Tagged: Wordpress RSS

  • Gaurav Mishra 5:43 pm on December 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Forum, , Software, Soul, Tata Teleservices, , vBulletin, Wordpress   

    Tata Indicom Uses Account Statements to Invite Customers to Participate in Its Blog and Forum 

    Welcome to Gauravonomics Blog! Subscribe to my feed now and you'll never miss a single post!

    I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that Tata Indicom is using its account statements to invite customers to participate in its blog and forum –

    Tata Teleservices Bill Blog Forum

    I have been presenting slides on how real employees (including old friend Nidhi) use the Tata Indicom corporate blog to have real conversations with their customers –

    Tata Indicom Blog Real Employees

    I tend to be very particular about building the right customer community platform using the right software (which, very often, is something like Lithium), and for a reason. The right platform enables and encourages the right behavior, opens up new degrees of freedom, both for community users and the administrators.

    However, the Tata Indicom example is a reminder for me that brands can do a lot of right things without using sophisticated software. Their blog is built on the free Wordpress blogging software and their forum is built on vBulletin, not a particularly sophisticated forum software. The forum user interface is unwieldy, the different pieces of software don’t speak to each other, and there’s only so much that Tata Indicom or their customers can do with it.

    However, even though Tata Indicom doesn’t have the right software to run a customer community, it sure has the right soul and, in the end, the right soul matters more than the right software.

    When we build online communities for our clients, we work hard to get both the software and the soul right. Ask us how.

    Cross-posted at 2020 Social: Because Business is Social.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 1:58 am on April 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Advocacy, , , , , , OneNews, , Theme, , Wordpress   

    Build Your Own Alltop For Advocacy With Wordpress and OneNews 

    indiatalks-vote-report-india-dashboard

    Background: I’m sure that many of you are familiar with Alltop. It creates destination pages for topics of interest by aggregating them on a dashboard that displays the five latest headlines from each feed. The items can be previewed by doing a rollover on the headlines and read by clicking on the headline. If you haven’t checked out Alltop yet, the Social Media, Social Entrepreneurship, Non-Profit, Good, and Human Rights pages might be a good place to start.

    For some advocacy projects, it might be useful to build an Alltop-like dashboard that aggregates relevant content related to the cause on one page. So far, I had thought that it wasn’t really possible, without some serious coding.

    Then, I built the Indian Election Dashboard for Vote Report India in two hours, and realized how simple it was.

    Tool: The trick was to discover the wonderful OneNews theme for Wordpress, which is especially designed to build Alltop clones.

    Using a special template, the theme converts a page into a collection of widgets, which can be arranged to form the dashboard. The widgets support text, photo, video and search feeds, and can also be used for entering PHP or HTML code, to add elements not built into the theme.

    The theme supports an unlimited number of dashboards on a single Wordpress install, as each page can be converted into a dashboard.

    So, apart from the Indian Election Dashboard I hacked together for Vote Report India, I also built a Indian Bloggers Dashboard for Global Voices (please note that Global Voices hasn’t yet endorsed the dashboard).

    The theme also supports blog posts, apart from pages/ dashboards. The blog posts have a RSS feed, like a normal blog, but aren’t displayed in the usual reverse chronological order on any single page.

    The theme is built on Wordpress, so almost all the features native to Wordpress, like support for multiple languages, should be available for the theme. Also, all the hacks that can be done on any Wordpress theme should also be possible here.

    Here is a hack that converts the Alltop-like dashboard view to a Techmeme-like river view, using the same OneNews theme.

    The OneNews theme is available for $49 for a single use license and $199 for a multiple use license. Based on my experience, it is a small investment worth making for an appropriate project.

    Application: While I won’t encourage you to make a dashboard just because you can, I can see many applications for such dashboards.

    The first application is to build a destination news micro-site for an important event. This is what I have done with the Indian Election Dashboard.

    Another application is to aggregate content for a community or a topic of interest. This is what I have done with the Indian Bloggers Dashboard.

    Yet another application will be to aggregate conversations around your advocacy project, to showcase the buzz and the impact on one page.

    I would caution, however, that such dashboards might not be very useful on a standalone basis. They would work best when used as part of a bigger project, to showcase everything else you are doing on the project.

    What other applications of this tool can you think of?

    Cross-posted at DigiActive and Global Voices Advocacy.

     

    • lilious 3:46 am on April 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      This OneNews theme looks great ! Alternatively for those who don’t have a wordpress blog and want to do something fast can use Netvibes to build such information dashboards easily: for example http://www.netvibes.com/lilious

    • Hemant Morajkar 7:50 am on April 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Gaurav,

      Great idea! Gives users an overview of Indian Elections 09. Have attempted something similar for Indian Real Estate sector using Blogger & RSS feeds. Not participatory, but aggregated content. Being a tech Newbie, was handicapped for finesse :)

      http://india-realestate-update.blogspot.com/

      Look forward to more conversations.

      Cheers

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:32 am on April 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: AllNews, , , , , , IndiaTalks.org, , , , , Wordpress   

    Introducing IndiaTalks.org: What is India Talking About? 

    IndiaTalks.org Logo

    A few months back, I had put up a test social voting site at IndiaTalks.org, using Drupal and Drigg. The idea was to use IndiaTalks.org to channelize the energy of India’s youth to find constructive solutions to India’s many problems. Users could vote or comment on ideas submitted by others or submit their own ideas. The most popular ideas were to be highlighted on the front page.

    I still think that a social voting site for social change is a great idea, and someone should have a serious go at it. However, I had a dozen things in the air, as always, and I didn’t find anyone who would run with the idea, so the project never went beyond the test site stage.

    IndiaTalks.org: Vote Report India Dashboard

    Today, I spent a few hours in the afternoon hacking together an Indian Election Dashboard for Vote Report India, and decided that I had finally figured out what to do with IndiaTalks.org.

    My hope is that IndiaTalks.org will become everyone’s default first stop to track news and opinion about important events happening in India.

