andyc’s posterous

I'm still struggling with how/where/where I should blog.

I don't want to be unfaithful to my primary blog so I am experiment with manually cross posting from my blog to Posterous.

Why ?

• I'm a Luddite.
• I'm a contrarian.
• I'm a weirdo.
• Because I can.

I don't blog here. This is a ghost blog.

My main blog is over here. In fact recently, I made a conscious decision to blog there exclusively and blog more over there.

I hear you cry - 'What on earth are you talking about ? You blogged here only yesterday.'

And that's right. That post was in response to a comment posted to a Note I posted on Google Reader .

I started to reply by adding a comment at the source on Google Reader but it was getting long so I posted the words here.

It started out as a sensible post describing the evolution of my strategy for finding content and 'friends' on social networks.

Then, inevitably, the sensible post answering the original question rapidly degenerated into a weak attempt at humour.

Then I posted a link to the Posterous post on Google Reader. OK - I admit - I had an ulterior motive. I was curious to see how much interest and traffic, if any, this generated from Google Reader.

'OK then - why didn't you post over at your main blog ?'

That's an interesting question. Originally, as it was merely a quick of the cuff reply, I felt it didn't really belong on my main blog.

The post wasn't polished enough. The post wasn't good enough. The title should have been 'evolution of social networking'. 'Triassic' should have had another word like 'Earily, 'Middle', 'Late' for consistency. The eras should have been accurate and in chronological order. The 'You are on first name terms' bullet was incongruous. Web 1.0 was repeated.

On reflection though, I thought the post might appeal to my normal blog audience so I laboriously copy/pasted the words and posted the same text on my main blog.

Guess what ? 4 comments on Posterous and 1 comment on my main blog. So what does that tell me and what should I do now ?

'Why don't you standardise on using Posterous and auto cross-post to your main blog ? That would solve your quandry, wouldn't it ?'

Well, yes, I could but that would feel like being unfaithful to my main blog.

Early Jurassic - Mum takes you to playgroup, kicking and screaming and your friends are forced upon you. Free milk at 11 am.

Cretaceous - Primary school. You go round to Robert's for tea and Robert comes round to your house for tea. Painfully shy in female company.

Middle Monolithic - Secondary school - you hang out with the kids who play football and avoid those who threaten you with knives at the bus stop.

Triassic - Football, gigs, pubs. The best time of your life. With the best friends of your life. None of them will ever do FaceBook but that doesn't matter.

Late Mesozoic - University - no real strategy here. If someone stands their round, then that's good enough.

Web 0.1 (alpha) - Usenet, flame fests, email using elm on an amber VT100. Avoid people who use VMS at all costs.

Web 1.0 - IRC is just like a Friday night in the pub. There will be fights at closing time.

Web 1.0 - surf the internet, send large attachments (amusing photos) to colleagues every Friday afternoon.

Web 2.0 - social networking. Accept blindly absolutely any friend request. Approach complete strangers and ask them to be your 'special friends'. Friendship isn't friendship - it's a bragging contest.

Web 2.0 (beta) - Follow Scoble's example and be slightly more selective. Cull thousands of so-called 'friends' in futile attempt to avoid information overload.

Web 3.0 - Twitter - the endless, interminable byte stream of inane drivel. Until Stephen Fry signs up which makes it all alright. Stalk celebrities.

Web 3.0 RC3 - Finally it dawns on you.

• People on Posterous mainly like talking about Posterous
• People on FriendFeed mainly like singing the praises of FriendFeed.
• People on Twitter mainly like talking about Twitter. Repeat ad infinitum.
• People on identi.ca love identi.ca and open source and despise the evil borg.
• People in UK tend to have more friends in the UK
• You are on first names terms with the developers of Disqus and they fix stuff - just for you.
• If you're a keen photographer, try Flickr.
• If you like football, seek out people who like football.
• If someone Like's a post/tweet you wrote, it's possible (but not certain) you will like their outputs.
• If someone lives on your road, it doesn't mean they're your friend. There's a good reason you haven't had your neighbours round for coffee since last Christmas.
• If people actively dislike your output, it is less likely they will be a good friend.
• If people say 'Great, interesting, thought provoking post', it's likely they are trying to sell you a 'Penis Enlargement Kit' (or worse).

Web 4.0 - The end of the world. Social Networking dies and we all adjourn to the pub (again) and play board games.

I love my iTouch but one thing bugs me about it.

It takes a long time to startup. A very long time and I don't have 8 pages of applications installed.

The iTouch was always very quick to shutdown though.

I fervently hoped when Apple released the 3.0 software for iTouch, my iTouch would start up in the same time as it shutdown. Quickly.

I needn't have worried. As always, Apple have delivered.

Shutdown is now just as flipping slow as starting the device up.

For the record, 32 seconds to startup and 27 seconds to shutdown (no apps even opened).

Sent from my iTouch

Match point.

If you use identi.ca, you can now follow posterous