So, while figuring out if I was ever going to post anything here again, I wondered if I was gonna push into the uncharted world of not throwing links at everybody on Earth. This would be the biggest change in my life, as I've been pushing links since 1996, in one place or another, and it would be the first time in the MacStansbury era. The post-drought lasted all of a week, but I've wanted to try something for weeks. Back in October, I started playing around with Ma.gnolia. It's like del.icio.us, only with more of a social feel to it. While you can join sombody's del.icio.us network, the biggest difference is the groups and discussions, where (stunningly) you can join groups and start discussions. While I like the concept of communicating with groups, that's not the only reason I moved. I admit, this isn't the most compelling list ever, but it's what moved me over. It's not like I've burned my del.icio.us account, never to be used again, I've just moved the majority of my linking over there.

ROOTS

This is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and probably the reason I switched. Grab a copy of the javascript from the support section and try it for yourself. Go to some big website, then click on it in your browser bar. Pretty neat, huh? I've gone to clicking that before I mark a page, now. I do this for two reasons, actually, to see what other people have said about the page, and to see if I'm the first to mark it. Chances are, I am, and that's the second reason I moved.

GREEN ACRES

I'm a country kind of guy. Once a place gets too full of people, I want to leave. Empty halls are fine with me. Now, Ma.gnolia's got tons more people than I'll ever be able to track, but there aren't nearly as many as del.icio.us. Even if there were, it's difficult to tell how many there are, since it's so difficult to interact with other people on del.icio.us. On Ma.gnolia, you can join/start/participate in a group. I realize the dichotomy; I want wide open spaces, yet I want a connection to the community. I just want the community to be small. If del.icio.us is New York, then Ma.gnolia is Jacksonville. Still big, but not that big, and with tons of room to grow.

TECHNORATI

Inside your account in the linksblogs section (registration required), you can claim your links in Technorati. While I enjoy the ability to post my links from del.icio.us here in a daily blog posting, it seems rather a kludge to me (even though I got them looking so awesome). With Technorati watching my links at Ma.gnolia, folks outside Ma.gnolia can get into the discussion, the reason I linked to something in the first place. The reason I posted my links on this site was to promote this site, but it quickly became apparent to me that my fame as a linker would grow on one of the big social media sites, not MacStansbury.com. Ma.gnolia fulfills this need by tracking me inside the group, and outside it, through my own Ma.gnolia links, and whatever Technorati picks up.

RSS

Have you seen what Ma.gnolia looks like in RSS? Add the With a linkness feed to your feedreader and tell me what you think. Again, it has to be seen to be believed. There's the screenshot pics and all. This pleases me. Plus, since I'm using FeedBurner, I can add all sorts of extra FeedFlares, and you get to see the Technorati and other social media outlets.

EXTRAS

I want to make it clear: I was not wooed by the promises of star ratings and bookmarked images. I have little interest in those things. However, I want to be able to use them. The fact that there are things it has that del.icio.us doesn't puts me in an odd position of falling for featuritis - and it doesn't. What I mean is, while del.icio.us has more features than most people will ever use, it was just enough for me. It has the bare essentials, and it's awesome. Then Ma.gnolia has a couple things more. And, it's prettier. And it has batteries you can change and an FM tuner - sorry, that's something else.

MY INCESSANT NEED TO CHANGE

Following the development of MacStansbury.com the past four years, you should know I'm not one to stop meddling with things best left alone. To that end, the move to Ma.gnolia. For once, I'm not taking With a linkness with it, I'm just doing my linking there. There may be a day when I'm running both concurrently, in my quest for power, and my lust for linking. I'm odd, I know it. I shall continue to work on producing worthy content on MacStansbury.com, linking up a storm at Ma.gnolia, and perhaps thinking about this "outside" I keep hearing people talk about. I think as soon as I move to that, the linking and posting will move to almost nil, so I won't think about that just yet. Also, see my links here and at Ma.gnolia

status: published
lastmod: '2006-12-01T18:53:00.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
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