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WNYT Today’s Women segment featuring Mom Bloggers

Posted on May 10, 2010 9:30 am by TheAngelForever

Last Thursday, I mentioned that Christina from Cutestkidever and I were going to be featured on the local news. At 5:30, we sat down and watched the news. I was not sure if the piece may be delayed because of two big local news stories (Joe Bruno sentencing and the fire at the Lark Tavern). Just before the 5:30 show, Elaine Houston did her teaser that brought back fun memories of the experience. Yes, I said fun. Then, at 5:30, the news started and before I knew it my two year old son, JSL, was yelling there’s Mama!

Here is the piece that was on the news last Thursday evening:

I have to admit, I really liked it! Sure, the one part that I had mentioned I hoped would not be there was actually the start of the piece, but still it was done extremely well. Elaine Houston took 30-40 minutes of interview/footage from her time here and masterfully put it together into a two minute segment that was chock full of information. For me, it was an educational experience. I was able to see the filming of a piece for the news from inside out and I loved it. Both of the boys were jumping up and down, especially my little guy when he saw his photo of us with Minnie Mouse from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in February.

Now I best be off, must get in touch with Christina. We have a lot to do as we work on our big projects that should be revealed shortly – including a blogging day conference in the Capital District.

Categories:
bloggy friends DisneySMMoms interesting me moments real world news video

The real life Twitter Block button

Posted on May 3, 2010 3:07 pm by TheAngelForever

If you are on Twitter, no doubt you have had a few (or many hundred) sketchy people follow you. Of course, you click over to check and see who your new follower is. Then you see it is a spammer, or worse. . . a person with a rather revealing photo for an avatar. Yikes! Kids look away from the Twitter please. . . nobody needs to see that.

The other night, I was talking with my friend Kristine McCormick (@KristineBrite) on Twitter. She mentioned that she was being bothered by people telling her not to be so serious with her Tweets. Hello, it is her Tweets! If you do not like something, then do not follow. Nobody tells you who to follow and you have the freedom to pick and choose your Twitter family/friends as you wish.

When I saw my friend’s Tweet about the people pestering her, I was angry. These people have no clue. They are not only rude, but tacky given the events in her life. You see Kristine’s precious daughter Cora died at just five days old – just four months ago. Kristine has done so much with her angel Cora and Twitter has been a vital part of that campaign to let people know about CHD.Back in February, Kristine also did a guest post called My angel forever – Cora’s Story in honor of congenital heart disease awareness week. It is am absolutely beautiful piece, please read it if you are new. You can also read more about Cora’s Story and what Kristine is working on by clicking the button below.

To try to make her smile, I asked if it was therapeutic to push the block button and get rid of those people from her Twitter world. She said it was and I told her I had done the same with spammers/trolls. Of course, this lead us into a completely different direction. I mentioned how nice it would be if there was a real life Twitter Block button. We both joked back and forth about some people that would be on our list. Of course, the nice part of this dream was we could just as easily unblock anyone that we wanted to after a break from them. Ah, if only it was that easy – right?

So fess up. . . who would be on your list for the real life Twitter block button?

Do not dare to say nobody, I know there has to be someone. Whether it be your boss, in-laws, best friend or spouse – everyone has someone that would be on that list. Leave a comment here, it will be therapeutic and I won’t charge you for a visit!

Categories:
bloggy friends interesting me moments

Blogger beware of content scrappers

Posted on April 30, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

For over a year now, I have been seeing ping-backs coming to my website from people linking back to my blog posts. A lot of them are from websites that are scraping content from multiple blogs for each of their posts. Typically, they use RSS feeds and go from there. They always link up to my post and put a line or two of my content. This bothers me, but at least they are not taking all of my written words and are linking back to give me my traffic for the content. If you are a blogger you have no doubt experienced this.

Now let us go to the Darkside of scrapers . . . cue the Darth Vader music. (Note: now an Update on the bottom)

Recently, I have seen a slew of ping-backs from Ubervu. I have to admit that I did not put much thought into it, I just assumed it was like the other RSS scrappers out there. Apparently, I am quite naive and many of you may be as well. Thursday, I saw the light. Thanks to Christina Gleason (aka @Cutestkidever on Twitter) sending out a Tweet with a link to her latest blog post called Ubervu Steals Your Blog Posts AND Your Comments. When I read her post, I was angry. How dare they think that just because our blog posts and comments are online that they do not have to abide by DMCA laws (FYI – DMCA =Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998)..

