Consolation Champs» Blogging

A Decade of Blogging

James McNally — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:48:57 +0000

Late last night, I realized that it was the tenth anniversary (birthday?) of Consolation Champs. Although I’d started reading blogs in late 1999, and had actually been manually updating a page I called now.html for a few months before, it was on July 7, 2000 that I started my first real blog, thanks to the good folks at Blogger.com.

Back then, there were probably a few hundred blogs in existence, and I could link to all the ones I followed on one page. It was before the days of punditry, so there were no business blogs or political blogs. They grew out of people’s personal “home pages” and so were a form of self-expression. After reading about the first blogger meet-up at South by Southwest 2000, I became determined to meet some of my heroes and heroines, and the next spring, I did. I’ve returned each March to Austin and SXSW because some of the friendships I’ve made online and cemented there are very valuable to me. And I’ve stubbornly kept this blog going as a mostly personal blog, although I don’t post nearly as regularly as I used to. That’s partially due to laziness, but also because we have so many other online tools for keeping people updated about our lives (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc.).

But I’m proud of Consolation Champs for other reasons, too. By working with several different blogging platforms (first Blogger, then Movable Type, now WordPress), I’ve increased my knowledge of how the web works. In the early days, I did much more of the coding and design of my pages, but even now, blogging helps to keep me sharp on the latest web technologies. And all that writing (1,335 posts over ten years!) has sharpened my skills immeasurably. In fact, without rambling on here for so long, I would never have started my other blog, Toronto Screen Shots. Blogging has led to friendships and to work, and has expanded my view of the world over the past decade. I hope it will always be a part of my life.

Now, just for fun, here are some of the things I was talking about way back in the year 2000:

And that’s just from July and August of 2000! Feel free to read all 1,335 posts and I’d be delighted if you left a comment, too!

from Consolation Champs

A Decade of Blogging

My Diary

James McNally — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:42:04 +0000

I have had a file on my computer since 2001 entitled “I am beginning to write a novel.” It starts like this:

I am beginning to write a novel. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Just to begin something with no end in sight. To follow some path until it comes to an end, and then look back on where I’ve been. It won’t be a screenplay, or a play, although I’ve wanted to try my hand at those, too. The forms would be too constricting, I think, for me right now. I just want to get out there and run.

Of course, I’ve had to transfer this file from computer to computer in the almost-decade since I started writing it. It began as a sort of scratch pad for my thoughts during a period of unemployment (when I actually thought of trying to write a novel) and I’ve added to it on and off ever since. Well, truthfully, the last time I wrote in it was 2005, but I opened it up again today and added a whole bunch of new stuff.

When I first started this blog in 2000, I expected that I’d be able to use it as a sort of semi-public diary. I wanted to explore my thoughts about important issues like faith, politics, work, relationships. But it hasn’t really worked out that way. Sadly, along with many others, I’ve begun to contract my onine self just a bit over the past few years. I’ve talked a little bit about it here, this fragmentation of the blogging self into the personal and the professional, for instance. And now there are microblogging services like Twitter and self-contained social networks like Facebook. Between all of them, some have said, they’ve killed the personal blog.

I wish I could use this space to air out my thoughts a bit more, but I realize that it’s probably not going to happen again. In the meantime, I have a text file on my computer called “I am beginning to write a novel.” It’s becoming a novel, alright (currently at almost 60,000 words!). Except it’s where I tell the truth.

from Consolation Champs

My Diary

Terry Fallis Wins Leacock Medal

James McNally — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:29:19 +0000

Here’s a wonderful story. Terry Fallis is one of the founders of Thornley-Fallis Public Relations, one of the most social media-savvy PR firms around. Terry wrote and self-published a political satire last year called The Best Laid Plans. Not only did he publish it himself, but he used the book’s web site to market and promote it. As befits an innovative PR practitioner, he used all the social media tools at his disposal, making the whole endeavour a truly DIY affair.

About a month ago, Terry was nominated for the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, in the company of such literary luminaries as Douglas Coupland and Will Ferguson. The happy ending came this morning, when he found out that he had won. Bravo, Terry!

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Terry Fallis Wins Leacock Medal

RSS Woes

James McNally — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:06:42 +0000

UPDATE: All fixed now. Pay no mind.

My friend Neil just let me know that my RSS feed is, in his parlance, “borked.” The problem is that it seems to have happened just over a month ago, at the confluence of a few different events. First, I added the Disqus plugin, changing my entire commenting system. Second, I upgraded to WordPress 2.5. And last, but not least, I was the target of a Distributed Denial of Service attack, seemingly as part of a strange hacker SEO contest.

So, as brilliant as I am (!), I’m having a hard time figuring out what’s happening. The feeds all validate fine, it’s just that they’re completely empty.

My feeling is that the culprit might be the upgrade, since a few other people have experienced this over on the WordPress forums (or is that fora?). But no one seems to have a definitive answer as to how to fix it.

Any suggestions? Of course, anyone subscribed to my feed won’t actually see this, but I’m hoping there are at least a few of you still coming to look at the pretty pictures.

from Consolation Champs

RSS Woes

DDOS!

James McNally — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:05:00 +0000

As if updating my blogging software wasn’t enough of a hassle, it turns out that for most of today, my site was unreachable. It was the bad hangover of what looks to have been a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack. Wow, that makes me feel kind of important. Over the weekend, some malicious freaks hit my site over 100,000 times. These were page views, but the number of unique visitors was suspiciously low. The weird thing is that I had no trouble viewing the site until this morning, when the attack seemed to be over.

If you had trouble getting the site to load today, I apologize. And I’m glad you’re reading this now. No, not you, malicious freaks. You guys can go away and not come back. kthxbye.

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DDOS!

Freshened Up

James McNally — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:38:51 +0000

Well, a few hours of updating, uploading and customizing later, I have a freshly upgraded copy of WordPress 2.5 running Consolation Champs. I had to also update my current theme, Cutline, and then re-add all my customized header images, which also needed to be resized. So, these things never go as smoothly as advertised. A few familiar things are looking unfamiliar, but overall, it was fairly painless. Let me know if anything looks strange to you (other than the strange header images, which are strange all the time).

from Consolation Champs

Freshened Up

Disqus: Discuss

James McNally — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:43:40 +0000

I’m trying out a new commenting system for a little while. Disqus is an external commenting system, but before you start screaming, it’s not another Haloscan. Disqus actually integrates pretty well with blog entries but what it promises is to free comments from the pages they’re on and weave them into a fuller conversation. I’ve been frustrated trying to follow all the places I’ve made comments to try to keep contributing to those conversations, and perhaps a solution like Disqus can help. On their site, each commenter has a dedicated Dashboard where I can see all comments made on my blog(s) and all comments I’ve made. I’ve only had this thing installed for an hour so obviously I can’t say how I like it in practice, but I hope you’ll jump in here and comment so I can see how it works. Do you have any experience with Disqus? What do you think of the current state of blog comment systems? Do they meet your needs?

from Consolation Champs

Disqus: Discuss

SXSW 2008: Social Networking Indeed

James McNally — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:13:30 +0000

I’m here in Austin for my eighth consecutive South by Southwest Interactive conference. I’ve come to look at this week as an essential creative reboot each year. The weather in Toronto combined with the months of near darkness always leave me drained in inspiration. And then I come to Texas and spend a week with a few thousand of my closest friends.

I didn’t plan well this year. And work got crazy. And I foolishly solicited SXSW filmmakers to send me screeners. So the leadup to this year’s conference was a flurry of late nights and trying to compile a super-calendar of Interactive, Film and Music events. Now that I’m here, it’s clear that I just can’t do it all.

In fact, my normal “shy extravert” personality has taken a hit and I am finding myself cocooning in my hotel room, which is unusual for me. I think part of it might be that I’m a bit nervous about trying to meet new people (ie. Film people). On the one hand, I’m a lazy man and don’t mind hanging around with my old Interactive tribe. But I feel like I might be missing an opportunity to learn something new and talk about another of my favourite things with like-minded people. But I’m also afraid of being embraced by the Film people and then missing out on all the stuff I’ve come to love about the Interactive conference. This conflict over different social choices as well as scheduling options has left me even more paralyzed than usual. And I don’t like feeling like this.

