interesting blog post more than a decade old
https://petescully.com/category/well-im-very-cynical-as-you-know/old-blog-2005-2008/
old blog 2005-2008 – petescully
2008-04-08
None
<div><section>
<main>
<article>
<div>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2398054258/"></a></p>
<p>I drew this 19 years ago, when I was just thirteen. 19 years ago!! The Berlin Wall was still up! Nelson Mandela was still in prison! George Bush was the new President of the USA!</p>
<p>I was digging through my old drawings from when I was a kid recently and thought I should share them with you. I remember drawing this (I still use the ‘mechanical’ eraser I used in this very drawing, there’s continuity for you!); I was a huge Beatles fan, and trawled the record stores and junk shops of London for old original LPs (plus a load of old albums my uncle gave me). Note how I’ve given Macca his real first name too.</p>
<p>I did another version of it at 16 (below left), in 1992, with stronger values and less chin, but I prefer the first one for its innocence. I was doing my GCSE art in ’92 and several of the other pictures below are from that time; below right is a watercolour copy of Cezanne that I did at 15 or 16, from a postcard picked up at the National Gallery – I used to go down to London most weekends to go to the galleries (and the record stores).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2397223569/"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2397222719/"></a></p>
<p>Ten years later I ended up living in Cezanne’s town of Aix-en-Provence, which is where I met my wife (and therefore how I ended up living in the US). Funny old world.</p>
<p>Below is another from 16-year old Pete in 1992, an unfinished one of Jesus from some other painting I can’t remember. An interesting choice for such an atheistic lad as I, but even though I’m A NonBeliever I know aestheticism sometimes trumps atheisim; years later I did a one-person art performance piece at university about being drunk on the underground, which ended up with me on a crucifix (supposed to be King’s Cross).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2398055216/"></a></p>
<p>The pencil one below left is a pastorly Peter Cushing (looking more like the Crow Man), also from 1992. I seemed to have an easier time with light and dark values back then than I do now. It’s from one of my horror-movie books; I was really into old Hammer Horror films (I have another sketch of Christopher Lee too), and in 1992 I wrote and performed an eight-song musical called “Dracula AD 1992” (an homage to the 1972 Hammer movie), which included such classic songs as “This Motel’s Giving Me The Willies” and “Freshly Impaled Village Maidens”. Below right: a later picture, 1995, 19 years old and obsessed with oil pastels. Doesn’t look massively like me, but you get the idea. I didn’t wear glasses very often back then.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2398054720/"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2397223349/"></a></p>
<p><em>Originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33982054/from-the-pencil-of-young-pete">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p>Let’s make it clear : the Olympic Torch is not actually important. It doesn’t matter if it goes out; mankind is sufficiently advanced to find a way to light it again. You don’t need heavy-handed sky-blue thugs (Seb Coe’s own words) to protect it from people venting their anger at the one-party-dictatorship in China and their brutal crackdown on Tibetan ‘separatists’. If you have to put it out and jump on a bus, it’s okay, you can admit it. The whole torch relay was started by the Nazis anyway. You can’t pretend that it was never political.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what I think of when I see the Olympic torch (apart from the Aryan-supremacist iconography and the former symbol of the Tories) (and yes, apart from a Mr.Whippy). That bloody Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis. And I’ll tell you what I think of when I think of that. An exchange trip to France I took at college, when I shared a room with a guy who listened to it on his headphones, after dark, when he thought I was asleep (I so wish I had been), and I could hear him busy doing the 15-centimetre sprint, tossing the caber, giving the bronze medal a good polish, slapping duncan goodhew on the head. And yelping, “putain! putain!”, as if I couldn’t hear him or something. I don’t know what he was thinking of, but I bet it wasn’t Nigel Havers.</p>
<p><em>originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/34098334/don-t-mention-the-torch">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2398106914/"></a></p>
<p>I bet you thought this series was over…well I said I’d make it to 24 and I will. This is number 21 of 24. I apologise for the hiatus; it was due to the recent writer’s strike.</p>
<p><em>Originally posted on <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33988438/still-seeing-davis">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2394180827/"></a></p>
<p>My guitar, the hohner acoustic i’ve had for eleven years now, bought at macari’s on charing crosss road in january 1997 when i worked at a chocolate shop on oxford street, been with me to several countries, now here in california. That orange plectrum attached to the strings there is the same one they gave me when i bought it, it’s still the only one i’ll use. The wood is matt, and browner than it looks here. I do have another fancier electric, but this is the one i grab the most. I played some soothing songs to my baby son today, he seems to like the sound and the shape of the guitar; one day, in the future, I will buy him his first guitar. He may even get this one. This wasn’t my first guitar, however; my first proper one that worked (not including the bad car-boot acoustics i had) was a westone electric that my brother gace me, I loved that guitar, though it’s clapped out now. I passed it on to my nephew just before moving to america. Boys and guitars, important allies.</p>
<p>(purple micron .01, w&amp;n cotman watercolour, moleskine watercolour paper)</p>
<p><em>Originally posted at: </em><em><a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33841834/E-A-D-G-B-E">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p></p>
<p>Sketched today at lunchtime, while on my lunchbreak, after eating lunch. Orange flowers by the arboretum, uc davis; that i believe is the law school there, that building type thing like. They love lawyers in america. If you’re not a lawyer or a doctor, or maybe a cop, then you cant get into a tv show.</p>
<p><em>originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33625462/april-is-the-cruellest-month">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2389280542/"></a></p>
<p>I am so glad i scanned this before adding the wash. Yes, i added a bad greeny-blue wash to it, and it looks bad bad baby, bad as in not good mate. So while you might think that the theme for illustration friday ‘SAVE’ refers to the money supposedly saved here, it actually refers to the fact i saved this before going on to deface the original with sea-green. So there.</p>
<p>Don’t go giving me evils!</p>
<p><em>Originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33638458/illustration-friday-save-or-i-ve-got-a-pocket-full-of-pretty-green-">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p><em>Ian Rush said that if you don’t drink your milk, you won’t even be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley.</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2384081777/"></a></p>
<p><em>Accrington Stanley? Who are they?</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2384081809/"></a></p>
<p><em>Exactly!!!</em></p>
<p><em>Originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33507130/got-more-bottle-than-united-dairies">2osix.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p></p>
<p>The 18th Worldwide Sketchcrawl took place on Saturday, and I popped across the Causeway for the midtown Sacramento version. Three other sketchers were there, at the Sutter’s fort meeting point; none made it to the ending point, at the Streets of London pub on J street. It was the seventh time I’ve done the Sketchcrawl, and it’s nice to know I’m absolutely not the only one out on the streets somewhere on the planet with pen and sketchbook. Here are my results:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2372319673/"></a><br/>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2372320127/"></a><br/>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/petescully/2373157184/"></a></p>
<p>I went to the art store, and found my favourite sketching tool yet: a fold-up stool that easily fits into my small shoulder bag! Only $11. No more sitting on the dirty floor; it means I can sketch anywhere now (normally I find the comfy spot first, then choose what to draw).</p>
 
	</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p>Oh i do like to be a Brit in America. Since moving out here I have discovered that the natives will deem even the most Burnt Oak of accents the mark of intellect and compliment us by imitating it. Things we take for granted, such as newsagents on every corner, unfriendly bus drivers, and cheap bread are notably absent; even electric kettles are like fresh milk in France. To make us feel at home, however, we have a newspaper, one that I only really discovered this past weekend. It’s one of those free ones you find in pubs, a bit like the ones Aussies and Kiwis get outside tube stations on west London, and it’s patriotically called “Union Jack”. Here (and not on that BBC website or anything) is where Brits get their news, and what news.</p>
<p>“Public Loo Closures Causing Protests Nationwide”, runs one headline. “Monk Killed in Lawnmower Accident” should be the title of a movie. “HRH Prince Andrew visits Orange County” was another; “HRH Prince Andrew”?? I’ve never heard him called that in a tabloid headline before. The paper seems to have a bit of a something for Andy, as he crops up several more times in other articles. But I can’t really poke fun at headlines, you’d get these in any British local paper (“rising bollards claim another victim” was my favourite one from the Ely Standard, or was it the Cambridge Evening News). I will poke fun at the adverts though, each and every one of them promoting some crappy little tea shoppe or something where you can spend your funny-looking dollars buying Kippers, Steak and Kidney Pies, or Mr. Kipling cakes. Except one: the word “Bollocks” leaps out in large letters, above a picture of a dog, with the caption “Real Bollocks to Hang Anywhere in your Home”. I don’t know what it’s actually selling, but who cares?! (It’s one of the things Brits really love, that even the most curse-sensitive of Americans will not understand one of our most beloved swearwords).</p>
<p>Other sections include some badly written columns by some old English expat wallies turning out any old shit that relates to British American relations (hold on a minute, isn’t that what I do..? ), and a load of other useless bits of month-old non-news from various bog-standard towns around the UK, dog loses pen in port vale, that sort of thing. The saving graces of this paper – let’s face it, this ridiculous rag with too many British flags on it not to be slightly suspicious – are a couple of detailed columns letting us know what i currently going on in Eastenders and Coronation Street. Now that’s the sort of thing Brits really want, updates on the soaps; expats who’ve lived abroad so long all the characters have changed and they can’t follow any of it anyway. It was however the appalled-in-woking reaction of the columnist herself that made me guffaw the most: “It was hard to describe how violent and disturbing those Vic smashing scenes were. I personally hope they don’t do anything like that again.” They have a real cutting edge TV critic there in the Union Jack. Victor Lewis-Smith, you’d better keep an eye on your job. The rest of us had better keep an eye on our bollocks.</p>
<p><em>Originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/33420034/Union-Hacks">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<div>
<p>Last week I was in the bookshop talking to the guy behind the counter, to whom I was giving some dvd footage I had shot of the Harry Potter event in July (I’m a very slow editor), when a guy in a cyclist’s helmet, who had been struggling to write a cheque (in this day and age), looked up and interrupted. “Potter?” he rasped, accentuating the double t in what appeared I believe was an attempt at a British accent. Slightly off-ended (if not exactly offended), I shot him a quick look and carried on. He said it again in case I hadn’t heard him the first time, and I nearly responded “Malfoy?” but chose to ignore. He stayed quiet and went back to writing his cheque (they spell it ‘check’ here, you know). After a few minutes he approached me and apologized, he hadn’t meant to make fun of my accent, he was trying to compliment it. Oh, ok, I replied with as little rat’s arse as I could find. But this was not the first time, and it will not be the last, that I will be complimented in such a way. You see, it is apparently socially acceptable – even compulsory – for many Americans to affect a British accent whenever they meet someone from across the pond.<br/>
And they really don’t mean to offend – I think they find it charming, or quaint, or perhaps they think we will applaud their efforts – they are after all trying to be like me, I should be honoured. The thing is, if a Brit were to do the same, they would very likely be doing it to take the piss. An American however might not understand why it’s greeted with cold British sarcasm, such as recently in Sacramento when I congratulated the woman in the saltwater taffy shop for her incredible Australian accent (“I thought Bea Smith herself had walked in” ). But it wouldn’t be ok for them to, for example, imitate a Chinese accent, or respond to their German customers with Fawtlyesque attempts at humourous Teutonic mimicry.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind, but I feel like I’ve developed a British accent since living here. I would not have pronounced any of the t’s in ‘Potter’ before, they would all be washed away in a downpour of glottal stops. I’ve spoken to other CA-based Brits, and they too have been the victims of spontaneous imitation.</p>
<p>Apart from the hilarious faux-brits, there are the ones who make requests for certain words. Sometimes I happily oblige, especially when some Cockney rhyming slang or other comes to mind (although I was out with Tel once, and he kept asking girls about their thre’penny bits). Sometimes I feel like a tired actor, sick of repeating a catchphrase; one time, a shop-girl at a supermarket checkout asked me to say ‘bloody’. “Why?” I asked. “Oh I just love it when you guys say ‘bloody’! It’s so cool!” My first thought was to react with a tirade of classic Watling Avenue vocabulary – everything but ‘bloody’ – but I just politely refused, sorry, I just want my green beans and my milky way, thanks. I think I know how Harry Potter feels now.</p>
<p><em>Originally posted at <a href="http://petescully.20six.co.uk/petescully/art/23725930/i-wanna-walk-like-you">20six.co.uk/petescully</a></em></p>
</div>
</article>
</main>
</section></div>||||I|||| Skip to content

 petescully

 postcards of the hanging

 Menu
 * Home
 * about pete scully
 * contact
 * publications
 + Creative Sketching Workshop
 * sketchbooks
 * materials

 Category: old blog 2005-2008

 Posts from my old blog, which I have moved over here. April 2005-April 2008

 from the pencil of young pete

 April 8, 2008June 24, 2010Leave a comment

 I drew this 19 years ago, when I was just thirteen. 19 years ago!! The Berlin Wall was still up! Nelson Mandela was still in prison! George Bush was the new President of the USA!

 I was digging through my old drawings from when I was a kid recently and thought I should share them with you. I remember drawing this (I still use the ‘mechanical’ eraser I used in this very drawing, there’s continuity for you!); I was a huge Beatles fan, and trawled the record stores and junk shops of London for old original LPs (plus a load of old albums my uncle gave me). Note how I’ve given Macca his real first name too.

 I did another version of it at 16 (below left), in 1992, with stronger values and less chin, but I prefer the first one for its innocence. I was doing my GCSE art in ’92 and several of the other pictures below are from that time; below right is a watercolour copy of Cezanne that I did at 15 or 16, from a postcard picked up at the National Gallery – I used to go down to London most weekends to go to the galleries (and the record stores).

 Ten years later I ended up living in Cezanne’s town of Aix-en-Provence, which is where I met my wife (and therefore how I ended up living in the US). Funny old world.

 Below is another from 16-year old Pete in 1992, an unfinished one of Jesus from some other painting I can’t remember. An interesting choice for such an atheistic lad as I, but even though I’m A NonBeliever I know aestheticism sometimes trumps atheisim; years later I did a one-person art performance piece at university about being drunk on the underground, which ended up with me on a crucifix (supposed to be King’s Cross).

 The pencil one below left is a pastorly Peter Cushing (looking more like the Crow Man), also from 1992. I seemed to have an easier time with light and dark values back then than I do now. It’s from one of my horror-movie books; I was really into old Hammer Horror films (I have another sketch of Christopher Lee too), and in 1992 I wrote and performed an eight-song musical called “Dracula AD 1992” (an homage to the 1972 Hammer movie), which included such classic songs as “This Motel’s Giving Me The Willies” and “Freshly Impaled Village Maidens”. Below right: a later picture, 1995, 19 years old and obsessed with oil pastels. Doesn’t look massively like me, but you get the idea. I didn’t wear glasses very often back then.

 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 don’t mention the torch

 April 8, 2008June 24, 2010Leave a comment

 Let’s make it clear : the Olympic Torch is not actually important. It doesn’t matter if it goes out; mankind is sufficiently advanced to find a way to light it again. You don’t need heavy-handed sky-blue thugs (Seb Coe’s own words) to protect it from people venting their anger at the one-party-dictatorship in China and their brutal crackdown on Tibetan ‘separatists’. If you have to put it out and jump on a bus, it’s okay, you can admit it. The whole torch relay was started by the Nazis anyway. You can’t pretend that it was never political.

 I’ll tell you what I think of when I see the Olympic torch (apart from the Aryan-supremacist iconography and the former symbol of the Tories) (and yes, apart from a Mr.Whippy). That bloody Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis. And I’ll tell you what I think of when I think of that. An exchange trip to France I took at college, when I shared a room with a guy who listened to it on his headphones, after dark, when he thought I was asleep (I so wish I had been), and I could hear him busy doing the 15-centimetre sprint, tossing the caber, giving the bronze medal a good polish, slapping duncan goodhew on the head. And yelping, “putain! putain!”, as if I couldn’t hear him or something. I don’t know what he was thinking of, but I bet it wasn’t Nigel Havers.

 originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 still seeing davis

 April 8, 2008June 18, 2010Leave a comment

 I bet you thought this series was over…well I said I’d make it to 24 and I will. This is number 21 of 24. I apologise for the hiatus; it was due to the recent writer’s strike.

 Originally posted on 20six.co.uk/petescully

 E – A – D – G – B – E

 April 7, 2008June 23, 2010Leave a comment

 My guitar, the hohner acoustic i’ve had for eleven years now, bought at macari’s on charing crosss road in january 1997 when i worked at a chocolate shop on oxford street, been with me to several countries, now here in california. That orange plectrum attached to the strings there is the same one they gave me when i bought it, it’s still the only one i’ll use. The wood is matt, and browner than it looks here. I do have another fancier electric, but this is the one i grab the most. I played some soothing songs to my baby son today, he seems to like the sound and the shape of the guitar; one day, in the future, I will buy him his first guitar. He may even get this one. This wasn’t my first guitar, however; my first proper one that worked (not including the bad car-boot acoustics i had) was a westone electric that my brother gace me, I loved that guitar, though it’s clapped out now. I passed it on to my nephew just before moving to america. Boys and guitars, important allies.

 (purple micron .01, w&n cotman watercolour, moleskine watercolour paper)

 Originally posted at: 20six.co.uk/petescully

 april is the cruellest month

 April 5, 2008June 23, 2010Leave a comment

 Sketched today at lunchtime, while on my lunchbreak, after eating lunch. Orange flowers by the arboretum, uc davis; that i believe is the law school there, that building type thing like. They love lawyers in america. If you’re not a lawyer or a doctor, or maybe a cop, then you cant get into a tv show.

 originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 illustration friday: ‘save’ (or ‘i’ve got a pocket full of pretty green’)

 April 5, 2008June 23, 2010Leave a comment

 I am so glad i scanned this before adding the wash. Yes, i added a bad greeny-blue wash to it, and it looks bad bad baby, bad as in not good mate. So while you might think that the theme for illustration friday ‘SAVE’ refers to the money supposedly saved here, it actually refers to the fact i saved this before going on to deface the original with sea-green. So there.

 Don’t go giving me evils!

 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 got more bottle than united dairies

 April 4, 2008June 23, 2010Leave a comment

 Ian Rush said that if you don’t drink your milk, you won’t even be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley.

 Accrington Stanley? Who are they?

 Exactly!!!

 Originally posted at 2osix.co.uk/petescully

 sketchcrawl 18: sacramento

 April 1, 2008June 25, 2010Leave a comment

 The 18th Worldwide Sketchcrawl took place on Saturday, and I popped across the Causeway for the midtown Sacramento version. Three other sketchers were there, at the Sutter’s fort meeting point; none made it to the ending point, at the Streets of London pub on J street. It was the seventh time I’ve done the Sketchcrawl, and it’s nice to know I’m absolutely not the only one out on the streets somewhere on the planet with pen and sketchbook. Here are my results:



 I went to the art store, and found my favourite sketching tool yet: a fold-up stool that easily fits into my small shoulder bag! Only $11. No more sitting on the dirty floor; it means I can sketch anywhere now (normally I find the comfy spot first, then choose what to draw).

 sketchcrawl 18

 SKETCHCRAWL 18

 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 union hacks

 March 4, 2008June 18, 2010Leave a comment

 Oh i do like to be a Brit in America. Since moving out here I have discovered that the natives will deem even the most Burnt Oak of accents the mark of intellect and compliment us by imitating it. Things we take for granted, such as newsagents on every corner, unfriendly bus drivers, and cheap bread are notably absent; even electric kettles are like fresh milk in France. To make us feel at home, however, we have a newspaper, one that I only really discovered this past weekend. It’s one of those free ones you find in pubs, a bit like the ones Aussies and Kiwis get outside tube stations on west London, and it’s patriotically called “Union Jack”. Here (and not on that BBC website or anything) is where Brits get their news, and what news.

 “Public Loo Closures Causing Protests Nationwide”, runs one headline. “Monk Killed in Lawnmower Accident” should be the title of a movie. “HRH Prince Andrew visits Orange County” was another; “HRH Prince Andrew”?? I’ve never heard him called that in a tabloid headline before. The paper seems to have a bit of a something for Andy, as he crops up several more times in other articles. But I can’t really poke fun at headlines, you’d get these in any British local paper (“rising bollards claim another victim” was my favourite one from the Ely Standard, or was it the Cambridge Evening News). I will poke fun at the adverts though, each and every one of them promoting some crappy little tea shoppe or something where you can spend your funny-looking dollars buying Kippers, Steak and Kidney Pies, or Mr. Kipling cakes. Except one: the word “Bollocks” leaps out in large letters, above a picture of a dog, with the caption “Real Bollocks to Hang Anywhere in your Home”. I don’t know what it’s actually selling, but who cares?! (It’s one of the things Brits really love, that even the most curse-sensitive of Americans will not understand one of our most beloved swearwords).

 Other sections include some badly written columns by some old English expat wallies turning out any old shit that relates to British American relations (hold on a minute, isn’t that what I do..? ), and a load of other useless bits of month-old non-news from various bog-standard towns around the UK, dog loses pen in port vale, that sort of thing. The saving graces of this paper – let’s face it, this ridiculous rag with too many British flags on it not to be slightly suspicious – are a couple of detailed columns letting us know what i currently going on in Eastenders and Coronation Street. Now that’s the sort of thing Brits really want, updates on the soaps; expats who’ve lived abroad so long all the characters have changed and they can’t follow any of it anyway. It was however the appalled-in-woking reaction of the columnist herself that made me guffaw the most: “It was hard to describe how violent and disturbing those Vic smashing scenes were. I personally hope they don’t do anything like that again.” They have a real cutting edge TV critic there in the Union Jack. Victor Lewis-Smith, you’d better keep an eye on your job. The rest of us had better keep an eye on our bollocks.

 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 i wanna walk like you

 December 13, 2007June 18, 2010Leave a comment

 Last week I was in the bookshop talking to the guy behind the counter, to whom I was giving some dvd footage I had shot of the Harry Potter event in July (I’m a very slow editor), when a guy in a cyclist’s helmet, who had been struggling to write a cheque (in this day and age), looked up and interrupted. “Potter?” he rasped, accentuating the double t in what appeared I believe was an attempt at a British accent. Slightly off-ended (if not exactly offended), I shot him a quick look and carried on. He said it again in case I hadn’t heard him the first time, and I nearly responded “Malfoy?” but chose to ignore. He stayed quiet and went back to writing his cheque (they spell it ‘check’ here, you know). After a few minutes he approached me and apologized, he hadn’t meant to make fun of my accent, he was trying to compliment it. Oh, ok, I replied with as little rat’s arse as I could find. But this was not the first time, and it will not be the last, that I will be complimented in such a way. You see, it is apparently socially acceptable – even compulsory – for many Americans to affect a British accent whenever they meet someone from across the pond.
 And they really don’t mean to offend – I think they find it charming, or quaint, or perhaps they think we will applaud their efforts – they are after all trying to be like me, I should be honoured. The thing is, if a Brit were to do the same, they would very likely be doing it to take the piss. An American however might not understand why it’s greeted with cold British sarcasm, such as recently in Sacramento when I congratulated the woman in the saltwater taffy shop for her incredible Australian accent (“I thought Bea Smith herself had walked in” ). But it wouldn’t be ok for them to, for example, imitate a Chinese accent, or respond to their German customers with Fawtlyesque attempts at humourous Teutonic mimicry.

 I wouldn’t mind, but I feel like I’ve developed a British accent since living here. I would not have pronounced any of the t’s in ‘Potter’ before, they would all be washed away in a downpour of glottal stops. I’ve spoken to other CA-based Brits, and they too have been the victims of spontaneous imitation.

 Apart from the hilarious faux-brits, there are the ones who make requests for certain words. Sometimes I happily oblige, especially when some Cockney rhyming slang or other comes to mind (although I was out with Tel once, and he kept asking girls about their thre’penny bits). Sometimes I feel like a tired actor, sick of repeating a catchphrase; one time, a shop-girl at a supermarket checkout asked me to say ‘bloody’. “Why?” I asked. “Oh I just love it when you guys say ‘bloody’! It’s so cool!” My first thought was to react with a tirade of classic Watling Avenue vocabulary – everything but ‘bloody’ – but I just politely refused, sorry, I just want my green beans and my milky way, thanks. I think I know how Harry Potter feels now.

 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully

 Posts navigation

 Older posts

 ABOUT THE SKETCHER

 Formerly of North London, now of Northern California; I sketch, I write, I sometimes do things and go places and my name is Pete.
 I was one of the original Urban Sketchers correspondents, sketching for Davis California. Since 2010 I've organized the "Let's Draw Davis" sketchcrawls, and a few "Let's Draw London" ones. I still hold my pen in a funny way.

 * * * * * * * * *

 INSTAGRAM: @pwscully
 TWITTER: @petescully

 * * * * * * * * *

 Let's Draw Davis : Saturday May 4
 Location: E Street, meet in front of Bizarro World Comics
 START: 1:00pm, FINISH: 3:30pm

 LET'S DRAW DAVIS FB EVENT PAGE

 April 2024
 M T W T F S S 
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 
 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
 29 30 
 
 « Mar

 Archives

 Archives Select Month April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005

 Flickr Photos

 More Photos

 Statto

 * 970,648 hits
 Blog at WordPress.com.
 petescully
 Blog at WordPress.com.
 * Subscribe Subscribed
 + petescully
 * Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
 * 
 + petescully
 + Customize
 + Subscribe Subscribed
 + Sign up
 + Log in
 + Report this content
 + View site in Reader
 + Manage subscriptions
 + Collapse this bar
I drew this 19 years ago, when I was just thirteen. 19 years ago!! The Berlin Wall was still up! Nelson Mandela was still in prison! George Bush was the new President of the USA!
I was digging through my old drawings from when I was a kid recently and thought I should share them with you. I remember drawing this (I still use the ‘mechanical’ eraser I used in this very drawing, there’s continuity for you!); I was a huge Beatles fan, and trawled the record stores and junk shops of London for old original LPs (plus a load of old albums my uncle gave me). Note how I’ve given Macca his real first name too.
I did another version of it at 16 (below left), in 1992, with stronger values and less chin, but I prefer the first one for its innocence. I was doing my GCSE art in ’92 and several of the other pictures below are from that time; below right is a watercolour copy of Cezanne that I did at 15 or 16, from a postcard picked up at the National Gallery – I used to go down to London most weekends to go to the galleries (and the record stores).
     
Ten years later I ended up living in Cezanne’s town of Aix-en-Provence, which is where I met my wife (and therefore how I ended up living in the US). Funny old world.
Below is another from 16-year old Pete in 1992, an unfinished one of Jesus from some other painting I can’t remember. An interesting choice for such an atheistic lad as I, but even though I’m A NonBeliever I know aestheticism sometimes trumps atheisim; years later I did a one-person art performance piece at university about being drunk on the underground, which ended up with me on a crucifix (supposed to be King’s Cross).
   
The pencil one below left is a pastorly Peter Cushing (looking more like the Crow Man), also from 1992. I seemed to have an easier time with light and dark values back then than I do now. It’s from one of my horror-movie books; I was really into old Hammer Horror films (I have another sketch of Christopher Lee too), and in 1992 I wrote and performed an eight-song musical called “Dracula AD 1992” (an homage to the 1972 Hammer movie), which included such classic songs as “This Motel’s Giving Me The Willies” and “Freshly Impaled Village Maidens”. Below right: a later picture, 1995, 19 years old and obsessed with oil pastels. Doesn’t look massively like me, but you get the idea. I didn’t wear glasses very often back then.
     
 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully  
Let’s make it clear : the Olympic Torch is not actually important. It doesn’t matter if it goes out; mankind is sufficiently advanced to find a way to light it again. You don’t need heavy-handed sky-blue thugs (Seb Coe’s own words) to protect it from people venting their anger at the one-party-dictatorship in China and their brutal crackdown on Tibetan ‘separatists’. If you have to put it out and jump on a bus, it’s okay, you can admit it. The whole torch relay was started by the Nazis anyway. You can’t pretend that it was never political.
I’ll tell you what I think of when I see the Olympic torch (apart from the Aryan-supremacist iconography and the former symbol of the Tories) (and yes, apart from a Mr.Whippy). That bloody Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis. And I’ll tell you what I think of when I think of that. An exchange trip to France I took at college, when I shared a room with a guy who listened to it on his headphones, after dark, when he thought I was asleep (I so wish I had been), and I could hear him busy doing the 15-centimetre sprint, tossing the caber, giving the bronze medal a good polish, slapping duncan goodhew on the head. And yelping, “putain! putain!”, as if I couldn’t hear him or something. I don’t know what he was thinking of, but I bet it wasn’t Nigel Havers.
 originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully  
   
I bet you thought this series was over…well I said I’d make it to 24 and I will. This is number 21 of 24. I apologise for the hiatus; it was due to the recent writer’s strike.
 Originally posted on 20six.co.uk/petescully  
   
My guitar, the hohner acoustic i’ve had for eleven years now, bought at macari’s on charing crosss road in january 1997 when i worked at a chocolate shop on oxford street, been with me to several countries, now here in california. That orange plectrum attached to the strings there is the same one they gave me when i bought it, it’s still the only one i’ll use. The wood is matt, and browner than it looks here. I do have another fancier electric, but this is the one i grab the most. I played some soothing songs to my baby son today, he seems to like the sound and the shape of the guitar; one day, in the future, I will buy him his first guitar. He may even get this one. This wasn’t my first guitar, however; my first proper one that worked (not including the bad car-boot acoustics i had) was a westone electric that my brother gace me, I loved that guitar, though it’s clapped out now. I passed it on to my nephew just before moving to america. Boys and guitars, important allies.
(purple micron .01, w&amp;n cotman watercolour, moleskine watercolour paper)
 Originally posted at:   20six.co.uk/petescully  
 
Sketched today at lunchtime, while on my lunchbreak, after eating lunch. Orange flowers by the arboretum, uc davis; that i believe is the law school there, that building type thing like. They love lawyers in america. If you’re not a lawyer or a doctor, or maybe a cop, then you cant get into a tv show.
 originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully  
   
I am so glad i scanned this before adding the wash. Yes, i added a bad greeny-blue wash to it, and it looks bad bad baby, bad as in not good mate. So while you might think that the theme for illustration friday ‘SAVE’ refers to the money supposedly saved here, it actually refers to the fact i saved this before going on to deface the original with sea-green. So there.
Don’t go giving me evils!
 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully  
 Ian Rush said that if you don’t drink your milk, you won’t even be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley. 
   
 Accrington Stanley? Who are they? 
   
 Exactly!!! 
 Originally posted at 2osix.co.uk/petescully  
 
The 18th Worldwide Sketchcrawl took place on Saturday, and I popped across the Causeway for the midtown Sacramento version. Three other sketchers were there, at the Sutter’s fort meeting point; none made it to the ending point, at the Streets of London pub on J street. It was the seventh time I’ve done the Sketchcrawl, and it’s nice to know I’m absolutely not the only one out on the streets somewhere on the planet with pen and sketchbook. Here are my results:
   
  
  
I went to the art store, and found my favourite sketching tool yet: a fold-up stool that easily fits into my small shoulder bag! Only $11. No more sitting on the dirty floor; it means I can sketch anywhere now (normally I find the comfy spot first, then choose what to draw).
 
	
Oh i do like to be a Brit in America. Since moving out here I have discovered that the natives will deem even the most Burnt Oak of accents the mark of intellect and compliment us by imitating it. Things we take for granted, such as newsagents on every corner, unfriendly bus drivers, and cheap bread are notably absent; even electric kettles are like fresh milk in France. To make us feel at home, however, we have a newspaper, one that I only really discovered this past weekend. It’s one of those free ones you find in pubs, a bit like the ones Aussies and Kiwis get outside tube stations on west London, and it’s patriotically called “Union Jack”. Here (and not on that BBC website or anything) is where Brits get their news, and what news.
“Public Loo Closures Causing Protests Nationwide”, runs one headline. “Monk Killed in Lawnmower Accident” should be the title of a movie. “HRH Prince Andrew visits Orange County” was another; “HRH Prince Andrew”?? I’ve never heard him called that in a tabloid headline before. The paper seems to have a bit of a something for Andy, as he crops up several more times in other articles. But I can’t really poke fun at headlines, you’d get these in any British local paper (“rising bollards claim another victim” was my favourite one from the Ely Standard, or was it the Cambridge Evening News). I will poke fun at the adverts though, each and every one of them promoting some crappy little tea shoppe or something where you can spend your funny-looking dollars buying Kippers, Steak and Kidney Pies, or Mr. Kipling cakes. Except one: the word “Bollocks” leaps out in large letters, above a picture of a dog, with the caption “Real Bollocks to Hang Anywhere in your Home”. I don’t know what it’s actually selling, but who cares?! (It’s one of the things Brits really love, that even the most curse-sensitive of Americans will not understand one of our most beloved swearwords).
Other sections include some badly written columns by some old English expat wallies turning out any old shit that relates to British American relations (hold on a minute, isn’t that what I do..? ), and a load of other useless bits of month-old non-news from various bog-standard towns around the UK, dog loses pen in port vale, that sort of thing. The saving graces of this paper – let’s face it, this ridiculous rag with too many British flags on it not to be slightly suspicious – are a couple of detailed columns letting us know what i currently going on in Eastenders and Coronation Street. Now that’s the sort of thing Brits really want, updates on the soaps; expats who’ve lived abroad so long all the characters have changed and they can’t follow any of it anyway. It was however the appalled-in-woking reaction of the columnist herself that made me guffaw the most: “It was hard to describe how violent and disturbing those Vic smashing scenes were. I personally hope they don’t do anything like that again.” They have a real cutting edge TV critic there in the Union Jack. Victor Lewis-Smith, you’d better keep an eye on your job. The rest of us had better keep an eye on our bollocks.
 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully  
Last week I was in the bookshop talking to the guy behind the counter, to whom I was giving some dvd footage I had shot of the Harry Potter event in July (I’m a very slow editor), when a guy in a cyclist’s helmet, who had been struggling to write a cheque (in this day and age), looked up and interrupted. “Potter?” he rasped, accentuating the double t in what appeared I believe was an attempt at a British accent. Slightly off-ended (if not exactly offended), I shot him a quick look and carried on. He said it again in case I hadn’t heard him the first time, and I nearly responded “Malfoy?” but chose to ignore. He stayed quiet and went back to writing his cheque (they spell it ‘check’ here, you know). After a few minutes he approached me and apologized, he hadn’t meant to make fun of my accent, he was trying to compliment it. Oh, ok, I replied with as little rat’s arse as I could find. But this was not the first time, and it will not be the last, that I will be complimented in such a way. You see, it is apparently socially acceptable – even compulsory – for many Americans to affect a British accent whenever they meet someone from across the pond.
And they really don’t mean to offend – I think they find it charming, or quaint, or perhaps they think we will applaud their efforts – they are after all trying to be like me, I should be honoured. The thing is, if a Brit were to do the same, they would very likely be doing it to take the piss. An American however might not understand why it’s greeted with cold British sarcasm, such as recently in Sacramento when I congratulated the woman in the saltwater taffy shop for her incredible Australian accent (“I thought Bea Smith herself had walked in” ). But it wouldn’t be ok for them to, for example, imitate a Chinese accent, or respond to their German customers with Fawtlyesque attempts at humourous Teutonic mimicry.
I wouldn’t mind, but I feel like I’ve developed a British accent since living here. I would not have pronounced any of the t’s in ‘Potter’ before, they would all be washed away in a downpour of glottal stops. I’ve spoken to other CA-based Brits, and they too have been the victims of spontaneous imitation.
Apart from the hilarious faux-brits, there are the ones who make requests for certain words. Sometimes I happily oblige, especially when some Cockney rhyming slang or other comes to mind (although I was out with Tel once, and he kept asking girls about their thre’penny bits). Sometimes I feel like a tired actor, sick of repeating a catchphrase; one time, a shop-girl at a supermarket checkout asked me to say ‘bloody’. “Why?” I asked. “Oh I just love it when you guys say ‘bloody’! It’s so cool!” My first thought was to react with a tirade of classic Watling Avenue vocabulary – everything but ‘bloody’ – but I just politely refused, sorry, I just want my green beans and my milky way, thanks. I think I know how Harry Potter feels now.
 Originally posted at 20six.co.uk/petescully
old blog 2005-2008 – petescully
https://petescully.com/category/well-im-very-cynical-as-you-know/old-blog-2005-2008/
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/xbox-360-as-media-hub
Xbox 360 as Media Hub
2005-12-15
None
<div><section>
 
