For the past few weeks I had a ShareThis button on the blog. First on posts viewed singly and then on all posts displayed on the home page. ShareThis allows readers to forward content to other services (email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) I went with ShareThis because visually it was the least noxious of similar services.

How’d it work it? Neither here nor there. It saw a bit of use by readers but not enough to justify keeping it on the site. Overall, having looked at number of these services, I think they all suffer from overkill. Most don’t let you edit the number of links provided. So, it’s common for them to present 30-50 links, the majority of them being too obscure to warrant inclusion. I also think that many in the heavy social media user crowd will already have plug-ins for their web browsers negating the need for sharing buttons.

In other blog news, I’ve made some updates this morning:

• The sidebar links and information now appear on every page.
• The sidebar now scrolls with the page (this allows it to be visible via scrolling if the browser window is shorter than the sidebar column and it means the sidebar will not overlap the blog footer.)
• Posts viewed singly now have navigation at the bottom allowing for easy movement to the next or to the previous post.
• I got rid of that pesky, tiny, smiley face which was showing up in the footer. Turns out it appears when you use the WordPress.com Stats widget. The smiley face is seen by everyone except the admin (IOW, for the admin to see it the admin must view the blog when logged out.) There’s an easy way to get rid of it – the WordPress.com Stats Smiley Remover widget.

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12/5/09 – Already going back on my word.  Trying a Share/Save button (different service from ShareThis.)

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12/6/09 – The flirtation continues… I tried the AddToAny Share/Save button. It’s nice and configurable, it can be anything from text or just an icon to a large horizontal button. I was impressed that it learns which services a person uses and puts those front and center. I also had some questions and its author sent me two emails this weekend. Impressive but the button wouldn’t play nice with my WordPress theme when viewed in Safari. This is a fault of Safari’s not the AddToAny code.

So, in one of those weekend sidetrack projects I’m known for – I made my own links that get added automatically on Learning to See’s home page and when individual posts are viewed. The code was cobbled together from suggestions on two sites (Anidandesign.com and MichaelMerrell.com) along with some reverse engineering of sites I’ve seen online. It’s very simple as you can see below, just text based links, but the advantage of doing it this way is that it can fit within the style of your WordPress theme. It won’t call undue attention to itself (a problem with the rows of colored icons many folks use.)

I’m not big on social media myself beyond having a blog but I can see the usefulness in helping those that are and in giving this a longer test run.  Since, ’tis the season, here’s Jon’s make-your-own text based social media bar:

ShareLink: <br> <a href=”mailto:?subject=<?php the_title(); ?>&body=Check out this post:%20<?php the_permalink(); ?>” title=”Email a link to: <?php the_title(); ?>”>Email</a> • <a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading <?php the_permalink(); ?>” title=”Tweet This” target=”_blank”>Twitter</a> • <a href=”http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u= <?php echo get_permalink() ?>” title=”Share on Facebook” target=”_blank”>Facebook</a> • <a href=”http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?> &title=<?php the_title(); ?>” title=”Bookmark on Delicious” target=”_blank”>del.icio.us</a> • <a href=”http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url= <?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>” title=”Stumble This” target=”_blank”>StumbleUpon</a> • <a href=”http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url= <?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>” title=”Digg This” target=”_blank”>Digg</a> • <a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url= <?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>” title=”Share on Linkedin” target=”_blank”>Linkedin</a>

I’ve dubbed it ShareLink but you should feel free to call it anything you want. A title may not be needed at all. If you want it in your single posts then add it to the single.php file, if you want it on your index page then add it to your index.php file.

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1/26/10 – It’s been just over seven weeks since adding the ShareLink links mentioned above. In that time my site and blog had over 10,000 pageviews. With all those views ShareLink was used only ten times (1/10 of 1 Percent of pageviews.) Five times for Facebook, four times for email, and one time for Twitter. Given that, I’ve deleted the links for Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon, Digg, and Linkedin.