    The Indian Election Dashboard ties in nicely with the writing and advocacy (Vote Report India) work I’m doing for the Lok Sabha elections.

    In the near future, you can expect more such dashboards for important events in India that need to be tracked compulsively (and, no, I don’t consider IPL an important event). The compulsive tracking will happen not only on the dashboard, but also on the many blogs I’m now writing at (see the sidebar for a selection).

    IndiaTalks.org is inspired by Popurls and Alltop and built entirely on Wordpress using the wonderful OneNews theme.

    BlogAdda, Dance With Shadows and OneVote.in also had the same (good) idea and beat me to the implementation, but I think there’s room for more than one such platform in India.

    I was telling someone yesterday that one way to ensure that your predictions come true is to do yourself what you predicted others would do. I’m really happy that I have been able to play a small part in making my prediction about the 2009 elections being India’s first digital election come true.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 6:15 pm on January 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Blogspot, , , , , LiveJournal, Search Trends, Wordpress   

    Search Trends for Blogging Platforms in India 

    Here’s some interesting data on search trends for blogging platforms in India using Google Insights for Search data for 2008.

    Apart from the three main blogging platforms Blogger/ Blogspot, Wordpress and LiveJournal, I have also looked at social networking sites Ibibo and BigAdda that are promoting themselves as blogging platforms.

    Search Trends for Social Networking Sites in India

    The data from 2004 to 2008 shows that the top three blogging platforms have shown consistent growth: Blogspot since 2004, Wordpress since 2005 and Ibibo since 2006, even as Both BigAdda and LiveJournal have failed to grow. So, Sampad’s assertion that blogging is on a decline in India isn’t really substantiated.

    Search Trends for Social Networking Sites in India

    In the last twelve months, Blogger and Wordpress have shown slow but consistent growth, LiveJournal has stayed stagnant, while the search traffic for Ibibo and BigAdda has fluctuated significantly, probably based on whether these platforms were running big ad campaigns at the time.

    In terms of relative search rankings, Blogspot is at #1, Ibibo and Wordpress are close together at #2 and #3, BigAdda is #4 and LiveJournal is a distant #5.

    This data is inconsistent with the Alexa traffic data for India which ranks Blogger/ Blogspot at #7, Wordpress at #16, Ibibo at #58, BigAdda at #274 and LiveJournal at #282.

    It seems that Wordpress/ Blogger users either don’t search for these websites (which is reasonable) or they are more likely to install the Alexa toolbar (which is also likely).

    Search Trends for Social Networking Sites in India

    In terms of statewise interest, Blogspot and Ibibo have penetrated almost the entire country, although interest for Blogspot is stronger in the more prosperous Western and Southern states. Wordpress is still to break through into the Hindi heartland of India. BigAdda has interest only in NCR, apart from the Western and Southern States. Interest in LiveJournal is limited to NCR and Maharashtra.

    Also see my analysis of search trends for group SMS and microblogging services and social networking sites in India using Google Insights for Search data.

     

    • Sampad Swain 11:52 pm on January 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      There is a vast difference between “Blogging” as search query and “Blogging platforms”. My results were generic one but your data shows some interesting insights in terms of the individual platforms being used. Hence, the difference of opinion I believe.

      —
      Sampad

    • Gaurav Mishra 2:11 pm on January 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Sampad: I was not trying to attack you, just adding more context to your analysis. In the end, both you and I are trying to figure out if blogging is becoming more or less popular in India. It seems from both traffic and search trends that it isn’t.

  • Gaurav Mishra 10:06 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Application, , CoComment, , Conversation Tracker, , , , , Fragmentation, , Life Streaming, Plaxo Pulse, Plugin, Spokeo, , Wordpress   

    Conversations Are Becoming Fragmented: The Case for a Killer Conversation Tracker Application 

    Quick Summary: As conversations become fragmented across social networks, there will be a huge business potential for a killer conversation tracker application that allows you to track and publish all the conversations around your content in one place, on your blog.

    - X – X – X –

    Over the last few months, I have noticed a new pattern emerge in how I engage in conversations:-

    Step 1: I often use Twitter to pre-test a post idea. I typically tweet the topic I’m planning to write a post on and often get twenty plus reactions and suggested links. This enables me to include multiple perspectives in the post.

    Step 2: Whenever I’m writing an involved post, I try to capture the essence of the topic in a graph and post it on Flickr. Typically, five to ten people comment on the graphs on Flickr and Twitter, which further helps me pre-test my post idea.

    Step 3: Finally, using the tweets and the graph as a starting point, I write a post on my blog. Most of my posts get five to ten comments on the blog itself.

    Step 4: I find that most of the conversation around my posts have moved to Twitter, with some posts resulting in twenty plus responses. Sometimes, people comment on the post, then tweet about it. Sometimes, people don’t comment on the post and directly shift the conversation to Twitter.

    Step 5: I also import some of my posts as notes in Facebook. Apart from the comments on my blog, some of my posts get five to ten comments on Facebook.fa

    Step 6: Some of these conversations then move to e-mail and IM. Typically, these are conversations about collaborative projects based on the post.

    Step 7: Finally, some of these online conversations move offline, onto telephone calls, events and one-to-one meetings.

    This is great because having these multiple conversations allows my idea-memes to spread faster and wider than it would have been possible only with the blog post (tweet).

    However, the flip side is that conversations are increasingly becoming fragmented (tweet). Very often, if one of my blog posts gets fifty plus reactions, only ten odd of them are on my blog (tweet). This means that in spite of my repeating myself across social networks, people who are participating in the conversation get to see only part of the entire picture. I sometimes try to capture these conversations in a follow-up post, but that isn’t always possible.

    Conversations Are Becoming Fragmented

    While life-streaming services like Spokeo, Plaxo Pulse and FriendFeed claim to solve such fragmentation, they, in fact, add to the fragmentation by becoming another place where conversations happen.

