Sunday, July 6, 2008

An Apology and some Proof

Yesterday was a day I don't want to repeat ever again.I never actually thought I would ever Emo or Drama on my blog , it wasn't something that I ever wanted to do, but felt strongly about defending What's New. Somehow in all that I ended up having to defend myself.

In the past there was reference to people that edit repeatedly on their blogs, knowing that it would bump up their blog in the feed. I always in the past really thought that was humorous that people would think others need that much attention,as we all know that everyone that visits the feed scrolls through the whole thing , and many do so a few times a day, so wherever you are placed you are going to be seen.

In the past also I said that I was not willing to change my timezones on my blog , and believed very much that it was about timezones the placement. I never really looked at my standing up for keeping my own as being greedy, but it was something I felt I needed to keep as its the only thing I have in Phils Place that keeps me Australian.

Some people that know me, or people that have had dealings with me, know exactly the times I keep in Phils Place and they are nothing to do with Australian ones, I log on anywhere between 10pm my time and 1am and usually don't log out for the last time until between 5-7pm depending on the day. I do this because I work here , and because if I stuck to Australian times customers and things I need to deal with throughout any given day would be put on hold for too long.

I was able to make some sense of my days with my blog, knowing what I did and when based on my times, something little but something I needed to hold on to. There is also another reason for it, one only a few people in Phils Place know about, and because of that I CANNOT lie about where I am, in the past for Yahoo accounts I have put in an American postcode just to make sure I only had a .com addy but thats the extent of it, does this holding on to something so silly sound odd, sure it does, I know it and you know it , but it's what I need to do.

I was always certain as I said that the reason I was at the top to start with was because of the fact I post in the future , many have argued the point, but yesterday I got proof. Before I show it and explain what I did to get it, I have a few apologies to make.

First off this is the ONE and ONLY time I have ever manipulated the feed, and for that I am sorry that it went that far that I was forced to do so. Second apology is to anyone that knows me that thinks that I would ever do such a thing, because the fact that you do means I am somehow portraying that. Lastly my apology is to those that don't know me, because your impression of me based on this means again I have let people down, melodramatic to some sure , you can think so , go ahead , but those that really know me know that yesterday would have completely gutted me, regardless of what I said and how I acted throughout the day.

Now the proof and how I got it. I never look at the feed as much as I did yesterday, and when I do I skim it fast, again its all about visual,if I see pictures that catch my eye I stop and if I see lots of text I also stop, because I like reading what people have to say if its passionate.

Yesterday though on finding out that too many, and for me too many can mean just one,people thought that Phoenix's post was about me, that they thought I was the one that was being referred to as playing with the feed blew me away, anyway I watched it and it was after my rant. My post sat on top for ages.
I was wondering why my blog and not whats new did that, as to me they were both the same. So checked and found out that I never made What's New Aussie time, because I wasn't only going to be posting on it, and everything I did post was going to be about a store in phils place and pertain to that timestamp.

So I thought, I wonder what would happen if I did make it aussie time, and thats my first 'Sorry' I changed it to the exact time mine is and asked Alexa of Dark Eden if it was possible to post for her the latest release from Dark Eden as Etain was afk, I could have waited to see if anyone else posted for the day , but as I was clearly upset and also wanted to post just as I post on my own blog , this was going to be a way of clearing things up.

You can click on the pictures to see the full size of them


I posted and waited for the update to the feed , and waited and waited and waited , yesterday it didn't do 15 minute slots it did nearly an hour before a change, again another reason I would sit on top for ages. Sure enough update occurs and there it is Dark Edens What's New post above my rant.
So then I put it back , and waited for the next update , and bam down it goes , what I also came to notice, is that the feed puts a timestamp on each post on the feed page, a time that is in NO way the time the post was made.

I went back to my blog and looked at the time, I posted it at 2.19am aussie time and that is actually incorrect too, you see that is the time I actually clicked on the New Post button, as while I was typing my rant I was in IM's with a few different people so it took longer to actually finish, and the first comment was only minutes after it went to publish which was just before 4am , that time in no way changed on my post , but yet the timestamps the feed gave it did a few times. Those timestamps are also in running order for a fair few blogs and then alter again , which is very odd.

