Hiatus

Haven't the time to play our fav Blogshares game at the moment - more important issues absorb the sacred cow - internet censorship issues in Australia and work not necessarily in that order.

Please feel free to post any dead blogs of interest on this thread and we'll investigate them at a later date!

Blogsearch tool

Courtesy of the largesse of Billythekid of Blogshares, here's a handy search tool which may prevent you being pipped at the post when a new industry is announced.

And so on

With the dead blog program completed, Betty took a short roam round the paddock to contemplate her next venture.

To assist in this, Betty has constructed two polls in the Blogshares forum, one to determine the level of frustration experienced by players at the constant priority queue jamming, and the other to find out what is the number one favourite Blogshares activity of players.

To read the results thus far, you will have to enrol in the forum itself.

Whilst waiting for the polls to complete, Betty is content for the time being to munch on ideas as new industries arise, collecting others as she grazes round the Blogfarm.

Inside the Mind of Darth Vader

George Lucas's prophetic and allegorical series, Star Wars, is the inspiration for today's Dead Blog of the Day, The Darth Side : Memoirs of a Monster.

Afficionados of the epic movies are sure to enjoy further insight into the central character, Darth Vader. Whilst the fanfic author does not broach the political analogies present in Lucas's works, this blog is an enjoyable, escapist read.

Thanks to B$ player [X] Meister K for bringing the blog to Betty's attention - your 200 chips have been dispatched to you at the speed of light.

European Potpourri

For a treat, visit today's Dead Blog of the Day, a visual memoir of a Californian's jaunt around Europe in 2006.

From Italy to Hungary to Croatia to Spain, Koobs shows an enthusiastic eye for architecture, events and light.

Betty particularly liked the photo of a bird in flight with a cliffside ruin behind in Dubronovik - she has always wanted to visit the Adriatic coast which she has seen only from liner between Italy and Greece.

Cosmic Rabbit, a suitable recipient at easter time, is congratulated and awarded 200 chips.

Betty's B$ Milestone

Betty has managed to break into the top 20 Blogshares players, finally having collected ideas from all industries and holding all current artefacts. Next, Betty must pursue some concerted voting and cleaning to increase sigma, karma, cash and chips holdings whilst maintaining shareholdings to assist her worthy corporation, The Untouchables.

Though Betty primarily enjoys participating in the game in order to have fun with other players, read blogs and clean the index, she's pleased that for the moment she can relax as far as idea collection goes.

A pleasing walk

Submitted by conservationist and B$ player Timothy Abbott, Walking the Berkshires is a very readable account of family history and the environment around the Berkshire and Litchfield Hills in Connecticut.

The author's ancestors were original colonists in the region, whose descendants fought in the Civil War. The family's history and memorabilia is well preserved and no doubt there's a potential book or two sleeping in the attic at Windrock.

With his lucid writing style and scholarly attention to detail, Timothy is a definite candidate for authorship.

His new blog continues with similar virtuosity and is also highly recommended.

Conservative time capsule

From B$ player Tom comes the Dead Blog of the Day for today, titled Tom's Common Sense. His new blog can be found here.

From October 2005 - 2007, Tom has blogged on political and corporate issues close to his self-described right leaning conservative heart, attempting to give down to earth opinions which will resound pleasingly with LGF lovers and anyone who believes government is a necessary evil which can do little good, save to wage emotionally satisfying wars on distant nations, enable individuals to carry guns perhaps in the hope they might actually get to use them on someone sometime and interfer with women's choice regarding their own bodies.

Whilst Betty may not agree with the political bent of this blog, she recognises that it is important to have knowledge of different views if only to be able to address them. As such the blog of the day stands as a time capsule of reactionary American rants from the early 21st century.

Reminiscences of Tanjung Enim

Winning today's dead blog of the day is B$ player, Gagah Putera Arifianto, with his old online journal Catetan Setengah Mateng. Betty is not going to pretend she reads Indonesian, as much as she would like to be able to, so cannot make her customary comments on the blog's content.

