My WordPress plugin, Ultimate Category Excluder is now in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Version 0.6 is compatible with WordPress 3.1. It allows you to exclude posts from specific categories appearing on the home page, archive pages, or in your feed.
TBD Traffic Analysis
Today it was announced that Albritton Communications will be laying off much of the staff of TBD.
TBD is a web publication focusing on news, sports, and events in the Washington DC region, and was launched on August 9, 2010. One portion of their strategy was to incorporate a network of DC area bloggers (the “Community Network”) into the site. Despite staff changes over the past six months, TBD and Albritton have publicly said they will continue the TBD experiment. Today’s news also revealed that TBD will “become a niche site on arts and entertainment.” (Disclaimer: my site ShowBizRadio.net is a member of the TBD community network, and will apparently be a partial competitor to the next incarnation of TBD.)
With today’s announcement, it looks like TBD as a general news site will be gone forever. I wonder if the TBD.com web site was a success? Last week, WJLA General Manager Bill Lord said “We need to be more cost conscious, and we need more page views.” (Source: Poynter.org) Should that success be measured by the number of people reading the site? Here are a few charts created using publicly available statistics at Compete.com. I compared TBD.com with the other three DC area television stations NBCWashington.com, WUSA9.com and MyFoxDC.com. Click each chart to see a larger version.
Unique Visitors to the site:
Number of Visits to the site:
Compete Rank (one year):
Compete Rank (six months):
What I’m seeing on these charts is that TBD.com, after only six months, was beating the other three local television stations’ web sites in both traffic (both unique visitors, and the number of visits to the site). I’m not really sure what Mr. Lord is concerned about. Albritton’s decision to inflict layoffs to TBD makes no sense at all, unless he was simply using “page views” as a smoke screen for employee costs.
It appears to me that the TBD model for local news reporting was successful. It’s a shame that Albritton is apparently cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Misc Update for 2011-01-29
MacHeist’s email database has been compromised, I am getting spam to that email address. Two in the past 2 days.
Link: RSS Is Dying
Excellent article: RSS Is Dying, and You Should Be Very Worried
Odd Phone Call From 512-795-6439
I just got a call on my cell from 512-795-6439. The guy “John” was heavily accented, and wanted me to provide a credit reference for a company I’d never heard of. He thought he was calling some company I’ve never heard of. Fine, it was just a wrong number, no big deal. Then he wanted my fax number, and my full name. If it’s a wrong number, hang up, that’s the end of it. I asked to call him back, he gave me 866-843-5950 and a 9 digit reference number to use. He always referred to his company as D&B, was it really Dun & Bradstreet? It really did not feel very professional or legitimate.
I just did an online chat with someone at Dun & Bradstreet:
Amanda: Hi, how can I help?
You: I just got a strange phone call from someone claiming to be with “D&B”
Amanda: Ok…
You: They were wanting me to provide a credit reference for some business I never heard of, and thought I was some other business I never heard of.
Amanda: So we called you in error?
You: well, someone did. But he wanted my fax and company info to confirm he called incorrectly.
Amanda: Ok, let me check your record.
Amanda: What is the companies name and the state it is in please?
You: he gave me a reference # of ###-###-###
Amanda: Right…BUT you said he was calling the wrong company.
Amanda: So I would check you file to ensure there are no alerts on your file
You: Umm, no. I have no D&B account
Amanda: ok.
Amanda: So what exactly do you need from me then?
You: Am I being scammed? heavy accent, odd phone number, a wrong comapny name – it all felt like a scam.
Amanda: The company affiliated with the Duns number above is: (odd company name) NOV 24 2010 RATING DS
Amanda: Ph: TEL: ### ###-####
You: nope, never heard of them.
Amanda: Well, is the phone number similar?
You: nope! I asked for a number to call back, what number would I have been given?
Amanda: I have NO idea…we are a Global organization.
You: ok, thanks for your help. It really felt fishy, you know? Have a good Thanksgiving.
So, basically, it felt like a scam; but it might not have been one. But asking a wrong number for details about a business that you call as a wrong number is really sketchy.
Misc Update for 2010-10-07
Back on April 9, 2007 I did a survey for the Dash Navigation GPS Beta program and am now getting spam at the email address I used.
Displaying Category Names in WordPress
I just upgraded one of my blogs to WordPress 3.0 and found a bug (feature?) in my theme. The category name was missing from one column on the home page. I ended up changing this line:
single_cat_title();
to this:
wp_list_categories("include=$category&title_li=&style=none");
and all is fine again. Note: The double quotes on the second command are required. If you put single quotes, the $category variable will not be replaced.
Misc Update for 2010-08-12
I just got spam sent to an email that was only given to iCompositions.com. That’s why I use a tagged address: http://planetmike.com/goto/21
Misc Update for 2010-07-29
Rackspace why are you sending me email? I am no longer your customer, haven’t been for nearly two years. Very frustrating.