Admin

AdBrite (43 Folders Text Ads)

Just a little administrative note. I’ve had a lot (a lot) of requests from folks wanting to place text ads for their company on 43 Folders, so I’m giving AdBrite a spin. Hop over to their site to get more information or place your own ad.

43 Folders Board - Powered by vBulletin

This is just a quick programming note to let you know that the 43 Folders Board just got a posh new upgrade to vBulletin. In addition to being much easier for me to maintain (and much more scaleable, searchable, AJAX-inated, blah blah blah), vBulletin’s also got some spiffy features for users. For example, it should now be much easier to navigate threads and keep track of where new and interesting stuff is happening. (Like it needs my endorsement, I’ll just say vBulletin is far and away the most powerful and feature-rich messageboard I’ve used).

Fastmail.fm has been taking an unexpected dirtnap since Thursday afternoon that looks likely to stretch lazily through the weekend.

My old mail has reportedly been queued and will supposedly wind its way back to me by Monday or so; my previously unequivocal recommendations of Fastmail will not return with it.

Anyhoo, I’ve rerouted all my main email accounts to Gmail for now (I’m merlinmann at that particular domain), so if you’ve tried to send me anything important since about 14:00 PST on Thursday, please just resend it – with my apologies.

In which I try to help get the ball rolling.

Weekly Wrapup - 2005-10-21 (mp3)

43folders.com - A marathon wrapup of the week, including: redesign notes; popular posts; interesting stats; and a promise to you, the home podcast listener. (7:54)

43 Folders - October 2005 Reader Survey

In deciding to run ads on 43 Folders, it’s been important to me to try and get things right. Over the past few weeks you’ve seen the site go way over the edge, then pull back–mostly just so I could learn where that edge was, although it’s also accidentally provided me with a fascinating crash course on how industry standard ad units and software work. I’ve also listened to you guys, moved some stuff around, and tried to keep things both sane and modestly profitable.

Whether I’ve gotten that mix perfect on any given day will always be open to debate, but I’ll tell you two things that are important to me:

If you can see this post, you’re viewing the site on the new server and all is well.

Otherwise, you’re psychic or something.

Sweet fancy Moses, it looks like there’s an end in sight for our server woes. Sometime today, the technically gifted elves at A2 Web Hosting will be pushing this enterprise over to a hotrodded new server with more CPU, more disk space, more bandwidth, and cup holders that are ample for a thirsty family of eight.

You can’t spell “success” without “suck.” A technology update full of laughter, tears, and Yosemite Sam-like hollerin’. And you might just learn something.

Reader Jeff Click emailed to re-remind me of an idea I’d meant to act on last holiday season and never did: the 43 Folders Geek Gift Guide. Whee, presents! I’m also thinking of opening the floor to people who want to write mini-reviews of beloved schwag for use in the guide.

So, assuming a bunch of you are geeks or have a cuddly little geek that you love, what would you like to see covered in the guide? So far I’m thinking: