First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
Where I work, we're engaged with guiding low-income families through the nation's blighted education system. As you might expect, we often toe the line between cooperation and condescension. And this morning I caught myself in a quietly awkward situation. In quoting a parent we work with, I considered writing "[sic]" three times — in just three sentences. No one was around to witness it, but my shame was thick and immediate.
Don't get me wrong, I know I'm luckier than most. I pass homeless men and women wherever I go in this city, and I've faced no adversity worse than my parents' divorce. But I don't like to see myself as above or better than anyone else. When I volunteer at a local SRO in the Tenderloin, I see the occupants as just people without enough family or education to work through their broken psychology. I'd probably be right there with them, if not for my sisters and a high school diploma. My inclination to skirt the blame of grammatical errors, though, was different. I truly felt uncomfortable publishing a double negative without calling attention to it as not my mistake. And once I realized what I was thinking, it was like suddenly noticing just how far away the ground is from the saddle of this horse.
Perhaps there is no such thing as equality. We strive for it, we fight wars for it, but even a bleeding heart like me can't achieve it.
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
As Peter Schrag recounts in California: America's High Stakes Experiment, the California dream has always had its dark side — from the discrimination against the Chinese in the late nineteenth century to the "battering" the Okies took during the Depression to the "push-pull-love-hate relationship with Mexicans." What is distinctive about the present situation, however, is that the dark side of the California dream encompasses population groups that will soon make up the majority of its citizens.
Sharp ethnic and racial divides of this kind don't necessarily undermine an economy. On the contrary, California's success in agriculture was based on cheap immigrant labor. But it's a recipe for social and political unrest — and even riot and rebellion. And it's a betrayal of the American, as well as the California, dream. That's something California's government will need to address, but there's the question of whether it is capable of doing so.
If you haven't read this op-ed in The New Republic, I highly suggest you drop everything to do so right now.
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
[overhead shot of a table in an expensive modern-european restaurant. It's not a capital, but it's one of those cities on the thinktank/summit-circuit that treaties get named after. Two people are talking. A man in his fifties and a woman in her mid thirties. Both are understated in appearance, but obviously expensively dressed. Both of their smartphones are turned screen-down on the table. It's unclear to us who is the most important. And it's unclear which one is saying the following]
Governments and corporates know me as 'Switchboard', which is how I like to keep it.
I have an aptitude.
Well, a few aptitudes.
But, mainly - I'm very good at people.
Especially those who can't really be described as people anymore. I know what they're good for, what they want and - how to get hold of them.
I've never saved the world, but I've probably had lunch with someone who has.
I'm who you call if you have, y'know - a *really* big problem.
[ringtone]
If you've seen me recently, then you know I'm feeling more at peace with myself and life than I have in years. Almost everything that was wrong, that was holding me back, was an aftershock of the summer of 2005. And around this time last year I realized that I was trying to live my life as an antithesis of anorexia. I'd somehow become so afraid of unintentionally boxing myself in again that I'd stopped doing the things I loved before I was sick. I'd lost that prior sense of who I am, instead choosing to define myself by who I'm not or who I won't be. It's taken all this time but I've systematically faced every fear that was stymieing my ability to grow up — from simple hang-ups, like letting myself have even a single routine, to more complicated anxieties, like running. It's a work-in-progress, but we all are.
And lately I've been trying to come to terms with something new. Or rather, something that dredges up the past. When I'm taking care of myself, I'm aware of my presence. (As opposed to feeling latent and indistinct.) I notice when someone is surveying me and I'm torn in two directions: it feels good, but I shouldn't like it.
In the '70s, John Berger observed that "according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome — men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." When I first read this in college, I tried to disagree. I was experimenting with photography and working in design; I considered myself someone actively shaping the way I saw the world. But the truth is, I felt invisible. Unless you count the opinions of construction workers, I wasn't attractive, especially not in any conventional sense. But all that changed when I lost an unhealthy amount of weight.
Now that I'm trying to encourage that latent, indistinct self, I'm unsure how to confront this anxiety. It should be a good thing to be looked at, but I can't let the approval of others surpass my own opinion of myself.