I’m hoping that staying a few days extra to see free Music day shows and hang around with my Austin pals will sort me out. I’ll post an update in a few days.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2008: Social Networking Indeed

Is Blogging Now A Career Move?

James McNally — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:31:51 +0000

It started with a well-meaning post from Joe Thornley, of Thornley-Fallis Public Relations, one of the savviest PR companies around. Their embrace of social media cheers me up immensely, and Joe writes interestingly and often about how blogging and other social media tools can be used as part of an overall public relations strategy. But when he called blogging an essential for new PR practitioners, a red flag went up for me. He advises students:

I do not hire entry level people without looking at their blog, following their twitter stream and checking their Facebook presence. I want a sense of who they are over time, not just when they are in my office. I want to know what they think on the issues they care about and how they express themselves. I want to see whether and how they connect with others. And I can find out all those things from their social media presence.

It’s not really Joe’s post specifically that bothered me. It’s how it will be interpreted by students eager to line up that first job. I’ve already seen what I call “the rise of the pundit” drain all the personality out of a huge part of the blogosphere. Eager to show how much we know, many of us now use our blogs as soapboxes, hoping to be noticed and hired. Maybe I’m just a crotchety old blogger, but I miss the days when blogs were an extension of a person’s whole life, not just of their job.

In fact, the advice Thornley gives to these students makes me afraid that their “blogs” will be nothing more than collections of sycophantic links to the people they want to notice them, or empty boosterism of a career they’ve yet to fully try on. When the doubts come, and the disappointment, and they finally have something interesting to say, will they be afraid to say it on their blogs?

I’m rehashing a lot of what I said in my comment over on Joe’s site, but one thing I want to repeat is that it would be a real shame if the blog became just an extension of the resumé.

I’ve had a few wobbles lately about crossing the boundary here and talking about work, but ultimately, I want this space to be a true representation of what I am thinking about and struggling with over time. If I was beginning my blog in 2008 instead of way back in 2000, I don’t know if I’d be able to hold that conviction with any confidence. And I find that sad.

Rebecca Blood, pioneer weblog historian, wrote way back in 2000 in Weblogs: A History and Perspective:

As corporate interests exert tighter and tighter control over information and even art, critical evaluation is more essential than ever. As advertisements creep onto banana peels, attach themselves to paper cup sleeves, and interrupt our ATM transactions, we urgently need to cultivate forms of self-expression in order to counteract our self-defensive numbness and remember what it is to be human. We are being pummeled by a deluge of data and unless we create time and spaces in which to reflect, we will be left with only our reactions. I strongly believe in the power of weblogs to transform both writers and readers from “audience” to “public” and from “consumer” to “creator.” Weblogs are no panacea for the crippling effects of a media-saturated culture, but I believe they are one antidote.

It’s getting harder to fly that idealistic flag, but I’m not ready to give up yet. The question is, how do we teach students to be fearless when they are being taught to blog in college to make them better employees?

from Consolation Champs

Is Blogging Now A Career Move?

Social Media, Unrequited

James McNally — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:05:41 +0000

I spent a very educational evening tonight at the Talk Is Cheap “unconference” on Social Media, held at Centennial College‘s slightly inaccessible Carlaw campus, the Centre for Creative Communications. It was a free event that brought together around 200 people, mostly public relations and corporate communications practitioners. As such, it wasn’t directly related to my job, but for someone who’s desperately trying to advocate “social media” and “Web 2.0″ stuff at PricewaterhouseCoopers, it was food for my soul. Not so much in terms of content, though, as I’d have to say I probably know more about these issues than most of the people in attendance. My problem is that I’ve never held a career position that allowed me to actually apply all this knowledge. And so my passion for blogs and the like has largely gone unrequited throughout the course of my professional career(s).

This became apparent as I listened to several very good speakers, like Joe Thornley and Michael O’Connor Clarke, both of Thornley Fallis (whose employees actually communicate with me regularly in their capacity as PR agents for ThinkFilm, whose films I review for Toronto Screen Shots. Small world sometimes.) Thornley Fallis is a small Canadian public relations firm who have made great use of social media and established a reputation as leaders in helping their clients apply that knowledge. I found myself envious of working in an environment like that, and thought, perhaps foolishly, that maybe I should be working in public relations instead. But I can clearly see that my apparent zigs and zags, career-wise, are attempts to find that ideal environment where I can apply my skills and passions to the fullest while still making a decent amount of money. While I’m not going to be hasty, maybe I should examine whether my skills and experience as a web-savvy writer might be better applied in a field that is embracing social media.

While I can foresee that PwC might call upon my experience in a limited way, it’s a large firm. So large that even after several months, I still feel like I’m learning what they do. It also feels very decentralized and finding the right person to talk to takes a fair amount of work. I haven’t been there long enough to have a truly informed opinion, but my initial impression is that they’re using cumbersome and limiting technology to publish their web site. As well, they’ve separated my job function from the actual coding of web pages, so that I’m working only in Microsoft Word, writing content that someone else will mark up. So it may be too soon to tell if PwC will be a long-term home for me, or if I just have a perennially roving eye. I’m trying to get some insight into myself, anyway, and tonight was useful.

from Consolation Champs

Social Media, Unrequited

Just Give Them Blogs and WiFi

James McNally — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:48:11 +0000

From the November 2007 Harper’s magazine:

From a summary of recommendations in Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation, a 211-page report released in July by the RAND Corporation’s National Defense Research Institute, under a $400,000 contract with the United States Joint Forces Command.

HARNESS THE POWER OF INFLUENCERS: Businesses strive to harness the power of influencers and word of mouth in their marketing efforts. The U.S. military should harness the influencing power of indigenous government employees and security forces by having them blog about their views regarding coalition forces. The military might further consider enhancing the Internet access of indigenous populations via distribution of cheap and durable Wi-Fi-capable laptops and by sponsoring Wi-Fi clouds around U.S. operating bases.

from Consolation Champs

Just Give Them Blogs and WiFi

There Goes The Neighbourhood

James McNally — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:20:40 +0000

Something very odd happened in July. My site traffic slowed to a trickle. Admittedly, most of my “visitors” are people who arrive at some ancient entry through the magic of Google search. But my unique visitor count went from 4,430 in June to a measly 642 in July. August continues the trend. Does anyone out there know what happened? Has Google tightened up its algorithms? They have been criticized for ranking blogs too highly, but wow, that hurts! Of course, I’m asking a question that nobody out there will even read, based on recent traffic. Oh, the indignity…

from Consolation Champs

There Goes The Neighbourhood

Still Here! And There! And There!

James McNally — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:12:42 +0000

The lack of posts around here has been on my mind lately. I’ve just come through an incredibly busy time and can finally relax. A bit. My company’s annual huge wine tasting event was yesterday and I’m hungover in every conceivable way. It’s been a lot of work, and it’s finally finished. But in case you think I’ve been completely absent from the web lately, well, you’d be wrong. Evidence:

Podcast of the panel I moderated (Ghost In The Machine: Spirituality Online) at this year’s SXSW is now available.
I was featured along with my friends Philip and Ian on an episode of Livebait.tv about Hot Docs.
Related to the Livebait.tv story, my new film blog Toronto Screen Shots has been going like gangbusters, and I’ve got a huge stack of great DVDs to review.

So, although there hasn’t been a lot of text here lately, you can see and hear me in a few different places.

from Consolation Champs

Still Here! And There! And There!

SXSW 2007 Wrapup

James McNally — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:14:11 +0000

I know this post is long overdue, but it’s actually taken me this long to recover physically and mentally and catch up a bit at work. This year’s SXSW was even bigger than last year, and despite the fears of my friends and I, it was actually somehow a bit more manageable. This was probably due to a few factors. First, I had a panel to prepare for and that allowed me to focus on that to the exclusion of almost everything else on the Saturday. Another sadder reality was that Brooke’s father passed away just a week before I was to fly to Austin. We spent almost the entire next week with her mum in Collingwood, about an hour and a half north of Toronto. That made it pretty impossible to think about or plan my week too carefully. For a few days, it wasn’t even clear I’d be able to make the trip at all. But in a strange way, it made me less anxious about the panel and about figuring out what I wanted to do every hour of every day. I was just happy to be there. And just so you know, Brooke was able to spend some quality time alone with her mum that week and sent me on my way with her blessing. She’s amazing like that.

