Feeds for thought

When I set up this new home for the AmeriNZ Podcast, I used FeedBurner to manage my RSS feed for iTunes so that I could host my podcast anywhere, and also so I could move it to a new host. Previously, when my podcast was hosted at Podomatic, I couldn’t change my feed address and I was stuck with their “service” (which is why I moved it).

Google bought FeedBurner in June 2007 and has been integrating the services ever since. As of February 28, they’re moving all FeedBurner accounts to Google accounts (there’s a way to opt out for people who want to burn their own feeds). The rest of us with FeedBurner accounts needed to set up a Google Account and transfer our feed(s) to it.

The completely Google version of FeedBurner has dropped some of the stats that used to be included because the stats are part of Google Analytics; you need an account with that in order to still get stats on site visitors and stuff. The good news is that there’s a lot more information available than FeedBurner used to supply. The bad news is that it took me several frustrating tries to get it to work for this site, though on the third or fourth try it did.

The trouble I had getting Google Analytics to work is similar to the trouble I’ve had getting various WordPress plug-ins to work, and the cause is the same: I don’t understand HTML. That’s why I used FeedBurner in the first place—I wouldn’t have the slightest idea where to begin to create my own feed.

Google’s online documentation for the change isn’t as clear as it could be, but it doesn’t really matter because Google’s transferring process works exactly as it’s supposed to. My moving process, granted with only four feeds, took less than two minutes.

It turns out there’s only a slight difference: They added a “2” to the feed address, which is now:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/amerinzpodcast

That’s the address to use if you want to subscribe directly to the same feed that goes to iTunes (doing that lets you opt out of iTunes if you want to use another service/RSS reader). The old feed should re-direct indefinitely, but anyone who uses it may want to update their subscription.

So, the process is complete and everything seems to be working. If you have any trouble accessing items in my feed, let me know.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

“Parade of Podcasts” updated

I changed my blogroll for podcasts (on the righthand side, below, called “Parade of Podcasts”). I used a service called “Blogrolling”, but that went offline, basically, October 24 and I haven’t been able to access it to add, delete or change anything since then.

So, I re-typed everything and did the HTML coding myself, which means there may be typos. The links are to those who link to me, or ones that don’t but I like them anyway. If you link to me, but I don’t have you listed, let me know! The omission isn’t on purpose. If you want me to link to you, let me know that, too; I’m always happy to trade links.

Later on, I’ll add a blogroll for blogs, but first things first.

Update 10/01/08: I’ve added blogs to the Blogroll on the lefthand side of this site, called “Bevy of Blogs”. As with podcasts, I have links to sites that link to me or that don’t but I like anyway.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Spam attacks

Unfortunately, effective immediately, I’ve had to increase the level of comment moderation due to a spam attack that’s been underway nearly 24 hours. First-time commenters now must have their comments approved before they’ll appear on this site; anyone who’s previously posted will be able to comment as normal.

Previously, I’ve had periodic spam attacks—in which spammers place “comments” intended to drive traffic to their own site(s). Those earlier attacks always tripped the spam filters on my site, but the latest attacks got around the filters. I got sick of marking them as spam and deleting them, generally at least once an hour.

So, thanks to spammers, I’ve been forced to make commenting a little more difficult. I really am sorry for the inconvenience, but I had no choice.

Update 25/10/08: I received a lot of suggestions (thanks everyone!), but unfortunately, I couldn’t make any of them work. Then Mark from Slap Upside The Head left a comment and made a suggestion I couldn’t follow up on at the the time (and my reply details that, along with my general frustration). I’m pleased to report that with Akismet running, I haven’t had to manually delete a single spam comment—it’s caught them all (12 since I installed it late last night). That’s out of a total of 93 spam comments, most of which either I or the low-level filter had already caught.

But I’m wondering: Is WordPress uniquely vulnerable for some reason, or does Blogger just take care of this behind the scenes? In any event, so far the tighter security is working, so I can get back to things that are far more interesting—like trying to figure out how to pronounce “Akismet”.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail