Tipping the scale at 230 (5'10) in May, 2007, at 30%+ body fat, I decided to do something about it. This blog is about that continuing journey. Having lost 60 pounds of fat and gained 20 pounds of muscle -- on the way to 10% BF -- I'm ready to reveal my "secrets." I'm enthusiastic about helping others achieve real results. The mainstream advice is mostly wrong. One need only take a look around.
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Just a brief note to announce that I'm back from the cruise (though still in SoCal), getting back into the swing of things, and have gobs and gobs of emails and other stuff to get through. It's doubtful that much is happening before the holiday weekend.
Back in full force next week, however.
Here's a shot from last Monday, at anchor, Catalina Island.
I have commissioned an expert team to convert this TypePad blog over to Wordpress in its entirety. I can't wait to deliver my parting shot to TypePad over that. For the last two years or so, every single enhancement has come with 2-3 bugs that take months to fix, if ever, and general downgrades.
Whereas, years ago I was able to compose a post wholly in the rich text editor, for the last two years I have yet to compose a post where I didn't have to hand edit html to get things to display right.
Next, the wife & are are leaving San Jose tomorrow AM for Vista, CA to drop off the dogs at her parents'. Then, Sunday, we head down to San Diego to catch a cruise ship for my parent's 50th anniversary, along with all three of my brothers and their wives / SOs.
Should be fun. I'll endeavor to snap some photos of real food assembled from cruise ship fare. No idea what connectivity will be, but I'll do what I can.
We'll be back in full swing immediately after the 7/4 weekend.
[This entry is probably only of interest to frequent commenters.]
I just found a few days back that my blog host, TypePad, has the commenting engine so screwed up it's beyond belief, at least on God's computer platform, by which I mean, the Mac (see here for my initial post on switching). Safari or Firefox, doesn't matter.
Some time back they went to a new platform where, not only do I get an email for each comment, but I can reply right in email and it gets posted. This keeps me real nimble and able to reply to lots of comments -- even on my iPhone, as a quick email reply is far easier than using the web form. So, other commenters also get email notification, they can reply in email as well, and, so, you get the picture. But several days ago, I discovered that my email replies had not been getting posted. This, after more than a dozen replies to your comments.
OK, so I alert TypePad and set about to find which ones had not made it onto the blog -- a chore in itself -- then set about to post them via the web form. Problem number two: the link to the comment provided in email doesn't take you to the relevant comment most of the time, but just to the top of the blog entry. OK, so scroll through and find it, which is difficult because I have (had; I disabled yesterday) the reply nesting set, which means replies to a comment go below that comment (wherever it may be), and not simply at the end of the line of comments. So, for those entries with 10, 20 or more comments, I have to scan to find the one I'm replying to. OK, now click the Reply link and when the form comes up for just an instant, the page immediately reloads and puts you -- once again -- to the top of the blog entry. Then, I must scroll through to find it for a second time. Finally, clicking the Reply works.
So, all this to say that I had to choose the most substantive replies to go through the laborious process and just leave the rest. If you're one of those who was kinda expecting a reply because of my past behavior, I'm sorry. I'm on top of it from here out, however, so comment away. Also, if you wondered why it took 2-3 days for a reply comment rather than in the heat of the exchange, now you know.
I so want to move to WordPress where I can have complete control of customization, but I'm not going to do so until I can do it right. So many people blow up their blogs moving around all the time, employing cheap doofuses to do tech work and hosting on cheap services that go down all the time or hit bandwidth limits. Actually, I'm in contact with the folks who did Mark Sisson's redesign (very pro, excellent), but it's expensive (!!!). I may pop for it in any case, but not in the immediate.
Onward.
I've been less than prolific lately as most time for the blog was spent trying to come to a decision about the business aspect, which I was calling "World Paleo Domination" for fun, and I kicked off here and here.