    In spite of my very active presence on multiple social networks, I still look at my blog as my online home. What I really want back is the ability to host these conversations on my blog. I’m sure there are others who want the same and I think that there’s a huge business potential for a killer application that allows you to track and publish all the conversations around your content in one place, on your blog (tweet).

    This is what the killer conversation tracker application will need to do —

    Step 1: Aggregate and track my web presence — including blog(s), microblog(s), photo site(s), video site(s), music site(s), book site(s), movie site(s), event site(s), travel site(s), shopping site(s), social sharing site(s), social bookmarking site(s), social voting site(s), personal social network(s), professional social network(s) and e-mail(s) — in one place. This is what most life-streaming services do as of now. Please note that the focus is on tracking my web presence, not my contacts’.

    Step 2: Aggregate and track conversations around the content created by me — comments/ linkbacks/ bookmarks/ votes/ reviews/ mentions related to my posts/ photos/ videos — in one place. Please note that the focus is on my content, not on my relationships.

    Step 3: Enable me to automatically (or manually) tag or attach these conversations to my blog posts, then publish them on my blog, as part of the post. I’m visualizing a tabbed system that displays: 7 comments, 13 votes on Digg, 12 saves on del.icio.us, 7 reviews on StumbleUpon, 6 trackbacks, 5 comments on Flickr, 4 comments on Facebook, 37 tweets on Twitter, total 91 conversations. This will probably be best implemented by a Wordpress plugin.

    Basically, if the analogy helps, the conversation tracker application I’m talking about will be the opposite of CoComment: instead of tracking all your comments on content created by others in one place, you’ll track and publish all the conversations around your content in one place, on your blog.

    What do you think? As conversations become more fragmented across social networks, what would you (not) give to get this killer conversation tracker application?

     

    • Rajiv 11:02 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Nice way of researching a blog post. Very thorough.

      On the topic of aggregation, yeah, this is a problem which several startups are trying to solve. With the oncoming semantic web, maybe this goal can be realized fully.

    • Mayank Dhingra 11:03 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Great post Gaurav..
      Did you realize you almost wrote a B-plan
      I too feel the need for such an app but now since
      u’ve mentioned I’ll just as well considering making it :)

    • Gaurav 11:14 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Rajiv: Actually, I’m not sure if any startups are trying to solve this problem. Most life-streaming services, for instance, are focused on relationships, not content. I think that the right way to track conversations is to focus on content.

      @Mayank: I work on the principle that “an idea in a bank account” > “an idea in execution” > “an idea in public” > “an idea in my head”. If I can’t execute an idea myself, the next best thing to do is to share it. :-)

    • Rajesh 11:38 pm on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Nice.

      Over a period in time, it would be interesting to also see how many of these ‘exposures’ are duplications and how many are unique. What has your calculation been? Multiple channels, new people? Or, multiple channels but same people (maybe commenting at one or other place that’s most convenient for them to comment upon.

      Cheers.

      R

    • Gaurav 12:01 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Rajesh: For me, it’s a mix of all three situations –

      - Some people, like you, comment on the post itself, on Twitter, or on Facebook, based on what’s convenient, or immediate.

      - Since the number of people who follow me on Twitter is higher than the number of people who read my blog, there are some people who wouldn’t even have seen my post, if it wasn’t on Twitter.

      - Some people, who aren’t into blogs or Twitter, just comment on my imported notes on Facebook.

      So, I would say that about 15 out of 50 conversations are duplicated, but the others are unique.

    • Shweta Gupta 7:52 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Excellent post . There is definitely a need to solve this problem however as more and more apps like spokeo and friendfeed came up, app like friendfeedfeed was needed. It might become a vicious circle again in this case

    • Gaurav Mishra Jr 8:12 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Theroatically it`s all possible and viable (technologically) and it sounds great too at first go, But i feel at the end of day the comments and conversation we have on these different places are just extension to your ideas which help you strengthen or build idea to a different level.

    • Gaurav 8:36 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Shweta: The problem with FriendFeed is that it wants to become a destination. With the ability to search and comment “on” FriendFeed, it just might, and I’m happy for them.

      @Gaurav: Ah! We’ll have a fun time sorting out our names. :-)

      My point is that social networks are like pubs or coffee shops, but my blog is my online home. While I would like to “participate” in conversations elsewhere, I would like to “host” as many conversations as possible on my blog.

      Think about it, don’t you want to do that too?

    • Blue 9:32 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      See, that’s why when I realized Twitter was starting to become popular, I thought “aw, sh*t… another thing to monitor and check… and this one updates so d*mn frequently… do I have to participate if I want to stay on top of the social curve?”

      So yes. Bring it.

    • garima 11:57 am on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      nice post… i had come across a post sometime ago which spoke about similar stuff not this detailed though. it said “the “current craze” for social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace would eventually be superseded by networks that connected all types of things — not just people ” (see this:http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3532832.ece)

    • karthi 1:14 pm on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Why is the conversation fractured in the first place?

      Why not have medium which is ubiquitous and then we can make sense of flow of information in the that medium. I may be dumb here, but I sincerely think that medium needs to fixed and patched by a way of new aggregations.

    • Gaurav 6:47 pm on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Karthi/ @Blue: Conversations are fragmented because conversations happen where people are, & people are split across social networks. Conversations will happen with or without us. We can only choose to participate or not participate. I choose to participate wherever I can.

      @Garima: Yes, I agree. Linking up people is only part of the problem. The puzzle is completed only when we link up content, conversations, relationships, transactions and location together. The semantic web is supposed to make it possible, but I’m sure that we aren’t anywhere near yet.

    • Harish B 8:09 pm on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Gaurav

      Thanks for selecting my blog as the blog of the day

      cheers

    • Danesh 10:29 pm on March 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I use Tumblr as a blog and for aggregation. It does provide some decent features and aggregates my tweets and Flickr photos. As for e-mail, Gmail provides an RSS feed – maybe use that to aggregate mails?

    • Andrea Vascellari 12:40 pm on April 7, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Guarav!

