Blog Business

Hokay! Got a few items of blog business to do:

1. I just got a new computer and just got it hooked up to the Internet after talking to three tech support individuals, at least one of whom was not a human being.

2. There appears to be no way to conveniently transfer my e-mail from my old computer to my new one.

3. Consequently, this is going to make it harder for me to answer e-mail that has been sent to me in the past. I’ll still try, though, but it’ll be more difficult.

4. Consequently, if you’ve sent me e-mail in the past and are waiting on a reply, you may want to re-send it to make sure I get it on the new computer.

5. I’m also looking at an e-mail address change on the blog. Thus far I’ve been using jimmy01 @ cox.net, and if you check DA RULZ, you’ll note that I say I’ll change it once it gets severely spam-poisoned (see Rule #10). UPDATE: The new address is jimmyakin01@gmail.com. Thanks, guys!

6. It’s now severely spam poisoned. As a result of leaving the address out on the blog for folks to use, the overwhelming majority of e-mail that comes in to it is noxious, foul-smelling spam.

7. So I’m planning on switching it. The question is: To what? One possibility I’m considering is Google’s gmail, but I have a couple of questions:

8. First, how good is gmail’s anti-spam system?

9. Second, can I get a gmail invite from someone?

10. I also have another question. If you look at Rule #15 in DA RULZ, you’ll see that I don’t use names in the main blog area. The purpose of this is to make people feel more comfortable writing to me since they know I’ll anonymize whatever they send in. But there’s a cost, too: Sometimes people might want credit for what they send in, such as the recent readers I’ve cowboy hat tipped without giving their names. Consequently, I’d like folks thoughts on whether they think the current policy is the way to go or whether they think a revision of it might be in order.

Much obliged, y’all!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

21 thoughts on “Blog Business”

  1. I use gmail, and I have been pretty impressed with its spam filtering capabilities. Rarely does it mistakenly filter a good email or not filter a bad one. If you like, I can send you an invitation to try it out, since I have plenty.

  2. Okay; I just sent you an invite – try it out, see if you like it. Google is continually adding new features to gmail, so it is getting much better. There are a few things it can’t do yet, and sometimes I wish I could detach or delete messages from conversations without deleting the whole conversation, but I understand this will be available soon.

  4. Google’s email system is pretty dang nice that’s for sure. I’m not sure how well the anti-spam works, but I haven’t seen any spam in the year or so that I’ve been using it. Of course, I also am not as popular as yourself with my email as readily available as you. I do use that email address when I fill in forms on the internet, though and yet no spam. Not sure what that means 🙂

  5. I have been using Gmail for a while an it works well.
    I also use Mozilla’s Thunderbird for my regular email account. The advantage is that there is a program called Mozilla Backup that easily copies all settings and emails for thunderbird into one file. The same goes for backing up Firefox.
    Being a total Geek I somewhat often need to totally reinstall the existing operating system or put on a new one. Mozilla backup makes it easy to have exactly the same setup and data that you previously had.

  6. As far as your policy goes (what is often know as the Welborn Protocol) it should probably stay as is.
    When I get an excellent comment or suggestion from a reader I will usually email them back and ask if they want full credit or possibly just use their first name and perhaps an initial. I have found that unless the writer is a blogger that normally they want to be somewhat anonymous.

  8. I very much like the current policy. When you quote something I’ve commented (once so far), I get both a lift and a let down. “Hey, he used me!” “Aw, he didn’t say who I was.” I suspect the down would feel worse, much worse, if you disagreed with me. Even if you agreed with me, I’d feel embarassment at the exposure. I’ll take the little down. More important, I’d much rather hear your opinion on religious matters, than see my name on the internet.

  9. I think just using the “hat tip” is a good idea. That way people can ask questions without ever being concerned you might “slip” and put their names in.
    If this blog didn’t have so much to do with our true life “spiritual” then it probably wouldn’t matter that much.

  10. What was the difficulty that prevented you from transferring your emails?
    As for emails, I would just let the reader say whether or not he or she wants to be anonymous (or even have the email published). If not, put the name it. If so, don’t put the name on it. If the reader doesn’t say, then use your current system.

  11. Jimmy, are you concerned with the privacy implications of gmail? I personally will never get an account with them, because they keep a copy of your emails forever — or at least until the Second Coming :o) With other email providers, they don’t keep your emails past 90 days or some predetermined limit. Just something to think about.

  13. “With other email providers, they don’t keep your emails past 90 days or some predetermined limit.”
    Not the services I’ve used (Hotmail and Yahoo). Hotmail only kept a copy of my SENT emails for a limited time, but the rest of my emails are still saved.

  14. Not the services I’ve used (Hotmail and Yahoo). Hotmail only kept a copy of my SENT emails for a limited time, but the rest of my emails are still saved.
    I think he means backups of deleted emails.

  15. I think he means backups of deleted emails.
    All services keep backups of email, deleted or otherwise, for a small time. This is because they are replicated on servers which need to be occasionally synchronized. Deleted mail is not kept forever.

  16. Jimmy, I wouldn’t post your e-mail address in text form on the web page like you did. The spambots will harvest it when they scan your page and then you’ll eventually end up with 1 GB of spam in your inbox. I recommend either posting it as a graphic or using the encoder link that another poster provided above; there are also plenty of sites on the net that will provide a free javascript that permits you to post a Mailto link in a form that spambots can’t read.
    Just my 2 cents.

  18. I just heard on CNN that Google employees sent 98% of their political donations to the Democratic Party during the last election.

  19. I’m not especially concerend about gmail’s privacy issues. Every e-mail account has some, and I’m at least willing to try it and see how it works.
    Thus far, I’ve been pleased. The way it handles e-mail seems like it will make it *much* easier for me to keep track of e-mails that I need to take respond to or blog about, meaning better service for people!

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