Something you may not know about me: I believe strongly in the power of procrastination. I even used to have a presentation to that effect -- "The Virtue of Procrastination -- which I gave a couple of times at industry conferences. At the same time, I'm rather "Type A" in personality. What it comes down to is that if I do something really quick and ferociously, it's going to be with little investment of time, money, effort. It goes to the throw lots of shit against the wall and see what sticks.
But something that takes a lot of time and effort gets procrastinated (for thinking time), and usually to the extent that at the end, it in no way resembles my original vision. Is that good or bad? Actually, I don't really know. It's how I tend to roll and I've had a thing or two come together in life. There's another great aspect of procrastination, which is that most of life's dire problems tend to resolve all on their own if you just do nothing. I'm not saying that procrastination is always called for, just that it's better to act because you have very clear reasons for acting and not because you find yourself with an idea and a bromide to obey, only because someone shoved it in your head at some point in the past that you should never procrastinate.
I tend to think that the really big successes in life are mostly a product of all of the above, i.e., lots of low-effort attempts, a few intense efforts -- all of which together should be enough to provide you a decent life -- and the rest is luck. A few catch one at the very right moment in time and it sweeps them away. Note: this is an entirely different message than the "you can be anything you want to be" bromide. That's false; it doesn't reflect reality. And, the hardest working people on Earth are also the poorest. Intensity and/or quantity of work and wealth are probably inversely correlated. Quality and/or intelligence of work and wealth are probably correlated, but I wonder how strongly. I'd speculate that the strongest correlation of all is a positive, undiscouraged, persevering attitude. You've got to be ready and willing when the opportunities come along, while understanding they might not, or you might not recognize them if they do, at the time and place they do. I'm fairly certain that most reasonably competent and productive people could handle super-success if it came their way by chance. But it won't; not for most.
Alright, so that's really not wholly pertinent to this update, but I got to rambling and so there you have it.
In short, a critical aspect of the business plan was to create a paid newsletter subscription that would include a copy of the book when finished -- and some other perks. The newsletter would have essentially been the book, as it progressed along. Write the newsletter, edit into a book as you go along.
This plan suffered a critical shortcoming, however: I don't want to write a newsletter. Frankly, I pretty much hate newsletters and never paid for a single subscription where I ended up reading much of it or renewing. Maybe that's me, but I was just uncomfortable with the whole thing. I'd certainly have been up-front about it being largely the book itself, but then where do I go when the book is done? And aren't free newsletters best for building traffic to a blog? And probably most of all: I either blog something at the moment it catches my interest, or it usually doesn't get blogged at all. I suspect I'd just be chasing at content for a newsletter and once chosen, regret the better bead on something the next day.
Ah, I suppose I could make it work, but now we're back to where I began: I don't want to; at least not now, not like this.
But here's what I do want to do: I want to write the very best book for beginners to the Paleo, Primal, EvFit life way that I can possibly write. A big part of that is to provide both the 1, 2, 3, for those who can't or don't want to do it any other way, but I want most of it to be about Freeing the Animal in you and figuring out this stuff all on your own, for your benefit and so you can teach others in the way of Animal Independence.
One other aspect of this was an eventual opportunity for investment. In actuality, 100 people answered hypothetical question number 8 in the affirmative.
FYI, here's the entire survey for those who wish to take a look (PDF).
In April, total unique visits increased over March by about 1,500, just shy of 40,000 total, even with four fewer postings during the month. My goal for this month will be to break 45,000 visits for the first time.
Now, a final word on the investment. I'm not going to BS anyone and say that the opportunity is almost gone. I do have one person that has already contacted me. I'm not going to want more than about 5 people, total, which means we're going to be talking about something in the $10k area each, or more. Obviously, the sooner I raise money to put with my own money, time & efforts, the sooner the book will be edited and marketed.
So, if any others are serious about it, email me at the address on the about page.
Those not on Twitter, I've no beef with you. I didn't get it. Sounded completely ridiculous to me (I may have characterized it as fuckin' stupid! a time or two). Well, I was wrong.