      Here’s how I aggregate and track Twitter conversation to my blog

      http://www.andreavascellari.com/blog/?p=385

      Hope you’ll find it helpful!

      Andrea

    • Gaurav Mishra 12:28 pm on April 9, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Andrea: How is it different from taking the RSS feed of your vanity search on Tweetscan?

  • Gaurav Mishra 8:04 am on January 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Group-Microblog, Microblog, , Microrati, , Personal-Microblog, Prologue, , , , , Wordpress, Wordpress-Prologue   

    Updated: Why Use Twitter When You Can Make Your Own Microblogging Network With Wordpress Prologue? 

    Quick Summary: The Wordpress Prologue theme from Automattic may be the first step towards an open-source distributed micro-blogging platform.

    -X-X-X-

    Wordpress creator Automattic has launched a new theme called Prologue which can be used to create private Twitter-like micro-blogging platforms.

    Basically, the Prologue theme uses the Wordpress content management system to mimic the Twitter interface. Here are three reasons why I like Prologue –

    (+) The “whatcha up to?” post form integrated into the front page is nifty for posting short tweet-sized messages. It would be useful, however, to have a “title” field apart from “post” and “tags”.

    (+) The theme is built to be used by multiple authors (see demo blog) and author-wise RSS feeds are useful for linking each author’s posts to their Twitter accounts, via TwitterFeed.

    (+) The summary view on the front page, expandable by clicking on authors or tags, is a neat touch. The front page now shows a stream of recent updates instead of one update per user.

    I have already started a basic Prologue personal microblog. The plan is to exclusively post updates at my Prologue microblog and update my Twitter account via TwitterFeed. Once I integrate the “@gauravonomics” Twitter search feed in the sidebar, I’ll won’t even need to visit Twitter anymore. I really like how is possible to track all your Twitter activity on the Prologue sidebar using RSS feeds from Twitter. I have integrated RSS feeds for @gauravonomics replies on Twitter, people I’m following on Twitter and search feeds for “social media” and “Mumbai/ Bombay” and I’m thinking of even more interesting ways to design the sidebar. This personal microblog application of Prologue will work for people who primarily tweet from the web and use Twitter more for posting and replying to @username messages than for reading other people’s tweets.

    The other useful application of Prologue is as a private password-protected microblogging network inside an enterprise.

    As a completely virtual company with no two people in the same place every day, we often have trouble keeping up with each other, so we’re going to be using a password-protected Prologue that only Automattic employees can access as one of our methods of communication, much like some other companies use Basecamp. — Matt Mullenweg

    You’re a group of 8 people working on something that’s going to change the world, and you’re always looking for new collaborative things that are going to make your team more productive and keep them together. You have Basecamp, where you post long company memos and ideas. You have e-mail which you use to get stuff done and keep in tap with each other for the important, must-document things. You have IM to keep in constant ping. And last but not the least, you have Facebook. Will you have a use for something like Prologue? It depends, but I can’t see why you wouldn’t not want to give it a try. — Sid Yadav

    The biggest value of Prologue, however, lies in hacking it to build a customized, self-hosted group microblog for 10 to 20 users focused on a narrow topic, let’s say social media in India. While Mark Hopkins makes a valid point in his review –

    I can’t help but wonder if this is a re-invention of the wheel. Twitter already has a number of ways to access public tweets, either by the API or the RSS feeds. It wouldn’t take much to make an overlay management system that would aggregate the tweets of a group and publish them to the web. — Mark Hopkins at Mashable!

    – Prologue makes it easy to create such a group microblog.

    The big question, of course, is whether Prologue is a Twitter-killer –

    Some folks have suggested that using WordPress, Prologue, and RSS you could create a pretty effective distributed version of Twitter. This isn’t something we’re personally interested in, but we’ve made the theme available as open source under the GPL so if you want to hack around it yourself you’re welcome to. Matt Mullenweg

    While it’s pretty clear that the WordPress team isn’t going to take the lead in driving towards this direction – as Automattic chief executive Toni Schneider tells us “we really like Twitter. We’re not trying to compete with those guys” – it is certainly possible that Prologue or micro status updates in general could become a central part of blogging and other collaborative writing tools. Could Wordpress be used as an open platform, like Twitter? Schneider says theoretically, yes. All you do is is create a registration page, and you can let outsiders sign up on your blog, and it could become a universal Twitter-like service. — MG Siegler

    While I see Prologue’s possibilities, I agree with Duncan Riley that Prologue is not (yet) a Twitter-killer –

    Prologue may provide some open access, but its distributed nature will mean that ultimately it will be a niche product; possibly a good niche product, but it’s not going to knock the Twitter bird off its perch any time soon. — Duncan Riley at TechCrunch

    – because of three fundamental limitations –

    (-) It is not built to support postings and notifications for IM, SMS and WAP.

    (-) It doesn’t tap into the community aspect of micro-blogging.

    (-) It doesn’t have a rich eco-system of API-based tools.

    But Prologue is only the first step towards a distributed microblogging platform and all these limitations may be fixed soon.

    Mathew Ingram asks a very important question –

    It doesn’t benefit from the same kind of network effects as Twitter does, of course, because it’s restricted to a group of people who all use the same blog. But what if there was a way to tie those types of posts together with others from other Twitter-style blogs? — Mathew Ingram

    The next step is a Technorati-like aggregator for micro-blogs — Microrati, anyone?

    -X-X-X-

    Update: February 1, 2008

    Based on feedback received on Prologue, Automattic has already released an updated version of Prologue.

    Here are some other interesting perspectives on Prologue — Tris Hussey, Andy Beal, Joseph Scott, Allen Stern, Chris Brogan, Jesse Stay, Dennis Howlett and Brij Singh.

    Here are the first set of Prologue powered microblogs — Gauravonomics, Bentrem, Greywulf, David Petherick, Mike Waters, Joseph Scott, Bwana, YouthTwitter.

    Do drop in a link in the comments below, if you have started an interesting Wordpress Prologue powered microblog.

