June 1st, 2009, 1 Comment »
I’m running a quick little survey about clickthroughs on Twitter. It applies to you if you use a link shortener like Bit.ly that enables you to track the number of clicks a link receives when you post it on Twitter (hmm…mangled sentence there, but you get the idea). It’s all of two questions, and should take you, like, 14 seconds:
I’ll update this post tomorrow with the results.
May 8th, 2009, 12 Comments »
As BC readers know, we’re electing a new provincial government on May 12. I confess my general ignorance about provincial politics. I don’t have that much attention to give to politics generally, and I usually exhaust that on federal and international issues. Combine that with our having been recently out of the country for a year, and I have very few opinions about who to vote for next week. I’m a little ashamed of that, but what’re you going to do?
So here’s your opportunity to convince me to vote for your party of choice. I’m not particularly interested in opposition-bashing. I’d prefer to hear about platforms, policies and initiatives that align with your values and vision for the province.
I have a slight bias against the NDP (I’m not a fan of unions) and for the Green Party, but neither seem overwhelming in this case.
Leave a comment and fire away. If you’re disinclined to comment, here’s a poll:
I don’t actually guarantee that I’ll vote for who wins the poll, but I thought it’d be fun to take your temperature nonetheless.
February 10th, 2009, 6 Comments »
I was talking to somebody about this morning. I doubt they will, but I really have no idea. Less idea than usual when it comes to the Canucks. So, let us vote:
August 4th, 2008, 11 Comments »
Due to my own busyness and ambivalence, this site’s redesign is moving at a glacial pace. However, it is happening.
In the spirit of revamping things around here, I’m considering dispensing with my links page. Despite what the page claims, it is no longer an accurate representation of what I read. I used to use Bloglines, and I shared my public feeds on that page. That’s no longer straightforward, because I use a variety of aggregating and filtering services (most notably, AideRSS) to mash and morph the feeds to which I subscribe. Plus, I switched to Google Reader a while back.
As a result, my blogroll is littered with old sites I don’t read, defunct sites and inaccurate links. I’m very bad at maintaining it because it’s a chore, and always at the mucky bottom of a long, long list of tasks.
So, should the old blogroll stay or go? I could discuss the pros and cons of killing it, but Rebecca recently did a good job of considering the issue. Looking at my site stats, it ranks #68 in popularity over the past two years. Do you ever use my links page? What do you do on your site? Should I keep the thing? Here’s a poll:
I receive an email mentioning a job in the Vancouver technology or marketing industries at least two or three times a month. Depending on my inclination and busyness, I occasionally post these to my site. I thought it might be useful to include a job board page on the site where all of these jobs could live.
Somebody recently pointed me at Job Thread, which displays local jobs specific to the industries I specify in a widget. Somewhat like Google AdSense, you earn money “based on a number of factors including the quantity and quality of traffic your Widget generates”. I ought to reject them for the needless capitalization of ‘widget’, but never mind that. That’s not quite the right thing, because I don’t see a seamless way for people to submit jobs that would ensure they appeared on my site. Plus, I want something more robust than just a widget.
Ideally, I’d like a system where anybody can submit a job listing, which would be held in moderation until I approved it. Then it would be posted to a page, and eventually retired to an archive after a couple of months. I imagine one could hack something together with WordPress, but does anybody know of any ready-made solutions? Plus, you know, if there’s a money-generating angle, I wouldn’t complain. I’d do it out of the goodness of my heart, but I’m not going to turn down a little passive revenue. Any advice?
April 23rd, 2008, 12 Comments »
Please answer the following question concerning your GP or ‘family doctor’:
I’ll be needing a new doctor in Victoria sooner or later, and paused to consider whether I’d, uh, consider a female doctor. I’ve always been to male doctors, but that’s kind of been by default. I’m curious to see how common the practice is. Gillian’s post in which she sees her male doctor reminded me about this.
RSS subscribers, this blog post contains a poll. Please consider visiting my site to participate. Or just carry on. Whichever.
