And on that note...

... It's time to try something new! The format of this blong has been changing organically over the past year, from long-format posts to short moments of sharing. A great link is just as likely to be posted to the ShoutBox as to the main blong. Maybe we have just as much to share, but not at much time in which to share it. New family members, responsibilities at work, laziness, new games, blossoming chemical addictions, etc. are probably to blame, but it's just as easy to see this new trend as an opportunity!

This one time, not so long ago, Fugu and AIBU9 and Galspanic and Mike and I were talking, and someone suggested that we switch to Tumblr. Better platform for short posts, better sharing between sites, easier to subscribe to, more potential visibility. Why not, I thought! We've moved platforms before. We can always come back here. What do we have to lose?

So I've set up a test blong at http://piecesofthings.org. For the time being, http://piecesofthings.net will continue to bring you to this blong, on blogger. That may change. Lots may change! I know precious little about Tumblr, about what it can do. You folks are all smart, though; and I know we can come up with something good together. I welcome your input--in fact, the community demands your input!

I'll send out invites to the new blog shortly, so you can all begin posting there once you find something to share. If I miss you somehow, send me a reminder of the email address you'd like to use at mrpony(*AT*)piecesofthings.net. If you've been lurking and have something to say, now's the time to join up! (Say hi in the comments below.) Those of you with existing Tumblogs (or whatever they're called), please feel free to reblog/syndicate your posts. FLOOD US WITH YOUR GLORY!

This is yours, and for you, and if the laws of physics will allow it, the beginning of something even more awesome. SEE YOU THERE, FRIEND!

Pieces of Things Email Addresses!

Hey, new thing! I've set up custom email addresses for Pieces of Things. So if you'd like your own address ([your_name][at]piecesofthings.net, just let me know! Say "yes" in the comments, or something. The email account will just automatically forward to your email, which I probably have.

I don't know what possible use this could be, but it's easy to do, and I'm happy to do it.

Pieces of Things Housekeeping Forum

This post is a general forum related to general administration of the Pieces of Things blog.

Pieces of Things: How to Make a Link

Here is how you make a link:

<a href="http://piecesofthings.net">Pieces of Things</a>

This link will look like this:

Pieces of Things

Clicking the link text will take you the the URL you used in your link. Try it!

Pieces of Things: How to Embed YouTube Videos

Here's the code you should be copying into your post, in order to embed videos that play when clicked. Find this on the right-hand column of the YouTube video page. [note that after you copy the embeding link, you should click on the "Edit Html" tab at the upper right corner of the editing window before pasting].

To make your video fit better, change all of the widths in the embed code to 475 530 525, which is the width of the posts in this blog. There will probably be at least two instances of the "width" variable in the code. Change them all. NOTE: This works with nearly all embedable video players! Try it, you slobs!

Update: To get the movie to fit as best as possible, you'll need to change the height, too. Try a proportion calculator. Enter the embed tag's current dimensions for the original size, and enter 525 for the target (reproduction) width. Press "Calculate" and replace the current dimensions with the target dimensions in the embed tag (in both places).

Pieces of Things Analytics Notes

Authors should have access to the Pieces of Things Analytics Report at Google Analytics. Let me know if you don't, and would like access. It's kind of fun to browse through; to see how many people are reading what, and so on, and how people are finding us.

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You can now track how are Twitter feeds are received, as bit.ly, the URL shortener we use offers metrics on clicks via Twitter. Tweets consist of the title you give your post, and a link. So titles count!

@piecesofthings can be tracked here:
http://piecesofthings.bit.ly/

@piecescomments can be tracked here:
http://piecescomments.bit.ly/