 <p><a href="https://hanselmanblogcontent.azureedge.net/CIMG4034.JPG"></a>Got a call yesterday that the second shipment of Xbox 360's had come in and the one I'd pre-ordered in June was now waiting for me. I swung by GameCrazy on the way to the store and picked up my shiny new Xbox 360. It also included a limited edition Media Center Remote that will likely go unused. I also picked up:</p>
<ul>
<li>Second <a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000B6MLUA/diabeticbooks">wireless controller</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000B6ML0U/diabeticbooks">Perfect Dark Zero</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B0009S4UOA/diabeticbooks">Call of Duty 2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000B6ML0A/diabeticbooks">Kameo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000B6ML28/diabeticbooks">Project Gotham Racing 3</a></li>
<li>I also got an aftermarket HDTV cable because the guy told me the Xbox 360 didn't include optical support. This is false and true. The 360 DOES come with an optical hole, but no optical cable. It comes with a big cable that includes composite (SDTV) and component video (HDTV) and a hole for the optical. So, this $20 accessory was a waste unless someone wants an optical cable + Xbox 360 component cable for $19 from me. :)</li></ul>
<p>Of course, I didn't get a chance to use it until <a href="https://www.hanselman.com/blog/ZQuincy.aspx">Z and Mo were asleep</a> so that probably wasn't very smart. I was up until 2 with the Xbox and until 5:30 with Z.</p>
<p><strong>First Impressions</strong></p>
<p>It's the shiznit. It's freaking awesome. If you can, buy it. Now. Seriously, stop reading.</p>
<p><strong>Gotchas and Things To Be Aware Of IOMHO</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Getting just the Core System without hard drive just makes no sense. You get $150 in accessories for the extra $100 the standard bundle costs you. </li>
<li>The 360 is totally THE killer app for HDTV, so very much more than DVDs in their 480p glory. Running the dashboard in 1080i is glorious. Call of Duty 2 is fantastic. Better than my PC with its 1680x1050 resolution? No, probably about the same. Except the Xbox 360 cost less than my video card. Drink that in.</li>
<li>Folks have been complaining that there's only 13gigs free on the 20gig hard drive. The forums are alight with the standard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logorrhea">logorrhoea</a> that "the system takes up much of that." Well, if one does some digging, they'd see that the hard drive comes preloaded with a Titanic Video (literally from the movie Titanic) that is a 1gig, a Warren Miller video and two others weighing in at about 750megs each as well as a <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360/harddriveextras.htm">bunch of music</a>. It's mostly the schmutz that makes you lose space. However, I'm not really sweating the space as it's all scratch space as far as I'm concerned.</li>
<li>I started by using my existing Xbox "classic's" wireless ethernet bridge and it worked great. However, I switched over to my 100base-T wired connection for snapper Media Center PC response.</li>
<li>Since all emulated games run in HDTV, if you liked stretching your 4:3 games to 16:9, you can't do that anymore.</li>
<li>Funky (read: optimized) games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory still have some work to do, as it seems that you can run the single player game in 16:9, but the multiplayer (which is basically (smells like) a totally different codebase) is 4:3.</li></ul>
<p><strong>Xbox Live Arcade</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://hanselmanblogcontent.azureedge.net/CIMG4032.JPG"></a>They finally got the casual gamer thing right. My wife will actually be able to play Bejewelled without finishing her PhD. It's very clean and elegant. It also uses a form of micropayments to accomplish two things. One, the conversion between "Microsoft Points, the currency, and dollars, isn't in-your-head easy, so one could find themselves spending money without "feeling it." Two, it allows someone to sell a game for $3.47. I bought Joust and Bejewelled off the bat, and I'll likely get Geometry Wars also.</p>
<p><strong>Original Xbox Emulation</strong></p>
<p>The first thing I did, before I even played a single 360 game was <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm">try out the backward compatibility emulation</a>. I'm so relieved they chose to stick with it, as they'd really have been shooting themselves in the foot if they were going to launch the 360 all alone in the world without the rich existing Xbox library of games. </p>
<p>A few games I like haven't been updated yet, including Lego Star Wars, but the important ones like Halo 2 and Splinter Cell worked. Also, Yourself: Fitness worked so that's awesome. All in all, my conclusion is: <em><strong>Classic Xbox for sale - $75, used for only 2 months, I won it in a raffle.</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Downloading Demos</strong></p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised that you can download and play demos. I downloaded and played <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/fifa2006/">FIFA World Cup Soccer</a> (it was a 600meg download!) and while it's getting crappy reviews, we really liked it. It's not something I'd have rented, so I'd never have played it. Because I could download it as a demo I'll be more likely to buy this game I might have overlooked.</p>
<p><strong>iPod (MP3 player) USB Support</strong></p>
<p>There's three ways you get audio/music playing on your Xbox 360. The first and easiest is just plugging your MP3 player into one of the 3 USB ports on the Xbox 360. I plugged in my iPod Nano and it was immediately (no wait) recognized and showed up as "Scott's Nano" and I was playing music directly off it immediately. I also tried a generic USB MP3 player and it works great as well. There's also an optional downloadable support for unprotected AAC files, so I grabbed that also and it works nicely.</p>
<p><strong>Windows Media Connect 2.0 Support</strong></p>
<p>I installed the new Windows Media Connect 2.0 which is a fancy way of saying "a uPnP server built into Windows" and pointed my Images, Music and Video folders from my main PC and was able to play music off it for hours. It's actually still playing this moment, and it'll let you view photos as the music continues which is a nice little attention-to-detail thing.</p>
<p><strong>Windows Media Center</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://hanselmanblogcontent.azureedge.net/cimg4037.jpg"></a>Here's the big one. The Media Center Extender stuff. It's awesome. I tired and suffered with the original (largely unusable) Classic Xbox Media Extender. Because of this and other factors, my Media Center PC has remained in the guest room, largely usused except for a <a href="https://www.hanselman.com/blog/creatingmyownmamearcadecabinetmameformediacenterpcandthexarcadejoystick.aspx">MAME machine</a>. </p>
<p>Enter the 360. The UI is exactly (by my eye) the same UI that you'd get if you were actually sitting at the actual Media Center. It's snappy, in HDTV, and gorgeous. Not only that, but all the HTML-style Media Center applications like <a href="http://www.npr.org/">NPR</a> and <a href="http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/">MTV Overdrive</a> work great. We spent a few hours last night purusing the vast MTV database of videos and watched at least a dozen on-demand music videos with family visiting from out of town.</p>
<p>Here's a video of the Media Center (the quality is iffy) in action. </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://hanselmanblogcontent.azureedge.net/mediacenter360.wmv"><em>File Attachment: MediaCenter360.wmv (1585 KB)</em></a></p></blockquote>
<p>Additionally, you can press the Media Center button on the 360's remote (you may need to buy one if you didn't have one included) and it will turn on the 360 and connect to the Media Center PC in one fluid step. This helps the Wife Acceptance Factor greatly.</p>
<p><strong>Harmony 880 Universal Remote Control</strong></p>
<p>I love <a href="https://www.hanselman.com/blog/logitechharmony880remotecontrolreview.aspx">this remote</a> and I'm convinced that for the dollar it is THE remote to get if you have a complex system. I was thrilled to see today that I could just tell the Harmony online system that I'd bought an Xbox 360 and it became immediately integrated into my larger system. The folks at Harmony (Logitech) are really passionate about their remotes and it shows. I've spent time on the phone in the past with their tech support and it was a pleasure. I had the whole thing working in about 15 minutes. </p>
<p>This was put to the test this evening when some of Mo's co-workers came over and they were able to show pictures of the baby (via Media Connect) without any of them having used the Xbox or the remote before.</p>
<p><strong>Games</strong></p>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/b000b6ml0u/diabeticbooks"><strong>Perfect Dark Zero</strong></a></li>
<p>Well, it ain't Halo. Not even close. It's actually pretty lame, and I'm disappointed. We'll see, maybe it'll grow on me.</p>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/b000b6ml0a/diabeticbooks"><strong>Kameo</strong></a></li>
<p>I got this just because we have an 8-year-old visiting and staying with us and I've got him checking out the Game Rating (ESRP) systems. I didn't want to buy only "M" games, so I picked this one up. Wow, what a cute and interesting game. It's a very thoughtful and interesting puzzle/physics game with a silly storyline. It looks a smidge like World of Warcraft in it's ethos, although certainly less serious. I suspect I'll play this game the second most often. It also has a nice co-op 2-player mode which was an unexpected plus.</p>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/b000b6ml28/diabeticbooks"><strong>Project Gotham Racing 3</strong></a></li>
<p>Had to get this if only to show off the system. It's OK, but until I get a wheel I'm doomed to suck. It's pretty slick, but I should have waited for a Rallysport-type game. I tried Forza on the Classic Xbox but it was too realisitic. I continue to go back to Rallysport2, it's REALLY amazing. See, there I go, talking about an older game when I'm supposed to talk about PGR3. Kind of says something.</p>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/b0009s4uoa/diabeticbooks"><strong>Call of Duty 2</strong></a></li>
<p>Wow. Wow. Seriously. This game is brilliant. Truly and fantastically immersive. Get it, as anything I can say about it would just be silly and over the top.</p>
<p>As an aside, I'm looking forward to the new <a href="http://www.pro-g.co.uk/media/screens/1274/0/">Splinter Cell: Double Agent</a> and if it looks half as good as Call of Duty, it'll be great.</p>
<p><strong>Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF)</strong></p>
<p>It works with the current remote and she can show pictures of Z without my help. 'Nuff said, she's happy. If I get it paid off before she sees the credit card receipt we'll still be in business. </p>
 <div>
 <div>
 <h4>About Scott</h4>
 <div>
 <p>Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.</p>
 <p><a href="https://facebook.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="https://twitter.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman"></a><br />
 <a href="http://hanselman.com/about">About</a>   <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/newsletter">Newsletter</a>
 </p></div>
 </div>
 <div>
 <p><strong>Hosting By</strong><br />
 <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/free"></a>
 </p>
 </div>
 </div>
 
 
 
 </section>||||I||||Scott Hanselman

 * about
 * blog
 * podcast
 * youtube
 * speaking
 browse by category or date

Xbox 360 as Media Hub

December 15, 2005 Comment on this post [11] Posted in Reviews | Z | Movies | Gaming
 Sponsored By

Got a call yesterday that the second shipment of Xbox 360's had come in and the one I'd pre-ordered in June was now waiting for me. I swung by GameCrazy on the way to the store and picked up my shiny new Xbox 360. It also included a limited edition Media Center Remote that will likely go unused. I also picked up:

 * Second wireless controller
 * Perfect Dark Zero
 * Call of Duty 2
 * Kameo
 * Project Gotham Racing 3
 * I also got an aftermarket HDTV cable because the guy told me the Xbox 360 didn't include optical support. This is false and true. The 360 DOES come with an optical hole, but no optical cable. It comes with a big cable that includes composite (SDTV) and component video (HDTV) and a hole for the optical. So, this $20 accessory was a waste unless someone wants an optical cable + Xbox 360 component cable for $19 from me. :)

Of course, I didn't get a chance to use it until Z and Mo were asleep so that probably wasn't very smart. I was up until 2 with the Xbox and until 5:30 with Z.

First Impressions

It's the shiznit. It's freaking awesome. If you can, buy it. Now. Seriously, stop reading.

Gotchas and Things To Be Aware Of IOMHO

 * Getting just the Core System without hard drive just makes no sense. You get $150 in accessories for the extra $100 the standard bundle costs you.
 * The 360 is totally THE killer app for HDTV, so very much more than DVDs in their 480p glory. Running the dashboard in 1080i is glorious. Call of Duty 2 is fantastic. Better than my PC with its 1680x1050 resolution? No, probably about the same. Except the Xbox 360 cost less than my video card. Drink that in.
 * Folks have been complaining that there's only 13gigs free on the 20gig hard drive. The forums are alight with the standard logorrhoea that "the system takes up much of that." Well, if one does some digging, they'd see that the hard drive comes preloaded with a Titanic Video (literally from the movie Titanic) that is a 1gig, a Warren Miller video and two others weighing in at about 750megs each as well as a bunch of music. It's mostly the schmutz that makes you lose space. However, I'm not really sweating the space as it's all scratch space as far as I'm concerned.
 * I started by using my existing Xbox "classic's" wireless ethernet bridge and it worked great. However, I switched over to my 100base-T wired connection for snapper Media Center PC response.
 * Since all emulated games run in HDTV, if you liked stretching your 4:3 games to 16:9, you can't do that anymore.
 * Funky (read: optimized) games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory still have some work to do, as it seems that you can run the single player game in 16:9, but the multiplayer (which is basically (smells like) a totally different codebase) is 4:3.

Xbox Live Arcade

They finally got the casual gamer thing right. My wife will actually be able to play Bejewelled without finishing her PhD. It's very clean and elegant. It also uses a form of micropayments to accomplish two things. One, the conversion between "Microsoft Points, the currency, and dollars, isn't in-your-head easy, so one could find themselves spending money without "feeling it." Two, it allows someone to sell a game for $3.47. I bought Joust and Bejewelled off the bat, and I'll likely get Geometry Wars also.

Original Xbox Emulation

The first thing I did, before I even played a single 360 game was try out the backward compatibility emulation. I'm so relieved they chose to stick with it, as they'd really have been shooting themselves in the foot if they were going to launch the 360 all alone in the world without the rich existing Xbox library of games.

A few games I like haven't been updated yet, including Lego Star Wars, but the important ones like Halo 2 and Splinter Cell worked. Also, Yourself: Fitness worked so that's awesome. All in all, my conclusion is: Classic Xbox for sale - $75, used for only 2 months, I won it in a raffle.

Downloading Demos

I was pleasantly surprised that you can download and play demos. I downloaded and played FIFA World Cup Soccer (it was a 600meg download!) and while it's getting crappy reviews, we really liked it. It's not something I'd have rented, so I'd never have played it. Because I could download it as a demo I'll be more likely to buy this game I might have overlooked.

iPod (MP3 player) USB Support

There's three ways you get audio/music playing on your Xbox 360. The first and easiest is just plugging your MP3 player into one of the 3 USB ports on the Xbox 360. I plugged in my iPod Nano and it was immediately (no wait) recognized and showed up as "Scott's Nano" and I was playing music directly off it immediately. I also tried a generic USB MP3 player and it works great as well. There's also an optional downloadable support for unprotected AAC files, so I grabbed that also and it works nicely.

Windows Media Connect 2.0 Support

I installed the new Windows Media Connect 2.0 which is a fancy way of saying "a uPnP server built into Windows" and pointed my Images, Music and Video folders from my main PC and was able to play music off it for hours. It's actually still playing this moment, and it'll let you view photos as the music continues which is a nice little attention-to-detail thing.

Windows Media Center

Here's the big one. The Media Center Extender stuff. It's awesome. I tired and suffered with the original (largely unusable) Classic Xbox Media Extender. Because of this and other factors, my Media Center PC has remained in the guest room, largely usused except for a MAME machine.

Enter the 360. The UI is exactly (by my eye) the same UI that you'd get if you were actually sitting at the actual Media Center. It's snappy, in HDTV, and gorgeous. Not only that, but all the HTML-style Media Center applications like NPR and MTV Overdrive work great. We spent a few hours last night purusing the vast MTV database of videos and watched at least a dozen on-demand music videos with family visiting from out of town.

Here's a video of the Media Center (the quality is iffy) in action.

File Attachment: MediaCenter360.wmv (1585 KB)

Additionally, you can press the Media Center button on the 360's remote (you may need to buy one if you didn't have one included) and it will turn on the 360 and connect to the Media Center PC in one fluid step. This helps the Wife Acceptance Factor greatly.

Harmony 880 Universal Remote Control

I love this remote and I'm convinced that for the dollar it is THE remote to get if you have a complex system. I was thrilled to see today that I could just tell the Harmony online system that I'd bought an Xbox 360 and it became immediately integrated into my larger system. The folks at Harmony (Logitech) are really passionate about their remotes and it shows. I've spent time on the phone in the past with their tech support and it was a pleasure. I had the whole thing working in about 15 minutes.

This was put to the test this evening when some of Mo's co-workers came over and they were able to show pictures of the baby (via Media Connect) without any of them having used the Xbox or the remote before.

Games

* Perfect Dark Zero

Well, it ain't Halo. Not even close. It's actually pretty lame, and I'm disappointed. We'll see, maybe it'll grow on me.

* Kameo

I got this just because we have an 8-year-old visiting and staying with us and I've got him checking out the Game Rating (ESRP) systems. I didn't want to buy only "M" games, so I picked this one up. Wow, what a cute and interesting game. It's a very thoughtful and interesting puzzle/physics game with a silly storyline. It looks a smidge like World of Warcraft in it's ethos, although certainly less serious. I suspect I'll play this game the second most often. It also has a nice co-op 2-player mode which was an unexpected plus.

* Project Gotham Racing 3

Had to get this if only to show off the system. It's OK, but until I get a wheel I'm doomed to suck. It's pretty slick, but I should have waited for a Rallysport-type game. I tried Forza on the Classic Xbox but it was too realisitic. I continue to go back to Rallysport2, it's REALLY amazing. See, there I go, talking about an older game when I'm supposed to talk about PGR3. Kind of says something.

* Call of Duty 2

Wow. Wow. Seriously. This game is brilliant. Truly and fantastically immersive. Get it, as anything I can say about it would just be silly and over the top.

As an aside, I'm looking forward to the new Splinter Cell: Double Agent and if it looks half as good as Call of Duty, it'll be great.

Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF)

It works with the current remote and she can show pictures of Z without my help. 'Nuff said, she's happy. If I get it paid off before she sees the credit card receipt we'll still be in business.

 About Scott

 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.


 About Newsletter
 Hosting By
 Comment on this post [11]
 Share on Twitter or Facebook or use the Permalink
 December 15, 2005 8:09
 great review. I always grin when you mention the WAF, so true to my life.

 glad to hear the media center extender got better.

 by chance to the media center slide shows now pan and zoom on the 360?
 Tadd
 December 15, 2005 9:00
 I've been waiting for someone to talk about how the Media Center functionality works with the 360. Thanks for the info. If you don't mind, I'll tap you for information :) Is it noisy (fan noise, etc)? Does it start up in Media Center mode quickly? I assume playing DVDs works well also?

 Basically, we're trying to decide whether to move the Media Center PC out of the living room and completely replace it with a 360. The old extenders were not quite polished enough for us to concider this, but the 360 looks promising.
 Erv Walter
 December 15, 2005 12:17
 You've got to get Condemned. It's the scariest and most gruesome game I've played. I've not got a high def TV and I'm still blown away by it. I've spoken to a friend who's just upgraded to hd and he said it makes the game twice as good.
 Nick Swan
 December 15, 2005 16:47
 Cool! Excellent write up! I'm PunchingBoot - if you wanna have a game online. Also in case anyone is interested I also did a mini-video of the dashboard and it shows a snippet of the media center piece.

 http://blog.funknstyle.com/2005/12/xbox_360_dashboard_preview.html

 Enjoy your 360! I'm sure the baby will be gaming in no time. :-)
 Amanda Murphy
 December 15, 2005 20:28
 Can you play COD2 with a USB mouse and keyboard? Can you give it a try and let us know how it works?
 Joshua Flanagan
 December 16, 2005 3:23
 I'll be happy to take your Classic XBox (shipped to the US)!
 net123
 December 16, 2005 9:39
 Tadd -

 "by chance to the media center slide shows now pan and zoom on the 360?"

 I'm guessing that Scott's pretty busy with the new Hanselman, and there's nothing he and I enjoy more than stealing each other's thunder, so I'd like to answer for him.

 And the answer is...

 Yes.
 Rory
 December 16, 2005 9:47
 Joshua -

 "Can you play COD2 with a USB mouse and keyboard? Can you give it a try and let us know how it works?"

 You can't - yet.

 There are rumors of a keyboard/mouse combo.

 I've tried plugging in some of my peripherals (hey - lonely geek, late at night - who *wouldn't* start trying to plug weird things into USB holes?), and there's no effect.

 Actually, the light on my optical mouse lights up, so that's something. It doesn't help me play, but, dang - it's pretty.

 I've also heard that plugging a Media Center keyboard in results in [drum roll] being able to use the Media Center specific buttons. The rest of the buttons (like the ones with letters and numbers on them) don't do anything.

 I think it's kind of lame that we don't have mouse/keyboard drivers out of the box. I mean, I can use a bluetooth keyboard with my *phone*, you know?

 Plus, with all the Xbox Live stuff, it'd be nice to be able to enter some information in using a keyboard. Like 128bit encryption keys, for example. I was having a hard time getting the 360 on my network, and had to enter that stupid key in about ten times. That's a lot of left/right/up/up/X/down/left/left/left/left/A/left/left/A/etc...

 Actually, since the Premium system comes with a mic, they could have at least let me hum my key in using Morse code. It actually would have been easier.

 Hey. I think I'm onto something.

 Morse code instead of a keyboard.

 I have to go. I'm going to go write that down...
 Rory
 December 16, 2005 12:15
 Gotta try a multiplayer Infection game on Perfect Dark: Zero... crazy fun. I played the single player stuff for about 5 minutes... multiplayer is where it's at.
 Jason Mauer
 December 18, 2005 10:20
 I used an ordinary USB keyboard to enter Live subscription codes without difficulty. I think any keyboard that doesn't normally require custom drivers will work.

 I own FIFA06 and agree with you, it's not as bad as the reviews have painted it. I haven't found anything special about it, but if you enjoy playing soccer games and/or enjoyed previous versions (I also had FIFA 04 on the Xbox), then it's fine.

 Also, if you liked the original Amped games, you might like Amped 3. The [optional] story line has gone off into bizarro land (which I found humorous), but the game play is still great. Combos are easier than in the first two.

 The weird thing is, I'm playing Arcade more than any of the eight full-blown 360 games I own. In particular, Hexic and Zuma are excellent puzzle games -- I'm enjoying both of them more than Bejeweled. Hexic offers both turn-based and timed modes, so you can go at whatever pace you like. Zuma's more fast-paced but involves more thinking. (But it's not as fast-paced as Geometry Wars -- man, I suck at that game.)
 Michael Brundage
 December 19, 2005 1:22
 did you sell the classic? Jack
 Jack Hanselman

 Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

 Blog

 * Privacy Policy
 * Greatest Hits
 * Dev Tool List

 Podcast

 * Hanselminutes
 * This Developer's Life
 * Ratchet & The Geek

 Speaking

 * Speaking/Videos
 * Presentations Tips

 Books

 * ASP.NET 4.5
 * ASP.NET MVC 4
 * Relationship Hacks
 © Copyright 2023, Scott Hanselman. Design by @jzy, Powered by .NET 6.0.11 and deployed from commit 5c6a80 via build 20220310.1
Got a call yesterday that the second shipment of Xbox 360's had come in and the one I'd pre-ordered in June was now waiting for me. I swung by GameCrazy on the way to the store and picked up my shiny new Xbox 360. It also included a limited edition Media Center Remote that will likely go unused. I also picked up:
Second wireless controller 
 Perfect Dark Zero 
 Call of Duty 2 
 Kameo 
 Project Gotham Racing 3 
I also got an aftermarket HDTV cable because the guy told me the Xbox 360 didn't include optical support. This is false and true. The 360 DOES come with an optical hole, but no optical cable. It comes with a big cable that includes composite (SDTV) and component video (HDTV) and a hole for the optical. So, this $20 accessory was a waste unless someone wants an optical cable + Xbox 360 component cable for $19 from me. :) 
Of course, I didn't get a chance to use it until Z and Mo were asleep so that probably wasn't very smart. I was up until 2 with the Xbox and until 5:30 with Z.
 First Impressions 
It's the shiznit. It's freaking awesome. If you can, buy it. Now. Seriously, stop reading.
 Gotchas and Things To Be Aware Of IOMHO 
Getting just the Core System without hard drive just makes no sense. You get $150 in accessories for the extra $100 the standard bundle costs you. 
The 360 is totally THE killer app for HDTV, so very much more than DVDs in their 480p glory. Running the dashboard in 1080i is glorious. Call of Duty 2 is fantastic. Better than my PC with its 1680x1050 resolution? No, probably about the same. Except the Xbox 360 cost less than my video card. Drink that in.
Folks have been complaining that there's only 13gigs free on the 20gig hard drive. The forums are alight with the standard logorrhoea that "the system takes up much of that." Well, if one does some digging, they'd see that the hard drive comes preloaded with a Titanic Video (literally from the movie Titanic) that is a 1gig, a Warren Miller video and two others weighing in at about 750megs each as well as a bunch of music. It's mostly the schmutz that makes you lose space. However, I'm not really sweating the space as it's all scratch space as far as I'm concerned.
I started by using my existing Xbox "classic's" wireless ethernet bridge and it worked great. However, I switched over to my 100base-T wired connection for snapper Media Center PC response.
Since all emulated games run in HDTV, if you liked stretching your 4:3 games to 16:9, you can't do that anymore.
Funky (read: optimized) games like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory still have some work to do, as it seems that you can run the single player game in 16:9, but the multiplayer (which is basically (smells like) a totally different codebase) is 4:3. 
 Xbox Live Arcade 
  They finally got the casual gamer thing right. My wife will actually be able to play Bejewelled without finishing her PhD. It's very clean and elegant. It also uses a form of micropayments to accomplish two things. One, the conversion between "Microsoft Points, the currency, and dollars, isn't in-your-head easy, so one could find themselves spending money without "feeling it." Two, it allows someone to sell a game for $3.47. I bought Joust and Bejewelled off the bat, and I'll likely get Geometry Wars also.
 Original Xbox Emulation 
The first thing I did, before I even played a single 360 game was try out the backward compatibility emulation. I'm so relieved they chose to stick with it, as they'd really have been shooting themselves in the foot if they were going to launch the 360 all alone in the world without the rich existing Xbox library of games. 
A few games I like haven't been updated yet, including Lego Star Wars, but the important ones like Halo 2 and Splinter Cell worked. Also, Yourself: Fitness worked so that's awesome. All in all, my conclusion is:  Classic Xbox for sale - $75, used for only 2 months, I won it in a raffle.  
 Downloading Demos 
I was pleasantly surprised that you can download and play demos. I downloaded and played FIFA World Cup Soccer (it was a 600meg download!) and while it's getting crappy reviews, we really liked it. It's not something I'd have rented, so I'd never have played it. Because I could download it as a demo I'll be more likely to buy this game I might have overlooked.
 iPod (MP3 player) USB Support 
There's three ways you get audio/music playing on your Xbox 360. The first and easiest is just plugging your MP3 player into one of the 3 USB ports on the Xbox 360. I plugged in my iPod Nano and it was immediately (no wait) recognized and showed up as "Scott's Nano" and I was playing music directly off it immediately. I also tried a generic USB MP3 player and it works great as well. There's also an optional downloadable support for unprotected AAC files, so I grabbed that also and it works nicely.
 Windows Media Connect 2.0 Support 
I installed the new Windows Media Connect 2.0 which is a fancy way of saying "a uPnP server built into Windows" and pointed my Images, Music and Video folders from my main PC and was able to play music off it for hours. It's actually still playing this moment, and it'll let you view photos as the music continues which is a nice little attention-to-detail thing.
 Windows Media Center 
  Here's the big one. The Media Center Extender stuff. It's awesome. I tired and suffered with the original (largely unusable) Classic Xbox Media Extender. Because of this and other factors, my Media Center PC has remained in the guest room, largely usused except for a MAME machine. 
Enter the 360. The UI is exactly (by my eye) the same UI that you'd get if you were actually sitting at the actual Media Center. It's snappy, in HDTV, and gorgeous. Not only that, but all the HTML-style Media Center applications like NPR and MTV Overdrive work great. We spent a few hours last night purusing the vast MTV database of videos and watched at least a dozen on-demand music videos with family visiting from out of town.
Here's a video of the Media Center (the quality is iffy) in action. 
  File Attachment: MediaCenter360.wmv (1585 KB)   
Additionally, you can press the Media Center button on the 360's remote (you may need to buy one if you didn't have one included) and it will turn on the 360 and connect to the Media Center PC in one fluid step. This helps the Wife Acceptance Factor greatly.
 Harmony 880 Universal Remote Control 
I love this remote and I'm convinced that for the dollar it is THE remote to get if you have a complex system. I was thrilled to see today that I could just tell the Harmony online system that I'd bought an Xbox 360 and it became immediately integrated into my larger system. The folks at Harmony (Logitech) are really passionate about their remotes and it shows. I've spent time on the phone in the past with their tech support and it was a pleasure. I had the whole thing working in about 15 minutes. 
This was put to the test this evening when some of Mo's co-workers came over and they were able to show pictures of the baby (via Media Connect) without any of them having used the Xbox or the remote before.
 Games 
  Perfect Dark Zero  
Well, it ain't Halo. Not even close. It's actually pretty lame, and I'm disappointed. We'll see, maybe it'll grow on me.
  Kameo  
I got this just because we have an 8-year-old visiting and staying with us and I've got him checking out the Game Rating (ESRP) systems. I didn't want to buy only "M" games, so I picked this one up. Wow, what a cute and interesting game. It's a very thoughtful and interesting puzzle/physics game with a silly storyline. It looks a smidge like World of Warcraft in it's ethos, although certainly less serious. I suspect I'll play this game the second most often. It also has a nice co-op 2-player mode which was an unexpected plus.
  Project Gotham Racing 3  
Had to get this if only to show off the system. It's OK, but until I get a wheel I'm doomed to suck. It's pretty slick, but I should have waited for a Rallysport-type game. I tried Forza on the Classic Xbox but it was too realisitic. I continue to go back to Rallysport2, it's REALLY amazing. See, there I go, talking about an older game when I'm supposed to talk about PGR3. Kind of says something.
  Call of Duty 2  
Wow. Wow. Seriously. This game is brilliant. Truly and fantastically immersive. Get it, as anything I can say about it would just be silly and over the top.
As an aside, I'm looking forward to the new Splinter Cell: Double Agent and if it looks half as good as Call of Duty, it'll be great.
 Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) 
It works with the current remote and she can show pictures of Z without my help. 'Nuff said, she's happy. If I get it paid off before she sees the credit card receipt we'll still be in business. 
 
 
 About Scott
 
 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
   
  
   
 About   Newsletter
  
 
 
  Hosting By
Xbox 360 as Media Hub
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/xbox-360-as-media-hub
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/my-groktalk-ten-tools-in-ten-minutes
My GrokTalk - Ten Tools in Ten Minutes
2005-06-09
None
<div><section>
 
 <p>They are still editing my TechEd <a href="http://www.groktalk.net/">GrokTalk</a> which was called "10 Tools in 10 Minutes." It was a quick list of the tools I use to be productive (I'm still working on an updated Ultimate Tools List - possibly done this weekend).</p>
<p>Here's details and links to the tools I used in random order. I'll update this post and include the actual video as soon as it's edited.</p>
<p>These are just 10 great tools that I picked from my list. There are a hundred more, so I'm sorry if your favorite isn't here. </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html"><strong>Notepad2</strong></a><strong> (</strong><a href="http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html"><strong>Scite</strong></a><strong> also uses the codebase)</strong> - A great text editor. First class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicode switching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming. A must. Here's how to completely replace <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/archive/2004/04/30/124093.aspx">notepad.exe</a>. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to "n.exe" which saves me a few dozen "otepad"s a day. Here's how to <a href="http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/rohancragg/archive/2004/05/21/14127.aspx">have Notepad2 be your View Source Editor</a>. Here's how to <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/pleloup/archive/2004/05/12/130566.aspx">add Notepad2 to the Explorer context menu</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.geekdojo.net/brian/articles/Cropper.aspx"><strong>Cropper</strong></a> - A fabulous screen capture applet. I usually pick simple tools that do their job elegantly. Cropper does just that and it's written in .NET.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/"><strong>Lutz's Reflector</strong></a><strong> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=0f5846c3-c7aa-4879-8043-e0f4fc233ade">and it's AddIns</a> </strong>- The tool that changed the world and the way we learn about .NET. Download it, select and interesting method and hit the space bar. Take the time to install the Add-Ins and check out the amazing static analysis you can do with things like the Diff and Graph.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/">SlickRun</a></strong> - A free floating dynamic "command prompt" with alias support that continues to amaze. My tips for effective use: read the instructions, edit the slickrun.ini file and bind it to Window-R. Also set ChaseCursor so when you hit Win-R, you'll have a floating transparent command line anywhere your mouse is. I recommend you also use larger fonts! :</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://desktop.msn.com/">Windows Desktop Search</a></strong> - The betas were rough and tended to lock up, but the free final edition is tight. I can finally bring up a file almost as fast as I can think about it. One important note that sets it apart from Google Desktop Search is that the items appearing in the result window are first-class Explorer Items. Right click on them and you'll not only have all your context menu extensions, but also Open Containing Folder.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/"><strong>TaskSwitchXP</strong></a><strong> and </strong><a href="http://www.otakusoftware.com/"><strong>TopDesk</strong></a> - Two better ways to ALT-Tab and Task Switch in Windows. Don't confuse TaskSwitchXP with the old PowerToy. This one is fast and powerful. If you envy the Mac's Expose, then use TopDesk. Personally, I use both and set a cursor hotspot in the lower-right corner to tile my windows. Be sure to have DirectX9 installed.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://users.pandora.be/eclypse/lensview.html">Magnifixer</a></strong> - My ZoomIn tool du jour. Be sure that you have SOME kind of ZoomIn tool installed. I like this one because it automatically follows your cursor and your typing and saves settings without asking. It also has a nice eye-dropper for the RGB in you. Learn how to use this tool if you present at all.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.devexpress.com/coderush"><strong>CodeRush and Refactor!</strong></a> (and <a href="http://www.devexpress.com/Downloads/NET/DXCore/">DxCore</a>) - Apparently my enthusiasm for CodeRush has been noticed by a few. It just keeps getting better. However, the best kept secret about CodeRush isn't all the shiny stuff, it's the free Extensibility Engine called DxCore that brings VS.NET plugins to the masses. Don't miss out on free add-ins like <a href="http://www.paraesthesia.com/blog/comments.php?id=701_0_1_0_C">CR_Documentor</a> and <a href="http://www.sturmnet.org/blog/cr-electric-editing/">ElectricEditing</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sysinternals.com/"><strong>SysInternals</strong></a> - I showed specifically <a href="http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html">ProcExp</a> and <a href="http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html">AutoRuns</a>, but anything these guys do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET proceses. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.testdriven.net/"><strong>TestDriven.NET</strong></a> - The perfect integration of Unit Testing with Visual Studio.NET. Right click and "Run Test." The output window says "Build" then switches to "Test." The best part, though, is "Test With...Debugger" as a right click that automatically starts up an external process runner, loads and starts your test. Compatible with NUnit, MBUnit and Team System. </li></ul>
 <div>
 <div>
 <h4>About Scott</h4>
 <div>
 <p>Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.</p>
 <p><a href="https://facebook.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="https://twitter.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman"></a><br />
 <a href="http://hanselman.com/about">About</a>   <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/newsletter">Newsletter</a>
 </p></div>
 </div>
 <div>
 <p><strong>Hosting By</strong><br />
 <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/free"></a>
 </p>
 </div>
 </div>
 
 
 
 </section>||||I||||Scott Hanselman

 * about
 * blog
 * podcast
 * youtube
 * speaking
 browse by category or date

My GrokTalk - Ten Tools in Ten Minutes

June 09, 2005 Comment on this post [8] Posted in TechEd | ASP.NET | Speaking | NUnit | CodeRush | Bugs | Tools
 Sponsored By

They are still editing my TechEd GrokTalk which was called "10 Tools in 10 Minutes." It was a quick list of the tools I use to be productive (I'm still working on an updated Ultimate Tools List - possibly done this weekend).

Here's details and links to the tools I used in random order. I'll update this post and include the actual video as soon as it's edited.

These are just 10 great tools that I picked from my list. There are a hundred more, so I'm sorry if your favorite isn't here.

 * Notepad2 (Scite also uses the codebase) - A great text editor. First class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicode switching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming. A must. Here's how to completely replace notepad.exe. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to "n.exe" which saves me a few dozen "otepad"s a day. Here's how to have Notepad2 be your View Source Editor. Here's how to add Notepad2 to the Explorer context menu.
 * Cropper - A fabulous screen capture applet. I usually pick simple tools that do their job elegantly. Cropper does just that and it's written in .NET.
 * Lutz's Reflector and it's AddIns - The tool that changed the world and the way we learn about .NET. Download it, select and interesting method and hit the space bar. Take the time to install the Add-Ins and check out the amazing static analysis you can do with things like the Diff and Graph.
 * SlickRun - A free floating dynamic "command prompt" with alias support that continues to amaze. My tips for effective use: read the instructions, edit the slickrun.ini file and bind it to Window-R. Also set ChaseCursor so when you hit Win-R, you'll have a floating transparent command line anywhere your mouse is. I recommend you also use larger fonts! :
 * Windows Desktop Search - The betas were rough and tended to lock up, but the free final edition is tight. I can finally bring up a file almost as fast as I can think about it. One important note that sets it apart from Google Desktop Search is that the items appearing in the result window are first-class Explorer Items. Right click on them and you'll not only have all your context menu extensions, but also Open Containing Folder.
 * TaskSwitchXP and TopDesk - Two better ways to ALT-Tab and Task Switch in Windows. Don't confuse TaskSwitchXP with the old PowerToy. This one is fast and powerful. If you envy the Mac's Expose, then use TopDesk. Personally, I use both and set a cursor hotspot in the lower-right corner to tile my windows. Be sure to have DirectX9 installed.
 * Magnifixer - My ZoomIn tool du jour. Be sure that you have SOME kind of ZoomIn tool installed. I like this one because it automatically follows your cursor and your typing and saves settings without asking. It also has a nice eye-dropper for the RGB in you. Learn how to use this tool if you present at all.
 * CodeRush and Refactor! (and DxCore) - Apparently my enthusiasm for CodeRush has been noticed by a few. It just keeps getting better. However, the best kept secret about CodeRush isn't all the shiny stuff, it's the free Extensibility Engine called DxCore that brings VS.NET plugins to the masses. Don't miss out on free add-ins like CR_Documentor and ElectricEditing.
 * SysInternals - I showed specifically ProcExp and AutoRuns, but anything these guys do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET proceses. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box.
 * TestDriven.NET - The perfect integration of Unit Testing with Visual Studio.NET. Right click and "Run Test." The output window says "Build" then switches to "Test." The best part, though, is "Test With...Debugger" as a right click that automatically starts up an external process runner, loads and starts your test. Compatible with NUnit, MBUnit and Team System.

 About Scott

 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.


 About Newsletter
 Hosting By
 Comment on this post [8]
 Share on Twitter or Facebook or use the Permalink
 June 09, 2005 20:10
 I've used both, and I still prefer Dave's Quick Search desk bar over slick run. But then again, I'm always on a 21" w/ 16x12 resolution... so I have more room. :-)
 Jason Scheuerman
 June 09, 2005 20:16
 I recently used SysInternals ProcExp, FileMon (and Google) to track down and kill a nasty virus and some SpyWare a friends laptop that two different virus scanners missed. Excellent tools to find out what your machine is really doing.
 Jason Scheuerman
 June 10, 2005 19:54
 I never used NotePad2, but was introduced to PSPad ( http://www.pspad.com/en/ ) a few months ago and love it. It's got all the features you mentioned above for NotePad2, plus things like tabs, macros, syntax highlighting, hex-editing, incremental search, and much more. I highly recommend it.
 Luke Hutteman
 June 11, 2005 9:22
 The Magnifixer download appears to have malicious code associated with it. When attempting to download it, my virus scanner immediately kicked off a warning on the executable. It was detected as Generic BackDoor.dr (type trojan).
 carlos
 June 12, 2005 6:31
 I attended your session and learned quite a bit! Nice approach to code gen! BTW, you figure how to get TestDriven.NET to work with the later bits of the latest release of NUnit?
 AC
 June 13, 2005 17:55
 I looked at Code Rush and its nice but not as good as Resharper. Resharper has many more refactoring tools than Code Rush and is less expensive. That said it does not have the cool UI effects but then again do you really need them? Resharper can be found at http://www.jetbrains.com
 Anonymous
 June 13, 2005 21:21
 This is far from "computer zen" if you're still running Windows.
 anonymous
 September 10, 2005 6:05
 > like [Magnifixer] because it automatically follows your cursor and your typing

 Indeed, it follows the mouse pointer but NOT the cursor. Eg what I am typing now is not shown at all in the magnify window. That's kind of annoying.. I don't see anything in the right click options that enables this behavior. Are there any magnification tools that truly follow typing and not just the mouse cursor?
 Jeff Atwood

 Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

 Blog

 * Privacy Policy
 * Greatest Hits
 * Dev Tool List

 Podcast

 * Hanselminutes
 * This Developer's Life
 * Ratchet & The Geek

 Speaking

 * Speaking/Videos
 * Presentations Tips

 Books

 * ASP.NET 4.5
 * ASP.NET MVC 4
 * Relationship Hacks
 © Copyright 2023, Scott Hanselman. Design by @jzy, Powered by .NET 6.0.13 and deployed from commit 5c6a80 via build 20220310.1
They are still editing my TechEd GrokTalk which was called "10 Tools in 10 Minutes." It was a quick list of the tools I use to be productive (I'm still working on an updated Ultimate Tools List - possibly done this weekend).
Here's details and links to the tools I used in random order. I'll update this post and include the actual video as soon as it's edited.
These are just 10 great tools that I picked from my list. There are a hundred more, so I'm sorry if your favorite isn't here. 
  Notepad2   (  Scite   also uses the codebase) - A great text editor. First class CR/LF support, ANSI to Unicode switching, whitespace and line ending graphics and Mouse Wheel Zooming. A must. Here's how to completely replace notepad.exe. Personally I renamed Notepad2.exe to "n.exe" which saves me a few dozen "otepad"s a day. Here's how to have Notepad2 be your View Source Editor. Here's how to add Notepad2 to the Explorer context menu.
  Cropper  - A fabulous screen capture applet. I usually pick simple tools that do their job elegantly. Cropper does just that and it's written in .NET.
  Lutz's Reflector   and it's AddIns - The tool that changed the world and the way we learn about .NET. Download it, select and interesting method and hit the space bar. Take the time to install the Add-Ins and check out the amazing static analysis you can do with things like the Diff and Graph.
  SlickRun  - A free floating dynamic "command prompt" with alias support that continues to amaze. My tips for effective use: read the instructions, edit the slickrun.ini file and bind it to Window-R. Also set ChaseCursor so when you hit Win-R, you'll have a floating transparent command line anywhere your mouse is. I recommend you also use larger fonts! :
  Windows Desktop Search  - The betas were rough and tended to lock up, but the free final edition is tight. I can finally bring up a file almost as fast as I can think about it. One important note that sets it apart from Google Desktop Search is that the items appearing in the result window are first-class Explorer Items. Right click on them and you'll not only have all your context menu extensions, but also Open Containing Folder.
  TaskSwitchXP   and   TopDesk  - Two better ways to ALT-Tab and Task Switch in Windows. Don't confuse TaskSwitchXP with the old PowerToy. This one is fast and powerful. If you envy the Mac's Expose, then use TopDesk. Personally, I use both and set a cursor hotspot in the lower-right corner to tile my windows. Be sure to have DirectX9 installed.
  Magnifixer  - My ZoomIn tool du jour. Be sure that you have SOME kind of ZoomIn tool installed. I like this one because it automatically follows your cursor and your typing and saves settings without asking. It also has a nice eye-dropper for the RGB in you. Learn how to use this tool if you present at all.
  CodeRush and Refactor!  (and DxCore) - Apparently my enthusiasm for CodeRush has been noticed by a few. It just keeps getting better. However, the best kept secret about CodeRush isn't all the shiny stuff, it's the free Extensibility Engine called DxCore that brings VS.NET plugins to the masses. Don't miss out on free add-ins like CR_Documentor and ElectricEditing.
  SysInternals  - I showed specifically ProcExp and AutoRuns, but anything these guys do is pure gold. ProcExp is a great Taskman replacement and includes the invaluable "Find DLL" feature. It can also highlight any .NET proceses. AutoRuns is an amazing aggregated view of any and all things that run at startup on your box.
  TestDriven.NET  - The perfect integration of Unit Testing with Visual Studio.NET. Right click and "Run Test." The output window says "Build" then switches to "Test." The best part, though, is "Test With...Debugger" as a right click that automatically starts up an external process runner, loads and starts your test. Compatible with NUnit, MBUnit and Team System.  
 
