A Bit of a Waffle on TikiWiki,Elgg,Xoop,SMF,phpBB and Joomla

I took bit of a wander into the world of opensource on monday. I would like to say it was an eye-opener, but frustrating seems a far better choice of word. I started the day off, with a cup of coffee, a list of requirements and the world wide web. This is my story.

I was looking for a solution for a real world community society I am involved in. Cutting short the requirement's list, I was looking for something that would do the following;

Allow members to join
Set permission levels of access across the site.
A Discussion Forum
RSVP Calendar events
File Section (public/private)
Easy to support

Pretty much what smartgroups.com did (8 years ago?), before it was slaughtered by Orange. I do not want to use Facebook, as they just steal our data, and Meetup.com (current service) does not represent value for money. Also, looking to brand our society and host it on our own domains.

I started off first of all with TikiWiki, a groupware CMS system. I was attracted by what it said on the side of the tin;

Wikis (like in Wikipedia)
Forums (like in phpBB)
Blogs (like in WordPress)
Articles (like in Yahoo News)
Image Gallery (like in Flickr)
Map Server (like in Google Maps)
Link Directory (like in DMOZ)
Multilingual (like in Babel Fish)
Bug Tracker (like in Bugzilla)
RSS Feeds (like in Digg)
Free Open Source software (LGPL)

Sounds good stuff, so I downloaded the files, went to the documentation and started through the initial set up, making sure my server met all the pre requirements. I then ftp'd the software onto my site, went to continue the installation and...  Started to run into permission problems. I should of really wrote down what the error was, but it was along the lines of not being able to access certain directories - chmod to 777. So I did, and then I got myself an internal server error 500.

It was young in the day, and I was full of coffee, so I decided to start again, paying extra attention to the instructions. Again, I ran into the 500 permission error. Now on the installation guide, under step 4. it says

"Too many permissions
If you are getting Internal Server Error 500, blank pages or similar, it could be that the permissions on the files are not appropriate for your webhost.


If you have shell access, you can run:
sh setup.sh
...

Great, I don't have shell access, what I am meant to do ? It doesn't tell me.  I did try a bit of googling for the answer, but after about 15 minutes, I was beginning to loose patience.  Having already tried two attempts, I was not in the mood for trying a third.  So it was in the Bin for Tikiwiki

Next up on the list was Elgg which describes itself as a powerful social engine which empowers individuals, groups and institutions to create their own fully-featured social environment.

I downloaded the software, went through the presteps, created a database and uploaded the software. I then started to go through the set up screens and got stuck on the entering in database information screen. Nothing seemed to happen. I entered in my details, re-entered my details and double checked. But for some reason, it was not letting me passed this screen. Again, onto the help, google and not much useful information to be found - except for checking credentials which I knew to be right. I did see people with similiar probems around the database screen, but they seemed to get error messages or a blank screen after this step. Either way, I had enough at this point and chucked elgg into the bin with Tikiwiki

Third up was XOOPs who bill themselves as an easy to use dynamic web content management system - sounds good, so I downloaded the files and got ready to install.

Having a quick look at the files I have downloaded, I see a htdocs folder. That looks familiar, I have a htdocs on my server with some files and folders, which cause problems if I delete them. There is no problem adding files (before someone says it, I know its the root), but before proceeding, I want to know exactly what xoop intends to do in my htdocs folder. I do not want it deleting anything.  Can I find an answer to this ? No, and that was the end of me trying out Xoop.

Moving away from CMS for a moment, I then decided to try Simple Machines which says

Simple Machines Forum — SMF in short — is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.

I did have a false start with the installation, which was my fault (missed one of the mod 777's) but pleased to say, on the second attempt it worked - Hoorah! Success and just in time for lunch too. After some healthy rice and some oily fish, I was able to sit down and start evaluating the software against my requirements. One thing that did impress me, straight from the start, was the ease of being able to set up different discussion groups and set permission levels. It also handles files, so that was another tick.

I then started looking into the plugs in and customisation options. I am a bit confused about how you are meant to install them, but I think that will come from further reading - it does not seem to be straight forward. Missing also was the RSVP functionality, but from searching around, I did find a mod that seems to be in development for that.  I say development, as in the comments, I see that it works on previous versions of the board and you can manually install it on the current.  I do not understand why I can't automatically install it on the current version and why I have to go around such a long winded process to manually install it.

