My Phantom Followers – Who Are These People?

There are any number of ways to measure success for those of us who write for the Internet. The number of daily readers seems to be the key criteria most often used as a yardstick.   *

One would expect, that the addition of a substantial number of “followers” (the number of readers following blog posts and post comments), should impact a site’s number of daily reads/visits – in a positive way. I suspect that WordPress had that outcome in mind when, a year or so ago, it introduced a meshed WordPress follow system.

Ostensibly, there are some 8,000+ followers here – at least according to WordPress. And typically, this number bumps up at the rate of 10/12 daily.

Graphic: A slice of the Dash Board from today.

So happy days, yeah? Maybe not.

The quandary:

Despite the exposure which one would expect should be gained by an additional 8,000+ followers – the number of daily readers here has gone down and, continues on this downward trend. A curious state of affairs, no?

This is a quick post simply to fill in some blank time (a rare commodity around here) – so, I won’t get into the mathematics of this puzzler. Suffice it to say (for the moment), that something stinks here. The real stinker is – are these people real, imaginary, spammers/scammers – or, the real McCoy  – a cybercriminal?

It’s illogical, at least to me, that a significant number of individuals would take the time to subscribe to a site and then, the majority mysteriously vanish – in most cases never to be heard from again. It’s kind of like throwing a party and nobody shows up.  

I should point out that most new followers seem to have a WordPress connection – a blog, or a Gravatar. So, what’s underway here? What’s the scheme – or, is there one?

I’m more curious about this than I am confused. There’s not much to be confused about in terms of the mechanics. But, I’m more than a little confused at the lack of repeat visits from 8,000+ followers.

As Butch Cassidy remarked to the Sundance Kid, as they focused on their pursuers from a cliff top – “Who ARE these people”?

Me? I’m asking the same question.

Update: May 11, 2013.

Good friend (and very smart fellow) Michael Fisher, was kind enough to pass on the following link to an article – Beware the Followers Made of Spam – which proves beyond doubt, that this follower thing is not what it seems. It’s simply a new type of spam. The author has crafted a very funny article and still manages to make his point very cleverly. A highly recommended read.

Thanks Michael.

A quick outtake on numbers:    *

Numbers? Followers? It may surprise you to know that I have little or no interest, in either one. Numbers or followers, don’t make me a better IT professional. My self-esteem is not impacted by activity, or the lack of activity, on this site. I write here because it’s fun – as it should be.

You’ll not be surprised to know, I’m sure, that the pack that I hang with on the Net (almost all bloggers), hold a similar view. Despite a seemingly lack of concern for numbers, these bloggers run some of the most successful one person sites on the Web.

Catch Your Online Grammar, Spelling, and Style Mistakes, With After The Deadline

Churning out two blog posts every day is hard on the eyes – not to mention the back, the wrists – well you get the point. As a consequence – I sometimes find myself looking (with crossed eyes) at words running into words, gross misspellings (easy to correct), or improper word usage (sometimes, not so easy to correct). Your versus you’re, and its versus it’s, for example, can be particularly difficult to pick up when used incorrectly.

Here’s a good example of this – recently pointed out by a reader.

Comment:

“You’re friends won’t – other than to deny that they watch it – or, perhaps to decry it’s prevalence” You’re means You are – so “you are friends won’t” doesn’t make sense, use “Your friends” instead.

“It’s” always means “It is” – so “decry it is presence” doesn’t make sense; use “decry its presence” instead.

Not a big deal, you might be thinking. Maybe not – but as often as not, common errors, particularly punctuation errors, can change the meaning of what you meant to say. I’m sure you’ve seen this example – Let’s eat, Mother. versus – Let’s eat Mother.

I write all my blog articles in open source LibreOffice (with grammar checker turned on), and then copy the articles to Windows Live Writer prior to posting into WordPress.

Despite an active grammar checker, proofreading, as time consuming as it can often be, is unavoidable. Still, I’ve learned that proofreading is no guarantee that the odd mistake will not slip through.

There is a partial solution (no technology is perfect), that can help you (and me), avoid the most common grammar mistakes, spelling errors (including contextual spelling errors), and style mistakes, in online interactions – including blog postings, emails (mistakes here can be deadly), Facebook, Twitter, etc.

After the Deadline – developed by the people behind WordPress – is an open source (free), language checker for the Web which is available as:

An add-on for Firefox.

An extension for Google Chrome.

A plugin for Windows Live Writer.

A plugin for self-hosted WordPress blogs.

An extension for OpenOffice.org Writer (still in Beta).

Following installation of After the Deadline on my system as a Firefox add-on, I found it to be reasonably accurate – but not perfect (more on this later). Nevertheless, I’ll keep it on my system – at least in the short term (for the second time).

Installation, in my case, was the usual automatic Firefox add-on install, followed by an easy Options set up as the following screen capture indicates.

The following screen shots (click to expand) show spelling errors (an unrecognized word), and style recommendations – in a previous post.

The type of recommendation shown in the screen shot directly above (change “terminate” to “end”, or “stop”), is the primary reason I deleted this add-on previously.

