Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Blogging Temperaments

11:58, 2008-Aug-5 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 7 comments .. Link

Sitting here this morning, I thought of the many approaches people have toward blogging. And it dawned on me that bloggers tend roughly to follow four basic approaches to blogging. Some people blog about what they do, some blog about what they think, some blog mainly about what they feel, and some blog about what they experience. Of course, any blogger can and often does blog about all four things, but if you read a particular blog long enough, you'll begin to see a pattern and a preference for one of the four approaches.

These four approaches to blogging fit neatly into Keirsey's four temperament clusters, with each cluster broken down into four subgroups, which gives the sixteen personality types of the Myers-Briggs personality system.

The four blogging temperaments that correspond with the Keirsey system are:

NT Rationals -- tend to blog most about what they think
NF Idealists -- tend to blog most about what they feel
SP Artisans -- tend to blog most about what they experience
SJ Guardians -- tend to blog most about they do

If you don't already know your Keirsey Cluster and Myers-Briggs type, take the Keirsey test here and the Myers Briggs test here to see if your type matches your basic blogging focus. Feel free to post your results in the comment box. And for those of you who don't already know my type, feel free to guess.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

11:48, 2008-Jul-1 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 2 comments .. Link

The other day I got a curious email from one of the directors of a clearinghouse-type website that dealt with various types of health issues.

I was invited to join this site as a featured blogger for their new sexual health section. The writer of the email told me he'd been searching for the best "medical bloggers" and that he thought I was a "fantastic writer", and that he'd particularly liked my post about the paraplegic groom who'd been denied a church wedding.

I checked out the site and found it was a mainstream site with conventional viewpoints.

Though flattered, I was also extremely puzzled. I am in no way a "medical blogger". The only thing remotely medical I've ever written is to rant about our broken health insurance system. Indeed, the post he cited had only the most tenuous of connections to medical issues, as the focus of the article was not paraplegia, per se, but the unfairness of the Catholic Church.

I also suspected that when he extended his invitation to me that he'd not read any of my posts dealing with sex in any depth. I replied to him, expressing my puzzlement and I made it perfectly clear that I wasn't sure I'd fit in over there, given my decidedly alternative opinions on sexual matters. I told him that my moniker of "Libertine" wasn't just a nickname, but, rather, a description.

He's not replied back, so I guess I have my answer.

Oh, well.

Thoughts on Blogging

01:17, 2008-Jun-26 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 3 comments .. Link

On my daily sweep of what Alternet had to offer today, I came upon a rather elitist article about blogging, "Is Personal Blogging Fast-Fading?". The gist of the article was:

The golden age of the digital diarist may be over. Have we realized blogging isn't as fun as it sounds? Or that we're not so interesting after all?

As a long-time, successful blogger, I had to comment:

Simplistic and Misleading Article

This article would make a person who knew nothing about blogs believe that all blogs are either badly-written accounts of people's mundane daily lives or commercially driven generic blogs for the purposes of making money.

Both types of blogs exist in spades, of course, but people blog for a wide variety of reasons.

I've been blogging successfully for four years. The original blog was started as a theme blog; a platform to discuss my decidedly alternative approach to sexual ethics. It branched out into an eclectic mix of topics added to the original theme. This blog also has an extensive list of links for those interested in various types of non-monogamous sexual orientations.

I do not often write about the mundane details of my everyday life. My blog is primarily my personal op-ed page where I give my personal take on a wide variety of topics; mainly cultural and social issues, politics, religion, rants, and sex.

My goal is to make people think; to consider things in ways they might not have considered before. Whether or not they end up agreeing with me is beside the point; if they've stepped outside the box, even if just for a moment, then I've done my job.

I know I've done my job when I get emails from people who are struggling with their own non-monogamous leanings who say that my blog has helped them make better sense of things.

I've met lots of like-minded people while blogging, while also making friends with and gaining understanding of those who have a different view of the world.

A couple of blog posts about why I blog:

Making People Think

Blogging Is Its Own Reward

Your thoughts?

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

06:19, 2008-Apr-9 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 4 comments .. Link

Your Thinking is Abstract and Sequential

You like to do research and collect lots of information.

The more facts you have, the easier it is for you to learn.

You need to figure things out for yourself and consider all possibilities.

You tend to become an expert in the subjects that you study.

It's difficult for you to work with people who know less than you do.

You aren't a very patient teacher, and you don't like convincing people that you're right.

What Kind of Thinker Are You?

