As easy as entering a field in a social website

Setting up a group in facebook does not check if you are the owner of the website you input. Should it? I think seeing as this person put an email address (not a true one for woofbarkwag but still getting emails to my catch all from this) a simple send email to check could have been done in cases like this. Of course, if the person doesn’t put an email in this wouldn’t sort that out. How responsible should facebook even be in cases like this? I will find that out if I can even get this group shut down. It does open the whole can of worms around controlling your identity online. Can you really control anyone setting up a group around your blog and posting what they want – even in my case appearing to be the owner of my site.

Corporate obsession with identity ownership

Companies are often fixated on ‘owning’ their brand – from each domain name to patenting every piece of branding. Some of the larger companies even have employees monitoring the use of their brand. The lower end of the market has traditionally been more lax on this partially due to funds. In this digital world it is all too easy for someone to fake ownership of a site even if it is as in my case by creating a group on a social networking site. Flickr and social networks have kept us all ‘in the know’ about who is ripping our design off. However, cases like mine highlight as blog owners we should apply a bit more diligence over who is claiming ownership and creating things around our blog.

Why should you care it’s traffic and flattering?

I found out about this group through my traffic statistics, on seeing the referral I was rather surprised as to what I found. Some may say why should I care? Isn’t all traffic good? You should be flattered someone likes your blog this much? I disagree though, this is not a group I can control. Who is to say that my beliefs and foundations which my blog has will be followed by this group? I have no knowledge of this person and what their aims are. To be honest I’m simply puzzled as to their ‘gain’ from this. That aside, this is group that can have a negative or positive impact on my blog – the fact that I can not control which direction it goes is a problem. Couple this with the fact that only if you know me or read the blog about page (only a small percentage of traffic would), would you even know this person who created the group did not own and write on woofbarkwag. They are basically handing in homework to teacher which I have written and saying they did it. I do not find any of these reasons flattering. It’s one thing to be asked and another to have someone do this without your knowledge – costs nothing to email the blog owner.

Making yourself more aware

The bottom line this has taught me is that you have to be more vigilant about what your blog is being linked to. All bloggers are aware of their content being syndicated without them knowing – how many have thought to search facebook and other social networks to see what is being linked to your blog? My case I do find a bit odd as there is no obvious ‘gain’ to this person in doing this. Woofbarkwag is a small blog only just been admitted to 9rules and off most radars as slowly building up. The point isn’t muted by it being a smaller blog though, it raises issues all bloggers should be aware of.

As for action, I have contacted a few people at facebook along with the ‘owner’ of this group – not surprised by their so far lack of response. All I can hope is that this will be resolved and the group taken down this week along with suitable preventions being made by facebook.

It’s times like these that challenge even the most blog mused of us. I get it more with the design posts on my blog – I feel sometimes I’ve said this so many times before how can I justify saying it again. The thing is really that sometimes you do repeat – time is like that and there are only x number of subjects in the world (some blogs are only on one subject after all) – yet the key is to finding a fresh approach to it. Journalism is like this, the same news goes around and comes back again but it’s how the delivery is done that is the key. Finding fresh material and inserting it into the mix also reduces this rewind / heard it all before feeling.

Blog block can easily come as a result of this blogged there before feeling. I’ve had a fair bit of that lately in the sense of ‘what is there to write about anymore’, the thing is there is always something to write about as a blogger and you just have to de-block yourself. Yes, you may have said it before but have you said it in this way or with this view before? Seeing things from different sides of the coin really can offer a new fresh post. Often it’s tempting to start a new blog when this feeling comes – if you do something different then yes it won’t be the deja vu for a while, the point is it always comes and how you deal with it when it does. The successful bloggers in my book are those who take that blog repeating and turn it into new angles and a new approach to things. Often returning to a subject can bring it more power and more relevance.

I’ve been thinking of how I should look through my own archives and take my own advice (first time for everything there) in revisiting some post views and seeing if I feel the same or things have changed? We have a constant source we can use in those creative droughts and most of us just ignore it to search for elusive shiny new posts. Time traveling back isn’t always bad and it’s something I want to start doing a bit more every now and then. Yes, you have to be careful in rinse and repeating or going back – everything in moderation – but it also can be a rewarding and good post making thing to do.

1. Need.

I have this strange compulsion to write and have done since a young age, blogging to me is just a way of feeding that urge. I no longer write creative writing as my blogging has filled that part of my life.

2. Discovery.

Through my blog I find out my weaknesses and strengths and it’s showing me areas I can work on and solidifies things I know. This I love about blogging and it’s ability to focus me on what is important to me.