Nor, am I prepared to spend the time finding out. The author in the comments has stated quite recently that they are working on bringing it up to date, and upgrade it. By the sounds of it, the planned extra functionality is exactly what I'm after, so I eagerly await that version which hopefully I can install with ease.

After simple machines, I then decided to try phpBB which says of itself;

Since its creation in 2000, phpBB™ has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution. Like its predecessors, phpBB™ 3.0 “Olympus” has an easy to use administration panel and a user friendly installation process, which allows you to have a forum set up in minutes.

Out of everything, this had by far the most easiest installation and I was surprised how quick I had the site up and running. The administration side looks fiddly and from playing around, it was a few false starts before getting forums set up how I wanted. Nothing wrong with that, its a learning curve.  But, when I started looking at plug ins and customisation, this is where things started to get messy.

There seems to be a confusion about version numbers, compatiability and finding plugins. When I did eventually find two plugins which would provide me with what I wanted to do, both of them had a complex install instructions, with an estimated time of 45 minutes each. I was not prepared to spend an hour and half going through fiddly instructions, for something that may or may not work, just to see if it is the functionality I am after. So it was phpBB to the bin.

Finally, I tried Joomla and they say of themselves

Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

Installation; firstly I don't like their online documentation, too clicky and all over the place. To be honest I'm being a little harsh as some effort has gone into it, but I feel it could do with an edit. After a couple of read throughs. I was pleased the installation itself went error free. Joomla looks like it can do a hell of alot, and again whilst the administration side looks like it needs a steep learning curve, there does seem to be method in the madness.

 One of the things I read, which was one of the reasons I tried it, was that in with keeping with "Software that is free, secure and of high-quality", that all official third party extensions should be under GPLv2 license for free distribution - sounds great, also the installation of extensions is straight forward.

So, its on to Joomla to look for plugins to cover the functionality I need ... Oh theres one...wait... I need to register to download it - fair enough, now a read through the reviews

This doesnt work yet and it will compromise your users data. There is a bug that doesn't seem to be fixed.

Very buggy and not well supported at this time.

Ok, I'll think Ill give it a miss and its back to the search... few alternatives later, that seems to do what I want... Ah, that is going to cost me $130 - mmm what happened to the GPLv2 ? A bit more searching and I find another one which seems to offer me all the functionality I want, plus it says its free. Great stuff! I download, install and... Wait a second, it says it can do this but where is the option. Oh wait, hidden in the small print, is I have to become a member of a club for that bit of functionalty. Fair enough - oh wait $129 dollars to join that 'club'

Bin

This is meant to be the point in the article where I say, I then found this excellent service and it does everything I want, but this is not the case. Instead I found frustration, annoyance and the want to throw something at my monitor. In the end, I am going with simple machines, as it does 70% of what I want to do, and I can fill in the gaps with a wordpress blog on the same domain.

A final rant, before getting to the conclusion. I spent a fair amount of time reading through forums of the developers of both the sofware and plugins for all of the above. This is a seperate waffle, but I would say;

"If you are not prepared to write clear documentation ...."
"If you are not prepared to keep your software/plugin up to date..."
"If you are not prepared to support your software/plugin..."
"If you are not prepared to fully test your code..."
"If you are not prepared to release robust code..."

Please do not bother at all.

Now, the conclusion. I know some people reading this may be thinking, well I should of done this, or spent more time reading the files here. I ask, what is a reasonable amount of time for someone to spend on an install ? how much technical knowledge should the user have before commencing installing the product or adding a plugin. I hate to break it to you geekboys, but normally people have been on, and using the internet for sometime now. Wordpress seems to manage it extremley well.

There is probably another set reading this, saying that I was expecting too much for free, and I would say; well i was expecting a fair bit more than what I did find. This waffle is not about paid for services (which down the line may be  my next move ). This is a waffle about looking at opensource as viable option for a real world requirement. I was expecting at the very least, to be excited about what was out there and have high hopes for the future.  All I have, is the opinion there is a lot of crap out there.

It seems to me, that if opensource is going to enter into the mainstream, then it must focus on the user more. Also, in the absence of any "figurehead', the community behind, not just the software, but any related service such as plugins. Must be aware, that their actions contribute to the image and reputation of the product. As I have mentioned in a previous post of mine, Reputation is not something that has been replaced with a profile, a tag line and a dynamic photo.

A bit of a Waffle on The Evolution of 'Google it'

Google does not have a soul. Nor does it have any reasoning ability or any... well sense at all. It does not have the wisdom of experience, nor is its entire contents peer reviewed. I am also pretty sure, that it is not the all knowing, all mighty. So, why do we trust it so ?

