#BlogSoup Reboot 22.08.14 @AdrienneSmith40 @berget @yogizilla @ce_kilgore @snowglobeman

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by Stan Faryna

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Blog Soup

Some may remember the much celebrated blog soup which I had retired some years ago in the naïve hopes that others would take up the torch and advance blogosphere and social media for sake of our humanity and dignity.

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None did. That bummed me out.

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If you don’t know about the epics of blog soup, a deliciously OP (Over Powered) explanation follows.

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The comments below represent comments that I posted and those that failed to post to the websites and blogs that I visited. On occasion, they may represent Tweets, Replies, or Comments made on Facebook and other Social Media networks. Not everyone will appreciate the comments made to their post (I rarely suck up, brown nose or gush), but hopefully they’ll forgive me any offense (real or imagined) and they should love the serious link juice to blog and Twitter. This is not a noob’s blog.

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I art one blogger who is-has serious histories and algorithms.

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Without further ado…

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Thank you for stealing my identity

http://www.adriennesmith.net/beware-impostor-among-us

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Adrienne Smith writes about how spammers are using your identity to create back links. And sometimes, they forget to back link! Silly bots – tricks are for kids.

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My comment

My heart goes out to you, Adrienne.

Spam is getting interesting, indeed.

The consequence of identity theft in this regard is typically unintentional. But even unintended consequences remain consequential – especially for the victims of identity theft. This kind of black hat activity, however, will only increase. Such is our dilemma.

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Your prolific comments actually single you out as a preferable identity to use for black hat seo purposes. They hope that use of your identity will increase the value of the back link, discourage back link deletion and get past spam detection.One way you can make your identity a nuisance to spambots is by contacting the businesses/persons at the links and let them know that you hold them responsible for their sinister seo practices and that you will seek damages against them for their fraudulent use of your good name and reputation. If you are lucky, they will apologize and fire their trollish seo people.

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If the business is unsympathetic, the next step involves a blog post and a lawyer. And it may involve a lawyer in the local region of that business. Such is the internets. With much benefit, there is much cost.

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What’s right? What’s wrong? What can people get away with.

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This is the unhappy conclusion of a world that celebrates moral relativity. Sometimes, things work your way. Sometimes, they don’t. But I wish it were otherwise. I would rather we were all led by Christ and that we acknowledged and repented of our own wickedness and all the wickedness of the world.

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The Trial

http://www.snowglobeman.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-trial.html

Thomas Snow writes beautifully here. And that is no exaggeration.

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My comment

Beautiful. Wonderful. THIS makes me feel alive. Thank you!

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How do you measure success on Facebook?

http://slymarketing.com/measure-success-facebook
[note: site is under new and untrusted management]

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Jens-Petter Berget solicits opinions from social media pros on how they are measuring success on Facebook.

Update: Link has been removed in 2017 as Jens’ website seems to have gone spammy and rogue.

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My comment

The cost of creating and maintaining relationships on social networks can be considerable. I see social marketers investing the equivalent of hundreds of dollars (or more) in one to one relationships that just aren’t feasible for corporate (big to small) online strategy.

Businesses want conversions and transactions at the cheapest possible price. The internet advertising and marketing mumbo jumbo suggests that that they can do it for pennies on the traditional ad spend dollar. But it gets worse. The social media people try to sell the imaginary numbers and benefits of social based on the recycled lies of online advertising.

None of which means that there is no value in online advertising and marketing. Or social. As Ted Rubin suggests, the conversation is most of the content in an online relationship.

Yet the cake remains a lie.

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I’m a former IAB European National Director. So I’m not talking out my…

So my effort and measurement is based on a completely different model – a business model that may remind you of the business of the Ministry of Silly Walks.

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Have I made impact in the minds, hearts and lives of the people that tune in to me?

Have I helped them work through their own self-deceits, delusions and vanities?

Have I helped them discover, see, and live out true love, truth, goodness and beauty?

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The return is small but this is work for which we shall not count the cost.

Because this is the only work that is worthwhile.

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10 Myths About MOBAS Debunked – Perhaps

http://geekyantics.net/10-myths-about-mobas-debunked-l2p

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Yomar Lopez addresses the hate growing around games referred to as Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas.

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My comment

If you aren’t into games, you might wonder why you should care about MOBAs. But online games are a powerful segment of online business. In terms of growth, it may be second to porn.

Because people got time to kill. Because some don’t have work. Or can’t get work. Because some people need something more than what they got offline – love, acceptance, admiration, purpose, etc.

And if you say you know a little something something about the internets, you gotta know something about MOBAs, MMORPGs, FPSs, etc. You know what I’m saying!

Age and disinterest are not excuses. In the age of internets, we are all expected to know a little about everything.

