my commitment to act has often changed radically.

The key is public commitment. The act of commitment happens in the in-between. Not here in my head, not there in your head. Commitment happens between the two or more of us in what I'm calling the "in-between". When I say, "I am for bringing the troops home now!", I take a stand in public for which others may hold me to account.

(Bringing the troops home now is my stand. Stands in one's head are fantasy. Stands in public are pure declaration, true the moment you speak them aloud or hit the "Publish Post" button.)

Speaking in public, writing in public, The act of. In short, essays or speaking in public allows me to develop the essential me. Many times I'm surprised by who I am; I had no idea! Yet there I am, written down on the page. I have to hurry to post my Self so as not to be afraid to publicly commit to live up to my Self, following General Stonewall Jackson's advice, "Never take counsel of your fears."

My upcoming piece which started out as an article about doping in sports and now has become something more, Should You Lie? About Trust, is part of GNBs essay series.

Now you have a sense of where I'm going with these essays. Hopefully you'll find the essays useful, informative, fun and interesting, as well as readable and worthy of your discussion and comments, even it it takes a while for the series to catch on. Try talking to the essay or reading it several times; see what conversations, automatic reactions and questions it provokes. Does it leave you engaged? In the best sense of the word I'm attempting to bring back the art of the essay. Here now, the first (very brief) essay. Enjoy.


On Being a Professional

LowerManhattanite, what a great post this morning from the GNB Sports Desk. Thank you so much for your writing. Not simply how well you write but how on point you are. I love working with true professionals. Professionals understand how to build up a brand, how to watch each other's backs, how one bit of business feeds other bits. The have... timing, not to mention, er, never mind. But also pros got rhythm and can build a sequence. Plus they've got something to say and are not Ira from Maspeth calling in from his mom's basement. A pro speaks as one with authority. They've been there and done that; they're not some guy in a diner. They know how to give and take notes without bullshit, nor do they put up with bullshit from incompetence without necessity. Professionals can be easy to work with because the best of them care deeply about each other and their craft. They think historically: think Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and Meryl Streep, gloriously wonderful to work with (so I've heard.) Or pros can be challenging: think Langston Hughes (although obviously he also thought historically.) Hmm. There's a thought. Do the true virtuoso's all dwell historically inside their discipline? I've never met one who didn't. Real pros know the history of their field and how the history of related fields intersect. People, events, inventions and intentions, the whole schmear. As for being easy to work with, either way and most of all, one's level of performance rises up to meet the true professionals, never the other way around. Working with you LM is like that: I simply get better. What joy! The best part of working with professionals? They know when the gig is up and stop.

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Where I Have Been

Hello NewsBlogAlums,

Jen here. I'm sorry I've been away for so long, and will probably disappear for a while again also. However, I wanted to stop in and say hello and give folks an update as to where I've been.

First, let me explain that in the months leading up to Gilly's death, I can't believe (and I truly mean it) that I managed to keep my job -- which was and still is going through major changes -- and most of my health, and my sanity -- as well as run the blog. The first month following the funeral was rough also. Let me apologize now to everyone who send condolences that I didn't reply to directly -- I got over 2,000 emails which was very, very touching but also made it impossible to reply to individually.

Right now, I am trying to give Gilly's family some room, and have not been in touch -- I feel like a raw reminder of his death to them, and really don't want to bother them. I'm here if they reach out to me, but right now, I don't want to make what must be an awful situation (post-death legalities, etc) worse.

Along the way between that awful February 21 (the day Gilly went into the hospital for the last time) and today, lots has happened with me. Among other things, I gained stress-related weight and now seriously have to just start watching what I eat again -- main things are portion control and not binging on cheese and other tasty but fatty stuff when I get home from a (very) long work day. Yes, I have a plan in place and I seem to be sticking to it. My goal is to get into That Pair of Pants by this time next year, which is well within normal weight loss guidelines.

I also developed -- and continue to have -- sympathetic illnesses which I'm trying to manage. Among other things, some outstanding Female Plumbing Problems that I've always had have gotten notably worse -- to the point where I went and got a full ultrasound and blood workup. Thankfully, nothing seems out of sorts more than usual, but it's still always scary when symptoms suddenly ratchet up. Actually, it was my trip to the ob-gyn that got me back on a scale, and made me realize the weight situation.