I didn’t attend a lot of panels, or take a lot of photos or notes, so I thought I’d just give you a list of highlights and lowlights:

Highlights

My panel was great. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet some very sharp people who also happen to be warm and genuine about their faith. I’m really hopeful that I can be involved in something like it again next year.
Sticking around a few days was a great idea. Although I didn’t buy a Music badge, there were heaps of free day shows. I got to see The Buzzocks(!), The Polyphonic Spree, Apples in Stereo, Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck and Okkervil River. There was even free food and beer.
During one of the parties during Interactive, I was chatting with my friends Kevin and Baratunde when we were joined by a personable young guy talking about films. He introduced himself as Joe and said he was acting in a film that was at the Film festival. During our 40 minute conversation, it dawned on me that we were hanging out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of The Lookout. He turned out to be a great guy, smart and interesting but completely unpretentious.
As a panelist, I got a complimentary Gold badge which allowed me to attend both Interactive and Film events. I took the opportunity to see a few films (Reign Over Me, Exiled, and Eagle Versus Shark) and this was a great break from the intensity of hanging around with smart geeks or rocking out at concerts.
The panels and keynotes I did attend were almost all interesting and valuable.
I focussed more on my writing about film and made a number of useful contacts. My decision to launch Toronto Screen Shots was based on attending a great panel called “Blogging About Film.”

Lowlights

The weather in Austin this year was kind of crappy. It rained for several days, which made getting around fairly miserable.
Hotels were expensive and filled up really early. Despite sharing with my friends Neil and Kevin, which involved spending five of my eight nights on either an air mattress or a rollaway bed, it still cost me more than US$1,000. I’m going to book my room by July or August next time.
Almost everyone I know had some travel snafus on the way home. I wasn’t immune. I flew back Saturday from Austin to Detroit without incident, but my flight from Detroit to Toronto was cancelled for “unscheduled maintenance.” Despite the fact that it’s a one hour flight, there were no flights available until Monday or Tuesday, and the airline would only pay for one night’s accomodation. I banded together with a few other Torontonians and we took a taxi across the border to Windsor and jumped on the train. I got home about seven hours late, and it cost me more money, but there was no way I was staying two days in Detroit, especially at my own expense. Boo airlines!
As always, the week went by far too quickly and I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with people. There were a few people whom I’d wanted to meet for the first time, and didn’t get the chance. Ah well, I’ll be back next year!

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2007 Wrapup

Welcome To Our Panel

James McNally — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:18:34 +0000

Ok, this entry is really just for those folks who are sitting in the Austin Convention Center Room 9C between 5:00 and 6:00pm Central Standard Time today. Welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy our panel “Ghost In The Machine: Spirituality On The Web.” I hope you’ll leave me a comment with some feedback on the panel. I hope we can do this again next year, and I know we’ll learn a lot. I want to thank Hussein, Rachel, Kevin and Gordon for agreeing to be the “smart guys” on the panel and am so glad to have finally met them in person.

And oh yeah, if you’re wondering about why I’m moderating a panel on spirituality, you might want to look here and maybe here.

from Consolation Champs

Welcome To Our Panel

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

James McNally — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:20:26 +0000

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but I’ll be attending my seventh South by Southwest in a few weeks. Things will be a little different this year for a number of reasons.

This year, for the first time ever, I’m speaking on a panel. Not seeing anything on the schedule about the subject, I proposed a panel on faith, and it was accepted. It’s entitled Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online and it’s scheduled for Saturday March 10 from 5:00-6:00. I’ve assembled a panel of rock stars who will say most of the intelligent things, but I’m still nervous and excited.
As a panelist, I received a free Gold pass this year, which means for the first time I can attend both Interactive and Film events. I’m still unclear how ticketing to film screenings works, but I’m hoping to actually see a few films this time. A few of the scheduled films recently screened at Sundance, so it might be a good chance to see some stuff that won’t make it to Toronto until at least the fall, if at all.
The Interactive section of the conference ends on Tuesday, but I’m not leaving Austin until Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to catch a few bands during the Music portion, and just generally hang out in one of my favourite American cities with some of my favourite Americans.

If you’re going to be there, make sure you say hello! And it’s also acceptable to buy me a Shiner. After all, I’m a crusty conference veteran now!

P.S. Make sure to check out SXSWBaby for the latest news and updates.

from Consolation Champs

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

Seek And Ye Shall Find

James McNally — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 16:45:49 +0000

I’ve realized that switching to WordPress has broken all my archive links. If you arrive here via Google and are not at the page you’re expecting, please use the nifty live search box in the top right corner and you will be whisked away to the place you want to be. It’s that simple! from [...]

from Consolation Champs

Seek And Ye Shall Find

Dear Movable Type

James McNally — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 20:08:56 +0000

Dear Movable Type,

Remember a few years ago when our relationship was fresh? And I wrote a Dear Blogger letter? Well, I’m sorry to say that I’m doing it again. I think we should go our separate ways.

It’s been a great four and a half years. In fact, it’s the longest relationship I’ve had with any blogging platform. But I have to admit that I’ve been fooling around for a while with someone else. And although it will be hard losing my relationship with you and your family, it’s probably best if we make a clean break.

If I’m honest, I’d have to say that you kind of let yourself go once we were together. You were always a bit slow, but you’d become kind of bloated, and trying to communicate with you had become a chore.

I’m not saying this new relationship will last forever. I think I’ve realized that it’s unwise to commit, though I’m willing to see where this goes. But I do want to say thank you. We’ve gone through some crazy stuff together, good times and bad, and you’ll always be a part of my life.

Now, let’s just say goodbye. No tears. Just goodbye.

from Consolation Champs

Dear Movable Type

Bloggers Show The Better Way

James McNally — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:59:08 +0000

I just heard that the new chairman of Toronto’s transit commission (slogan: “The Better Way”) has asked bloggers to improve the commission’s “abysmal” website. This is potentially good news, but I hope these wizards of the web are willing to go in and get their hands dirty rather than just complain. The site hasn’t been updated since it was designed back in 1998 and it takes far too long to find even the most basic information.

There are some very talented web designers and developers in our city who could make a real contribution and I hope that this project raises the profile of this sort of citizen activism. It would be nice, though, if the TTC recognized the value of this kind of work and actually paid somebody to redesign the site. So far, the readers of BlogTo, Torontoist, and Spacing magazine have become involved.

from Consolation Champs

Bloggers Show The Better Way

Slipping

James McNally — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:56:23 +0000

Since 2000, I’ve been proudly trumpeting to the world that Consolation Champs is the “Top of the B-List!” but it appears that I’ve been swamped by the ever-rising blog tide. According to this article about blog celebrities, I’m now just a C-List blogger!

Oh, my self-esteem!

from Consolation Champs

Slipping

Goodbye Leslie

James McNally — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 23:26:14 +0000

The sad news around the web this morning is that longtime blogger and web pioneer Leslie Harpold has passed away. I remember enjoying her blog at hoopla.com before some domain scammer stole it from her. Over the years, her online Advent calendar has been a yearly tradition as well. But what I remember the most about Leslie is that I started receiving a lot of referrals sometime back in 2001 from a set of blog templates that she gave away for free. The set of default links (which I suppose was her “recommended reading” list) contains just 25 weblogs. I was incredibly surprised and proud to be among them, and I sent her an email to thank her. I don’t have her response anymore, but I do remember her being extremely nice. I never did get to meet her, but just today I’m discovering all the nice things she did for so many other people, few of whom she actually met face-to-face.

The world has lost a really good person, and I’ve lost someone who, in that still-odd parlance, was an “online friend.”

from Consolation Champs

Goodbye Leslie

Pick Me!