I was dead wrong.
And I think it's because someone has come up with a technology that roughly emulates (provided it's used as such), the natural way humans best communicate.
For more than two-and-a-half decades, I have been inexorably tied to the Internet. First on Compuserve, Prodigy (remember that?), and America Online. Then, I graduated to a straight ISP pipe to the wild & woolly Internet, using installed software to access it. Email apps, and especially: USENET readers. I won't go into it, as USENET is pretty passe, now, but back in the day, you had all the world's most inquisitive and argumentative minds there. It was really something to behold, and to be a part of. In the space of a couple of years, I had logged well over 5,000 pages of discussions and arguments with others.
...Well, it was better than watching ER.
Eventually I moved on, started a successful business that's still going strong, but I also kept tabs, followed along, eventually started a blog, and now I'm on Twitter, of all goddamned things.
It really is ridiculous, but irresistible at the same time. But back to my point.
I'm less than convinced that intense, deliberate and thorough debate is where we ought to be. We have our blogs and comments. So, we can toss up our thoroughly considered work there, and those who want can comment, disagree, debate, and so on.
Twitter is an entirely different animal. It costs little time or effort to tweet, and that's its prime virtue. I probably only seriously look at 30% of the tweets I see from those I follow, skimming the rest. I try to get a sense out of the max 140 characters anyone can send. That in itself is an important dynamic. How much meaning can you convey in 140 characters? So, you get good at that. Then you get god at getting a feel for others. Do I want to click on the link? What if I miss something good? There's lots more good to come; don't sweat it.
What it all adds up to is a pretty streamlined way to exchange far more underlying information. Hell, I'm about 500 posts behind in my Google reader, for all the blogs I follow, but I can easily keep up-to-date on Twitter (Facebook, too), and I can act quickly on the things I find -- either to Retweet them to my followers, do a Facebook update, a blog, or all three.
To bring this full circle, how did we operate out on the Savannah for a couple of million years? Did we examine every single thing to an exhaustive conclusion, or did we develop sorting skills, and then quickly deal with the stuff we deemed important? I think the latter. And I think that's why Twitter works and will continue to work.
Funny thing is, I think Facebook could be a short lived thing. It's based on friends, and friends can get tired of friends -- at least in the sense of too much information, and that's on many levels. Twitter is based on non-mutual followership, which is much more natural to my way of thinking. People are not always peers or equals. We all have things to learn from others, but it's the rare case outside of family when that's mutual.
By the way, my tweets are here.
Arrived in San Antonio and settled in. Photo from the condo onto the River Walk on Facebook and TwitPic via Twitter. I'll post some photos here, too; tomorrow.
Amazing number of comments to review and weigh in on where needed; again: tomorrow AM. But carry on. We're headed out to find a big chunk of grilled meat.
It's great to spend a day traveling, only to arrive with high energy, ready to go.
Here is Part 1 and Part 2, for reference. The poll has been closed as the response has already been fantastic, far more than we need for statistical significance.
I had hoped and planned to have laid the whole thing out for you, by now. But later today I'm headed to San Antonio, TX for a family visit. My wife's brother retired as a air traffic controller to SA and she's been vying for a visit for a while. I had the free miles, she made the arrangements to stay in a property along the River Walk through Friday, then onto New Braunfels for a couple of days, and then returning early Sunday.
So, I decided a couple of days ago to just wait to dive full force into this until I get back. In the meantime, I'll serve up some light blogging, maybe some photos (the on-the-fly pics typically get published to my Facebook page and to Twitter).