Consistently, higher level words were marked down as “complex expressions”. It may be popular to assume that “dumbing down” is in vogue, but not from where I’m sitting.

Fast facts:

Checks Spelling – Spell checker looks at context and uses artificial intelligence to make recommendations.

Detects Misused Words – Most spell checkers assume any word in their dictionary is correct regardless of context. This means all misused word errors go unnoticed.

Checks Style – Style checker has thousands of rules and uses context to choose the best suggestions.

Checks Grammar – The grammar checker in After the Deadline protects you from common writing errors. After the Deadline uses statistics to automatically find exceptions to its grammar rules, making it one of the smartest grammar checkers around.

Explains Errors – The misused word detector, grammar checker, and style checker explain the mistakes and suggestions to you. Click an error and choose the “Explain …” option.

Download at: After the Deadline

After the Deadline checks English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish text.

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Mark Russinovich’s ‘Zero Day’ – Fiction Or Fact?

Muslim jihadist, undetectable rootkits, replicating viruses with cloaking capabilities, inept politically motivated government departments,  security application vendors driven by their own needs – all accelerating toward a nexus where economic destruction, and personal calamity, show every sign of being  unavoidable.

….. and one man, with bulldog determination, who struggles to change the course of the seemingly inevitable.

An improbable scenario? Hardly!  As an Internet Security professional, I recognize the ingredients in this recipe for disaster, only too well.

Mark Russinovich, in his first solo effort, has crafted a bombshell tale of fiction in his just released novel – Zero Day; ripped out of the mishmash of disorganized chaos, and conflicting objectives, that passes for system and Internet security.

Russinovich, well known to those of us in the Internet Security community, as well as techies and high level computer users, as the mastermind behind Sysinternals, knows his stuff.

In Zero Day, Russinovich takes us on a skillfully crafted journey which relies on accuracy – no exaggerations – perhaps even understated; which is, at it’s core, frightening in it’s revelations.

The fact that the novel is fiction, doesn’t change the underlying reality – our reliance on the Internet has led us into a state where economic and personal mayhem may be just around the next corner.

As an avid reader who chows down on eight or more books a month, I could hardly wait to get my hands on Zero Day following an invitation to critique. I was not disappointed.

Zero Day is event driven, and relies on a fast pace rather than character development to capture the readers imagination. A great read – entertaining, and at the same time, sure to bring into question the continuing viability of the Internet as we know it.

For more information visit:  Zero Day – The Book.

Mark Russinovich is a leading expert on cyber-security and a Technical Fellow at Microsoft, Microsoft’s highest technical title.

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Spice Up Your Blog And Forum Comments With BBCodeXtra Firefox Add-on

I must admit – I love to pore over readers’ comments following articles I’m checking out on other sites. Courteous comments (which by their nature, raise the level of intellectual persuasion), will often elevate a mundane article above the crowd of similar articles. The article may be the main meal, but reader comments are, in many instances, the spices that give it the oomph, the zest and the zing…….

If you’re the type of Internet user who likes to express your point of view, or share your wisdom and your insight by commenting on forums, on Blogs, or on any site which engages with its readers by supporting comments – then you’ll find BBCodeXtra (which adds Bbcode, HTML, and XHTML context menu commands to Firefox), very useful.

With BBCodeXtra installed you can markup your comments to display bold, italic, or underlined text, and more. As well, additional submenus increase functionality substantially.

Here’s an example in which I’ve selected “cool application” for italicizing, “just one more” for underlining, “you” to reference a URL, “much more closely”, for a block quote, and finally, “Always good to see your comments), for bolding.

The BBCodeXtra context menu commands makes it very easy to add emphasis to your comments – without the need to learn coding.

Settings menu

You can create a custom tag to insert a fixed plain text or symbols like ©, ® e ™ (both HTML entity or UTF characters).

System requirements: Firefox, Seamonkey.

Download at: Mozilla

Note: A comment tip from regular reader Michael F. pointed the way to this terrific add-on. Thank you Michael.

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WordPress Screwed Up – Big Time!

Yesterday, many of you might have seen the following when you attempted to connect to Tech Thoughts. WordPress had archived or suspended, my blog for a violation of their Terms of Service.

I’m sure that this notice left you with questions – chief amongst them might have been, “I wonder what Bill did to incur the wrath of WordPress”. As my Australian friends might say, “that’s fair dinkum”. But, I can assure you, I did nothing wrong – nothing that justified the removal of my site.

I’m fully aware of the WordPress “Conditions of Service”, and I adhere to them scrupulously. Despite that, this is the second time in the last two years that I’ve gone through this “suspended” scenario. Both times, it turns out, WordPress has encountered a system glitch as the email (received this morning), and shown in the following screen capture, indicates.

As a technologist, I’m more than aware that automated systems are prone to glitches – nothing is perfect. Nevertheless, I have strong objections as to how WordPress handled this.

It seems like a pretty heavy handed way to deal with an issue – giving no warning, and not being specific about the supposed transgression. REALLY heavy handed, given that my Blog is one of their top sites. Hell, it’s one of the top sites on the Internet.