 
 About Scott
 
 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
   
  
   
 About   Newsletter
  
 
 
  Hosting By
My GrokTalk - Ten Tools in Ten Minutes
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/my-groktalk-ten-tools-in-ten-minutes
https://seths.blog/2005/03/
March 2005 – Seth's Blog
2005-03-31
None
<div><div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/outrageous/">Outrageous!</a></h2>
<p>I worked really hard on this year’s April Fool’s joke. It was called "The Blog Dongle Uproar (part II)". All about Bradley Smith, formerly part of the Federal Elections Commission.</p>
<p>The post had to do with a dongle (see picture down below) that all bloggers would have to attach to their machines in order to post.</p>
<p>It involved a blog tax, the proceeds of which would be used to fund Orrin Hatch’s attempts to ban P2P and all sorts of useful progress in online technology. It involved registering all bloggers and creating a division of the Department of Homeland Security that would monitor all blog posts to see if they threatened our moral security.</p>
<p>Link: <a href="http://news.com.com/The%20coming%20crackdown%20on%20blogging/2008-1028_3-5597079.html">The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com</a>.
</p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p>My whole shtick was that I was going to <em>support</em>  the blog tax and talk about what a good idea it was… thus leading other bloggers to be outraged and rip me to pieces for supporting something so entirely stupid.</p>
<p>But I’m not going to post it. In fact, this is my last post until Saturday. Why? Because everything is being taken so seriously, especially when individuals feel deceived, mistreated or foolish.</p>
<p>I got a note earlier today from someone excoriating Best Buy because the price they offered for a CD in the store was &lt;gasp&gt; a few dollars different from what they were offering the same thing online. They were outraged.</p>
<p>Outrage seems to be the order of the day. Outrage is the new currency of politics, it’s the currency of marketing and it’s the currency of our interactions on the road–did I mention a woman in a GMC Jimmy–probably 55 years old–honked at me for more than a minute today (and flipped me the bird) because she didn’t like my driving?</p>
<p>This is going to be the biggest April Fool’s day in memory. There will be political fools and satirical fools and just plain goofy fools. I figured I could get a lot of mileage out of inventing the "blog tax" fool, and it would be a good story to tell my grandchildren. But then I realized that if it worked, I’d get all this incredibly angry mail and trackbacks and I’d have to deal with it.</p>
<p>So, alas, no Fools for me. Good luck tomorrow. Be careful out there.</p>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/noses_cut_to_sp/">Noses cut to spite faces department</a></h2>
<p>Petra Rankin shares this story:</p>
<p>I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.</p>
<p>So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)</p>
<p>Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!</p>
<p>So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!</p>
<p>I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?</p>
<p>(PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she’d just pay the discounted fee.)</p>
<p>find Petra: <a href="http://www.petrarankin.briefbooks.com.au/weblog/">Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond)</a>.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/does_language_m/">Does language matter more?</a></h2>
<p>"Your call is important and will be serviced as soon as possible"<br/>"Please have your card number and other additional information ready"</p>
<p>In the old days, you’d go down to the American Express office and talk to a real person. They would use eye contact and hand motions and could gauge your responses in order to make themselves understood.</p>
<p>Today, when you’re on permahold, listening to a recording at Amex, you only have the classical musical loop and the words they’ve chosen.</p>
<p>So when they choose the wrong words, when they ask you to do silly things (additional information? which additional information?) it makes you think they’re not as smart as you’d like them to be.</p>
<p>As we see in the warning sign below, in an environment where you can’t react in real time, the words you choose are critically important to the message you send.</p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/death_plus_a_fi/">Death plus a fine</a></h2>
<p>Thanks to Mark Mattos for the snapshot</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/people_or_syste/">People or systems?</a></h2>
<p><a href="http://www.chrisg.org/Blog/PermaLink,guid,5fe93295-6ba4-4dbd-840c-36c49c62403b.aspx">Chris Garrett</a> says I’m wrong about the Westin. That they should fix their systems, not their people.</p>
<p>I can’t think of one world class service organization (whether it’s someone selling million dollar computers to corporations or Starbucks) that has figured out how to replace great people with great systems.</p>
<p>The best organizations have principles and guidelines and even, yes, scripts. But time and again, they fall back to, "Use your best judgment" or "Do what’s right for the customer" or "Make something magical happen" or "Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."</p>
<p>When a hotel chain empowers a maid to spend up to $500 to make it right (using her own discretion), that’s not a system, that’s trusting great people to do the right thing.</p>
<p>The problems with systems?<br/>1. if you rely on them too much, your people stop trying, and your hiring people realize they don’t have to get such great people.<br/>2. sooner or later, it’s going to get copied by the competition. It’s a lot easier to copy a system than it is to get great people.</p>
<p>JetBlue is first and foremost about the people Amy Curtis hired and trained. The systems allow the great people to do great work.</p>
<p>Yes, if you can automate it in a way that increases satisfaction, do it right away. Use an ATM system instead of the front desk at the hotel. Use an automated wake up call system. But then put the money you save into wonderful people at the concierge desk.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/adventures_in_t/">Adventures in travel</a></h2>
<p>Staying at <a href="http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/">The Westin Hotel</a> in Florida to give a speech today. The staff here is very scripted, doing things because they were told to, not because it comes naturally. My favorite example: When you ask for a wake up call in the morning, they automatically respond, "Would you like a follow up call fifteen minutes later?" I said no. They asked me the same question when I called an hour later to change the time. Same no answer from me.</p>
<p>So this morning, as is usual when I travel, I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted to. Before going to work out, I called to cancel my wake up so the ringing phone wouldn’t bother the neighbors. The receptionist then asked, "Would you like me to cancel the follow up call as well?"</p>
<p>Obviously, there’s no reason on earth that someone who is already awake and is cancelling their wakeup call would still want to be reminded of the call fifteen minutes later. Especially if they didn’t ask for the reminder call in the first place. But there it is in the script, so it’s an error that’s repeated over and over.</p>
<p>I know it’s more difficult, but hiring people who can think for themselves is usually a better long run strategy than scripting every conversation. If that’s the plan, it’s probably better to get an automated system. And not just at a hotel in Florida…</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/five_things_to_/">Five things to do today</a></h2>
<p>Spring cleaning and all that:</p>
<p>1. Don’t forget to check out the details for: <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/please_come_to_.html">Seth’s Blog: Please come to a seminar in my office</a>.</p>
<p>2. Sign up for an RSS reader. You can check all your blogs at once just by visiting a website or loading a program. Click on the odd logo for the easiest one I’ve found: <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/index.rdf"><br/>
</a></p>
<p>3. Send a thank you note to three people you work with.</p>
<p>4. If you live in a house, have your furnace checked. Ours was backed up and almost killed us all. If you live in an apartment, go ahead and get tenant’s insurance. It’s pretty cheap and you’ll thank me one day.</p>
<p>5. Make a list of the five most useful blogs you read and email the list to six clueless friends. If everyone who reads blogs daily did this, the number of clueless people might actually go down (hey, a guy can dream.)</p>
<p>Thanks for your support. Enjoy your spring. (For those in Australia and other places that are closer to penguins, enjoy your fall.)<br/><a href="http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/index.rdf"> </a></p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/you_can_always_/">You can always be mean later (respect works)</a></h2>
<p>Here’s a fascinating case study in the power of being nice.</p>
<p>Lawyers have customers too, and not just the people who pay the bills. If a lawyer can successfully market her ideas to an adversary, she’s far more likely to get a case settled quickly and to her client’s advantage.</p>
<p>Consider the case of Julie Greenberg and Hank Mishkoff. You can see the entire thing in detail here: <a href="http://www.taubmansucks.com/index.html">Taubman Sucks!</a>.</p>
<p>Ms. Greenberg represented (or I should say, mis-represented) a giant chain of shopping malls. A few years ago, she and Taubman went after Hank Mishkoff, who controlled a domain Taubman wanted for one of its malls. Her opening salvo was a classic lawyer’s demand letter, very formal and threatening.</p>
<p>Of course, most people respond to a note like that with fear and trepidation and then anger. And it spirals from there. I wonder if any law firm has ever done testing as to whether letters like that are actually effective. What if she had called first, or sent a friendly, clearly written letter that outlined mutually beneficial options for both sides?</p>
<p>Instead, Greenberg started mean and escalated from there. Classic litigator tactics, reflecting a "my typewriter is sterner than yours" age-old tactic. Sometimes people fold in the face of this approach (but even when they do, it’s expensive for both sides).</p>
<p>Hank responded by defending himself and taking it to court.</p>
<p>In the end, he won. It cost Taubman tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet, it’s clear to me by watching the correspondence, if the very first interaction had been civil or even pleasant, Jill Greenberg could have ended with a win for 1% of what the loss cost her (actually, it didn’t cost <em>her</em> anything. She made a profit on it! It cost her client a boatload of money, though).</p>
<p>Even if you’re not a lawyer (or <u>especially</u> if you’re not a lawyer) the lesson here is pretty clear: it doesn’t matter who’s "right". What matters is that giving people the benefit of the doubt and treating them with respect is not only more fun, it works better too.</p>
<p>(Thanks to <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/">Doc Searls</a> for the original pointer). (Actually, sorry Doc, it was <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/27/howto_defend_yoursel.html">Boing Boing: HOWTO: defend yourself against domain trademark shakedowns)</a></p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/apples_newest_i/">Apple’s newest ipod launches first of April</a></h2>
<p>It’s made of granite.</p>
<p>Taking rock music to a whole new level.</p>
<p>Thanks to Alex for the image. Link: <a href="http://theworldofwonderfulrandomness.blogspot.com/">Nyfncr’s World Of Randomness</a>.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2><a href="https://seths.blog/2005/03/16000_in_donuts/">Marketing is where you find it</a></h2>
<p>Today’s New York Times reports that the <a href="http://www.radiantchurch.com/">Radiant Church – in Surprise, AZ  </a>spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme donuts.</p>
<p>The health risks aside, this is smart marketing. (And is there anything wrong with a church doing marketing? Churches have always done marketing.)</p>
<p>Marketing doesn’t mean advertising.  </p>
<p>
</p>
</div>
</div></div>||||I|||| You have unread updates 0

 Search

 Search for:

 Or try my new AI-powered search bot

 Subscribe

 Email Terms & Privacy

 Get the weekly digest

 Type your email…

 Subscribe

 Learn

 * Which workshop?
 * altMBA
 * The LinkedIn Learning Courses
 * Udemy Courses
 * The Akimbo Podcast

 Connect

 * News and updates
 * Social Media

 Best of the blog

 * Story of the Week
 * Seth’s Top 100
 * Popular Posts
 * Archive

 More Seth

 * Books, videos, and speaking (oh my!)
 * Free content
 * About Seth Godin
 * Find all the books at seths.store
 Welcome back.

 Have you thought about subscribing? It's free.
 seths.blog/subscribe

 Outrageous!

 I worked really hard on this year’s April Fool’s joke. It was called "The Blog Dongle Uproar (part II)". All about Bradley Smith, formerly part of the Federal Elections Commission.

 The post had to do with a dongle (see picture down below) that all bloggers would have to attach to their machines in order to post.

 It involved a blog tax, the proceeds of which would be used to fund Orrin Hatch’s attempts to ban P2P and all sorts of useful progress in online technology. It involved registering all bloggers and creating a division of the Department of Homeland Security that would monitor all blog posts to see if they threatened our moral security.

 Link: The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com.

 "The
 real question is: Would a link to a candidate’s page be a problem? If
 someone sets up a home page and links to their favorite politician, is
 that a contribution? This is a big deal, if someone has already
 contributed the legal maximum, or if they’re at the disclosure
 threshold and additional expenditures have to be disclosed under
 federal law.

 Certainly a lot of bloggers are very much out front. Do we give
 bloggers the press exemption? If we don’t give bloggers the press
 exemption, we have the question of, do we extend this to online-only
 journals like CNET?"

 My whole shtick was that I was going to support the blog tax and talk about what a good idea it was… thus leading other bloggers to be outraged and rip me to pieces for supporting something so entirely stupid.

 But I’m not going to post it. In fact, this is my last post until Saturday. Why? Because everything is being taken so seriously, especially when individuals feel deceived, mistreated or foolish.

 I got a note earlier today from someone excoriating Best Buy because the price they offered for a CD in the store was <gasp> a few dollars different from what they were offering the same thing online. They were outraged.

 Outrage seems to be the order of the day. Outrage is the new currency of politics, it’s the currency of marketing and it’s the currency of our interactions on the road–did I mention a woman in a GMC Jimmy–probably 55 years old–honked at me for more than a minute today (and flipped me the bird) because she didn’t like my driving?

 This is going to be the biggest April Fool’s day in memory. There will be political fools and satirical fools and just plain goofy fools. I figured I could get a lot of mileage out of inventing the "blog tax" fool, and it would be a good story to tell my grandchildren. But then I realized that if it worked, I’d get all this incredibly angry mail and trackbacks and I’d have to deal with it.

 So, alas, no Fools for me. Good luck tomorrow. Be careful out there.

 March 31, 2005

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Noses cut to spite faces department

 Petra Rankin shares this story:

 I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.

 So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)

 Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!

 So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!

 I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?

 (PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she’d just pay the discounted fee.)

 find Petra: Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond).

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Does language matter more?

 "Your call is important and will be serviced as soon as possible"
 "Please have your card number and other additional information ready"

 In the old days, you’d go down to the American Express office and talk to a real person. They would use eye contact and hand motions and could gauge your responses in order to make themselves understood.

 Today, when you’re on permahold, listening to a recording at Amex, you only have the classical musical loop and the words they’ve chosen.

 So when they choose the wrong words, when they ask you to do silly things (additional information? which additional information?) it makes you think they’re not as smart as you’d like them to be.

 As we see in the warning sign below, in an environment where you can’t react in real time, the words you choose are critically important to the message you send.

 March 30, 2005

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Death plus a fine

 Thanks to Mark Mattos for the snapshot

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 People or systems?

 Chris Garrett says I’m wrong about the Westin. That they should fix their systems, not their people.

 I can’t think of one world class service organization (whether it’s someone selling million dollar computers to corporations or Starbucks) that has figured out how to replace great people with great systems.

 The best organizations have principles and guidelines and even, yes, scripts. But time and again, they fall back to, "Use your best judgment" or "Do what’s right for the customer" or "Make something magical happen" or "Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."

 When a hotel chain empowers a maid to spend up to $500 to make it right (using her own discretion), that’s not a system, that’s trusting great people to do the right thing.

 The problems with systems?
 1. if you rely on them too much, your people stop trying, and your hiring people realize they don’t have to get such great people.
 2. sooner or later, it’s going to get copied by the competition. It’s a lot easier to copy a system than it is to get great people.

 JetBlue is first and foremost about the people Amy Curtis hired and trained. The systems allow the great people to do great work.

 Yes, if you can automate it in a way that increases satisfaction, do it right away. Use an ATM system instead of the front desk at the hotel. Use an automated wake up call system. But then put the money you save into wonderful people at the concierge desk.

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Adventures in travel

 Staying at The Westin Hotel in Florida to give a speech today. The staff here is very scripted, doing things because they were told to, not because it comes naturally. My favorite example: When you ask for a wake up call in the morning, they automatically respond, "Would you like a follow up call fifteen minutes later?" I said no. They asked me the same question when I called an hour later to change the time. Same no answer from me.

 So this morning, as is usual when I travel, I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted to. Before going to work out, I called to cancel my wake up so the ringing phone wouldn’t bother the neighbors. The receptionist then asked, "Would you like me to cancel the follow up call as well?"

 Obviously, there’s no reason on earth that someone who is already awake and is cancelling their wakeup call would still want to be reminded of the call fifteen minutes later. Especially if they didn’t ask for the reminder call in the first place. But there it is in the script, so it’s an error that’s repeated over and over.

 I know it’s more difficult, but hiring people who can think for themselves is usually a better long run strategy than scripting every conversation. If that’s the plan, it’s probably better to get an automated system. And not just at a hotel in Florida…

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Five things to do today

 Spring cleaning and all that:

 1. Don’t forget to check out the details for: Seth’s Blog: Please come to a seminar in my office.

 2. Sign up for an RSS reader. You can check all your blogs at once just by visiting a website or loading a program. Click on the odd logo for the easiest one I’ve found:

 3. Send a thank you note to three people you work with.

 4. If you live in a house, have your furnace checked. Ours was backed up and almost killed us all. If you live in an apartment, go ahead and get tenant’s insurance. It’s pretty cheap and you’ll thank me one day.

 5. Make a list of the five most useful blogs you read and email the list to six clueless friends. If everyone who reads blogs daily did this, the number of clueless people might actually go down (hey, a guy can dream.)

 Thanks for your support. Enjoy your spring. (For those in Australia and other places that are closer to penguins, enjoy your fall.)

 March 27, 2005

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 You can always be mean later (respect works)

 Here’s a fascinating case study in the power of being nice.

 Lawyers have customers too, and not just the people who pay the bills. If a lawyer can successfully market her ideas to an adversary, she’s far more likely to get a case settled quickly and to her client’s advantage.

 Consider the case of Julie Greenberg and Hank Mishkoff. You can see the entire thing in detail here: Taubman Sucks!.

 Ms. Greenberg represented (or I should say, mis-represented) a giant chain of shopping malls. A few years ago, she and Taubman went after Hank Mishkoff, who controlled a domain Taubman wanted for one of its malls. Her opening salvo was a classic lawyer’s demand letter, very formal and threatening.

 Of course, most people respond to a note like that with fear and trepidation and then anger. And it spirals from there. I wonder if any law firm has ever done testing as to whether letters like that are actually effective. What if she had called first, or sent a friendly, clearly written letter that outlined mutually beneficial options for both sides?

 Instead, Greenberg started mean and escalated from there. Classic litigator tactics, reflecting a "my typewriter is sterner than yours" age-old tactic. Sometimes people fold in the face of this approach (but even when they do, it’s expensive for both sides).

 Hank responded by defending himself and taking it to court.

 In the end, he won. It cost Taubman tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet, it’s clear to me by watching the correspondence, if the very first interaction had been civil or even pleasant, Jill Greenberg could have ended with a win for 1% of what the loss cost her (actually, it didn’t cost her anything. She made a profit on it! It cost her client a boatload of money, though).

 Even if you’re not a lawyer (or especially if you’re not a lawyer) the lesson here is pretty clear: it doesn’t matter who’s "right". What matters is that giving people the benefit of the doubt and treating them with respect is not only more fun, it works better too.

 (Thanks to Doc Searls for the original pointer). (Actually, sorry Doc, it was Boing Boing: HOWTO: defend yourself against domain trademark shakedowns)

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Apple’s newest ipod launches first of April

 It’s made of granite.

 Taking rock music to a whole new level.

 Thanks to Alex for the image. Link: Nyfncr’s World Of Randomness.

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Marketing is where you find it

 Today’s New York Times reports that the Radiant Church – in Surprise, AZ spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme donuts.

 The health risks aside, this is smart marketing. (And is there anything wrong with a church doing marketing? Churches have always done marketing.)

 Marketing doesn’t mean advertising.

 March 26, 2005

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Posts navigation

 1 2 … 11 Next
 Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
 To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
Outrageous! 
I worked really hard on this year’s April Fool’s joke. It was called "The Blog Dongle Uproar (part II)". All about Bradley Smith, formerly part of the Federal Elections Commission.
The post had to do with a dongle (see picture down below) that all bloggers would have to attach to their machines in order to post.
It involved a blog tax, the proceeds of which would be used to fund Orrin Hatch’s attempts to ban P2P and all sorts of useful progress in online technology. It involved registering all bloggers and creating a division of the Department of Homeland Security that would monitor all blog posts to see if they threatened our moral security.
Link: The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com.
 
 
My whole shtick was that I was going to support  the blog tax and talk about what a good idea it was… thus leading other bloggers to be outraged and rip me to pieces for supporting something so entirely stupid.
But I’m not going to post it. In fact, this is my last post until Saturday. Why? Because everything is being taken so seriously, especially when individuals feel deceived, mistreated or foolish.
I got a note earlier today from someone excoriating Best Buy because the price they offered for a CD in the store was &lt;gasp&gt; a few dollars different from what they were offering the same thing online. They were outraged.
Outrage seems to be the order of the day. Outrage is the new currency of politics, it’s the currency of marketing and it’s the currency of our interactions on the road–did I mention a woman in a GMC Jimmy–probably 55 years old–honked at me for more than a minute today (and flipped me the bird) because she didn’t like my driving?
This is going to be the biggest April Fool’s day in memory. There will be political fools and satirical fools and just plain goofy fools. I figured I could get a lot of mileage out of inventing the "blog tax" fool, and it would be a good story to tell my grandchildren. But then I realized that if it worked, I’d get all this incredibly angry mail and trackbacks and I’d have to deal with it.
So, alas, no Fools for me. Good luck tomorrow. Be careful out there.
 Noses cut to spite faces department 
Petra Rankin shares this story:
I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.
So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)
Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!
So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!
I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?
(PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she’d just pay the discounted fee.)
find Petra: Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond).
 Does language matter more? 
"Your call is important and will be serviced as soon as possible""Please have your card number and other additional information ready"
In the old days, you’d go down to the American Express office and talk to a real person. They would use eye contact and hand motions and could gauge your responses in order to make themselves understood.
Today, when you’re on permahold, listening to a recording at Amex, you only have the classical musical loop and the words they’ve chosen.
So when they choose the wrong words, when they ask you to do silly things (additional information? which additional information?) it makes you think they’re not as smart as you’d like them to be.
As we see in the warning sign below, in an environment where you can’t react in real time, the words you choose are critically important to the message you send.
 Death plus a fine 
Thanks to Mark Mattos for the snapshot
 People or systems? 
 Chris Garrett says I’m wrong about the Westin. That they should fix their systems, not their people.
I can’t think of one world class service organization (whether it’s someone selling million dollar computers to corporations or Starbucks) that has figured out how to replace great people with great systems.
The best organizations have principles and guidelines and even, yes, scripts. But time and again, they fall back to, "Use your best judgment" or "Do what’s right for the customer" or "Make something magical happen" or "Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."
When a hotel chain empowers a maid to spend up to $500 to make it right (using her own discretion), that’s not a system, that’s trusting great people to do the right thing.
The problems with systems?1. if you rely on them too much, your people stop trying, and your hiring people realize they don’t have to get such great people.2. sooner or later, it’s going to get copied by the competition. It’s a lot easier to copy a system than it is to get great people.
JetBlue is first and foremost about the people Amy Curtis hired and trained. The systems allow the great people to do great work.
Yes, if you can automate it in a way that increases satisfaction, do it right away. Use an ATM system instead of the front desk at the hotel. Use an automated wake up call system. But then put the money you save into wonderful people at the concierge desk.
 Adventures in travel 
Staying at The Westin Hotel in Florida to give a speech today. The staff here is very scripted, doing things because they were told to, not because it comes naturally. My favorite example: When you ask for a wake up call in the morning, they automatically respond, "Would you like a follow up call fifteen minutes later?" I said no. They asked me the same question when I called an hour later to change the time. Same no answer from me.
So this morning, as is usual when I travel, I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted to. Before going to work out, I called to cancel my wake up so the ringing phone wouldn’t bother the neighbors. The receptionist then asked, "Would you like me to cancel the follow up call as well?"
Obviously, there’s no reason on earth that someone who is already awake and is cancelling their wakeup call would still want to be reminded of the call fifteen minutes later. Especially if they didn’t ask for the reminder call in the first place. But there it is in the script, so it’s an error that’s repeated over and over.
I know it’s more difficult, but hiring people who can think for themselves is usually a better long run strategy than scripting every conversation. If that’s the plan, it’s probably better to get an automated system. And not just at a hotel in Florida…
 Five things to do today 
Spring cleaning and all that:
1. Don’t forget to check out the details for: Seth’s Blog: Please come to a seminar in my office.
2. Sign up for an RSS reader. You can check all your blogs at once just by visiting a website or loading a program. Click on the odd logo for the easiest one I’ve found:  
 
3. Send a thank you note to three people you work with.
4. If you live in a house, have your furnace checked. Ours was backed up and almost killed us all. If you live in an apartment, go ahead and get tenant’s insurance. It’s pretty cheap and you’ll thank me one day.
5. Make a list of the five most useful blogs you read and email the list to six clueless friends. If everyone who reads blogs daily did this, the number of clueless people might actually go down (hey, a guy can dream.)
Thanks for your support. Enjoy your spring. (For those in Australia and other places that are closer to penguins, enjoy your fall.)   
 You can always be mean later (respect works) 
Here’s a fascinating case study in the power of being nice.
Lawyers have customers too, and not just the people who pay the bills. If a lawyer can successfully market her ideas to an adversary, she’s far more likely to get a case settled quickly and to her client’s advantage.
Consider the case of Julie Greenberg and Hank Mishkoff. You can see the entire thing in detail here: Taubman Sucks!.
Ms. Greenberg represented (or I should say, mis-represented) a giant chain of shopping malls. A few years ago, she and Taubman went after Hank Mishkoff, who controlled a domain Taubman wanted for one of its malls. Her opening salvo was a classic lawyer’s demand letter, very formal and threatening.
Of course, most people respond to a note like that with fear and trepidation and then anger. And it spirals from there. I wonder if any law firm has ever done testing as to whether letters like that are actually effective. What if she had called first, or sent a friendly, clearly written letter that outlined mutually beneficial options for both sides?
Instead, Greenberg started mean and escalated from there. Classic litigator tactics, reflecting a "my typewriter is sterner than yours" age-old tactic. Sometimes people fold in the face of this approach (but even when they do, it’s expensive for both sides).
Hank responded by defending himself and taking it to court.
In the end, he won. It cost Taubman tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yet, it’s clear to me by watching the correspondence, if the very first interaction had been civil or even pleasant, Jill Greenberg could have ended with a win for 1% of what the loss cost her (actually, it didn’t cost her anything. She made a profit on it! It cost her client a boatload of money, though).
Even if you’re not a lawyer (or especially if you’re not a lawyer) the lesson here is pretty clear: it doesn’t matter who’s "right". What matters is that giving people the benefit of the doubt and treating them with respect is not only more fun, it works better too.
(Thanks to Doc Searls for the original pointer). (Actually, sorry Doc, it was Boing Boing: HOWTO: defend yourself against domain trademark shakedowns) 
 Apple’s newest ipod launches first of April 
It’s made of granite.
Taking rock music to a whole new level.
Thanks to Alex for the image. Link: Nyfncr’s World Of Randomness.
 Marketing is where you find it 
Today’s New York Times reports that the Radiant Church – in Surprise, AZ  spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme donuts.
The health risks aside, this is smart marketing. (And is there anything wrong with a church doing marketing? Churches have always done marketing.)
Marketing doesn’t mean advertising.
March 2005 – Seth's Blog
https://seths.blog/2005/03/
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/
Fire And Motion
2002-01-06
Joel Spolsky
<div><div>
	<p>Sometimes I just can’t get anything done.</p>
<p>Sure, I come into the office, putter around, check my email every ten seconds, read the web, even do a few brainless tasks like paying the American Express bill. But getting back into the flow of writing code just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>These bouts of unproductiveness usually last for a day or two. But there have been times in my career as a developer when I went for weeks at a time without being able to get anything done. As they say, I’m not in flow. I’m not in the zone. I’m not anywhere.</p>
<p>Everybody has mood swings; for some people they are mild, for others, they can be more pronounced or even dysfunctional. And the unproductive periods do seem to correlate somewhat with gloomier moods.</p>
<p>It makes me think of those researchers who say that basically people <em>can’t </em>control what they eat, so any attempt to diet is bound to be short term and they will always yoyo back to their natural weight. Maybe as a software developer I really can’t control when I’m productive, and I just have to take the slow times with the fast times and hope that they average out to enough lines of code to make me employable.</p>
  <br />     
<p>What drives me crazy is that ever since my first job I’ve realized that as a developer, I usually average about two or three hours a day of productive coding. When I had a summer internship at Microsoft, a fellow intern told me he was actually only going into work from 12 to 5 every day. Five hours, minus lunch, and his team <em>loved</em> him because he still managed to get a lot more done than average. I’ve found the same thing to be true. I feel a little bit guilty when I see how hard everybody else seems to be working, and I get about two or three quality hours in a day, and still I’ve always been one of the most productive members of the team. That’s probably why when Peopleware and XP insist on eliminating overtime and working strictly 40 hour weeks, they do so secure in the knowledge that this won’t reduce a team’s output.</p>
<p>But it’s not the days when I “only” get two hours of work done that worry me. It’s the days when I can’t do <em>anything</em>.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about this a lot. I tried to remember the time when I got the most work done in my career. It was probably when Microsoft moved me into a beautiful, plush new office with large picture windows overlooking a pretty stone courtyard full of cherry trees in bloom. Everything was clicking. For months I worked nonstop grinding out the detailed specification for Excel Basic — a monumental ream of paper going into incredible detail covering a gigantic object model and programming environment. I literally never stopped. When I had to go to Boston for MacWorld I took a laptop with me, and documented the Window class sitting on a pleasant terrace at HBS.</p>
<p>Once you get into flow it’s not too hard to keep going. Many of my days go like this: (1) get into work (2) check email, read the web, etc. (3) decide that I might as well have lunch before getting to work (4) get back from lunch (5) check email, read the web, etc. (6) finally decide that I’ve got to get started (7) check email, read the web, etc. (8) decide again that I <em>really</em> have to get started (9) launch the damn editor and (10) write code nonstop until I don’t realize that it’s already 7:30 pm.</p>
<p>Somewhere between step 8 and step 9 there seems to be a bug, because I can’t always make it across that chasm. For me, just getting started is the <em>only </em>hard thing. An object at rest tends to remain at rest. There’s something incredible heavy in my brain that is extremely hard to get up to speed, but once it’s rolling at full speed, it takes no effort to keep it going. Like a bicycle decked out for a cross-country, self-supported <a href="http://www.panix.com/~spolsky/biketrip/index.htm">bike trip</a> — when you first start riding a bike with all that gear, it’s hard to believe how much work it takes to get rolling, but once you are rolling, it feels just as easy as riding a bike without any gear.</p>
<p>Maybe this is the key to productivity: <em>just getting started</em>. Maybe when <a href="http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&amp;ixPost=2058">pair programming</a> works it works because when you schedule a pair programming session with your buddy, you force each other to get started.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can’t fire at you. (That’s what the soldiers mean when they shout “cover me.” It means, “fire at our enemy so he has to duck and can’t fire at me while I run across this street, here.” It works.)  The motion allows you to conquer territory and get closer to your enemy, where your shots are much more likely to hit their target. If you’re not moving, the enemy gets to decide what happens, which is not a good thing. If you’re not firing, the enemy will fire at you, pinning you down.</p>
<p>I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn’t matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side. Watch out when your competition fires at you. Do they just want to force you to keep busy reacting to their volleys, so you can’t move forward?</p>
<p>Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET – All New! Are these technological imperatives? The result of an incompetent design group that needs to reinvent data access every goddamn year? (That’s probably it, actually.) But the end result is just cover fire. The competition has no choice but to spend all their time porting and keeping up, time that they can’t spend writing new features. Look closely at the software landscape. The companies that do well are the ones who rely least on big companies and don’t have to spend all their cycles catching up and reimplementing and fixing bugs that crop up only on Windows XP. The companies who stumble are the ones who spend too much time reading tea leaves to figure out the future direction of Microsoft. People get worried about .NET and decide to rewrite their whole architecture for .NET because they think they have to. Microsoft is shooting at you, and it’s just cover fire so that they can move forward and you can’t, because this is how the game is played, Bubby. Are you going to support <a href="http://wmf.editthispage.com/discuss/msgReader$3194?mode=topic">Hailstorm</a>? <a href="http://radiodiscuss.userland.com/soap">SOAP</a>? <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>? Are you supporting it because your customers need it, or because someone is firing at you and you feel like you have to respond? The sales teams of the big companies understand cover fire. They go into their customers and say, “OK, you don’t have to buy from us. Buy from the best vendor. But make sure that you get a product that supports (XML / SOAP / CDE / J2EE) because otherwise you’ll be <a href="http://davenet.userland.com/2001/07/06/theMicroChannelArchitecture">Locked In The Trunk</a>.” Then when the little companies try to sell into that account, all they hear is obedient CTOs parrotting “Do you have J2EE?” And they have to waste all their time building in J2EE even if it doesn’t really make any sales, and gives them no opportunity to distinguish themselves. It’s a checkbox feature — you do it because you need the checkbox saying you have it, but nobody will use it or needs it. And it’s cover fire.</p>
<p>Fire and Motion, for small companies like mine, means two things. You have to have <a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html">time on your side</a>, and you have to move forward every day. Sooner or later you will win. All I managed to do yesterday is improve the color scheme in FogBUGZ just a little bit. That’s OK. It’s getting better all the time. Every day our software is better and better and we have more and more customers and that’s all that matters. Until we’re a company the size of Oracle, we don’t have to think about grand strategies. We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor.</p>
<br /> <a href="http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&amp;ixPost=2290"> Discuss</a> 
	</div>||||I|||| Skip to content
 * View menu
 * View sidebar

 Joel on Software

 Your host

 I’m Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. More about me.

 Search
 Read the archives in dead-tree format! Many of these articles have been collected into four books, available at your favorite bookstore. It’s an excellent way to read the site in the bath, or throw it at your boss.

 Careers

 Ready to level up? Stack Overflow Jobs is the job site that puts the needs of developers first. Whether you want to take control of your search or let employers discover you, we’re on a mission to help every developer find a job they love.

 Looking to hire smart programmers who get things done? Stack Overflow Talent is a fully-customized sourcing solution that helps you understand, reach, and attract developers on the platform they trust most. Find the right candidates for your jobs. Learn more.

 For my day job, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Stack Overflow, the largest online community for programmers to learn, share their knowledge, and level up. Each month, more than 40 million professional and aspiring programmers visit Stack Overflow to ask and answer questions and find better jobs. Stack Overflow is also the flagship site of the Stack Exchange network, 160+ question and answer sites dedicated to all kinds of topics from cooking to gaming. According to Quantcast, Stack Overflow is the 30th largest web property in the United States and in the top 100 in the world.




 I also founded Fog Creek Software, one of the most influential small tech companies in the world. As an independent, privately-owned company, we’ve been making customers happy since the turn of the century. We share what we've learned about how to make great software, both by writing about our ideas and by creating products, like FogBugz, Trello and Gomix, that help others make great technology. As a result, Fog Creek's impact on the world of developers rivals companies a thousand times our size.

 Twitter! Twitter!

 My Tweets
 January 6, 2002December 5, 2016 by Joel Spolsky

 Fire And Motion

 * Top 10, CEO, News

 Sometimes I just can’t get anything done.

 Sure, I come into the office, putter around, check my email every ten seconds, read the web, even do a few brainless tasks like paying the American Express bill. But getting back into the flow of writing code just doesn’t happen.

 These bouts of unproductiveness usually last for a day or two. But there have been times in my career as a developer when I went for weeks at a time without being able to get anything done. As they say, I’m not in flow. I’m not in the zone. I’m not anywhere.

 Everybody has mood swings; for some people they are mild, for others, they can be more pronounced or even dysfunctional. And the unproductive periods do seem to correlate somewhat with gloomier moods.

 It makes me think of those researchers who say that basically people can’t control what they eat, so any attempt to diet is bound to be short term and they will always yoyo back to their natural weight. Maybe as a software developer I really can’t control when I’m productive, and I just have to take the slow times with the fast times and hope that they average out to enough lines of code to make me employable.


 What drives me crazy is that ever since my first job I’ve realized that as a developer, I usually average about two or three hours a day of productive coding. When I had a summer internship at Microsoft, a fellow intern told me he was actually only going into work from 12 to 5 every day. Five hours, minus lunch, and his team loved him because he still managed to get a lot more done than average. I’ve found the same thing to be true. I feel a little bit guilty when I see how hard everybody else seems to be working, and I get about two or three quality hours in a day, and still I’ve always been one of the most productive members of the team. That’s probably why when Peopleware and XP insist on eliminating overtime and working strictly 40 hour weeks, they do so secure in the knowledge that this won’t reduce a team’s output.

 But it’s not the days when I “only” get two hours of work done that worry me. It’s the days when I can’t do anything.

 I’ve thought about this a lot. I tried to remember the time when I got the most work done in my career. It was probably when Microsoft moved me into a beautiful, plush new office with large picture windows overlooking a pretty stone courtyard full of cherry trees in bloom. Everything was clicking. For months I worked nonstop grinding out the detailed specification for Excel Basic — a monumental ream of paper going into incredible detail covering a gigantic object model and programming environment. I literally never stopped. When I had to go to Boston for MacWorld I took a laptop with me, and documented the Window class sitting on a pleasant terrace at HBS.

 Once you get into flow it’s not too hard to keep going. Many of my days go like this: (1) get into work (2) check email, read the web, etc. (3) decide that I might as well have lunch before getting to work (4) get back from lunch (5) check email, read the web, etc. (6) finally decide that I’ve got to get started (7) check email, read the web, etc. (8) decide again that I really have to get started (9) launch the damn editor and (10) write code nonstop until I don’t realize that it’s already 7:30 pm.