Betty will attempt to find someone who can though so stay tuned, and anyone who would like to provide comments on this blog, please do so here.

It remains to be said, thanks for your entry, mate, and good luck with your new journal.

A Time Capsule of Tech

Today's dead blog is a virtuous virtual compendium of tech commentary entitled Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life maintained for 7 years by a Microsoft Program Manager.

The author appears to be tired of dealing with reactions to his very lucid posts, though may seek to write elsewhere in anonymity. Betty encourages him to consider that criticism, negative or positive, is good - it means people are involved and are reading his work - in marketing terms, these people are the most likely to continue to subscribe to his product.

His blog still contains value for those requiring information about RSS Bandit, Windows Live, Windows Live Spaces and Messenger, amongst other subjects.

Enjoy!

Completely Batty

Betty's world has been a whirl of frenetic cycling, all those B$ to be made from the boom in lovely atheistic and philosophical blogs. What does one do when one has reached the magic 1000t? Donate to the Philanthropic Corporation, says Betty.

Today's Dead Blog of the Day maintains the high standard of our previous entries. Submitted by player Christophine, the Batty Chronicles diary the early life of one nutty Madam Harriet Batty, resident in New York around the turn of the 19th century. The author chooses a novel method of describing seminal events in New York history - the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge is well worth reading.

Sadly, the author appears to have hit a pothole in recounting Ms Batty's fascinating life and Betty encourages him to return to his worthy mission.

Contemplative, revealing verse

Betty has been ruminating, working and of course cycling a massive number of large atheistic blogs and apologises for her lapse in duty.

Finally, we have the next winner of Dead Blog of the Day - a collection of esoteric poetic contemplations and related vignettes entitled Lord of Light on the subject of death, one which we always find fascinating, submitted by player Hieronymous Secundus. If we cannot appreciate the significance of death, that we all return to that which from whence we came, we are unlikely to value our own and others lives.

The author has juxtaposed a selection of religious mythologies and symbolisms with secular, mundane events - an interesting approach.

We wish the author well and hope they can contribute again in the future to the valuable body of netlit.

Rant button on

Again, the tone shifts radically. There are some doozy dead blogs out there, and today's winner is no exception. Another submission by M. Major, the I Hate Strom Thurmond site encapsulates the author's sarcastic and sometimes humorous response to all that is untrustworthy and often downright criminal in some leading US and international politicians and public figures. When out of targets, Strom is the author's default victim.

Invective aside, as a whole, this blog stands as an angry testament against the darkest Brave New World days under Bush's reign, where black is white (except as far as exercising democratic rights by voting goes) and war is peace.

Who are the good guys? Are there any? As a farmyard friend once said to me "Never trust a smiling adult."

Two Ravens

More poetic offerings for the dead blog of the day ... a superb series of poems entitled Two Ravens by an author calling himself Two Ravens Whispered. This blog was submitted by Autolycan Catalyst, who says:

"The author completed his poem cycle/creative writing experiment. It has an interesting structure and is quite dead, being complete. Read through it and enjoy!"

Betty has read the cycle and is impressed by the elegant metaphors sustained throughout ... in the first verse, the two ravens are revealed as thought and memory, neglected by those who chose to live only through 'perception and action' leading to a repetition of error. The reader is drawn into the conversation between Huginn and Muninn as they discourse on humanity, its frailties and strengths. The verse is tender as it is satiric:

"M: (fondly) My dear, black helicopters are not half as scary as you are to mortals. Even now."

Don't miss this wonderful series, to which Betty will return for further appreciation over time.

A final salute

Today's dead blog offering draws our attention to the devastating effects of the scourge of war.

It is the now posthumous blog of Andrew Olmsted, who lost his life in Iraq in January 2008 during military service.

Andy had left a post with a friend to be posted on the event of his death which indicates the author did not want his passing to be used as a justification for argument for or against the war on Iraq.