3. Soundbox.

My husband and dogs are bored of me ranting on, no really they are. As a result I get to type out into the world through my blog.

4. Connections.

Where I live there is not what you’d call a ‘web community’ or even a blogging on for that matter. My blogging connects me to an online community where I can pull up a chair and not feel the weirdo that mutters words like ‘blogging’ or ‘social networking’ and ‘grid layouts’ whilst marvelling at the colours on the shelves in the supermarket.

5. Career.

As a web designer and developer I think it’s important that I blog. Whilst it’s good from my point of view (networking and business) I also believe in sharing back to the community things and keeping the cycle of knowledge going and try to keep that through my blog.

So, there you go those are my 5 reasons to blog. Now, whether they do it or not here goes out on a limb with some tags to people – usually I don’t tag but what this meme I found a bit interesting and I’m interested in finding out these tagged people’s reasons for blogging. Dave, Tyme, Scrivs, James.

My blog club anime entry is going to be slightly different from the way I did blog club before and I’m going to be posting an interview I did with Michael Ono the 9rules anime community leader. So, here goes.

First up, can you introduce yourself please.

Hi my name is Michael, I am a college student in Washington D.C. I enjoy a lot of things like diving, reading blogs, writing, using Facebook and playing video games but I also happen to enjoy Japanese anime. I’m 19 and I like almost any kind of food with the exception of tomatoes and I while I do read blogs, I don’t read as much of the newspaper as I probably should. lol

When did you start getting into anime and how did that happen?

How did I start? Well I think like most people from my generation, I started off by watching Cartoon Network and then by watching Dragon Ball Z. I did a lot of Google searching and found out about torrent tracking websites and fansubbing groups and the whole thing kinda just took off from there. If you’re willing to spend enough time on the Internet you’ll eventually run into this kind of stuff.

Ok, one of the most confused things seems to be the use of anime and manga, can explain what they both mean and their differences?

There’s actually not much to be confused about. Anime is the animation reenactment of a typical graphic novel aka manga. In general, a manga is published first in Japan, and if it becomes popular enough it gets created into an anime. You can pick up a typical manga at Barnes & Noble, just look for the kids sitting in the book aisle.

What anime titles would you recommend to someone as a ‘starter’?

That’s a difficult one because everyone has a different set of tastes. If you can get your hands on it, I would recommend Fullmetal Alchemist if you’re into action and adventure and I could also recommend Planetes if you are into space travel but as a starter anime? Why not try Honey and Clover? The show aired about a year ago and was part of Fuji TV’s campaign to have anime appeal to a broader audience. So why not give that one a try? It’s probably one of my favorites.

Because manga is more easily accessible for those without the means to download anime, I would almost recommend picking up a couple of manga volumes to read. The Planetes manga was probably one of my favorite manga series, I plan to buy Welcome to the NHK and but there are also some fun titles out there like School Rumble and Love Hina. If I could recommend a non manga graphic novel I would also recommend that you read Persepolis and if you like that Persepolis 2. Marijane Satrapi, the author is one of my favorite. She’s great.

If you had to name one anime that is your all time favorite what would it be?

Haha back again! So yeah, Honey and Clover is a great show to watch and I would highly recommend it to anyone if they can get their hands on it. Unlike most of the anime out there, I think that the characters in Honey and Clover all have something that everyone can actually relate to. It’s just a show about regular people growing up and living out their lives and that in itself is beautiful. One more thing about the show, I just think that it is awesome that H&C has a ton of original music in every episode.

There is a view of anime fans which is not overly flattering, the stay at home and never go out freaks that dress up for conventions… Firstly, what do you think about this and secondly, do you own a anime costume?

First of all, yes I do own an anime costume. I dressed up as Coronel Mustang for Halloween one year. If anyone’s had the chance to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, they will know that he kicks butt. And to answer your first question about anime fandom I have this to say.

Behind every stereotype there is a bit of truth. I know some people who are into anime and are perfectly normal human beings. (But then again what is normal?) But then there are some people who I am acquainted with in real life, encounter on the Internet and see at my University who are in serious need of help. Having said that, I think that it is part of human nature and life to have things that bother us. Even the popular kids have their issues.

What do you see as this seasons anime must watches?

Definitely, Hataraki Man, damn that show is good. And I’m such a dork for liking it. Matsukata is really cool in my opinion and I think that the author behind the series was being serious when she wrote the manga. It’s a show about Women working in Japan and the choice to get married or to continue working. Who knows? Maybe I just like it because I’m in journalism school? I get all excited when ever they talk about taking things to press. I know.

Can you give us a quick rough guide to what you can find in the 9rules anime community?

