3 posts tagged “blogging”

Looking through PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Websites, I found Website Grader.  Naturally, I was tempted to see how my blog stacks up.

Here's how I did: http://www.websitegrader.com/wsgid/222023/default.aspx

My blog got a score of 72, which I imagine rides mostly on the Alexa rank of Vox (last I recall, subdomains do not get counted separately, so your Alexa rank is really the rank of Vox overall).  If your blog actually gets read (unlike mine), your score will probably be higher.

Some interesting things I noticed that apply to all of us:

1. The meta-data description is blank...wouldn't it be awesome if they added a feature to let us come up with a meta-data description for each individual blog?
2. Apparently Vox uses twice as many meta keywords as recommended.
3. We all have multiple H1 headings...apparently that's unusual.

Now what I find particularly entertaining about my score is the "Readability Level".  Apparently they consider my page to be written on a level suitable for people with advanced degrees (i.e. PhDs and similar level degrees).  Am I really that hard to read?  And to think that I'm still working on my first bachelor's degree. ;)

As you can probably tell, I've still got a lot of work left getting everything set up.  It is definitely going to take a while before the audio section is finished, since I own over three hundred CDs, about seventy LPs, and a handful of 7" singles.  For now, I'll merely settle for tagging the items based on the genres given by AMG (but slightly simplified, because really, is the difference between "Alternative Pop/Rock" and "Adult Alternative Pop/Rock" worth noting?).  I don't care for genre tags personally, so I'm doing it for the sake of my readers (however few they are).  Books and videos hopefully won't take too long after I finish with the audio section.  Eventually I'll go through and rate all the items, and maybe I'll even write reviews at some point, but don't hold your breath on either.

Now, about the banner and tagline.  I took the photo of that yarn skein in the banner, which is now a pair of Pomatomus socks.  I bet that gorgeous hank of hand-painted merino (Great Adirondack's Soxie in Grenada) is making knitters reading this salivate...I assure you the results are every bit as drool-worthy as the yarn is.  Unfortunately, my camera died about a week ago, or I'd show you the results.  This blog is probably going to suck in the knitting department until I get a functioning camera (I should probably teach myself how to use that film-based SLR I've got lying around).  As for the tagline, it's just a parody of the phrase "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll"...there probably won't be much (if any) sex talk, but you'll get a fair bit of knitting and music talk if you stick around.  Speaking of music, I'll try to have every post that isn't a QoTD or Vox Hunt have a title that comes from some song lyrics (feel free to identify the post titles).

I decided it was time for a change in my online activities.  I've been a pretty active member on a certain online trading forum for several years now (I won't say where, but some of you may guess from my username who I really am).  Recently, I've been getting more and more sick of the place...seems like all of the people just want to pick on me in the general discussion area, and there's been a few more things that really pushed me over the edge.  Sure, I've said I'm done with the place before, but this time I mean it.  It's time for me to move away from that unhealthy environment and do something else with my online time that's hopefully more productive...hence this blog.

Of course, I've started many blogs before and gave up after the first few posts.  This time I hope to change that...I'm going to make it work this time.  Hell, it's time for change in all corners of my life...I mean, I'm going back to school in the fall after two years away from a proper university...why not try to reform other areas of my life?