It quickly got worse. TechyDad helped me to check out what they had taken from me. He did the following search on Google to check:

Before my eyes, I saw that there were at least 43 mentions of my blog and Ubervu. I went back to Christina’s article to figure out what to do. Clearly, I did not want to allow them to steal my material and make money off of content they were directing back to their website and not mine. I went and submitted a request to have Ubervu take off any content/comments/links to my website. I reminded them of infringing the DMCA and started to re-Tweet to everyone to let them know about this new scraping phenomenon.

TechyDad also found the following items and sent out Tweets:

Disqus is working with Ubervu?!! http://bit.ly/bCZIVj
Also worth reading RE Ubervu: New Class of Scraper Site That May Kill Your Rankings w/ Duplicate Content http://bit.ly/cGeKRc via @pocketseo

I have to admit, my blood was boiling at this point, especially when I read how they were defending that they were stealing from people. Taking attention away from my content and pulling it up for you on Google – NO THANK YOU! Of course, to make matters worse the following ping came through at the same time:

Yes, while I was fighting back against them, they were stealing more of my content. So, if you are a blogger – please check this out and protect your writing. Also know that Ubervu has profiles that link up your comments on blogs and Tweets. We need to unite as a blogging community to make sure Ubervu stops and others know we will not tolerate this.

So my question to you this week:

Do you check ping-backs to your blog? Have you seen anything from Ubervu before and will you let them know that they are stealing from you and going against DMCA.

Please pass along this information to other blogging friends to check out. We must stand up against this so others know not to steal like Ubervu.

UPDATE: I wrote this post Thursday afternoon and since that time a lot has happened. Ubervu has replied on Christina’s post. They explained what their intent was and are working on fixing items as quickly as possible. I know that my links/comments are now giving 404 error messages, but my profile on their search is still there. What Ubervu is quickly realizing is that their idea may have worked had they asked bloggers/Tweets if they wanted to opt into this service. Autopilot grouping people into such a service is the WRONG way to do this. I will give the person on Ubervu’s Twitter account credit for replying to things and watching the Tweets as things have progressed Thursday into Friday.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #97

Categories:
Aloha Friday bad news bloggy friends bzz interesting me moments real world news stupidity vent

Ready to read Hebrew

Posted on April 25, 2010 8:15 pm by TheAngelForever

Today, we were invited to a special presentation at the end of Hebrew School. The kindergarten and first graders were all ready to show us what they had learned this year. The kids, including NHL, had officially finished learning their Alef Bets. To celebrate this accomplishment, NHL’s teacher had the kids sing us this song (I took video of the kids singing, but no permission to share with the other children in it):

Here is NHL during the song. He loved singing it and had actually given us a preview of it Saturday evening. Here is NHL:

When the song was over, they were presented with their own Alef Bet books that they had made throughout the year. In addition to this, their teacher gave them an award from Alef Betty certifying that they were now ready to learn to read Hebrew!

Unlike my experience at Hebrew school, NHL loves it and is eager to go back each week. I hope this continues as we add on another day next year and beyond until his Bar Mitzvah down the road.

Categories:
interesting milestone nhl photos school weekend

Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop at The Angel Forever

Posted on March 30, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I must admit, at this time of year I get a little jealous. Those cute Easter baskets are something I have never had and always thought they looked like so much fun to make and receive. Thanks to Christina at Cutest Kid Ever, I received an amazing virtual Easter basket that even I can enjoy during Passover.

What is the Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop?

Do you have a blog? If you do, you could help to raise some money for a great cause. Hershey is donating up to $5,000 to the Children’s Miracle Network with this promotion – $10 for every blog that participates in the Better Basket Blog Hop. The post that you are reading right now is another $10 that will be given to children’s hospitals all over North America. An additional $5,000 to this charity would be the world of difference to many sick children.

In my post, I need to pass along a virtual Easter basket to some of my blogging friends. Here is what my baskey will contain for you. Please remember I am a nice Jewish girl that is dreaming big and has never received anything like this before. All of the items are ones that I like and hope you will enjoy along with me.

Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Eggs
Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs
Movie tickets for your entire family to have a fun time out together
Eggs to color and design together (loved doing this with friends as a child)
A Nalgene water bottle to make sure you drink your water each day
Some hand knitted wash cloths to pamper yourself with
Vanilla scented body wash

Not sure how this stacks up with the basket that you are used to, but it sounds like fun to me.

Here are the lovely bloggers who are receiving this virtual Easter basket from me:

Nancy from Life With My Boys
Renee from Life with my Special Ks
Mommy Cracked
Holly from Topic of Mom
Cathi from Simply Cathi
If you would like you name here. . . just let me know!

Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop Rules

Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
Please note that only one blog post by each blog URL will count towards the donation.

Have fun and please share what you put in your basket with me.