 Somewhere between step 8 and step 9 there seems to be a bug, because I can’t always make it across that chasm. For me, just getting started is the only hard thing. An object at rest tends to remain at rest. There’s something incredible heavy in my brain that is extremely hard to get up to speed, but once it’s rolling at full speed, it takes no effort to keep it going. Like a bicycle decked out for a cross-country, self-supported bike trip — when you first start riding a bike with all that gear, it’s hard to believe how much work it takes to get rolling, but once you are rolling, it feels just as easy as riding a bike without any gear.

 Maybe this is the key to productivity: just getting started. Maybe when pair programming works it works because when you schedule a pair programming session with your buddy, you force each other to get started.

 When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can’t fire at you. (That’s what the soldiers mean when they shout “cover me.” It means, “fire at our enemy so he has to duck and can’t fire at me while I run across this street, here.” It works.) The motion allows you to conquer territory and get closer to your enemy, where your shots are much more likely to hit their target. If you’re not moving, the enemy gets to decide what happens, which is not a good thing. If you’re not firing, the enemy will fire at you, pinning you down.

 I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn’t matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side. Watch out when your competition fires at you. Do they just want to force you to keep busy reacting to their volleys, so you can’t move forward?

 Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET – All New! Are these technological imperatives? The result of an incompetent design group that needs to reinvent data access every goddamn year? (That’s probably it, actually.) But the end result is just cover fire. The competition has no choice but to spend all their time porting and keeping up, time that they can’t spend writing new features. Look closely at the software landscape. The companies that do well are the ones who rely least on big companies and don’t have to spend all their cycles catching up and reimplementing and fixing bugs that crop up only on Windows XP. The companies who stumble are the ones who spend too much time reading tea leaves to figure out the future direction of Microsoft. People get worried about .NET and decide to rewrite their whole architecture for .NET because they think they have to. Microsoft is shooting at you, and it’s just cover fire so that they can move forward and you can’t, because this is how the game is played, Bubby. Are you going to support Hailstorm? SOAP? RDF? Are you supporting it because your customers need it, or because someone is firing at you and you feel like you have to respond? The sales teams of the big companies understand cover fire. They go into their customers and say, “OK, you don’t have to buy from us. Buy from the best vendor. But make sure that you get a product that supports (XML / SOAP / CDE / J2EE) because otherwise you’ll be Locked In The Trunk.” Then when the little companies try to sell into that account, all they hear is obedient CTOs parrotting “Do you have J2EE?” And they have to waste all their time building in J2EE even if it doesn’t really make any sales, and gives them no opportunity to distinguish themselves. It’s a checkbox feature — you do it because you need the checkbox saying you have it, but nobody will use it or needs it. And it’s cover fire.

 Fire and Motion, for small companies like mine, means two things. You have to have time on your side, and you have to move forward every day. Sooner or later you will win. All I managed to do yesterday is improve the color scheme in FogBUGZ just a little bit. That’s OK. It’s getting better all the time. Every day our software is better and better and we have more and more customers and that’s all that matters. Until we’re a company the size of Oracle, we don’t have to think about grand strategies. We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor.


 Discuss

 Subscribe!

 You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

 If you want to know when I publish something new, I recommend getting an RSS reader like NewsBlur and subscribing to my RSS feed.

 About the author.

 In 2000 I co-founded Fog Creek Software, where we created lots of cool things like the FogBugz bug tracker, Trello, and Glitch. I also worked with Jeff Atwood to create Stack Overflow and served as CEO of Stack Overflow from 2010-2019. Today I serve as the chairman of the board for Stack Overflow, Glitch, and HASH.

 Post navigation

 ← Previous Post 2002/01/06
 Next Post → 2002/01/08
 Proudly powered by WordPress
Sometimes I just can’t get anything done.
Sure, I come into the office, putter around, check my email every ten seconds, read the web, even do a few brainless tasks like paying the American Express bill. But getting back into the flow of writing code just doesn’t happen.
These bouts of unproductiveness usually last for a day or two. But there have been times in my career as a developer when I went for weeks at a time without being able to get anything done. As they say, I’m not in flow. I’m not in the zone. I’m not anywhere.
Everybody has mood swings; for some people they are mild, for others, they can be more pronounced or even dysfunctional. And the unproductive periods do seem to correlate somewhat with gloomier moods.
It makes me think of those researchers who say that basically people can’t control what they eat, so any attempt to diet is bound to be short term and they will always yoyo back to their natural weight. Maybe as a software developer I really can’t control when I’m productive, and I just have to take the slow times with the fast times and hope that they average out to enough lines of code to make me employable.
       
What drives me crazy is that ever since my first job I’ve realized that as a developer, I usually average about two or three hours a day of productive coding. When I had a summer internship at Microsoft, a fellow intern told me he was actually only going into work from 12 to 5 every day. Five hours, minus lunch, and his team loved him because he still managed to get a lot more done than average. I’ve found the same thing to be true. I feel a little bit guilty when I see how hard everybody else seems to be working, and I get about two or three quality hours in a day, and still I’ve always been one of the most productive members of the team. That’s probably why when Peopleware and XP insist on eliminating overtime and working strictly 40 hour weeks, they do so secure in the knowledge that this won’t reduce a team’s output.
But it’s not the days when I “only” get two hours of work done that worry me. It’s the days when I can’t do anything.
I’ve thought about this a lot. I tried to remember the time when I got the most work done in my career. It was probably when Microsoft moved me into a beautiful, plush new office with large picture windows overlooking a pretty stone courtyard full of cherry trees in bloom. Everything was clicking. For months I worked nonstop grinding out the detailed specification for Excel Basic — a monumental ream of paper going into incredible detail covering a gigantic object model and programming environment. I literally never stopped. When I had to go to Boston for MacWorld I took a laptop with me, and documented the Window class sitting on a pleasant terrace at HBS.
Once you get into flow it’s not too hard to keep going. Many of my days go like this: (1) get into work (2) check email, read the web, etc. (3) decide that I might as well have lunch before getting to work (4) get back from lunch (5) check email, read the web, etc. (6) finally decide that I’ve got to get started (7) check email, read the web, etc. (8) decide again that I really have to get started (9) launch the damn editor and (10) write code nonstop until I don’t realize that it’s already 7:30 pm.
Somewhere between step 8 and step 9 there seems to be a bug, because I can’t always make it across that chasm. For me, just getting started is the only hard thing. An object at rest tends to remain at rest. There’s something incredible heavy in my brain that is extremely hard to get up to speed, but once it’s rolling at full speed, it takes no effort to keep it going. Like a bicycle decked out for a cross-country, self-supported bike trip — when you first start riding a bike with all that gear, it’s hard to believe how much work it takes to get rolling, but once you are rolling, it feels just as easy as riding a bike without any gear.
Maybe this is the key to productivity: just getting started. Maybe when pair programming works it works because when you schedule a pair programming session with your buddy, you force each other to get started.
 
When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can’t fire at you. (That’s what the soldiers mean when they shout “cover me.” It means, “fire at our enemy so he has to duck and can’t fire at me while I run across this street, here.” It works.)  The motion allows you to conquer territory and get closer to your enemy, where your shots are much more likely to hit their target. If you’re not moving, the enemy gets to decide what happens, which is not a good thing. If you’re not firing, the enemy will fire at you, pinning you down.
I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn’t matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side. Watch out when your competition fires at you. Do they just want to force you to keep busy reacting to their volleys, so you can’t move forward?
Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET – All New! Are these technological imperatives? The result of an incompetent design group that needs to reinvent data access every goddamn year? (That’s probably it, actually.) But the end result is just cover fire. The competition has no choice but to spend all their time porting and keeping up, time that they can’t spend writing new features. Look closely at the software landscape. The companies that do well are the ones who rely least on big companies and don’t have to spend all their cycles catching up and reimplementing and fixing bugs that crop up only on Windows XP. The companies who stumble are the ones who spend too much time reading tea leaves to figure out the future direction of Microsoft. People get worried about .NET and decide to rewrite their whole architecture for .NET because they think they have to. Microsoft is shooting at you, and it’s just cover fire so that they can move forward and you can’t, because this is how the game is played, Bubby. Are you going to support Hailstorm? SOAP? RDF? Are you supporting it because your customers need it, or because someone is firing at you and you feel like you have to respond? The sales teams of the big companies understand cover fire. They go into their customers and say, “OK, you don’t have to buy from us. Buy from the best vendor. But make sure that you get a product that supports (XML / SOAP / CDE / J2EE) because otherwise you’ll be Locked In The Trunk.” Then when the little companies try to sell into that account, all they hear is obedient CTOs parrotting “Do you have J2EE?” And they have to waste all their time building in J2EE even if it doesn’t really make any sales, and gives them no opportunity to distinguish themselves. It’s a checkbox feature — you do it because you need the checkbox saying you have it, but nobody will use it or needs it. And it’s cover fire.
Fire and Motion, for small companies like mine, means two things. You have to have time on your side, and you have to move forward every day. Sooner or later you will win. All I managed to do yesterday is improve the color scheme in FogBUGZ just a little bit. That’s OK. It’s getting better all the time. Every day our software is better and better and we have more and more customers and that’s all that matters. Until we’re a company the size of Oracle, we don’t have to think about grand strategies. We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor.
  Discuss
Fire And Motion
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/upgrading-a-10-year-old-site-to-aspnet-cores-razor-pages-using-the-url-rewriting-middleware
Upgrading a 10 year old site to ASP.NET Core's Razor Pages using the URL Rewriting Middleware
2018-02-26
None
<div><section>
 
 <p>My <a href="https://www.hanselminutes.com/archives">podcast has over 600 episodes</a> (Every week for many years, you do the math! And subscribe!) website was written in ASP.NET Web Pages many years ago. "Web Pages" (horrible name) was it's own thing. It wasn't ASP.NET Web Forms, nor was it ASP.NET MVC. However, while open-source and cross-platform ASP.NET Core uses the "MVC" pattern, it includes an integrated architecture that supports pages created with the model-view-controller style, Web APIs that return JSON/whatever from controllers, and routing system that works across all of these. It also includes "<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/razor-pages"><strong>Razor Pages</strong></a>." </p> <p>On first blush, you'd think <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/razor-pages/?tabs=visual-studio-code">Razor Pages</a> is "Web Pages" part two. I thought that, but it's not. It's an alternative model to MVC <em>but it's built on MVC.</em> Let me explain.</p> <p>My podcast site has a home page, a single episode page, and and archives page. It's pretty basic. Back in the day I felt an MVC-style site would just be overkill, so I did it in a page model. However, the code ended up (no disrespect intended) very 90s style PHPy. Basically one super-page with too much state management to all the URL cracking happening at the top of the page. </p> <p>What I wanted was a Page-focused model without the ceremony of MVC while still being able to dip down into the flexibility and power of MVC <em>when appropriate</em>. That's Razor Pages. Best of all worlds and simply another tool in my toolbox. And the Pages (.cshtml) are Razor so I could port 90% of my very old existing code. In fact, I just made a new site with <a href="http://www.dot.net/">.NET Core</a> with "dotnet new razor," opened up Visual Studio Code, and started copying over from (gasp) my WebMatrix project. I updated the code to be cleaner (a lot has happened to C# since then) and had 80% of my site going in a few hours. I'll switch <a href="https://www.hanselminutes.com/">Hanselminutes.com</a> over in the next few weeks. This will mean I'll have a proper git checkin/deploy process rather than my "publish from WebMatrix" system I use today. I can containerize the site, run it on Linux, and finally add Unit Testing as I've been able to use pervasive Dependency Injection that's built into ASP.NET.</p> <h3>Merging the old and the new with the ASP.NET Core's URL Rewriting Middleware</h3> <p>Here's the thing though, there's parts of my existing site that are 10 years old, sure, but they also WORK. For example, I have existing URL Rewrite Rules from IIS that have been around that long. I'm pretty obsessive about making old URLs work. <strong>Never break a URL. No excuses.</strong></p> <p>There are still links around that have horrible URLs in the VERY original format that (not my fault) used database ids, like <a href="https://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?ShowID=18570">https://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?ShowID=18570</a>. Well, that database doesn't exist anymore, but I don't break URLs. I have these old URLs store along site my new system, and along with dozens of existing rewrite URLs I have an "IISUrlRewrite.xml" file. This was IIS specific and used with the <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/iis/extensions/url-rewrite-module/creating-rewrite-rules-for-the-url-rewrite-module">IIS URL Rewrite Module</a>, but you have all seen these before with things like Apache's ModRewrite. Those files are often loved and managed and carried around for years. They work. A lot of work went into them. Sure, I could rewrite all these rules with ASP.NET Core's routing and custom middleware, but again, <strong>they already work.</strong> I just want them to continue to work. They can with <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/url-rewriting?tabs=aspnetcore2x"><strong>ASP.NET Core's Url Rewriting Middleware that supports Apache Mod Rewrite AND IIS Url Rewrite without using Apache or IIS</strong></a>! </p> <p>Here's a complex and very complete example of mixing and matching.<strong> Mine is far simpler.</strong></p><pre>public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)<br />{<br /> using (StreamReader apacheModRewriteStreamReader = <br /> File.OpenText("ApacheModRewrite.txt"))<br /> using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader = <br /> File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml")) <br /> {<br /> var options = new RewriteOptions()<br /> .AddRedirect("redirect-rule/(.*)", "redirected/$1")<br /> .AddRewrite(@"^rewrite-rule/(\d+)/(\d+)", "rewritten?var1=$1&amp;var2=$2", <br /> skipRemainingRules: true)<br /> .AddApacheModRewrite(apacheModRewriteStreamReader)<br /> .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader)<br /> .Add(MethodRules.RedirectXMLRequests)<br /> .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".png", "/png-images"))<br /> .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".jpg", "/jpg-images"));<p> app.UseRewriter(options);<br /> }</p><p> app.Run(context =&gt; context.Response.WriteAsync(<br /> $"Rewritten or Redirected Url: " +<br /> $"{context.Request.Path + context.Request.QueryString}"));<br />}</p></pre>
<p>Remember I have URLs like <strong>default.aspx?ShowID=18570 </strong>but I don't use default.aspx any more (literally doesn't exist on disk) and I don't use those IDs (they are just stored as metadata in a new system.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> Just want to point out that last line above there, where it shows the rewritten URL. Putting that in the logs or bypassing everything and outputting it as text is a nice way to debug and developer with this middleware, then comment it out as you get things refined and working. </p></blockquote>
<p>I have an IIS Rewrite URL that looks like this. It lives in an XML file along with dozens of other rules. Reminder - there's no IIS in this scenario. We are talking about the format and reusing that format. I load my rewrite rules in my Configure() method in Startup:</p><pre>using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader = <br /> File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml")) <br />{<br /> var options = new RewriteOptions()<br /> .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader);<p> app.UseRewriter(options);<br />}
</p></pre>
<p>It lives in the "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite" package that I added to my csproj with "dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite." And here's the rule I use (one of many in the old xml file):</p><pre>&lt;rule name="OldShowId"&gt;<br /> &lt;match url="^.*(?:Default.aspx).*$" /&gt;<br /> &lt;conditions&gt;<br /> &lt;add input="{QUERY_STRING}" pattern="ShowID=(\d+)" /&gt;<br /> &lt;/conditions&gt;<br /> &lt;action type="Rewrite" url="/{C:1}?handler=oldshowid" appendQueryString="false" /&gt;<br />&lt;/rule&gt;</pre>
<p>I capture that show ID and I rewrite (not redirect...we <strong>rewrite </strong>and continue on to the next segment of the pipeline) it to /18570?handler=oldshowid. That handler is a magic internal part of Razor Pages. Usually if you have a page called foo.cshtml it will have a method called OnGet or OnPost or OnHTTPVERB. But if you want multiple handlers per page you'll have OnGetHANDLERNAME so I have OnGet() for regular stuff, and I have <strong>OnGetOldShowId </strong>for this rare but important URL type. But notice that my implementation isn't URL-style specific. Razor Pages doesn't even know about that URL format. It just knows that these weird IDs have their own handler.</p><pre>public async Task&lt;IActionResult&gt; OnGetOldShowId(int id)<br />{<br /> var allShows = await _db.GetShows(); <p> string idAsString = id.ToString();<br /> LastShow = allShows.Where(c =&gt; c.Guid.EndsWith(idAsString)).FirstOrDefault();<br /> if (LastShow == null) return Redirect("/"); //catch all error case, 302 to home<br /> return RedirectPermanent(LastShow.ShowNumber.ToString()); // 301 to /showid<br />}</p></pre>
<p>That's it. I have a ton more to share as I keep upgrading my podcast site, coming soon.</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Sponsor: </strong>Get the <a href="http://hnsl.mn/2FoxnH8">latest JetBrains Rider</a> for debugging third-party .NET code, Smart Step Into, more debugger improvements, C# Interactive, new project wizard, and formatting code in columns.
 </p><div>
 <div>
 <h4>About Scott</h4>
 <div>
 <p>Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.</p>
 <p><a href="https://facebook.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="https://twitter.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman"></a><br />
 <a href="http://hanselman.com/about">About</a>   <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/newsletter">Newsletter</a>
 </p></div>
 </div>
 <div>
 <p><strong>Hosting By</strong><br />
 <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/free"></a>
 </p>
 </div>
 </div>
 
 
 
 </section>||||I||||Scott Hanselman

 * about
 * blog
 * podcast
 * youtube
 * speaking
 browse by category or date

Upgrading a 10 year old site to ASP.NET Core's Razor Pages using the URL Rewriting Middleware

February 26, 2018 Comment on this post [6] Posted in ASP.NET | ASP.NET MVC | DotNetCore
 Sponsored By

My podcast has over 600 episodes (Every week for many years, you do the math! And subscribe!) website was written in ASP.NET Web Pages many years ago. "Web Pages" (horrible name) was it's own thing. It wasn't ASP.NET Web Forms, nor was it ASP.NET MVC. However, while open-source and cross-platform ASP.NET Core uses the "MVC" pattern, it includes an integrated architecture that supports pages created with the model-view-controller style, Web APIs that return JSON/whatever from controllers, and routing system that works across all of these. It also includes "Razor Pages."

On first blush, you'd think Razor Pages is "Web Pages" part two. I thought that, but it's not. It's an alternative model to MVC but it's built on MVC. Let me explain.

My podcast site has a home page, a single episode page, and and archives page. It's pretty basic. Back in the day I felt an MVC-style site would just be overkill, so I did it in a page model. However, the code ended up (no disrespect intended) very 90s style PHPy. Basically one super-page with too much state management to all the URL cracking happening at the top of the page.

What I wanted was a Page-focused model without the ceremony of MVC while still being able to dip down into the flexibility and power of MVC when appropriate. That's Razor Pages. Best of all worlds and simply another tool in my toolbox. And the Pages (.cshtml) are Razor so I could port 90% of my very old existing code. In fact, I just made a new site with .NET Core with "dotnet new razor," opened up Visual Studio Code, and started copying over from (gasp) my WebMatrix project. I updated the code to be cleaner (a lot has happened to C# since then) and had 80% of my site going in a few hours. I'll switch Hanselminutes.com over in the next few weeks. This will mean I'll have a proper git checkin/deploy process rather than my "publish from WebMatrix" system I use today. I can containerize the site, run it on Linux, and finally add Unit Testing as I've been able to use pervasive Dependency Injection that's built into ASP.NET.

Merging the old and the new with the ASP.NET Core's URL Rewriting Middleware

Here's the thing though, there's parts of my existing site that are 10 years old, sure, but they also WORK. For example, I have existing URL Rewrite Rules from IIS that have been around that long. I'm pretty obsessive about making old URLs work. Never break a URL. No excuses.

There are still links around that have horrible URLs in the VERY original format that (not my fault) used database ids, like https://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?ShowID=18570. Well, that database doesn't exist anymore, but I don't break URLs. I have these old URLs store along site my new system, and along with dozens of existing rewrite URLs I have an "IISUrlRewrite.xml" file. This was IIS specific and used with the IIS URL Rewrite Module, but you have all seen these before with things like Apache's ModRewrite. Those files are often loved and managed and carried around for years. They work. A lot of work went into them. Sure, I could rewrite all these rules with ASP.NET Core's routing and custom middleware, but again, they already work. I just want them to continue to work. They can with ASP.NET Core's Url Rewriting Middleware that supports Apache Mod Rewrite AND IIS Url Rewrite without using Apache or IIS!

Here's a complex and very complete example of mixing and matching. Mine is far simpler.

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
 using (StreamReader apacheModRewriteStreamReader = 
 File.OpenText("ApacheModRewrite.txt"))
 using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader = 
 File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml")) 
 {
 var options = new RewriteOptions()
 .AddRedirect("redirect-rule/(.*)", "redirected/$1")
 .AddRewrite(@"^rewrite-rule/(\d+)/(\d+)", "rewritten?var1=$1&var2=$2", 
 skipRemainingRules: true)
 .AddApacheModRewrite(apacheModRewriteStreamReader)
 .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader)
 .Add(MethodRules.RedirectXMLRequests)
 .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".png", "/png-images"))
 .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".jpg", "/jpg-images"));

 app.UseRewriter(options);
 }

 app.Run(context => context.Response.WriteAsync(
 $"Rewritten or Redirected Url: " +
 $"{context.Request.Path + context.Request.QueryString}"));
}

Remember I have URLs like default.aspx?ShowID=18570 but I don't use default.aspx any more (literally doesn't exist on disk) and I don't use those IDs (they are just stored as metadata in a new system.

NOTE: Just want to point out that last line above there, where it shows the rewritten URL. Putting that in the logs or bypassing everything and outputting it as text is a nice way to debug and developer with this middleware, then comment it out as you get things refined and working.

I have an IIS Rewrite URL that looks like this. It lives in an XML file along with dozens of other rules. Reminder - there's no IIS in this scenario. We are talking about the format and reusing that format. I load my rewrite rules in my Configure() method in Startup:

using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader = 
 File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml")) 
{
 var options = new RewriteOptions()
 .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader);

 app.UseRewriter(options);
}


It lives in the "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite" package that I added to my csproj with "dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite." And here's the rule I use (one of many in the old xml file):

<rule name="OldShowId">
 <match url="^.*(?:Default.aspx).*$" />
 <conditions>
 <add input="{QUERY_STRING}" pattern="ShowID=(\d+)" />
 </conditions>
 <action type="Rewrite" url="/{C:1}?handler=oldshowid" appendQueryString="false" />
</rule>

I capture that show ID and I rewrite (not redirect...we rewrite and continue on to the next segment of the pipeline) it to /18570?handler=oldshowid. That handler is a magic internal part of Razor Pages. Usually if you have a page called foo.cshtml it will have a method called OnGet or OnPost or OnHTTPVERB. But if you want multiple handlers per page you'll have OnGetHANDLERNAME so I have OnGet() for regular stuff, and I have OnGetOldShowId for this rare but important URL type. But notice that my implementation isn't URL-style specific. Razor Pages doesn't even know about that URL format. It just knows that these weird IDs have their own handler.

public async Task<IActionResult> OnGetOldShowId(int id)
{
 var allShows = await _db.GetShows(); 

 string idAsString = id.ToString();
 LastShow = allShows.Where(c => c.Guid.EndsWith(idAsString)).FirstOrDefault();
 if (LastShow == null) return Redirect("/"); //catch all error case, 302 to home
 return RedirectPermanent(LastShow.ShowNumber.ToString()); // 301 to /showid
}

That's it. I have a ton more to share as I keep upgrading my podcast site, coming soon.

Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider for debugging third-party .NET code, Smart Step Into, more debugger improvements, C# Interactive, new project wizard, and formatting code in columns.

 About Scott

 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.


 About Newsletter
 Hosting By
 Comment on this post [6]
 Share on Twitter or Facebook or use the Permalink
 February 26, 2018 14:49
 WebMatrix did not get the credit they deserved back in the days! I also like the description of Razor pages: "being able to dip down into the flexibility and power of MVC when appropriate"
 JP Hellemons
 February 26, 2018 15:45
 Very nice! I have a 2007 WebForms website that needs a refresh.
 I've committed several times in converting it to MVC, Core 1.0, Core 2.0, etc, but always drowned on the amount of different ways of doing the same thing and everything always looked too complex to grasp (programming is not my daily job).
 I'll be waiting for new updates on this topic as a blueprint for my migration :)
 Thanks
 Matteo
 February 27, 2018 21:32
 I have a few websites created for years (2005), can I use this concept to recreate them? And will the servers work? I ask why even asp.net core is complicated to find a server that works well. here in Brazil, fultrust is hard to find in a hosting provider.
 Criação de Sites em Brasilia
 February 28, 2018 10:04
 Recreating a site that uses API a lot for mobile and a web UI experience as well in the same site. I built the last one using MVC, but I read the suggestion for new development using razor pages and I don't know if that suggestion is appropriate for my project. Do razor page projects support API endpoints, too?
 Stacy@CCleaner
 February 28, 2018 19:04
 When would it be recommended to use MVC instead of Razor Pages? For larger projects where it wouldn't be "overkill" to use MVC?
 Frank
 March 01, 2018 2:18
 Stacey - Yep, because it's MVC you can just add a WebAPI Controller and keep going.

 Frank - Use both. Use Pages for "page related stuff." That means, a page focused UI, forms, gets, places where MVC seems like it's too much. I felt MVC was too much for my site. It's really about the flow that makes you happy.
 Scott Hanselman

 Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

 Blog

 * Privacy Policy
 * Greatest Hits
 * Dev Tool List

 Podcast

 * Hanselminutes
 * This Developer's Life
 * Ratchet & The Geek

 Speaking

 * Speaking/Videos
 * Presentations Tips

 Books

 * ASP.NET 4.5
 * ASP.NET MVC 4
 * Relationship Hacks
 © Copyright 2023, Scott Hanselman. Design by @jzy, Powered by .NET 6.0.13 and deployed from commit 5c6a80 via build 20220310.1
My podcast has over 600 episodes (Every week for many years, you do the math! And subscribe!) website was written in ASP.NET Web Pages many years ago. "Web Pages" (horrible name) was it's own thing. It wasn't ASP.NET Web Forms, nor was it ASP.NET MVC. However, while open-source and cross-platform ASP.NET Core uses the "MVC" pattern, it includes an integrated architecture that supports pages created with the model-view-controller style, Web APIs that return JSON/whatever from controllers, and routing system that works across all of these. It also includes " Razor Pages ."  On first blush, you'd think Razor Pages is "Web Pages" part two. I thought that, but it's not. It's an alternative model to MVC but it's built on MVC. Let me explain. My podcast site has a home page, a single episode page, and and archives page. It's pretty basic. Back in the day I felt an MVC-style site would just be overkill, so I did it in a page model. However, the code ended up (no disrespect intended) very 90s style PHPy. Basically one super-page with too much state management to all the URL cracking happening at the top of the page.  What I wanted was a Page-focused model without the ceremony of MVC while still being able to dip down into the flexibility and power of MVC when appropriate. That's Razor Pages. Best of all worlds and simply another tool in my toolbox. And the Pages (.cshtml) are Razor so I could port 90% of my very old existing code. In fact, I just made a new site with .NET Core with "dotnet new razor," opened up Visual Studio Code, and started copying over from (gasp) my WebMatrix project. I updated the code to be cleaner (a lot has happened to C# since then) and had 80% of my site going in a few hours. I'll switch Hanselminutes.com over in the next few weeks. This will mean I'll have a proper git checkin/deploy process rather than my "publish from WebMatrix" system I use today. I can containerize the site, run it on Linux, and finally add Unit Testing as I've been able to use pervasive Dependency Injection that's built into ASP.NET. Merging the old and the new with the ASP.NET Core's URL Rewriting Middleware Here's the thing though, there's parts of my existing site that are 10 years old, sure, but they also WORK. For example, I have existing URL Rewrite Rules from IIS that have been around that long. I'm pretty obsessive about making old URLs work. Never break a URL. No excuses.  There are still links around that have horrible URLs in the VERY original format that (not my fault) used database ids, like https://hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?ShowID=18570. Well, that database doesn't exist anymore, but I don't break URLs. I have these old URLs store along site my new system, and along with dozens of existing rewrite URLs I have an "IISUrlRewrite.xml" file. This was IIS specific and used with the IIS URL Rewrite Module, but you have all seen these before with things like Apache's ModRewrite. Those files are often loved and managed and carried around for years. They work. A lot of work went into them. Sure, I could rewrite all these rules with ASP.NET Core's routing and custom middleware, but again, they already work. I just want them to continue to work. They can with  ASP.NET Core's Url Rewriting Middleware that supports Apache Mod Rewrite AND IIS Url Rewrite without using Apache or IIS !  Here's a complex and very complete example of mixing and matching. Mine is far simpler.  public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app){ using (StreamReader apacheModRewriteStreamReader =  File.OpenText("ApacheModRewrite.txt")) using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader =  File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml"))  { var options = new RewriteOptions() .AddRedirect("redirect-rule/(.*)", "redirected/$1") .AddRewrite(@"^rewrite-rule/(\d+)/(\d+)", "rewritten?var1=$1&amp;var2=$2",  skipRemainingRules: true) .AddApacheModRewrite(apacheModRewriteStreamReader) .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader) .Add(MethodRules.RedirectXMLRequests) .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".png", "/png-images")) .Add(new RedirectImageRequests(".jpg", "/jpg-images")); app.UseRewriter(options); }  app.Run(context =&gt; context.Response.WriteAsync( $"Rewritten or Redirected Url: " + $"{context.Request.Path + context.Request.QueryString}"));} 
Remember I have URLs like default.aspx?ShowID=18570 but I don't use default.aspx any more (literally doesn't exist on disk) and I don't use those IDs (they are just stored as metadata in a new system.
 NOTE: Just want to point out that last line above there, where it shows the rewritten URL. Putting that in the logs or bypassing everything and outputting it as text is a nice way to debug and developer with this middleware, then comment it out as you get things refined and working.  
I have an IIS Rewrite URL that looks like this. It lives in an XML file along with dozens of other rules. Reminder - there's no IIS in this scenario. We are talking about the format and reusing that format. I load my rewrite rules in my Configure() method in Startup: using (StreamReader iisUrlRewriteStreamReader =  File.OpenText("IISUrlRewrite.xml")) { var options = new RewriteOptions() .AddIISUrlRewrite(iisUrlRewriteStreamReader); app.UseRewriter(options);}
 
It lives in the "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite" package that I added to my csproj with "dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite." And here's the rule I use (one of many in the old xml file): &lt;rule name="OldShowId"&gt; &lt;match url="^.*(?:Default.aspx).*$" /&gt; &lt;conditions&gt; &lt;add input="{QUERY_STRING}" pattern="ShowID=(\d+)" /&gt; &lt;/conditions&gt; &lt;action type="Rewrite" url="/{C:1}?handler=oldshowid" appendQueryString="false" /&gt;&lt;/rule&gt;
I capture that show ID and I rewrite (not redirect...we rewrite and continue on to the next segment of the pipeline) it to /18570?handler=oldshowid. That handler is a magic internal part of Razor Pages. Usually if you have a page called foo.cshtml it will have a method called OnGet or OnPost or OnHTTPVERB. But if you want multiple handlers per page you'll have OnGetHANDLERNAME so I have OnGet() for regular stuff, and I have OnGetOldShowId for this rare but important URL type. But notice that my implementation isn't URL-style specific. Razor Pages doesn't even know about that URL format. It just knows that these weird IDs have their own handler. public async Task&lt;IActionResult&gt; OnGetOldShowId(int id){ var allShows = await _db.GetShows();  string idAsString = id.ToString(); LastShow = allShows.Where(c =&gt; c.Guid.EndsWith(idAsString)).FirstOrDefault(); if (LastShow == null) return Redirect("/"); //catch all error case, 302 to home return RedirectPermanent(LastShow.ShowNumber.ToString()); // 301 to /showid} 
That's it. I have a ton more to share as I keep upgrading my podcast site, coming soon.
 Sponsor: Get the latest JetBrains Rider for debugging third-party .NET code, Smart Step Into, more debugger improvements, C# Interactive, new project wizard, and formatting code in columns.
  
 
 About Scott
 
 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
   
  
   
 About   Newsletter
  
 
 
  Hosting By
Upgrading a 10 year old site to ASP.NET Core's Razor Pages using the URL Rewriting Middleware
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/upgrading-a-10-year-old-site-to-aspnet-cores-razor-pages-using-the-url-rewriting-middleware
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/sharing-authorization-cookies-between-aspnet-4x-and-aspnet-core-10
Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and ASP.NET Core 1.0
2016-10-02
None
<div><section>
 
 <p><a href="https://hanselmanblogcontent.azureedge.net/Windows-Live-Writer/cdd66ed66d23_6C8A/image_2.png"></a><a href="https://www.asp.net/">ASP.NET Core 1.0</a> is out, as is <a href="https://www.dot.net/">.NET Core 1.0</a> and lots of folks are making great cross-platform web apps. These are Web Apps that are built on .NET Core 1.0 and run on Windows, Mac, or Linux. </p> <p>However, some people don't realize that ASP.NET Core 1.0 (that's the <em>web framework bit</em>) runs on either .NET Core <strong>or </strong>.NET Framework 4.6<strong> </strong>aka "Full Framework."</p> <p>Once you realize that it can be somewhat liberating. If you want to check out the new ASP.NET Core 1.0 and use the unified controllers to make web apis or MVC apps with Razor you can...even if you don't need or care about cross-platform support. Maybe your libraries use COM objects or Windows-specific stuff. ASP.NET Core 1.0 works on .NET Framework 4.6 just fine.</p> <p>Another option that folks don't consider when talk of "porting" their apps comes up at work is - <strong>why not have two apps? </strong>There's no reason to start a big porting exercise if your app works great now. Consider that you can have a section of your site by on ASP.NET Core 1.0 and another be on ASP.NET 4.x and the two apps could share authentication cookies. The user would never know the difference. </p> <p>Barry Dorrans from our team looked into this, and here's what he found. He's interested in your feedback, so <a href="https://github.com/blowdart/idunno.CookieSharing">be sure to file issues on his GitHub Repo</a> with your thoughts, bugs, and comments. This is a work in progress and at some point will be updated into <a href="http://docs.asp.net/">the official documentation</a>.</p> <h3>Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and .NET Core</h3> <p>Barry is <a href="https://github.com/blowdart/idunno.CookieSharing">building a GitHub repro here with two sample apps and a markdown file</a> to illustrate clearly how to accomplish cookie sharing.</p> <p>When you want to share logins with an existing ASP.NET 4.x app and an ASP.NET Core 1.0 app, you'll be creating a login cookie that can be read by both applications. It's certainly possible for you, Dear Reader, to "hack something together" with sessions and your own custom cookies, but please let this blog post and Barry's project be a warning. Don't roll your own crypto. You don't want to accidentally open up one or both if your apps to hacking because you tried to extend auth/auth in a naïve way.</p> <p>First, you'll need to <a href="https://github.com/blowdart/idunno.CookieSharing">make sure each application has the right NuGet packages</a> to interop with the security tokens you'll be using in your cookies.</p> <h4><strong>Install the interop packages into your applications.</strong> </h4> <ol> <li> <p><strong>ASP.NET 4.5</strong> </p><p>Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to <code>Microsoft.Owin.Security.Interop</code>.</p> </li><li> <p><strong>ASP.NET Core</strong> </p><p>Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to <code>Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.Extensions</code>.</p></li></ol> <h4><strong>Make sure the Cookie Names are identical in each application</strong></h4> <p>Barry is using CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie" in the example, but you just need to make sure they match.</p><pre>services.AddIdentity&lt;ApplicationUser, IdentityRole&gt;(options =&gt;<br />{<br /> options.Cookies = new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.IdentityCookieOptions<br /> {<br /> ApplicationCookie = new CookieAuthenticationOptions<br /> {<br /> AuthenticationScheme = "Cookie",<br /> LoginPath = new PathString("/Account/Login/"),<br /> AccessDeniedPath = new PathString("/Account/Forbidden/"),<br /> AutomaticAuthenticate = true,<br /> AutomaticChallenge = true,<br /> CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie"<p> };<br /> })<br /> .AddEntityFrameworkStores&lt;ApplicationDbContext&gt;()<br /> .AddDefaultTokenProviders();<br />}
</p></pre>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Remember the <code>CookieName</code> property must have the same value in each application, and the <code>AuthenticationType</code> (ASP.NET 4.5) and <code>AuthenticationScheme</code> (ASP.NET Core) properties must have the same value in each application.</em></p></blockquote>
<h4><strong>Be aware of your cookie domains if you use them</strong></h4>
<p>Browsers naturally share cookies between the same domain name. For example if both your sites run in subdirectories under <a href="https://contoso.com/">https://contoso.com</a> then cookies will automatically be shared. 
</p><p>However if your sites run on subdomains a cookie issued to a subdomain will not automatically be sent by the browser to a different subdomain, for example, <a href="https://site1.contoso.com/">https://site1.contoso.com</a> would not share cookies with <a href="https://site2.contoso.com/">https://site2.contoso.com</a>. 
</p><p>If your sites run on subdomains you can configure the issued cookies to be shared by setting the <code>CookieDomain</code> property in <code>CookieAuthenticationOptions</code> to be the parent domain. 
</p><p>Try to do everything over HTTPS and be aware that if a Cookie has its Secure flag set it won't flow to an insecure HTTP URL.</p>
<h4><strong>Select a common data protection repository location accessible by both applications</strong></h4>
<p>From Barry's instructions, his sample will use a shared DP folder, but you have options:</p>
<p>This sample will use a shared directory (<code>C:\keyring</code>). If your applications aren't on the same server, or can't access the same NTFS share you can use other keyring repositories. 
</p><p>.NET Core 1.0 includes key ring repositories for shared directories and the registry. 
</p><p>.NET Core 1.1 will add support for Redis, Azure Blob Storage and Azure Key Vault. 
</p><p>You can develop your own key ring repository by implementing the <code>IXmlRepository</code> interface. 
</p><h4><strong>Configure your applications to use the same cookie format</strong></h4>
<p>You'll configure each app - ASP.NET 4.5 and ASP.NET Core - to use the AspNetTicketDataFormat for their cookies.</p><figure></figure> 
<p><a href="https://github.com/blowdart/idunno.CookieSharing">According to his repo</a>, this gets us started with Cookie Sharing for Identity, but there still needs to be clearer guidance on how share the Identity 3.0 database between the two frameworks. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The interop shim does not enabling the sharing of identity databases between applications. ASP.NET 4.5 uses Identity 1.0 or 2.0, ASP.NET Core uses Identity 3.0. If you want to share databases you must update the ASP.NET Identity 2.0 applications to use the ASP.NET Identity 3.0 schemas. If you are upgrading from Identity 1.0 you should migrate to Identity 2.0 first, rather than try to go directly to 3.0.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://github.com/blowdart/idunno.CookieSharing">Sound off in the Issues over on GitHub</a> if you would like to see this sample (or another) expanded to show more Identity DB sharing. It looks to be very promising work.</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Sponsor</strong>: Big thanks to <strong>Telerik</strong> for sponsoring the blog this week! <a href="http://hnsl.mn/2dmSGvh">60+ <strong>ASP.NET Core</strong> controls for every need</a>. The most complete UI toolset for x-platform responsive web and cloud development.<a href="http://hnsl.mn/2dmSGvh">Try now 30 days for free!</a></p>
 <div>
 <div>
 <h4>About Scott</h4>
 <div>
 <p>Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.</p>
 <p><a href="https://facebook.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="https://twitter.com/shanselman"></a>
 <a href="http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman"></a><br />
 <a href="http://hanselman.com/about">About</a>   <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/newsletter">Newsletter</a>
 </p></div>
 </div>
 <div>
 <p><strong>Hosting By</strong><br />
 <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/free"></a>
 </p>
 </div>
 </div>
 
 
 
 </section>||||I||||Scott Hanselman

 * about
 * blog
 * podcast
 * youtube
 * speaking
 browse by category or date

Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and ASP.NET Core 1.0

October 02, 2016 Comment on this post [15] Posted in ASP.NET | ASP.NET MVC
 Sponsored By

ASP.NET Core 1.0 is out, as is .NET Core 1.0 and lots of folks are making great cross-platform web apps. These are Web Apps that are built on .NET Core 1.0 and run on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

However, some people don't realize that ASP.NET Core 1.0 (that's the web framework bit) runs on either .NET Core or .NET Framework 4.6 aka "Full Framework."