Sure no problem. We accepted a lot of sites in round 5 and there are a ton of sites to look at. To be honest, most of the blogs that I see on 9rules right now don’t cover a lot of the anime’s that I watch. I really like Jeff Lawson’s site because of his commentary. I read the Karoshi anime blog on occasion.

While I don’t necessarily agree with everything that our community does, I have learned that it is important to be opened minded about it all. I think the previous 9rules Religious Community Leader Shawn Anthony got in a little bit of a pickle for doing this back in his old CL days. Which was too bad because it sounded like he had a lot of things that he wanted to do and he sounded like a friendly guy.

I think when your in a leadership position like in 9rules, it is important to not let your personal agenda’s get in the way of your job. Sure I have a lot of goals that I wish to accomplish with our 9rules community but the community comes first…definitely.

What do you say to people that say anime is ‘just cartoons’?

Well anime’s are cartoons but I think to say that anime’s are like the old one genre superhero comics is false. I think when people in America think of comics they think of super heroes and the Daily Circus while there are so many anime and manga titles.

Ok, you’ve told us your favorite, now if you were told you can only ever view 5 other anime what would they be?

Um that’s a tough one. I don’t really know. One of the nice things about anime is that there’s always new stuff coming out so I’m not afraid of not having something new on my hard drive. I still love shows like Fullmetal Alchemist but I don’t watch them every day, or every other week even. But to answer your question, probably Honey and Clover.

What do you feel about anime exploding in the USA, UK and other places besides it’s origins? Do you feel it waters it down or only improves it?

Um this is actually an interesting phenomena. Yes you are right, when anime is translated and repackaged into something to be watched on British T.V. There are certain things that are cut out and misinterpreted. But the real fascinating thing about anime and illegally delivered anime is that the whole world is catching on. (For better or for worse.)

I remember hearing kids from in South Africa who like to watch Naruto. And there was this other time where I could have swore that I saw somebody from Saudi Arabia via the bit torrent country tracer plugin. Ironically, the Japanese government probably doesn’t quite know what to do about the whole piracy thing and if they wanted to, they could probably do something about it.

Does anime mean you have to understand Japanese culture?

Not really but it helps. Japanese culture is really about a certain mindset. There are certain ideas and beliefs that are ingrained into Japanese culture and some of it is good while some of it can be unhealthy in my opinion.

One of the nice things about fansubbed anime is that they’ll sometimes leave translation notes in the subtitles. It’s really fascinating.

What are some of the jargon words you would come across in anime – the most common ones? Can you explain a few of these please?

Well a lot of anime jargon actually comes from the Japanese language itself. For instance, unlike America, Japanese people address each other formally by their last name. San is used to address someone of equal rank or social status. So I guess I could call you Karmatosed-san and that would do the trick. You have simple things like that but then you also have the more obscure and “exotic” stuff like: lolicon which means love for small boys. (I know, times have changed.) Now that I think of it, a lot of more obscure anime jargon is in fact related to certain kinds of fetishes.

Do you have a favorite anime studio and artist?

No not really. Of course I’m always biased towards J.C. Staff for animating Honey and Clover but there aren’t many others. I like listening to Spitz but there isn’t anything much else that I enjoy in particular. Just good anime.

Thanks to Michael for taking part in this interview.

The next fortnight blog club has been announced over at the 9rules notes and when people have finished posting their blog club’s for this fortnight I am going to do a summary up also. The more the merrier so if you’ve not got a 9rules notes account (anyone can sign up and join in), then I’d invite you to and start joining in with blog club. Next fortnight it will be the music community which has something for every musical taste you could possibly be hiding in your iTunes.

In many ways I think that online has taught me what in life I always failed to do – often still fail to do. That was the whole elusive ‘thinking before you speak’. I have always had a slight lack of brain linking to mouth communication going on and sometimes my mouth just produces things that leave my brain banging it’s head on my skull in disbelief. I was of course the ‘par cark’ queen and one who never quite got what was the subtleness of ‘honesty’. Some of the finer qualities of democratic speech have and probably will always remain a great mystery to me.

I guess if I’d been born in a different time I’d have been called someone that ‘labels a spade a spade’. This has of course with age mellowed and less times I find myself pushing myself into various hot water through lack of brain / mouth relationships – it still happens but to lesser degrees of burning. With things online I forget the amount of times I’ve posted something in a text field then deleted or edited at the last minute just because I took a moment to pause – it’s saved me also many times in the past.