James McNally — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 07:43:37 +0000

Each March, for the past six years, I’ve attended the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin and have always wondered why there were no panels on faith or spirituality. The Internet has made a huge impact on how people interact with each other and this area in particular has always fascinated me. Will “cyberchurches” replace megachurches? Can people worship together when they’ve never physically met? How is the web changing how we talk to each other about faith? I decided I’d like to find out, so I’ve proposed to moderate a panel at next year’s conference.

About 200 other people have made panel proposals, too. Which is where you come in. Check out the handy-dandy Panel Picker and nominate the ten best ideas. It’s ok if you don’t think mine is one of them. But if you’re intrigued, and are going to be there (hey, even if you’re not going to be there), do me a favour and throw me a vote. My proposal is under the “Community” and “Miscellaneous” categories, and is entitled “Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online.”

Your input on the panel is welcome as well.

from Consolation Champs

Pick Me!

My Toronto Includes Rannie

James McNally — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:03:42 +0000

Rannie let me know about his latest project a while back, but I’ve been too busy to respond. After checking it out, I wish I could have participated. My Toronto Includes is filled with Rannie’s trademark awesome portrait photography and some great stories about the city I love. Visit (the site and the city!) soon!

from Consolation Champs

My Toronto Includes Rannie

Free Wine for Bloggers!

James McNally — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 23:23:49 +0000

If you’re one of those lucky bloggers who lives in the U.S., the Mankas Hills winery will send you a free bottle of wine. The winery is fairly new and is trying to get the word out on their wines.

It’s all in the pursuit of good “word of mouth” marketing and to be fair, you should blog if the wine is crappy as well as if it’s good.

Let me know if you take advantage of this. I’m curious.

from Consolation Champs

Free Wine for Bloggers!

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

James McNally — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:48:44 +0000

I’ve been back from SXSW Interactive for more than two weeks and yet I still haven’t posted my thoughts. The reason? Well, I wrote something that was very negative and I’ve been sitting on it. I’m going to post it now, unchanged, but I will add that my malaise seems to have been shared by a number of people. And it appears to be affecting a number of conferences, not just SXSW. I heard a lot of complaints that ETech wasn’t so great this year, for instance. And tech conferences seem to be sprouting up all over the place like weeds. All part of the new “Web 2.0″ bubble, I suppose.

But before I post my depressing screed, I will say that I managed to have a pretty good time nonetheless. It’s just too bad that I only get to see some of these amazing people just once a year. For evidence of my merrymaking, check out my photos on Flickr. I’ve posted my photos from 2001 and 2002 on there as well. Ah, nostalgia!

Read on if you dare…

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

I’m not quite sure how to preface my remarks about SXSW this year. I certainly didn’t start out writing something so negative. As always, I had a great time, but there was a vague sense of disappointment in the air this year among my friends. Although blogging has been growing for a few years now, this was the year I felt it fully entered the mainstream. Just as Toyota Prius owners no longer honk at each other, or iPod owners no longer nod at strangers with the same white earbuds, bloggers no longer seem connected just by virtue of being bloggers, and this saddens me.

SXSW 2000 has been described as the bloggers’ “coming out party” and since I started attending in 2001, it’s always felt like a blogger’s conference more than anything else. I loved that at Break Bread with Brad, everyone wore badges with their URL on them. Not what they did, or how much money they made, or even where they lived. I loved the egalitarian spirit of that. Even though a mythical “A-List” soon appeared, along with a backlash, that seemed more like a junior-high expression of cliquishness and jealousy than a serious social disruption. But of course, money changes everything, and SXSW is no different.

It’s strange. Some of the internet nerds I met five years ago are now running technology companies, some are millionaires. And I’m pretty much the same person I was then. It seems like it’s become necessary again to ask someone what they do, or where they work, as if that were more important than who they were.

We’ve stratified to the point where the web designers and the bloggers and the user experience designers and the technologists and the journalists and the venture capitalists don’t even know who each other are. The designers come to discuss design with other designers, the technologists come to present panels and then party with the other technologists. A few years ago, people primarily identified themselves as bloggers, and their jobs came next. I’m not sure if anyone else felt strange that one of the keynotes this year featured two famous bloggers, who were trying to make it their occupation.

All the talk this year was about the new Internet bubble. There was lots of free beer and a closing night party that featured music so loud that no one could talk to each other. There were lots of panels that featured titles like “Does Your Blog Have A Business?” and “How to Blog for Money by Learning from Comics” and “Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions”. In fact, I haven’t heard the term “monetizing” for many years, but it poppped up again and again this year.

Before the conference, I decided to upload my photos from my first year to Flickr. After I came home, I compared them to my 2006 photos and there is a definite difference. I’m now in the process of uploading photos from other years and I find it amazing that just a few years ago, in the lobby bar of the Omni Hotel, you could find a group of about 30 people who were behind some of the most interesting web sites around. Now many of them are too busy working at their internet companies to attend, or if they do come, are busy with other “business” people or preparing for their panels on monetizing the blogosphere with Ajax or some other Web 2.0 twaddle.

I’m not opposed to advances in technology in themselves. It’s just that I think we’ve lost quite a bit of the spirit that made the original emergence of weblogs so exhilarating. In many ways it was unavoidable, and I’m sure that I sound like a typical crank, longing for the old days. But it hurts me on a personal level when some of the people in my photos from 2001 or 2002 don’t even acknowledge me anymore.

I was joking before the conference that I found many of the web designers in attendance intimidating. They weren’t much of a presence in 2001, and I definitely began attending the conference as what I described as a “scruffy blogger” rather than as an internet professional. The people I still hang around with most would probably fit that description as well, although many are brilliant writers, journalists, web designers or technologists. Back then, though, self-applying the label “blogger” to oneself was enough to gather a similar crowd of early adopters around. I used to proudly claim that I’d found my “tribe,” but this year, for the first time, I felt in danger of losing it.

No doubt, I’ll be back in 2007, but a few of us have begun discussing some of these disturbing changes and what we can do about them. If anything, there will be even more people there next year, and by most measures, this would be considered success: for SXSW, for the internet businesses, even for blogging. And many of the effects I’m describing are the natural outcomes of that success, and are probably unavoidable. But I’m not ready to give up something I love this much, and I’m curious to see if anyone else felt the same way as I did about this year’s conference. David Pescovitz of BoingBoing quoted Timothy Leary at the Bloggies this year, concerning feeling like an outsider: “Find the others.” Others, are you out there?

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2006: Blog Bubble Bursts

From The Vaults: Got Blog?

James McNally — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:06:36 +0000

In January 2001, I wrote an article for online magazine About This Particular Macintosh about the burgeoning popularity of “blogs” and now more than five years later, it’s sort of quaint to look at it again. I thought you might think so, too.

March 25: Seems like someone else is getting nostalgic as well. Michael Stillwell of beebo.org posts the list of the most-linked blogs from September 2000. Fascinating. And looking at the text file of the 446 blogs he was working with, probably a large percentage of the existing blogs at the time, brought back good memories of some people who’ve seemingly disappeared from the web.

from Consolation Champs

From The Vaults: Got Blog?

Gladwell on Sports

James McNally — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 06:50:14 +0000

Ok, everyone by now knows that Malcolm Gladwell is blogging. But who knew he was such an avid sports fan? Suddenly this opens up the possibility that he might enjoy reading Runner Up. Heck, someone needs to! O Blogosphere, I’m calling on you to help me get Malcolm Gladwell to visit my struggling labour of love!

from Consolation Champs

Gladwell on Sports

Feedblitz

James McNally — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 07:36:30 +0000

I’ve switched to the Feedblitz RSS subscription service. If you have been reading this site in an RSS reader, and can no longer read this except by visiting the site, please resubscribe using the form in the sidebar. Thanks! You can now go back to ignoring the lack of a redesign! Perhaps when I get back from Austin…

UPDATE: Ok, I realized that Feedblitz allows people to subscribe to email updates and that you can still use FeedBurner to subscribe to the actual RSS feed. Sort of confusing, but if you were subscribed before, there is now a choice of regular RSS for your reader (click the FeedBurner box in the sidebar) or updates by email (click the FeedBlitz box or enter your email address in the Subscribe box in the sidebar). Thanks for your understanding!

from Consolation Champs

Feedblitz

So Much For The Tagline

James McNally — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 23:13:41 +0000

I’m not even on the C-List!. “Top of the M-List” anyone?

from Consolation Champs

So Much For The Tagline

Cam and Damien, BloggerTwins!