Once you realize that it can be somewhat liberating. If you want to check out the new ASP.NET Core 1.0 and use the unified controllers to make web apis or MVC apps with Razor you can...even if you don't need or care about cross-platform support. Maybe your libraries use COM objects or Windows-specific stuff. ASP.NET Core 1.0 works on .NET Framework 4.6 just fine.

Another option that folks don't consider when talk of "porting" their apps comes up at work is - why not have two apps? There's no reason to start a big porting exercise if your app works great now. Consider that you can have a section of your site by on ASP.NET Core 1.0 and another be on ASP.NET 4.x and the two apps could share authentication cookies. The user would never know the difference.

Barry Dorrans from our team looked into this, and here's what he found. He's interested in your feedback, so be sure to file issues on his GitHub Repo with your thoughts, bugs, and comments. This is a work in progress and at some point will be updated into the official documentation.

Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and .NET Core

Barry is building a GitHub repro here with two sample apps and a markdown file to illustrate clearly how to accomplish cookie sharing.

When you want to share logins with an existing ASP.NET 4.x app and an ASP.NET Core 1.0 app, you'll be creating a login cookie that can be read by both applications. It's certainly possible for you, Dear Reader, to "hack something together" with sessions and your own custom cookies, but please let this blog post and Barry's project be a warning. Don't roll your own crypto. You don't want to accidentally open up one or both if your apps to hacking because you tried to extend auth/auth in a naïve way.

First, you'll need to make sure each application has the right NuGet packages to interop with the security tokens you'll be using in your cookies.

Install the interop packages into your applications.

 1. ASP.NET 4.5

 Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to Microsoft.Owin.Security.Interop.

 2. ASP.NET Core

 Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.Extensions.

Make sure the Cookie Names are identical in each application

Barry is using CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie" in the example, but you just need to make sure they match.

services.AddIdentity<ApplicationUser, IdentityRole>(options =>
{
 options.Cookies = new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.IdentityCookieOptions
 {
 ApplicationCookie = new CookieAuthenticationOptions
 {
 AuthenticationScheme = "Cookie",
 LoginPath = new PathString("/Account/Login/"),
 AccessDeniedPath = new PathString("/Account/Forbidden/"),
 AutomaticAuthenticate = true,
 AutomaticChallenge = true,
 CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie"

 };
 })
 .AddEntityFrameworkStores<ApplicationDbContext>()
 .AddDefaultTokenProviders();
}


Remember the CookieName property must have the same value in each application, and the AuthenticationType (ASP.NET 4.5) and AuthenticationScheme (ASP.NET Core) properties must have the same value in each application.

Be aware of your cookie domains if you use them

Browsers naturally share cookies between the same domain name. For example if both your sites run in subdirectories under https://contoso.com then cookies will automatically be shared.

However if your sites run on subdomains a cookie issued to a subdomain will not automatically be sent by the browser to a different subdomain, for example, https://site1.contoso.com would not share cookies with https://site2.contoso.com.

If your sites run on subdomains you can configure the issued cookies to be shared by setting the CookieDomain property in CookieAuthenticationOptions to be the parent domain.

Try to do everything over HTTPS and be aware that if a Cookie has its Secure flag set it won't flow to an insecure HTTP URL.

Select a common data protection repository location accessible by both applications

From Barry's instructions, his sample will use a shared DP folder, but you have options:

This sample will use a shared directory (C:\keyring). If your applications aren't on the same server, or can't access the same NTFS share you can use other keyring repositories.

.NET Core 1.0 includes key ring repositories for shared directories and the registry.

.NET Core 1.1 will add support for Redis, Azure Blob Storage and Azure Key Vault.

You can develop your own key ring repository by implementing the IXmlRepository interface.

Configure your applications to use the same cookie format

You'll configure each app - ASP.NET 4.5 and ASP.NET Core - to use the AspNetTicketDataFormat for their cookies.

According to his repo, this gets us started with Cookie Sharing for Identity, but there still needs to be clearer guidance on how share the Identity 3.0 database between the two frameworks.

The interop shim does not enabling the sharing of identity databases between applications. ASP.NET 4.5 uses Identity 1.0 or 2.0, ASP.NET Core uses Identity 3.0. If you want to share databases you must update the ASP.NET Identity 2.0 applications to use the ASP.NET Identity 3.0 schemas. If you are upgrading from Identity 1.0 you should migrate to Identity 2.0 first, rather than try to go directly to 3.0.

Sound off in the Issues over on GitHub if you would like to see this sample (or another) expanded to show more Identity DB sharing. It looks to be very promising work.

Sponsor: Big thanks to Telerik for sponsoring the blog this week! 60+ ASP.NET Core controls for every need. The most complete UI toolset for x-platform responsive web and cloud development.Try now 30 days for free!

 About Scott

 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.


 About Newsletter
 Hosting By
 Comment on this post [15]
 Share on Twitter or Facebook or use the Permalink
 October 02, 2016 21:12
 Is there a change that .asp.net Core/ .Net Core will support forms Authentication. (.ASPXAUTH) We are running a site with millions of users with Forms Authentication in a SharePoint Site (web site) and we are building a new part based on .Net core. Currently I understand that we need to change the way to autenticate in the web site. (all other examples I have seen on this is based on having a MVC site on .Net 4)
 Peakman
 October 03, 2016 7:14
 Scott what I would love to see is a simple Core MVC WebApi and Angular 2 application walk-through. Keep it really simple. Data input, output and display. Some of the tutorials are just to much. Too many frameworks, libs, docker and a million other things. Can we just get back to some roots 101 stuff? Can you help me out?
 Chris Go
 October 03, 2016 8:34
 Now that's great @Scott. And +1 @Chris Go. That's exactly what bigger portion of the world would want to see. U know, for the rest of us. N I am sure, @Scott knows that.
 ADEEL
 October 03, 2016 8:53
 Wouldn't a JWT authentication implementation be easier, cleaner, and more extensible than cookie sharing like this? Setup a separate login website to manage token creation, then redirect to 4.5 and Core 1.0 sites passing the token around. Separating concerns.
 Stacy
 October 03, 2016 11:59
 @ChrisGo something like this? https://devblog.dymel.pl/2016/09/08/aspnet-core-with-angular2-tutorial/
 Omni
 October 03, 2016 12:25
 @ChrisGo If You are looking for C# developer friendly SPA framework, just try DotVVM - .NET-based Framework for Line-of-Business Web Apps (based on MVVM pattern principles, without tons of javascript code/libs)
 Darilek
 October 03, 2016 18:02
 Thanks for the links, I have Pluralsight as well would not mind seeing a 4 hour course on my request as well. Doesn't need to be 100% free or anything.
 Chris
 October 03, 2016 18:08
 @Scott ASP.NET Core 1.0 actually runs on .NET 4.5.1 full framework or higher.
 Jonny Bekkum
 October 03, 2016 22:46
 Really it should be noted that this is about sharing with ASP.NET *MVC*. Like Peakman, I would like to see something about ASP.NET WebForms and new ASP.NET Core authentication sharing. We have an extremely large project ... that is working just fine, mind you. But if we want to start moving towards .NET Core, there's an awful lot to rewrite w/out much benefit other than being on the latest trend...
 Margo
 October 04, 2016 2:19
 I would reaaaallly like to see an example of using WS Federation in ASP.Net Core targeting the full .Net Framework. There are a lot of people operating with ADFS, so WS Federation is a must. But there are no good examples out there, it is a missing piece of the ASP.Net Core puzzle.
 Stephen
 October 04, 2016 3:11
 So webforms really hasn't got the extensibility points we need to enable cookie sharing.

 For those of you in those situations I'd suggest looking at federated login as a solution. Webforms supports OpenID Connect or WS-Fed.

 You'd then use IdentityServer to handle all your logins, and hold your user database. Your apps would direct to it for login, then bounce back to your application where you'd drop an authentication cookie according to your application needs, be it webforms, MVC, or MVC core.
 Barry Dorrans
 October 04, 2016 3:12
 However if you drag your webforms app kicking and screaming to be hosted under Katana, then the cookie sharing does work, because both webforms and MVC under Katana and .NET 4.5.1 share the same cookie middleware.

 You can see that in the VS2013 and beyond templates.
 Barry Dorrans
 October 04, 2016 3:14
 @Stephen - We're well aware of the need for WS-Fed in core, but we're still waiting for the classes we need to appear in .NET Core. You can keep an eye on that work at https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/4278
 Barry Dorrans
 October 06, 2016 20:16
 I have done something similar in Classic ASP + .NET when part of functionality needed to be upgraded to .NET but everything else still runs on Classic ASP. 2 apps sit on 2 different app servers, only to be combined together by a Apache on front.
 vnextcoder@gmail.com
 October 07, 2016 14:54
 It all seems a world of troubles if you follow this. I will stay at .NET 4.6.1 for the next 12 months.
 Core brings not more but less to the table.
 Edward

 Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.

 Blog

 * Privacy Policy
 * Greatest Hits
 * Dev Tool List

 Podcast

 * Hanselminutes
 * This Developer's Life
 * Ratchet & The Geek

 Speaking

 * Speaking/Videos
 * Presentations Tips

 Books

 * ASP.NET 4.5
 * ASP.NET MVC 4
 * Relationship Hacks
 © Copyright 2023, Scott Hanselman. Design by @jzy, Powered by .NET 6.0.13 and deployed from commit 5c6a80 via build 20220310.1
ASP.NET Core 1.0 is out, as is .NET Core 1.0 and lots of folks are making great cross-platform web apps. These are Web Apps that are built on .NET Core 1.0 and run on Windows, Mac, or Linux.  However, some people don't realize that ASP.NET Core 1.0 (that's the web framework bit) runs on either .NET Core or .NET Framework 4.6 aka "Full Framework." Once you realize that it can be somewhat liberating. If you want to check out the new ASP.NET Core 1.0 and use the unified controllers to make web apis or MVC apps with Razor you can...even if you don't need or care about cross-platform support. Maybe your libraries use COM objects or Windows-specific stuff. ASP.NET Core 1.0 works on .NET Framework 4.6 just fine. Another option that folks don't consider when talk of "porting" their apps comes up at work is - why not have two apps? There's no reason to start a big porting exercise if your app works great now. Consider that you can have a section of your site by on ASP.NET Core 1.0 and another be on ASP.NET 4.x and the two apps could share authentication cookies. The user would never know the difference.  Barry Dorrans from our team looked into this, and here's what he found. He's interested in your feedback, so be sure to file issues on his GitHub Repo with your thoughts, bugs, and comments. This is a work in progress and at some point will be updated into the official documentation. Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and .NET Core Barry is building a GitHub repro here with two sample apps and a markdown file to illustrate clearly how to accomplish cookie sharing. When you want to share logins with an existing ASP.NET 4.x app and an ASP.NET Core 1.0 app, you'll be creating a login cookie that can be read by both applications. It's certainly possible for you, Dear Reader, to "hack something together" with sessions and your own custom cookies, but please let this blog post and Barry's project be a warning. Don't roll your own crypto. You don't want to accidentally open up one or both if your apps to hacking because you tried to extend auth/auth in a naïve way. First, you'll need to make sure each application has the right NuGet packages to interop with the security tokens you'll be using in your cookies.  Install the interop packages into your applications.     ASP.NET 4.5  Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to Microsoft.Owin.Security.Interop.    ASP.NET Core  Open the nuget package manager, or the nuget console and add a reference to Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.Extensions.    Make sure the Cookie Names are identical in each application  Barry is using CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie" in the example, but you just need to make sure they match. services.AddIdentity&lt;ApplicationUser, IdentityRole&gt;(options =&gt;{ options.Cookies = new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.IdentityCookieOptions { ApplicationCookie = new CookieAuthenticationOptions { AuthenticationScheme = "Cookie", LoginPath = new PathString("/Account/Login/"), AccessDeniedPath = new PathString("/Account/Forbidden/"), AutomaticAuthenticate = true, AutomaticChallenge = true, CookieName = ".AspNet.SharedCookie" }; }) .AddEntityFrameworkStores&lt;ApplicationDbContext&gt;() .AddDefaultTokenProviders();}
 
 Remember the CookieName property must have the same value in each application, and the AuthenticationType (ASP.NET 4.5) and AuthenticationScheme (ASP.NET Core) properties must have the same value in each application.  
 Be aware of your cookie domains if you use them 
Browsers naturally share cookies between the same domain name. For example if both your sites run in subdirectories under https://contoso.com then cookies will automatically be shared. 
 However if your sites run on subdomains a cookie issued to a subdomain will not automatically be sent by the browser to a different subdomain, for example, https://site1.contoso.com would not share cookies with https://site2.contoso.com. 
 If your sites run on subdomains you can configure the issued cookies to be shared by setting the CookieDomain property in CookieAuthenticationOptions to be the parent domain. 
 Try to do everything over HTTPS and be aware that if a Cookie has its Secure flag set it won't flow to an insecure HTTP URL.
 Select a common data protection repository location accessible by both applications 
From Barry's instructions, his sample will use a shared DP folder, but you have options:
This sample will use a shared directory (C:\keyring). If your applications aren't on the same server, or can't access the same NTFS share you can use other keyring repositories. 
 .NET Core 1.0 includes key ring repositories for shared directories and the registry. 
 .NET Core 1.1 will add support for Redis, Azure Blob Storage and Azure Key Vault. 
 You can develop your own key ring repository by implementing the IXmlRepository interface. 
  Configure your applications to use the same cookie format 
You'll configure each app - ASP.NET 4.5 and ASP.NET Core - to use the AspNetTicketDataFormat for their cookies.   
 According to his repo, this gets us started with Cookie Sharing for Identity, but there still needs to be clearer guidance on how share the Identity 3.0 database between the two frameworks. 
The interop shim does not enabling the sharing of identity databases between applications. ASP.NET 4.5 uses Identity 1.0 or 2.0, ASP.NET Core uses Identity 3.0. If you want to share databases you must update the ASP.NET Identity 2.0 applications to use the ASP.NET Identity 3.0 schemas. If you are upgrading from Identity 1.0 you should migrate to Identity 2.0 first, rather than try to go directly to 3.0. 
 Sound off in the Issues over on GitHub if you would like to see this sample (or another) expanded to show more Identity DB sharing. It looks to be very promising work.
 Sponsor: Big thanks to Telerik for sponsoring the blog this week! 60+ ASP.NET Core controls for every need. The most complete UI toolset for x-platform responsive web and cloud development.Try now 30 days for free! 
 
 
 About Scott
 
 Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
   
  
   
 About   Newsletter
  
 
 
  Hosting By
Sharing Authorization Cookies between ASP.NET 4.x and ASP.NET Core 1.0
https://www.hanselman.com/blog/sharing-authorization-cookies-between-aspnet-4x-and-aspnet-core-10
https://inessential.com/
inessential: weblog
2024-02-08
None
<div><div>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2024/02/08/reruns.html">Reruns</a></h2>
<div><p>It’s not a bug in your RSS reader if recent articles in this feed all suddenly appeared as unread. You may even have seeming duplicates.</p>
<p>Sorry about that! It’s due to my changing settings in my blog generator. Pages now have a .html suffix where before they had none. This change impacts permalinks, which also changes the <code>guid</code>s in my RSS feed — and NetNewsWire and other RSS readers use the <code>guid</code> property to identify articles, which means these will show up as new articles.</p>
<p>(Note: I’ve created redirects so that old links pointing in will still work.)</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2024/02/04/why_netnewswire_isnt_available_for_vision_pro.html">Why NetNewsWire Isn’t Available for Vision Pro</a></h2>
<div><p>I’ve been getting questions about NetNewsWire’s unavailability on Vision Pro. Why isn’t it there? When might it be there?</p>
<p>Here’s the scoop:</p>
<p>I consider it risky to support an app running on a device I don’t own. Imagine writing a Mac or iPhone app and not actually running it on one of those machines — you wouldn’t.</p>
<p>I realize that the app would act as if it were running on an iPad — but the Vision Pro is not really an iPad. It’s a device with <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/02/simple_tricks_and_nonsense">very different interactions</a> from the direct manipulation we’re used to on iPad. And the compatibility mode is a new thing because this device is a new thing — we don’t know how well it works and what the gotchas might be.</p>
<p>I could test it on the simulator, sure, but the simulator is a convenience for developers. It’s no replacement for running it on a real device.</p>
<p>And, yes, the app is open source, which could mean that other developers with a Vision Pro could help support it — but it’s important to remember that I’m the only person who <em>has</em> to support it. The NetNewsWire team is awesome, but I’m the one on the line for this.</p>
<p>So I want to be careful and go slowly, because if I made it available it would be extremely difficult to reverse the decision and take it away, even with an excellent reason.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that a consensus will form among developers that running apps on Vision Pro as iPad apps is fine, that it’s a cakewalk. If that happens, I’d go ahead and do it too. But it’s too soon for us to know that.</p>
<p>PS Why don’t I have a Vision Pro? I’m sure it’s an incredible technical achievement and an amazing experience — and pretty damn wonderful in just about every way — but it’s just not my thing. I like reading and writing mostly, plus making apps for reading and writing. My personal future of computing has been here for all these years — the Mac.</p>
<p>PPS Eventually the price will come down to where I’d consider buying one as a test device and for a little fun — but that may be a few years away. I’m hoping that we’ll find, sooner than that, that running as iPad on Vision Pro is a-okay.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2024/01/17/corporations_are_not_to_be_loved.html">Corporations Are Not To Be Loved</a></h2>
<div><p>I started using Apple computers — and writing code for them, starting with BASIC — 43 years ago, before the Macintosh, even, and I’ve made this my career. I’ve had all these decades to really, thoroughly delight in these incredible machines and software, and to give a little back with my own apps.</p>
<p>Apple’s positive effect on my life should not be underestimated. My Mom once (lovingly, teasingly) said to me that my alternate career, had all this never happened, was “criminal genius.” Which might have been fun too, but possibly more stressful than I might have liked. At any rate, Apple has saved me from a life of crime, and I should love Apple for that.</p>
<p>But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions.</p>
<p>Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.</p>
<p>Luckily, Apple has just provided us all with a reminder. Just like the sixth finger in an AI-rendered hand, Apple’s policies for <a href="https://developer.apple.com/support/storekit-external-entitlement-us/">Distributing apps in the U.S. that provide an external purchase link</a> are startlingly graceless and a jarring, but not surprising, reminder that Apple is not a real person and not worthy of your love.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2023/12/17/on_mastodon_support_in_netnewswire.html">On Mastodon Support in NetNewsWire</a></h2>
<div><p>Tim Chambers, admin of the Mastodon server indieweb.social, which hosts my personal account and the NetNewsWire account, <a href="https://indieweb.social/@tchambers/111596493325633510">asked me</a> if ActivityPub support is on the roadmap for NetNewsWire. Great question!</p>
<p>Tim was responding to <a href="https://mastodon.social/@ricmac/111596432765792578">Richard MacManus</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are there any RSS Readers that are trying to integrate ActivityPub too? Pondering the glut of email newsletters in our inboxes these days, and wondering if we are due for an RSS Reader renaissance, except with a fediverse twist this time…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I hear this. It’s not the first time this has come up, and I’ve spent the past year or so thinking about it.</p>
<p>Since RSS is an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, and ActivityPub is also an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, it’s an obvious good idea to do both in the same app. Totally.</p>
<p>But the question was specifically about NetNewsWire.</p>
<p>We will make NetNewsWire work better with Mastodon-generated RSS feeds. There are some things we’re not doing yet that will make reading these a better experience.</p>
<p>But should NetNewsWire become a Mastodon client? That’s where the answer is not so obvious.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Let’s compare the NetNewsWire and Mastodon experiences.</p>
<p>NetNewsWire is a three-paned RSS reader. Sidebar (accounts, folders, feeds) on the left. Timeline (titles and/or first few lines) in the middle. Article on the right. <a href="https://netnewswire.com/screenshots.html">See these screenshots</a> to get the idea.</p>
<p>Each article has a read/unread status. Selecting an article marks it as read, and there are commands to mark all as read (and mark all as read above or below the selection).</p>
<p>This is not the only good model for an RSS reader, but it’s how NetNewsWire works — and it’s a bad fit for a Mastodon reading experience.</p>
<p>Whether you use Mastodon on the web or in an app you’re used to a single timeline per account (with perhaps side streams for mentions and such). All posts from everyone you follow appear in that single timeline. You don’t deal with read/unread status — instead you have a chronological position.</p>
<p>The timeline shows the entire post (usually), instead of an optional title and first few lines. There is no third article view, because the entire post is displayed in the timeline.</p>
<p>This experience isn’t unique to Mastodon, of course — that’s how X, Threads, Micro.blog, Bluesky, and other social media apps work.</p>
<p>But it’s not how NetNewsWire works, and if we try to mash that experience into the app — but have it on only when a Mastodon account is selected — we’d end up with a confusion that feels like two very different apps. Because it would be.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>A second option: we could not change the experience and just assume that some people would like to use Mastodon in a NetNewsWire way instead of in the usual social media way. I’m extremely skeptical of this idea — I think it would be a pain, and I think most people who try it would drop it.</p>
<p>The third option, which I think is best, which we already do, is to support Mastodon via RSS. (Mastodon feeds are usually available as RSS — you can add <code>.rss</code> to the end of a URL to get a feed.)</p>
<p>There might be some Mastodon accounts you want to follow in your RSS reader instead of in your Mastodon client. Think of an account for a website that doesn’t have an RSS feed, but that reliably posts links to articles. Or a person you want to follow — but you don’t want to show up in their follower list. (Sounds a little antisocial, sure, but you can imagine good reasons.)</p>
<p>We can, and will, do more to make Mastodon-over-RSS a good experience in NetNewsWire. Right now we’re not picking up avatars or image attachments, which we can fix. There might be more things like that to do. We might add the ability to post to Mastodon, since it’s a natural thing to want to share stuff from your RSS reader to Mastodon.</p>
<p>But I don’t think we’ll make NetNewsWire a real Mastodon client.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>It still seems like RSS and Mastodon could fit in the same app, though! If I were designing it, I’d start with the social media experience: the single timeline of posts. Very simple sidebar. No article view. No read/unread status — just position in the timeline.</p>
<p>You could add RSS feeds, but they’d be treated like Mastodon posts. Any article short enough would appear in full in the timeline, but most would probably have to be truncated. You’d open articles in your browser, just like you do now with social media apps (there’d be no third article pane).</p>
<p>Such an app could be a nice unified experience. Get your Mastodon, Threads, RSS feeds, Micro.blog and, hopefully, other services — anything that supports ActivityPub, RSS, or some other open format or API — all in one place, in a way that’s already familiar to everyone.</p>
<p>Sounds pretty great! But it’s not NetNewsWire.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2023/06/27/seattle_xcoders_this_thursday.html">Seattle Xcoders this Thursday</a></h2>
<div><p>Seattle Xcoders meetups are at 7 pm on the first, third, and fifth Thursdays of each month, lately at the <a href="https://balebreaker.com/taproom/seattle/">Bale Breaker x Yonder Cider Taproom</a> in Seattle, in Ballard.</p>
<p>We meet outside, usually in the uncovered area that has some benches and small gas fire pits. (Not actually pits. More like small coffee tables with rocks and fire on top.)</p>
<p>There are no presentations or anything like that — we’re not back to doing indoor meetings with slides. We’re just talking. (Seattle Xcoders has always had a strong social game, so this is no surprise.)</p>
<p>Everybody’s welcome! You don’t have to be a coder. Designers, support folks, testers, writers, and anybody interested in Apple-land apps are all encouraged to come hang out. Even managers.</p>
<p>If you’re interested, be sure to <a href="webcal://p25-caldav.icloud.com/published/2/Nzc2ODExNzg3NzY4MTE3OA8zb_qUej-fZsXG-_oJak3bJvjP8RcHmIEZ0WxGu2kWkvciKC5Sm6Xm5sHZRUHdZPM3KQg8-b2iwsMIEOTWlJo">subscribe to the calendar</a>, so you don’t miss any changes of date, time, or venue.</p>
<p>I myself don’t make it every time, but I do plan to be there this Thursday (June 29). See you there!</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2023/02/20/on_not_taking_money_for_netnewswire.html">On Not Taking Money for NetNewsWire</a></h2>
<div><p>From time to time a NetNewsWire user lets me know that they’d be happy to pay for the app or add to a tip jar. The answer is always the same: we don’t take money, but here’s <a href="https://github.com/Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire/blob/main/Technotes/HowToSupportNetNewsWire.markdown">how to support NetNewsWire</a>.</p>
<p>Sometimes, though, they insist! Which is flattering, and I take it to mean that they really like the app.</p>
<p>But I should explain why we won’t take even a dollar in tip money.</p>
<h4>NetNewsWire Expenses Are Almost Nonexistent</h4>
<p>We use free services like <a href="https://github.com/Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire">GitHub</a>, and we aren’t asked to pay anything to the various syncing services (Feedbin, Feedly, iCloud, etc.) that the app works with.</p>
<p>My developer membership with Apple is a thing I’d have anyway. The <a href="https://netnewswire.com/">website</a> is hosted on the same account that hosts this blog, and it costs nothing extra.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://nnw.ranchero.com/">blog</a> is hosted on <a href="https://micro.blog/">Micro.blog</a>, and <a href="https://www.manton.org/">Manton Reece</a> very generously provides us a free account. The service that powers the Reader View is provided, also very generously and for free, by <a href="https://feedbin.com/">Feedbin</a>.</p>
<p>I do pay for the smallest possible Linode instance to run a crash log catcher script; this costs $7.73 per month. If you add in periodic domain name renewals, we’d probably end up somewhere around $10 per month.</p>
<p>In other words: NetNewsWire is a <em>really</em> cheap hobby.</p>
<p>(Side note: you can see, though, how paying $100 a month for Twitter API access would blow this up. Not going to do that.)</p>
<h4>Two Problems with Taking Money</h4>
<p>NetNewsWire has no bank account and does no accounting. The organization <a href="https://github.com/Ranchero-Software/">Ranchero Software</a> that hosts the NetNewsWire repo on GitHub does not exist as a legal entity — it’s not even a non-profit. (It’s real, though, in the sense that you can give a group of people a name.)</p>
<p>If we took money, even a little bit, I’d want to change all that. I’d file with the state of Washington, set up a bank account, start keeping track of income and expenses, separate NetNewsWire stuff from my stuff, start paying taxes. This would take up time I could have spent working on NetNewsWire itself. And I’d hate it.</p>
<p>So that’s problem one. Problem two would be — who gets the money? After we take out $10 a month for expenses, where does the excess go? There are a bunch of people who spend lots of hours every month working on the app — how would we divvy up the money we get? I can’t think of a fair way.</p>
<h4>The Even Worse Problem with Taking Money</h4>
<p>As bad as those first two problems are, problem three is worse. That’s the one where money could affect our decisions — or even just be perceived as possibly affecting our decisions.</p>
<p>Right now the app is made purely for love, and our goal is to make the best app we know how to make. Everybody who uses it — and everybody who volunteers to work on it — knows that nobody is making a single dime from it.</p>
<p>There is 100% trust that we never think about revenue when making decisions. There is quite enough of that in the tech world already, and it’s really, really nice for us to work on a thing where we never have to consider revenue (yes, we’re fortunate: I <em>totally</em> get that).</p>
<p>I think it’s also really nice for users to know that our decisions are always based on what’s best for the app and its users and never on what would make us more money.</p>
<p>That said: of course we think about popularity. It’s a factor. And I don’t mean for ego — I mean that we’re more likely to do a feature we think lots of people will use versus one we expect few people to use. But that’s just one part of the equation and not the driving force it would be if we were taking money.</p>
<h4>Before You Think I’m Advocating Something</h4>
<p>Just in case it’s not obvious, I’ll spell it out: this model is <em>not</em> the best model for every app. I’m not saying it is. It’s a model that I personally like <em>and can do</em> because I’ve done well enough in the for-profit world.</p>
<p>I especially want to mention indie developers — they do have to think about revenue in order to keep doing what they’re doing. They are all under-charging for their apps and putting in far more time and care than you even imagine. They’re doing the best work on the platforms we love <em>and</em> they take care of their customers better than larger companies. So whenever you think you might want to give us money, go buy something awesome from an indie instead.</p>
<p>Or — do this also! — give money to groups trying to lessen the cruelty of this world. They’re not hard to find. <a href="https://www.glaad.org/">Here’s one</a>.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2022/11/13/after_twitter.html">After Twitter</a></h2>
<div><p>For writers, artists, podcasters, journalists, and people who make things in public, Twitter was the one social networking site we all had to use.</p>
<p>It’s as if Twitter has been stretched out across the map of the internet, and whatever parts of the map it didn’t cover, it could still reach. Everything happened there. Even things that started on some blog, podcast, or real life still <em>really</em> happened on Twitter.</p>
<p>It was that way because we agreed to it. We may not have liked it all the time, but by our actions we were part of that consensus.</p>
<p>This has just changed, and now Twitter is only one of many nations on that map, no longer the indispensable one. And, worse, it’s showing clear signs of failing.</p>
<h3>It Was Always a Bad Idea</h3>
<p>The internet’s town square should never have been one specific website with its own specific rules and incentives. It should have been, and should be, the web itself.</p>
<p>Having one entity own and police that square could only deform the worldwide conversation, to disastrous ends, even with the smartest and most humane people at work.</p>
<p>Twitter’s new owner is certainly not one of those people. But it doesn’t matter: he unintentionally brought the change that needed to happen, the break in the consensus.</p>
<h3>The Building Slowdown</h3>
<p>I resented Twitter because it had become mandatory, because it had become the one place. And I resented it because it seemed to subdue the creative energy of the web.</p>
<p>You built a thing? How nice. Well, there’s Twitter, so we don’t need it. Or: how’s this going to replace Twitter? It’s not, so save your energy.</p>
<p>Everything you might build that had to do with communication, reading and writing and otherwise, was compared to Twitter or somehow in relation to Twitter, even when unasked for, and Twitter was the enormous factor in that equation.</p>
<h3>A New Hope</h3>
<p>With the fall of the Twitter consensus I am energized. I remember what it was like in the 2000s; I remember the liveliness and sparkle of those days on the web.</p>
<p>I don’t suggest dialing the clock back to old tech, but I hope we use the good parts from those days to help us build new and amazing things. There is so much to do, and so many grand problems to solve.</p>
<p>The web is wide open again, for the first time in what feels like forever.</p>
<p>PS I outright stole the “stretched out across the map” thing from Franz Kafka’s “Letter to His Father.” It was just right for this. Come at me, Kafka.</p>
<p>PPS An earlier draft of this article had the line “Twitter was the island in the middle of the kitchen where we hung out, and now it’s a junk drawer of brands and nazis,” which I preserve because it’s true.</p>
</div>
</article>
<article>
<h2><a href="https://inessential.com/2022/01/04/1942_letter_to_my_grandfather_from_his_father.html">1942 Letter to My Grandfather from His Father</a></h2>
<div><p>My Dad ran across a remarkable letter and shared it with family. I volunteered to share it more widely, and Dad and his siblings agreed.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>This 1942 letter was written by John Simmons to his son Donald as Donald was about to be shipped to Europe (England first). He had enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attack.</p>
<p>Donald Simmons was my grandfather, and I had the fortune of knowing him.</p>
<p>My father and his siblings knew John Simmons, their grandfather, and with this letter they are able to know him a bit better.</p>
<p>John was 63 when he wrote this letter to his youngest son.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>You can read all <a href="https://inessential.com/images/ww2-letter.pdf">three pages together as a PDF</a> — or you can click a thumbnail for each page for the full size version.</p>
<p><a href="https://inessential.com/images/ww2-letter-page1.jpg"></a><br/>
Page 1</p>
<p><a href="https://inessential.com/images/ww2-letter-page2.jpg"></a><br/>
Page 2</p>
<p><a href="https://inessential.com/images/ww2-letter-page3.jpg"></a><br/>
Page 3</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Below is the text. The original is written in cursive on Wright Aeronautical Corporation letterhead.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aug. 20, 1942</p>
<p>Dear Don:</p>
<p>My thoughts are with you tonight so strongly that I shall drop you a note. Of course it is hard for you to go but not much harder than for us to see you go. You see we love you and are now so helpless to aid you in any way. But then you are a man now and will have to make your own way from here on. And we’re sure that you have the stuff to do it. It won’t be an easy job but then, Don, no job worth the doing is. There are bound to be dark days and darker nights but you must always remember that nothing lasts forever and in the morning it will be a new day. And you are better trained than most for the work.</p>
<p>You are too intelligent to be told and believe that war is anything but a tragic mess, however, we are in this not with our consent but because of a treacherous attack that we did not invite. Regardless of the causes the effect is that we simply must win. And we shall win in spite of our petty bickerings among ourselves for in the final analysis <u>we are</u> the greatest nation on earth. We know that this country has reached the highest degree of living for its people ever attained by any nation in the history of the world and I believe enough in God to feel that with His help all the good, the right, and the fine things must survive. Of course we feel that possibly you may not come back — there is always that possibility and, too, we may be gone when you do come back but in the very grim business of war bombs and bullets go where they are sent and we must for our own peace of mind look that fact in face. Naturally the law of averages is greatly on the side of your returning to us and please God that will be our happiest day in a life time. I am confident you will receive very good training in whatever field you are placed and that you will be adequately prepared to protect yourself.</p>
<p>You are entering what will probably be the greatest adventure in your life. You are going to see miserable, filthy, low, mean and degrading sights for men are like that but you will also see fine, good, self sacrificing and even heroic things for men are like that also. That you will fall into the later class we who love you and have every confidence in you have not the slightest doubt. You have the background and the spirit and will to do so. Just keep yourself so you can look yourself in the face and not be ashamed of what you see. You will come through all right.</p>
<p>And now, old Son, I’ll close by wishing you again the best of everything there is in any old world and all the luck that there is. I truly wish I were going with you — it is hard too to stand and wait.</p>
<p>John</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sgt. Donald Simmons did, of course, make it back.</p>
</div>
</article>
<p><a href="https://inessential.com/archive.html">Archive</a></p>
</div></div>||||I||||inessential by Brent Simmons
 08 Feb 2024

 Reruns

 It’s not a bug in your RSS reader if recent articles in this feed all suddenly appeared as unread. You may even have seeming duplicates.

 Sorry about that! It’s due to my changing settings in my blog generator. Pages now have a .html suffix where before they had none. This change impacts permalinks, which also changes the guids in my RSS feed — and NetNewsWire and other RSS readers use the guid property to identify articles, which means these will show up as new articles.

 (Note: I’ve created redirects so that old links pointing in will still work.)

 04 Feb 2024

 Why NetNewsWire Isn’t Available for Vision Pro

 I’ve been getting questions about NetNewsWire’s unavailability on Vision Pro. Why isn’t it there? When might it be there?

 Here’s the scoop:

 I consider it risky to support an app running on a device I don’t own. Imagine writing a Mac or iPhone app and not actually running it on one of those machines — you wouldn’t.

 I realize that the app would act as if it were running on an iPad — but the Vision Pro is not really an iPad. It’s a device with very different interactions from the direct manipulation we’re used to on iPad. And the compatibility mode is a new thing because this device is a new thing — we don’t know how well it works and what the gotchas might be.

 I could test it on the simulator, sure, but the simulator is a convenience for developers. It’s no replacement for running it on a real device.

 And, yes, the app is open source, which could mean that other developers with a Vision Pro could help support it — but it’s important to remember that I’m the only person who has to support it. The NetNewsWire team is awesome, but I’m the one on the line for this.

 So I want to be careful and go slowly, because if I made it available it would be extremely difficult to reverse the decision and take it away, even with an excellent reason.

 I’m hoping that a consensus will form among developers that running apps on Vision Pro as iPad apps is fine, that it’s a cakewalk. If that happens, I’d go ahead and do it too. But it’s too soon for us to know that.

 PS Why don’t I have a Vision Pro? I’m sure it’s an incredible technical achievement and an amazing experience — and pretty damn wonderful in just about every way — but it’s just not my thing. I like reading and writing mostly, plus making apps for reading and writing. My personal future of computing has been here for all these years — the Mac.

 PPS Eventually the price will come down to where I’d consider buying one as a test device and for a little fun — but that may be a few years away. I’m hoping that we’ll find, sooner than that, that running as iPad on Vision Pro is a-okay.

 17 Jan 2024

 Corporations Are Not To Be Loved

 I started using Apple computers — and writing code for them, starting with BASIC — 43 years ago, before the Macintosh, even, and I’ve made this my career. I’ve had all these decades to really, thoroughly delight in these incredible machines and software, and to give a little back with my own apps.

 Apple’s positive effect on my life should not be underestimated. My Mom once (lovingly, teasingly) said to me that my alternate career, had all this never happened, was “criminal genius.” Which might have been fun too, but possibly more stressful than I might have liked. At any rate, Apple has saved me from a life of crime, and I should love Apple for that.

 But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions.

 Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.

 Luckily, Apple has just provided us all with a reminder. Just like the sixth finger in an AI-rendered hand, Apple’s policies for Distributing apps in the U.S. that provide an external purchase link are startlingly graceless and a jarring, but not surprising, reminder that Apple is not a real person and not worthy of your love.

 17 Dec 2023

 On Mastodon Support in NetNewsWire

 Tim Chambers, admin of the Mastodon server indieweb.social, which hosts my personal account and the NetNewsWire account, asked me if ActivityPub support is on the roadmap for NetNewsWire. Great question!

 Tim was responding to Richard MacManus:

 Are there any RSS Readers that are trying to integrate ActivityPub too? Pondering the glut of email newsletters in our inboxes these days, and wondering if we are due for an RSS Reader renaissance, except with a fediverse twist this time…

 I hear this. It’s not the first time this has come up, and I’ve spent the past year or so thinking about it.

 Since RSS is an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, and ActivityPub is also an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, it’s an obvious good idea to do both in the same app. Totally.

 But the question was specifically about NetNewsWire.

 We will make NetNewsWire work better with Mastodon-generated RSS feeds. There are some things we’re not doing yet that will make reading these a better experience.

 But should NetNewsWire become a Mastodon client? That’s where the answer is not so obvious.

 * * *

 Let’s compare the NetNewsWire and Mastodon experiences.

 NetNewsWire is a three-paned RSS reader. Sidebar (accounts, folders, feeds) on the left. Timeline (titles and/or first few lines) in the middle. Article on the right. See these screenshots to get the idea.

 Each article has a read/unread status. Selecting an article marks it as read, and there are commands to mark all as read (and mark all as read above or below the selection).

 This is not the only good model for an RSS reader, but it’s how NetNewsWire works — and it’s a bad fit for a Mastodon reading experience.

 Whether you use Mastodon on the web or in an app you’re used to a single timeline per account (with perhaps side streams for mentions and such). All posts from everyone you follow appear in that single timeline. You don’t deal with read/unread status — instead you have a chronological position.