March 11th, 2008, 6 Comments »
Just a quick post to close ye olde loop on that poll I ran before I changed continents. Here’s a pretty pie chart showing the results (as always, click for a larger version):
There was a pretty even three-way split. Cityscape Blue has a slight edge over Yellow and Waving and Brown with Many Signs. There was another late submission, which is probably the most creative and original of the bunch:
I haven’t had a lot of time to dwell on them, but I think I prefer either Yellow and Waving or Brown with Many Signs. Cityscape Blue feels a bit generic, and besides, I won’t be living in Vancouver for the next little while, anyway.
I also liked the cleverness of the first late submission, and admire the creativity and detail work in the above submission. It may be a little too busy for my site (and I’m not nuts about how my portrait looks), but I think the treatment is gorgeous. It’s by an artist named Celeste Cronrath, and I’d definitely use her for other work that needed a similar aesthetic. Does anybody else dig this latest effort?
I’m going to let them marinate for a few days, and solicit a few more opinions before making a final call.
You may recall that I used a new service called Pixish for this project. I have some minor technical and workflow complaints (and boy do they need documentation), but I’ve been really impressed with the artwork this project has generated. I wouldn’t call it world-class, but most of it is average, and some is quite thoughtful and original. I’d definitely use Pixish again if the right project came along.
March 8th, 2008, 13 Comments »
Regular readers will recall that a couple of weeks ago I submitted an assignment to Pixish, a new get-stuff-designed site. I was looking for source art for the next version of this site, combining any CC-licensed photo of me and this film industry sign.
The assignment closes today, and I’ve got a decent bounty of riches to choose from. Or rather, we do, because I’d like your opinion about which one you like best. Here’s a poll, where you can vote on your favourite. The question, basically, is which image best suits me and this site? Remember that these are source images–they’ll certainly be tweaked and cropped by a web designer.
Find small versions of the images below. You can click them to see larger ones, or check out this Flickr slideshow.
You can also vote on Pixish, but you have to register and, besides, it’s unclear to me how the voting works. I’ve submitted a support query for clarification.
Disclaimer: I reserve the right to reject popular opinion. I have a favourite, but I’d like to hear what yours is.
UPDATE: I received a last minute sixth submission. I can’t modify the poll, so you’ll just have to comment if you like this one best:
November 26th, 2007, No Comments »
Over the weekend Keith McArthur from Veritas (that’s a ballsy name for a PR agency, eh?) pitched me on the results of their new social media survey. Given that we’re finishing up a book on the subject (it’s back from the editor on Wednesday), it piqued my interest. The results will be available on Tuesday here, but he’s giving some bloggers a sneak peak.
Here are a couple of interesting results. They asked 2,265 Canadians the following question:
Which of the following best describes your current use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace?
For the 1,295 who have used social media, the results look like:
18% - I added my profile to one of these sites but I haven’t been back since.
9% - I used to be active on these sites, but not anymore.
30% - I added my profile to one of these sites, and I occasionally check it.
26% - I often visit sites like Facebook or MySpace.
17% - I am constantly visiting sites such as Facebook or MySpace.
I’d say that’s pretty reflective of my non-geeky friends.
The other result that popped out at me was a question they asked “444 people who identified themselves as senior managers or marketing executives” (is that a sufficiently large sample group?). After a series of other questions, they asked:
Which, if any, of the following will you cut back on in order to increase your social media budget?
The top three answers were direct mail marketing, print advertising and radio advertising. That can’t be great news for the newspapers and radio stations of the world.
July 3rd, 2007, 7 Comments »
As per this discussion earlier in the week, I thought I’d run a quick poll to see, empirically (because web polls are irrefutable, don’t you know), which bit of television history is the most Canadian:
Those of you visiting via the RSS feed will probably have to actually visit my site to vote.
I liked Filmgoerjuan’s suggestion, so I also included the seminal Paddle to the Sea. And Fraggle Rock, in case none of the other options appealed.