BlogWorld New Media Expo 2010 contest entry

General by Guy Johnson

Note to the regular readers of the blog:  The following post is my entry into a contest to win a free pass to the BlogWorld New Media Expo 2010 to be held next month.  To participate in the contest entrants were ask to post on their respective blogs why they should be awarded a pass to BlogWorld New Media Expo.  The following is my entry, and is not real estate-related, so feel free to ignore if you have no interest.  On the other hand, because this post pertains to improvements to this blog, I would like to take this opportunity to ask for suggestions for improving the blog.  Whether you have a design- or content-related suggestion, feel free to leave a comment below.  Thank you, Guy

HELP!  I am in desperate need the knowledge disseminated at BlogWorld New Media Expo.  More importantly, my blog needs it!

Just take a look at my blog.  It is in dire need of an overhaul.  Not only from a design standpoint, but from a platform version standpoint as well.  The last time my blog underwent a design update, Facebook had only 50 million users and only a few people had heard of Twitter.

About the only thing current on my blog is the daily content I publish and the comments submitted by the readers.  And though I realize that it is the content that is the most important feature of my blog, I feel that I am sorely overdue in providing a current, fully-functioning interface with which to access and share that content.

For example, currently

  • my Forums aren’t functioning
  • my Widgets are outdated (I hear they make dynamic ones these days)
  • readers are unable to “Like” my posts (even if they do)
  • two of the writers pictured on the blog’s masthead no longer write for the blog. [they haven’t for over a year.]
  • and each time I log in to my blog’s Admin panel I’m greeted with the following message: “A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now.”  Well, I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been met with that message for nearly three years now!

In fact, I’m so tardy in updating to the current version of WordPress that another (slightly less friendly) WP message on my Admin page informs me: “Your WordPress 2.3.2 is out of date. Please update.”  Yes, you read that correctly, ‘version 2.3’!  You may remember the 2.3 release as the ‘Dexter’ version from September 2007.

But how to accomplish the things I need to do bring my blog up to the current blogging standards?  That’s where the BlogWorld New Media Expo comes in.  I need to learn from the masters what needs to be done and how to do it.  Because, at the moment, I’m clueless.  I’m the guy who thinks an iFrame is a display case for my iPad, and that PHP was the drug that they made angel dust from in the 80’s.

Please Help!  If you can spare a Full Access Pass to BlogWorld New Media Expo 2010, it will most definitely be put to good use.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,
Guy Johnson

4 comments

  1. skeptical

    Guy,
    FWIW, I access the blog on occasion from my Android. It can take quite a while to upload a post, especially if there are more than a dozen comments. It’d be great if there were an iPhone/Android app for the blog that would facilitate quick uploading and access from a smartphone.

    Other than that, your technological wishlist above notwithstanding, I think the RRB is one of the best blogs out there. Despite the occassional shouting match I continue to be amazed at the relatively civil discussion in such a wide open, unrestricted forum. Again, FWIW….

  2. smarten

    Good luck Guy!

    I’d like to see:

    1. The ability to preview a blog before it’s actually published;
    2. The ability to run spell/grammer check before a blog is actually published;
    3. The ability to search prior posts by particular contributors.

    Thanks for your consideration.

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