 The timeline shows the entire post (usually), instead of an optional title and first few lines. There is no third article view, because the entire post is displayed in the timeline.

 This experience isn’t unique to Mastodon, of course — that’s how X, Threads, Micro.blog, Bluesky, and other social media apps work.

 But it’s not how NetNewsWire works, and if we try to mash that experience into the app — but have it on only when a Mastodon account is selected — we’d end up with a confusion that feels like two very different apps. Because it would be.

 * * *

 A second option: we could not change the experience and just assume that some people would like to use Mastodon in a NetNewsWire way instead of in the usual social media way. I’m extremely skeptical of this idea — I think it would be a pain, and I think most people who try it would drop it.

 The third option, which I think is best, which we already do, is to support Mastodon via RSS. (Mastodon feeds are usually available as RSS — you can add .rss to the end of a URL to get a feed.)

 There might be some Mastodon accounts you want to follow in your RSS reader instead of in your Mastodon client. Think of an account for a website that doesn’t have an RSS feed, but that reliably posts links to articles. Or a person you want to follow — but you don’t want to show up in their follower list. (Sounds a little antisocial, sure, but you can imagine good reasons.)

 We can, and will, do more to make Mastodon-over-RSS a good experience in NetNewsWire. Right now we’re not picking up avatars or image attachments, which we can fix. There might be more things like that to do. We might add the ability to post to Mastodon, since it’s a natural thing to want to share stuff from your RSS reader to Mastodon.

 But I don’t think we’ll make NetNewsWire a real Mastodon client.

 * * *

 It still seems like RSS and Mastodon could fit in the same app, though! If I were designing it, I’d start with the social media experience: the single timeline of posts. Very simple sidebar. No article view. No read/unread status — just position in the timeline.

 You could add RSS feeds, but they’d be treated like Mastodon posts. Any article short enough would appear in full in the timeline, but most would probably have to be truncated. You’d open articles in your browser, just like you do now with social media apps (there’d be no third article pane).

 Such an app could be a nice unified experience. Get your Mastodon, Threads, RSS feeds, Micro.blog and, hopefully, other services — anything that supports ActivityPub, RSS, or some other open format or API — all in one place, in a way that’s already familiar to everyone.

 Sounds pretty great! But it’s not NetNewsWire.

 27 Jun 2023

 Seattle Xcoders this Thursday

 Seattle Xcoders meetups are at 7 pm on the first, third, and fifth Thursdays of each month, lately at the Bale Breaker x Yonder Cider Taproom in Seattle, in Ballard.

 We meet outside, usually in the uncovered area that has some benches and small gas fire pits. (Not actually pits. More like small coffee tables with rocks and fire on top.)

 There are no presentations or anything like that — we’re not back to doing indoor meetings with slides. We’re just talking. (Seattle Xcoders has always had a strong social game, so this is no surprise.)

 Everybody’s welcome! You don’t have to be a coder. Designers, support folks, testers, writers, and anybody interested in Apple-land apps are all encouraged to come hang out. Even managers.

 If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe to the calendar, so you don’t miss any changes of date, time, or venue.

 I myself don’t make it every time, but I do plan to be there this Thursday (June 29). See you there!

 20 Feb 2023

 On Not Taking Money for NetNewsWire

 From time to time a NetNewsWire user lets me know that they’d be happy to pay for the app or add to a tip jar. The answer is always the same: we don’t take money, but here’s how to support NetNewsWire.

 Sometimes, though, they insist! Which is flattering, and I take it to mean that they really like the app.

 But I should explain why we won’t take even a dollar in tip money.

 NetNewsWire Expenses Are Almost Nonexistent

 We use free services like GitHub, and we aren’t asked to pay anything to the various syncing services (Feedbin, Feedly, iCloud, etc.) that the app works with.

 My developer membership with Apple is a thing I’d have anyway. The website is hosted on the same account that hosts this blog, and it costs nothing extra.

 The blog is hosted on Micro.blog, and Manton Reece very generously provides us a free account. The service that powers the Reader View is provided, also very generously and for free, by Feedbin.

 I do pay for the smallest possible Linode instance to run a crash log catcher script; this costs $7.73 per month. If you add in periodic domain name renewals, we’d probably end up somewhere around $10 per month.

 In other words: NetNewsWire is a really cheap hobby.

 (Side note: you can see, though, how paying $100 a month for Twitter API access would blow this up. Not going to do that.)

 Two Problems with Taking Money

 NetNewsWire has no bank account and does no accounting. The organization Ranchero Software that hosts the NetNewsWire repo on GitHub does not exist as a legal entity — it’s not even a non-profit. (It’s real, though, in the sense that you can give a group of people a name.)

 If we took money, even a little bit, I’d want to change all that. I’d file with the state of Washington, set up a bank account, start keeping track of income and expenses, separate NetNewsWire stuff from my stuff, start paying taxes. This would take up time I could have spent working on NetNewsWire itself. And I’d hate it.

 So that’s problem one. Problem two would be — who gets the money? After we take out $10 a month for expenses, where does the excess go? There are a bunch of people who spend lots of hours every month working on the app — how would we divvy up the money we get? I can’t think of a fair way.

 The Even Worse Problem with Taking Money

 As bad as those first two problems are, problem three is worse. That’s the one where money could affect our decisions — or even just be perceived as possibly affecting our decisions.

 Right now the app is made purely for love, and our goal is to make the best app we know how to make. Everybody who uses it — and everybody who volunteers to work on it — knows that nobody is making a single dime from it.

 There is 100% trust that we never think about revenue when making decisions. There is quite enough of that in the tech world already, and it’s really, really nice for us to work on a thing where we never have to consider revenue (yes, we’re fortunate: I totally get that).

 I think it’s also really nice for users to know that our decisions are always based on what’s best for the app and its users and never on what would make us more money.

 That said: of course we think about popularity. It’s a factor. And I don’t mean for ego — I mean that we’re more likely to do a feature we think lots of people will use versus one we expect few people to use. But that’s just one part of the equation and not the driving force it would be if we were taking money.

 Before You Think I’m Advocating Something

 Just in case it’s not obvious, I’ll spell it out: this model is not the best model for every app. I’m not saying it is. It’s a model that I personally like and can do because I’ve done well enough in the for-profit world.

 I especially want to mention indie developers — they do have to think about revenue in order to keep doing what they’re doing. They are all under-charging for their apps and putting in far more time and care than you even imagine. They’re doing the best work on the platforms we love and they take care of their customers better than larger companies. So whenever you think you might want to give us money, go buy something awesome from an indie instead.

 Or — do this also! — give money to groups trying to lessen the cruelty of this world. They’re not hard to find. Here’s one.

 13 Nov 2022

 After Twitter

 For writers, artists, podcasters, journalists, and people who make things in public, Twitter was the one social networking site we all had to use.

 It’s as if Twitter has been stretched out across the map of the internet, and whatever parts of the map it didn’t cover, it could still reach. Everything happened there. Even things that started on some blog, podcast, or real life still really happened on Twitter.

 It was that way because we agreed to it. We may not have liked it all the time, but by our actions we were part of that consensus.

 This has just changed, and now Twitter is only one of many nations on that map, no longer the indispensable one. And, worse, it’s showing clear signs of failing.

 It Was Always a Bad Idea

 The internet’s town square should never have been one specific website with its own specific rules and incentives. It should have been, and should be, the web itself.

 Having one entity own and police that square could only deform the worldwide conversation, to disastrous ends, even with the smartest and most humane people at work.

 Twitter’s new owner is certainly not one of those people. But it doesn’t matter: he unintentionally brought the change that needed to happen, the break in the consensus.

 The Building Slowdown

 I resented Twitter because it had become mandatory, because it had become the one place. And I resented it because it seemed to subdue the creative energy of the web.

 You built a thing? How nice. Well, there’s Twitter, so we don’t need it. Or: how’s this going to replace Twitter? It’s not, so save your energy.

 Everything you might build that had to do with communication, reading and writing and otherwise, was compared to Twitter or somehow in relation to Twitter, even when unasked for, and Twitter was the enormous factor in that equation.

 A New Hope

 With the fall of the Twitter consensus I am energized. I remember what it was like in the 2000s; I remember the liveliness and sparkle of those days on the web.

 I don’t suggest dialing the clock back to old tech, but I hope we use the good parts from those days to help us build new and amazing things. There is so much to do, and so many grand problems to solve.

 The web is wide open again, for the first time in what feels like forever.

 DVD Extras

 PS I outright stole the “stretched out across the map” thing from Franz Kafka’s “Letter to His Father.” It was just right for this. Come at me, Kafka.

 PPS An earlier draft of this article had the line “Twitter was the island in the middle of the kitchen where we hung out, and now it’s a junk drawer of brands and nazis,” which I preserve because it’s true.

 04 Jan 2022

 1942 Letter to My Grandfather from His Father

 My Dad ran across a remarkable letter and shared it with family. I volunteered to share it more widely, and Dad and his siblings agreed.

 * * *

 This 1942 letter was written by John Simmons to his son Donald as Donald was about to be shipped to Europe (England first). He had enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attack.

 Donald Simmons was my grandfather, and I had the fortune of knowing him.

 My father and his siblings knew John Simmons, their grandfather, and with this letter they are able to know him a bit better.

 John was 63 when he wrote this letter to his youngest son.

 * * *

 You can read all three pages together as a PDF — or you can click a thumbnail for each page for the full size version.


 Page 1


 Page 2


 Page 3

 * * *

 Below is the text. The original is written in cursive on Wright Aeronautical Corporation letterhead.

 Aug. 20, 1942

 Dear Don:

 My thoughts are with you tonight so strongly that I shall drop you a note. Of course it is hard for you to go but not much harder than for us to see you go. You see we love you and are now so helpless to aid you in any way. But then you are a man now and will have to make your own way from here on. And we’re sure that you have the stuff to do it. It won’t be an easy job but then, Don, no job worth the doing is. There are bound to be dark days and darker nights but you must always remember that nothing lasts forever and in the morning it will be a new day. And you are better trained than most for the work.

 You are too intelligent to be told and believe that war is anything but a tragic mess, however, we are in this not with our consent but because of a treacherous attack that we did not invite. Regardless of the causes the effect is that we simply must win. And we shall win in spite of our petty bickerings among ourselves for in the final analysis we are the greatest nation on earth. We know that this country has reached the highest degree of living for its people ever attained by any nation in the history of the world and I believe enough in God to feel that with His help all the good, the right, and the fine things must survive. Of course we feel that possibly you may not come back — there is always that possibility and, too, we may be gone when you do come back but in the very grim business of war bombs and bullets go where they are sent and we must for our own peace of mind look that fact in face. Naturally the law of averages is greatly on the side of your returning to us and please God that will be our happiest day in a life time. I am confident you will receive very good training in whatever field you are placed and that you will be adequately prepared to protect yourself.

 You are entering what will probably be the greatest adventure in your life. You are going to see miserable, filthy, low, mean and degrading sights for men are like that but you will also see fine, good, self sacrificing and even heroic things for men are like that also. That you will fall into the later class we who love you and have every confidence in you have not the slightest doubt. You have the background and the spirit and will to do so. Just keep yourself so you can look yourself in the face and not be ashamed of what you see. You will come through all right.

 And now, old Son, I’ll close by wishing you again the best of everything there is in any old world and all the luck that there is. I truly wish I were going with you — it is hard too to stand and wait.

 John

 Sgt. Donald Simmons did, of course, make it back.

 Archive

NetNewsWire • Apps I’ve Made
RSS Feed • JSON

Micro.blog: @brentsimmons
Mastodon: @brentsimmons@indieweb.social

No cookies, no JavaScript, no ads, no tracking — just blog

© 1999-2024 Brent Simmons • Made in Seattle

Reruns 
 It’s not a bug in your RSS reader if recent articles in this feed all suddenly appeared as unread. You may even have seeming duplicates.
Sorry about that! It’s due to my changing settings in my blog generator. Pages now have a .html suffix where before they had none. This change impacts permalinks, which also changes the guids in my RSS feed — and NetNewsWire and other RSS readers use the guid property to identify articles, which means these will show up as new articles.
(Note: I’ve created redirects so that old links pointing in will still work.)
 Why NetNewsWire Isn’t Available for Vision Pro 
 I’ve been getting questions about NetNewsWire’s unavailability on Vision Pro. Why isn’t it there? When might it be there?
Here’s the scoop:
I consider it risky to support an app running on a device I don’t own. Imagine writing a Mac or iPhone app and not actually running it on one of those machines — you wouldn’t.
I realize that the app would act as if it were running on an iPad — but the Vision Pro is not really an iPad. It’s a device with very different interactions from the direct manipulation we’re used to on iPad. And the compatibility mode is a new thing because this device is a new thing — we don’t know how well it works and what the gotchas might be.
I could test it on the simulator, sure, but the simulator is a convenience for developers. It’s no replacement for running it on a real device.
And, yes, the app is open source, which could mean that other developers with a Vision Pro could help support it — but it’s important to remember that I’m the only person who has to support it. The NetNewsWire team is awesome, but I’m the one on the line for this.
So I want to be careful and go slowly, because if I made it available it would be extremely difficult to reverse the decision and take it away, even with an excellent reason.
I’m hoping that a consensus will form among developers that running apps on Vision Pro as iPad apps is fine, that it’s a cakewalk. If that happens, I’d go ahead and do it too. But it’s too soon for us to know that.
PS Why don’t I have a Vision Pro? I’m sure it’s an incredible technical achievement and an amazing experience — and pretty damn wonderful in just about every way — but it’s just not my thing. I like reading and writing mostly, plus making apps for reading and writing. My personal future of computing has been here for all these years — the Mac.
PPS Eventually the price will come down to where I’d consider buying one as a test device and for a little fun — but that may be a few years away. I’m hoping that we’ll find, sooner than that, that running as iPad on Vision Pro is a-okay.
 Corporations Are Not To Be Loved 
 I started using Apple computers — and writing code for them, starting with BASIC — 43 years ago, before the Macintosh, even, and I’ve made this my career. I’ve had all these decades to really, thoroughly delight in these incredible machines and software, and to give a little back with my own apps.
Apple’s positive effect on my life should not be underestimated. My Mom once (lovingly, teasingly) said to me that my alternate career, had all this never happened, was “criminal genius.” Which might have been fun too, but possibly more stressful than I might have liked. At any rate, Apple has saved me from a life of crime, and I should love Apple for that.
But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions.
Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.
Luckily, Apple has just provided us all with a reminder. Just like the sixth finger in an AI-rendered hand, Apple’s policies for Distributing apps in the U.S. that provide an external purchase link are startlingly graceless and a jarring, but not surprising, reminder that Apple is not a real person and not worthy of your love.
 On Mastodon Support in NetNewsWire 
 Tim Chambers, admin of the Mastodon server indieweb.social, which hosts my personal account and the NetNewsWire account, asked me if ActivityPub support is on the roadmap for NetNewsWire. Great question!
Tim was responding to Richard MacManus:
Are there any RSS Readers that are trying to integrate ActivityPub too? Pondering the glut of email newsletters in our inboxes these days, and wondering if we are due for an RSS Reader renaissance, except with a fediverse twist this time…
I hear this. It’s not the first time this has come up, and I’ve spent the past year or so thinking about it.
Since RSS is an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, and ActivityPub is also an open web thing that brings you stuff people write, it’s an obvious good idea to do both in the same app. Totally.
But the question was specifically about NetNewsWire.
We will make NetNewsWire work better with Mastodon-generated RSS feeds. There are some things we’re not doing yet that will make reading these a better experience.
But should NetNewsWire become a Mastodon client? That’s where the answer is not so obvious.
* * *
Let’s compare the NetNewsWire and Mastodon experiences.
NetNewsWire is a three-paned RSS reader. Sidebar (accounts, folders, feeds) on the left. Timeline (titles and/or first few lines) in the middle. Article on the right. See these screenshots to get the idea.
Each article has a read/unread status. Selecting an article marks it as read, and there are commands to mark all as read (and mark all as read above or below the selection).
This is not the only good model for an RSS reader, but it’s how NetNewsWire works — and it’s a bad fit for a Mastodon reading experience.
Whether you use Mastodon on the web or in an app you’re used to a single timeline per account (with perhaps side streams for mentions and such). All posts from everyone you follow appear in that single timeline. You don’t deal with read/unread status — instead you have a chronological position.
The timeline shows the entire post (usually), instead of an optional title and first few lines. There is no third article view, because the entire post is displayed in the timeline.
This experience isn’t unique to Mastodon, of course — that’s how X, Threads, Micro.blog, Bluesky, and other social media apps work.
But it’s not how NetNewsWire works, and if we try to mash that experience into the app — but have it on only when a Mastodon account is selected — we’d end up with a confusion that feels like two very different apps. Because it would be.
* * *
A second option: we could not change the experience and just assume that some people would like to use Mastodon in a NetNewsWire way instead of in the usual social media way. I’m extremely skeptical of this idea — I think it would be a pain, and I think most people who try it would drop it.
The third option, which I think is best, which we already do, is to support Mastodon via RSS. (Mastodon feeds are usually available as RSS — you can add .rss to the end of a URL to get a feed.)
There might be some Mastodon accounts you want to follow in your RSS reader instead of in your Mastodon client. Think of an account for a website that doesn’t have an RSS feed, but that reliably posts links to articles. Or a person you want to follow — but you don’t want to show up in their follower list. (Sounds a little antisocial, sure, but you can imagine good reasons.)
We can, and will, do more to make Mastodon-over-RSS a good experience in NetNewsWire. Right now we’re not picking up avatars or image attachments, which we can fix. There might be more things like that to do. We might add the ability to post to Mastodon, since it’s a natural thing to want to share stuff from your RSS reader to Mastodon.
But I don’t think we’ll make NetNewsWire a real Mastodon client.
* * *
It still seems like RSS and Mastodon could fit in the same app, though! If I were designing it, I’d start with the social media experience: the single timeline of posts. Very simple sidebar. No article view. No read/unread status — just position in the timeline.
You could add RSS feeds, but they’d be treated like Mastodon posts. Any article short enough would appear in full in the timeline, but most would probably have to be truncated. You’d open articles in your browser, just like you do now with social media apps (there’d be no third article pane).
Such an app could be a nice unified experience. Get your Mastodon, Threads, RSS feeds, Micro.blog and, hopefully, other services — anything that supports ActivityPub, RSS, or some other open format or API — all in one place, in a way that’s already familiar to everyone.
Sounds pretty great! But it’s not NetNewsWire.
 Seattle Xcoders this Thursday 
 Seattle Xcoders meetups are at 7 pm on the first, third, and fifth Thursdays of each month, lately at the Bale Breaker x Yonder Cider Taproom in Seattle, in Ballard.
We meet outside, usually in the uncovered area that has some benches and small gas fire pits. (Not actually pits. More like small coffee tables with rocks and fire on top.)
There are no presentations or anything like that — we’re not back to doing indoor meetings with slides. We’re just talking. (Seattle Xcoders has always had a strong social game, so this is no surprise.)
Everybody’s welcome! You don’t have to be a coder. Designers, support folks, testers, writers, and anybody interested in Apple-land apps are all encouraged to come hang out. Even managers.
If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe to the calendar, so you don’t miss any changes of date, time, or venue.
I myself don’t make it every time, but I do plan to be there this Thursday (June 29). See you there!
 On Not Taking Money for NetNewsWire 
 From time to time a NetNewsWire user lets me know that they’d be happy to pay for the app or add to a tip jar. The answer is always the same: we don’t take money, but here’s how to support NetNewsWire.
Sometimes, though, they insist! Which is flattering, and I take it to mean that they really like the app.
But I should explain why we won’t take even a dollar in tip money.
NetNewsWire Expenses Are Almost Nonexistent
We use free services like GitHub, and we aren’t asked to pay anything to the various syncing services (Feedbin, Feedly, iCloud, etc.) that the app works with.
My developer membership with Apple is a thing I’d have anyway. The website is hosted on the same account that hosts this blog, and it costs nothing extra.
The blog is hosted on Micro.blog, and Manton Reece very generously provides us a free account. The service that powers the Reader View is provided, also very generously and for free, by Feedbin.
I do pay for the smallest possible Linode instance to run a crash log catcher script; this costs $7.73 per month. If you add in periodic domain name renewals, we’d probably end up somewhere around $10 per month.
In other words: NetNewsWire is a really cheap hobby.
(Side note: you can see, though, how paying $100 a month for Twitter API access would blow this up. Not going to do that.)
Two Problems with Taking Money
NetNewsWire has no bank account and does no accounting. The organization Ranchero Software that hosts the NetNewsWire repo on GitHub does not exist as a legal entity — it’s not even a non-profit. (It’s real, though, in the sense that you can give a group of people a name.)
If we took money, even a little bit, I’d want to change all that. I’d file with the state of Washington, set up a bank account, start keeping track of income and expenses, separate NetNewsWire stuff from my stuff, start paying taxes. This would take up time I could have spent working on NetNewsWire itself. And I’d hate it.
So that’s problem one. Problem two would be — who gets the money? After we take out $10 a month for expenses, where does the excess go? There are a bunch of people who spend lots of hours every month working on the app — how would we divvy up the money we get? I can’t think of a fair way.
The Even Worse Problem with Taking Money
As bad as those first two problems are, problem three is worse. That’s the one where money could affect our decisions — or even just be perceived as possibly affecting our decisions.
Right now the app is made purely for love, and our goal is to make the best app we know how to make. Everybody who uses it — and everybody who volunteers to work on it — knows that nobody is making a single dime from it.
There is 100% trust that we never think about revenue when making decisions. There is quite enough of that in the tech world already, and it’s really, really nice for us to work on a thing where we never have to consider revenue (yes, we’re fortunate: I totally get that).
I think it’s also really nice for users to know that our decisions are always based on what’s best for the app and its users and never on what would make us more money.
That said: of course we think about popularity. It’s a factor. And I don’t mean for ego — I mean that we’re more likely to do a feature we think lots of people will use versus one we expect few people to use. But that’s just one part of the equation and not the driving force it would be if we were taking money.
Before You Think I’m Advocating Something
Just in case it’s not obvious, I’ll spell it out: this model is not the best model for every app. I’m not saying it is. It’s a model that I personally like and can do because I’ve done well enough in the for-profit world.
I especially want to mention indie developers — they do have to think about revenue in order to keep doing what they’re doing. They are all under-charging for their apps and putting in far more time and care than you even imagine. They’re doing the best work on the platforms we love and they take care of their customers better than larger companies. So whenever you think you might want to give us money, go buy something awesome from an indie instead.
Or — do this also! — give money to groups trying to lessen the cruelty of this world. They’re not hard to find. Here’s one.
 After Twitter 
 For writers, artists, podcasters, journalists, and people who make things in public, Twitter was the one social networking site we all had to use.
It’s as if Twitter has been stretched out across the map of the internet, and whatever parts of the map it didn’t cover, it could still reach. Everything happened there. Even things that started on some blog, podcast, or real life still really happened on Twitter.
It was that way because we agreed to it. We may not have liked it all the time, but by our actions we were part of that consensus.
This has just changed, and now Twitter is only one of many nations on that map, no longer the indispensable one. And, worse, it’s showing clear signs of failing.
It Was Always a Bad Idea
The internet’s town square should never have been one specific website with its own specific rules and incentives. It should have been, and should be, the web itself.
Having one entity own and police that square could only deform the worldwide conversation, to disastrous ends, even with the smartest and most humane people at work.
Twitter’s new owner is certainly not one of those people. But it doesn’t matter: he unintentionally brought the change that needed to happen, the break in the consensus.
The Building Slowdown
I resented Twitter because it had become mandatory, because it had become the one place. And I resented it because it seemed to subdue the creative energy of the web.
You built a thing? How nice. Well, there’s Twitter, so we don’t need it. Or: how’s this going to replace Twitter? It’s not, so save your energy.
Everything you might build that had to do with communication, reading and writing and otherwise, was compared to Twitter or somehow in relation to Twitter, even when unasked for, and Twitter was the enormous factor in that equation.
A New Hope
With the fall of the Twitter consensus I am energized. I remember what it was like in the 2000s; I remember the liveliness and sparkle of those days on the web.
I don’t suggest dialing the clock back to old tech, but I hope we use the good parts from those days to help us build new and amazing things. There is so much to do, and so many grand problems to solve.
The web is wide open again, for the first time in what feels like forever.
PS I outright stole the “stretched out across the map” thing from Franz Kafka’s “Letter to His Father.” It was just right for this. Come at me, Kafka.
PPS An earlier draft of this article had the line “Twitter was the island in the middle of the kitchen where we hung out, and now it’s a junk drawer of brands and nazis,” which I preserve because it’s true.
 1942 Letter to My Grandfather from His Father 
 My Dad ran across a remarkable letter and shared it with family. I volunteered to share it more widely, and Dad and his siblings agreed.
* * *
This 1942 letter was written by John Simmons to his son Donald as Donald was about to be shipped to Europe (England first). He had enlisted after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Donald Simmons was my grandfather, and I had the fortune of knowing him.
My father and his siblings knew John Simmons, their grandfather, and with this letter they are able to know him a bit better.
John was 63 when he wrote this letter to his youngest son.
* * *
You can read all three pages together as a PDF — or you can click a thumbnail for each page for the full size version.
   
Page 1
   
Page 2
   
Page 3
* * *
Below is the text. The original is written in cursive on Wright Aeronautical Corporation letterhead.
Aug. 20, 1942
Dear Don:
My thoughts are with you tonight so strongly that I shall drop you a note. Of course it is hard for you to go but not much harder than for us to see you go. You see we love you and are now so helpless to aid you in any way. But then you are a man now and will have to make your own way from here on. And we’re sure that you have the stuff to do it. It won’t be an easy job but then, Don, no job worth the doing is. There are bound to be dark days and darker nights but you must always remember that nothing lasts forever and in the morning it will be a new day. And you are better trained than most for the work.
You are too intelligent to be told and believe that war is anything but a tragic mess, however, we are in this not with our consent but because of a treacherous attack that we did not invite. Regardless of the causes the effect is that we simply must win. And we shall win in spite of our petty bickerings among ourselves for in the final analysis we are the greatest nation on earth. We know that this country has reached the highest degree of living for its people ever attained by any nation in the history of the world and I believe enough in God to feel that with His help all the good, the right, and the fine things must survive. Of course we feel that possibly you may not come back — there is always that possibility and, too, we may be gone when you do come back but in the very grim business of war bombs and bullets go where they are sent and we must for our own peace of mind look that fact in face. Naturally the law of averages is greatly on the side of your returning to us and please God that will be our happiest day in a life time. I am confident you will receive very good training in whatever field you are placed and that you will be adequately prepared to protect yourself.
You are entering what will probably be the greatest adventure in your life. You are going to see miserable, filthy, low, mean and degrading sights for men are like that but you will also see fine, good, self sacrificing and even heroic things for men are like that also. That you will fall into the later class we who love you and have every confidence in you have not the slightest doubt. You have the background and the spirit and will to do so. Just keep yourself so you can look yourself in the face and not be ashamed of what you see. You will come through all right.
And now, old Son, I’ll close by wishing you again the best of everything there is in any old world and all the luck that there is. I truly wish I were going with you — it is hard too to stand and wait.
John
Sgt. Donald Simmons did, of course, make it back.
 Archive
inessential: weblog
https://inessential.com/
https://themeisle.com/blog/history-of-blogging
The History of Blogging: From 1997 Until Now (With Pictures)
2019-06-03
Dianna Gunn
<div><p>Themeisle content is free. When you purchase through referral links on our site, we earn a commission. <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/affiliate-disclosure/">Learn More</a></p><article>
	
<p>Blogging is well over 20 years old at this point, and the nature of blogs has undergone incredible transformations during those years.</p>
<p>In this article, we’ll explore the history of blogging, from the first recognized blog to the crowded blogosphere of 2023.</p>
<h4>📚 Table of contents:</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="#the-early-history">Early history of blogging</a></li>
<li><a href="#the-early-2000">Early 2000s</a></li>
<li><a href="#the-rise-vlogging">Rise of vlogging</a></li>
<li><a href="#a-brief-history">Brief history of blog design</a></li>
<li><a href="#a-quick-history">Quick history of blog SEO</a></li>
<li><a href="#blogging-in-recent-years">Blogging in recent years (2012-2022)</a></li>
<li><a href="#blogging-today">Blogging today in 2023 and into the future</a></li>
</ul>
	
<p>Most experts agree that the first blog was Links.net, created in 1994 by then-student Justin Hall as a place to publish his writing. The site consisted entirely of brief posts, each one sharing a link and some of his thoughts on the content within. This compilation of links included links to websites he liked, as well as his own work.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>Others quickly followed in Hall’s footsteps, creating their own sites to share their personal lives and thoughts. With the term “blog” not invented yet, these sites were referred to as “Online Diaries” or even “Personal Pages”. In 1997, the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger of the influential <em>Robot Wisdom </em>blog to describe these sites.</p>
<p>Many of those early blogs were created by programmers and focused on highly technical subjects, but in 1998 Jonathan Dube became the first journalist to blog an event. His blog chronicled Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer, as pictured below:</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>1998 also saw the creation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Diary">Open Diary</a>, a blogging platform that allowed members of the community to comment on each other’s writing. This was the first of many tools that made blogging accessible to regular people, regardless of their programming experience.</p>
<h3>How different blogging platforms began and died</h3>
<p>Just as the cumbersome, code-heavy blogs of the late ’90s began to give way to more accessible solutions, in 1999 the word “weblog” was dropped in favor of a simpler term: “blog” by Peter Merholz. This year also saw the advent of three new blogging platforms: Xanga, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveJournal">LiveJournal</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogger_(service)">Blogger</a>. Xanga, a site that focused more on the social side of blogging (similar to MySpace), boasted 300,000 users at its peak but faded out of the blogging scene entirely.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<h3>LiveJournal</h3>
<p>LiveJournal started as a website where Brad Fitzpatrick could keep in touch with his high school friends, and quickly grew into a place where all kinds of people could record their thoughts and develop communities. LiveJournal sustained popularity as a blogging platform into the mid-2000s, but gradually transformed from a blogging site where all were welcome into one of <a href="https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/postscript/whatever-happened-livejournal/">Russia’s primary social media platforms</a>.</p>
<h3>Blogger</h3>
<p>Blogger, on the other hand, began its life as a commercial blogging service created by Pyra Labs. The platform would go on to be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogger_(service)">purchased by Google in 2003</a> and made freely available to the world. This move pushed not just Blogger, but also the entire concept of blogging, into the mainstream.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<h2>The early 2000s</h2>
<p>As blogging became more popular, tools appeared to help people curate their blog reading list or market their own blogs. 2002 was a particularly big year for the blogosphere. People also started to monetize their blogs with sites like BlogAds, a precursor to Google AdSense.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>The first-ever blog search engine, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati">Technorati</a>, launched that November.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>Many popular blogs also launched in this year, including Gizmodo and Gawker, some of the earliest companies to use blogging itself as their primary business model. Check out the original version of Gizmodo below:</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>Heather Armstrong became the first person to get fired for talking about her job on her blog in <a href="https://nymag.com/news/media/15971/">February 2002</a>, putting her blog Dooce in the spotlight of many conversations about internet privacy. “Dooced” even became a verb, meaning “fired for blogging”.</p>
<p>2002 was a big year for blogging, but 2003 turned out to be even bigger. Google purchased Blogger and introduced AdSense, making it possible for anyone to monetize their blog without needing to join a special network like BlogAds.</p>
<p>2003 also saw the birth of two new brand-new blogging services that would further alter the blogosphere: <a href="https://www.typepad.com/">TypePad</a>, a commercial blogging platform that hosts blogs for major multimedia companies like the BBC, and <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/what-is-wordpress/">WordPress</a>, the open-source platform we use for Themeisle and our sister sites. These platforms made it easy for companies to <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/how-to-create-a-blog/">create their own fully customized blogs</a> and sell advertising directly to companies for <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/how-to-make-money-with-a-blog/">improved profits</a>.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/blogger-vs-wordpress/">Blogger vs WordPress</a> pros and cons to help you choose the right platform for you.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>In 2005, Garrett Graff became the first blogger in the history of blogging to be granted a press pass for the White House. This, along with the birth of Huffington Post in the same year (see the original site below), brought blogging into the political realm and gave the medium a new level of legitimacy as a media source.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<h2>The rise of vlogging</h2>
<p>With the rise of blogging came a whole new style of blog: video blogs, or vlogs. The first vlog entry was created in 2000 by Adam Kontras. It’s a short video that doesn’t seem like much, but it was the beginning of a new form of content, and even more, a new industry:</p>
<div><p>See the first vlog: </p><p>
<br />
</p></div>
<p>Like the pre-2000s blogs, vlogs grew slowly but steadily until 2005 when an innovative platform, YouTube, made the medium accessible to the masses. Like Blogger, YouTube was bought by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/key-turning-points-history-of-youtube-2013-2#youtube-struck-a-deal-with-nbc-in-june-2006-helping-the-traditional-media-company-enter-the-new-digital-age-6">Google in 2006</a>.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>Today YouTube is home to much more than vlogs, but vlogging is still at its core, with the top creators making millions of dollars per year. Forbes even publishes an annual <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-10-highest-paid-youtube-stars-of-2018-forbes/">list of top YouTube stars</a>.</p>
<h2>A brief history of blog design</h2>
<p>The rise of vlogging was only one sign of a major shift in internet usage: as internet connections grew faster and more stable, images and video became more prominent. Images and design also became gradually more important to blogging success. Early blogs consisted almost entirely of text that stretched across the entire page, with only the occasional small image. You can see this early design aesthetic if you take another look at that screenshot of Links.net:</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>The design aspect of blogs has evolved and grown more important with each new iteration of the concept. Early platforms like LiveJournal and Blogger offered limited but simple customization. This allowed people with no coding experience to create unique sites. Popular LiveJournal layouts also introduced some elements of design that are still common in WordPress themes, like the centered text pictured below:</p>
<div>
<figure><figcaption>From potterpuffs.livejournal.com</figcaption></figure></div>
<p>Many blog designs during this era of the history of blogging also used elements like images of notebook rings or even just beige coloring to simulate the feeling of reading a paper journal, like the one pictured below:</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>When WordPress launched its open source code in 2003, design possibilities exploded. Developers could use the WordPress technology to build themes, and people with no previous web design experience could customize those templates and build their sites with ease.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/free-or-premium-wordpress-themes/">premium WordPress themes</a> have become an industry to themselves. <a href="https://themeisle.com/about-us/?utm_source=themeisle&amp;utm_medium=themeisle_blog&amp;utm_campaign=history-of-blogging">ThemeIsle</a> joined this wave of companies in 2012, with a strong desire to make WordPress themes more fun for both site owners and new visitors. Our first theme, CreativeMag, was released in 2012:</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p>The CreativeMag theme showcases several popular design elements from this era in the history of blogging, including possibly the most enduring element of modern blog design, the sidebar. Like many older themes, it uses beige coloring to evoke the feeling of reading a journal. <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/custom-wordpress-sidebar/">The sidebar</a> features an image of lined paper to strengthen this association.</p>
<h3>The rise of responsive design</h3>
<p>No article about the history of blogging would be complete without a mention of the mobile revolution. Mobile traffic was responsible for more than 50% of all internet traffic in 2018. But websites created in the early-to-mid 2000s don’t <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/mobile-friendly-wordpress-website/">look great when you view them with a mobile phone</a>.</p>
<p>Some companies created separate mobile sites designed for phones, but this was costly and impractical. The better answer, it seemed, was responsive design. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design">Responsive design</a>, or design that alters itself to fit the user’s screen, has existed in some form since 2001 but rose to popularity in 2015, when Google announced that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobilegeddon">sites would be penalized if they weren’t mobile-friendly</a>.</p>
<p>Today, responsive design is built into most WordPress themes, including <a href="https://themeisle.com/wordpress-themes/?utm_source=themeisle&amp;utm_medium=themeisle_blog&amp;utm_campaign=history-of-blogging">all the themes you’ll find here at Themeisle</a>.</p>
<h2>A quick history of blog SEO</h2>
<p>Another important aspect of the history of blogging is the development of <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/wordpress-seo-tips/">search engine optimization</a>, commonly referred to as SEO. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google">creation of Google in 1998</a> changed the internet forever. The site quickly gained popularity, and enterprising individuals soon realized that they could use excessive keywords to make an impact on the search engines. Blogs, as sites that are frequently updated and have a heavy focus on text content, were a natural way for businesses to add large numbers of <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/keyword-research-for-wordpress/">these keywords</a> to their sites.</p>
<p>In the early days of SEO, all you needed was to shove the correct keywords into your sentences as many times as possible, and the search engines would reward you. High-quality websites often shared the front page of Google with keyword-stuffers and other SEO spammers.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Google noticed those spammers early on and began a long series of <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-history/">algorithm updates</a> designed to punish sleazy SEO tactics and reward authentic, high-quality content. Today’s SEO is rooted in a combination of human psychology and an understanding of how Google and other search engines categorize content.</p>
<p>All in all, the changes to SEO reward high-quality blogs, making blogs an even more instrumental part of marketing. <a href="https://seotribunal.com/blog/blogging-statistics/">Companies who blog</a> receive 55% more visitors to their website. Those visitors are also higher quality; SEO leads get a 14.6% close rate, whereas outbound leads have a much lower closing rate of 1.7%.</p>
<h2>Blogging in recent years (2012-2022)</h2>
<p>Blogging continued to grow at a steady pace, but there wasn’t true innovation in the blogosphere until the creation of Medium in 2012.</p>
<h3>Medium</h3>
<p>Throughout its lifetime, <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/wordpress-vs-ghost-vs-medium/">Medium</a> has made waves by introducing new ways to pay creators. They introduced a subscription model, and in 2017 replaced it with a <a href="https://medium.com/thought-pills/is-the-medium-partner-program-for-writers-worth-it-here-are-my-results-a1592c08bc94">partner program</a>. Today, Medium is home to thousands of blogs with varying levels of success, and they even employ some writers directly.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<h3>Substack</h3>
<p>Around the same time that Medium introduced the partner program, another platform, <a href="https://substack.com/">Substack</a>, also came on the blogging scene. Substack let independent writers and content creators publish their work directly to readers and set up paid subscriptions. This subscription-based revenue model is one of the key features of Substack, and allowed writers to build a loyal and dedicated audience.</p>
<p>The platform also provided simple tools for writers to create and design their content, as well as track analytics and growth. Over the years, it has gained popularity among journalists, authors, and thought leaders, who use it as an alternative to traditional publishing and media outlets.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<h3>Pulse</h3>
<p>LinkedIn introduced its own blogging platform, Pulse, for select users in 2013. Over time Pulse was rolled out to a growing number of users, becoming available to all in 2015. However, in early 2017, LinkedIn altered their website and app by integrating LinkedIn Pulse into every user’s home page newsfeed. This change made it possible to view blogging updates from followed people, businesses, and channels instantly without having to navigate away from the home page.</p>
<h3>Ending the decade</h3>
<p>As the 2010s began winding down, creators continued to use Medium, Substack, and <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/best-free-blogging-sites/">the outcropping of similar sites</a> as their primary blog. However, many of them also used these blogging platforms as secondary and tertiary posting grounds, as a means of funneling traffic to their self-hosted, main blogs. Leveraging these platforms brought content from low-traffic domains to larger new audiences.</p>
<p>Social media was utilized by blogs in a similar, symbiotic fashion, which has continued to the present day. Most bloggers have some kind of <a href="https://themeisle.com/blog/social-media-strategy-for-wordpress/">social media marketing strategy</a>. They share bits and pieces of every blog post on a plethora of social media platforms, in an effort to get that traffic back to their blog. Vloggers use similar marketing tactics, and many also run blogs in tandem with their vlogs.</p>
<h3>Rise of AI and ChatGPT</h3>
<p>Without a doubt, the biggest news story in the blogging world for quite some time happened on November 30th, 2022, when OpenAI launched <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">ChatGPT</a> to the public. In case you are one of the few people who use the internet that hasn’t heard of ChatGPT yet, it’s an AI-powered chatbot that has shown itself to be capable of accomplishing some very impressive feats. This includes generating entire essays off of a mere prompt, and even writing the code for a basic WordPress plugin – also at the behest of a user’s prompt.</p>
<p>Its meteoric rise in popularity has not only rattled the blogosphere, but also institutions of higher learning <sup><small><sup>[1]</sup></small></sup>. Many writers are panicking in fear that AI-powered writing is going to eclipse traditional human-powered writing. We’ve seen small glimpses of this, as some bigger players in the blogging space have adopted its use, with thus far mediocre results and lots of public backlash <sup><small><sup>[2]</sup></small></sup>.</p>
<p><em>But wait a minute, didn’t you just say that it’s capable of writing essays and code?</em></p>
<p>Yes, yes it is. The problem is that it’s a language learning model, and because it’s quite good with words, it is also capable of generating text that sounds very believable, even if it’s not at all accurate. In practice, this means that if you don’t have a background in what you’re asking it about, then it can easily deceive you into thinking that what it wrote is 100% true – which, it might be, but it might also not be.</p>
<p>As the team at OpenAI continues to refine ChatGPT, we will continue to monitor its impact on the blogging world.</p>
<h2>Blogging today in 2023 and in the future</h2>
<div>
<p>The history of blogging is far from over. According to different estimates, there are millions of blogs live today. Plus, blogs are especially important to marketing: 85% of B2C companies and 91% of B2B companies use blogs or other forms of content marketing <small><sup>[3]</sup></small>.</p>
</div>
<p><strong>What is the next stage in the history of blogging?</strong> I can’t guess what the next innovative blogging platform will be, but as of the time of this update, AI is certainly having its moment in the sun. While it’s not a blogging platform in and of itself, the content it generates has already found its way onto thousands – perhaps even millions – of blogs.</p>
<p>As of right now, ChatGPT has somewhat of a monopoly within the space, but other major tech giants (e.g., Google, Baidu) aren’t too far behind. It’s likely that by 2024 – if not sooner – we’ll see them launching some sort of similar versions of their own.</p>
<p>The technology is still so new that it’s difficult to predict the long term impact on blogging moving forward. However, there’s no question that twenty years from now, it will have a place on the history of blogging timeline. Whether it will be positive or negative, that’s something that time will have to reveal.</p>
<div>
<figure></figure></div>
<p><strong><em>What do you think is the next stage in the history of blogging and how big of an impact do you think artificial intelligence (AI) is going to make? Let us know in the comments section below!</em></strong></p>
<div>
	<h5>Free guide</h5>
	<h3>5 Essential Tips to Speed Up <br />Your WordPress Site</h3>
	<h4>Reduce your loading time by even 50-80% <br />just by following simple tips.</h4>
	<p><a href="https://app.monstercampaigns.com/c/lhkifzgco5uonmkjpkbv/">Download free guide</a>
	</p></div>
	</article>||||I|||| * Themes/Plugins
 + Themes
 + Plugins
 * Popular Guides
 + Make a WordPress Website Guide
 + Free Blogging Sites
 + Cheap Email Marketing
 + Best Website Builder
 + Best Web Hosting
 + WordPress.com vs org
 + How much does a website cost
 + Best Free Email Marketing
 + Best Domain Registrars
 + Cheap WordPress Hosting
 + Cheap Web Hosting
 + Best WordPress Hosting Companies
 + How to create a website
 * Hosting Reviews
 + WPEngine
 + SiteGround
 + FlyWheel
 + InMotion
 + BlueHost
 + SendinBlue
 * About

 The History of Blogging: From 1997 Until Now (With Pictures)

 Last Updated: February 6, 2023
 Posted in: Blogging
 Leave a comment
 Themeisle content is free. When you purchase through referral links on our site, we earn a commission. Learn More

 Blogging is well over 20 years old at this point, and the nature of blogs has undergone incredible transformations during those years.