This will give me time to consider some of the input I've received through comments and email. And, I'm still trying to work on a name for the overall lifestyle and philosophy (diet, exercise, fasting). Surprisingly, I have received, save one comment, nothing but encouragement. That one commenter said it smacked of a "Scientology scam." While Scientology is indeed a scam, I deleted the comment for being such a stupid "argument." The commenter also said there are better blogs out there for free, which is stupid and non-sequitur. I have repeatedly emphasized that the blog won't change. It will always have relevant and current content, and will always be free and open, with no registration requirement. It's the hub, central to everything, and it is absolutely essential that it remain free and open. As it strands now, the comment content of this blog dwarfs what I write, in terms of quantity. It would be unbelievably stupid of me to throw that away.
Also, I agree there are better blogs out there. I hope there always will be. I'm quite well aware of most of them, read them regularly, and they always drive me to improve this one. I hope you see that.
I know there are a lot of people out there who support all or most of what I'm doing. Frankly, however, I would love nothing more than to get a rigorous, well-thought-out argument as to how I may be off base, missing something, taking the wrong approach, and so on. That would help me to make sure all my ducks are in a row.
It would be nice, but I simply can't take the absence of any such arguments against me as evidence that there simply aren't any. So, here's the chance to help improve things: what am I doing wrong? I need and want your help, if there's anything you can think of.
Chew on it, will yooz? Until then, onward.
TV (and in general: video) can't be overlooked. The Internet is huge and growing -- I've been on it since before you could read every website that existed (under 300) -- and will someday surely eclipse television as the primary mode of information dissemination (it already has, amongst people with a true clue: you!).
The health, fitness, and diet industry is huge and homogenized. There are -- and have been for years -- people promoting health, fitness, and diet products and services via TV with only minor changes from the last promotion -- and they make millions! Is that a good idea? It just is, and rule number one is to deal with the reality we've been dealt. Yea, changing it is a worthy goal, but you're more likely to do that by getting in the game.
Here's another reality: be perceived as an expert, guru...whatever, or perish at the hands of those who know how to get people to place an order. Here's what I think about "gurus," but, as a top-marketeer who I've been consulting with for months told me: you're going to be perceived as a guru whether you like it or not. And so are some of you other bloggers out there, or you're well on your way to that status. Do I like that? Unequivocally No. Is it probably true? Yes. Does explicitly going against that tide harm or help your effort? It probably harms it, because there's always someone ready to be the guru and exploit it.
So this is uncomfortable for me, and has been the chief obstacle to making something happen. It's very much outside my comfort zone, and if I am to use the notion of guru, then my preference is to make of everyone their own independent guru. I want everyone to be their own authority.
All that said in order to deliver the big positive: We can undercut all the rest. The Paleo, Primal, EvFit lifestyle works. It works for everyone, every time, so long as people are willing to turn to a more natural mode of survival.
Just a minor market share can provide rapid revenue, along with the great personal satisfaction I crave by bringing this information into a more public airing, into the mainstream, witnessing people getting their health and longevity back. It'd be in the local market. I would quickly position myself as an authority in this area. Nothing else does it better or quicker! Once some authority has been established publicly, by the perverse means of having TV producers do that for you, the impact on the business end will be phenomenal. There will be interviews, lifestyle and dieting editors calling, and so on. Things will take off.
I'm going to make this installment short, because I want to focus on the power of television. It is essential. I had intended to cover several topics, but I'll instead cover them in Part 3. I'll close by quoting a comment from Aaron in Part 1. This is why your input is so critical. While this was already drafted in rough when that comment came in this morning, I had not thought of the comedic aspect.
If I took a shot in the dark about how to convince the mainstream masses that a paleo diet / lifestyle promotes perhaps the best health, then I think a cable-TV comedy show like "The Daily Show" would work better than books, websites, blogs, etc. These other outlets are great and necessary complements to a successful and stimulating and gut-splitting cable TV show, but the TV show is what keeps 'em coming back and spreads the gospel by word-of-mouth. Your angle has to be to make it about the evils (intended and otherwise) big pharma companies, the AMA and other government bodies, and the commercial food industry. You need to make fun of them in that sarcastic, yet oh-so-humorous way that John Stewart does and then offer the paleo approach (with the evidence to back it up--such as from your blog, Hyperlipid, Stephan's Whole Health Source, etc.) as the "like, duh, of course" alternative. In fact, you could bring proponents from both camps onto the show and roast the big pharma / empire AMA types but give special, fun, and entertaining roles to the paleo guests.
