What I wouldn’t give for some Google Analytics

Something happened today, right here on this blog and I haven’t the foggiest what it was. There was an inexplicable jump in traffic and I would give my left, nay, my RIGHT leg to know what it was that caused it (can’t have an arm, need it for coding).

It’s inexplicable since I haven’t posted anything in almost three weeks. I’ve been busy. In places that didn’t always have internet. And were possibly keeping my attention long enough to not feel the need to write. And jet lag. That’s why.

So, WordPress rocks, this much is clear, I have elaborated on my fanboy status in other posts. What (blogs at) WordPress.com lacks, however, seriously, is the ability to use Google Analytics.

I don’t much care what the piss poor excuses are for WordPress.com blogs having Google Analytics (the main site uses it, blogs aren’t websites, blah blah blah), the built-in stats are rather… how shall I put it… crap. It would be terribly useful, for example, to know where in the world the people who read this blog come from, for example, so that I can write more stuff relevant to their situation.

I bet the Bangkokians™ would love to hear more of my opinion on the issues in Bangkok, just to throw something out there (I don’t really have an opinion, haven’t been paying attention, but you get what I mean right?).

Anyway, WordPress.com, give me Google Analytics, I will give you money. Make sense?

Also, those people who came here for reasons I cannot fathom, come back tomorrow again. Not much will have changed to be sure, but it will make me happier. How could that not be a good thing?

The sound of the llama making groaning noises or going “mwa” is often a sign of fear or anger. If a llama is agitated, it will lay its ears back.

Christopher Maloney is a quack – For SHAME WordPress. Epic Fail.

I would like to state categorically that:

Christopher Maloney is a quack.

I would also like to say to WordPress, shame on you. Suspending a blog for calling a fucking moron a fucking moron is ridiculous. Epic fail guys, epic fail.

http://withoutapologyinmaine.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/ftsos-fiasco/

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/christopher_maloney_is_a_quack.php

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/letters/7209347.html

So, like, now that I’ve said it, should I be making backups of my posts, getting ready to migrate back to Blogger? Fail.

HootSuite is pretty cool and pretty useful

HootSuite is pretty cool and pretty useful but I think the TweetDeck interface is nicer even though it lacks some of HootSuite functionality (and obviously HootSuite lacks some TweetDeck functionality).

The real reason I looked at HootSuite is because they just recently integrated WordPress functionality into it. My first thought was, cool, all four major social networking tools I use in one application. And since I use Chrome as my web browser, I can set HootSuite (like I do GMail, Google Analytics, Google Reader etc.) to launch like an application, which I have pinned to my task bar, making it feel like any normal application (possibly one of my favourite features of Chrome).

So I made this post in HootSuite (to start with) but realised that we’re back to square one then as far as setting a decent subject, selecting categories and keywords go. In the end it is much the same as posting from an email, with an email having the added advantage of being able to specify a subject.

HootSuite has a couple of features that TweetDeck really needs: scheduled tweets and Facebook status updates and the ability to have multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts from a single interface. I also like the way HootSuite works with tabs, TweetDeck could use some of that.

I’ll keep an eye on HootSuite but I don’t think I’ll be dumping TweetDeck for it and the WordPress integration isn’t nearly good enough for me to stop using the WordPress interface for that.

I hope the guys at TweetDeck are paying attention though, because I would hate to see them fall behind, they have done good work with their product so far.

Losing the blogger at the press… and a use for a llama

I started off this latest bout of blogging by essentially trying three different platforms, all at the same time.

I registered onefuriousllama.wordpress.com, onefuriousllama.blogspot.com and onefuriousllama.posterous.com and then went ahead and set up a distribution group in my Google Apps so that I could send one email to the group and have it forwarded on to the email posting service of each blogging platform.

I set up each site to be more or less similar so that I could get a real feel for which way I wanted to go. My previous blog was a self hosted WordPress site which did work pretty well but I was in the market for some edutainmusement.

The first couple of posts went along fine and got posted to all three the sites nicely (Google is probably still nailing me for posting in triplicate, but I have, as yet, still not bothered to find out). As I got more into the swing of things, things like tags and categories needed to be added which couldn’t be done from an email. This quickly made the three blog idea… not so great.

It was apparent almost from the beginning that Posterous wasn’t going to cut it. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s ok, just not quite for me. I’ll probably end up using it to post galleries at some point, possibly. Ok, probably not, but that’s not the point.

It was basically a toss up between Blogger/Blogspot and WordPress.

This is the thing you see, Blogspot is cool. The interface works, the options are great, the site templates are passable. Overall it’s not terrible, but it’s hardly mind blowing. What put me off properly was the number of ‘gadgets’ that didn’t work at all or that just looked hideous and the fact that the management interface… doesn’t feel like an application, it feels like a website. Perhaps it’s just the developer in me but when I use an on-line ‘application’ I want it to feel like an application, not a front end.

WordPress, however, rocks. Ok, sure, I may be biased but I did say that when I started this process.

I like the WordPress admin interface, I like the way the plug-ins and modules work. I like the API, the template system, the blogging interface, the theme management, the widget system and most of all, I like the quality of the plug-ins. Again, I may be biased but it *feels* like the general quality of  WordPress plug-ins are better than, say, Joomla. It is possible that I was just unlucky with the Joomla plug-ins I tried. Possibly.

I have used Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and Silverstripe and I have also written my own comprehensive CMS systems from the ground up, twice, and WordPress is my favourite. Drupal is too complicated, Joomla suffers from a general lack of quality in my opinion, Silverstripe is ok until you try write a module and my own CMSes suffered from a severe lack of attention and age.

My migration back to WordPress sort of just happened naturally. I started using the WordPress interface for writing the posts instead of GMail and I was two posts in before I realised that the other two sites hadn’t been updated.

And that, was that.

There are a couple of things that can be improved inWordPress, obviously (more AJAX in the admin interface, some additional tools for blog post development and I would dearly like to make the editor window bigger and have it stay that way) but on a whole, for a blog or for a normal site, WordPress is the shit. THE shit. (Except for the lack of Google analytics on wordpress.com, that does suck a bit).

So the bottom line is this: use WordPress, it’s better that way.

One of the main uses for llamas at the time of the Spanish conquest was to bring down ore from the mines in the mountains.