Also, for the first time in my life, I am developing and getting stomach problems and other digestive issues. So, I am trying to control by just eating more slowly and less at a time. Scarily enough, I am in the process of recovering from what feels like a total case of irritable bowel syndrome -- basically if I eat ANYTHING, I have bad cramps/aches for hours. It feels like someone beat my chest and stomach wiith a broom handle. I took a sick day recently and it's kind of scary. I hope this one passes.

All of this is being exasperated by my job situation -- I love my job, and things are going OK, but we've had staff reductions that mean more work for me and more people to deal with. I'm trying to make sure that I get out after work -- and I do -- but it's a matter of me trying to cram too many hours into each day. I am also taking a mini-writing course after work.

On the apartment front: Believe it or not, I wound up not moving. My summer was too fucked up by Gilly's illness and passing, and I could NOT get ANYTHING comparably good space-wise anywhere near a subway for what I am paying now (I have a junior 2BR on a top floor for $1281 a month). Yes, my landlord is a harassing asshole who still can't get his shit regarding the hot water together. However, I looked in Manhattan and found NOTHING worth living in for even as high as $2100/month that wasn't an even longer commute and less convenient than what I have now. I saw one nice place in Astoria that was a PALACE -- truly gorgeous brand new everything, huge, tons of closet space, utilities included, elevator building, laundry on each floor -- for $2050/month. But at the end of the day, I would still be in Queens, and out more than $800 a month extra. Also, I figured out that it would be at very least $6K to move, which would mean eating into the money that I'm saving for a down payment on my own place. That would be $800 a month more, before I take a single taxi, or eat a single meal out.

I had to sit myself down and see what I really wanted to be doing with my money, and spending it on more rent for a tiny little studio (or "junior one-BR -- a studio with a wall down it -- most that I saw had a "bedroom" that was literally 7'x7' -- as in room for a mattress, nothing more) and ADDING the expense of living in Manhattan wasn't it.

Yes, my landlord is still a confrontational dick who is a lazy fuck. But the apartment is large, cheap, and QUIET, and I don't think I can deal with the disruption of a move right now.

The bottom line is, I need to slow down. That's why I need to step away from the blogsphere for a while, if not permanently.

I never went onto Gilly's blog with the intention of even being a headlined writer -- it was an honor that he bestowed upon me because he wanted to encourage my writing. Then I wound up running it, and wonderful folks like Jim and Jesse and LM and Hubris stepped in.

Now, I need to step out a while. I know I have to do LESS for a while before I can start doing MORE of the right things (like going to the gym and slowly setting some boundaries RE my time in the office). It's like cleaning out a room and rearranging the furniture -- you have to take ALL the crap out before you can put it back in.

I hope this all makes sense. I may comment on the blog once in a while, but as far as being a regular contributor, I just don't see it happening.

Thank you all for your support and understanding, and thank you to everyone running this new blog.

--Jen

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Welcome Sara

Please welcome Sara Robinson

Sara joins the Group News Blog as a Staff Writer, in addition to her accountabilities as a principle blogger at Orcinus. Her brief includes food, fashion and culture, plus any other writing she's willing to grace us with.

Those of you've whom have been around a while, know her from Comments as the delightful Mrs. Robinson. Those of you just getting to know her, are in for a treat.

We love her dearly, and are thrilled she's sharing her work with us.

Ladies and gentleman... Sara Robinson.

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NY Times Link Generator

Prevent NY Times Links from vanishing behind the Paywall: A guide for Bloggers

Dear Blogger,

Please take the time to convert all NYT links you make from now on, using the very easy to use Link Generator. That way when someone hits one of your NY Times links months later, your customers can still read the article.

Here's how:

http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink

Put in the URL, say:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

Convert it. What will come back is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?ex=1332216000&en=91c7e3bb6e19b50a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Modify the part which says partner=rssuserland to read partner=groupnewsblog
(This lets the NYT know whom is using their service. Use the name of your blog.)

Now your URL reads:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/technology/22lens.html?ex=1332216000&en=91c7e3bb6e19b50a&ei=5090&partner=groupnewsblog&emc=rss

Test it in an actual browser. Wow! See, you have the article up and running.

Now, paste this in behind the Words of the Link as the Link URL:
"As it says in the NY Times article, Tweaking the Zoom, ..."

Done. This link will NOT vanish behind the Paywall. Your readers will appreciate you.

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Welcome

This is the Group News Blog. Published by:

• Hubris Sonic
• Jesse "Doc" Wendel, and
• LowerManhattanite.

Honoring the past, living in the present, designing the future.

Welcome home.

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