That, IMHO, is how you'd get mainstream America on board.
I was quite excited to read this, because my thinking has been more confined to just the business end of raising the money to get on (local) TV in the first place. I hadn't given much thought to what kind of format and I think this is an excellent idea.
Thanks to all who have taken the survey I posted last Friday afternoon. The response and willingness to help by providing your input has been remarkable. In only the first few hours, we surpassed the number of responses gathered over an entire week from when we ran it last September. At the end of this post, I'll provide the survey link again for any of you who have yet to take it, or, for any who would like to modify their existing answers in any way.
This first installment of the plan for World Paleo Domination, a description I came up with on the fly the other day, is to provide you with both an introduction to myself, why I'm so interested in doing this, and the whole scope of what I have in mind. I'll tell you up front: it's ambitious, more so than I've ever previously undertaken.
Why me, and where's the benefit to others?
I would never have imagined it. I've been successful at a number of things in my life, from graduating from college, fulfilling a dream to be a US Navy officer and doing well at it, getting to live and travel all over the world, and even to become fluent in a foreign language.
When that chapter of my life closed, I entered the world of business. And it didn't take long to reach a level of success there too. I eventually built a financial services company occupying three physical locations employing 30 employees, as well as a network of sales representatives nationwide.
And in spite of it all, I seemed to feel worse and worse physically and mentally. It showed on the scale. It showed in my approach to dealing with others and it showed in my former political blogging. I was enraged, virtually all the time. And now, I was an enraged fat guy, 70 pounds overweight, with high blood pressure.
Now how many people does that generally sound like? Here's the formula: work hard, obtain some success, trash your body and live your success feeling miserable physically, feeling miserable about yourself, and feeling miserable about your appearance.
So, I guess I have a story to tell. Most of you know how the story has come to pass to the current day so I'll save the whole thing for the book. But the journey will never end, as it's an ongoing journey; but it's a fun, rewarding, easy journey.
I believe that when I tell this story to the many thousands of others who feel at similar dead ends, as I was, it will surely resonate. I know this because people have told me this over and over.
What's the foundation that makes this different?
The fist part of it is to have some guiding principles. First, and let's make no mistake: I plan to enrich myself in doing this. But since I already have a number of ways to make money, this has to be special money. What I mean is that unless I can come away knowing that this is the best quality of money I've ever made, there's simply no use in me doing it.
If you pay attention to comments and if you saw the replies to emails I don't publish on the blog, you'll know I'm fond of responding to the many compliments and thanks I receive by saying that they are "better than money."
While that is absolutely true -- so long as I have enough money to live already -- the compliments and thanks don't pay the bills, they don't bring the satisfaction of a well-earned profit, and most importantly: they don't bring the explosive expansion we'll need to reach others and turn the tide.
So, it's got to be profitable and it's got to be special. We can't afford to cut any corners. It's got to be excellent, valid, easy, fun, and in complete harmony with a natural human life. There can never be any gimmicks, c'mons, cons or frauds, or even the scammy appearance of them.
What are the specifics?
While I could probably keep blogging as-is forever and ever, I get an increasing number of requests for a simple roadmap. Now, suddenly, thanks to readers themselves, the blog has taken on a life of its own: more content being provided by commenters than by me the blogger, more introductions to others to go check it out than I could possibly generate, and a dozen suggestions for post topics for every one I come up with myself. You folks are amazing and to the extent I continue, I'm going to feel a deeper and deeper urgency to create an integrated easy roadmap. No matter how often this simple easy roadmap is revised and updated, it will always be the flagship product because it will always enjoy the widest appeal.