This is where I started to freak out, by now I had started moving down the page, and was happy with that, but then BOOM I was back up top and I said to Efe, I haven't done a thing the only thing that i have done on my blog is comment.

So then I questioned that , it couldn't be that, could it ? could blogger and the feed be that sensitive that when I comment on my own comments section in my own blog , that blogger and the feed look at it as a change? I am signed in when I comment and its my blog , but is that even possible.

Unfortunately it is :( , and this is my second apology for knowing that if this actually was the case , then I was about to go back up top again. But I do hope you forgive that fact, as this was my only way to show that there has never been a time I have or would do such a thing, the only times I have ever edited my posts have been at the request of a designer, because of incorrect slurl or not giving credit to a collab.
I saw that Ashia had added a comment so ran to the feed opened and again took another pic, you can see that I am below and what timestamp it says above me on the other post.

I commented and waited and waited , not as long this time, and BAM there I am again top of the feed and a higher timestamp than the person I was below earlier.

Not every day do I get comments on my posts , but when I do I generally comment back, and not always straight away but sometimes hours later, if this as I have shown does bump me up as the feed generates it as an edit of some sort , that would explain why there are days I shift upwards.


Was I aware of this until now ? NO I wasn't because those that really do know me, know that I do not give a rats about spotlight, the clothes and products I show deserve their time on the feed wherever it is as much as everyone elses, if my blog was just my ramblings about whatever , there would be no need to even be on there , but I blog fashion, and I am not silly enough to believe that the only reason I get sent stuff is because I do great posts,even I dont think I do.

I know its because I am on the feed and that means more people see the products, would I ever make sure that I was at the top all day , NO a thousand times NO, I haven't enough time in my day to do something that manipulative and it's not my character. But again that anyone at all has thought so hurts me more than I can even express, what this has done though has shown me that everything isn't always as we think, that we have unfortunately become a bit too jaded lately -that has come up a few times this week in other things - and to assume the evil and bad is something we are doing way too much lately, myself included.

My own actions coming into question this way really opened my eyes to a few things and again my apologies to anyone who thought that I was doing this. Also again my apologies to people that I did post over yesterday to show that Blogger and the feed aren't exactly compatible.

If you comment on this , please understand I wont be commenting back , not a risk I really want to take right now , also if you have a blogger account and are sceptical about what I have shown , then please try it , my time zone is sydney australia , I usually post my blog first thing in the day -my time - which is as I have said around the midnight early morning time, that of course would also be why I stay up high for so long, as thats a huge amount of time for the feed to make up.

It is the time of the day easiest for me to post and some days I post later , it just depends, I don't know how to remedy this situation at all other than changing timezones on my blog, and as I said for me that is a hard thing to do, something I will have to think about though.

Sasy

13 comments:

SySy Chapman said...

So its timezones AND comments...wow..i never knew this! Sasy,this clears up alot you know! I regret to say i was one of the people finding it very weird to see your blog on top always :/ (as you know lol) but this explains it all!
What i suggest you do is stay exactly how you are, come on now you should be able to comment on your own blog???! Everyone now knows how this works so *end of discussion* right? Would be sad if we all have to change things just because the feed works like this. Now comment back? :P:P
((((((Sasy)))))) Take care girl :)

Alyx Sands said...

Sasy, don't pull your hair out over this! I read the feed directly in the browser with a bookmark and I never really bothered which posts where first or last-I scan the titles of all of them and then decide which one to read. It's more important to put a proper title for the feed to grab, not just your blog's name, and as you do that, I read your posts!
You already do so much for the fashion community, you shouldn't bother with this really!

Anonymous said...

/me seconds. Don't change a thing Sasy, we love you just the way you are. Huggles xxx

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't worry about this - in the grand scheme of things I'm sure that the number of people who are obsessed with the feed is much lower than the number of people who know you for the good work you do both in world and on your blog.
It doesn't really seem right that the feed updates when you comment on your own posts. I'm not sure if there is a remedy for this, other than changing to wordpress, which I guess I've always thought was a better solution than blogger anyway.
The other thing that I've always wanted to do, or wish someone else would do is start another feed... one that updates more often, is more democratic as far as who gets added (a submission form or something), and less work for one person to keep up as I know the feeds are probably a lot of work for him. If I was to create another feed would people use it? or if I was to create a way for people to make their own feeds (yahoo pipes or something) would anyone be interested in that?
If you are, say something and I'll figure it out.

