I was just just relaxing, waiting for the dinner to cook, and dropping Entrecards… I read a little here, a little there, on various blogs, and the realization hit me:

I just LOVE having friends from all over the world! It’s like having pen pals again!

When I was a kid, I had a few pen pals, one from Philadelphia, PA, one from Austin, TX, and another from Japan. I lost touch with the girl from Japan rather quickly after getting her address (she never wrote me back). The other two girls I kept up with, and one I still contact from time to time. I just loved having pen pals! I like learning about others’ cultures and families and governments, and everything!

With Entrecards, I can have that again. I find it so thrilling to know people from all amazing places in the United States, Singapore, Portugal, UK, Netherlands, Germany, and more! It’s really just… amazing to me. I love how the Internet has brought us all together. It’s been a real slice, folks!

So I just wanted to say I really appreciate you guys. It has enriched my life, getting to know you. I really cherish our friendships!

I’m stunned. I found out this week that more of my favorite blogs have been deleted from Entrecard (or left the community), and some are getting deleted for stupid things like their widgets not showing up in Internet Explorer. COME ON, this is a qualification for Entrecard?! Just about every blog will be intermittently deleted because of technical problems with Internet Explorer!

Hey, Entrecard– you have had a whole lot of technical problems over the months, much, much more than us bloggers all combined. Cut us some slack for tech problems, would ya? After all, that’s what we did for you!

Some EC bloggers are complaining that they “can’t see others’ widgets.” So these bloggers are instructed to report the offending blogs to the EC Higher Powers. I have a kinder, gentler solution: Mr. Blogger, why not post a comment on the widget-less “offending” blog, and ASK the blogger if they realize their widget isn’t showing. Wouldn’t that be more courteous than reporting to the Widget Gestapo where the blog will be instantly deleted? And maybe it’s a problem with your browser, Mr. Blogger?

I used Firefox for dropping Entrecards, but it seemed that half the blogs I visited had no widget. How could this be? I tried Opera browser, and lo and behold– widgets! So I use Opera to drop cards. Actually, I am so impressed with Opera’s speed and reliability that I use it all the time now.

My point is this: a little bit of understanding and common courtesy will save an unsuspecting blogger a heck of a lot of teeth-gnashing. And there IS such a thing as taking “quality” standards too far, ya know?

You see, at first, quick and decisive deletions of blogs from Entrecards was touted as the way to get rid of “splogs” and spammy blogs. Then there came “blog quality” guidelines, very vague in my opinion, where GOOD blogs were suddenly deleted from the system. Some were deleted because their web servers were down, others had Internet Explorer tech problems, others up and left out of disgust for these new stricter and arbitrary regulations.

I’ve read at the forum that EC doesn’t give bloggers a “warning” of impending deletion because they “don’t have the time or resources.” Um, well all of this irresponsible and accidental deleting and reinstating is eating up a lot of resources, too. Won’t you err on the side of your fellow bloggers?

The whole thing is unjust and makes me sick to my stomach. Entrecard, I think it was better when you had splogs in the system. At least we bloggers had some say in the matter whether we wanted to visit and drop on such blogs. Now, Entrecards seems bent on devouring its own. Somehow, like the Patriot Act and the meaning of the word “terrorist,” “splog/non-quality” has morphed from “someone who does harm” to “someone who doesn’t fall in line with our way of thinking.” It’s also really scary that just by speaking out about these injustices, I’m really afraid that my blog may get deleted!

Graham at EC (if you even read our blogs): This community had a lot going for it, but within a few short months you’ve completely turned around and made EC another blue-blood country club hell-bent on stifling creative freedom and controlling blogs. I hope I don’t get deleted from EC, because I like the traffic and I love the people I have met through it (some of whom are now deleted, sad to say). I’m hoping my rant, combined with the rants of others, changes things. I think that the greed, arrogance, and exclusivity have gone too far.

Firstly, I’d like to make the point that without Entrecards and the Inbox feature, I’d never have known about Turnip of Power. K?

I was dropping Entrecards and visited Turnip of Power. It’s an OK blog– but it’s about making money online and etc (zzzzzz). Yet, there have been some good tech articles and I like the writing style. So I visit. It’s also nice that TOP recipro-drops. However, Turnip’s latest post, Turnip Saves Entrecard!, goes awry, IMHO. I’ll show you how.

