I’m hosted

October 13, 2009 — Aaron Fulkerson

Now that I migrated my self-hosted blog to hosting at WordPress.com I have complaints.

Flea CircusWhen I was self-hosting I used the excellent Twitter Tools plug-in from Alex King for posting a weekly digest of my tweets to my blog. It is important to me that my blog be a journal for my kids and family. Twitter is part of this journal. My tweets commonly overlap with my blog posts. Missing twitter at my blog is missing, at least, half my journal. I’m bummed. Suggestions please?

When I was self-hosting I was running Google Analytics. I would refer to the WordPress analytics for my personal blog on occasion and the two were never identical. The WordPress stats were always higher. Why? I have no idea. Since moving to WordPress.com I’m unable to use Google Analytics. Why? I have no idea. We allow users of MindTouch Express to modify several HTML areas. With this users can run their own Google Analytics script. Why doesn’t WordPress.com allow this? Yes, there is additional overhead in loading the page, but I don’t care.

In my sidebars on my self-hosted blog I had a few widgets that were scripts or embeds. For some reason WordPress.com disallows this too. I most miss my FriendFeed widget. Again, you can do this at MindTouch Express. What’s the problem WordPress.com?

None of the comments that previously were threaded with replies in IntenseDebate migrated correctly.

Lastly, I’ll mention the fact that you are disallowed form using WordPress plugins. Ok, this one I understand. This is a big challenge. However, there are ways to achieve even this. Check out Ning.

Posted in Software. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

Microsoft Gatineau you dirty whore

December 6, 2007 — Aaron Fulkerson

Since Google “Upgraded” Google Analytics, or as I like to call it “google anal”, I’ve been dissatisfied with the service. To be sure, I was not overly thrilled about the the previous implementation, but as soon as the service went 100% Flash I really was disappointed. Common tasks take me more clicks. The map overlay sucks because you can’t get an overview as easily, and I can’t use the service from my iPhone. In general, the site usability of the site has suffered severely from the upgrade. Also, since the upgrade I’ve been unable to get the site overlay to work so I have no way of analyzing, visually, visitors traffic patterns.

I want a better web analytics package! Don’t tell me that Google’s “free”. It’s not free. I’m giving Google incredibly detailed and valuable information about visitors to my web properties. That’s worth a lot of money when you consider the traffic. This is why when I heard of Microsoft’s upcoming web analytics service code named: “Gatineau” I signed up for the beta and waited for an invite. This invite arrived today. It reads:

Thanks for expressing interest in our new web analytics service, code named: Microsoft “Gatineau.”

Get started today
Follow these instructions to get started with the Gatineau beta today.

1. Go to: http://adcenter.microsoft.com/?key=cb6ad37b-fcf3-4c69-8c89-5b0e19adef7c
Invite code: cb6ad37b-fcf3-4c69-8c89-5b0e19adef7c
2. Click Sign Up Today and create an adCenter account using this e-mail address.* You’ll be charged a one-time, non-refundable $5 fee to set up an adCenter account.
3. After your account is created, you’ll be directed to the Gatineau beta invite sign up page. Follow the instructions to begin using the beta.

Microsoft AdCenter 0

Wait. What? Let me read this again:

* You’ll be charged a one-time, non-refundable $5 fee to set up an adCenter account.

You want me to pay YOU to test your undoubtedly buggy software? I’ll be running your script on my web properties, slowing down my visitors experience because I’ll surely not drop my Urchin script from Google, and you want me to pay you? Even though I’m going to be giving you incredibly detailed information about my visitors. Moreover, you ask me for a lot information about me and my company including a credit card, which gives you access to all kinds of interesting information. Isn’t this payment enough for me to gain the privilege of testing your buggy software? WTF? You should be paying me $5.

Gatineau, you dirty whore, I shall pass.

Posted in Journal. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments »
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