In the mean time Sasy, I wouldn't worry about all of this. People love you regardless and know that you don't mean any harm. ((hugs))

Loxley Tatham said...

Hello,
I for one read all the blogs and I scroll down the feed. Blogs seem to pop in and around, but honestly, I never paid any attention to who was on top or where the blogs were sorted in the whole feed. Interesting blogs and nice visual effects catch my attention and make me want to stop and read them. Hey, we need all the designers and bloggers to keep giving us information and a blog should be what you wish to post about.........

Unknown said...

It's blogger, Sasy, not you! Blogger has a weird behaviour in the feed.

That was one of the reasons I switched to Wordpress and moved all my contents to Wordpress.

I also use Feedburner to manage my feeds. It works perfectly with the Fashion Feed and has amazing options for you to control your own feed.

And, again, it's YOUR blog! You do with it whatever you want. ;)
One time I decided to shorten my feeds and had people asking me to show the full feed.

Chic Aeon said...

I noticed this happening with my (Second Life Colors then) blog when Iheartsl was a feed and not a group blog. I would end up WAY down the page upon first posting. Figured it was just the way the feed was. So this is NOT a new problem.


I have to admit that I noted you were often prominent on the fashion feed (wink) but was NOT worrying too much about it. I post through iheartsl so in effect through Wordpress even though my actually blog is in Blogger. Ah what mysteries.



And to Stacy. Iheartsl WAS an alternate feed for several months but technical issues (I am assuming it was a bandwidth thing with a provider but do not KNOW that -- it just kept breaking) had that coming to an end. So now it is a "community" blog where everyone that wants to join (up to the limit of authors I assume) can repost and get ON the feed since that seemed to be impossible in the past.

I know you aren't going to answer Sasy but I am just wondering if you have a LOT of Virgo in your astrology chart (chuckle) :D Those endless Virgo loops can really take there toll and it seems like you might have been in a HUGE one yesterday (and today). Hope things are better.

Gillian Waldman said...

I always knew it was blogger. I never thought anyone purposely bumped their post (but btw, who cares?). Really, I am sure there are more important things to worry about?

Best,
Gillian

Unknown said...

I can only second what has been said here: 1. Who cares? 2. Lots of other stuff out there that's REALLY important to deal with no? 3. Blogger plays tricks. 4. It's your blog.

Public announcements with the phrase 'you know who you are' should be totally and mega ignored . I mean if she know who you are, then why go public?

Stephanie Misfit said...

Definitely no need to apologise for testing something Sasy!

Posting from Australia, I've seen posts I've made on Blogger sit at the top of the feed for a while, get bumped down, then jump back up the top. Posts seem to move around the feed all the time. We all have eyes and can see which stuff we've already read, and there's that handy scroll bar at the side that allows us to skip past stuff too :)

This is YOUR blog. The oddities of Blogger or the fashion feed aren't your problem or responsibility.

Teagan Blackthorne said...

One thing I didn't notice for a while was when blogger wasn't doing the scheduled blogs if I changed the date on a blog that I started say 2 nights before at 10PM when I published, if I forgot to change the timestamp it would just keep reposting it. Once I realized this was happening, I tried to remember to make the blog's timestamp between 9am-10am.

Seriously, even with you not commenting your blog keeps bumping even while you are in bed so go about business as usual and ignore the bumping.

Anonymous said...

I know that I have my timestamp set to Tokyo to make sure when I post the FIRST TIME it goes to the top of the feed, with the intention that as people post they should all be like this-most recent post at the top. I do find that I have corrections I missed and do go back and edit, but if my posts end up at the top of the feed again, its not by my choosing, and not intentional. It's simply what happens. I like both the feeds I read-Fashion Planet and What's New because they both serve a purpose. But I don't like drama in it, people are so..I don't know...quick to jump on things. Ugh what a drama filled weekend. Should I make brownies or cupcakes? Champagne anyone? Would anyone bitch if I tucked some Xanax in the batter?

Anonymous said...

*correction to my comment...see I alway catch shit after I post.

* Most recent blog post of new material...not update to original post