     

    • Moksh Juneja 4:07 pm on January 31, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      probably they read about your blog and initiated the India Short Code 5566511 – http://blog.twitter.com

    • Bwana 7:27 am on February 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I’ve started a prologue blog over at http://gabbr.bwana.org to serve as a forum for my show listeners and general announcements.

    • Vicki 7:32 am on February 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Interesting idea… and I might be willing to use it. But I can’t figure out how to install it.

      I admit to being a very casual Wordpress user, but I downloaded and installed my current theme pretty easily. THis looks.. complicated.

    • Jesse Stay 12:09 pm on February 2, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the mention! I don’t think it will be a Twitter killer, but I do think you’ll see more people gravitate to other sites that implement prologue. Twitter still brings a more general conversation that a single blog can’t bring.

    • Eamon 4:36 am on February 11, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I had never heard of this. As a Wordpress user, I appreciate hearing this.

      This is a great blog. Would you be interested in exchanging links?

    • Gaurav 12:44 pm on February 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Moksh: You totally flatter me, my friend! :D

      @Bwana: Very interesting application of Wordpress Prologue. I have added it to my list.

      @Vicki: Try playing around with Prologue on Wordpress.com first if the Wordpress.org version looks to complicated to you.

      @Jesse: Of course, Prologue is not going to be a Twitter killer itself, but it will work as proof of concept for a distributed micro-blogging network.

      @Eamon: Thanks, but no thanks, my friend.

    • Jen, writer MembershipMillionaire.com 3:40 pm on February 15, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Yes, it is quite similar to twitter but I wonder if this application is only limited to Wordpress bloggers. I’m not a real fan of knowing what other people are doing nor of the other way around. But I’ve heard a lot about twitter. This one here is a new one though…

    • scott 5:15 pm on December 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      You may want to check out Yonkly. It’s the first niche microblog to integrate with Twitter.

      http://yonkly.com

    • greek 4:01 am on January 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      thanks for the info. the biggest problem so far on making a twitter like page, is the fact that many star plugins dont work on 2.7.. (login, customizing etc) and the prologue theme, itself is not enough!

  • Gaurav Mishra 8:02 am on April 3, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , Duplication, , , Technorati-Ranking, Wordpress   

    Installing Wordpress on the Root Directory 

    Not moving to my own domain at the right time is not the only blogging mistake I made. When I did move to my own domain, I made the mistake of installing Wordpress in the gauravonomics.com/blog directory instead of the root directory.

    This is a bad idea because it means that my homepage is duplicated at gauravonomics.com and gauravonomics.com/blog. Search engines and Technorati consider these two as separate blogs and therefore my Google Pagerank and Technorati ranking are adversely affected.

    Daniel from Daily Blog Tips had made the same mistake when he set up his blog, but corrected it within a few months.

    Taking Daniel’s lead, I decided to move Wordpress to the root directory last night. However, something went wrong and my blog was down for most of the night. I tried everything Ajay and I could think of, but it just didn’t work! I haven’t had a more frustrating night ever! In the end, in the wee hours of the morning, I decided to abandon the operation and revert to my backups.

    The silver lining? I recovered everything on my own and that’s a big thing for the novice blogger that I am. Also, it seems that I have only lost the few comments that were made after I backup up my database and everything else is working as before. A big thanks to everybody who e-mailed me to tell me that my blog was displaying errors. If you see that something is still broken, do let me know.

    So, does it mean that I’ll stay with gauravonomics.com/blog? Well, now that the bug is in my head, I’ll not be satisfied until I have either moved Wordpress to the root directory or done something else with the root directory itself. Any ideas?

    Another blogging mistake you must not make – write a guest post for a much more popular blogger, get linked on DesiPundit and participate in a collaborative blogging project on the same day and then take your blog down the very same day by trying to do something over-ambitious on the back-end. :-)

     

    • Ajay 4:28 pm on April 6, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      TVIMH is more popular than your blog?

    • Gauravonomics 4:46 pm on April 6, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      @Ajay: Of course, it is. Just look at the number of comments on each of Mel’s posts. :-)

    • Shripriya 1:55 am on April 7, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Sorry, I don’t understand the issue of having it at /blog. You are redirecting anyone who comes to .com to /blog. Why should technorati even think that the .com domain is the blog? Just claim the /blog domain and you are all set. That’s what I did and I don’t think anything is messed up…

      Am I missing something?

    • Gauravonomics 1:32 am on April 8, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      @Shripriya: OK, here’s an illustration of how yourdomain.com/blog messes things up. First see this, then see this. There are back-links in both the lists that aren’t included in the other. Got it? :-)

    • Shripriya 10:41 pm on April 8, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Did you claim both urls as your blog? I don’t have the same problem at all since I never claimed .com as a blog.
      http://technorati.com/search/shripriya.com/blog
      http://technorati.com/search/shripriya.com

      There is a one link difference b/c the /blog is recognized as a blog and updates more slowly.

      You will solve the problem if you “release” .com as a blog.

  • Gaurav Mishra 10:53 am on April 1, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Domain-Hosting, Domain-Registration, , , Wordpress   

    Move to Your Own Domain Now 

    I started blogging at gauravonomics.blogspot.com and found my voice at gauravonomics.wordpress.com. However, when I moved to my own domain at gauravonomics.com, I realized that I had stayed at gauravonomics.wordpress.com for too long.

    But, first, why should you move to your own yourblog.com domain anyway?

    – Because you can do much more with your blog in terms of aesthetic, functionality and monetization.
    – Because your blog is perceived as more professional and authoritative by both readers and search engines.
    – Because it costs little in terms of time and money, so why not?

    What happens when you move your Blogger or Wordpress blog to your own domain?

    – You lose your pagerank and have to build it all over again. Even after three months, gauravonomics.com is still to get a pagerank while gauravonomics.wordpress.com has a pagerank of 5. Even Amit Varma – widely accepted as India’s best known non-techie blogger – made the same mistake and indiauncut.com has a pagerank of 3 while indiauncut.blogspot.com has a pagerank of 6.