'Google it' over the last year has been entering more and more into everyday (offline) conversation. It is a phrase, in someways I detest ,and it got me thinking the other day, how did it make this leap? I now, present to you, my waffle on the Evolution of 'Google it'

Whilst message boards are still around, I think that phrase hammered at least 3 nails into the coffin into their slow demise. I also believe message boards to have been the perpetual grow bags for this ideology.

I would put it, that around 2005/2006 that his phrase began to appear, predominately on technical forums. I would say what happened, was technical forums went from being communties which grew at a steady pace, and where people knew (even just by handles) who each other was, to becoming influxed with new users hungry for information.

This new generation of message-boarders, were not prepared to spend their time navigating the pathways of knowledge that the old generation had laid down. Their posts were short and sharp.

"How do I do this "

At first the old generation, took the time to point to older posts, explain the rules of their ways to the new generation and tried to get along. In fairness, some took it on, but! As the numbers of this new generation began to dwarf the elders, the elders became tired and impatient. Their replies simply became:

"google it"

In this new dawn, in the era of 2007 AD, as the tribes of the elders vanished to the fringes. This new generation created new city states. Their marble built academies began to teach what they had remembered learning from the elders:

"If you want information, you need to Google it."

What the ancestors had spent many generations on building was now being ripped down, as 'google it', spread from technical forums to the social forums. Where once, posts in these forums, use to go on into their hundreds and opinions exchanged freely. They could now be bought to a crashing halt.

"Can anyone recommend a... " - google it
"Whats a good ..." -google it
"what did you think of..." -google it

The elders had respected the gods of wisdom and knowledge and devoted time to their study and preservation, now these old gods were being cast aside as in the dark of 2008, rose the light of the "Cult of I"

The cities became influxed with soothsayers from the land of Wikipedia, and found work aplenty with those who were members of this cult. No longer was study, education,verification needed. Many members of this cult lapped up the services of the soothsayers and then claimed themselves to be all powerful, all knowing. They were never short of an audience, for the mob knew no different. They only knew how to ask 'Google it', and cheered and roared when those of the "Cult of I" awnsered them.

As 2008 passed into 2009, the once safe offline world began to be infiltrated by the false demi gods of Iphonus and Androidus. Some refer to them as the angels of death, for the once passtime of solving the problems of the world at the pub table, became replaced with someone consulting one of them. As did the phoning a friend for input, or simply having a good old guess.

There are still those, in fact some who run the city state, who remember the elders and respect their old ways. But instead of reviving, promoting and expanding them, they fear the power of the mob. They are afraid they will tear apart this treasure trove and so instead, look for ways to protect it, control it, or even hide it. Some talk of introducing a state religion, others of hiding the words of the elders into tongues, so only the enlighten will find it.

A traveller from a distant land, looks at the ruins of the messageboard's, now overgrown with  'Google it' and feels as if they talk to him. They say

 "Look on my works ye mighty and despair"

But that is not the only voice. In the streets of the city, there is a murmur, a whisper. For 'Google it' is built on weak foundations, the strains and crack come more visible every day. There are those who are fed up, when contacting the "Cult of I" priests, find that they keep been given pages, that seem to serve no other purpose then to sale something. Others howl in despair when searching for enlightenment, to instead only find a Brazillian porn star, who they are not sure is male or female.

Their numbers are small, but they are growing. It has to remain a whisper otherwise the mob would lynch them; For they say there is one, who is probably no more than fouteen or fifteen, who is their saviour - the prophets already walk amongst us.

This one is unaware of it now, but spend their time at the screen, questioning why we use information the way we do. Whilst the way of the messageboard belongs in the past, they also believe the search engine belongs in the past. When they get to college, this idea will start to turn ino the apparatus that will bring down the oligarchy of Google, just like the barbarians of Microsoft was crushed.

"Vivat Respublica" they will cry when this promised day comes and a new age will begin. I know this to be true, for my rune stones tell me.

--000--

I'll end this waffle with this thought; We may read of the ancient Greeks consulting Oracles, before making decisions, or for seeking guidance and wisdom and laugh, but we ourselves seem to becoming more and more reliant on google to provide the awnsers.

Before some smart alex says it; yes google is just a search engine - my point exactly.

A bit of a Waffle on Twitter Followers - PART II.