I know another photographer who named his blog, Zero Comments. I think that’s a great name. It speaks to the majority of bloggers who are writing for writing’s sake or posting images regardless of recognition. For those of us toiling away under these conditions it’s kind of exciting when you do get a blog comment. Someone cared enough to write!

Unfortunately, more often than not, the comment you get is not really a comment. It’s an ad or a questionable hyperlink disguised as a comment. I’ve gotten a few of these lately and some forensic Googling has shown some odd meeting points.

Here’s a comment I received Monday morning,

Hi, I’ve just come across your website while searching around the Internet as I am looking for some information on electric cellos!. It’s a very interesting site so I have bookmarked you and I will revisit soon to have a more indepth look when I’ll more free time.

Now, I double-checked my blog. While I have written about music, I have never written about cellos or electric cellos. The closet thing I have on my blog are images from Monticello. So, there’s no type of search which would lead the commenter to my site. I also know from my site stats that they did not find me by using a search engine.

In the commenter’s name they did leave a link to a site about electric cellos and that’s where things get strange. I’m not going to link to their site because I don’t want to fulfill their goals of publishing their links but suffice it to say their site looks like this:

Almost looks legit until you look at the site’s links. Every external link leads to one Amazon.com page. A page of electric cellos. Seeing this I wondered, what’s the point? Why create a site whose sole purpose is to lead to an Amazon page of electric cellos? Why create the software or pay people to leave blog comments pointing to the same?

On a whim I Googled parts of the comment I received. It led me to other blogs, all with similar comments. Here’s one I found,

Hi there, I’ve just stumbled upon your blog whilst hunting around Google as I am looking for some info on engine lifts!. It’s a good blog so I bookmarked your site and will revisit you soon to allow more time for a more indepth look when I can give it more time.

Its author has a hyperlink to this site:

Look familiar? In keeping with the electric cello format, the external links on this site lead to an Amazon search page of engine lifts.

Now scroll down to either Amazon search page and look through the Customers with Similar Searches window. You’ll find that people who search for engine lifts also search for electric cellos and vice versa.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories but there’s definitely something afoot here… Maybe there is a little known group of Internet manipulating electric cello playing mechanics?

The Atlantic Yards project cleared a major hurdle yesterday when New York State was granted the right to use eminent domain for the development. The project has had a long political history pitting the developer, Forest City Ratner, against local groups, and an equally interesting design history, moving from an all Frank Gehry development to ceding the design of the Barclays Center/Net’s arena to the firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects while leaving the rest of the project design open to question.

MaryAnne Gilmartin is Executive Vice-President of Forest City Ratner and the point person on Atlantic Yards. I photographed her in 2008 from a perch overlooking Atlantic Yards for an editorial profile.

MaryAnne Gilmartin, Executive Vice-President Forest City Ratner, April, 2008.

Ace assistant, Dan Mezick, gets a Macbeth card into the frame.

On location on Tuesday. I’ve used this method a few times when a subject is high up but still within reach of a light stand. Time to hoist the Macbeth card. The camera is in the foreground, on its back, and pointed straight up to photograph the ceiling details.

More info. and final photos once the images are published.

Mike Stern, Chris' Jazz Cafe, Philadephia, PA

We caught Mike Stern and his trio at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Philly last night.  Great show. No matter what kind of music you are into, if you get a chance – see Mike and his group.

I heard back from Six Apart this afternoon (see the prior post for the beginning of this story.)  They did delete my TypePad account.  While that’s great, their excuse for the current set up at TypePad (forcing all users, without their consent, into accounts which cannot be deleted) is that a “delete everything” button has not been created.  They claim to have fast-tracked this but they are not sure how quickly it can be done.  Additionally, their explanation for the behavior of the TypePad Rep who said that “accounts cannot generally be deleted,” is that she is “just trying to keep customers.”

I find these points wanting to say the least.  It’s hard to see how TypePad’s policies are anything but created to force all users into permanent never-to-be-deleted accounts.

