I Need Your Translation Skills!

Hey friends, as you might have noticed, yesterday I’ve released the 1.2 version of the Latest Posts by Category WP Plugin. As the time was short and the update was needed, I decided to leave the localization of the plugin for the next update.

As I’m typing this, the plugin is set to English as default, and I’ve already created the Romanian translation file.

How can you help?

If you’re proficient in any other languages than English and Romanian – like Spanish, French, German – and you’re willing to give me a helping hand in translating 19 short phrases, contact me via email. Tell me which language are you willing to help with and I’ll send you a text file with the required translations.

Not to be picky, but native speakers would be preferred, as each language has its own little tricks.

Each translator will receive a link to his/her website on the plugin download page and in the info files in the download package.

Already in the works: Croatian, German, Spanish, French, Bulgarian.

Thank you!

Updates to Blogsessive’s Scripts and Design

Today I’ve done a couple of updates to the blog which include:

• Updated to WP 2.7.1 after adjusting a couple of scripts;
• Added links for “Subscribe to the comment feed” and “Jump to comment form” above the comment list;
• Separated comments from trackbacks to make it easier to follow the conversation;
• Added gravatar support and display to comments.

I would love to hear what you think about the changes and also if you have other suggestions as well.

In anticipation of a possible question, the “Respond to comment” feature has not been implemented because with the current theme, I believe that it will break the clean/clear flow of comments. Maybe at a later time.

The FeedBurner Subscriber Count Drop Issue

Over the past few days many of us have seen a significant drop in our RSS subscriber count in our FeedBurner account.

The FeedBurner help group – if we can call it that way, as no one ever seems to answer – is filled with messages from users who have “lost” even thousands of subscribers overnight. What’s the answer these users get? The silent treatment. And it’s not the first time users report these drops and get no answer.

OK, we’ve seen a pattern in these drops and it involves the Google Reader subscribers. With Google Reader being probably the most popular feed subscription tool worldwide, there’s no wonder that the drop percentage ranges from 30% to 70% in some cases.

So, just for the sake of remaining optimistic about this situation, let’s presume that Google is working on a way to better integrate these two services (FeedBurner and Reader) to provide better statistics to us users.

Even so, this does not explain the lack of updates on the FeedReader Status blog or the lack on a 2 line message on the help board that would definitely calm down the spirits. And as the case is not singular, and the lack of communication seems to turn into a habit, I cannot help but thinking that ever since Google took over FeedBurner, the relationship between the project team and the users has gone from good, to bad, to worse.

A change of attitude is required in this age of instant communication, otherwise even if Google is running the service, competition will eat it up. “All this has happened before, and will happen again” as they used to say on my favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica.

Update: After 3 or 4 days of madness on the boards, a Google team member addressed a short message confirming that the issue is related to Google’s Feedfetcher and has been reported to the responsible department. It took a while…

Update 2: An acknowledgement of the issue is finally made official on the FeedBurner blog. 3 to 4 days after users started to ask questions about it.

PageRank update in progress. The new Alexa.

Those of you interested in website rankings and SEO, you’d better check out your sites’ PageRanks. As we speak, a new update is in progress (one that has been rumored about). Over the past few hours I’ve seen pagerank updates on most of the websites I’m working on, going up, and back dow, and up again. Let’s see how and when it will stabilize.

And also, Alexa.com has just updated not only their design, but most probably their ranking system too.

New Alexa Design and Ranking System

One day ago, Blogsessive was still ranking around 70,000, and now the rank has been updated to 49,130.

Could it be the pressure of Compete and Quantcast breathing down Alexa’s neck? Who know. What’s important is that they seem to be taking steps toward perfecting their ranking system and updating their online image. And that’s good as it was about time to do it.

Stepping into Blogsessive’s Second Year

With ups and downs, with periods of abundance of content and publishing breaks too, but most important, with many new friends each day, this March, Blogsessive has stepped into its second year of existence.

It so happened that March was also the busiest month we’ve had with QBKL Media’s projects, launching two projects and getting ready for 2 more and our own website. This frenzy was reflected in the publishing rhythm on Blogsessive. But, as I’ve always said either in interviews or here, I hate sacrificing the writing quality if my time does not allow me to dedicate myself as much as I feel fit.

Still, you have remained loyal to the this blog, waiting for new content to make its way to you through your feed readers. Friends, I can assure you the time is well worth it, and to prove it I’ll take you on a quick trip thought what’s coming from Blogsessive in the next few weeks.

One Year Celebration Contest

An event like this cannot pass uncelebrated. At the beginning of April I’ll launch a new contest to reward those of you who are loyal to this blog. As you’ve seen in my previous contests, I love to reward those who contribute valuable content to the blogosphere, and so, it will again be a group writing project. With this contest, one winner will get a nice “blogging package” which will consist in:
Click here to read the full blog post!