Link to Part I



In part I of this waffle, we looked at paid for follower services and how they could work. One thing I did get wrong was, I stated that followers were removed by random, which from the comments, In the case of TwitterAdder, is people are unfollowed within a time frame if they have not followed you back. What surprised me, looking at the TwitterAdder site, is compared to some of the other services out there, they are surprisngly open in what they do. In the FAQ, you will even see how their software circumnavigates the twitter ratio rule. That is not to say their site isn't filled with the usual marketing hogwash. I especially like the 'Voted Best' statement - voted by who I ask ?

I type this with my mouth slightly raised at one side, as I say lets be honest for a second, as I know that some people reading this may need a little prompt. The vast majority of people who have signed up on twitter, have done for the soul purpose of promoting either themselves or something they have made or do. Most twitter traffic is to this effect, indeed, most of the traffic to this article is coming from twitter as surprise, I have posted links to it and a few good folk have also retweeted it.

I also haven't written this article out of love, to push forward mankind or any other noble purposes. I have written it*, in the hope that you find it interesting, that you may add me to people you are following, and ultimatelyin turn increases my readership of my short stories on "The Dead Adventurers Club" and other projects I pursue.

Social Media, by its very nature is extremely egocentric. The moment you sign up to twitter, facebook etc, You are starting your own cult of I. So was I wrong to use words such as spam in part I? Was I wrong to belittle the use of such marketing services ? This is after all a level playing field, as all users who sign up to twitter start with zero followers. Do we all not ultimately not want to get more followers, and as we are promoting ourselves, what is wrong with others using tools to achieve this ?

The first response springs to mind that its bloody annoying, but I think what is interesting and to expand out in this article, is the notion of Quality over Quantity, as it is where the Cult of I has to awnser to we, the mob.

The first question is;What is a Quality twitter follower ?

It seems there are plenty of articles out there on what bad twitter etiquette is, and list upon lists of reasons that will get you unfollowed.

But very few, and I am hard pressed to come up with a definition myself on what makes a good twitter follower. I was going to post up some of the people I follow and go into depth about why I follow them, but felt this was fruitful as there was nothing concise I could draw from it.

So maybe a better way to look at the question, is what do you want from a follower ? Remember we are being honest here, and not talking about following.

Someone who RT's everything you ever post and basques in your eternal light in a 140 characters and less ?

I guess for some, the above is correct and for others the below is true:

Enough followers, so when I post a link, X percentage will click through and make that advertisement paid per a click worthwhile.

For me personally, I would say, someone who is real, someone who is going to engage with myself, and I will not say no to the occasional RT or two.

Engagement does seem important to a lot of people, also the fact that people who are following you, are actually interested in what you are doing.

In this attempt to define a Quality twitter follower, it is interesting to note how the we (they, the mob) keeps coming back to I.

Why should people engage with you ? Do you engage with other people ?
Why should people be interested ? Do you do anything interesting ?

This then leads us to; The point (which sadly has been mutated and minefielded by the marketing moo's) that if you give quality, then you will get quality. I would therefore conclude that if you want quality twitter followers, then you need to look at what you are doing. Which would of been a nice way to end this waffle - but I don't want to end there

I mentioned further up, the cult of I and the we, the mob. There is a trend that I have noticed occurring, its subtle but its growing.

I have been surprised on several occasions that someone I follow, seems to knows XXX - whats special about that, I hear you ask ? Well, its what I refer to as a second leap. Two main areas of my interest, Filmmaking and writing, it is not surprising to find someone in the filmmaking lot, who knows someone in the writing lot. After all, scriptwriting marries the two. What I am surprised to find, is someone from my archeology lot, who follows a filmmaker I know and the two of them are several thousand miles apart in both geography and subject - I am not the link before you say.

I don't really want to be a social media commentator, for I don'l like wearing tight jeans and t-shirts, so I will keep this short; I do believe twitter has given a glimpse of how the web is going to evolve and whilst the cult of I will ,alas for good or bad be always there, its in the we, the the mob that is going to rule.

I believe this is down to the fact, that as we engage with other people on twitter, over time we begin to form a certain trust. What I am writing here is, in some ways is nothing new, but when those people we trust post "check this link" we do and, if its good we will more likely RT it.

What is forming on Twitter, whether it be highly visible, such as #fridayflash ( a group of writers who post flash ficiton on friday), or subconciously where we add people, of whom we consider to be our equals, or simply adding people with similar interests. We are effectively forming clans for the want of a better word, and many of us belong to several clans. The power of the mob comes within these clans eg.