 In this article, we’ll explore the history of blogging, from the first recognized blog to the crowded blogosphere of 2023.

 📚 Table of contents:

 * Early history of blogging
 * Early 2000s
 * Rise of vlogging
 * Brief history of blog design
 * Quick history of blog SEO
 * Blogging in recent years (2012-2022)
 * Blogging today in 2023 and into the future
 Follow along for a visual tour of the history of #blogging from 1997 until today 📜
 Click To Tweet

 The early history of blogging

 Most experts agree that the first blog was Links.net, created in 1994 by then-student Justin Hall as a place to publish his writing. The site consisted entirely of brief posts, each one sharing a link and some of his thoughts on the content within. This compilation of links included links to websites he liked, as well as his own work.

 Others quickly followed in Hall’s footsteps, creating their own sites to share their personal lives and thoughts. With the term “blog” not invented yet, these sites were referred to as “Online Diaries” or even “Personal Pages”. In 1997, the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger of the influential Robot Wisdom blog to describe these sites.

 Many of those early blogs were created by programmers and focused on highly technical subjects, but in 1998 Jonathan Dube became the first journalist to blog an event. His blog chronicled Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer, as pictured below:

 1998 also saw the creation of Open Diary, a blogging platform that allowed members of the community to comment on each other’s writing. This was the first of many tools that made blogging accessible to regular people, regardless of their programming experience.

 How different blogging platforms began and died

 Just as the cumbersome, code-heavy blogs of the late ’90s began to give way to more accessible solutions, in 1999 the word “weblog” was dropped in favor of a simpler term: “blog” by Peter Merholz. This year also saw the advent of three new blogging platforms: Xanga, LiveJournal, and Blogger. Xanga, a site that focused more on the social side of blogging (similar to MySpace), boasted 300,000 users at its peak but faded out of the blogging scene entirely.

 LiveJournal

 LiveJournal started as a website where Brad Fitzpatrick could keep in touch with his high school friends, and quickly grew into a place where all kinds of people could record their thoughts and develop communities. LiveJournal sustained popularity as a blogging platform into the mid-2000s, but gradually transformed from a blogging site where all were welcome into one of Russia’s primary social media platforms.

 Blogger

 Blogger, on the other hand, began its life as a commercial blogging service created by Pyra Labs. The platform would go on to be purchased by Google in 2003 and made freely available to the world. This move pushed not just Blogger, but also the entire concept of blogging, into the mainstream.

 The early 2000s

 As blogging became more popular, tools appeared to help people curate their blog reading list or market their own blogs. 2002 was a particularly big year for the blogosphere. People also started to monetize their blogs with sites like BlogAds, a precursor to Google AdSense.

 The first-ever blog search engine, Technorati, launched that November.

 Many popular blogs also launched in this year, including Gizmodo and Gawker, some of the earliest companies to use blogging itself as their primary business model. Check out the original version of Gizmodo below:

 Heather Armstrong became the first person to get fired for talking about her job on her blog in February 2002, putting her blog Dooce in the spotlight of many conversations about internet privacy. “Dooced” even became a verb, meaning “fired for blogging”.

 2002 was a big year for blogging, but 2003 turned out to be even bigger. Google purchased Blogger and introduced AdSense, making it possible for anyone to monetize their blog without needing to join a special network like BlogAds.

 2003 also saw the birth of two new brand-new blogging services that would further alter the blogosphere: TypePad, a commercial blogging platform that hosts blogs for major multimedia companies like the BBC, and WordPress, the open-source platform we use for Themeisle and our sister sites. These platforms made it easy for companies to create their own fully customized blogs and sell advertising directly to companies for improved profits.

 Check out Blogger vs WordPress pros and cons to help you choose the right platform for you.

 In 2005, Garrett Graff became the first blogger in the history of blogging to be granted a press pass for the White House. This, along with the birth of Huffington Post in the same year (see the original site below), brought blogging into the political realm and gave the medium a new level of legitimacy as a media source.

 The rise of vlogging

 With the rise of blogging came a whole new style of blog: video blogs, or vlogs. The first vlog entry was created in 2000 by Adam Kontras. It’s a short video that doesn’t seem like much, but it was the beginning of a new form of content, and even more, a new industry:

 See the first vlog:


 Like the pre-2000s blogs, vlogs grew slowly but steadily until 2005 when an innovative platform, YouTube, made the medium accessible to the masses. Like Blogger, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006.

 Today YouTube is home to much more than vlogs, but vlogging is still at its core, with the top creators making millions of dollars per year. Forbes even publishes an annual list of top YouTube stars.

 A brief history of blog design

 The rise of vlogging was only one sign of a major shift in internet usage: as internet connections grew faster and more stable, images and video became more prominent. Images and design also became gradually more important to blogging success. Early blogs consisted almost entirely of text that stretched across the entire page, with only the occasional small image. You can see this early design aesthetic if you take another look at that screenshot of Links.net:

 The design aspect of blogs has evolved and grown more important with each new iteration of the concept. Early platforms like LiveJournal and Blogger offered limited but simple customization. This allowed people with no coding experience to create unique sites. Popular LiveJournal layouts also introduced some elements of design that are still common in WordPress themes, like the centered text pictured below:

 From potterpuffs.livejournal.com

 Many blog designs during this era of the history of blogging also used elements like images of notebook rings or even just beige coloring to simulate the feeling of reading a paper journal, like the one pictured below:

 When WordPress launched its open source code in 2003, design possibilities exploded. Developers could use the WordPress technology to build themes, and people with no previous web design experience could customize those templates and build their sites with ease.

 Since then, premium WordPress themes have become an industry to themselves. ThemeIsle joined this wave of companies in 2012, with a strong desire to make WordPress themes more fun for both site owners and new visitors. Our first theme, CreativeMag, was released in 2012:

 The CreativeMag theme showcases several popular design elements from this era in the history of blogging, including possibly the most enduring element of modern blog design, the sidebar. Like many older themes, it uses beige coloring to evoke the feeling of reading a journal. The sidebar features an image of lined paper to strengthen this association.

 The rise of responsive design

 No article about the history of blogging would be complete without a mention of the mobile revolution. Mobile traffic was responsible for more than 50% of all internet traffic in 2018. But websites created in the early-to-mid 2000s don’t look great when you view them with a mobile phone.

 Some companies created separate mobile sites designed for phones, but this was costly and impractical. The better answer, it seemed, was responsive design. Responsive design, or design that alters itself to fit the user’s screen, has existed in some form since 2001 but rose to popularity in 2015, when Google announced that sites would be penalized if they weren’t mobile-friendly.

 Today, responsive design is built into most WordPress themes, including all the themes you’ll find here at Themeisle.

 A quick history of blog SEO

 Another important aspect of the history of blogging is the development of search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO. The creation of Google in 1998 changed the internet forever. The site quickly gained popularity, and enterprising individuals soon realized that they could use excessive keywords to make an impact on the search engines. Blogs, as sites that are frequently updated and have a heavy focus on text content, were a natural way for businesses to add large numbers of these keywords to their sites.

 In the early days of SEO, all you needed was to shove the correct keywords into your sentences as many times as possible, and the search engines would reward you. High-quality websites often shared the front page of Google with keyword-stuffers and other SEO spammers.

 Fortunately, Google noticed those spammers early on and began a long series of algorithm updates designed to punish sleazy SEO tactics and reward authentic, high-quality content. Today’s SEO is rooted in a combination of human psychology and an understanding of how Google and other search engines categorize content.

 All in all, the changes to SEO reward high-quality blogs, making blogs an even more instrumental part of marketing. Companies who blog receive 55% more visitors to their website. Those visitors are also higher quality; SEO leads get a 14.6% close rate, whereas outbound leads have a much lower closing rate of 1.7%.

 Blogging in recent years (2012-2022)

 Blogging continued to grow at a steady pace, but there wasn’t true innovation in the blogosphere until the creation of Medium in 2012.

 Medium

 Throughout its lifetime, Medium has made waves by introducing new ways to pay creators. They introduced a subscription model, and in 2017 replaced it with a partner program. Today, Medium is home to thousands of blogs with varying levels of success, and they even employ some writers directly.

 Substack

 Around the same time that Medium introduced the partner program, another platform, Substack, also came on the blogging scene. Substack let independent writers and content creators publish their work directly to readers and set up paid subscriptions. This subscription-based revenue model is one of the key features of Substack, and allowed writers to build a loyal and dedicated audience.

 The platform also provided simple tools for writers to create and design their content, as well as track analytics and growth. Over the years, it has gained popularity among journalists, authors, and thought leaders, who use it as an alternative to traditional publishing and media outlets.

 Pulse

 LinkedIn introduced its own blogging platform, Pulse, for select users in 2013. Over time Pulse was rolled out to a growing number of users, becoming available to all in 2015. However, in early 2017, LinkedIn altered their website and app by integrating LinkedIn Pulse into every user’s home page newsfeed. This change made it possible to view blogging updates from followed people, businesses, and channels instantly without having to navigate away from the home page.

 Ending the decade

 As the 2010s began winding down, creators continued to use Medium, Substack, and the outcropping of similar sites as their primary blog. However, many of them also used these blogging platforms as secondary and tertiary posting grounds, as a means of funneling traffic to their self-hosted, main blogs. Leveraging these platforms brought content from low-traffic domains to larger new audiences.

 Social media was utilized by blogs in a similar, symbiotic fashion, which has continued to the present day. Most bloggers have some kind of social media marketing strategy. They share bits and pieces of every blog post on a plethora of social media platforms, in an effort to get that traffic back to their blog. Vloggers use similar marketing tactics, and many also run blogs in tandem with their vlogs.

 Rise of AI and ChatGPT

 Without a doubt, the biggest news story in the blogging world for quite some time happened on November 30th, 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT to the public. In case you are one of the few people who use the internet that hasn’t heard of ChatGPT yet, it’s an AI-powered chatbot that has shown itself to be capable of accomplishing some very impressive feats. This includes generating entire essays off of a mere prompt, and even writing the code for a basic WordPress plugin – also at the behest of a user’s prompt.

 Its meteoric rise in popularity has not only rattled the blogosphere, but also institutions of higher learning [1]. Many writers are panicking in fear that AI-powered writing is going to eclipse traditional human-powered writing. We’ve seen small glimpses of this, as some bigger players in the blogging space have adopted its use, with thus far mediocre results and lots of public backlash [2].

 But wait a minute, didn’t you just say that it’s capable of writing essays and code?

 Yes, yes it is. The problem is that it’s a language learning model, and because it’s quite good with words, it is also capable of generating text that sounds very believable, even if it’s not at all accurate. In practice, this means that if you don’t have a background in what you’re asking it about, then it can easily deceive you into thinking that what it wrote is 100% true – which, it might be, but it might also not be.

 As the team at OpenAI continues to refine ChatGPT, we will continue to monitor its impact on the blogging world.

 Go to top

 Blogging today in 2023 and in the future

 The history of blogging is far from over. According to different estimates, there are millions of blogs live today. Plus, blogs are especially important to marketing: 85% of B2C companies and 91% of B2B companies use blogs or other forms of content marketing [3].

 Follow along for a visual tour of the history of #blogging from 1997 until today 📜
 Click To Tweet

 What is the next stage in the history of blogging? I can’t guess what the next innovative blogging platform will be, but as of the time of this update, AI is certainly having its moment in the sun. While it’s not a blogging platform in and of itself, the content it generates has already found its way onto thousands – perhaps even millions – of blogs.

 As of right now, ChatGPT has somewhat of a monopoly within the space, but other major tech giants (e.g., Google, Baidu) aren’t too far behind. It’s likely that by 2024 – if not sooner – we’ll see them launching some sort of similar versions of their own.

 The technology is still so new that it’s difficult to predict the long term impact on blogging moving forward. However, there’s no question that twenty years from now, it will have a place on the history of blogging timeline. Whether it will be positive or negative, that’s something that time will have to reveal.

 What do you think is the next stage in the history of blogging and how big of an impact do you think artificial intelligence (AI) is going to make? Let us know in the comments section below!

 Free guide

 5 Essential Tips to Speed Up
 Your WordPress Site

 Reduce your loading time by even 50-80%
 just by following simple tips.

 Download free guide
 References
 [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2022/12/12/teachers-fear-chatgpt-will-make-cheating-easier-than-ever/
 [2] https://futurism.com/red-ventures-knew-errors-plagiarism-deployed-cnet-anyway
 [3] https://growthbadger.com/blog-statistics/

 By Dianna Gunn

 Themeisle Contributor

 38 Posts

 Posted in:

 Blogging

 Share Now!

 Share Tweet
 Comments

 Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)!

 By Dianna Gunn

 Themeisle Contributor

 38 Posts

 Dianna Gunn is a freelance writer who specializes in business, marketing, and productivity. She offers SEO Audits and SEO-focused writing at http://www.thedabbler.ca

 Show your love!

 Share Tweet Subscribe

 Search Blog

 Latest Posts

 * WordPress Table of Contents Plugin: 6 Best Free...
 * How to Create Gated Content on Your WordPress...
 * How to Fix the Missing Temporary Folder WordPress...

 We’re a crew of WordPress professionals sharing our map to WordPress success with brilliant tutorials and tips.

 Top Articles

 * How to Install WordPress
 * How to Make a Website
 * How to Create a Blog
 * SiteGround vs Bluehost
 * Best Live Chat Plugins

 Our Network

 * CodeinWP
 * Optimole
 * Domain Wheel
 * ReviveSocial

 Company

 * About us
 * Newsletter
 * Contact us
 * Careers
 * Write for Us
 Copyright © 2023 Themeisle | Powered by VertiStudio
 * Terms
 * Privacy Policy
 X

 Most Searched Articles

 10 Best Free Blogging Sites to Build Your Blog for Free in 2023: Tested, Compared and Reviewed

 Looking for some free blog sites to help you start sharing your writing with the world? Whether you just want to share updates with your family and friends or you want to start a blog and build a broader audience, we’ve put together ten great ...

 How to Create and Start a WordPress Blog in 15 Minutes or Less (Step by Step)

 So, you want to create a WordPress blog. Congratulations! WordPress is an excellent solution for how to start a blog, plus we think blogs are super awesome! Better yet – it’s also surprisingly simple to create a free blog. That’s ...

 The Complete Personal Blog Guide: How to Start a Personal Blog on WordPress

 There’s plenty of space on the internet for everybody. People love to share ideas, voice their thoughts, and maybe even try to reach a global audience. How do you set yourself up to achieve those goals? Well, one way to do it, is to start a ...

 Handpicked Articles

 How to Make a WordPress Website: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

 Believe it or not, knowing how to make a website from scratch is one of the more essential skills you should master as a small business owner in this day and age. Please bear with me! Here’s why: If you know how to make your own website, you ...

 7 Fastest WordPress Hosting Companies Compared (Feb 2023)

 The web host you choose to power your WordPress site plays a key role in its speed and performance. However, with so many claiming to offer the fastest WordPress hosting out there, how do you decide which company to use? In addition to performance, ...

 How to Install XAMPP and WordPress Locally on Windows PC

 Want to install XAMPP and WordPress – aka. install WordPress locally? This is a great idea if you want a development site that can be used for testing or other purposes. XAMPP lets you run a website from your very own computer. And once you ...

Themeisle content is free. When you purchase through referral links on our site, we earn a commission. Learn More  
	
Blogging is well over 20 years old at this point, and the nature of blogs has undergone incredible transformations during those years.
In this article, we’ll explore the history of blogging, from the first recognized blog to the crowded blogosphere of 2023.
📚 Table of contents:
 Early history of blogging 
 Early 2000s 
 Rise of vlogging 
 Brief history of blog design 
 Quick history of blog SEO 
 Blogging in recent years (2012-2022) 
 Blogging today in 2023 and into the future 
	
Most experts agree that the first blog was Links.net, created in 1994 by then-student Justin Hall as a place to publish his writing. The site consisted entirely of brief posts, each one sharing a link and some of his thoughts on the content within. This compilation of links included links to websites he liked, as well as his own work.
  
Others quickly followed in Hall’s footsteps, creating their own sites to share their personal lives and thoughts. With the term “blog” not invented yet, these sites were referred to as “Online Diaries” or even “Personal Pages”. In 1997, the term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger of the influential Robot Wisdom blog to describe these sites.
Many of those early blogs were created by programmers and focused on highly technical subjects, but in 1998 Jonathan Dube became the first journalist to blog an event. His blog chronicled Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer, as pictured below:
  
1998 also saw the creation of Open Diary, a blogging platform that allowed members of the community to comment on each other’s writing. This was the first of many tools that made blogging accessible to regular people, regardless of their programming experience.
How different blogging platforms began and died
Just as the cumbersome, code-heavy blogs of the late ’90s began to give way to more accessible solutions, in 1999 the word “weblog” was dropped in favor of a simpler term: “blog” by Peter Merholz. This year also saw the advent of three new blogging platforms: Xanga, LiveJournal, and Blogger. Xanga, a site that focused more on the social side of blogging (similar to MySpace), boasted 300,000 users at its peak but faded out of the blogging scene entirely.
  
LiveJournal
LiveJournal started as a website where Brad Fitzpatrick could keep in touch with his high school friends, and quickly grew into a place where all kinds of people could record their thoughts and develop communities. LiveJournal sustained popularity as a blogging platform into the mid-2000s, but gradually transformed from a blogging site where all were welcome into one of Russia’s primary social media platforms.
Blogger
Blogger, on the other hand, began its life as a commercial blogging service created by Pyra Labs. The platform would go on to be purchased by Google in 2003 and made freely available to the world. This move pushed not just Blogger, but also the entire concept of blogging, into the mainstream.
  
The early 2000s
As blogging became more popular, tools appeared to help people curate their blog reading list or market their own blogs. 2002 was a particularly big year for the blogosphere. People also started to monetize their blogs with sites like BlogAds, a precursor to Google AdSense.
  
The first-ever blog search engine, Technorati, launched that November.
  
Many popular blogs also launched in this year, including Gizmodo and Gawker, some of the earliest companies to use blogging itself as their primary business model. Check out the original version of Gizmodo below:
  
Heather Armstrong became the first person to get fired for talking about her job on her blog in February 2002, putting her blog Dooce in the spotlight of many conversations about internet privacy. “Dooced” even became a verb, meaning “fired for blogging”.
2002 was a big year for blogging, but 2003 turned out to be even bigger. Google purchased Blogger and introduced AdSense, making it possible for anyone to monetize their blog without needing to join a special network like BlogAds.
2003 also saw the birth of two new brand-new blogging services that would further alter the blogosphere: TypePad, a commercial blogging platform that hosts blogs for major multimedia companies like the BBC, and WordPress, the open-source platform we use for Themeisle and our sister sites. These platforms made it easy for companies to create their own fully customized blogs and sell advertising directly to companies for improved profits.
Check out Blogger vs WordPress pros and cons to help you choose the right platform for you.
  
In 2005, Garrett Graff became the first blogger in the history of blogging to be granted a press pass for the White House. This, along with the birth of Huffington Post in the same year (see the original site below), brought blogging into the political realm and gave the medium a new level of legitimacy as a media source.
  
The rise of vlogging
With the rise of blogging came a whole new style of blog: video blogs, or vlogs. The first vlog entry was created in 2000 by Adam Kontras. It’s a short video that doesn’t seem like much, but it was the beginning of a new form of content, and even more, a new industry:
 See the first vlog:  
 
Like the pre-2000s blogs, vlogs grew slowly but steadily until 2005 when an innovative platform, YouTube, made the medium accessible to the masses. Like Blogger, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006.
  
Today YouTube is home to much more than vlogs, but vlogging is still at its core, with the top creators making millions of dollars per year. Forbes even publishes an annual list of top YouTube stars.
A brief history of blog design
The rise of vlogging was only one sign of a major shift in internet usage: as internet connections grew faster and more stable, images and video became more prominent. Images and design also became gradually more important to blogging success. Early blogs consisted almost entirely of text that stretched across the entire page, with only the occasional small image. You can see this early design aesthetic if you take another look at that screenshot of Links.net:
  
The design aspect of blogs has evolved and grown more important with each new iteration of the concept. Early platforms like LiveJournal and Blogger offered limited but simple customization. This allowed people with no coding experience to create unique sites. Popular LiveJournal layouts also introduced some elements of design that are still common in WordPress themes, like the centered text pictured below:
 From potterpuffs.livejournal.com  
Many blog designs during this era of the history of blogging also used elements like images of notebook rings or even just beige coloring to simulate the feeling of reading a paper journal, like the one pictured below:
  
When WordPress launched its open source code in 2003, design possibilities exploded. Developers could use the WordPress technology to build themes, and people with no previous web design experience could customize those templates and build their sites with ease.
Since then, premium WordPress themes have become an industry to themselves. ThemeIsle joined this wave of companies in 2012, with a strong desire to make WordPress themes more fun for both site owners and new visitors. Our first theme, CreativeMag, was released in 2012:
  
The CreativeMag theme showcases several popular design elements from this era in the history of blogging, including possibly the most enduring element of modern blog design, the sidebar. Like many older themes, it uses beige coloring to evoke the feeling of reading a journal. The sidebar features an image of lined paper to strengthen this association.
The rise of responsive design
No article about the history of blogging would be complete without a mention of the mobile revolution. Mobile traffic was responsible for more than 50% of all internet traffic in 2018. But websites created in the early-to-mid 2000s don’t look great when you view them with a mobile phone.
Some companies created separate mobile sites designed for phones, but this was costly and impractical. The better answer, it seemed, was responsive design. Responsive design, or design that alters itself to fit the user’s screen, has existed in some form since 2001 but rose to popularity in 2015, when Google announced that sites would be penalized if they weren’t mobile-friendly.
Today, responsive design is built into most WordPress themes, including all the themes you’ll find here at Themeisle.
A quick history of blog SEO
Another important aspect of the history of blogging is the development of search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO. The creation of Google in 1998 changed the internet forever. The site quickly gained popularity, and enterprising individuals soon realized that they could use excessive keywords to make an impact on the search engines. Blogs, as sites that are frequently updated and have a heavy focus on text content, were a natural way for businesses to add large numbers of these keywords to their sites.
In the early days of SEO, all you needed was to shove the correct keywords into your sentences as many times as possible, and the search engines would reward you. High-quality websites often shared the front page of Google with keyword-stuffers and other SEO spammers.
Fortunately, Google noticed those spammers early on and began a long series of algorithm updates designed to punish sleazy SEO tactics and reward authentic, high-quality content. Today’s SEO is rooted in a combination of human psychology and an understanding of how Google and other search engines categorize content.
All in all, the changes to SEO reward high-quality blogs, making blogs an even more instrumental part of marketing. Companies who blog receive 55% more visitors to their website. Those visitors are also higher quality; SEO leads get a 14.6% close rate, whereas outbound leads have a much lower closing rate of 1.7%.
Blogging in recent years (2012-2022)
Blogging continued to grow at a steady pace, but there wasn’t true innovation in the blogosphere until the creation of Medium in 2012.
Medium
Throughout its lifetime, Medium has made waves by introducing new ways to pay creators. They introduced a subscription model, and in 2017 replaced it with a partner program. Today, Medium is home to thousands of blogs with varying levels of success, and they even employ some writers directly.
  
Substack
Around the same time that Medium introduced the partner program, another platform, Substack, also came on the blogging scene. Substack let independent writers and content creators publish their work directly to readers and set up paid subscriptions. This subscription-based revenue model is one of the key features of Substack, and allowed writers to build a loyal and dedicated audience.
The platform also provided simple tools for writers to create and design their content, as well as track analytics and growth. Over the years, it has gained popularity among journalists, authors, and thought leaders, who use it as an alternative to traditional publishing and media outlets.
  
Pulse
LinkedIn introduced its own blogging platform, Pulse, for select users in 2013. Over time Pulse was rolled out to a growing number of users, becoming available to all in 2015. However, in early 2017, LinkedIn altered their website and app by integrating LinkedIn Pulse into every user’s home page newsfeed. This change made it possible to view blogging updates from followed people, businesses, and channels instantly without having to navigate away from the home page.
Ending the decade
As the 2010s began winding down, creators continued to use Medium, Substack, and the outcropping of similar sites as their primary blog. However, many of them also used these blogging platforms as secondary and tertiary posting grounds, as a means of funneling traffic to their self-hosted, main blogs. Leveraging these platforms brought content from low-traffic domains to larger new audiences.
Social media was utilized by blogs in a similar, symbiotic fashion, which has continued to the present day. Most bloggers have some kind of social media marketing strategy. They share bits and pieces of every blog post on a plethora of social media platforms, in an effort to get that traffic back to their blog. Vloggers use similar marketing tactics, and many also run blogs in tandem with their vlogs.
Rise of AI and ChatGPT
Without a doubt, the biggest news story in the blogging world for quite some time happened on November 30th, 2022, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT to the public. In case you are one of the few people who use the internet that hasn’t heard of ChatGPT yet, it’s an AI-powered chatbot that has shown itself to be capable of accomplishing some very impressive feats. This includes generating entire essays off of a mere prompt, and even writing the code for a basic WordPress plugin – also at the behest of a user’s prompt.
Its meteoric rise in popularity has not only rattled the blogosphere, but also institutions of higher learning   [1]  . Many writers are panicking in fear that AI-powered writing is going to eclipse traditional human-powered writing. We’ve seen small glimpses of this, as some bigger players in the blogging space have adopted its use, with thus far mediocre results and lots of public backlash   [2]  .
 But wait a minute, didn’t you just say that it’s capable of writing essays and code? 
Yes, yes it is. The problem is that it’s a language learning model, and because it’s quite good with words, it is also capable of generating text that sounds very believable, even if it’s not at all accurate. In practice, this means that if you don’t have a background in what you’re asking it about, then it can easily deceive you into thinking that what it wrote is 100% true – which, it might be, but it might also not be.
As the team at OpenAI continues to refine ChatGPT, we will continue to monitor its impact on the blogging world.
Blogging today in 2023 and in the future
The history of blogging is far from over. According to different estimates, there are millions of blogs live today. Plus, blogs are especially important to marketing: 85% of B2C companies and 91% of B2B companies use blogs or other forms of content marketing  [3] .
 What is the next stage in the history of blogging? I can’t guess what the next innovative blogging platform will be, but as of the time of this update, AI is certainly having its moment in the sun. While it’s not a blogging platform in and of itself, the content it generates has already found its way onto thousands – perhaps even millions – of blogs.
As of right now, ChatGPT has somewhat of a monopoly within the space, but other major tech giants (e.g., Google, Baidu) aren’t too far behind. It’s likely that by 2024 – if not sooner – we’ll see them launching some sort of similar versions of their own.
The technology is still so new that it’s difficult to predict the long term impact on blogging moving forward. However, there’s no question that twenty years from now, it will have a place on the history of blogging timeline. Whether it will be positive or negative, that’s something that time will have to reveal.
  
  What do you think is the next stage in the history of blogging and how big of an impact do you think artificial intelligence (AI) is going to make? Let us know in the comments section below!  
	Free guide
	5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress Site
	Reduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.
	 Download free guide
The History of Blogging: From 1997 Until Now (With Pictures)
https://themeisle.com/blog/history-of-blogging/
https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=1991
Justin Hall Writes "Justin's Links from the Underground," One of the Earliest Blogs : History of Information
2024-04-26
None
<div><div><p>In January 1994 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hall#cite_note-sfgate-0">Justin Hall</a>, then a student at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarthmore_College">Swarthmore College</a>, started his web-based diary, <em>Justin's Links from the Underground</em>, <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/history_of_blogging.asp">Links.net,</a> offering one of the earliest guided tours of the web. This is considered one of the earliest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog">blogs</a>.</p>
<p></p></div></div>||||I|||| Jeremy Norman’s
 HistoryofInformation.com Exploring the History of Information and Media through Timelines
 ☰ ˟ Select Theme Show All
 * Home
 * Maps
 * Tour
 * Recent Additions
 * About
 * Essays

 * Home
 * Maps
 * Recent Additions
 * About
 * Essays

 A: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States

 Justin Hall Writes "Justin's Links from the Underground," One of the Earliest Blogs

 1/1994
 Permalink
 Image Source: overshare.links.net

 Justin Hall. A screenshot from the Overshare video.

 In January 1994 Justin Hall, then a student at Swarthmore College, started his web-based diary, Justin's Links from the Underground, Links.net, offering one of the earliest guided tours of the web. This is considered one of the earliest blogs.

 Timeline Themes

 Computer / Digital / Internet Culture
 Computers & Society
 Internet & Networking
Last updated April 26th, 2024 Pacific Time © 2004–2024 Jeremy M. Norman | [email protected]
In January 1994 Justin Hall, then a student at Swarthmore College, started his web-based diary, Justin's Links from the Underground, Links.net, offering one of the earliest guided tours of the web. This is considered one of the earliest blogs.
Justin Hall Writes "Justin's Links from the Underground," One of the Earliest Blogs : History of Information
https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=1991
https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-blogging-in-2010.html
Google blogging in 2010
2010-12-31
Google
<div><div><p>
 On the last day of 2010, it’s time for us to reflect on the past year of Google blogging. This year, we published 454 posts (including this one) on the Official Google Blog—7 percent more than 2009. Those posts had an astonishing number of readers: 24,768,052 unique visitors stopped by this year, more than 70 percent more than last year. (The huge increase is mostly due to this year’s April Fools' post, which benefited from a link in a <a href="//www.google.com/">prominent location</a>; more on that below.) People come to the blog from all around the world; the top countries sending visitors in 2010 were the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany, but readers came from dozens of other places as well.</p><p>The top posts this year run the gamut from policy changes to product arrivals:</p><ol><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/different-kind-of-company-name.html">A different kind of company name</a> - 10,604,183 unique pageviews, more than 30 percent of the year’s total. Our April Fools' Day post about changing our company name to “Topeka” had a crazy-high number of pageviews, in large part because there was a link to our humble blog on Google’s homepage that day. That’s a lot of eyes!</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html">A new approach to China</a> - 924,335. We post about our new approach to business in China; we will no longer censor search results on Google.cn.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html">Introducing Google Chrome OS</a> - 653,803. This post introducing our open source operating system was published in July 2009 (and was the top post of 2009), but continued to draw readers this year. (This month, we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-on-chrome-web-store-and-chrome.html">launched a pilot program</a> for Chrome OS notebooks.) </li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-big-with-gig-our-experimental.html">Think big with a gig: our experimental fiber network</a> - 483,399. We announce our plan to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html">Update on Google Wave</a> - 469,164. We share the news that we don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/introducing-google-places.html">Introducing Google Places</a> - 341,136. The Local Business Center (the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google) becomes Google Places.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-google-tv-tv-meets-web-web.html">Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV</a> - 314,991. At Google I/O, we unveil a new experience for television that combines your familiar TV with the freedom and power of the Internet.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html">Our new search index: Caffeine</a> - 271,393. Our new indexing system provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and is the largest collection of web content we‘ve offered.</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html">A new approach to China: an update</a> - 228,591. In March, we stop censoring our search services on Google.cn, redirecting users from there to Google.com.hk for uncensored search in simplified Chinese. (Later, we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/update-on-china.html">introduce a landing page</a> for Chinese users that links to Google.com.hk.)</li><li><a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/introducing-nexus-s-with-gingerbread.html">Introducing Nexus S, with Gingerbread</a> - 220,482. We introduce Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android platform, and Nexus S, the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products.</li></ol><p>Other popular posts included <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/spring-metamorphosis-googles-new-look.html">Google’s new look</a>, the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/freeze-frame.html">ability to change the background image on your Google homepage</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/search-now-faster-than-speed-of-type.html">Google Instant</a>, a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/celebrating-pac-mans-30th-birthday.html">playable PAC-MAN doodle</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html">the ability to call phones from Gmail</a> and—oh, that—<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html">cars that drive themselves</a>.</p><p>In 2010, we kept up with our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/This%20Week%20in%20Search">search</a> and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Google%20Apps%20highlights">apps</a> series, and introduced a few new ones: about <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/small%20business">small businesses using Google’s products</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/youtube%20highlights">updates from YouTube</a>, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/yourgooglestories">great Google stories from users</a> and a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/search%20stories">bunch of new “Search On” videos</a>. We also shared our <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/future-of-display-advertising.html">thoughts</a> on the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/display-advertising-towards-creativity.html">future</a> of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-frontiers-in-display-advertising.html">display</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/online-publishers-growing-display.html">advertising</a>. We had fun with <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/word-is-worth-884-pictures.html">giant photo collages</a> and <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/23-walls-of-googley.html">other wall art</a>, got into the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/kicking-around-search-trends-for-world.html">spirit</a> of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/search-for-16.html">the</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/world-cup-search-trends-final-countdown.html">World</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/most-world-cup-crazy-countries.html">Cup</a> and shared a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/arcade-fire-meets-html5.html">new kind of musical experience</a> built for the modern browser. We shared imagery of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/posted-by-soandso-soandso-team.html">Haiti after the January earthquake</a> and the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/mapping-gulf-oil-spill-in-google-earth.html">Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill</a>. We also talked about how Google Earth played a role in the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/google-earth-helps-discover-rare.html">discovery of a rare hominid ancestor</a> in South Africa, celebrated <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/three-million-businesses-have-gone.html">quite</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/strike-up-band-over-10-million-have.html">a</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/explore-world-with-street-view-now-on.html">few</a> <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/celebrating-10-years-in-chicago.html">milestones</a>, and gave you a glimpse of the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/hello-from-hiveplex.html">bzzz-iest Googlers on campus</a> at the Hiveplex.</p><p>In December, we revamped our <a href="//www.google.com/press/blog-directory.html">blog directory</a> so you can more easily find the exact place to get the news you’re looking for; you can sort by category, language or region. We revamped our <a href="//www.google.com/press/twitter-directory.html">Twitter directory</a> too, and added new directories for our <a href="//www.google.com/press/facebook-directory.html">Facebook pages</a> and <a href="//www.google.com/press/youtube-directory.html">YouTube channels</a>.</p><p>Speaking of Twitter, this was our second year of tweeting officially on @<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/google">google</a>. We crossed the 2,000-tweet mark earlier this month and now have more than 2.6 million followers. Our Twitter family grew by leaps and bounds as well—you can now follow Google on <a href="//www.google.com/press/twitter-directory.html">more than 100 Twitter accounts</a> posting news of all kinds, from API updates for developers to product news in countries around the world. Twitter was also our biggest referrer to this blog in 2010 (excluding Google search, Google properties such as <a href="//google.com/places">google.com/places</a> and Feedburner)—followed closely by Facebook.</p><p>As always, we’re grateful to all of our readers for keeping up with us over the year, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more news in 2011!</p></div>||||I|||| Hey—we've moved. Visit The Keyword for all the latest news and stories from Google

 Official Blog

 Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture

 Google blogging in 2010

 December 31, 2010
 On the last day of 2010, it’s time for us to reflect on the past year of Google blogging. This year, we published 454 posts (including this one) on the Official Google Blog—7 percent more than 2009. Those posts had an astonishing number of readers: 24,768,052 unique visitors stopped by this year, more than 70 percent more than last year. (The huge increase is mostly due to this year’s April Fools' post, which benefited from a link in a prominent location; more on that below.) People come to the blog from all around the world; the top countries sending visitors in 2010 were the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany, but readers came from dozens of other places as well.

