Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I have had an inkling to change some things around here. Some of those things include the commenting system. Not only did it look like an eyesore, but it lacked a few features that I have been wanting to implement for some time now. I have implemented SezWho, a plugin and service which highlights user reputation. Users can rate your comment up or down which after a period of time, can be known as your reputation. Readers of this site can now minimize or maximize individual comments, sort comments based on ratings and rate each other, including me. I’ve also completed some design work which is not entirely finished. I still have a couple more design tweaks I would like to do before I can consider this area of the blog done.
Over the weekend, I decided to try out the idea of having a shoutbox. I realize the word SHOUTBOX is so 1990′s but it’s still one of the easiest ways of leaving feedback without having to go through a series of steps. Check out the chat area on the sidebar on the right hand side of this site and leave a message. This is just one more way of allowing me to have two way communication with the readers of this site.
I finally added a little bit of information to the CONTACT ME page. I’ve added some text before the contact form and I’ve also put up a list of other services/networks that I have an account on in which you can get in contact with me. So far, there are over 20 ways of getting in touch with me. Please don’t use them all at the same time 
That’s the realm of updates for now. I’ll be finishing up the rest of the changes tomorrow with a follow up post letting you know what’s up.
Step 2 is the beginning of the merging process. This is where your MyBlogLog account will be merged with your Yahoo account. An important thing to note here is that on this screen, your avatar will be changed to a default grey smiley face so make sure you change your avatar.
Simonne from the Reader Appreciation Project has published an interesting post which questions whether or not, 
Can you believe that WordPress has only been around for two years? It’s true. Back on August 20th, 2005 the first blog on 
A Big Heart Felt Thanks To YOU
I’d like to say thank you to my sponsors. Just kidding. No sponsor has been dumb enough to give me money so instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my readers. This blog was started back at the end of May as a one year project to see where I could take it. So after four months into the project, let’s take a look at some statistics.
Subscribers:
This site now has a total of 103 Subscribers according to Feedburner. This number varies day to day but is steadily showing over 100 subscribers. Thanks to all of you who have subscribed either by email or by RSS. I truly do appreciate it as it tells me that what I’m writing is important or at the very least informative.
Conversations:
At the time of this writing, this site has a total of 348 comments on 227 posts contained within 13 categories and 1,147 tags. Some of the comments within this specific stat are actually trackbacks or pingbacks but for the most part, the comments were made by real people. One of the major goals that I am trying to achieve with this site is building a COMMUNITY. A social community at that. A community that contributes intelligently to the conversations that I start with each post.
Any time I publish a post on this site, I always look forward to checking my email to see if and who has contributed to the conversation. I realize that as a blogger, comments are hard to come by. That is why I try to thank everyone who leaves a comment as I’m appreciative of the time you took out of your day to stop by and say hello. So I’ll end this by saying THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who have left a comment on this blog since it’s inception. It’s nice to know that I’m not blogging within an empty room.
Akismet The Time Saver:
Every blogger seems to toot their own horn when they reach a milestone with spam such as Darren Rowse. I’ll be no different except to let you know that so far, Akismet has blocked 1,377 spam messages. Although a far cry from two million, Akismet has been one hell of a time saver for me. I will say however that, Akismet is not perfect and in recent weeks, Akismet has been missing spam but overall, it’s the best anti spam solution I’ve ever seen other than disconnecting from the net. So here is a big thank you to everyone involved with Akismet.
In Closing:
According to the logs, each month has shown a steady increase in traffic, an increase in subscribers and more importantly, an increase in user interaction. In the past four months, I’ve managed to develop virtual relationships with various people across various blogs. The next four months will be interesting as I continue to experiment with this blog and continue with my writing. I’ll write up another post like this when we hit the eight month mark to see where we have progressed. Rest assured that I appreciate every comment, trackback, pingback, linkback, bookmark, stumble, digg ect. that is given to me. It would be great if I could get paid to do this sort of work, but as it stands, this blog is advertisement and sponsor free. So in the mean time, what I mentioned above is what I consider blogging currency. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m no longer a blogging bum, thanks to you of course.
Unlike most other sites or blogs, I don’t mind thanking those who have helped me reach this point. So in no particular order, I’d like to thank the following people. I apologize if you don’t see your name on this list.
Last but not least, thanks to all of you who have joined my MyBlogLog community, added me to Twitter and to everyone that I have associated with on TalkShoe.If you want to be removed from this list or if you would like for me to change the site your link is pointing to, let me know by leaving a comment.