@Joe123423 regularly tweets about humourus vintage books he picks up from junk shops. He has a certain wit to his blog posts. One of the hashtags he tweets under is #funnyOldBooks and one day he posts a humorous write on a book about the Vickers Aircraft. Quite a few people find it an absolute hoot and RT it.

@sid12312 who is an aviation expert, regular keeps an eye out for any tweets mentioning certain aircraft. One post marked vickers and the hashtag #oldfunnybooks doesnt really register, but because several people have RT in through out the day, he decides then to takes a look. He finds it amusing, RT's it to the #aircraft clan and is picked up by @Mick444 who shares it with his wife, the well known chef specialising in Ham @Julie2334, who always like a good quip and adds the original author to her followers.

So because the people of the #OldFunnyBooks who got behind @Joe123423, at the end of the day, his audience has jumped and expanded - 'A second leap' as @Julie2334, is also friends with @billy29, who whilst doesn't post under the #oldfunnybooks tag,  is friends with @Joe123423. All three of them share a love of quips and wit and indirectly,  through the we, the mob they have been linked.

Its this we, which needs to be embraced more. It is why I have mentioned people I follow in this waffle, it is also why I keep things such as the list of my favourite #fridayflash stories, and something I intend to do a lot more of .

If the number of followers is an important issue to yourself, then start looking at who you follow and what you can do to promote them - even if its just a simple tweet with "Top Lass @Angie4324 I recommend you follow her", but please note I said the word embrace, not exploit.

Finally to end,

I deliberately tweeted the first part of this waffle with hashtags such as marketing, twitter and also under some trending topics.

I got 22 new followers, of which 20 of them fit the ratio mentioned in part 1 and two of them seem to be genuine. Guess how many I have chosen to follow back ?

On the other side, to give some of my photography chums a shout, if they recommended to me, someone to follow, then I would, without giving it a second thought.

@Capn_B
@the_rts
@IcemanUK


* I should also note that part of the reasons, I write these waffles and rants on this site, is Im trying to mantain writing 500 to a 1000 words a day. If im not posting here, then Im writing something for the DAC or struggling with my archeology papers.

A bit of a Waffle on Twitter Followers - PART I

I've been meaning to do this waffle since about early December, and the exact contents of this waffle have been constantly changing. This does seem, something of a hot topic at the moment across the Twittersphere and  several People I follow, have been posting various bits and pieces of fuel to the fire from all sides of the fence.

@WizardGold (Highly recommended following, especially if you are a filmmaker or mac user) posted a review about a paid for service to add more twitter followers (sadly I cannot find the link to the podcast). A couple of weeks later @JoePritchard a software developer and author from Sheffield posted an article entitled The Social Media Number Game.  Inbetween and even as I write this post, there have been several links tweeted to articles quoting the "importance of twitter numbers" to the "importance of quality over quantity". Fnally, for this introduction, I tweeted out "What people thought about twitter follower numbers", whilst typing this up and got the following response from fellow #fridayflash author @TonyNoland

@Chance4321 Followers <40? New (or v passive). 40-400? You engage. 400-4K? You're good. 4k-40K? V good. >40K? Follower whore.

I really like WizardGold podcasts and youtube videos that he posts, and as mentioned I recomend following him. I hope he doesnt mind me saying, but I think on paying for a paid service is, in my opinion a wrong move.

I do hate to admit it, but my past is tarred with having dabbled in computer programing at one point, and what  got me thinking about these paid services is how they might work;
   
Phantom followers. 
Company X has a piece of code that generates random twitter users. For effect, they mimic the tweets of real tweeters, and to avoid detection they take their source tweets from several tweeters. When you sign up for Company X, they simply add their phatom followers to your account.

I do think the above takes place, but not for the purpose of twitter followers, I think it is more used for unloading fake viagra and giant pianists from Russia. I'm sure, we all on twitter have had @Kate23456 follow us, whoes tweet history reads

"OMG! Great Link http:///...."

"Auzzie rules footbal is great"

"Excellent link, try http:///....

"The hot glass expands to easily if you are trying that, #glassmaking.

"You must try this link, its really funny http://"

Normally this account is associated with a profile picture we have seen somewhere else before. What do we do when we come across followers like this ? We  hit the spam button - which is why I do not think that this method would be suited for the follower scam.

Pyramid Scams.
This method, I do know to exist (Twittertain I believe to be one example). Normally it involves either signing up and receiving a list of people you need to add to your followers, who in turn, you have to supply 40 odd users to follow etc etc.  Sometimes they are more cunningly disguised;Maybe they ask for you to form lists of people with similar interests, or ask you to rank pointlessly, other twitter followers. Essentially at the end of the day, it is just the old pyramid scam recycled - the maths doesn't work.