However he does makes a wise and significant comment in his moving last post - "If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them."

Worthy of framing.

Thanks, K Owusu, for your submission.

Droppings dropped

From the sublime site of yesterday, let's get down, right down.

Today's Dead Blog of the Day is a scatological submission from intrepid player, Louie14 entitled
The Dump Report. Now anally retained on the Blogfarm, Betty recommends this site to those seeking scatological enlightenment via arcane reading of toilet bowl contents.

Of course down on the farm, we leave our bodily offerings out in the paddock.

Congratulations Louie14, your 200 chips have been sent through the system, or is that cistern?

Whilst on the topic of dead blogs, player jtsage has established a useful tutorial on Dead Blog Hunting, highlighting how lucrative it can be.

New maths

Share your thoughts about the impact of BlogShares' new maths in the BlogShares forum.

Should the Blogfarm, a subsidiary mostly owned by an existing player be permitted to shamelessly interlink with other players' blogs in order to boost and stabilise other sectors of the market than those already massively revalued? Betty thinks so, as far as share play goes.

Do Betty's links skew the index? Probably. Is that Betty's problem? Betty doesn't think so. For discussion of that issue go here.

Poetry collection preserved

Today's Dead Blog of the Day is submitted by long time BlogShares afficionado, M. Major. Congratulations, you have won yourself 200 chips for your outstanding submission, A Colostomy Bag Full of Poems.

Betty wonders whether you have any further information about the author of these ribald verses and whether we can expect more incredible additions at some stage in the future.

To give our readers a taste of the literary quality of the author, J.B., here's a short snippet from one poem which particularly caught Betty's eye as she glanced through this significant body of work, which ranges from satirical cowboy barnyard frolics (how appropriate for the Blogfarm!)to paeans about peers, neocons and other conmen whom the poet pokes mercilessly to thoughtful historical insights.

From "A Paltry Sum":

"And whenst the reaper cometh
to collect his deathly toll
the millionaire could just as well die
faced in Corn Flakes bowl

Yon Microsoft inventors
cometh nearer to their fates
each day that passeth quickly
is one less for even Gates."

We hope the Blogfarm can assist J.B. back to his calling, that he may be appreciated by those who seek contemporary verse rather than merely the below from "Bless You".

"Bless you Mr. Visitor Tracker.
Without you I would never
know how many people
search MSN and Google
for Colostomy and Colostomy Bag
and "Colostomy Bag fell off"
and all these other crazy searches
that make life worth living.
Bless you Mrs. Visitor Tracker."

What's your favourite, quality dead blog?

For BlogShares participants, Betty is running a Dead Blog of the Day Mission to post for posterity the best dead blogs of all time. 200 chips to each winner, with 10 winners chosen. If the mission proves popular, it will be repeated.

Editorial discretion will be applied.

Good luck to all!

Dead Blog of the Day

Express Train, a photoblog which has fallen from the BlogShares index since it hasn't been updated in the last six months, contains some of the best photos on the web I have encountered.

Commuters between Brooklyn and Manhattan are captured with sympathy for humanity and the urban environment in which they travel.

If anyone else has a dead blog they would like to highlight, please let me know.

Reindexing incoming links

Tempting, isn't it? One press of the key, and 20 blogs are reindexed at once. If you have run out of your allotted indexing for the day, it will cost you 20 chips. And is reindexing incoming really the optimum way to add value to your precious blog?

Here's an alternative method which I've found adds more value. Start at the bottom of the incoming links to the blog. As you go, report dead blogs, earning chips and sigma, and merge duplicate blogs. At the bottom of the list are often hiding valuable blogs which haven't been indexed for ages. And those bottom blogs quite often link to blogs further up the list. As you index up the list, the blogs further up gain value.

If you had reindexed the top blogs first, you would have missed the value added from the hidden treasures at the bottom!

