Egypt
This is something of a cry for help.
1) I am sure that most of you have noticed that whenever I go away the blog ceases to be updated for a while because I simply cannot keep up with it. It takes a minimum of an hour a day to update, and when I'm away that isn't convenient. Next week I'll be somewhere with no web connection so it won't even be updated sporadically.
When I return to London from wherever I've been the blog takes hours to update. There are so many things wade through to find the items that might be of interest. Until you do something like this you have no idea how many frogs you have to kiss before you find a few princes, metaphorically speaking! When I came back from my father's place this time (only five days) there were over 600 Google Alerts waiting for me. Sticking my head in a bucket of freezing water would have been a rather more attractive option. I just don't have those spare hours.
2) I keep posting out of date articles because I don't have time or the energy to check every article, and my memory is apparently pretty useless because I don't recall posting things previously (the post re the Horemheb tomb opening is a good example). The number of times I've posted out of date "news" items recently is truly demoralizing. It is okay to make the occasional mistake but I'm making too many at the moment.
3) Usually, the stuff I post isn't actually news. Travel stories, magazine/journal announcements and book and exhibition reviews seem to dominate, even during the excavation season. It is more a matter of aggregating other people's online articles and posts and I have no idea what value this really is to people. Access to real news is restricted by the rules and regs of the SCA. I'm not sure that what I'm doing here is particularly useful. You could probably get the same results by intelligent use of Google Reader.
I was wondering if there couldn't be a better way of doing this. I've thought of various ideas - restricting the content to certain categories of news, opening the blog out to collective ownership, offering to transfer ownership to someone else, or just shutting it down altogether. But all options seem to have problems with them. So I'm hoping that someone will have a better idea.
I started the blog for fun, and it is now more of a headache than anything.
I don't know what the answer is but if any of you has a magic wand that you can wave (or just a good idea or two) I'd be very grateful!
Cheers
Andie
- New Ancient Egypt Blog Portal
Via News from the Valley of the Kings by Kate Phizackerley on 09/08/10 Kate has posted about a new Ancient Egypt blog portal which she and Vincent have put together in WordPress. It is affiliated with the new magazine that Kate and I have been working...
- A New Online Egyptology Magazine?
Is there room in the world of Egyptology for an online magazine written by talented amateur Egyptologists, Egyptology society members, undergraduates and informal students? Kate Phizackerley (www.kv64.info) and I are doing market research into the possibility...
- Back To Autumnal London
It was a pretty drive back. Even the motorways were flanked by vistas of Autumnal leaf change. The colours were marvellous in the bright sunshine. My house was still standing patiently where I left it, but I had so much post that I had to fight with the...
- Andie Update
As the blog is being maintained very efficiently by Ben this is not so much of a "blog update" as an Andie update! Hopefully I will be able to stop imposing so much on Ben in the next few weeks and start posting again so that he can use his valuable time...
- Blog Update
Hi to all As I posted yesterday, I'm back in the UK after a terrific week away with some really great people, visiting some parts of Egypt that I have never been lucky enough to experience before. I will post the photographs online when I have finished...
Egypt
Blog - looking for a solution to a couple of problems
This is something of a cry for help.1) I am sure that most of you have noticed that whenever I go away the blog ceases to be updated for a while because I simply cannot keep up with it. It takes a minimum of an hour a day to update, and when I'm away that isn't convenient. Next week I'll be somewhere with no web connection so it won't even be updated sporadically.
When I return to London from wherever I've been the blog takes hours to update. There are so many things wade through to find the items that might be of interest. Until you do something like this you have no idea how many frogs you have to kiss before you find a few princes, metaphorically speaking! When I came back from my father's place this time (only five days) there were over 600 Google Alerts waiting for me. Sticking my head in a bucket of freezing water would have been a rather more attractive option. I just don't have those spare hours.
2) I keep posting out of date articles because I don't have time or the energy to check every article, and my memory is apparently pretty useless because I don't recall posting things previously (the post re the Horemheb tomb opening is a good example). The number of times I've posted out of date "news" items recently is truly demoralizing. It is okay to make the occasional mistake but I'm making too many at the moment.
3) Usually, the stuff I post isn't actually news. Travel stories, magazine/journal announcements and book and exhibition reviews seem to dominate, even during the excavation season. It is more a matter of aggregating other people's online articles and posts and I have no idea what value this really is to people. Access to real news is restricted by the rules and regs of the SCA. I'm not sure that what I'm doing here is particularly useful. You could probably get the same results by intelligent use of Google Reader.
I was wondering if there couldn't be a better way of doing this. I've thought of various ideas - restricting the content to certain categories of news, opening the blog out to collective ownership, offering to transfer ownership to someone else, or just shutting it down altogether. But all options seem to have problems with them. So I'm hoping that someone will have a better idea.
I started the blog for fun, and it is now more of a headache than anything.
I don't know what the answer is but if any of you has a magic wand that you can wave (or just a good idea or two) I'd be very grateful!
Cheers
Andie
- New Ancient Egypt Blog Portal
Via News from the Valley of the Kings by Kate Phizackerley on 09/08/10 Kate has posted about a new Ancient Egypt blog portal which she and Vincent have put together in WordPress. It is affiliated with the new magazine that Kate and I have been working...
- A New Online Egyptology Magazine?
Is there room in the world of Egyptology for an online magazine written by talented amateur Egyptologists, Egyptology society members, undergraduates and informal students? Kate Phizackerley (www.kv64.info) and I are doing market research into the possibility...
- Back To Autumnal London
It was a pretty drive back. Even the motorways were flanked by vistas of Autumnal leaf change. The colours were marvellous in the bright sunshine. My house was still standing patiently where I left it, but I had so much post that I had to fight with the...
- Andie Update
As the blog is being maintained very efficiently by Ben this is not so much of a "blog update" as an Andie update! Hopefully I will be able to stop imposing so much on Ben in the next few weeks and start posting again so that he can use his valuable time...
- Blog Update
Hi to all As I posted yesterday, I'm back in the UK after a terrific week away with some really great people, visiting some parts of Egypt that I have never been lucky enough to experience before. I will post the photographs online when I have finished...