Related Words
This is how I think most of the schemes work (If I am wrong - then please comment below). You sign up for one of these services (normally a monthly subscription) and they ask you to fill in some keywords, either under the guise of "topics you tweet about" or something along those lines. I should note, at this point that the site you are subscribing to, is filled with marketing hogwash, phoney statistics and articles which have the editorial content of the "How to How To".  A lot of it is there for smoke and mirror purposes,  I advise you to stop and actually read the contents of these sites before making any decisions.

Now that you have signed up,  company X has a list of keywords which they can match to other users in their database, but much more importantly (its a number game) is this. They harvest the Twittersphere for those keywords (hash tags or keywords)  and add you as a follower to the person who posted under that hashtag or keyword, in the hope, that that person in return follows you back.

But it doesn't end there; Twitter has a Follow to  Follower ratio to stem such things.  You can read about it here from the official twitter help

To get around this, the service you subscribed to, unfollows x number (at random) to maintain this ratio.

I base this on the following

1) When you signed up, you were asked if you grant permission for company X service to access your twitter account.  There is something called the twitter API; To cut a long explanation short to you non programmer readers, this is essentially a way a programmer can do all sorts of tasks (in the relation to twitter, ie add followers) without having to use the normal web page. Instead they can do it via code or script. To write a script to search for keywords, would be extremely simple, to write a code to add/remove followers based on a ratio - again extremely simple. 

2) I back point 1 with the words of the author of Twitter Karma,( a service which allows you to remove people you follow, who do not follow you - again I question what value this service has to you).  under the donate button which mentions authentication data (effectively your permission) in the same blurb as followers and following.

2)In my inbox, I have a twitter filter for all my emails which alert me about my followers. Several names are repeated saying they are now following me, which indicates they have gone through a pattern of "Follow/Unfollow/Follow etc." Whats interesting is the numbers, if i take one example at random.

5321 followers Vs 5234 following
6144 followers Vs 5830 following

5321/5234 = 1.01
6144/5937 = 1.02

A uniform growth in the space of a month. Just to compare, is three sets  of numbers from new followers which seem to me, to be suspiscious as to why they are following me.

3398/3298 = 1.03
14598/12840 = 1.13
7506/7011  = 1.07

And as a final comparison, 3 sets of number from followers chosen, unscientifically at random.

618/683 = .9 @LeedsLibraries - The clue is in the name
1081/426 = 2.5 @philkirby - Leeds Based Author
341/483 =  .7 @BritMic - Outlaw filmmaker

In fairness, the numbers are indicative and not conclusive. I do ask however, next time you get a new follower out of nowhere, to look at the number of followers vs the number they are following.

I would like to end this first part with the following point.

Have you, or have you  known anyone, who has ever been paid to follow someone, or been offered any other benefit ?  If you are tempted to sign up for one of these services, stop and think where your money is going and what you are paying for. Then think about how you could probably spend that money on either a more traditional way of promotion, or simply go down the pub and enjoy yourself and not worry about your number of followers.

Continue to Part II

Bookmarks - They are a bit pants.

This Thursday I intend to strike the first blow against the Grammar W*nker. For this historic occasion I required some sound effects.

There is an excellent resource for Creative Commons licensed sound effects called Freesound. 
I can never remember the name of this site and as such, I have it marked in my bookmarks and this is where the problem lies.

Opening up the bookmark menu, I have a few folders at the top - fodder left over from previous attempts to organise bookmarks logically. There is one folder called film and nope, the bookmark is not there.  I then have a massive long list of unsorted bookmarks e.g.. 

Famous Curves Index 
Diliettante
Untitled document

Finally after scrolling down and clicking on a few similar named sites I get to where I want to be.  At this point, I think it would be fair to argue that surely this is my lack of organising my bookmarks in the first place, and I am always one of the first to shout out a bad workmen blames his tools. In this case, I feel the mechanism is all wrong and what is the computer there for if not to make life easier.

Looking through my bookmarks in more detail, the vast majority of bookmarks I have are for 'one off references'. They are for things like the above famous curve index(I hate to disappoint you - its  geometry related) which I marked for inclusion in a post I wrote on drawing skeletons

They stay in the bookmark menu because its six steps to remove them* and most likely I will be referring to the content within them from another application such as Pages or Word.