From what I read in the forums on this, a common reason for suspension could be as simple as linking to a site they don’t like. Really! Once a suspension is in effect, there is NO appeal. Your site is gone, and WordPress will not allow you to recover your content. I kid you not! The only set of circumstances under which a site is reactivated is, as in my case, if WordPress has made an error.

Imagine getting fired for breaking a company rule you weren’t aware of, and when you queried your boss as to which rule, you were told – “Well, it’s my interpretation of a rule, and you no have choice but to accept it”.

In an adult world, I can’t imagine broad scale acceptance of that type of behavior. But, apparently in the world of WordPress, you’re expected to meekly accept some nameless, faceless person’s decision that you’ve broken a rule, and then go away!

At a minimum, WordPress needs to seriously review and then revamp their whole approach to the question of perceived violations of their Conditions of Service. In the meantime, if you blog on WordPress, it’s imperative that you backup your content religiously. If this can happen to me – it can happen to you. If it should, you may well be one of the thousands who did not get their site back.

Finally, I spent most of last night replying to the hundreds of regular readers who emailed me wondering what was going on. In virtually every case, those readers were astonished that WordPress had suspended my site. I trust that this article has answered your questions, and you have my appreciation for showing your concern, and loyalty.

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Does a Blogger’s Opinion Really Matter?

As social beings, it seems to me that we have an insatiable need to offer our opinions (often unsolicited opinions), on virtually any topic – whether the topic is open to discussion, or not.

In an ideal world, one would form opinions based on experience, knowledge, and thoughtful consideration of the question at hand; without interference from any built-in prejudices.

But, the very definition of “opinion”, indicates that opinions are not always based on experience, knowledge, or thoughtful consideration.   The question of “who is right, or who is wrong?” is often not addressed – and prejudices, unfortunately, do get in the way.

We deal here frequently, with the state of Internet security, and I rarely hesitate to offer my opinion on this issue – it’s a mess, and it’s getting worse. And yes, I’m prejudiced. But that prejudice  is the result of years of experience, knowledge, and a developed analytical process dealing with the state of cyber space.

But, does my opinion really count? Is any one really listening? And, if so – who?

Recently, I wrote a piece – Canada’s Super Spies “Discover” Cybercrime is a Threat, a satirical article, which pointed fingers at the Canadian Government. A government, which continues to be lackadaisical in implementing a robust plan to address cyber crime; an industry of crime which is continuously being taken to new levels.

Not surprisingly, a combination of regular readers, and casual readers passing by, offered an amazing assortment of thoughtful and supportive comments. I can clearly state, that my opinion had impact with these readers. The question of “who is right, or who is wrong”, was adjudicated in my favor. And, that’s enough for me.

But, can a Blogger’s opinion have broader impact? In this particular case it seems it may well have.

In the weeks following the posting of “Canada’s Super Spies Discover Cybercrime ……”, the article was accessed by a surprising number of Members of Parliament, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (and a number of other International Police agencies), but most surprising of all – the Privy Council Office, which, “provides essential advice and support to the Canadian Prime Minister and Cabinet.”

As to what whether the article had the hoped for impact, there is no sure way to know. But, as I stated earlier, my readers were very supportive and shared my opinion – and that’s enough for me.

If you’re already a Blogger (no matter the audience you write for), keep on blogging – you’re making a difference. Your views and opinions do matter; they do count. If you’re not yet a Blogger, consider becoming one – make your views and your opinions, count. Get them out there for others to consider.

WordPress, which offers perhaps the easiest, and most robust free Blogging platform available, makes it easy to blog. Check it out here.

Just a quick note: I noticed that the Mounties continue to use IE 6 – often referred to as the most hacked application of all time. Sad!

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Tech Thoughts Nominated for Best Non-Technical Blog

Searching the Web can often yield some astonishing surprises, and here’s a perfect example.

While searching the Net recently, referencing the upcoming 2010 RSA Conference, which will be held, once more, in San Francisco, I found an item which surprised me. Pleasantly, I might add.

Unbeknownst to me, Tech Thoughts, had been nominated at the 2009 RSA Conference, in the category – Best Non-Technical Blog.

Let me be clear – I didn’t win (not even close, I suspect). But when the nominees in this category consisted of some of the most astute, and well known, technology writers in the world, including Bruce Schneier –  Schneier is the Chief Security Technology Officer of British Telecom (Schneier on Security), and Graham Cluley – Cluley is the Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos (Graham Cluley’s Blog), well……..

Other top technology sites nominated included, McAfee Security Insights, Dark Reading,  Infosecurity, F-SECURE, TechRepublic IT Security Blog, ThreatFire Research Blog, Trend Micro’s Malware Blog, Windows Secrets, and more.

Being considered worthy, to be chosen as a nominee in such an impressive field of internationally known technology writers, and popular web sites, I must confess, made my heart go “pitter, patter”.

All bloggers, and writers, have their reasons, and justifications, for what they do, and what they choose to write about. Personally, I write Tech Thoughts simply to take part in the battle against those who threaten the viability of the Internet, by continuously attacking users for criminal gain. And of course, to offer my opinion on issues that are often contentious. It’s very cool to be recognized for those efforts.

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