Mat Bowles

I am, as I'm sure is well, a remarkably modest man. I would, for example, never dream of having a category tag for my journal called 'showing off', for that would be vulgar. And that the most popular item under discussion in the most recent news post, and being linked to and discussed all over the site is my idea is, of course, something that merely provokes a modest smile.

For I am a humble and modest man. Right?

( So, I'd like a favour from you, my friends and readers. )

Oh, you can send PMs to each other on site now, and select who can send them to you. You might want to go turn on e-notifcation of them, it defaults to off. And for those of you that hate the message centre, the direct link to just your inbox is right here. *cough*A certain person has a message waiting*cough*

Reasons to read the_lj_herald #XXVII
the_lj_herald: News Flash: upcoming changes and staff changes:

Users will be be able to filter their entries according to their security settings by appending security/friends, security/public, security/friends or security/group:customgroupname to their journal URLs. Style System 1 users will see filtered pages in the style that is used to display their tag pages and not in their own styles. This new feature may or may not be available to all users.

Expanded on by the volunteer who wrote the code, ciaran_h in the comments:

As the maker of the security filtering patch, I'd like to give you a bit more info...

You'll actually be able to filter by adding /security/public, /security/friends, /security/private, or /security/group:customgroupname to the URL, in the same way as you can something similar with tags.

( more explanation )

Has to be said, especially as I'm planning on re-exporting soon, theis'll be a great feature, finding all your locked posts quickly will be very useful.

Reminder: The Herald is run by a bunch of non-staff anonymously (I think I can name one of the eds, but I'm not going to), and tracks a huge number of sources to round up any significant announcements in a nice friendly format. Definitely worth reading, especiallyif you don't follow any other LJ comms.

Email from Tom Steinberg of MySociety. They've been adding a few things to various sites. Including TheyWorkForYou.

Added a lot more of those entitled to speak in the House of Lords. Of course, some of those people only speak once or twice a year. This one might be considered a must have:
hm_queen

I've now got 34 userpics allowed. They've introduced a loyalty scheme, the longer you have a paid account, the more you have. Oh, there's another silly gift scheme; my usual "give it to charity" request applies if anyone was tempted.

Weird; why does getting more userpics cheer me up? I didn't care for them at all for ages, I only used 3 and was happy. Now I have 34, and 15 blatently wasn't enough. This may tempt me to keep the paid account next August. They may have to do a bit more though.

So, I get to choose more do I? Really ought to get around to sorting out how to insert text properly with the GIMP.

Or, alternately, you're now the proud user of a proper 'blog' with your own unique (sub)domain. LJ are giving some bollux due to a vulnerability in, um, FireFox, but that's not relevent. Why is this really important? Pagerank and Google.

( What they've done to your username and links )

Implication? Well, us LJers have a tendency to link to each other a lot, which means that when we do from now on, the person we link to has their pagerank with Google go up. It's a perpetuating circle over time.

So, anyone want to propose our first Google Bomb? For an example, try jelly bellied flag flapper; that one was set up less than a week ago, they can filter through in 2 or 3 days.

Update:

( More on googlebombing and how it works )

So, do me a favour, exercise in silliness. Copy this into a post or onto any web pages you may have access to:

<a href="http://matgb.livejournal.com/77989.html" title="Google bomb">Google Bomb</a>

and, if you've got some spare links in your links list, put the link (http://matgb.livejournal.com/77989.html) in there titled 'google bomb'?

Just a thought exercise, there are some pretty weighty sites up the top there...

Must read boingboing_feed more often.
( /\/0 7R35P455!/\/6 )

Both from another Worthy contest. Lots of pics on that page, takes awhile to load for us dial-uppers...

I've been making new filters and adding more blogfeeds (again). I really do like the LJ syndication features, RSS readers take an age to load feeds on dial up.

Hmm. First, I said I'd never get one. Then, I made one with the intention of mostly using the account for commenting. Then, I got a bit carried away and started posting regularly, using it to arrange weekends away, meeting up with people and even, at times, following the news.

I discovered LF-feeds and filtered friends page views, I kept on adding people, and even started adding people I didn't know who interested me. Even more weirdly, people started adding me who I didn't know, they actually find me interesting! Weird.

I've got back in contact with old friends I haven't seen for years, I've crossed the country on the strength of something I've heard about on here, I've even had a brief fling with someone I mostly communicated with via LJ. And I've paid for my account, and regularly add more RSS feed accounts using the paid features.

Obsessed? Moi? I think not. Only, um, it's getting to the point where I'm talking my friends into setting up LJs so I can keep in touch with them, it's just so much easier. Obsessed? Um, maybe.

Essentially, LJ isn't cool because of what you post, or what people comment on your journal. It's cool because of the friends page. I can spend entire evenings just trawling LJ. I'll be honest, that sometimes scares me. Fun though.

So, my journal is over a year old. It's got me back involved in politics, it prompted me to set up a 'proper' weblog, and it's created a huge source of time sinking procrastination. It's even got me laid. I think the last part is the scariest bit...

So, Lj sets up a facility so you can, if you chose, list what school or university you went to. Not a bad plan, I like it. So do lots of other people.

Some people though, don't get the point. Did any of these people really study at Hogwarts? And I really doubt this lot are from the Unseen University.

I despair at times. Thanks to theweaselking for the links...

I just rang work, the first kids are in the air already, so it's looking like I can have my normal day off and travel up to Exeter. Happy me.

All I have to do now is have a shower, eat food, get dressed, get in the car and drive up. I have, um, 75 minutes to do all the above except the driving if I'm to be there on time. Hmm, maybe ought to get started? Nah, kettle's just boiled, and Just a Minute is on the radio.

In other news, the beauty of a paid account is the creation of new RSS feeds; and in doing so finding existing ones I didn't know about. I don't think I've got that carried away... independentnews, independentcomm, indybooks, indyeducation, indyfilm, nosemonkey, perfectcouk, chickenyoghurt.

I especially recommend Nosemonkey's Europhobia and Chicken Yoghurt. Plus, I can probably dump the Grauniad feed now I've got all the Independent ones. All are in one of my public filters.

Well, I was bored, ran out of things to browse, read every news story that looked interesting, used my first ever Slashdot mod points, so decided to play around with my LJ settings.

Look: matgb

( What I've done with my journal )

Can people say if they have problems with it and if so which browser they use? It's an error in an LJ approved layout, so I'll need to harass them to fix it, but it would be good to know; alternately, it might just be my crappy PC acting up.