There are then another chunk of bookmarks where I have been looking for things such as suppliers - sometimes quite specialised such as I have a long list of Roman Armour suppliers. These are lists, which why I don't use that often, I do like to have them easy accessible.

I am also an Archaeology student and have a plethora of archaeology and history related sites, some of which I need for the duration, others to serve the purpose of a paper - which really reminds me I need to get on finish my latest paper about Otzi the iceman and his tatoos

Next up I have a big mix and match of things which people have emailed me or I have come across which seemed funny, articles I will one day get around to reading and addresses and maps for places I have once been.

Finally the bookmarks which I use daily such as twitter, facebook etc. These all exist on the toolbar.

I know there are tags you can add to bookmarks , but this is cumbersome and retrieving tagged bookmarks is not efficient. I know you can also add folders when adding a bookmark - but as mentioned earlier I think the mechanism is all wrong.

How does this sound ?

Firstly when I open my browser I want to state why I am on the web (will do a future post of my thoughts on this, a profile if you like)  If I am catching up with friends etc , then I am pretty much going to be diving straight into facebook and twitter and my email.  If however, I am going on line to research for an archaeology paper I am most likely going to be starting off with the bookmarks I have, wikipedia if I have to and I don't want my search results to include shopping sites or amusing you tube videos to be distracted by.

The interface should change to reflect this, I am not talking dramatically and it should be easy to switch back and fourth between profiles(one click).  What this does mean that say I am in my archaeology profile, anything I bookmark now will be marked as such and pages I have already marked would automatically be at the top of the menu - sorted by frequency.

On a mouse over of the item in the menu, a quick preview would appear if i need to refresh my memory.

Say I was researching for something specific , such as in the case of the aforementioned Otzi the Iceman. What I would do then is the following (this would also work If I was looking to make a list of suppliers or wanting to collect some recipes)

From the bookmark Menu I would click 'Add Topic' and type in the word "Otzi".A big X button would appear on my screen and until I click that big X, everything I bookmark will be marked Archeology - Oetzi

On top of this, Say I am only after a reference I could right click on the screen, select 'Booknote' which would then allow me to draw a red circle around the part I wanted on screen. This would save a screenshot, link, section of the page  and display all such snippets on a single scrollable page accessed from the bookmark topic menu. Each snippet would have a big red cross on it so it could be deleted easily ( a history of deleted snippets just in case)

As a Buffer , say I came across a fantastic tutorial on photography whilst in my archeological profile and I don't want to move focus from my reasearch, I could right click and choose "Bookmark under another profile" and this would save that site under the top level for my photography profile.

That's my two pence













*I'm refering to Mozzilla Browser

Bit of a waffle on flash fiction

I  posted this morning on the #fridayflash fiction part of my site my favorites from this week.  I've been thinking about what makes, in my mind a good piece of flash fiction.

I would like to stress the following before diving into this waffle; a lot of what I am saying here is about my own personal taste and it should be read as such. Who am I ? Just some Joe who also churns out some flash fiction at the DAC

I am not a fan of science fiction, so it is rare that I will read a sci-fi piece, however If I read an opening sentence that grabs us, regardless of genre I am more likely to read it through to the end and I think that is where some flash authors fall down. You have such a short space to fit the entire story in and that opening is so important.

A couple of examples of good openings from this weeks #FridayFlash round:

"Joel and Elijah knew they were in trouble even before they left for the bathroom."

This comes from John Wiswell story "The Balrog Looms"

From that we know the characters, we know the premise and we know the location.  I am now hooked in and want to know who these people are, why they think they are in trouble and what is going to happen

Another good example, this time from Shannon Esposito and her tale Messenger of Death

"Eric fumbled with the buttons on the arm rest of the stolen Nissan. A blast of humid night air hit him. It smelled like charred beef."

I used to drive an old battered and much loved 1992 Peugeot 405 and switching on the blowers would blast several years of dirt and breaking down plastic into the car, which on a hot night produced one hell of a smell. Reading this opening, I've got the atmosphere in my head, I know who the protagonist is and I have a hook into the story that the car is stolen.

Going back to where I think some authors fall down, is they try and cram too much irrelevant description into that opening

"The desk was made of dark wood with  a green leather surface with gold trim" - great!  a story about a desk.

I think if we all step back and be honest, flash fiction is not the platform for great original stories.  Effectively they are all " then he woke up and it was all a dream " or " and it turned out the person he was sitting next to was a ghost". BUT!!!! it is the place for original storytelling and what I think makes a good piece of flash fiction is the authors ability to steer the reader through the tale, keep them entertained and keep them interested to the end; Whether it be through misdirection, blanketing or just plain out lying!