    – You lose your feed subscribers, who may or may not transition to your new feed. One way to avoid this is to route your feed via Feedburner, which ensures that you retain your feed subscribers even if you change the source feed. While I did use Feedburner on my old blog, I hadn’t replaced my default feed with it. As a result, I had less than ten feed subscribers when I moved to my own domain. I have more than hundred feed subscribers now, but it hasn’t been easy. After you have moved to your own domain, you can use your Feedburner feed as your default feed by using the Feedburder Feed Replacement or Antileech (lets you use multiple Feedburner feeds, by category, for instance) plug-ins, but I’m not sure if it’s possible to do it on a Blogger or Wordpress blog.

    – You may lose a part of your content. When I moved to my own domain, I realized that my pages had become posts, my internal trackback links were pointing to gauravonomics.wordpress.com, and my images were still referencing their gauravonomics.wordpress.com URLs. I did not delete my posts on my old blog for three months because of this, further adding to my pagerank woes because of duplicate content. I have finally fixed the internal trackback issues (using the Search and Replace and Permalink Migration plug-ins), and deleted the posts on my old blog but I’ll probably have to fix the images manually. One way to avoid this issue is to upload all your images on Flickr and always reference your images to Flickr.

    So, if you are still blogging at a Blogger or Wordpress blog, go to GoDaddy and register your own domain now.

    If you are a new blogger, I suggest that you start with a Blogger or Wordpress blog, because of the ease of use, but register your domain anyway. Give yourself three months to familiarize yourself with blogging and then move to your own domain.

    If you prefer Blogger, I suggest that you consider their custom domain name service that lets you combine the perks of your own domain name with the ease of a blog hosted by them.

    If you prefer Wordpress (which I strongly recommend), you’ll have to find a hosting service, but your transition will be easier because Wordpress is now the default platform for building a blog on your own domain name.

    To summarize:

    – Start with http://www.yourblog.wordpress.com to familiarize yourself with blogging, but move to http://www.yourblog.com within three months, to avoid building your pagerank all over again.
    – Use Feedburner to avoid losing subscribers once you move.
    – Upload your images to Flickr, to avoid losing them when you move.

     

    • Sanju 9:53 am on April 2, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the tips, when I do grow as a regular blogger would look at an upgrade. Do visit my blog and let me know which are the areas i need to work on…would appriciate it. ;)

      Sanju

    • Gauravonomics 4:00 pm on April 2, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      @Sanju: I checked out your blog and there’s some good stuff on it. Can’t think of any suggestions now, but I’ll let you know if I have any. :-)

    • Shripriya 6:43 pm on April 2, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      I couldn’t agree with you more. I blogged from 2004 to 2006 on a blogspot blog, but that was because I wanted to keep the blog private and unlisted and blogspot allowed me to do that.

      But once I decided to blog publicly in 2006, I started to use my own domain. It is really fabulous. One of my friends, Fred Wilson mentioned that this was his big blogging regret – he’s stuck on TypePad and can’t move (but he’s also in the Technorati top 200 or 1000 or something like that).

    • Deepak Jeswal 1:03 pm on April 18, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      You bet! I sorely wish I hadnt wasted time on a stupid service like Rediff blogs for two years. Some of my most popular and best posts are languishing there.

      But better late than never. Ever since I shifted to my own space, I know how terrific it is to be in your own home!

      Regards Deepak Jeswal
      http://www.deepakjeswal.com

    • Gauravonomics 3:59 pm on April 18, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      @Deepak: Welcome to the other side. Have added your blog to my feedreader and my Technorati Favorites.

    • domain 9:42 am on June 8, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      very good tips

    • Grosshandel 5:06 pm on September 28, 2007 Permalink | Reply

      Großhändler

      a very nice Blog.

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    • mediadesign352 12:19 pm on October 25, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Nice post I just get this domain name (http://citypges.com/) with page rank 5, check this site after one month and you will see what pr it’s gonna be.

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:07 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Family, Hottest-Blogs, Kabhi-Khushi-Kabhi-Gham, , Patna, , , , Wordpress   

    Too Good to be True 

    After a year when less was more, because that’s all there was, I almost have a problem of plenty (here, here and here).

    And, almost to remind me of the hold she still has on me, she entered my dreams early in the morning:

    We sit together on my parents’ bed –

    You, my mother and I –

    At their house at Patna

    And watch ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ on TV.

    Their white Pomeranian bitch sits in your lap

    And licks your hand. Dream four.

    Also, apropos of nothing, my blog has been on the Wordpress Most Popular Blogs list for the last few days, and climbing.

    I understand, of course, that both these situations are too good to be true, that they are tests of some sort, tests of my sanity, that I’ll open my eyes tomorrow morning and realise that it didn’t really happen.

     

    • Maya 5:34 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      So which of the situtations pleases you more?
      And am I being added to the problem of plenty?
      Why does she still have a hold over you? Does it mean you can never be with another?

    • Gaurav Mishra 6:07 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: You ask too many questions!!! :-)

      - So which of the situtations pleases you more?

      Both, in their own ways, and neither, really. The ideal situation is to love one person who loves you back, isn’t it?

      - And am I being added to the problem of plenty?

      What do you think?

      - Why does she still have a hold over you? Does it mean you can never be with another?

      I have been with others, even loved them, but not in the “I love you so much, I want to kill both of us” way.

    • Maya 7:42 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      If my questions irritate you, then don’t answer them.

      “I love you so much, I want to kill both of us”… That’s obssession.

      I have come to believe that the love glorified by movies, by books ,which put a premium on the pain, is not really love.
      For a long time, I believed that the love I feel for someone is proportional to pain it causes me. Almost doubted my love if I was ‘content’.

      I have now experienced healthier love.

    • Maya 7:45 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Let me re-phrase
      “I have come to believe that the love glorified by movies, by books ,which put a premium on the pain, is not the only kind of love”.