Libertine Super Hero Cartoon

09:13, 2008-Mar-10 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 9 comments .. Link

Slade Wilson did an entry yesterday that included several illustrations of female super-hero types. In the comment section, Texican gave a link where one could go to make their own super hero illustration. I clicked on the link and made one of my own, but I was unable to post it in the comments over there. So, for all those interested, I've posted it below. To make your own, click here.

Libertine's "Blogger's Grab Bag of Topics"

12:46, 2008-Feb-28 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 5 comments .. Link

Anyone who has blogged for any amount of time has dealt with "blogger's block", when nothing comes readily to mind to write about. The blogger might be tired, distracted, busy with other things, or simply uninspired to write. Some people solve this problem by just not posting on such days. But others, myself included, want to write every day and feel vaguely guilty if we don't put up something each day.

Like other daily bloggers, I go through phases where I'm really on a roll; things all around me become inspirations for writing and the posts almost write themselves. Unfortunately, there are other times when my creative juices have dried up; when I'm creatively constipated and have to pull out the entries, word by word, out of myself. Presently, I've been in that mode for a couple of weeks now, but I have a good reason why -- I'm working on another writing project that is sapping some of my blogging energy away from me.

But that isn't the point of today's entry. Today, I will show the reader my "grab bag of topics" I use as sources for blogging fodder.

1. Rants/Peeves
For me, this is the richest source of blogging material -- everyone has plenty of things in their lives or in general that just piss them off. These types of entries tend to write themselves. These are "what I think" entries. I find it best to write rants with a touch of humor to them, so as not to come off as a whiner, or a "whinger" as the British prefer to say it.

2. Daily Life
Again, most people find it easy to talk about things that are going on in their lives, both good and bad. These are "what I do" entries. I'd caution not to write too many entries about mundane daily events, however, as a little goes a long way here.

3. Current Events/News
Trolling the news sources for interesting news often provides good blogging material. I tend to choose political news or odd news most often, but any sort of news that interests the blogger is good, as it gives the reader insight into the blogger's personality.

4. Reminiscing
Talking about one's memories from years ago, or those of friends and family members give the reader a chance to identify or contrast with the blogger.

5. Lists
These can be humorous or serious and can be about any topic under the sun. These types of entries also invite reader participation. They can be personal, as in "My 25 Favorite Songs" or general, "25 Celebrities Who Were Only Children", for example. This is also a good format for writing entries about trivia/useless knowledge.

6. Quotations
Quotations that resonate with the blogger can be used in two main ways, either as a list of quotes, with or without comments, or a single quotation can insire an essay entry. I've also written essays based on a single word, which have turned out well.

7. Humor
Humor can be used in many different ways. One can write about funny things that have happened to them, write about annoyances in a funny way, post a funny cartoon or photo with our without comment, post a joke you've found somewhere or gotten in an email.

8. Informational
A blogger can write informational pieces about topics they have special knowledge and/or interest in. My blogging original started in this mode, as some people I knew wanted to know about my libertine life, the hows and whys. "How-to" pieces also fall under this category, as do entries about one's hobbies.

9. Opinion Pieces
This is related to the rants/peeves and informational categories. These differ as they're not necessarily presented as something that pisses the writer off, nor are they always strictly factual. These also tend to produce good comment interaction.

10. Polls/Surveys
This is related to the opinion pieces, but is more focused on the readers' opinions more than what the blogger thinks, per se.

11. Memes/Quizzes
Ranging from the serious to the silly, memes are good for days when nothing else comes to mind. They also inspire copy-cat entries for other bloggers similarly uninspired. These are best when used sparingly.

12. People
Other people, whether it's those in our own lives or someone famous, are often a source of good blogging material.

13. Photos and Illustrations
Using photos or other types of illustrations offer versatile entry possibilities. A photo can be posted for artistic value, for humor, or for something about it that inspired the writer. They can be posted with little or no comment, they can illustrate what the blogger is talking about, or they can inspire an essay.

14. Reviews
Reviews about books, movies, TV, and music are another good category, which can be useful to readers.

I'm sure there are more categories I use, but this is all that comes to mind at the present time. Feel free to include some of the elements in your "blogger's grab bag of topics" in the comment box.

15. Odds and Ends
This is a miscellaneous entry cobbled together with bits and pieces of elements that are interesting, but not long enough to make entries of their own. Such entries often include items that draw from all the other categories.

Blogging Is Its Own Reward

12:36, 2008-Jan-30 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 13 comments .. Link

I've belonged to Blog Catalog, a blog bookmarking site, for about a month now and I've noticed several generic-type blogs there that seem to exist for the sole purpose of making money. Such blogs have little to no content that indicates the blogger's personality or interests.

