An Effective Conversation Blocker
Found a blog post that used MSN Spaces. The post? Okay. The site? Ick.
No way in creation am I going to sign up for a Micro$oft .NET “passport” merely to comment on a single site. I didn’t like that company’s idea three years ago–not too many people did–and I don’t like it now.
4 Responses to “An Effective Conversation Blocker”
Trackback URL for An Effective Conversation Blocker: http://gmapalumni.org/chapomatic/wp-trackback.php?p=729
April 25th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
I went to MSN Spaces because it was free, integrated with my MSN account and had decent functionality. I started my blog only 3 months ago, so I was doing it as an experience so I wasn’t ready to have my own domain and pay for hosting / tools.
I really like most everything about MSN Spaces EXCEPT what that requirement that feedback needs to be somebody that has a passport. I really hope that they rethink that decision, and allow for more open feedback. I think that they are trying to protect themselves and those that have a Spaces site from spammers, but in the process only hurting the whole feedback process.
In the meantime, I recommend that you post comments on your own site with a reference to my site. I, in turn, will tell people to go to your site. I know it’s a workaround, but it can be a positive by encouraging readership to hit both sites.
If these don’t change with the feedback limitation, I will be considering going somewhere else with my blog even if that means that I might lose some readers in the process with the URL change.
April 25th, 2005 at 3:21 pm
Skip,
Thanks for the background. I can see advantages to not using Blogger (we’ll lose half the blogosphere when they go down or go pay). (By the way, looks like my trackback to you was blocked as well.)
Some free alternatives might be using Haloscan for comments, if MSN allows it, or if you have server space and CGI capability shifting to WordPress (that’s what I use).
The article itself has resonance in some work I did–the last time I showed up in a leadership (as opposed to staff) position, I looked around for a little while and then put out a single sheet of paper with three themes I wanted to hit in my tour. I was lucky and had some great leaders in my team, and when I pulled out the letter again for the last time at the end of my tour those three themes were inculcated into the culture of the ship. Your letter is a similar idea. Here’s what I did differently:
–I limited to three Big Things to change. More won’t get enough focus, and I want to do as many good changes as I can.
–As one mentor put it, culture is what you do when there are no rules. Getting the change into the culture is what I wanted.
–I needed to be specific, avoid bumpersticker speech, and measurable (not so much quantifiable, but able to say the goal’s achieved or not.) In my job we spend entirely too much time caring about bumper stickers, which sound wonderful and show up everywhere but are effectively useless or worse.
–I did the letter at the beginning, long enough into the job to see what we needed (a couple of weeks), but before three months went by and I became part of the problem. Being a lazy sort I assumed that the good folks were ALWAYS working as if I were absent, and tried to guide them in the direction I wanted them to run.
–Every once in a while I’d pull it out and ask myself:
==>Is this the right direction I need to still go?
==>Is this taking hold? If not, why not? If so, how?
==>What’s next?
Chap.
April 25th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
Oh, yes, one more thing. I was lucky to have the opportunity to recognize some great leadership in my organization that didn’t know it existed. This, of course, was good for my laziness, so it was truly gratifying when some guys who were told they were substandard before I got there wound up proving how good they really were…
April 25th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Great advice Chap!
Sorry for all of the troubles with MSN Spaces. They are relatively new so hopefully things will get better as far as commenting and trackbacks.
Regarding leaders, one of the most exciting parts of my job is to watch people grow in their skills and abilities and know that you played some part in it. Unfortunately, too few people get opportunities to test their leadership skills. It’s up to management to provide those opportunities. Many times you don’t need to look outside for managers, you just need to grow the people you have. MUCH better this way as they already understanding your culture, customers, products, services, etc.