Thanks for the many well wishers who have emailed to wish me a good trip.
We’re currently in Istanbul and are enjoying the rich culture and history, the wonderful food, the exquisit sights, the dodgy internet cafe’s keyboards and the company of some fun people.
I’m happy to report that I’ve not suffered too many withdrawal symptoms from blogging – although I’ve spent quite a bit of time the past few days deleting comment spam on my MT blogs – in fact it’s starting to get me down a bit. It seems every time I go away for a holiday the comment spammers seem to find another way to get through my spam catching systems. I’m currently getting 200 – 300 every 24 hours. Deleting them is taking me an hour or so every night which I won’t be able to keep up after today when we leave on a tour. I will need to upgrade my MT version when I get home I guess to combat this problem.
Apart from the comment spam I’m loving the time away and am really grateful for the guest bloggers who are keeping the show running for me whilst I’m away.
A few of you have asked if my blogs have suffered for me being away (or if I expect them to). I guess the answer to that question is yet to be seen but the initial trend I see today is that despite a significant drop in numbers of posts being uploaded per day (with the exception of a couple of blogs where it is higher than normal thanks to a few addicted bloggers) that the traffic remains reasonably steady (it’s a little down overall with some blogs higher and some lower).
I’m suspecting it will drop off a little further as the month progresses with less new content going up – but at this stage the signs are hopeful that the bottom line won’t suffer too much.
Anyway – I just thought I’d drop in and let you all know that we made it to Turkey and are having a good time. Tomorrow we head off to Gallipoli and then down to the southern coast for some time in the sun.
Hope all is well in your neck of the blogging woods.
Nice to hear Darren’s having a good time!
His post made me wonder, (and you’ll have to excuse me, because I’m fairly new to this,) is there somethng in particular that makes MT blogs easy to spam?
Just wondering…
I use TypePad (based on MT technology) and have never got spam. They do a good job on keeping them away. It is worth it to pay a little of money for the TypePad fee in order to save 30 hours a month deleting spam.
It is true that I only get a few visitors, but I know of MT bloggers with less traffic than mine with a huge amount of spam.
Think about it while on vacation! :)
WordPress is great for dealing with spam :)
Josue, I’m using typepad too, and I’m really happy with it : )
I love my WordPress too. And I think all blogging systems are prone to spam. It is just the filtering that is better on some rather than others. I know that even with the latest release of WordPress I am still using anti-spam plugins to keep my blog safe.
Also, I am glad Darren that you are having fun. I will try to keep posting lots on the blog and get the traffic going higher and higher for when you get back.
WordPress rocks!
Darren, ‘good to know that you’re already having fun on the first leg of your trip. Do take care and don’t worry about the spam now. I know it’s a pain but I’m sure something will get sorted out later. Have fun for the rest of trip and check in when you can. I’ve been down with the flu the past few days (still recovering, actually)… but once I get myself back on track, I’ll be posting here as I promised. Take care.
Good to hear that you are having a great time.
I think it depends on what version of MovableType you’re using. I think the pre 3.0 were pretty prone to spam but filtering has improved with the newer releases.
Thanks Vix, I haven’t had any real spam problems yet, but then my blog is just a baby. I like the fact that I get notified whenever a comment is left, as it allows me a lot of control, but I can imagine it would be impossible to follow all the notifications on a really popular blog (or multiple blogs, like Darren’s!)
hey darren,
your michael jackson blog is getting huge visitor hits…
http://www.sitemeter.com/default.asp?action=stats&site=sm1michaeljacksontrialwatch&report=12
The amazing thing is 24 of us are posting less than Darren alone!
This year my wife decided to have a dry run thanksgiving day to test out her recipes. We soaked the bird in a brine solution she got at William Sonoma it really kept it moist. OMG, the turkey was so good and I get to do it again in a few days!