Turnip says:

The problem facing Entrecard is that it has become little more than a link exchange, with the entire advertising system worthless.

As I understood it, EC was intended to be a place where bloggers could discover others’ blogs, and drop cards on each other so that others could find your blog. This was how the system was promoted in the beginning, before becoming another money-making scheme and then not again. Did this change? By it’s very nature, EC is a blogger’s network. This is why I LIKE Entrecard. Without EC, I never would have found 100% of the blogs I now love, nor the bloggers who have become new and very dear friends.

And I do have to dispute the term “link exchange.” Although we bloggers “advertise” other’s blogs via the widget, I am not linking to others’ blogs– I am linking to the EC site that links to the others’ blogs. I get, for example, no PageRank juice when blogs host my widget. I think the term “link exchange” is debatable and not completely accurate, not when you are talking about blog to blog.

Turnip says:

The writing on the wall was there when people started asking about importing the entire RSS inbox instead of the 20 most recent… Why did it ever become so imperative to drop on a spammer simply because they dropped on us? Because we want to max out our 300 card limit, but there aren’t 300 easily found quality blogs in the system. Sure we all have different values. But I had a hard time finding 20 really good blogs, let alone 300. So everyone takes the easy way out, dropping their 300 cards as quickly as possible just to get it over with.

Firstly, there are WAAAAAAY more than 20 “quality” blogs on EC. I have probably seen 20,000 of the EC blogs. I’d estimate that of those 20,000 that I have seen, 750 to 1,000 of them are TERRIFIC blogs that I like. I suppose “quality” is very subjective. Maybe my tastes are wider or my standards are lower, but there are WAAAY more than just 20 good blogs in EC. Turnip, where have you been visiting?!

I haven’t been with EC since it’s inception, but I have been with them since before the credits became king. I will say that it is a leap to judge that the request for entire RSS feeds proves that EC is a link exchange. I find the Inbox a valuable resource. With it, I can see the widgets of the people who have dropped on me. I can discover new blogs this way. Spammers will be in the Inbox, too– but spammers visit my blog all the time, anyway! It is a leap to say that we all will click on the ads of spammers and therefore the Inbox should be removed. What’s going to happen if more and more control measures are applied is that there will be so many, many control measures that you will force out just about everyone! There has to be some kind of freedom here. No, we don’t *want* spam blogs, but we all know that there WILL be spam blogs that get in. Leaving it up to the blogger is best. Let US decided if we want to continue to drop on crap blogs. I agree that there should definitely be a moderation panel that approves blogs, but eliminating the Inbox for fear of spam blogs slipping in is nonsensical. It is important that EC has quality control measures, but if it becomes too stringent, it will wind up choking everyone out. The beauty of EC is that we can EXPLORE and discover new blogs. Isn’t that enough?? Everything else is extra.

Turnip says:

There lies the success and failure of Entrecard in one simple sentence. “We all want people to visit our blog, but we don’t want to visit other people’s blogs”. Now if we have to live with that necessary evil, let’s make it as quick and painless as possible. Entrecard can deliver the traffic, and you learn quickly what it takes to get that traffic. Unfortunately that has nothing to do with credits or advertising anymore. At this point, people are thinking “keep your credits, I just want the 300 people I drop on to drop on me”.

Um, I think the first sentence is complete error. Sorry, Turnip. I admit, I LOVE it when people visit my blogs. But I also LOVE visiting others’ blogs. I love discovering new sites, new people, new places, etc. EC has opened up a whole new world of Egyptian cats that move to Germany, of stuffed cow mascots, of strawbale homes, of new WordPress tips, of Thailand smiles, of Georgian car lovers, of Filipino recipes… I LOVE what Entrecards has done. And I think it is a great discipline, dropping 300 cards. It’s not like anyone HAS to drop cards to be in EC. No one is being forced to drop 300 cards, so why is it so reproachable that some do, even if some do it just because we like to visit blogs and couldn’t care less about credits?

I care not about the money-making credit-scheme end of it. I am coming from the pure blogging for pleasure and the joy of making friends. That’s all I get from EC and that’s enough for me. I love the Inbox and seeing whose been visiting me, I love the freedom of mingling with the John Chows and Posh Mamas of the group free of charge, and I love the traffic.