    • Gaurav Mishra 8:26 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: As I said before:

      Passion or contentment? I alternate between wanting one and wanting the other. anyway, you can’t really choose either, have control over either. You can only be open and let either choose you.

      And, to add to what I said before, it was also the type of love that brings out the best and the worst in you. The bad parts

      I love you so much, I want to kill both of us

      are long gone, but the good parts have become a part of me.

      And to answer the question that I evaded earlier: she still has a hold on me because she made me want to be a better man.

      And I’m happy for you that you have found what you wanted. :-)

    • Gaurav Mishra 8:54 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: But, if you have found what you wanted, why this?

      I don’t cry as much as I used to and want to.

    • Maya 9:21 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I have things to say. But unfortunately work calls right now.

      Till later..

    • Gaurav Mishra 9:25 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: I’ll be waiting. And so will be others. This comment-conversation seems to be quite a hit with people who read my blog! :-)

    • Maya 10:33 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      There’s an exhibitionist in you and in me…

    • Gaurav Mishra 10:46 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: Which means you are free now? :-)

    • Maya 10:59 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      No. But couldn’t resist the comment.

      I am assuming when you say “free”, you refer to my work, not my status in life. :-)

    • Gaurav Mishra 11:14 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: You have already broken my heart :-) by saying:

      For a long time, I believed that the love I feel for someone is proportional to pain it causes me. I have now experienced healthier love.

      So, I must assume you are not free in life? No?

    • Maya 11:42 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Free then is a state of mind. No relationship should ever make you say or feel that you aren’t free..

    • Duhita 11:54 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @qsg – still sleeping??? arey, get here real quick, you are missing out on the fun taking place here:) I’ve got pop-corn waiting…..

      @gaurav – aaahhhh and she returns!!! Drats, techonlogy is too advanced that you can even figure out how many ppl are checking the comments space out periodically huh?!:) hmmm……

    • Gaurav Mishra 11:58 am on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Duhita: I said she will be back, didn’t I? :-)

    • Gaurav Mishra 12:03 pm on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: Yes, I agree:

      Free then is a state of mind. No relationship should ever make you say or feel that you aren’t free.

      But what if you aren’t even in a relationship, not really anyway, but feel that you aren’t free to have another? Has that ever happened to you?

    • Maya 1:18 pm on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Such confidence! – “I said she will be back, didn’t I?”

      “Has that ever happened to you? ” – All the time. See, whether you can be in another relationship or not is not really dependent on whether you are currently in a relationship. If that was true, then no one would ever break up with one person to be with another and life would be a happier and more boring place.

      Whether you can be in another relationship depends on how engaged your emotions currently are. Are there any “free” emotions to share?

    • Gaurav Mishra 9:12 pm on September 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: So, what do you recommend Maya? I have been in love with her for five years now. I think she was in love with me for six months but not beyond that. I can see that she doesn’t want to let go anymore than I want to. Given that, do I wait for her to realize that she has been in love with me all along? Or do I move on and hope that I will fall in love, find love, elsewhere, eventually?

    • qsg 2:00 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @Duhita: Something is definitely brewing here! I have my fingers and toes crossed…! :) )

    • Gaurav Mishra 3:12 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      That last comment (#18), BTW, was written late at night, after a boring dinner meeting and half a bottle of scotch. In other circumstances, I would have preferred a witticism on

      Such confidence! – “I said she will be back, didn’t I?”

      but what’s written is now written.

      @ Maya: You are allowed to ignore so-serious-that-they-are-silly questions like that. Flirting with you is far too much fun to scare you away with them. ;-)

    • Gaurav Mishra 3:18 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ qsg/ Duhita/ Others: Much thanks for being such a wonderful audience. To show my appreciation, and to add a further twist to this comment-conversation, let me ask you this:

      What do you think is happening here?

    • Maya 4:32 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Gaurav, if she hasn’t figured out in 5 years if she loves you, chances are she doesn’t. Because “love” exists only in its realisation.

      But what do you mean by “I can see that she doesn’t want to let go anymore than I want to.” Is she trying to hold on to you?

      Gaurav, the more important question is – why have you let her have a hold on you? For five year, why haven’t you allowed yourself to move on?

    • Maya 4:35 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Too many questions. It’s not intrusion, but curiosity.

    • Gaurav Mishra 5:43 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: Ignore comment #18 (see #20).

      I know she doesn’t love me and I know I need to move on. I have known it for years now. I have moved on, too, in my own way. (Didn’t you say that I had an exciting life? :-) ) But, I’ll always love her and think of her often and fondly, and she’ll always make me want to be a better man than I am, and she will always have a hold on me because of that.

      BTW, I think I am beginning to like your questions. In fact, I think we should copyright the comment-shrink concept and retire to the Bahamas and live happily ever after on the royalties. :-)

    • Maya 5:50 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I hate ignoring comments which are written in a drunken haze.

      Sometimes, I wonder how my life would have been different if I didn’t drink. There is so much that has happened, so many people I have met, so many things I have done, from which it is difficult to seperate the alcohol.

      Btw, if the hold she has on you makes you want to be better, then it’s all good. Then you have experienced a form of “healthy” love. :-)

      The Bahama idea sounds interesting. Though retiring as a concept doesn’t appeal. Shouldn’t life you lead be exactly what you want it to be and hence you never really want to retire from it?

    • Gaurav Mishra 5:53 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Audience Question: Do you think that comment-flirting with mysterious women named Maya is a nice way to move on?

    • Gaurav Mishra 6:00 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: We want funny drunken Maya anecdotes now:

      Sometimes, I wonder how my life would have been different if I didn’t drink.

      Apropos Bahamas, I’m sure that if we put our heads together, we can come up with ways to not retire there. How about opening a Sixties style bar on the beach? :-)

    • Dia 6:13 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Flirting with mysterious women is definitely one way to move on.

    • Dia 6:14 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      And the Sixties style bar on the beach sounds fun. :-)

    • Maya 6:20 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Flirting is not a way to move on. It’s a way to distract yourself.

