Thoughts - GIS Blogger bloggers and Planet GS
If it wasn't for James Fee and his excellent work on Planet GS many GIS blogs would be read by the blog author and his or her close and loyal friends and family. Planet GS has allowed me to share my island projects with thousands of people throughout the world. I owe much of my blog's success to Planet GS.
My work is well received, being viewed by 50 to 100 visitors daily. My posts of island projects are typically found in the top five site references for a Google search. My point is - I am what I am (blog-wise) due to the quality of my work, the breath of my posts and the exposure offered by Planet GS.
So, it was with a great deal of displeasure I read the "Blogger Bashing" thread on James Fee's website dated November 02. To a person, everyone had fun bashing Blogger and the spamming-like problems that it supposedly creates in Planet GS.
As a Blogger blogger, I don't think the problem is with Blogger. The problem is with the blogger (little "b"). That is the individual blogging. Not all of us are HTML-pros. Not everyone works on the coding side of GIS. Some of us just have GIS-related ideas to share and Blogger is a great vehicle to carry our ideas forth. We sometimes screw up and post when we shouldn't post or post silly content. That is a problem of the blogger, not Blogger.
What am I trying to say? I resent that my site, EVS Islands, shows up on a list of Blogger derived sites (see the above link) as if it isn't worthy to be listed alongside non-Blogger sites. That is a bunch of elitist crap! I work long hours to ensure the quality of my posts meet my high exacting standards. I labor long and hard to maintain a consistently high standard of content. I never, knowingly, produce trite commentary, but strive to share topics relevant to my special interest, Enhanced Vector Shorelines of islands.
My product, high quality island maps, is for everyone, not merely the GIS expert. I am sure my readers include bored office workers, students and elderly dreamers. Great! And Blogger is how I am able to share my work.
James Fee - your work with Planet GS has allowed my product and that of others to be widely viewed throughout the world. If someone is messing up, determine the problem and let them know with a personal email. If they ignore your fair warning, since Planet GS is your site, delete their feed.
All of us in the GIS community truely appreciate Planet GS and all that you do.
Most especially this GIS Blogger blogger.
You'll notice that your feed is still in Planet Geospatial.
I only remove blog feeds (any type) after they spam Planet Geospatial twice. First you get a warning, then it goes. While the problem is 90% Blogger (I can't replicate it so you might be right it could be the blogger on Blogger), if the blog is on Wordpress.com and does it, then it too can be removed. Since I've removed about 5 problem feeds in the last 2 weeks, I think PGS has become much easier to read.
I do take a little exception with your blogger bashing comment. I mearly listed all the Blogger hosted feeds to show people it wasn't as simple as just removing any blog with "blogspot.com" on the end. My comment was to show that there were good blogs in the list and I didn't want anyone to forget that.
Posted by
James Fee |
11/20/2006 06:14:00 AM
I thank you for your prompt reply and thank you for your clarification. I know that you work dilligently to maintain PGS as a high-quality resource for all users. Perhaps it was me reading the thread at 3:00 AM (I couldn't sleep), where your comments remained neutral, many of the responders seemed determined to isolate Blogger as the problem. And that is what I reacted to.
Again, PGS is great and as a GIS'er and Blogger blogger, Thanks!
Posted by
Mr Minton |
11/20/2006 06:23:00 AM