Of course there will be follow-on, or back-end products, and those are highly profitable because they are sold to existing customers whose cost of acquisition has already been paid. But these are of critical importance, because you can't expand unless you have them. The high margins allow for the reaching of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions of new people...
The type of "successful" people like me, whom I described above in the first few paragraphs. Yes, this is to some degree about profit, but we can only do it by reaching the masses. I really want to end up with bags and bags full of testimonies of success, notes of thanks, and reports of life-saving. The Paleo life actually works and I want to tell the world about it.
So, what are we looking at, beyond the book, the simple roadmap appropriate for anyone? Seminars; Webinars; Cable TV Show; Cookbooks; TV appearances; Major publishers for follow-on books; Web streaming; Workout guides, and a few other things, but you get the idea. We intend to make the Paleo lifestyle an enterprise.
There are two final aspects I wish to address for this first installment. The first is that there are a lot of other great voices for the Paleo, Primal, Evolutionary Fitness, High Intensity Training, Fasting lifestyle. Let me put it simply: Through these endeavors, I want to help them all. I intend to help them all. If you look at that list of things to do, above, those all can and will incorporate other great voices.
Secondly, there will be an investment opportunity for those qualified to do so. I will detail that in the final installment.
Lest we forget, a Paleo diet doesn't make one invincible. While away camping over the weekend around the Sacramento river delta with absolutely fabulous weather, great food, friends, fun, liquid cheer, there was also something in the air -- some sort of pollen effecting just about all of us.
There's a history, here, and to make it short, I suffered debilitating springtime allergies since I was a teenager. I've had the scratch tests (allergic to grasses above all -- you know, those things grain seeds come from), took injections for years, and was on prescriptions for decades. Then, in January of '08, I stopped the medications and have never looked back. Last year, I either had one episode requiring a Claritin, or none, 'cause I can't remember. This weekend, I went on Saturday and got some Claritin, took one, and it did the trick. I began feeling symptoms again Sunday before departure late afternoon and took another. I though that would be it, until I woke this morning after an 8 hour sleep to an awful attack. Then I recalled something from the past whenever that would happen. First, ditch all the clothes you had while there, toss 'em in the washer, and then take a long shower and soap and scrub. In this case, I used Dr. Bronner's liquid peppermint. If you've never tried it, it's quite an experience.
I also took another Claritin. I'm fine, now, but pretty beat and so the kick off for revealing the plan for World Paleo Domination is on hold until tomorrow.
On a couple of notes, take a look at Nikki's Paleo Cookbooks (or click on the image in the right-had sidebar). This is exactly the sort of thing that I want to promote here without compromising either the integrity of the blog or the manner in which information is presented. How many times have commenters asked for recipes and cookbooks? This integrates perfectly with the message and I'm proud to have it over there. And that will be the standard for all products and services that make it over to the right side: I'll be proud to have them there, or they won't be there at all.
Second: yes, Free the Animal receives a portion of each sale that comes as a result of a referral from this site. So, this is a way to help launch the marketing effort and spread the message, as well as secure a great value for yourself. Later: I forgot that Nikki also has a Paleo blog.
Third: If you have not already, I would appreciate if you take a moment to take the survey.
A small percentage of current readers will remember this survey I initiated early last September. I say small percentage, because as you can see from yesterday's March '09 review, I was getting 8,000 visits per month with 10,000 page views, and now we stand at 40k and 70k, respectively. That is many magnitudes of growth, and from the comments and emails I receive, I see nothing but up up up, from here.
That survey convinced me of the market potential of this endeavor, as well as a top-notch marketing professional with whom I've had a personal and business relationship with for 15 years. However, it was not enough, at the time, to bank on or to risk other people's money on. So, we decided to see if I could build traffic while we worked on a comprehensive business plan behind the scenes. Well, the time has come to move forward.