I made the following suggestions to Six Apart as interim steps to take while they create their delete button:

Don’t automatically create a Profile page without a TypePad user’s consent.

Don’t automatically force a paying customer who deletes their blog into TypePad Micro account without their consent.

Make it abundantly clear prior to signing up, for users of paid TypePad accounts or of free TypePad Micro accounts, whether they can delete their accounts at any time in the future.

Change TypePad’s stock answer when deletion requests like mine are made.  The free profile accounts can’t generally be deleted statement is not true.

If you are a TypePad user and find yourself forced into a free account or into free services like the profile page without your consent then go directly to Six Apart’s getsatisfaction.com forum and post a complaint.  This bypasses TypePad and will hopefully lead to any corrections you request.

I’m not sure when TypePad decided it would be best served by becoming a cult.

I signed up with TypePad about two years ago to host my blog. At the time it was a good decision. WordPress being open source, not well documented, and something of a free for all with a big learning curve, scared me off. I wanted to get my blog up and running quickly and a survey of blogging platforms led me to TypePad.

Fast forward two years. I’ve moved to a new web site, one that includes a WordPress blog. WordPress now has better documentation (online videos, etc.) so I’ve switched my blog to WordPress. Initially, I expected to leave my TypePad blog online until the account runs out in March, 2010, but seeing how quickly my new blog has been indexed online and seeing how the TypePad blog just confuses matters on web search results – yesterday, I decided to pull the plug and cancel my TypePad account. Thus, the odyssey begins…

I had a paid TypePad account. This kept it ad-free and supposedly provided me with better customer service. It’s easy enough to find out how to cancel a paid TypePad account. You go within your account and delete it. The problems start at that point. With TypePad’s policies, just by having a paid TypePad account they’ve created a profile for you without your consent. Additionally, when you delete your paid account TypePad gives you a free Micro account. Again, without your consent.

There is no information on TypePad’s site on how to delete a Profile or a Micro account. Given this, I submitted a help ticket to TypePad support only to find that the help ticket would not go through. It led me to an error page, which also had a form. Filling out the error page’s form led nowhere – it took me to the same error page. I then found a generic TypePad contact page on their site and filled out my request there.

With no reply from TypePad’s contact page and via some googling, I found a third-party site, getsatisfaction.com, where Six Apart (TypePad’s parent company) has a support page.  I entered my request there along with information about what I had just gone through. Fairly, quickly I heard back from a Six Apart employee – one who has said she will delete the account and confirm that it has been done.

Hours later, I also heard back from TypePad’s contact page:

Thanks so much for reaching out, and we’re sorry to hear that you’re experiencing some frustration – we’re also really sorry that you received errors! Essentially, the free profile accounts can’t generally be deleted, but you’ll never be charged, and those do come in handy when commenting on other blogs. There is a possibility that we may be able to have it removed for you entirely, so if you would like for us to do that for you, and you’ve decided that having the free profile wouldn’t be useful for you, please let us know.

Can you tell us why you’ve decided to leave TypePad?

This reply is problematic on a couple of levels.

It counters what the Six Apart employee told me.

It uncovers policies at TypePad which are never directly stated on their web site. Create a paid account on TypePad and you are given a profile without your consent. Cancel the paid account at TypePad and you are also given a free Micro blog account at TypePad without your consent. Neither the profile nor the free Micro account can “generally” be deleted.

I’ll update this post when I get confirmation from the Six Apart employee that my account has been fully deleted. It’ll be interesting to see why TypePad’s corporate response differs from theirs.

Until then if you are a TypePad paid account user be forewarned that you are also roped into their free services whether you like it or not. If you are a TypePad free account user either by having a profile on their site, a free Micro account, or both, be forewarned that there is nothing setup to delete these services if you decide you no longer want them. This makes your TypePad presence permanent, as in forever, and it also gives Typepad of a method of following you if you make comments on other blogs.