Please, don’t turn Entrecards into another World Trade Center for bloggers. Once the “fun” and “free” elements disappear and hierarchical classes of bloggers are established, you’ve lost the touch and become just another machine among all the other machines out there.

OK, now– this WON’T be a huge “Like WOW here’s the latest microscopic speck of news from Entrecard” post. I see far too many of those while I surf blogs. And I’m not saying that I don’t like them; they are interesting and it’s great to know about the latest development, but… I kinda grow tired of reading 100+ posts about the latest little nut or bolt that’s been added to the Entrecard machine.

So with that said, I’m now going to talk about the latest nut and bolt added to the Entrecard machine! :D Hold the tomatoes and don’t throw cabbages at me yet! Remember, I did NOT blog about the SezWho addition, the DiggIt addition, the Firestorm issue, the advertising formula change, the EC pop-up plugin… etc etc ad nauseum….

But I have been waiting for this– the Entrecard toolbar! Finally! I do like toolbars. I read about the features, and I have to say they’ve done a great job. I like the favorites option the best. I have been wanting to add favorite blogs to my list, but in the past it has always been so laborious to do so. (Entrecard does need to make it easier to search for blogs in the EC site).

The thing I DO NOT like about the toolbar is that it will only work with Firefox 3. Pardon me for being brash, but FIREFOX 3 IS A PIECE OF CRAP. I use Opera to drop EC cards. Firefox ALWAYS crashes on me and half the time the widgets don’t even show up– I am always reloading reloading reloading. Ugh. So… I’ll download the toolbar to have handy when (and if) I use Firefox, but I probably won’t all that often.

Oh well.

P.S. Did you notice that Graham has 332 messages waiting for him in his Gmail inbox?? when does that guy eat or sleep?! lol

Please please please PLEASE don’t play music on your blogs. It makes my browser crash and sometimes I have to reboot the whole blasted computer. Besides, sometimes I have my own music running, or my speakers are up a little too high after the last song I heard… PLEASE don’t automatically play your music on your blogs. If I don’t drop my Entrecard on your blog (and I am a devout reciprocal dropper) anymore, that’s usually why. Also, if you can’t control yourself and can’t have a lucid thought without also having to have a naked woman in every post to titillate you, then that’s why I don’t recipro-drop, either.

Why have I been wasting my life dropping Entrecards with Firefox when there is Opera?!?! I used Opera to drop cards today and it took me a little over an hour to do 300. with Firefox, it takes me 3-4 hours!!! I always get the widget missing, or the page doesn’t load and then I have to keep reloading and reloading, or Firefox will just crash on me.

I used Opera and not once did the browser crash! I had to reload only TWO times for 300 drops, and widgets didn’t show up on about 5 blogs. I was awed. It’s fast, it’s easy! And when I clicked on a widget (yes, I’m a widget-clicker), the new page actually LOADED. That almost NEVER happened with Firefox. Wow. I think I love Opera. Do they have promotional pens, ‘cuz I’d sure pass ‘em around. The only thing I don’t like about Opera is that the skin is ugly and that the scrolling is a little jerky. I’m working on that.

I’ve grumbled before about my ISP intermittently booting me offline when I try to drop Entrecards. It’s SO frustrating! Sometimes my Firefox browser will crash when this happens… and I just can’t bear to use Internet Explorer. Grrrrrr. I’m keeping my eyes open for a new ISP. Here’s a juicy tidbit I discovered: Charter internet. They are having a special right now– $14.99 a month for speeds up to 5Mbps!!! Right now with my current (lame) ISP, I get only about 768 Kbps. :-p I can’t imagine what 5 Mbps feels like, probably like the difference between a Volkswagon bug and a Ferrari?

If you’re looking for an ISP, check out Charter. Their offer of $14.99 is good for 6 months, and they’ll throw in a $25 Shell gasoline card, too. This offer expires July 31, so make up your mind! Charter allows a “test drive” of 30 days, so if you decide you want to go back to your Volkwagon bug, you can. As for me, I’m seriously thinking of driving that Ferrari. If you have Charter, please leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to hear of your experience!