James McNally — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 18:07:30 +0000

Cameron Barrett and his twin brother Damien are auditioning for the CBS reality show The Amazing Race. They’ve even gone so far as to start a blog dedicated to the effort. Check out BloggerTwins, and show your support! Reality TV needs more geeky bloggers!

As a side note, they have links to the web sites of several former contestants, including the notorious Jonathan and Victoria.

from Consolation Champs

Cam and Damien, BloggerTwins!

Testing MarsEdit

James McNally — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 06:43:49 +0000

Just playing around with Ranchero Software’s MarsEdit. I think this might be useful for working on longer (ie. more personal) weblog entries. I suppose I could just write in a text editor and then paste it in later, but we’ll try this for a while and see why people like it so much.

from Consolation Champs

Testing MarsEdit

Got Blog?

James McNally — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:23:38 +0000

Just for fun, here’s a link to an article I wrote about blogs and blogging for web zine About This Particular Macintosh back in January 2001. I wonder how many of the links even work anymore.

from Consolation Champs

Got Blog?

The Origin of “Consolation Champs”

James McNally — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 20:45:13 +0000

Michael has encouraged us to tell the “backstory” of how we named our weblogs, so here is the tale of how Consolation Champs came to be:

My web presence began in 1997 after I took a course in multimedia development. The course was 16 weeks long. 15 weeks on Macromedia Director and a week tacked on the end about “web page design”. After fiddling with hosted services like Rogers (my ISP), Tripod, and even Manila (remember editthispage.com?), I finally registered a domain in 2000. It wasn’t hard to come up with a name.

For years, my friends and I would sit around and come up with crazy band names. Some of my favourites were stuff like Carcinogenic Houseboat, Bonfire of Baby Heads, The Y-Fronts, Robot Pope, Black Jello. Silly stuff like that. But I had one name that I really wanted to use. I had played drums poorly in a semi-band called The Gitch Band when I was a teenager, but it was doubtful that I’d ever be in a real band. So I used the name for my new web site.

I’ve always been fascinated by non-winners. Silver medallists, nominees, also-rans, runners-up and has-beens are all close to my heart and so that’s where Consolation Champs was born.

A year ago, I began a related weblog called Runner-Up where I try to find and tell some of those non-winner stories (and I’m looking for co-contributors!).

Here are some other blognameorigin stories.

from Consolation Champs

The Origin of “Consolation Champs”

Full-Time Blogging?

James McNally — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:38:38 +0000

So Jason Kottke has quit his job to pursue blogging full-time. And he wants us to pay him to do it. This is a head-scratcher for me. I love Jason’s site, but he surely can’t be serious? I see this as more of an “experiment” and I expect he’ll quietly begin looking for work again in about three months. (By the way, can you collect unemployment insurance if you’re blogging for a living?)

from Consolation Champs

Full-Time Blogging?

FeedBurner

James McNally — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:53:08 +0000

Following K.Smoke‘s lead, I’ve switched my RSS feed to Feedburner. If you are one of those invisible folks who reads my site via RSS, please switch your feed to this. Thanks, and hopefully, I’ll actually have something to say soon!

from Consolation Champs

FeedBurner

Blurkers

James McNally — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 07:49:45 +0000

Christine talks about “blurkers,” those visitors to a weblog who leave no sign of their presence. No comments, no links, nothing. And for those reading sites via an RSS newsreader, there’s even less of a trace, not even a hit from the hit counter. Just as she did, I’m asking that if you read this entry, please make a comment and let me know if:

you’re a “blurker”
you have a weblog
you’re reading via an RSS feed

Thanks!

from Consolation Champs

Blurkers

Nepotism

James McNally — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 18:54:40 +0000

I’m sure most of you heard me complaining a few weeks back when another site with a similar theme as my new project Runner-Up was getting all the press attention.

Now, thanks to pure and simple nepotism, I’m getting some attention of my own. My lovely and brilliant cousin Jane, who works as an editor for the UK’s Web User magazine, asked me some questions a few weeks ago for a feature on building your own web site. The issue comes out next week and she’s promised to send me some copies so I can scan and share them. Never mind that the other person featured in the story is my cousin-in-law (Jane’s brother-in-law) Ben. We just happen to be a very brilliant family.

from Consolation Champs

Nepotism

Under the Hood: Movable Type 3.11

James McNally — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:20:39 +0000

I had some problems upgrading this site to Movable Type 3.11, but things appear to be ok now. So far, I’m liking it! I like Jay Allen‘s spiffy new MT-Blacklist plugin, too. Rock on, Six Apart!

from Consolation Champs

Under the Hood: Movable Type 3.11

Well, This Sucks

James McNally — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 20:15:35 +0000

CNN: Olympians barred from blogging.

To protect the “rights of broadcasters” and other big media, we’ve been deprived of hearing the personal stories of athletes attending the games. What a silly, short-sighted decision.

from Consolation Champs

Well, This Sucks

The Rumours Are True

James McNally — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 06:57:46 +0000

My buddy Brad has started a weblog. Check out Rumours of Glory, named after a great Bruce Cockburn song. Though he’s not technically a Toronto blogger (he lives about an hour and a half northwest, in the lovely municipality of Kitchener-Waterloo), he is in the “Greater Toronto Area”, so look for him in the sidebar under GTABloggers.

from Consolation Champs

The Rumours Are True

Announcing: Runner-Up!

James McNally — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 08:00:31 +0000

Well, I’ve been putting this off for some time now, but I figured it’s finally time to let the cat out of the bag.

Back in April, I began a new weblog. It’s called Runner-Up. As you’ll notice, it’s a collection of stories, mostly sports-related, about “non-winners”. I’ve often found that the most interesting stories never get heard in our “winner-take-all” culture. I was particularly inspired by the Olympics, that now oft-maligned celebration of sport and idealism that comes around every few years.

But it’s not only in sport that we find these interesting people and experiences. They’re all around us. From the start, I envisioned Runner-Up as a group blog, with contributions from the worlds of sports, the arts, politics, wherever. I’ve held off publicizing it until now mostly because I’m too lazy and/or unskilled to design the sort of attractive templates that I feel the site needs. So, I’m making an appeal, for two kinds of help:

Most urgently, if you’re a web designer comfortable with Movable Type, I’d love to see some gorgeous standards-compliant web templates that would fit the overall theme and spirit of the site. The tagline (“Where 2nds Count”) will probably stay.
I’m also looking for more long-term help, with contributing writers for the site. You need not contribute often, but if you think you can contribute a story that is in the spirit of the site, please get in touch. I’d especially like some non-sports-related stories that would fit the themes of the site.

from Consolation Champs

Announcing: Runner-Up!

Angela from “Spellbound” Has A Blog

James McNally — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 00:48:24 +0000

And this is it. Neat. from Consolation ChampsAngela from “Spellbound” Has A Blog

from Consolation Champs

Angela from “Spellbound” Has A Blog

Mutual Admiration Society

James McNally — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 18:51:49 +0000

I think it’s downright hilarious, and oddly touching in a geeky way that after the blogging “explosion”, two blogging “personalities” can still be awed by meeting each other in person.

Recently, in San Francisco, Matt Haughey and Heather Armstrong met for the first time. Though both have been blogging for years and surely must have become jaded with their modest celebrity, each gushed without shame:

mathowie: “[OMFG] IT’S THE DOOCE.”

dooce: “We could barely breathe through gasps of air, and I caught myself bowing and kneeling on the ground beneath him, Oh God of The Internet and the Web and the Thing. I so badly wanted for him to reach out and place his hands on my unworthy head and cleanse me of all the sins I have committed against the Internet.”