Also, I've seen a related type of blogger who seems mainly interested in statistics: hits, increasing their ranking in blog clearinghouse sites like Blog Catalog, comments, etc. They offer to read and comment on your blog in exchange for you doing the same, and don't seem to care whether their visitors have a true interest in their blog's contents, just so long as it drives up the statistics and rankings.

Don't get me wrong -- I am pleased to see a lot of visitors on my blog and I cherish the comments I get. But because I don't do much "shameless promotion" of my blog, the hits and comments I get are from people who are truly interested in what I've got to say and their interaction on my blog isn't solely motivated by a desire to increase statistics on their own blog. Indeed, I'm a bit disappointed when I encounter people on my blog who are thus motivated.

I joined Blog Catalog mainly to find other blogs that I'm truly interested in reading, hoping others would likewise find my blog interesting. Though I'll add nearly anyone to my friends list there who asks, only those blogs I'm actually interested in and/or who were my friends before I joined Blog Catalog go in my neighborhood.

I've never made a dime off any of my blogs and though I'd not ever turn down any money offered, it's not my motivation for blogging. One of my prime motivations is to make people think of things in ways they might never have considered before, particularly in the realm of sexual ethics. From the unsolicited emails I get, I see that I am doing just that and one such email means more to me than any money I could make or getting a top blogger award.

Plus, blogging is just plain fun. I've met lots of like-minded people while blogging, while also making friends with and gaining understanding of those who have a different view of the world.

How about you? Why do you blog and what do you see as your most valuable "reward" from doing so? Do you belong to any blog bookmarking sites and, if so, why?

Spam Bomb

12:26, 2007-Nov-5 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 18 comments .. Link

I came home last night to find that an entry I'd written a couple of weeks ago had been bombed with about 100 pieces of spam, all left within the last couple of hours. My attention was drawn to it only because Gwyn was kind enough to leave me a comment alerting me to it. If he'd not done so, there's no telling how many pieces of spam would have ended up there, as I was not notified otherwise.

If anyone is wondering how so much spam got through the spam filter, it was because the spammers are using the trackback feature to leave spam now, instead of leaving it as comments. In this way, the spam doesn't show up on your comment tracking list at all. And, apparently, our spam filter is only set to recognize spam as comments.

After seeing it, I went to my settings area to trackbacks, wanting to mass delete them. Unfortunately, there wasn't a mass delete feature, but only a place to click over from allowing trackbacks by defaut to not allowing them. I clicked this and went to laboriously delete them one by one.

Unfortunately, as quickly as I was deleting the spam from the top, the fucking spammers were adding new ones at the bottom. Apparently, the option of not allowing trackbacks does not work for entries already written. I went back into trackbacks and found that I'd have to go into the edit feature for the individual entry and to click over to not allowing trackbacks for that individual entry before I could stop them from adding more spam as I deleted.

But when I edited the entry not to allow trackbacks, I found I couldn't delete any more of the spam that still remained. When I hit delete, I was taken to a screen that advised me that this blogger didn't allow trackbacks. Fucking hell -- I wanted to DELETE the damn things, not ADD more! So I had to click back to allowing trackbacking again, for the time it took me to delete the rest of the spam. I just had to work fast enough so that the spammers weren't adding new spam faster than I could clear it away.

Once I did this, it took me quite awhile to get all the spam cleared off that entry. After I'd gotten rid of all of it, I went back into edit and clicked back over to not allowing trackbacks.

I'd advise everyone to check their entries over the last month or so for these spam trackbacks. If you hadn't already done so, go to your trackbacks setting and check to not allow trackbacks by default and, if you've got the time, to go over entries already written and click over, one by one, to not allow trackbacks.

I'd also ask for a place where trackbacks are listed that would have a mass delete feature, just like what we have for comments. The spammers have gotten wise and don't leave spam as comments anymore, so this feature for trackbacks would be most useful. It would be also nice that when we choose the option of not allowing trackbacks on already-written entries, that it would allow us to delete ones that are already there.

Has any of you been spam bombed like this recently?

Libertine Avatars

02:38, 2007-Aug-16 .. Posted in blog stuff .. 0 comments .. Link

Since I began blogging a few years ago, I've made avatars of myself on various sites. Following are the ones currently in my collection:

These are my Yahoo IM avatars

This is "Libertine Simpson"

This is an Elouai "doll"

I forget where this one came from

South Park Libertine

Three small avatars from Abi-Station

I enjoy making these icons and avatars of myself. The Yahoo avatars actually look quite a bit like me. Feel free to post any of yourself in the comments and let me know of any avatar making sites I might have missed. And don't forget to vote for which avatar of me you like best.