For those who currently subscribe to this blog (or would like to, hint, hint) please be advised that I have just changed my feed address to http://feeds.feedburner.com/mattstone so you will need to update if you want to stay in touch. Easiest way to update is just click here and subscribe via your feed reader of choice.
Not being a Catholic, or at least not these days, the idea of anonymous confession doesn't hold much appeal for me. But I did take note of a recent article on the growth of online confession called Forgive us, father; we'd rather go online. In the article, Ashley Fantz writes:
Already a repository for too much information from bloggers divulging their every intimate thought, the Web recently extended its reach into territory the church once dominated. Tens of thousands of the guilty among us are visiting confessional booths at ivescrewedup.com, mysecret.tv and dailyconfessions.com and unburdening themselves anonymously.
I wonder who they think they are really confessing to.
I have just seen that mattstone.blogs.com was ranked 64th in the buggerall.com.au list of Australia’s noisiest bloggers - Winter 07. Nice to finally make it to the top 100 in Australia but I must take it with a little grain of salt given the way I bounce up and down in the rankings depending on the measurement method. Thanks to you all who make the conversations so worthwhile.
Hiya folks, I'm back from hols. I may need a bit of time to catch up on all the emails (they're still downloading) but I'll be getting stuck into them straight away.
Want to extend your reach in cyberspace?
After setting up a feed to channel content from this blog into my Facebook page some weeks ago, I started wondering, could I do the same thing for other social media networks, to broaden my cyberspace footprint and maximize the conversational possibilities? Well the answer is yes, and being the generous sort of guy I am I am going to share it with you all.
RSS Feed
The first thing you need to do, if you haven't already done so long ago, is to set up an RSS feed for your blog. To do that simply go to FeedBurner and follow the instructions.
Feeding into Facebook
Well many people seem to have already figured out how to do this for themselves, but just in case you haven't, both the BlogFriends and the FlogBlog applications you'll find on Facebook will do the job nicely. You will find me using both these applications on my Facebook page to mirror posts from here over there. To do the same just click on the applications and sign up, but don't forget to list me as a blog friend, nudge, nudge.
Feeding into MyChurch
I figured this one out a few weeks back. The trick is:
I have set one up on my MyChurch profile here.
The only problem is, it seems you have to "refresh" each time to get the system to recognize fresh content has been posted. Not sure if there is a work around for that yet so how much of a pain this is depends on your frequency of natural use and whether you can tolerate leaving the content unrefreshed in the interum.
But the good news is, it all just got a whole lot easier as there is now a MyChurch application on Facebook, which can be used to link these together. Have another look at my Facebook page.
Feeding into MySpace
This one I figured out today. There is a neat application called SpringWidgets which you can use to create a widget for your MySpace blog. The size is totally customizable. So what you do is you launch a single MySpace blog post with this widget as the content. Then never blog there ever again. You will find an example at my MySpace.
The Outcome
You can now sit back and relax as your blog feeds content into the Facebook, MySpace and MyChurch networks for you. At this point, if you wanted to, you could just forget about these social media networks and never visit again, simply leaving these blogs as an advertisement for your real blog. But of course, I'd say a little socializing doesn't go astray, I mean, that's what they're there for after all :-)
Might we call this "incarnating" your blog into multiple contexts?
I just got back from Westfields Parramatta with my new laptop power pack and guess what? It works! I am back in business. All for under $100. Yay! But you know, one thing about an enforced blogging hiatus, it gave me plenty of time to think. So maybe it was good in a way. In any case I have loads to share moving forward.
My brother checked out my laptop yesterday (he's got his own IT business) and it seems it my computer problems may be limited to a fritzed power pack. I’ll try and purchase a replacement on the weekend if I can find the time. My forced blogging hiatus has been rather productive thought. Lots of new thoughts percolating to the surface.
I have given up on trying to limit the categories I am filing my posts under. You'll find the list down the side is now gone and a category cloud has appeared in its place, with extra categories already. There is still some updating to do - so expect to find more posts appearing in each category as I sort out the "uncategorized" stuff - but feel free to jump in and start reading now. Hopefully this will come to better reflect the diversity of my missional interests.
I will be off the net this weekend. Apologies to all those awaiting responses to comments, emails and blog posts elsewhere. I will reply, it'll just be a wee bit longer that usual.
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