Perhaps the most touching example of blogger admiration occurred a few weekends ago, when two web superstars I’m glad to call friends committed their lives to each other. Congratulations and Mazel Tov, Heather and Derek!

from Consolation Champs

Mutual Admiration Society

Enough Already!

James McNally — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 23:53:16 +0000

After another comment spam barrage (1,800 this morning!!), I think it’s time to do the upgrade to Movable Type 3.0. I’m a little apprehensive, but I really don’t have several hours to spend deleting this crap every time. Has anyone got any experience with MT3 yet? Will it kill this comment spam problem? from Consolation [...]

from Consolation Champs

Enough Already!

Comment Spam Volcano!

James McNally — Fri, 02 Jul 2004 18:54:29 +0000

I’m in the middle of reading Simon Winchester’s book, Krakatoa, and a volcanic eruption was the first thing I thought of upon discovering that, this morning, between 6:00am and 7:30am, this site was blasted with more than 300 pieces of comment spam. This, despite the presence of both Movable Type’s comment-throttling and Jay Allen’s fine MT-Blacklist plugin. It’s taken me more than an hour to dig out. Speaking of comment-throttling, I’d like to throttle the perpetrators.

from Consolation Champs

Comment Spam Volcano!

Plain Layne Unmasked

James McNally — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 00:12:34 +0000

Well, for anyone who’s been following the Plain Layne saga, this article lays out the whole tale. So, is “creative interactive fiction” a legitimate endeavour, or is it wrong to dupe people?

from Consolation Champs

Plain Layne Unmasked

Whither Succa?

James McNally — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 19:46:52 +0000

In the process of trying to fix some of the linkrot that has infested most of my older blog entries, I discovered that fellow Torontonian Nick Taylor (whose Succaland.com domain was snatched from him in 2002) has a new weblog. Unfortunately, Triplespeak hasn’t been updated since last August.

Maybe he got SARS?

from Consolation Champs

Whither Succa?

SXSW 2004: Geek Hoedown

James McNally — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 21:23:27 +0000

This has been a long time coming, and I’ve decided to just make a list of things I noticed or experienced this year. Vignettes. Snapshots. Whatever.

I did not see Halcyon hug a single person this year. That kind of made me sad.
Min Jung kissed a lot of people, though, and that pretty much made up for it.
Kevin has a potentially lucrative career waiting as a “motivational speaker”.
“What Happens at SXSWi F*#$ing Stays at SXSWi” stickers are a ridiculous sentiment when everyone has a blog.
Matt is your man if you need advice about how to impress the ladies. This is true even despite Jay‘s obvious edge in experience.
With so many cameras around, we should be able to recreate the whole experience in 3-D somewhere online.
I’m funny-looking.
The “Back Porch Club” thing has gotten way out of control. I blame Matt.
Alison isn’t the first person to love saying my entire name.
I didn’t see Brad enough this year.

As always, a fabulous time was had. By me, especially. Thanks everyone!

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2004: Geek Hoedown

Back

James McNally — Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:29:24 +0000

I got home last night about 6:00pm. I’m exhausted and inspired at the same time. Catching up on a million work things today. Watch for some kind of report or summary here and maybe a few photos. Soon. But not right now…

In the meantime, Kristin has put up her photos. Who IS that handsome lad in the cowboy shirt?

from Consolation Champs

Back

SXSW IV

James McNally — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 01:33:18 +0000

Well, I’m here in Austin again, for my fourth South by Southwest Interactive. This time, I’m accompanied by my pals Brent and Paul.

So far, we’ve hung out with the fabulous Browns, met new friend Kevin, and briefly exchanged hugs with old friend Kevin.

Tonight the festivities will get underway with the ever-popular Bread Bread With Brad. I can’t wait.

On the way down, I read an entire book on the plane. It was a funny one: Joe Queenan’s Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon, a hilarious skewering of middlebrow culture. It helped me get ready for my latest foray into America.

from Consolation Champs

SXSW IV

What’s The Big Idea?

James McNally — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 22:36:51 +0000

Indeed. What’s the big idea of asking little old me to get up on a stage and attempt to answer this question in 120 seconds? I’m becoming extremely nervous.

While I’m in Austin in a few weeks for South by Southwest Interactive, I’ve been invited to participate in 20×2. This annual tradition gives 20 people an opportunity (albeit a small one) to answer some vexing question. For the first time today, I looked at the company I’ll be among. The Craig from craigslist, Dan Gillmor from the San Jose Mercury News. And most intimidating of all, Rannie!

from Consolation Champs

What’s The Big Idea?

Photoblog Blues

James McNally — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 20:05:55 +0000

Though not a surprise from a guy called “Photojunkie”, Rannie‘s decision to pull the plug on his text blog and replace it with a photoblog is just another in a growing string of jaded bloggers giving up writing. It saddens me. I was just commenting on this trend to Natalie on Saturday night at Joey‘s party. It seems a lot of people are just finding they have nothing left to say. Many of the people I’ve come to know through their writing have stopped writing and are posting pictures. Heather, Natalie, Rannie, Jay, even the venerable Jish has been posting a lot of photos. Granted, some of the their photography is quite good, but it doesn’t let me into their lives in the same way that their words did.

What’s the cause of this general trend? Is it just that the novelty of the tools has worn off? Are people busier? Are they being more guarded about letting people know the details of their lives? Whatever it is, I miss the old days.

from Consolation Champs

Photoblog Blues

Syrah Safari

James McNally — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 22:23:44 +0000

Crazy world. While searching for wine (and food) blogs, I stumbled across one written by Panther and Safari developer Ken Bereskin. Neat.

By the way, here’s a nice list of wine and food blogs, if you’re interested in that sort of thing:

Let me know if you are aware of any other good ones. I don’t mind foodie ones, but I’m mainly looking for wine blogs.

from Consolation Champs

Syrah Safari

SXSWBlog v.2004

James McNally — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:25:15 +0000

The South by Southwest Blog is back. Thanks to Matt Haughey and pb (Paul Bausch) for their work on this, the best way to get all excited about Geek Week in Austin!

from Consolation Champs

SXSWBlog v.2004

1and1 + WordPress

James McNally — Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:14:38 +0000

Thanks to free hosting (HURRY!) and free blogging software (thanks Matt!), I’m going to be playing around a little bit over here. If you like watching that sort of thing, come and see. P.S. Any good ideas for domain names?

from Consolation Champs

1and1 + WordPress

.Text – Wha?

James McNally — Sat, 17 Jan 2004 07:29:32 +0000

I’ve just come across a blog built using something called .Text which appears to be somehow not just built using Microsoft technology (ASP, IIS servers), but somehow sponsored by them. Can anyone tell me more? Could this be the once-jokey-rumoured Microsoft Blogger™?

from Consolation Champs

.Text – Wha?

Desert Island Blogs, from 2001

James McNally — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 00:04:03 +0000

I was reading some of my old Metafilter comments today and came across this thread, discussing our favourite blogs from February 2001. How many of these are still in existence, and of those, how many are still interesting?

What’s your opinion on the state of blogging as we approach 2004?

from Consolation Champs

Desert Island Blogs, from 2001

Zambia Stories

James McNally — Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:25:54 +0000

Intrepid reporter dude Josh Benton is spending six weeks in Zambia as part of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism program. He’s taking a break from posting at his usual place, crabwalk.com, and has set up a special blog, Zambia Stories, to document his trip. Josh is quite a globetrotter, having done a series of stories on tiny Pitcairn Island a few years back. Last year, he even visited Toronto.

from Consolation Champs

Zambia Stories

MT-Blacklist Plugin

James McNally — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 07:17:22 +0000

Do you use Movable Type? Are you tired of deleting comment spam? Now, the bald and brilliant Jay Allen is doing something about it. Try MT-Blacklist. It’s very easy to install, and it helps deal with a very annoying problem.

Could it be, a post on Consolation Champs that is both a little bit techie and a little bit useful? Wow, if this keeps up, we’ll be back to the glory days of 2001 in no time…

from Consolation Champs

MT-Blacklist Plugin

Blog Books

James McNally — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 22:58:11 +0000

I just saw Salam Pax‘s book today. It’s the first time I’ve seen a paper book that is just a reprint of stuff that’s freely available online. I wondered when this would start to happen. Salam’s blog was the perfect vehicle to kick off this new publishing phenomenon. The book even has its own website, which strikes me as sort of weird.