      And no past drunken anecdotes. Of course, we could create some together someday..

    • Gaurav Mishra 6:43 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Dia: Thank you for the encouragement. :-)

      @ Maya: Distracting yourself is all that’s in your hands, the rest of it can only happen to you, if you let it.

      And although the possibility of shared drunken anecdotes in an unspecified future is more than a little exciting, our voyeuristic sensibilities really insist that you share a drunken Maya anecdote with us now. :-)

    • Maya 7:52 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Exactly. That’s why was asking what’s stopping you from “letting it”.

      Druken Maya anecdotes will have to wait. They are not so much funny, as sometimes tragic, sometimes porfound, sometimes silly.

      But you can share some of yours. I am assuming you drink. We will need to stop this comment-flirtation if you dont! (See that is one way to fail!)

    • Gaurav Mishra 8:26 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: OK, here’s one, but only on a I’ll show you mine if you show me yours basis :-) :

      When I was seeing her, the watertank in our institute was our favorite place to hang out. In fact, we kissed for the first time sitting on top of the watertank. One Friday night, there was a party at the institute, we were both drunk and we had a fight while we were at the watertank. As she started walking down the staircase, I shouted to her, like Dharmendra in Sholay:

      I love you! Don’t leave!

      I was loud enough to be heard above the music at the party and very soon, we had chowkidaars and friends coming to the watertank to check us out. Eventually, a friend convinced me to come down and, everybody went back to the party. As you can imagine, she was embarassed beyond description, and so was I next morning.

      But enough about her now; it’s time for your drunken anecdote now. Come on, be a sport! :-)

    • Duhita 8:38 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      //What do you think is happening here?

      Lots of flirting for sure with Ms Illusion or then again, someone who’s chosen to listen to you and decided to provide her perspective on things. But wait, what do you think is happening here???

      I think you should see where this distraction leads to, rather than always wonder, right?!:)

    • Maya 8:40 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I can see how she brings out the best in you :-)

      I would love to share funny drunken anecdotes with you, but truly there aren’t any. To be a sport, I could create one, but that would be lie. And we know how much you want ” truth and nothing but the truth”.

      But I had a question for you (yet again!). Actually it’s your own question – “What do you think is happening here?”.

      The thrill of analysing a situation while you are in it is quite something. And the thrill of doing it with the person involved himself is really something. When you analyse a situation in the past it gets coloured with your “then present” and loses some of its essence.

      Kundera said – We remember suprisingly few moments of our lives. Most of our memory is an extrapolation of those few memories. I tend to agree with him.

    • Gaurav Mishra 8:57 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Duhita: Maya and I are playing hide and seek, that’s what’s happening here. :-)

      @ Maya: No Maya? I like hide and seek; it’s an underrated game, don’t you think? :-)

    • Maya 9:03 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      And how are we playing hide and seek Gaurav. Who is hiding, who is seeking and what?

      Though I agree, it is an underrated game. It has potential to excite, which is often not understood.

    • Gaurav Mishra 9:11 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: That’s the thing about hide and seek:

      it has potential to excite

      especially when you don’t quite know who is hiding and who is seeking.

      Also, as I was discussing with her, hide and seek is exciting only if you are eventually found.

    • Gaurav Mishra 9:40 am on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: Also, you couldn’t resist the potshot, could you? :-)

      I can see how she brings out the best in you

    • Maya 12:12 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      So now I was hiding! (Actually finishing off some work!). How many times did you press the refresh button? :-)

      Talking about buttons, my favourite button is ctrl + z. Two keys which can undo all recent wrongs. If only that could be extended to our words, our actions.

    • Gaurav Mishra 2:05 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya:

      How many times did you press the refresh button?

      ROTFL! A few times, but then, I was actually finishing some work myself.

      Talking about buttons, my favourite button is ctrl + z. Two keys which can undo all recent wrongs. If only that could be extended to our words, our actions.

      That’s worthy of an entry in the fantasy gadget list, except that once you press ctrl + s, even ctrl + z doesn’t work anymore. :-)

    • Maya 2:19 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      ..and here I was feeling so ignored..Already, you impact my mood..

      What is ROTFL?

    • Gaurav Mishra 2:32 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: LOL & ROTFL! That means ‘laughing out loud’ and ‘rolling on the floor laughing’. These are terms only bloggers seem to use. I am a late starter wrt blogging, like I am a late starter wrt everything else, so I’m learning myself.

    • IdeaSmith 3:27 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      There’s also BRB (be right back), FYI (for your information), IMHO (In my humble/honoured opinion). And then there’s GB…any guesses what that could mean?

    • Maya 4:35 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      A late starter because of inertia, ignorance or insecurities?

      I, on the other hand, want to be and usually am an early starter. Mainly because of my insecurities. To me being different, standing out, doing something new is almost a way of giving purpose to my life.

    • Maya 4:41 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Gaurav, why don’t you post your favourite picture of yourself…

    • Gaurav Mishra 5:56 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Maya: You ask difficult question, Maya:

      A late starter because of inertia, ignorance or insecurities?

      All three, I tell myself, when I’m being uncharitable to myself. Otherwise, I allow myself to explain it away as an absence of opportunity.

      This is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken on a rafting trip to Haridwar, two years back, and I have been told that I look a little like Abhishek Bachchan in it. :-)

    • Gaurav Mishra 7:02 pm on September 6, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ Ideasmith: In my humble opinion, IMHO is quite cool! :-) What is GB?

      And I don’t know why Akismet is classifying your comments as spam! I just gave it a spanking! I think it will behave in future. :-)

    • qsg 3:17 am on September 7, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      No idea what is going on here – but it is fun – lots of fun!

      Hopefully, you will move on. We all do! Flirting might not be a bad way to move on… I know it is only a distraction, but you almost have to distract yourself before you can think of something else! It’s all good.

      Best of luck! :)

    • Gaurav Mishra 4:18 am on September 7, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      @ qsg: I agree, flirting is always fun, and watching people flirt even more so. :-)

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