A suggested Prezzie for all of you...
Fri, 2013-12-27 11:04
#1
A suggested Prezzie for all of you...
Those of you that are clued-up may already have this present. But for those unaware, do consider using duckduckgo as your default search engine and dump Big Brother Google. I don't know about you, but I don't much like being monitored, tracked and hit with targeted advertising. This is a step in the right direction.
duckduckgo is brilliant. You could also try TOR. https://www.torproject.org/
May I also suggest
DoNotTrackMe, http://download.cnet.com/DoNotTrackMe-for-Firefox/3000-11745_4-75653399.... (also available for Chrome and IE)
MaskMe http://reviews.cnet.com/8300-5_7-0.html?keyword=mask+me
and AdBlock? https://getadblock.com/
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
Good ones Andrea. (I'm not paranoid, I just know they're all out to get me...)
On another topic, I've noticed forum posts get an astonishing number of 'reads'. Over 5000 for this one here in a matter of days. Yet if I publish a story, I'm lucky to achieve maybe twelve. And if you divide that by four to get an estimate of 'real' published reads and that figure drops down to (maybe) three. Hmmm, thinks...
Tipp Hex
(Odd you should say that, I was just thinking the same thing whilst reading another forum post with 4000-odd reads but only 3 replies. You'd think there'd be more replies...)
Even better, have you tried Ubuntu? --> http://www.ubuntu.com/ It takes some practice and getting used to, but...
And of course you know all about GNU and the delightful Richard Stallman...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
Yes, I'd made a similar comment on another forum post. Must be all
the 'Bots' at work. Activity is low on the site, apart from those bots. Ahh, I
remember the wonderful days of the BBC Get Writing phenomenon. The
only remaining site I know of that still has such enthusiastic activity is
Scribophile. All the other writing sites have dwindled, more or
less died. I'm sure there are many around though. ABC's re-vamp is good, let's hope it picks up. I came back to see how things are in this very good Brit site, but I have to say I'm missing the cut and thrust and vibrancy of Scribo's membership.
I've read your work Andrea and I'm reminded of Jake Thackray... I'm sure you know him?
Tipp Hex
Don't see why ABC would get so many more bots than UKAuthors, though. Perhaps I'll delve into it - these things intrigue me :)
I, too, was a member of Get Writing. When it closed, a lot of people moved to either UKAuthors and/or WritersDock, both of which are still very active and both of which are, like ABC, free. Rather than dwindling, they're thriving!
I had a look at Scribophile - it looks good, and serious in the style of Coppola's Duotrope (return crit a must) http://www.all-story.com/ I might join Scrib, too. After all, the more the merrier :)
Jake Thackray, yes indeed, I remember him well - some compliment, thank you! I don't have much work on ABC, most is on UKA, but some of my doggerel has been compared to the musings (ahem) of Pam Ayres. Maybe I'll post some more but. busy as I am with UKA and UKA Press, I have very little time to read and comment on other people's work, sadly.
I've just read 'Night's End' - I enjoyed it a lot.
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
Are UKA & UKA P your own sites? Glad you enjoyed Night's End, thanks for the read, appreciate that.
Scrobophile is for serious writers who require substancial, detailed feedback. I'm not a serious writer. But the forums look fun. I've just joined. If you join, my name there is Gerrit Dunn. Do say hello.
Tipp Hex
I found some interesting articles:
http://moz.com/ugc/bad-bots-confound-web-analytics-by-executing-javascri...
http://blog.rivalhost.com/how-bad-spiders-and-bots-inflate-google-analyt...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57433611-83/bots-dominate-small-web-sit...
It looks like ABC may need to edit its Robots.txt File http://www.icanlocalize.com/site/tutorials/drupal-seo-tutorial
No. I'm not a serious writer either, but yes, UKA and UKAP are, loosely, my own sites. I'll say 'hello' when I join Scribo :)
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com
I belong to a site called Allpoetry which incorporates both poetry and stories and it has a free service as well as paid ones. I took out a silver one for life which suits me fine. You are also able to make your page special and yours. I have been there for around seven years and it has a very large following. Just thought you may like to know.
Thanks Puddle, American site. Yes, I know it, it's pretty good (if a bit large).
http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com