Online it’s a hard lesson you learn about pausing before you submit. It’s also a fine line between censoring the life out of something and speaking your mind and brain at the same time. You could list the times when people online have had a touch of foot in mouth, until the cows in every time zone come home and even the ones on mars. The line between that gentle voice censorship to stop insanity and censorship gone crazy with a bucket of PR and marketing on top, is a fine one that most bloggers tread as frequently as they post. Be true to yourself but also don’t be constantly removing your foot from your mouth.

The first of these was the post from Business logs ‘Money buys lots of things including objective feedback for b5media’. I think most people know by now my reasons for choosing 9rules as a blog network and part of that was the way they work and the people behind it’s ability to express themselves coherently and with integrity. There has always historically been so-called rivalry between b5 and 9rules, that really needs to be put to aside to look at this.

B5 media basically got VC funding of $2 (the figure is being disputed) and this is something that grates a little with me. I did have a minor woot moment at business acknowledging blogging netowrks and don’t think there isn’t a slight pat on the back deserved – thing is I’m not sure if it should be a slap or pat. In the Uk funding is shall we say less thrown about like it’s christmas and it’s snow. I don’t know if anyone deserves ever that money, but it’s the issues having investors creates that I personally think would have a negative effect on a business. Someone buys into your business they want something so you better have a solid model that you ensure stays the same, otherwise quickly it becomes a very different beast. My other point would be that any blogging network is it’s members in part. Yes, there are the network workers behind and in-front of the scenes, but what is a blogging network without good quality blogs? So, how many of these blogs are getting a slice of this investment pie? How many of them are seeing rewards in some way for being members? These are crucial bits to me. Mike writes an interesting article and puts forward some interesting points including the business model of b5 and other’s views on it. Whether it is a real deal or a funding model of any other form is disputable, the key here is with such risk investment (and it is a risky one if you think about it) there has to be something in it for the investors.

The other post I would like to comment about is from Simple and Loveable entitled ‘Are your business cars as effective as they could be’. I can’t tell you the saga that has been my business cards, mainly because it will possibly bore you to death. It’s the one area of my business I always feel gets a ‘could do better’ report card. I’ve hummed and muttered over so many different combinations it is not funny anymore. This is a great article though and made some points clear to me. It revolves around ‘quick entry’ points’ which we all apply to websites, but how many of us apply to our business cards? I am definitely going to follow through the simple steps Nat outlines here when I come to do my next batch. The fog around my business cards has lifted slightly thanks to this great post.

That’s blog club for the business community then. With such a range of blogs from entrepreneur, advertising to user experience and customer management – you can find information on anything to do and around business. I’m not going to list them here but I’d recommend checking them all out, you don’t have to own a business as this information is useful for anyone.

• Volkswagen Polo : wreck of a machine whose bottom fell out (yes literally).
• Panda 4 wheel driver : if there was a more stupid creation I have yet to see it, yes I was a student and the car was black and had cute little pandas on it (and again yes that is a cringe worthy part of my younger personality).
• Ford Cortina : vomit yellow in colour and the type that required a proper 70s across hood bum surfing to get in, it even came with old people smell. Eventually this got stolen and abandoned (pretty much says it all), the further fact that the ticket I got was for more than the car and that I couldn’t prove I hadn’t abandon the car; really nails it.
• Volkswagen Polo : yes another one and no, I didn’t learn from the last time and this one actually tried to kill us or so the mechanic thought.
• Vectra Estate : current car. This was a practical decision and can fit comfortably both an ikea shopping spree or alternatively 2 labradors in it. It’s the biggest engine we’ve ever had at 1.8l and the electric windows proved much enjoyment for many months.

As you can see, I am possibly not the best to comment on car matters of any form. However, the automoblile community at 9rules is definitely one that can speak up.

Here is a brief summary of the blogs in the 9rules automobile community:

• Louis Cars :
  This has some great car porn and articles of interest on a range of cars from Aston Martin to Volvo. I love the fact there are some great illustrations also on this site which really adds to it with the great news.
• Kartlink :
  Kartlink covers all things kart racing and has as it’s editor Mary-Ann. Even though it could be seen as a specialist area this site is of interest no matter if you kart or not – good writing is good writing when it comes down to it. Makes me want to go karting which can’t be a bad thing.
• Jalopy Joural ;
  This site takes a trip down memory lane in a hot rod. The love for the subject is clear from the posts in this blog. As the author describes for him “hot rodding is a religion.”
• Volksbloggin ;
  This site really does what it says on the tin. There is a blog from a web development firm and who all drive VWs. I do really have a soft spot myself for Volkswagen’s so for me, this is a great blog to find.

