I’m also bugged by LJ forcing ads on non-LJ people, and my paid account has expired. Plus, LJ’s age-blocking stuff annoys the heck out of people. So, here goes…

I’m no longer going to be publishing this blog via LJ. After this post, my LJ account will become just something I use for commenting on other people’s LJs and for posting in communities (what few I still participate in over there). I’ll still be reading my LJ f-list, of course…I just won’t be posting to my LJ. If you still want to read this blog via your LJ F-list, you can add it as a feed by adding this URL as a “syndicated feed” via LJ (or just add it to Google reader or any feed reader that you like to use). Alternatively, you can visit the blog in its home at tsukata.org.

LJ has a massive history for me. I just don’t see any reason to keep publishing to it and thus increasing its potential traffic/revenue, even in what minute way my blog increases traffic and revenue.

(and even getting this entry to post over to LJ is proving to be a trial…)

I’m not a big fan of using mod_rewrite, but it’s the only workaround to maintain pretty permalinks with WP 2.6. The WP gods are aware of the problem and are determining a proper fix for the next release, but given the workaround, it’s been deemed non-critical.

Having password protection means I could post information about upcoming travel plans (normally, I only post vague information or post info after the trip is done, to prevent the possibility of a burglar using the blog to know when we’ll be home). I can also post certain sensitive things that can’t be shared with the world but could be shared with friends and family.

It’s totally an opt-in if you want the password. Just drop me an e-mail, and presuming you’re in the trusted reader category, I’ll e-mail it to you. You do need to send me e-mail (not just comment) because then I can just reply to send you the password. Otherwise, I need to dig up your e-mail address, verify that it’s valid, etc.

An example of a password protected post, with some semi-juicy content, will follow this one.

Because my work has required me to become a part of several social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) and because I’m looking for other work, I’ve also established a GMail address that is in no way linked to this site (versus my other one, which is tk at gmail dot com). Because that address gets frequent e-mail, I’ve been using GMail more often than I have previously. It’s made me really come to like GMail.

My domain e-mail has also been known to have problems, and when it does have problems, it is not always immediately apparent. I’ll be sending mail having no idea that the recipient isn’t getting it and vice versa. At one point, any e-mail sent from the webmail was not getting to people, but e-mail sent from T-bird was. Weeks went by before I found out and thus pinged my hosting company as to WTF was going on. GMail is far more reliable.

However, I also have some pride in owning my own domain, and in the 99% case, I’m usually happy to be publicizing my domain via handing out my e-mail. It has on more than one occasion served me well that someone I gave my e-mail to then navigated to the domain. I nagged a husband that way.

I see my options as threefold:
1) Start transitioning friends and family to the (tk @) Gmail address. Set up T-bird to IMAP with the GMail address. Use tk dot org e-mail only for mass e-mails and the like (e.g., when I sign up for e-mails from commercial sites, order confirmations). This removes the problem of directly exposing people to my domain. It’s not like I’d
2) Switch tk dot org over to using Google Apps For Your Domain (GAFYD) for e-mail only. Then, I get the power of G on my tk dot org addresses, mostly…but GAFYD is often behind standard GMail in terms of features. I’m not even confident it has IMAP. It also doesn’t fix the 1% problem.
3) Leave everything as is.

So far, every time I’ve had this discussion, I’ve settled on option 3, as much from inertia as anything. Any thoughts from y’all?

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