Your blog in BlogShares

Perhaps you have just begun publishing your new blog, gingerly exposing your thoughts to an unseen audience and would like to have the possibility of gaining new live readers rather than merely relying on search engine bots to find and categorise your blog automatically from its RSS feed.

BlogShares is played by real humans, many of whom enjoy reading and collecting interesting blogs - especially those with unique content, clever writing, twists or of significance in a specialised area. Some blogs are so immensely popular in the game for their content, even regardless of their value, they have been the objects of intense battles for control of their shares. Apart from content, you can improve your blog's attractiveness to the people in the game by obtaining links from existing popular sites. It will also help your credibility with the major search engines if your links are related to your subject matter.

Once your blog is added to BlogShares, it can be voted into different industries based on its specific demographic factors and substantial or significant content. You will see then where in each relevant industry your blog is positioned, and which other blogs are related to yours which you might like to read and/or interact with.

Your blog can also gain strategic and financial value (that's BlogShares $ not real ones) to you if you join the game and claim the blog as your own. You may wish to retain all its shares, or gift some to friends in the game. Every six hours you can cycle your shares, selling them then buying them back through artefact use and pocketing the difference.

Farmyard Politics

Pecking orders are endemic in farmyards. In BlogShares, some players have amassed huge wealth and/or have been playing for years, with a considerable time and effort invested in acquiring every artefact and ideas from every industry to reach the loftier echelons of the composite rankings.

BlogShares is an organic game, always evolving, with more blogs, artefacts and industries continually being added as pursuit targets. Thus it is devastatingly addictive - one never quite reaches the end.

There are other ways to enjoy the game too - these include inventing new artefact descriptions, finding new blogs and rare industries, player missions, social networking via irc, twitter and player blogs, engaging in corporate share raids and other strategic play, and most of all, enjoying and sharing with other bloggers and blog afficionados the most comprehensive and up to date collection of contemporary writing, photos and other paraphenalia on the planet.

Ideas and industry farming

Alternatively, you may only want a small value on your blog, so it will produce less ideas from the blogs in the industry of your choice as you increase their value, or to limit the number of ideas produced by a rare industry.

To assist you in farming up your industry so the stacks of ideas you have collected become worth astronomical amounts, it may help to weed the industry first, reporting dead blogs from which you will earn sigma points and valuable chips, and to revote blogs which may produce dangerous amounts of ideas.

Crop Circles

Another concept for enhancing blog values in the game is ensuring that as many folks as possible link to your blog, adding a proportion of their blog value to yours. You can then choose to reciprocate and return some of the value, or concentrate it on specific target blogs to increase their value.

Growing your blogs' value

Since the new math, shares in BlogShares are a very profitable way to increase your B$ wealth.

Cycling a mere B$200m blog can produce B$80b - B$100b profit. But you don't want your newly found or won blog to slip in value as it will decrease the amount you receive from cycling, and reduce the value passed on to your blog's outlinks, some of which you may also hold.

Therefore you should tend your blogs wisely, and weed their incoming and outgoing links to concentrate and build value.

By weeding, I mean checking whether each incoming and outgoing blog is alive, looking behind those links for other links of value and reindexing from the inside out, which will add value as you go. If you start your gardening and reindexing at the bottom of the list of incoming links you may well also find some very attractively price blogs which you can acquire along the way.

Additionally your weeding will clean and benefit the Blogshares index.

After the process is completed you will have a clearer picture of the future potential of your shares in your blog. You can increase value further by visiting Google and searching for more blogs which link into your blog to add to the game. eg link: http://blogfarming.blogspot.com/ in the google search bar.

Blogfarming for B$ fun

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And here we go folks, farming the wondrous rare ideas of the multitudinous BlogShares industries. There are hundreds of thousands of B$ idea varieties, and part of the aim of the game is to collect at least one of all of them. New industries are being created daily.

BlogShares is a fascinating strategic game of skill and intrigue, and people can join as non-premium members for free for an initial taste or pay a very reasonable US$15 for premium membership which allows access to many extended and growing features.