I’ve had Entrecard on this blog for a few weeks now. I’ve also read SCADS and SCADS of posts about Entrecards– how you can pimp the system, get more credits, sell credits, fanagle the widgets, make and use plugins… blah blah blah. I’m not a big dropper for this blog, anyway. Who has all that time?! And where do people get all that time to build plugins, create complicated Top 100 Droppers Lists, and fabricate and maintain contests?!

Well, I’ve come to some conclusions of my own.

–>   I will not– under no circumstances– advertise my card on a blog who dumps the widget at the bottom of their blog. That is so rude, and it just screams, “HATE ME.” So if you have your Entrecard at the bottom, or have it squeezed between those phony Entrecard images (you scheisters know who you are), kiss traffic from me good-bye.

–>   There is NO EXCUSE for 0 clicks. I have spent countless credits on blogs– some as high as 600 credits per day– with ZERO return. This is uncalled for. We are supposed to do this together, right? If you are at someone’s blog and you drop your card, is it TOO HARD to click the advertisement? For Pete’s sake, you get the chance to drop another card, anyway! 0 click-thru’s is criminal in the Entrecard system. I say we start an “I Click” movement amongst us.

–>   The higher the cost of the blog, the fewer the clicks. I’m not saying it’s a totally scientific conclusion, but it’s just something I have noticed. The “middle-class” blogs are the ones that give me the highest click-thru rate.

–>   The best time to drop cards is between 2 and 3am. Eastern Time. I have seen more traffic when I get my widget’s face in everyone’s drop inbox then.

So before you scoffers come out of the woodwork and pick on my little blog and my scanty droppings (oo that didn’t come out right), :-p on you. Cuz I have three other blogs in the Entrecard system, and I am a top-dropper for two of them. I think I’m qualified to speak my opinion.

:D Thanks for listening!

Have you heard the expression “slaves to be free”? I think it’s been around since the Civil War era. Today, however, I think Americans are slaves to be slaves.

I’d heard a story a few years ago, a true story. It is a poignant picture of the state of the American culture and mind in the world. In this story, Russian and American men were working together on some state-sponsored activities in Russia (if I recall correctly, the storyteller said the two countries were working together during the early 50s, before the Space Race got heated). The men had completed their duties for the morning and had some leisure time before the next assignment. One young man recollects noticing a difference between the Russian men’s leisure activities and the American men’s activities. Overwhelmingly, the Americans were preoccupied with games, sports, and girlie magazines. The Russians were poring over books on complex mathematics and science discoveries. The young man was amazed at the difference and was not surprised when the Russians were the first in space before the Americans. Despite Russia’s crippling communist policies, the Russians are exceptional mathematicians. Look at the progress they have made with computer software, as they are the primary creators of hacker software (and I’m not talking about the “kiddie” pranks that most American teenagers do).

Looking through endless blogs thanks to Entrecards, I have had that story come back to me this week. I’ve been noticing the nationalities of the bloggers, and am starting to discern a pattern, too. What do you think? I’ve have seen that most American bloggers are discussing pornography, celebrities, and sports (or have dedicated large amounts of their content to thinking about it or posting pictures of it) while many Scandinavian bloggers discuss their environment (Scandinavians have the best photo blogs that I have seen). Filipinos discuss family– almost always marriage– or celebrities, and Canadians discuss world events like global warming, etc.

I think this casts a negative and detrimental light on America. Also, it explains why America is such a fat and lazy country. Let’s be honest, now. I love America with all my heart, but America has become so fat and lazy that all she thinks about is sex, sports, and marketing skills. Where are our great literature blogs, history blogs, science blogs? If there is any self-improvement content out there, it’s “fitness” blogging, but even those are geared so that we can look sexier– which really just goes back to the sex obsession.

And look at our politicians. They can’t even keep it zipped, even though it means their disgrace and ruining their families.

It makes me wonder, also, another thing. Why is our culture this way? Why are we in this country pumped with pornography, violence, sports, drugs, and debt until we puke? Here are some things to consider:

Anyone ever read Elders of the Protocols of Zion? Why is our culture this way, and what made it this way? I think if we continue on this path, we will no longer be free, but slaves– slaves bound to our own slavery. And what happens to those kinds of slaves?