Publishers, you know where to find me…(though if I were you, I’d publish only the early years. Everyone knows CC experienced a downturn in quality as soon as I stopped using Blogger).

from Consolation Champs

Blog Books

Visit Mateusz

James McNally — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 17:20:16 +0000

Mateusz was one of the more advanced students in our ESL camp in Katowice, Poland this summer. He’s been emailing us and commenting on our blogs since we’ve come home. And now he’s started blogging, in both Polish and English. I’d suggest you go, take a look, and encourage him. Yet another educational application for weblogs!

from Consolation Champs

Visit Mateusz

Hullo T’Jane

James McNally — Fri, 03 Oct 2003 17:50:29 +0000

I’ve just found out that my brilliant journalist cousin Jane in London has a blog. She’s been keeping it since May, but since she works as an assistant editor for Web User magazine, I thought she would have been hip to the whole blog thing for much longer. Never mind. Welcome, Cousin Jane, to the sidebar!

A laurel wreath and a bag of salted peanuts to the first person who can figure out the reference in this post’s title.

from Consolation Champs

Hullo T’Jane

Attention Non-Blogging Friends

James McNally — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 23:28:43 +0000

If you’ve ever wanted to set up your own weblog, but are intimidated by acronyms like XHTML and CSS and PHP and by computers and the web in general, then you’re in luck. TypePad is nearing completion, with the preview release becoming available just yesterday. It’s made by the same smart and friendly folks who make Movable Type, which powers the weblog you’re reading right now, and they’ve made it affordable and easy-to-use, with three levels of complexity and customization.

I’m sure you could be up and running in about 15 minutes. Go and check it out!

from Consolation Champs

Attention Non-Blogging Friends

The Dirty Dozen

James McNally — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 20:05:10 +0000

“Canadian journalist Colby Cosh has done a lot of research to identify and rank Canada’s twelve most popular weblogs.” Hmmm…

In true Consolation Champs style, I’m probably number 13. But thanks to my Brazilian (I think) friend Carmela for the link and the shout-out. At least I think it’s a shout-out.

from Consolation Champs

The Dirty Dozen

CC is 3!

James McNally — Thu, 10 Jul 2003 02:33:20 +0000

Consolation Champs celebrated its third birthday on Monday, July 7. Coincidentally, yesterday around midnight, we welcomed our 100,000th visitor. More likely, we welcomed Google for the 74,379th time. Either way, a nice milestone.

from Consolation Champs

CC is 3!

Welcome Bob!

James McNally — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 00:08:14 +0000

Welcome Bob Sawyer to the sidebar. Bob’s weblog is a beautifully designed marvel of CSS and XHTML goodness. Plus, I like Bob. I think Bob and I could be friends. Whaddya say, Bob?

from Consolation Champs

Welcome Bob!

Blogging The Backlash

James McNally — Tue, 17 Jun 2003 01:29:35 +0000

Phil Wolff has started Don’t Blog, where he is using “future headlines” to explore interesting questions about the future of the weblog. Some of them also made me smile; for instance, how about reading this on CNN in a few years: “Wife wins joint weblog in divorce court”. Check out his other news from the future, when blogging goes mainstream.

from Consolation Champs

Blogging The Backlash

Welcome Alexander!

James McNally — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 20:35:58 +0000

Congratulations to Mike and Dineen Wasylik, now known as Dad and Mum, respectively (and respectfully!). And welcome, little Alexander, to the carnival!

from Consolation Champs

Welcome Alexander!

The World As A Blog

James McNally — Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:01:20 +0000

Check out Geoblog, a map that updates in (almost) real-time whenever someone posts to their blog. It only works if your blog is listed at GeoURL, so get on over there first if you want to show up on the map. Otherwise, watch the map slowly light up. Fascinating!

from Consolation Champs

The World As A Blog

SxSW Pictures…Finally!

James McNally — Wed, 11 Jun 2003 08:31:18 +0000

Well, after months of struggling with Gallery, I finally have my pictures up from South by Southwest. There is one strange bug. Though I was able to rotate some of the early pictures, somewhere around page 3, I lost that ability. I will probably have to delete the offending pictures, rotate them myself in some other program, and re-import them. But not yet. After painstakingly adding witty comments and typing in hundreds of URLs, I’m sick of it.

I present…the SxSW 2003 Gallery! Please comment, and correct, if necessary.

from Consolation Champs

SxSW Pictures…Finally!

Salam Pax Is Real

James McNally — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 18:01:44 +0000

Although I never much doubted his authenticity, Iraqi blogger Salam Pax has been identified as an interpreter who worked for journalist (and blogger) Peter Maass.

from Consolation Champs

Salam Pax Is Real

Jeffrey’s Got High Standards

James McNally — Tue, 20 May 2003 22:20:43 +0000

Congratulations to Jeffrey Zeldman and Carrie Bickner on their upcoming nuptials. I guess Carrie must have come through the Validator with flying colours…

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Jeffrey’s Got High Standards

BlogStreet

James McNally — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 23:03:31 +0000

BlogStreet looks interesting. Head over and review/rate/categorize all your favourites (including me, please!).

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BlogStreet

What Happened To Joey…

James McNally — Fri, 11 Apr 2003 21:03:36 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, local blogger Joey the Accordion Guy had a pretty horrible experience lately. His blog may have saved him even more agony.

Read all about it…

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What Happened To Joey…

BlogShares

James McNally — Sun, 30 Mar 2003 08:14:23 +0000

I’ve just discovered BlogShares , a fantasy stock market game involving trading shares in weblogs. Blogs are valued by the number of inbound links. This sounds fascinating. The current valuation of Consolation Champs, by the way, is $381.50. I don’t know if that’s good or not. Check it out, and then tell me how much you’re worth!

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BlogShares

Huzzah 4 Zilla!

James McNally — Thu, 27 Mar 2003 08:18:45 +0000

Davezilla was written up in the Detroit News for a story on blogging. Does he really write his blog entries by hand in a notebook at Starbucks? On a side note, I didn’t realize that Ernie was really 12 different people and that one of those people isn’t real (note: I think they confused Ernie’s blog with one of his web games, in this case, PuppetMaster II). Props to Nikolai, too, who gets to talk about the Bloggies!(via natalie)

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Huzzah 4 Zilla!

SxSW Failures To Communicate

James McNally — Fri, 14 Mar 2003 07:29:24 +0000

It’s traditional for everyone to come home and talk about all the great people they met and link to their sites. I’m going to do things a little differently. Because of my own stupid timidity, there were a number of people I either didn’t meet at all, or with whom I only exchanged the lamest of pleasantries. I say this to my shame. Here are the ones that got away:

Wow, that’s a lot of folks, and of course I’ve probably forgotten a few more. I don’t mean to imply that any of these people felt diminished by me denying them my company. I just feel bad that I didn’t make more of an effort. If you’re on this list, and you feel the same, get in touch!

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SxSW Failures To Communicate

Greetings From The Hampton Inn

James McNally — Sat, 08 Mar 2003 01:09:14 +0000

Well, here I am, settled in to my hotel room and blogging already. I just wanted to note how much nicer my hotel is than last year, and apparently it’s about the same price! The Hampton Inn and Suites just opened recently and it’s only about two blocks from the Convention Center, where all the SxSW stuff is going on.

The weather is gorgeous, sunny, maybe about 70°F. I forgot sunscreen and just had to go out and get some. Tonight is Break Bread With Brad, one of my favourite events. It’s a perfect icebreaker and a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

I spent last night with the amazing Browns. They manage to juggle two energetic boys, a crazy dog, and a cat, and still make room for little old me.

Gotta go now. I’m being IM’ed!

from Consolation Champs

Greetings From The Hampton Inn

100,000 Served

James McNally — Mon, 24 Feb 2003 07:53:00 +0000

Forgive me for indulging my ~~stat-whoring~~ blog pride, but I just wanted to thank all of you (including the 83,834 pages served to Google searchers) for making Consolation Champs your destination of choice for dynamic semi-regular content.

