I haven’t done one of these in quite awhile and I figured it was time to throw some of the new directions I will going with the blog along with some of the changes I plan on implementing,
First of all thanks to my wonderful hosts, iMountain Hosting. Without them the blog would have been closed a long time ago. I am happy to announce that because of them we are on a brand new quad core dedicated server with 4GB of RAM. That along with all the tweaks and offloading we have setup will almost guarantee that we will have very few blog issues in the future. Should we have a server issue, most of you know that I have a backup server that kicks in automatically and brings you an update page along with the shoutbox. This keeps everyone in the loop should my server explode.
I have had a lot of people ask how they can have a custom picture (avatar) in the comments section. That is easy. Sign up with Gravatar, upload your image and you have a custom picture in the comments section. Make sure you use the same email address here and at gravatar. The nice thing about this is that you can change your picture at anytime by uploading a new one to gravatar.
I have decided that starting next week I will only be running the “Caption This” posts 3 times a week. You will get a post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7AM. I am doing this to maybe help increase comment counts on the posts by reducing the frequency of the posts.
Once American Idol begins I will be changing things with album and single releases. I will no longer be posting the audio to full length albums. I will let you know the day albums are released and will provide any links to legal streams of the album but I won’t be uploading the individual tracks from the album to a post. I will however continue posting a streaming MP3 to any Idol singles as they are released or leaked. Remember you can only listen to these MP3’s. You can’t download them from me.
American Idol videos and audio will remain the same as always. I will provide you with audio clips immediately following the performances and most videos within a few hours. I am undetermined if I will be streaming the “Studio” versions this season.
I have implemented a new Live TV Page for all American Idol episodes and any other shows I find streaming that I cover. This will be the page that you can link to in the shoutbox during American Idol episodes.
I will once again be partnering with The Idol Radio Show. Alan and Darryl will still be using the shoutbox on show nights and will still be taking your calls. I have been asked to be a semi-regular and have yet to decide on it. Hopefully you guys and gals will all listen again this season and support Alan and Darryl.
The last big thing I am going to work on for the upcoming American Idol season is comment handling. Once American Idol begins I will only be asking comments to remain clean of foul language and direct attacks. I am going to allow more of the negative because I have come to the understanding that by making this site public I have to take the good comments with the bad comments. We aren’t going to all agree and that’s life so we will overlook the comments that we don’t like and move on to our own comment or thought. Banning will only result from vulgar comments or direct attacks on a member of the blog or a contestant of American Idol.
For now that’s about it. Thank you for taking the time to read the post and for being a loyal member of the blog. If you have any thoughts on anything this is the place to post you concern or idea.
Love it. Everything. Especially the comments part.
I hope you decide to be on the radio show. That would be awesome.
YAY, Slim! I think the comment thing will be just fine and really, I think it’s a good idea. I also think it’s something that, if you find it isn’t working, can be tweaked and changed to fit what you want.
@ ABB:
Right on, sister! BTW, if I had feelings I’d be hurt – I’ll be back on the IRS.
@Slim
I hope this means fairness this year in comment moderating.
Glad you’ll have a Live TV link – it did get a bit tiresome to have to keep posting the link multiple times in the box because it seems that “new” people didn’t always realize they could scroll back (although it would be rather like swimming upstream during show nights anyway!).
Sorry to hear you want to let negative comments through, but then again, it’s your blog. I’ll still try to adhere to my momma’s gold standard: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” The other version was something like, “If you wouldn’t say that in front of your grandmother, you probably shouldn’t say it at all.” I’m sure I’ll be in the minority since that’s a pretty old-fashioned view in today’s age of non-censorship. But I’m fully convinced that that’s why Paula often resorted to the “You look beautiful” comments, hahaha.
Looking forward to the new season with you, Slim, and the rest of the gang. Bring on the contestants!! Oh, and you would be a welcome addition to the Radio Show. Lord knows they need new blood to liven up that boring show. Muwaahaahaahaa, take that Alan,Alan,Alan,Alan,Alan!