From the yearly archives:

2009

Upgrading WordPress 2.9 and Thesis 1.6

by Kristi on December 31, 2009 · 27 comments

I have spent the last two days upgrading all of my sites to the latest version of WordPress 2.9, and for Kikolani, the upgrade for Thesis 1.6 as well.

Upgrades generally make me nervous, as you never know what kind of issues you are going to run into with various plugins and other customization work you have done. Fortunately, I had a lot of sites to mess around with before moving onto this site and my client sites. So here are my experiences in the magical world of upgrading.

WordPress Upgrades

Dofollow – from WordPress 2.8.4 to 2.9
My first attempt at upgrading was with my Dofollow Blog Directory. It was sitting at version 2.8.4, and I used the automatic upgrade option which went smoothly. No issues with my plugins, which I forgot to deactivate before upgrading.

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2010 Social Media Wishlist – New Features for Facebook, StumbleUpon, & Twitter

by Kristi on December 28, 2009 · 44 comments

As I am on various social networks, I find myself thinking “Wow, I wish they had ___ which would make ___ easier.” So here are some of the changes I’d like to see on the social networks I use the most in 2010.

Facebook Wishlist
Facebook

  • Checkboxes to select all groups that you want to remove yourself from, instead of having to click “Leave Group” and wait for the page to refresh after each or having to go into each group page and leave.
  • Checkboxes to select all notifications that you would like to ignore / accept / block instead of having to do it one at a time.
  • Applications cannot leave messages on your wall without approval – period. Especially ones I didn’t sign up for. Or one setting that I can check set to approve or deny applications posting to your wall.
  • Tag photo approvals – Myspace even has an option to approve your tag in photos before it shows up on your profile / status updates.

Continue 2010 Social Media Wishlist – New Features for Facebook, StumbleUpon, & Twitter

Fetching Friday – Resources Mashup, Old City Bar & Happy Holidays

by Kristi on December 25, 2009 · 29 comments

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, an Old City Bar, and the week in review at kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging

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Twitter Direct Messages – Best (and Worst) Practices

by Kristi on December 21, 2009 · 49 comments

TwitterWhen I started out on Twitter over a year ago (@kikolani), one of the first things I noticed was my Direct Message box. As I began to follow people, I was excited to get those private messages, assuming people were just that into contacting me after I started following them. They began as simple thank you for following messages, and eventually became a mixture of real messages and automatic ones. Now, I would guess that 90% of the items in my Direct Message box are automatic DM’s from a service that are generated every time I follow someone.

First off, I would like to say I have nothing against these kinds of messages, because after a few months of trying to send personalized messages to all of my new followers, I found that I was spending an absurd amount of time doing them, with not a high amount of results. I began SocialOomph (formerly TweetLater) to send welcome messages to all of my new followers. Just a simple message to thank them for following and direct them to Kikolani and my portfolio as well.

I have decided to change it up, and I thought maybe I would take a stroll through my own overflowing Direct Message box to see the current trend in Direct Messages. The following are the types of DM’s I found awaiting me in my inbox.

Thanks for Following

This is quite common, just a simple little “Thanks for following me” message. While those are sincere and to the point, I think I kind of like getting a little more information about them, like what they do or are interested in.

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Fetching Friday – Resources, Snuggies for Dogs & the Week in Review

by Kristi on December 18, 2009 · 30 comments

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, snuggies for dogs, and the week in review at kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging

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Is Closing Blog Comments a Good Idea?

by Kristi on December 17, 2009 · 45 comments

Today, Ari at AriWriter wrote about closing or moderating blog comments in response to another blogger who is closing comments on posts after two weeks.

Reasons I Keep Comments Open

While I can understand why closing comments on older posts is a good idea due to all of the heavy spamming that goes on (I have considered doing it myself from time to time) ultimately I think that commenting should stay open for the following reasons.

Encouraging Comments

One major goal as a blogger is to receive comments on their posts. The last thing you want to do is to have a first time visitor to your site come in on an old post, get really excited about responding to it, just to find the comments are off. Assuming they are not the ultra determined type to go seeking out your comment form or other contact information, they may just leave and you will not get the chance to interact with them and possibly convert them into a loyal reader.

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Facebook Applications Adding Embarrassing Content to Your Profile

by Kristi on December 13, 2009 · 33 comments

When I first started out on Facebook, I got really into some of the many fun applications, adding various ones to the Boxes tab of my profile. And after a bit, I got away from using the apps and focusing on other areas of Facebook like the groups, pages, etc.

So last night, when I decided to take a peek at my Boxes tab for the first time in awhile, you can imagine my surprise when I found a straight up porn image sent to me by one of my “friends” in an application that allows people to send you images, videos, etc.

Facebook Boxes Tab

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Fetching Friday – Lots of Blogging & Social Media Resources

by Kristi on December 11, 2009 · 22 comments

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, a New Moon parody, and the week in review at kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging

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Best of Social Media on Kikolani in 2009

by Kristi on December 9, 2009 · 22 comments

In conjunction with the best of blogging articles for 2009, here are the top social media articles on Kikolani this year.

General Social Media

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Best of Blogging on Kikolani in 2009

by Kristi on December 8, 2009 · 22 comments

This year has been a great one for Kikolani in terms of choosing a focus on blogging and social media, and then sticking with it. The following is a compilation of the best blogging articles on Kikolani for 2009.

Benefits of Blogging

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