Oh, and I made up the Google number, though it could be that many. I’d prefer to keep fooling myself, though…

from Consolation Champs

100,000 Served

Brooke Hacked On Her Birthday!

James McNally — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 01:03:31 +0000

Ok, I’m not sure it happened yesterday, but what a lousy birthday present. Some “Russian hacker” named VenoM has hacked Brooke’s blog. Any ideas what we can do? from Consolation ChampsBrooke Hacked On Her Birthday!

from Consolation Champs

Brooke Hacked On Her Birthday!

Google Buys Blogger

James McNally — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 00:30:19 +0000

This is already old news, but Google has bought Pyra, the company behind the Blogger service. I won’t pretend to be a pundit (though I know a few), but I’d be in agreement with the consensus expressed at Live From The Blogosphere that this is the year that weblogs will really hit the mainstream.

I can’t wait to see how this will all develop.

If you want to read the pundits’ views, check out the following, in addition to Dan Gillmor’s article, linked first above:

from Consolation Champs

Google Buys Blogger

What Is This?

James McNally — Mon, 10 Feb 2003 19:17:40 +0000

I came across this site during a Google search. Is this a blog, or something else entirely? Click on the links, it goes on forever!

from Consolation Champs

What Is This?

Naked A-Listers!!!

James McNally — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 03:11:31 +0000

Ever wanted to see Joe Clark “starkers and covered in baby oil”? Er, even if not, how about a “tiny and kute” Jason Kottke? This page promises them all, “NAKED AND VERY SHAMELESS!”

The above page is actually part of the weblog (What a Cute!) of Natsuko from Ottawa, whose English is, as she says, “not complete”. However, she promises “The Blogging is large! Enjoy my place!” And we will… (via ernie)

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Naked A-Listers!!!

Visit Brent…Before He Visits You!

James McNally — Thu, 23 Jan 2003 03:00:50 +0000

My pal, heretofore blog poseur Brent has finally started a blog. Though he’ll probably be changing URLs and blogging software soon, catch him in his infancy!

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Visit Brent…Before He Visits You!

Send a Kid to Camp!

James McNally — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 03:13:51 +0000

Well, send Rannie to SxSW. Same thing. Please help!

from Consolation Champs

Send a Kid to Camp!

SxSW Baby!

James McNally — Sun, 19 Jan 2003 01:18:53 +0000

Though I haven’t posted that much about it yet, I’m incredibly excited to be attending South by Southwest for the third time this year. I’m sharing a room with the fabulous Josh Benton and we’ll probably be staying at the jazzy new Hampton Inn. If you’re coming, or are just interested in SxSW chatter, come on over to SxSWBlog and join in the buzz.

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SxSW Baby!

Spam Counting

James McNally — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 16:44:23 +0000

That crazy Brad is doing something funny that should be copied by everyone: he’s got a running total of the number of spam email messages he’s received so far this year. If anyone can find the humour in this incredibly annoying problem, it’s Brad. As of today, his count is at 1,638. I hope he’s not counting that email I sent him last week…

from Consolation Champs

Spam Counting

Third Annual Bloggies

James McNally — Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:09:29 +0000

Well, I’ve done my civic duty and nominated some of my favourite weblogs for the Third Annual Bloggies. I’m such an old-timer that I was actually nominated the first year for “Best Kept Secret Weblog.” Not winning that seems to have reinforced that status, and now I’m hoping for some sort of Thalberg Award for “Whatever Happened To…Weblog.” Sort of a Lifetime Underachievement Award or something. Consolation Champs, after all…

But the nomination deadline is now past. Check back after January 21 to vote for some excellent weblogs.

from Consolation Champs

Third Annual Bloggies

LazyWeb!!

James McNally — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 06:51:38 +0000

LazyWeb is a fantastic idea. You post an idea for some programming project that you’re too lazy (or in my case, stupid) to implement, and let others have at it. This is what I was hoping for a few months back when I pined for Library Wish Lists. Within minutes of posting this on LazyWeb, I had two new comments, one from the brilliant Clay Shirky directing me to a very recent article on the subject, and another from a programmer actually working on a solution! Wonderful!

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LazyWeb!!

Clive Thompson

James McNally — Sat, 04 Jan 2003 21:45:04 +0000

Clive Thompson is one of my favourite technology writers. I first started reading him when he wrote for Shift, and I actually got to meet him at SxSW last year. Imagine my delight at discovering he has a blog, cleverly entitled Collision Detection.

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Clive Thompson

Foiled!

James McNally — Fri, 20 Dec 2002 07:36:41 +0000

Well, the problem seems to be fixed now, but for the past 4 or 5 days, I’ve been unable to post due to a problem with a Perl module at my web host, which affected all Movable Type users.

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Foiled!

Encore

James McNally — Tue, 17 Dec 2002 23:20:57 +0000

And another celebrity. Today I sold a computer to singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith.

Encore could also refer to the lingering presence that is Jish. Last night, Jish attracted hordes of GTAB types for the third time in about two months. Much merriment was had. Rannie will post evidence soon.

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Encore

Brunchzilla

James McNally — Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:16:11 +0000

Yesterday, we enjoyed a really nice brunch with Rannie, Jay, Natalie, and Davezilla. Brooke still isn’t entirely clear whether or not Dave’s last name is “Zilla”. I’m going to tell her that it is and that his brother’s name is God.

Rannie’s posted some nice pictures here.

from Consolation Champs

Brunchzilla

CGI Woes

James McNally — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 00:37:54 +0000

My hosting company was having CGI problems from last night until this afternoon. Apologies if you were having trouble posting comments. Please overcompensate by commenting like crazy, ok? from Consolation ChampsCGI Woes

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CGI Woes

SXSWBlog

James McNally — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 07:15:34 +0000

Nice to see that the SXSWBlog is back online for the upcoming conference, although nobody’s saying much yet. Everyone seems to love the new look, inspired of course by Shiner Bock, the Official Gargle of SXSW™.

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SXSWBlog

The Wacky World of Michael Jackson

James McNally — Fri, 23 Aug 2002 19:22:40 +0000

The inimitable Anil Dash comments hilariously on the revelation that Michael Jackson has allegedly fathered a third child named after himself. Go. Read. Laugh.

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The Wacky World of Michael Jackson

Congratulations!

James McNally — Fri, 05 Jul 2002 23:19:43 +0000

Congratulations to pb and skp, who are engaged! Will skp become skb or skp-b?

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Congratulations!

Meetup a Scam?

James McNally — Fri, 28 Jun 2002 03:32:13 +0000

Blog Meetup appears to be a bit of a scam. “Venue voting” began today, and the three choices were suggested by no one in my local area. Reading the site, it tells me that “The MEETUP Venue Team hand-picked 11,409 venues worldwide.” More like, they solicited ad revenue from a bunch of restaurants in each municipality and are drumming up business for them. If that’s what’s going on, it really sucks. (UPDATE: Please read the comments…)

from Consolation Champs

Meetup a Scam?

I’ve Got A Face For Radio

James McNally — Sat, 22 Jun 2002 22:32:04 +0000

Imagine the thrill of hearing my voice on CBC Radio today! Toronto blogger Katherine Parrish interviewed lots of people at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive conference in preparing her piece for the CBC’s Definitely Not The Opera. Katherine did an excellent job of introducing weblogs to a national audience. Along with her witty and charming commentary, and my goofy quote, there were contributions from Jeffrey Zeldman, Cameron Marlowe, Mena Trott, and Josh Benton. I’m hoping it will be archived on the DNTO page, or else someone makes an MP3 out of it. About the only negative thing about the whole story was DNTO “guest-host” Sook-Yin Lee’s loopy pronunciation of “BLAWWW-GRRRZZ”.

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I’ve Got A Face For Radio

Elemental

James McNally — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 23:40:25 +0000

Nikolai has posted a periodic table of bloggers. I’m honoured to be number 17, which is the place of the nasty poisonous Chlorine. Hmmm… (via luminescent)

from Consolation Champs

Elemental