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Archive for March 21st, 2014

Want to rename my blog? It’s gonna cost you!

Posted in Personal on March 21, 2014| 8 Comments »

mmm smooth buttry goodnessFor the right price (donated to a worthy cause), I will rename my blog.

Gene Weingarten initially raised the issue:

I quickly (but only briefly) complied, but Gene wanted more:

I replied with a facetious invitation to bribes:

While I knew no one would pay me to change my blog name, right after I posted that, it occurred to me that maybe I could make this a charity fund-raiser. See whether Gene really has enough sway with his followers to generate some meaningful “entreaties.”

Well, it so happens that I was already feeling a little bad that in my downsized condo life I couldn’t think of anything of value I have (and am willing to part with) to contribute to the silent auction at the American Copy Editors Society silent auction tonight to raise money for the ACES Education Fund. So …

I’ve started a Crowdrise campaign to change the name of my blog to “Mmm. Smooth Buttry Goodness.” (In reading the rules, I learned that Kickstarter isn’t for fundraising for causes.) Update: When I first posted this, I didn’t yet have the fund’s taxpayer ID number, so the campaign wasn’t live yet. It is live now. Grab your credit card and donate.

I’ll change the name for one full month for every $1,000 raised with a starting threshold of $500. If we raise at least $500 in the next week, I’ll change the name for a month. If we raise one dollar more than $1,000, then I change for two months. If you give $2,001 I change the title for three months, etc.

I need a suitable blog header. If someone will design a blog header incorporating the title, my photo (contact me for some possibilities you could use) and some sort of butter imagery, I’ll contribute $100 in your name. Update: we have blog header (Ivan has adjusted it slightly from what you see here to fit the dimensions of the header):

And, if I can’t even raise $500 to change the name of my blog, that might be a little humbling. And that would probably be OK with Gene, too.

So go ahead. Get your credit card and click the link above. I welcome your “entreaties.”

Smooth Buttry Goodness

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By request, a new name for my blog

Posted in Personal on March 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

Just for one quick screenshot for Gene Weingarten, I have renamed my blog:

In case you missed it:

Smooth Buttry GoodnessEarly reaction is mostly positive:

 

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#twutorial for copy editors: Links, slides and tweets

Posted in #twutorial series on March 21, 2014| 5 Comments »

I led a workshop at the American Copy Editors Society on how Twitter can be useful for copy editors. (No, I did not ask them to stand and sing, contrary to the appearance of the photo above.)

I made points covered in these previous #twutorial posts:

Step one for using Twitter as a reporter: Master advanced search

Hashtags help journalists find relevant tweets and reach more people

Hashtags considered #harmful by Daniel Victor

@bydanielvictor challenges the overuse of #hashtags

Use lists, TweetDeck, HootSuite, saved searches, alerts to organize Twitter’s chaos

How to verify information from tweets: Check it out

Ben Garvin’s advice: Illustrate your tweets

Updated Twitter time management tips

If a tweet looks too good to be true, grab a screenshot NOW

I probably make other points used elsewhere in my #twutorial series.

I also discussed curation.

Here are the slides for my workshop, followed by some tweets from workshop attendees (I may update later with more tweets):

That’s a tip from Andy Carvin, by the way.

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