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Yomar really wants to tell you about how you can get in and get out of the MOBA experience with a little grace. Maybe, you can even retain some dignity and self-esteem too. But not really.

I just wish he’d focus on that. As for MOBA players – they’re seriously demonized. They breathe hate, contempt and hostility like it was air.

Note:

Demonized is not demonization. Demonized a la Derek Prince is kinda like possession but minus 360 degree head spins, levitations, glowing eyes, biblical boils, etc.

You know I love you, bro.

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Authors and Twitter: You’re Doing It Wrong

http://www.tracingthestars.com/authors-and-twitter-youre-doing-it-wrong

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C. E. Kilgore writes about the problem of faking it as a curator via Triberr, etc.

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My comment

The cake is a lie.

I’m sorry you had to figure it out the hard way. But we all do – all who dare to dream. We all learn the hard way – unless we came to the game as a taker.

The problematic extends to all who hope to do something epic in social. Because the cake is a lie. Beyond the cake meta of social, the dynamic of reciprocity and all the dreams of pyramid schemes never works out like it should. For many reasons.

Mostly, it doesn’t work well because the effort is herculean – not to mention that it requires a serpent’s cunning. And even if this was all in place, the rewards are intensely insufficient.

But our lessons in online advertising and marketing are not over. Nor our disappointments.

Beyond our desperate need for reach, there is too much noise in social. Competing for attention is expensive – one way or the other. If you succeed in getting that one to 10 seconds of attention for which you fought tooth and nail, then the truth shall out: is your value to your customer explicit, intense and irrefutable?

Ironically, the above walkthrough represents another common and devastating error  – putting the cart before the horse.

The business model for books (as suggested by the New York Times’ bestseller list) is selling 5,000+ books per week. If what you are doing can’t go there, you may have a problem – if ever you dreamed of limos, five star hotels, big houses, elegant clothes, fancy cars, vip events, etc.

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This Week and other Social Media DOHs

Geeks are all excited about the pending debut of the 12th Doctor (13th regeneration) on Season 8 of Doctor Who. John the Baptist almost wrote poetry about Ferguson. Meanwhile, we continued to mourn Robin Williams’ suicide and I still can’t get anyone from Revel Casino to talk to me about how they were supposed to pay for the damages done to my car by their valet people, but they are officially bankrupt. Obviously.

Hamas finally admitted that it’s own people abducted the Israeli teenagers and killed them. Christians in Iraq and Syria are being slaughtered, raped, robbed, displaced, etc. for being Christians. That includes the beheading of children in public places. The video of the beheading of a freelance, American journalist James Foley ignited American outrage. His ransom for 100 Million Dollars had not been paid. So much for the religious ideals of IS. But there’s not much in tears or outrage for the murder of helpless, Christian children. That bums me out. Maybe, it’s just too horrible for some people to think about.

I have no doubt that IS has brought a heavy curse upon their own heads, their people, and their nation. For God keeps all of His promises – the beautiful and the terrifying. It will go very badly for them and it will go badly for many generations.

The Christian solution, I imagine, is not to send soldiers to kill the bad guys – unless Jesus has shouted down from the heavens and no one told me. The Christian solution is for us to unite in repentance, praise, thanksgiving and prayer – we must plead with God for Him to bring peace to His peoples on Earth. One million people united in humility, hope and prayer to God, our heavenly father, will accomplish more than 100,000 soldiers on the ground, 10,000 missiles and rockets, ten billion dollars worth of air support, and ten million rounds of various ammunition.

What we got here is a lack of leadership, wisdom and love – political and spiritual.

Likewise, Ferguson would never have become what it did if political and leaders had stood with the people in solidarity and led them in mourning and healing. Ten million dollars of tax payer money in fancy military gear does not obtain anything resembling peace, justice or the American way.

The death toll of the Syrian Civil War approaches 200,000. Egyptian blogger and human rights activitst Alaa Abd El Fattah remains imprisoned. Thousands of Pakistanis overran the security barrier around the house of Pakistan’s Prime Minister and demanded his resignation. Ebola remains to be contained in Africa. Quakes surging around the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in Iceland.

The only thing that made sense (of everything) this week was Patti’s recitation of Keats on HBO’s 8th Episode of HBO’s The Leftovers. Coincidence?

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Michael Robartes Bids his Beloved be at Peace by Yeats

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HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,

Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;

The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,

The East her hidden joy before the morning break,

The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,

The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
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O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,

The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:

Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat

Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,

Drowning love’s lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,

And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

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Myself, I am not a believer in coincidence. Serendipity, however, is never recognizable to the foolish and proud.

God enlighten us, everyone. Soon. Actually, make that sooner…

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Stan Faryna
22 August 2014
Fairfax, Virginia

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