Alex Peters: High Functioning Experience Junkie

Icon

it takes years of mistakes, but a lifetime of disaster.

Simler

Coolest new social networking site out there.  It’s smart,  it’s easy to use, and you can meet new people who share your interests with the click of a button.

I can’t say I’ve gotten too involved in the Simler community, but from my experiences using it during this Beta period it has been nothing but good clean fun.

This is sort of how it works:
Instead of having an in depth profile like on Facebook, you tag your interests the way you would tag subjects in a blog.  By clicking on tags you can see the profiles of other people who are interested in a subject.  When you view a subject Simler will show threads of discussions that people are having about it, much like on a message board.  From there you can chime in and join a discussion by commenting on it, or start a new one by posting a question or comment of your own.

The way you interact with it is kind of like Twitter, but the way you share questions and responses makes it more of a marketplace like Craigslist.  It’s much more linear, and has a lot more potential for sharing useful information.   I’m really interested to see how Simler looks in a year because it has potential for massive growth.

Here’s what I mean:
Say you have a friend on Simler.  You both share interests and have interacted before.  When they add a new tag, Simler shows you the tag they added.  It turns out you like that tag too and you add it on your account.  From that tag you make friends in a discussion.  You create a tag for your favorite movie from third grade, it reminds the friends you just made of a time when they watched it at their neighbors house and it makes them so happy that they add the tag.  One of their other friends sees the new tag you just made, and so on and so forth.

So far my favorite thing about Simler, that really sets it apart from every other social networking site I’ve used, is that there aren’t any assholes.  Almost all of the users I’ve interacted with seem to be savvy, young, professionals who work in a variety of fields.  Everyone is friendly, and everyone seems to be getting along in Beta mode.  I almost think it should stay invite only, but I don’t think that is the intention of the developers.

Simler is fun.  I’ve enjoyed every interaction I’ve had on it, and if you’re interested in jumping in and testing the waters before it’s released to the public you should send me an email because I have 10 invitations left.

-AP.

Filed under: social media

A Cautionary Tale.

I dived right into WordPress.com because it’s easy.  I bought a domain name somewhere else and mapped it to an exisiting wordpress.com page in a very short amount of time.  WordPress.com looks nice, is really simple to use, and is totally free.  But what are the drawbacks?

For starters, I can’t use Google Analytics.  If you don’t know what it is, learn it.  It’s awesome.  The problem is that it’s only available through WordPress.ORG.  Through WordPress.org you can install a quick and easy plug-in and be up and running in no time, but with WordPress.com you’re S.O.L.

There are tons of amazing, and free, custom WordPress themes that you can download and install at toxel.com.  Again, the problem is that you can’t upload them to your WordPress unless you have WordPress.org installed on your hosting space.   Some of the themes come with the CSS in some sort of .php file, but you’ll lose all of the images attached to said theme if you can’t install them in a specific WordPress directory on a hosting space.

The long and short of this post is that what I have here is not adequate for all intents and purposes.  These are features I would like be able to utilize within the next year, and I wish I would been less hasty in making my decision.  If I had taken the more challenging path and built something that could be a little more dynamic, this page ultimately could have become something that would have met all of my future needs.

Filed under: J456: creative strategist

Minds move mountains.

A rodeo clown once told me, “Minds move mountains.”   That clown didn’t mention that absent minds completely destroy mountains, but they do.

It only took a few hours to destroy the mountain of internet that I had claimed in the name of personal blogging.  In terms of volcanic mountain metaphors, this wasn’t destruction of Krakatoa proportions, but a little absent minded tectonic movement and an eruption of curses later it was official.

“I just ruined everything I have been working on for months.”

I rummaged through the ruins of my old home at ampeters.wordpress.com and salvaged what I could.  I packed it up, moved it out, and started to rebuild on the foundation that remained.  It’s nice to not have to start from the ground up, but it’s sad that my project is gone now.

Lesson learned.  Clowns are careless and should not teach life lessons.

Moving on.
-AP.

Filed under: personal notes

Getting ready to fall down a hill in New Zealand

Calendar

November 2009
M T W T F S S
« Oct    
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

Twitter Updates

  • Woo, it's Freedom Friday. Celebrate by following @FreedomTray. It will hold everything but your flag! 1 day ago
  • Saw this on the cover of Psychology Today at 7/11 this afternoon. Awesome article on everyday creativity. http://tinyurl.com/yjw9e45 2 days ago
  • Giant shark kills 10 ft Great White. http://tinyurl.com/yj99pv6 They need to send a crew on an expedition to film this magnificent creature. 2 days ago
  • The things I want to work on seem so irrelevant. Going on a wing and a prayer. 3 days ago
  • Missing John Cleese in lieu of working on projects. People get less funny as they age anyway, right? 3 days ago