 The top posts this year run the gamut from policy changes to product arrivals:
 1. A different kind of company name - 10,604,183 unique pageviews, more than 30 percent of the year’s total. Our April Fools' Day post about changing our company name to “Topeka” had a crazy-high number of pageviews, in large part because there was a link to our humble blog on Google’s homepage that day. That’s a lot of eyes!
 2. A new approach to China - 924,335. We post about our new approach to business in China; we will no longer censor search results on Google.cn.
 3. Introducing Google Chrome OS - 653,803. This post introducing our open source operating system was published in July 2009 (and was the top post of 2009), but continued to draw readers this year. (This month, we launched a pilot program for Chrome OS notebooks.)
 4. Think big with a gig: our experimental fiber network - 483,399. We announce our plan to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.
 5. Update on Google Wave - 469,164. We share the news that we don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product.
 6. Introducing Google Places - 341,136. The Local Business Center (the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google) becomes Google Places.
 7. Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV - 314,991. At Google I/O, we unveil a new experience for television that combines your familiar TV with the freedom and power of the Internet.
 8. Our new search index: Caffeine - 271,393. Our new indexing system provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and is the largest collection of web content we‘ve offered.
 9. A new approach to China: an update - 228,591. In March, we stop censoring our search services on Google.cn, redirecting users from there to Google.com.hk for uncensored search in simplified Chinese. (Later, we introduce a landing page for Chinese users that links to Google.com.hk.)
 10. Introducing Nexus S, with Gingerbread - 220,482. We introduce Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android platform, and Nexus S, the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products.
 Other popular posts included Google’s new look, the ability to change the background image on your Google homepage, Google Instant, a playable PAC-MAN doodle, the ability to call phones from Gmail and—oh, that—cars that drive themselves.

 In 2010, we kept up with our search and apps series, and introduced a few new ones: about small businesses using Google’s products, updates from YouTube, great Google stories from users and a bunch of new “Search On” videos. We also shared our thoughts on the future of display advertising. We had fun with giant photo collages and other wall art, got into the spirit of the World Cup and shared a new kind of musical experience built for the modern browser. We shared imagery of Haiti after the January earthquake and the Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill. We also talked about how Google Earth played a role in the discovery of a rare hominid ancestor in South Africa, celebrated quite a few milestones, and gave you a glimpse of the bzzz-iest Googlers on campus at the Hiveplex.

 In December, we revamped our blog directory so you can more easily find the exact place to get the news you’re looking for; you can sort by category, language or region. We revamped our Twitter directory too, and added new directories for our Facebook pages and YouTube channels.

 Speaking of Twitter, this was our second year of tweeting officially on @google. We crossed the 2,000-tweet mark earlier this month and now have more than 2.6 million followers. Our Twitter family grew by leaps and bounds as well—you can now follow Google on more than 100 Twitter accounts posting news of all kinds, from API updates for developers to product news in countries around the world. Twitter was also our biggest referrer to this blog in 2010 (excluding Google search, Google properties such as google.com/places and Feedburner)—followed closely by Facebook.

 As always, we’re grateful to all of our readers for keeping up with us over the year, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more news in 2011!

 Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor
   

 Labels

 
 * accessibility 41
 * acquisition 26
 * ads 131
 * Africa 19
 * Android 59
 * apps 419
 * April 1 4
 * Asia 39
 * books + book search 48
 * commerce 12
 * computing history 7
 * crisis response 33
 * culture 12
 * developers 120
 * diversity 35
 * doodles 68
 * education and research 144
 * entrepreneurs at Google 14
 * Europe 46
 * faster web 16
 * free expression 61
 * google.org 73
 * googleplus 50
 * googlers and culture 202
 * green 102
 * Latin America 18
 * maps and earth 194
 * mobile 125
 * online safety 19
 * open source 19
 * photos 39
 * policy and issues 139
 * politics 71
 * privacy 66
 * recruiting and hiring 32
 * scholarships 31
 * search 505
 * search quality 24
 * search trends 118
 * security 36
 * small business 31
 * user experience and usability 41
 * youtube and video 140
 

 Archive

 
 *  2016
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 *  2015
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2014
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2013
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2012
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2011
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2010
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2009
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2008
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2007
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2006
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2005
 + Jan
 + Feb
 + Mar
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec
 *  2004
 + Apr
 + May
 + Jun
 + Jul
 + Aug
 + Sep
 + Oct
 + Nov
 + Dec

 Feed

 Google on
 Follow @google
 Follow
 Give us feedback in our
 Product Forums.

 Company-wide

 * Public Policy Blog
 * Research Blog
 * Student Blog

 Products

 * Official Android Blog
 * Chrome Blog
 * Lat Long Blog

 Developers

 * Developers Blog
 * Ads Developer Blog
 * Android Developers Blog
 * Google
 * Privacy
 * Terms
On the last day of 2010, it’s time for us to reflect on the past year of Google blogging. This year, we published 454 posts (including this one) on the Official Google Blog—7 percent more than 2009. Those posts had an astonishing number of readers: 24,768,052 unique visitors stopped by this year, more than 70 percent more than last year. (The huge increase is mostly due to this year’s April Fools' post, which benefited from a link in a prominent location; more on that below.) People come to the blog from all around the world; the top countries sending visitors in 2010 were the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Germany, but readers came from dozens of other places as well. The top posts this year run the gamut from policy changes to product arrivals:   A different kind of company name - 10,604,183 unique pageviews, more than 30 percent of the year’s total. Our April Fools' Day post about changing our company name to “Topeka” had a crazy-high number of pageviews, in large part because there was a link to our humble blog on Google’s homepage that day. That’s a lot of eyes!  A new approach to China - 924,335. We post about our new approach to business in China; we will no longer censor search results on Google.cn.  Introducing Google Chrome OS - 653,803. This post introducing our open source operating system was published in July 2009 (and was the top post of 2009), but continued to draw readers this year. (This month, we launched a pilot program for Chrome OS notebooks.)   Think big with a gig: our experimental fiber network - 483,399. We announce our plan to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.  Update on Google Wave - 469,164. We share the news that we don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product.  Introducing Google Places - 341,136. The Local Business Center (the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google) becomes Google Places.  Announcing Google TV: TV meets web. Web meets TV - 314,991. At Google I/O, we unveil a new experience for television that combines your familiar TV with the freedom and power of the Internet.  Our new search index: Caffeine - 271,393. Our new indexing system provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and is the largest collection of web content we‘ve offered.  A new approach to China: an update - 228,591. In March, we stop censoring our search services on Google.cn, redirecting users from there to Google.com.hk for uncensored search in simplified Chinese. (Later, we introduce a landing page for Chinese users that links to Google.com.hk.)  Introducing Nexus S, with Gingerbread - 220,482. We introduce Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android platform, and Nexus S, the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products.  Other popular posts included Google’s new look, the ability to change the background image on your Google homepage, Google Instant, a playable PAC-MAN doodle, the ability to call phones from Gmail and—oh, that—cars that drive themselves. In 2010, we kept up with our search and apps series, and introduced a few new ones: about small businesses using Google’s products, updates from YouTube, great Google stories from users and a bunch of new “Search On” videos. We also shared our thoughts on the future of display advertising. We had fun with giant photo collages and other wall art, got into the spirit of the World Cup and shared a new kind of musical experience built for the modern browser. We shared imagery of Haiti after the January earthquake and the Gulf of Mexico after the oil spill. We also talked about how Google Earth played a role in the discovery of a rare hominid ancestor in South Africa, celebrated quite a few milestones, and gave you a glimpse of the bzzz-iest Googlers on campus at the Hiveplex. In December, we revamped our blog directory so you can more easily find the exact place to get the news you’re looking for; you can sort by category, language or region. We revamped our Twitter directory too, and added new directories for our Facebook pages and YouTube channels. Speaking of Twitter, this was our second year of tweeting officially on @google. We crossed the 2,000-tweet mark earlier this month and now have more than 2.6 million followers. Our Twitter family grew by leaps and bounds as well—you can now follow Google on more than 100 Twitter accounts posting news of all kinds, from API updates for developers to product news in countries around the world. Twitter was also our biggest referrer to this blog in 2010 (excluding Google search, Google properties such as google.com/places and Feedburner)—followed closely by Facebook. As always, we’re grateful to all of our readers for keeping up with us over the year, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more news in 2011!
Google blogging in 2010
https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-blogging-in-2010.html
https://businessesgrow.com/2019/12/16/impactful-blog-posts/
The 10 most impactful blog posts of the decade - Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}
2019-12-16
Mark Schaefer
<div><section>
<article>
<p></p>
<p>At this time of year, I usually reflect on the most impactful blog posts I’ve written in the past year and explain why.</p>
<p>But this is a special moment in time and a special moment in my career. It’s the end of a decade and that decade also coincided with my entire personal blogging history. So I thought it would be fun to look back at the 10 most impactful posts of my decade and tell the inside story of how those stories came to be.</p>
<p>I’ve reached back in time to look at the stories and ideas that made this blog, this community, and in some cases, my career, come alive.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy it.</p>
<p>We’ll begin at the beginning.</p>
<p><strong>10. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2009/04/24/company-voice/">Who is the company voice on social media?</a> (2009)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>This was not necessarily one of my most impactful blog posts, but it was my very first. Hey … I had to start somewhere! As you can imagine, my first posts were clunky, but I did my best and I took that first step. And that’s significant!</p>
<p>Why did I start blogging? To learn.</p>
<p>I had recently started an entrepreneurial career and had to immerse myself in this new world of social media. So at first, this blog was nothing more than an experiment. I blogged when I felt like it. There was no grand plan. In fact, many people thought I was late to the party. The top blogging echelon had already been established and I was 49 when I wrote my first post.</p>
<p>Luckily, I just didn’t know any better!</p>
<p><strong>9. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2011/07/20/the-making-of-a-social-media-slut/">The making of a social media slut</a> (2011)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>This was a funny little post and unremarkable, to be honest. But it represented a great lesson for me and a turning point in my blogging.</p>
<p>By 2011, I had been blogging for a couple of years and had a pretty formal and serious attitude most of the time. Perhaps I was still nervous about publishing to the world and preoccupied with proving myself to a growing audience.</p>
<p>Then one day, I had lunch with a young woman and gave her some professional advice that was in line with the tone of the day, but it made me feel cheap for stooping to a cheesy level. I didn’t over-think it. I just ripped out a post in 15 minutes chronicling my experience in a personal and tongue-in-cheek fashion.</p>
<p>It was probably the least-planned, least profound post of my life … and to my surprise, it went viral!</p>
<p>Huh?</p>
<p>The big lesson I learned here was that to be successful, you don’t have to write a Ph.D. thesis every time out. Just be yourself and share the lessons of your life. A turning point in the life of the blog.</p>
<p><strong>8. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2013/03/31/a-rant-in-praise-of-the-unremarkable/">A Rant: In praise of the unremarkable</a> (2013)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>2013 marked the beginning of the “hustle” culture and a sick view on the web that if you weren’t on some path to building a remarkable business and powerful social media presence, you were worthless.</p>
<p>I had had enough of this babble and wrote a post about the heroic efforts of my grandfather as he found a way to feed his family in hard times. He certainly was not remarkable by internet standards, but he was a worthy man.</p>
<p>This post hit a very deep chord with people, as evidenced by the outpouring of hundreds of comments. It’s one of my favorite impactful blog posts because my grandfather was one of my favorite people.</p>
<p><strong>7. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2019/04/15/seth-godin/">Why I must politely disagree with Seth Godin</a> (2019)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>As I look back at my most impactful blog posts there is a theme — I was initially nervous about publishing them.</p>
<p>Last year Seth Godin came out with a new book and there was a theme in there that just drove me nuts. He contended that marketing is about “changing people.” This just ran counter to some of my basic philosophies and, in my estimation, the customer culture today. I don’t want a marketer “changing me.” Do you?</p>
<p>So I wrote this post and sat on it for six months. But eventually, I went with my gut. When I’m nervous about publishing a post, it means that I need to do it.</p>
<p>And of course, this ended up being one of my most popular posts ever.</p>
<p>I wanted to tell this story because it shows that even after 10 years, blogging is still nerve-wracking. But when you take a risk, it pays off.</p>
<p><strong>6. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2018/01/02/marketing-technology/">Why technology is sucking the life out of marketing</a> (2018)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>In 2018 a lot of dots were connecting for me. Marketing had become sick through a preoccupation with technology. We had lost touch with hyper-empowered consumers who had more sophisticated expectations of their favorite brands. Consumers were sick of being abused, annoyed, and interrupted by marketers. It was time for a dramatic change in our industry.</p>
<p>In fact, it was time for a rebellion.</p>
<p>Whenever I have an idea for a new book, I have to be really sure of it. It is such a big sacrifice and commitment. So I will normally float my ideas out into the world through this blog first. This post was the first test for Marketing Rebellion.</p>
<p>When one reader commented, “Wow. This is so powerful. Can you please write a book about this?” … I knew I was on to something!</p>
<p><strong>5. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2012/04/10/why-facebook-will-become-the-most-dangerous-company-on-earth/">Why Facebook will become the most dangerous company on earth</a> (2014)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>I wrote this in 2012 on what may the most momentous day in the history of the internet — the day Facebook became a public company.</p>
<p>That was the beginning of the end of the dream. As I pointed out in this article, once Facebook became a public company and stepped on that endless treadmill or quarterly profit goals, it would have no choice but to take riskier and riskier decisions with their only available resource — our personal information.</p>
<p>If you think about it, this is the root of nearly every internet evil — the frenzied quest to turn our personal information into profits.</p>
<p>This was an impactful blog post because I made a bold and accurate prediction … but how I wish I were wrong.</p>
<p><strong>4. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2016/12/12/hugged-by-a-brand/">How I was hugged by a brand. Literally</a>  (2016)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>This was an impactful blog post because it changed my life in so many positive ways.</p>
<p>It’s a story of how an employee from a Hyatt Hotel connected with me in a very personal manner. The post went viral, Hyatt put it on the front page of their website, the employee involved was eventually named Employee of the Year, and this story became a staple of my Marketing Rebellion speech.</p>
<p>And Teri and I are still friends!</p>
<p><strong>3. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2010/11/22/get-ready-social-scoring-will-change-your-life/">Get ready social scoring will change your life</a> (2010)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>In 2010, I discovered this little <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/04/ff-klout/">startup called Klout</a>. This was the first company to try to assess the influence on the web by analyzing all your social media content and watching the types of reactions that occurred.</p>
<p>I recognized this as a significant trend. It was the dawn of influence marketing but it had no name at the time, so I called it “social scoring.”</p>
<p>The post raised a ruckus. People loathed the idea of being assessed and rated with a number, although we take that for granted on the web today!</p>
<p>This was my first article to truly go viral. It was such an impactful blog post that it propelled me to be interviewed about this trend by <em>The New York Times</em>.</p>
<p>All of that is cool but the biggest impact of this post is that it was the spark for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071791094/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0071791094&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=schaemarkes09-20&amp;linkId=3a4d1f34702f49ead8a6ee82c4fccaa3">Return On Influence</a>, the world’s first book on influence marketing.</p>
<p><strong>2. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2009/09/21/the-social-media-country-club/">The social media country club</a> (2009)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>This was among the boldest and riskiest blog posts I’ve written. And it shook things up.</p>
<p>After I had been blogging for awhile, I observed that there was a cozy club of bloggers at the top of the business who formed this tight and impenetrable group of sycophants. There was no disagreement. There was no debate. These were the untouchable power brokers of the social media industry.</p>
<p>So, I called them out. I pointed out that this was an unhealthy dynamic and that we could only grow through debate and dissent.</p>
<p>I’m not exaggerating when I say my hand shook when I pushed the button to “publish.” It was one of the biggest risks of my career.</p>
<p>This post was significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time that I followed the fear instead of avoiding it on a blog post. And when I do that I am always rewarded.</p>
<p>Second, it opened up a healthy debate about this power structure. This post received 115 comments. Young bloggers said openly how fearful they were of disagreeing with the top bloggers in the field.</p>
<p>Third, I consider this post the true start of my blogging career. It was the moment I decided to be unafraid. I would tell the truth in a way that was professional and helpful. I hope that is what I am known for today.</p>
<p><strong>1. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2014/01/06/content-shock/">Content Shock</a> (2014)</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>If you have followed my career at all, it will be no surprise that this is at the top of the list of impactful blog posts of the decade.</p>
<p>The idea for this post had bubbled in my head for more than two years. Content marketing was becoming harder in ways I could not necessarily define. Something was changing.</p>
<p>And then it hit me — Producing prodigious amounts of content on the web would naturally follow other normal economic models of supply and demand. And when the supply of content grossly outstrips the demand, something dramatic is going to happen. Content marketing would not be sustainable.</p>
<p>When I published this post, every content marketing guru out there slammed it, creating an enormous social media firestorm.</p>
<p>Frankly, I was surprised by this outpouring. This idea behind this article was not controversial. It was <em>common sense!</em> But I underestimated how a relatively simple economic observation would threaten people who were self-proclaimed evangelists for content marketing.</p>
<p>One notable guru laughed at me on a podcast. “Mark is wrong,” he said. “The best content will always rise to the top. Period.” That sort of commentary is obviously delusional, which is why my post was so important. It popped the content marketing guru bubble.</p>
<p>Today, lots of <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/2015/11/11/content-shock-is-here/">research has poured forth</a> showing my prediction was correct. Content Shock has become a general industry term describing this era of over-saturated content. Thousands of articles have linked to my original post and it has become a regular topic in books and industry conferences.</p>
<p>Most of the people who slammed me when the post came out have since apologized, although there are a few misleading evangelists still out there and I suppose there always will be.</p>
<p>Not only did this post ignite a discussion that continues today, it became the basis for my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692372334/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0692372334&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=schaemarkes09-20&amp;linkId=dab79ea4f64d96dfb68ffa57730ffcd0">The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business</a> — the antidote for Content Shock!</p>
<p>So there you have it — my most impactful blog posts, 10 years in the making!</p>
<p>How has this blog impacted you?</p>
<p><em>Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/social-media-marketing-books/">digital marketing books</a>. He is an acclaimed <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/social-media-speaker/">keynote speaker</a>, college educator, and business consultant.  <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/podcast-the-marketing-companion-2/">The Marketing Companion podcast</a> is among the top business podcasts in the world. <a href="https://businessesgrow.com/contact/">Contact Mark</a> to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.</em></p>
<p><em>Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com</em></p>
 
<p><a href="/blog"><i></i> All posts</a></p>
</article>
</section><div>
<h2>Subscribe to my blog posts and special offers newsletter</h2>
<p>Mark's blog {grow} is consistently ranked among the top marketing blogs in the industry. Click to subscribe securely in just moments.</p>
</div>||||I|||| Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow} Rise Above the Noise.
 Menu
 Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram YouTube Podcasts Pinterest Slideshare RSS
 * Home
 * About
 + Mark W. Schaefer
 + Mark Schaefer in the news
 + Client List
 + Reputation
 + Disclosures
 * Speaking
 + Keynote speaker Mark Schaefer
 + Corporate Marketing and Social Media Workshops
 + Meeting Planner Resources
 * Publications
 + Belonging to the Brand Book
 + Mark’s {grow} Blog
 + Marketing Companion Podcast
 + Mark’s Books
 + Free Marketing Presentations
 * Community
 * Events
 + The Uprising
 + The Uprising Europe
 + Photo Gallery
 + Join a Class
 * Consulting
 + Marketing Consultant
 + Instant Marketing Advice With Mark Schaefer
 * Contact
 + Contact Details
 + Press Inquiries – Mark Schaefer

 The 10 most impactful blog posts of the decade

 * 17 shares
 * Share
 * Tweet
 * Share
 * Pin 2
 * Buffer 15
 * Email

 At this time of year, I usually reflect on the most impactful blog posts I’ve written in the past year and explain why.

 But this is a special moment in time and a special moment in my career. It’s the end of a decade and that decade also coincided with my entire personal blogging history. So I thought it would be fun to look back at the 10 most impactful posts of my decade and tell the inside story of how those stories came to be.

 I’ve reached back in time to look at the stories and ideas that made this blog, this community, and in some cases, my career, come alive.

 I hope you enjoy it.

 We’ll begin at the beginning.

 10. Who is the company voice on social media? (2009)

 This was not necessarily one of my most impactful blog posts, but it was my very first. Hey … I had to start somewhere! As you can imagine, my first posts were clunky, but I did my best and I took that first step. And that’s significant!

 Why did I start blogging? To learn.

 I had recently started an entrepreneurial career and had to immerse myself in this new world of social media. So at first, this blog was nothing more than an experiment. I blogged when I felt like it. There was no grand plan. In fact, many people thought I was late to the party. The top blogging echelon had already been established and I was 49 when I wrote my first post.

 Luckily, I just didn’t know any better!

 9. The making of a social media slut (2011)

 This was a funny little post and unremarkable, to be honest. But it represented a great lesson for me and a turning point in my blogging.

 By 2011, I had been blogging for a couple of years and had a pretty formal and serious attitude most of the time. Perhaps I was still nervous about publishing to the world and preoccupied with proving myself to a growing audience.

 Then one day, I had lunch with a young woman and gave her some professional advice that was in line with the tone of the day, but it made me feel cheap for stooping to a cheesy level. I didn’t over-think it. I just ripped out a post in 15 minutes chronicling my experience in a personal and tongue-in-cheek fashion.

 It was probably the least-planned, least profound post of my life … and to my surprise, it went viral!

 Huh?

 The big lesson I learned here was that to be successful, you don’t have to write a Ph.D. thesis every time out. Just be yourself and share the lessons of your life. A turning point in the life of the blog.

 8. A Rant: In praise of the unremarkable (2013)

 2013 marked the beginning of the “hustle” culture and a sick view on the web that if you weren’t on some path to building a remarkable business and powerful social media presence, you were worthless.

 I had had enough of this babble and wrote a post about the heroic efforts of my grandfather as he found a way to feed his family in hard times. He certainly was not remarkable by internet standards, but he was a worthy man.

 This post hit a very deep chord with people, as evidenced by the outpouring of hundreds of comments. It’s one of my favorite impactful blog posts because my grandfather was one of my favorite people.

 7. Why I must politely disagree with Seth Godin (2019)

 As I look back at my most impactful blog posts there is a theme — I was initially nervous about publishing them.

 Last year Seth Godin came out with a new book and there was a theme in there that just drove me nuts. He contended that marketing is about “changing people.” This just ran counter to some of my basic philosophies and, in my estimation, the customer culture today. I don’t want a marketer “changing me.” Do you?

 So I wrote this post and sat on it for six months. But eventually, I went with my gut. When I’m nervous about publishing a post, it means that I need to do it.

 And of course, this ended up being one of my most popular posts ever.

 I wanted to tell this story because it shows that even after 10 years, blogging is still nerve-wracking. But when you take a risk, it pays off.

 6. Why technology is sucking the life out of marketing (2018)

 In 2018 a lot of dots were connecting for me. Marketing had become sick through a preoccupation with technology. We had lost touch with hyper-empowered consumers who had more sophisticated expectations of their favorite brands. Consumers were sick of being abused, annoyed, and interrupted by marketers. It was time for a dramatic change in our industry.

 In fact, it was time for a rebellion.

 Whenever I have an idea for a new book, I have to be really sure of it. It is such a big sacrifice and commitment. So I will normally float my ideas out into the world through this blog first. This post was the first test for Marketing Rebellion.

 When one reader commented, “Wow. This is so powerful. Can you please write a book about this?” … I knew I was on to something!

 5. Why Facebook will become the most dangerous company on earth (2014)

 I wrote this in 2012 on what may the most momentous day in the history of the internet — the day Facebook became a public company.

 That was the beginning of the end of the dream. As I pointed out in this article, once Facebook became a public company and stepped on that endless treadmill or quarterly profit goals, it would have no choice but to take riskier and riskier decisions with their only available resource — our personal information.

 If you think about it, this is the root of nearly every internet evil — the frenzied quest to turn our personal information into profits.

 This was an impactful blog post because I made a bold and accurate prediction … but how I wish I were wrong.

 4. How I was hugged by a brand. Literally (2016)

 This was an impactful blog post because it changed my life in so many positive ways.

 It’s a story of how an employee from a Hyatt Hotel connected with me in a very personal manner. The post went viral, Hyatt put it on the front page of their website, the employee involved was eventually named Employee of the Year, and this story became a staple of my Marketing Rebellion speech.

 And Teri and I are still friends!

 3. Get ready social scoring will change your life (2010)

 In 2010, I discovered this little startup called Klout. This was the first company to try to assess the influence on the web by analyzing all your social media content and watching the types of reactions that occurred.

 I recognized this as a significant trend. It was the dawn of influence marketing but it had no name at the time, so I called it “social scoring.”

 The post raised a ruckus. People loathed the idea of being assessed and rated with a number, although we take that for granted on the web today!

 This was my first article to truly go viral. It was such an impactful blog post that it propelled me to be interviewed about this trend by The New York Times.

 All of that is cool but the biggest impact of this post is that it was the spark for my book Return On Influence, the world’s first book on influence marketing.

 2. The social media country club (2009)

 This was among the boldest and riskiest blog posts I’ve written. And it shook things up.

 After I had been blogging for awhile, I observed that there was a cozy club of bloggers at the top of the business who formed this tight and impenetrable group of sycophants. There was no disagreement. There was no debate. These were the untouchable power brokers of the social media industry.

 So, I called them out. I pointed out that this was an unhealthy dynamic and that we could only grow through debate and dissent.

 I’m not exaggerating when I say my hand shook when I pushed the button to “publish.” It was one of the biggest risks of my career.

 This post was significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time that I followed the fear instead of avoiding it on a blog post. And when I do that I am always rewarded.

 Second, it opened up a healthy debate about this power structure. This post received 115 comments. Young bloggers said openly how fearful they were of disagreeing with the top bloggers in the field.

 Third, I consider this post the true start of my blogging career. It was the moment I decided to be unafraid. I would tell the truth in a way that was professional and helpful. I hope that is what I am known for today.

 1. Content Shock (2014)

 If you have followed my career at all, it will be no surprise that this is at the top of the list of impactful blog posts of the decade.

 The idea for this post had bubbled in my head for more than two years. Content marketing was becoming harder in ways I could not necessarily define. Something was changing.

 And then it hit me — Producing prodigious amounts of content on the web would naturally follow other normal economic models of supply and demand. And when the supply of content grossly outstrips the demand, something dramatic is going to happen. Content marketing would not be sustainable.

 When I published this post, every content marketing guru out there slammed it, creating an enormous social media firestorm.

 Frankly, I was surprised by this outpouring. This idea behind this article was not controversial. It was common sense! But I underestimated how a relatively simple economic observation would threaten people who were self-proclaimed evangelists for content marketing.

 One notable guru laughed at me on a podcast. “Mark is wrong,” he said. “The best content will always rise to the top. Period.” That sort of commentary is obviously delusional, which is why my post was so important. It popped the content marketing guru bubble.

 Today, lots of research has poured forth showing my prediction was correct. Content Shock has become a general industry term describing this era of over-saturated content. Thousands of articles have linked to my original post and it has become a regular topic in books and industry conferences.

 Most of the people who slammed me when the post came out have since apologized, although there are a few misleading evangelists still out there and I suppose there always will be.

 Not only did this post ignite a discussion that continues today, it became the basis for my book The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business — the antidote for Content Shock!

 So there you have it — my most impactful blog posts, 10 years in the making!

 How has this blog impacted you?

 Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

 Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

 * 17 shares
 * Share
 * Tweet
 * Share
 * Pin 2
 * Buffer 15
 * Email

 Related Posts

 Tags: blogging best practices, mark schaefer, seth godin, writing best practices
 Posted in blogging, Blogging best practices, Most Popular, Social Media best practices, Writing best practices | No Comments »

 All posts

 ANYBODY can talk to Mark and get his help.

 Learn more

 Subscribe to { grow }

 Receive my best posts on marketing and strategy, delivered to your inbox, free with no strings attached!


 Order BELONGING TO THE BRAND

 Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy

 Orders processed via

 Buy Now

 The Uprising America

 AMERICA

 The greatest marketing learning experience. Come to the Uprising America in April 2023.

 Register Now

 The Uprising Europe

 EUROPE

 Learn about The Uprising marketing retreat coming to Dublin September 2023!

 Register Now

 Master Class

 Join the most effective personal branding training class in the world.

 Register Now

 Search this site

 Search this site: Search

 Welcome to {grow}

 You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow. Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here. -Mark Schaefer

 Categories

 Categories Select Category Advertising Amazon Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality B2B and social media Big Data and Analytics Bitcoin and Blockchain blogging Blogging best practices branding business relationships business strategy careers Case studies Clubhouse Community-building Consulting best practices Content distribution Content Ignition Strategy Content Marketing Content Shock corporate communications Corruption on social web crowdsourcing Cumulative Advantage customer acquisition customer experience economic development economics of social media eMail marketing Entrepreneurial ideas ethics Facebook Facebook marketing Foursquare futurist Google Plus Google techologies humor Influence marketing Infographics innovation Instagram Internet marketing IoT Leadership Legal implications LinkedIn Marketing best practices Marketing Rebellion Marketing Strategy Metaverse Mobile marketing Monitoring strategies Most Popular Organizational Development Personal personal branding Personalities of the social web Pinterest Podcasts Power and influence on the web Presentation ideas productivity Psychology and social media Public relations Public Speaking research Return On Influence ROI and measurement SEO Slideshare presentations Smart Speakers Snapchat social media Social media and gaming Social media and government Social media and politics Social Media and Sales Social Media best practices Social media for social good Social Media Policy Social Media Strategy Social Media Tools sociology streaming video The Marketing Companion TikTok Time management Traditional media and advertising Trending Twitch Twitter Twitter apps Twitter best practices Video blogs visual communication Wearable technology Web3 Word of mouth marketing Writing best practices YouTube and video {growtoons}

 Archives

 Archives Select Month February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

 Recent Posts

 * 10 Benefits of Blogging Even if Nobody Reads It
 * Marketing best practices for nonprofits
 * Unlocking the Power of Curated Content for Your Business
 * Beyond the Basics: 20 Non-Obvious Uses of ChatGPT for Marketing
 * The best achievement of my career

 The Marketing Companion Podcast

 Why not tune into the world’s most entertaining marketing podcast!

 View details

 Let's plot a strategy together

 Want to solve big marketing problems for a little bit of money? Sign up for an hour of Mark’s time and put your business on the fast-track.

 View details

 Subscribe to my blog posts and special offers newsletter

 Mark's blog {grow} is consistently ranked among the top marketing blogs in the industry. Click to subscribe securely in just moments.

 Subscribe

 Our clients include:

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 Mark has been featured in:

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 Connect with me: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram YouTube Podcasts Pinterest Slideshare RSS
 * Home
 * Reputation
 * The {grow} blog – Marketing. Strategy. Humanity.
 * Podcasts
 * Subscribe
 * Contact
 * Terms & Conditions
 * Privacy Policy

 © Copyright Schaefer Marketing Solutions 2023.

 PO Box 190 Louisville TN 37777

 Website By Glass Mountains

 Close
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
At this time of year, I usually reflect on the most impactful blog posts I’ve written in the past year and explain why.
But this is a special moment in time and a special moment in my career. It’s the end of a decade and that decade also coincided with my entire personal blogging history. So I thought it would be fun to look back at the 10 most impactful posts of my decade and tell the inside story of how those stories came to be.
I’ve reached back in time to look at the stories and ideas that made this blog, this community, and in some cases, my career, come alive.
I hope you enjoy it.
We’ll begin at the beginning.
 10. Who is the company voice on social media? (2009) 
 
This was not necessarily one of my most impactful blog posts, but it was my very first. Hey … I had to start somewhere! As you can imagine, my first posts were clunky, but I did my best and I took that first step. And that’s significant!
Why did I start blogging? To learn.
I had recently started an entrepreneurial career and had to immerse myself in this new world of social media. So at first, this blog was nothing more than an experiment. I blogged when I felt like it. There was no grand plan. In fact, many people thought I was late to the party. The top blogging echelon had already been established and I was 49 when I wrote my first post.
Luckily, I just didn’t know any better!
 9. The making of a social media slut (2011) 
 
This was a funny little post and unremarkable, to be honest. But it represented a great lesson for me and a turning point in my blogging.
By 2011, I had been blogging for a couple of years and had a pretty formal and serious attitude most of the time. Perhaps I was still nervous about publishing to the world and preoccupied with proving myself to a growing audience.
Then one day, I had lunch with a young woman and gave her some professional advice that was in line with the tone of the day, but it made me feel cheap for stooping to a cheesy level. I didn’t over-think it. I just ripped out a post in 15 minutes chronicling my experience in a personal and tongue-in-cheek fashion.
It was probably the least-planned, least profound post of my life … and to my surprise, it went viral!
Huh?
The big lesson I learned here was that to be successful, you don’t have to write a Ph.D. thesis every time out. Just be yourself and share the lessons of your life. A turning point in the life of the blog.
 8. A Rant: In praise of the unremarkable (2013) 
 
2013 marked the beginning of the “hustle” culture and a sick view on the web that if you weren’t on some path to building a remarkable business and powerful social media presence, you were worthless.
I had had enough of this babble and wrote a post about the heroic efforts of my grandfather as he found a way to feed his family in hard times. He certainly was not remarkable by internet standards, but he was a worthy man.
This post hit a very deep chord with people, as evidenced by the outpouring of hundreds of comments. It’s one of my favorite impactful blog posts because my grandfather was one of my favorite people.
 7. Why I must politely disagree with Seth Godin (2019) 
 
As I look back at my most impactful blog posts there is a theme — I was initially nervous about publishing them.
Last year Seth Godin came out with a new book and there was a theme in there that just drove me nuts. He contended that marketing is about “changing people.” This just ran counter to some of my basic philosophies and, in my estimation, the customer culture today. I don’t want a marketer “changing me.” Do you?
So I wrote this post and sat on it for six months. But eventually, I went with my gut. When I’m nervous about publishing a post, it means that I need to do it.
And of course, this ended up being one of my most popular posts ever.
I wanted to tell this story because it shows that even after 10 years, blogging is still nerve-wracking. But when you take a risk, it pays off.
 6. Why technology is sucking the life out of marketing (2018) 
 
In 2018 a lot of dots were connecting for me. Marketing had become sick through a preoccupation with technology. We had lost touch with hyper-empowered consumers who had more sophisticated expectations of their favorite brands. Consumers were sick of being abused, annoyed, and interrupted by marketers. It was time for a dramatic change in our industry.
In fact, it was time for a rebellion.
Whenever I have an idea for a new book, I have to be really sure of it. It is such a big sacrifice and commitment. So I will normally float my ideas out into the world through this blog first. This post was the first test for Marketing Rebellion.
When one reader commented, “Wow. This is so powerful. Can you please write a book about this?” … I knew I was on to something!
 5. Why Facebook will become the most dangerous company on earth (2014) 
 
I wrote this in 2012 on what may the most momentous day in the history of the internet — the day Facebook became a public company.
That was the beginning of the end of the dream. As I pointed out in this article, once Facebook became a public company and stepped on that endless treadmill or quarterly profit goals, it would have no choice but to take riskier and riskier decisions with their only available resource — our personal information.
If you think about it, this is the root of nearly every internet evil — the frenzied quest to turn our personal information into profits.
This was an impactful blog post because I made a bold and accurate prediction … but how I wish I were wrong.
 4. How I was hugged by a brand. Literally  (2016) 
 
This was an impactful blog post because it changed my life in so many positive ways.
It’s a story of how an employee from a Hyatt Hotel connected with me in a very personal manner. The post went viral, Hyatt put it on the front page of their website, the employee involved was eventually named Employee of the Year, and this story became a staple of my Marketing Rebellion speech.
And Teri and I are still friends!
 3. Get ready social scoring will change your life (2010) 
 
In 2010, I discovered this little startup called Klout. This was the first company to try to assess the influence on the web by analyzing all your social media content and watching the types of reactions that occurred.
I recognized this as a significant trend. It was the dawn of influence marketing but it had no name at the time, so I called it “social scoring.”
The post raised a ruckus. People loathed the idea of being assessed and rated with a number, although we take that for granted on the web today!
This was my first article to truly go viral. It was such an impactful blog post that it propelled me to be interviewed about this trend by The New York Times.
All of that is cool but the biggest impact of this post is that it was the spark for my book Return On Influence, the world’s first book on influence marketing.
 2. The social media country club (2009) 
 
This was among the boldest and riskiest blog posts I’ve written. And it shook things up.
After I had been blogging for awhile, I observed that there was a cozy club of bloggers at the top of the business who formed this tight and impenetrable group of sycophants. There was no disagreement. There was no debate. These were the untouchable power brokers of the social media industry.
So, I called them out. I pointed out that this was an unhealthy dynamic and that we could only grow through debate and dissent.
I’m not exaggerating when I say my hand shook when I pushed the button to “publish.” It was one of the biggest risks of my career.
This post was significant for a number of reasons. It was the first time that I followed the fear instead of avoiding it on a blog post. And when I do that I am always rewarded.
Second, it opened up a healthy debate about this power structure. This post received 115 comments. Young bloggers said openly how fearful they were of disagreeing with the top bloggers in the field.
Third, I consider this post the true start of my blogging career. It was the moment I decided to be unafraid. I would tell the truth in a way that was professional and helpful. I hope that is what I am known for today.
 1. Content Shock (2014) 
 
If you have followed my career at all, it will be no surprise that this is at the top of the list of impactful blog posts of the decade.
The idea for this post had bubbled in my head for more than two years. Content marketing was becoming harder in ways I could not necessarily define. Something was changing.
And then it hit me — Producing prodigious amounts of content on the web would naturally follow other normal economic models of supply and demand. And when the supply of content grossly outstrips the demand, something dramatic is going to happen. Content marketing would not be sustainable.
When I published this post, every content marketing guru out there slammed it, creating an enormous social media firestorm.
Frankly, I was surprised by this outpouring. This idea behind this article was not controversial. It was common sense! But I underestimated how a relatively simple economic observation would threaten people who were self-proclaimed evangelists for content marketing.
One notable guru laughed at me on a podcast. “Mark is wrong,” he said. “The best content will always rise to the top. Period.” That sort of commentary is obviously delusional, which is why my post was so important. It popped the content marketing guru bubble.
Today, lots of research has poured forth showing my prediction was correct. Content Shock has become a general industry term describing this era of over-saturated content. Thousands of articles have linked to my original post and it has become a regular topic in books and industry conferences.
Most of the people who slammed me when the post came out have since apologized, although there are a few misleading evangelists still out there and I suppose there always will be.
Not only did this post ignite a discussion that continues today, it became the basis for my book The Content Code: Six essential strategies to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business — the antidote for Content Shock!
So there you have it — my most impactful blog posts, 10 years in the making!
How has this blog impacted you?
 Mark Schaefer is the chief blogger for this site, executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, and the author of several best-selling digital marketing books. He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon. 
 Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com 
 
    All posts 
 
Subscribe to my blog posts and special offers newsletter
Mark's blog {grow} is consistently ranked among the top marketing blogs in the industry. Click to subscribe securely in just moments.
The 10 most impactful blog posts of the decade - Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}
https://businessesgrow.com/2019/12/16/impactful-blog-posts/