A good example about steering the reader and misdirection can be found in this flash from Karen Schindler  "What a way to go" 

One of the other mistakes I think people make is concentrating too much on elements and detail which are not needed in the piece, rather than putting that focus into what we are all here for -  storytelling. To play devils advocate for a second , I do think some stories need more detail and I think they would of had been far better off as longer pieces rather than flash. Which is a shame as normally these stories, the author has had a cracking idea, but has lost it by trying to cram it into flash length. I've pulled my return to Break Creek as a potential fridayflash for this very reason (posting this short very soon btw).  There are very few authors who can cram entire worlds into a thousand worlds of less , Mazzz In Leeds is a fine example of an author who can.

Next up comes the ending and in all honesty, I think examples of bad endings are few and far between. There are sometimes disappointing endings  "It wasn't a ghost, but rather he suffered from a rare translucent skin condition" and I think this goes back to my previous points. If you don't grab the reader in that first second, you don't keep them entertained and you haven't focused on the art of storytelling; then it doesnt really matter if you have the greatest ending or the worst ending - your reader simply won't care.

A fine example of this week , which I think nicely demonstrates all three points I have made is 
The Mystery Writer Returns By Tim Vansant and an author that never disappoints in this regard is Laura Eno
So coming to the end of my waffle, there is just one final thing I would like to say which will sound familiar to those who have ever pursued artistic or photographic interests:

"First rule of composition is to break the rules of composition"

PS. Evil cats is always a winning subject.

Bit of a waffle on prose and screenwriting.

I have been doing a lot of writing this year, down to joining the Leeds Writing Group (I heartily recommend joining a writing group if you need a kick up the arse)  , #fridayflash and the fact that it is cheap to do (except for the many beers at the LWG!)

When I say cheap, I mean in comparison to my main passion which is film. Sadly work has been a bit short coming on what has been an expensive year and I haven't been able to make much progress on developing my next feature film Silva Superior due to lack of funds. 

My previous feature film Mortus Illumina (if you are reading this in the future , the link might be mortusillumina.com - why are you reading this post ?) which has been going through post production hell, should finally be seeing the light in 2010.  I mention this as I have another feature length script which is set in the same universe as MI which I have decided to short-story-with-chapters-ise ( I did try finding a verb to create a Novella but with no joy - thanks for @Britmic for the suggestion) to give myself a longer writing challenge than the DAC.

Re reading the script, it feels right for a novella and it feels like its going to be about 40'000 words (script is 101 pages) in length. The nice thing about having the script is all the story elements and arcs are already there , all I need to do is flesh out the script and convert it over.

I made bit of a start on it yesterday writing what effectively is going to be the prologue which in the script is defined at the end by "ROLL OPENING CREDITS:"

Talking to Mazz in Leeds last night, we started discussing the differences between screenwriting and story writing. Firstly there are the obvious ones such as the technical nature of scripts which requires the following of certain formatting rules and terminology, but the big one,  and feel free to disagree is that when writing a screenplay you should treat the audience stupid and keep it simple.  Whilst with prose, you treat your audience with respect.

Which when you think about it is correct, a screenplay is effectively a set of instructions which is down to the the director to execute, whilst with prose,  not only have you got to get the story across, you have also got to keep your reader entertained.

A bad script does not necessarily mean a bad film and vice versa.  There are many elements that go into a film and a vast array of talents and technicians all bring their own unique flavour to the pie that the director is cooking. However, writing prose on the other hand , the writer is alone and all they have to rely on is the words they put down.

I did do a quick google (very quick) and it seems a lot more novelists extend out into screenplays,  but I can't see any screenwriters turned novelists- are there any ?

Whilst mentioning differences so far, there is one thing that both forms have in common and that is a .... Wait for it - story and the creative process for that is like for like.  It does make me wonder though, how much the differences in discipline effect film adaptions of books, or is it irrelevant ?

As for my novella, I wouldn't hold your breath as it is going to be the first casualty to be sent to the back of the shelf when I am back working and able to  get on with Silva Superior.  But, when it does get finished (I have added a word progress meter to the sidebar), I may send it out to get my first few rejection letters or alternatively link it from the Mortus illumina site.

The Picture on this post is a still from some of the VFX work which is being done on MI at the moment and there are a couple more trailers up on youtube.