Weekly Digest: Blog Silence Day, Comment Spam Brainstorming

Welcome to the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress, a one-stop buffet of tips, tricks, and techniques on WordPress and blogging. Past issues can be found in the Weekly Digest category.

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Exciting Lorelle on WordPress News

In the Top Ten Most Popular Posts on WordPress.com: For a few minutes, WordPress 2.2 Delayed made on the Top Posts on WordPress.com list, rising to the top ten. Wow!

Lorelle on WordPress features on the Teen Tech Buzz: Lorelle on WordPress was featured this past week on the Teen Tech Buzz Podcast. Very exciting.

April 30 Day of Blog Silence To Honor Victims of Violence: I posted April 30: A Day of Silence on the Blogosphere as a simple announcement, helping a friend spread the word on a novel idea. Since the blogosphere is about talking, why not honor the victims of the Virginia massacres with a day of blog silence, with blogs all over the blogosphere posting a graphic badge making a statement against violence and honoring the victims of violence. I thought the concept would be a marvelous way to get people talking about putting an end to violence, and not just violence in the United States. I wanted the project to expand to include all nations of the world where innocents are killed in the name of power, control, and no reason at all.

Little did I realize that a call for a day of silence would be confused with shutting down the conversation. It was very interesting to watch people run with this idea, expressing their feelings about having their right to speak out taken away, while others thought such a unified action would send a powerful message. I added my voice in support of the cause in Silence is a Memoriam, Not a Reason to Stop Blogging, sharing a personal story about my experiences with the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel where the entire country freezes in its tracks for two minutes of silence to honor those who died and were victimized in the Holocaust.

What was even more exciting to watch was the number of people, possibly for the first time, speaking out against violence. Their views range from accusing the United States of narcissism to openly discussing the violence that so many live with every day of their lives. As a long time advocate against personal violence, my heart sang as more and more people shared their thoughts within my post comments and on their blogs.

My sincere thanks and honors goes to Steli Efti who came up with the brilliant OneDayBlogSilence.com event. For honoring a day of silence, I’m absolutely thrilled with the conversations this event has generated.

Comment Spam Brainstorming: In an attempt to tap the brilliant minds of the blogosphere, I announced a brainstorming attempt asking bloggers to come up with ideas on how to stop comment spammers from spamming in Are You Torturing Your Blog Commenters? Help Stop Comment Spam and Can We Work Together to Stop Comment Spam. Unfortunately, the timing of more interesting news in the world overshadowed my attempt. The idea is still valid as comment spam impacts every blogger in the world. I think with a little creativity and united energy, we can come up with some original methods to take the income out of spammers.

Bloggers Choice Awards: Lorelle on WordPress is now in third place in the nominated for the Bloggers Choice Awards for the best blogger blogging about blogging category. With 95 votes so far, I want to thank everyone who voted for my blog. It’s still an honor to be mentioned. 😉

WordCamp 2007 will be July 21-22 in San Francisco: There is now an official WordCamp 2007 Upcoming Events page. This is the second annual meeting and WordPress users will be attending from all over the world, possibly even me. The turnout is expected to be at least double, if not triple, from last year’s event, so make sure you make arrangements as soon as possible.

Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference: I’m now set and will be at the The Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference (SOBCon07) in Chicago, May 11-12. It’s an amazing full day of workshops by top blogging and web professionals on community building and new interactive technologies to help you build your blog and your blogging business. I reviewed it in the Blog Herald with The Relationship Conference: Building Blogs Through Interaction. Space is very limited and time is running out.

WordPress Meetups: I list the WordPress events I find in my WordPress Wednesday on the Blog Herald, and recently started a WordPress Events Page to help publicize WordPress Meetups and groups. If you are a member, make sure you get me your information and schedule so I can help promote your events.

What’s Happening with Lorelle on WordPress

This past week’s articles from Lorelle on WordPress included:

Most Popular Articles on Lorelle on WordPress

The most popular articles on my blog this week were:

New Arrivals on Lorelle on WordPress

Which bloggers and sites are bringing readers to Lorelle on WordPress?

The Day of Silence on the Blogosphere post has created a lot of incoming links. Many are posting that I’m the initiator of this project. I am not. Please make sure you correct this information to give credit to the wonderful educator and school principal, Steli Efti, who came up this this novel idea. And stop by and say thank you for getting so many to talk about this subject.

Want to know where my readers are visiting from my blog? The most frequented external links from this blog this week are:

Blog Herald Columns

I’ve been writing a daily column for the Blog Herald for a few months, and this week I focused on the issue of the many relationships we form with our blog. But first, here’s the latest WordPress news from the past few weeks:

The series I wrote for the Blog Herald on Building Blog Relationships in honor of the The Successful and Outstanding Blogger Conference (SOBCon07) in Chicago, May 11-12, continues to get a lot of attention.

This week’s articles include:

Lorelle’s Linkworthy Links

Some of the fascinating bits and pieces I uncovered during the past week as I search for blogging and WordPress news include:

Blasts From the Past

I thought I’d round up some past posts I’ve written about comment spam, since this week I posted a call for bloggers around the world to brainstorm ideas for making life miserable for comment spammers.

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https://lorelle.wordpress.com/tag/weekly-digest/feed/

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