Could I beg of you to take this brief, 10-question survey? If you took it the first time last September, please take it again. It is somewhat modified.
I will leave this up for all weekend while I head out of town. I will also leave it up next week, because I'm going to actually lay out my entire business plan for you, one post per day, Monday through Friday (as well as the normal postings).
Please take the survey now, but feel free to go back and modify your answers over the next week as the business plan is revealed to you day by day. For those who have cookies enabled, the survey site will recognize you and allow you to change your existing answers.
As a final note, the survey is completely anonymous. Neither I, nor anyone else will know the identity of anyone taking the survey, so feel free to be as frank and direct as you can. I value your very honest assessment.
I continue in amazement at my readers' ability to increase the scope and influence of this blog. I had no idea, back in August, that in switching from years of go-nowhere political blogging to something I was more passionate about would be such a positive move. See for yourself. I. Am. Delighted.
Yet another record breaker, with nearly 40k visits and just shy of 70k page views. There's no doubt in my mind that even though I work pretty hard at this, I'm only one guy, and growth comes from you introducing Free the Animal to friends, family and acquaintances.
I am in your debt, but I'll also beg of you to continue the introductions, if you like what you read here.
I'm going to forego the top posts and top referrers for this one month to give you a bit of a preview as to what's coming.
I think it was back in August or September when I floated the proposition of making a business proposition out of this whole thing. Relax. The blog will never change: free and open, and that's my sincere promise to you.
On the other hand, I have a number of things calling my attention. My primary business. A startup, along with the many recent meetings with venture capitalists in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and, of course, on Sand Hill Rd. -- VC capital of the world. I also have a small real estate development in which I'm the principal investor and the managing partner. That has been delayed for obvious R/E market reasons, but ground breaking is anticipated within months.
The bottom line is that I'm most passionate about this, in the long term.
In the next few days I will be outlining my plan for World Paleo Domination with you.
Alright, enough already. I have caved to the general hysteria. I'll give it a go.
However, I must warn anyone who wishes to follow: this -- "diarrhea of consciousness" -- is not my style. I grew up on USENET and other forums where exhaustive completeness was the rule.
We'll see.
I'm happy that in a short month and a week of vacation with only two or three posts, we still broke a traffic record. About 30,000 visits and 56,000 page views. Thanks readers, and especially, thanks for telling acquaintances, friends, family, and co-workers about Free the Animal. It's really making a difference; you're making a difference.
Most Popular February Posts So Far
Blogs Referring the Most Readers to Free the Animal in February
I've discovered a problem with TypePad's new commenting platform (TypePad Connect) that those who comment need to be aware of.
If you look at my three comments in reply to the troll on this post, let me inform you that I composed that as a single comment and could not get it to post no matter what (via email, directly on the form, with Safari, Firefox, IE; Mac or PC). Nothing worked. And, what happens is that when you post, the comment just goes away. No error with a return to your compose screen. Nothing. So, if you haven't saved what you've written, it could be lost.
The way I got it all up there was to break it into three parts, and that worked. So, that suggests the problem is with the length -- fabulous news for those who put the most effort into adding value to a post.
So, if this has happened to you, I'm dreadfully sorry. I have alerted TypePad and will keep on them. What I suggest is that when you compose a comment, select the text and copy into your clipboard. For added safety, a good method is to paste it into an email and email to yourself so you've at least preserved your work. I have no idea what length causes this blowup, so you'll just have to work that out each time; but if you're preserved your work you should be able to accomplish it.
Later: Please let me know via email (list on my about page) if you experience any issues with comments.
More Later: I believe I have found the issue (have alerted TypePad). It seems that if your comment has up to four URLs, no problem. If you have five or six URLs (and presumably more, but I only tested five and six), it blow up, doesn't post, and worse, you lose your work unless you've saved it elsewhere. This is probably not an issue for most, as it's rare to put that many URLs in a comment anyway. Just something to be aware of until rectified by TypePad.
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