There you go, that is blog club for automobiles. Before, I go a brief summary of Blog Club for Art. There was only one entry for last fortnight’s blog club on Art (apart from my late one) and it was from the great TMCdaily. Automobile blog club is a bit late from me and so far there doesn’t seem to be any 9rulers joined in. I did always say that even if nobody joined in, I would be participating in this for my own enjoyment and I still maintain that. I am hopeful a few more 9rulers will join in for the next one which is Business.

The 9rules art community explores this diversity in the range of the members. I thought as art was such a diverse an subjective area that rather than discussing more about what art means to me or anything along the personal line, I would look at each of the 4 art blogs in the community and explore their take on art.

• Leihu.com :
  Leihu is the blog of James Mathias and has by itself gained a lot of coverage for it’s unique design and dark side. Recently James has also launched a line of limited edition tees which I was quick to sign up for. James shows how web design, life and everything is effected by art. His open nature is great and the wide diversity of subjects gets you coming back for more. The art style is easiest associated with illustration if we are going to pigeon hole him at all. The Illustration fridays is something to check out and the style is reminiscent of skateboarding art to me – in-fact he’s going to even produce limited edition boards at some point (hovering over the payment link in anticipation for these).
• Descending ashtray :
  Gabe Lueders and Dave Selden are friends turned artist partners for Descending ashtray. This blog charts their adventures in art and the subjects range from photography to instillations and everything else in-between. I love the memories of working with other artists this bring to me and it shows that they have complimentary styles and charts their artistic lives. There is no particular style you can really place on their art created as it’s so varied. The drawings are amazing and make me so jealous as photography was always my thing and life drawing classes made me tremble with fear. It’s a great site to spur the artist in you and get you to just do some art. Seeing their collaborations and work just lights that creative torch paper.
• Centripetal Notion :
  If nothing else this blog from Justin is diverse. The range of work on show is a magpie selection from all art forms. It’s a feast for the senses including video, music and static work. Described by Justin as:

  … a daily-ish node for the synaesthetic as heart, inasmuch as it being a fusion of art, design, music, science and technology….

  It is great for a feast of the senses this blog delivers content of such great variety that it spans anything you care to label art and some most generally don’t. Centripetal Notion really challenges the traditional notions of what is art and for me this is great as I do believe art can be seen in anything.

• Robot Johnny :
  John Martz is a graphic designer and freelance illustrator along with being the editor for Drawn!. This site started as a font bank and then progressed to the form it is in today. The subject matter is varied from comics, illustration through to writing and film with lots of things in the middle. There are still fonts to get and the host himself Robot Johnny is there throughout the site. Comics are a large part of the site and the posts about these are a great resource and trigger of interest. Robot Johnny is a place to hang out and feast your lighter side of art where graphic design and illustration merge.

There you go, that is the art community at 9rules. It might be a smaller community but the subject matter covered shows the diversity of art and also challenges notions of what is art. To me, this is exactly what an art community of blogs should be.

I find it a bit funny now thinking that was my conclusion. I don’t feel that way anymore. Partially through reading other people’s blogs and partly from some recent writing I’ve done on this blog. I realised that blogging is in itself another form of creative writing. If you think of creative writing as an art form then a good blog can be art. There are blogs that I feel touch something inside, where the blogger reaches out and grabs some part of your essence in the things they write. I love those blogs. It needn’t be some great earth shattering analysis. Blogs are often about the little things. That is also one reason I like them.

There is an art to writing a blog. i definitely am not saying that mine is an art form and won’t be pointing you to any here to show good or bad art. One thing I learnt from being an art student before I took software, was that art is so subjective you can’t expect the same feelings on it. Blogging touches people in different ways. It is also a different medium from blog to blog. Some use it to report. to teach, to vent, to figure out things – blogs all have different motivations like art. They use different techniques, different tools, different ways to write whatever they are intended for. Like art they all look different and are a matter of taste visually along with stylistically.

There is one thing that realising this has given me back. I guess I was getting a little jaded by the whole blogging world. I hadn’t gone off it – I have a feeling I never will. Blogs just were for me an accepted part and I wasn’t really feeling the passion so much anymore. It was still their but the full energy wasn’t. With starting to look at blogs like art I have recharged batteries about blogging. I am looking at them in a different light now no matter what their context is. it’s odd when you can look at a blog about CSS and think of it as an art form – it’s also sort of freeing. Appreciating the small things in the art form has always been a passion for me. Blogging really should be recognised not just as the age old ‘online journal’ or ‘ designers only’ resource where bloggers are all either reporting, teaching or saying what cute thing their dog did today. I don’t know if there is a course for blogging – I can see that being a popular one at University. Is this part of blogging growing up? Is this the natural evolution of blogging to become an art form?