Wait, that didn’t come out quite right.

If you’re like many people, Facebook plays some part in your daily engagement with friends, family, coworkers and/or your surrounding community.

That’s a little better.

Well, this website now has a public Facebook presence that you can add to that engagement.

If you tend to get your news or look for interesting articles, photos and comments on the Big Blue Isolator – er, Facebook – then “liking” the ChrisHardie.com page will make sure you see posts and updates from here when they come out.    You don’t need to be my “friend” on Facebook to follow this page.

And what’s more fun, through the magic of the Add Link to Facebook plugin for WordPress, post comments left by readers of this site will be mirrored to Facebook, and comments left by Facebook users on the FB page will be mirrored back to posts on this site.

Yes, I’m still a bit of a curmudgeon about Facebook, but there’s no denying its pervasive and growing role in how many people get information and start conversations.  I appreciate that many of my readers/fans/friends (current and potential) spend a lot of time there, so it seems worthwhile to make content here more easily available there.

Thanks for reading!

It will make me feel better to acknowledge that here, so: my blogging is paused right now.

I plan to resume a regular schedule later this summer.   I’m still tweeting, although with less frequency there too.  Make sure you’re subscribed to my RSS feed or e-mail subscription so you know when I start up posting again.

Thanks for tuning in!

Thanks to those of you who took the time to complete my blog feedback survey at the end of 2009 – it was really helpful in understanding how my regular readers see the blog.  From the responses I received, here are the highlights:

• 60% of you read most of the posts here, and 40% always read the full posts.
• Most of you find out about blog updates from Twitter or Facebook, and the rest use RSS feeds or just visit my website directly.
• Most of you think the blog is either very (or at least more than moderately) interesting and useful.
• You seem to like the variety of my blog topic areas, but “technology and internet stuff” came out on top while humor, sustainability issues, and posts about Richmond, IN all came in a close second.
• You think the design and layout of the blog is generally adequate; only 1 person said it was distracting.
• The single thing you think I should do to improve my blog is to post more frequently.  After that, you either want me to expand to more topics, or to focus to fewer topics.
• At least half of you would like to comment more on what I write, but don’t feel like you have time to formulate a response.
• For most of you, adding sponsorship ads to my site is either not a problem at all, or might be annoying but wouldn’t change how you read the blog.
• Other comments included:
  • “More naughty bits!”
  • “I like your courage in saying what you want to say.”
  • “Thanks for keeping it interesting.”
  • “I think you should go retro and get a weekly column in the PI.”  (I’m open to this.)
  • “It’s one of the few blogs I genuinely try to read on a regular basis.”
  • “I appreciate that you take a public stance on several important community issues.”
  • “Even if I don’t agree with the viewpoint of your commentary, I usually come away with the feeling that you have approached the subject from a thoughtful perspective.”
  • “I read new entries just about immediately.”
  • “I think you have a unique perspective on small business, technology, and alternative means of building community…You have a lot of knowledge AND a vision, which is a great combination.”
  • “Keep up the good work.”

Thanks again so much for your honesty, and thanks for reading!  (And of course, I welcome feedback any time.)

Now I can announce the winner of the random drawing to win a $25 gift certificate for either any business in the Center City business district in Richmond, Indiana or for Amazon.com.

The winner is Aaron Hill! I’d like to post the entirety of Aaron’s response upon being notified of his win, since I think it really captures a lot:

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

Thanks again, Aaron.

Looking forward, I’d like to honor the recurring theme in the feedback I got in that survey and from others: that posting more often about the issues of the day in our community is a good thing.  One of my own personal goals for this year is to do more creative writing, and while my blog can’t be my only outlet for that, I hope it’s a significant one.

My current target is to post at least three times per week, and at least one substantial entry within those three.  The other entries may be more like a couple of paragraphs and a little less refined, but hopefully still useful and/or interesting enough to keep you tuned in.   I will appreciate any encouragement, reminders or coffee that you want to offer if you see me slipping from that a bit.

Happy 2010.  Here’s to a new year of blogging.

It’s only 10 questions, most are multiple choice, and if you do take it by the end of the year, I’ll put you in a drawing to win $25, either for any business in the Center City business district in Richmond, Indiana or for Amazon.com.   (And if you don’t want to identify yourself, that’s fine too, you just won’t be in the drawing.)

Thanks for your feedback.

What happened?

I honestly didn’t expect anyone to really notice the challenge, but a few people did, and “retweeted it” [what's that?] to their own Twitter followers accordingly.  In the end, I had 10 new followers in that time period, about a 7% increase in my relatively modest following.  Who knows which of them came because of my challenge and which would have followed me anyway; it doesn’t really matter.

Today I’ll write a donation check for $20 to the Boys and Girls Club.

As I said, this was just an experiment to see what would happen.  I think there are some great opportunities to “harness the power of social media” for charitable giving campaigns, especially with great tools out there like Fundable.org, and I look forward to playing around more with what’s possible.

Thanks to all who noticed the challenge, stay tuned for others like it.

It’s the blog post that only exists to note that I haven’t been blogging much lately. Gasp.

Sometimes it can be a sign of a dying blog, or a lack of personal creativity, but I assure you that’s not the case here.  No, I think we all get to have at least one of these kinds of posts once every few years or so.  I think my last one was in 2005, so I’m due.

For now, talk amongst yourselves, and check out my inane procrastinatory ramblings on Twitter.

At the same time, I recognize that other people are out there coming up with their own ideas about how to make Richmond better.  I hear those ideas mentioned at meetings, in casual conversations, in planning documents, and all over.  Sometimes I hear people talk about idea overlap – how something they thought was a new idea was something someone else had worked on in the past.  And then I start to worry that we might not be fully honoring the collective brain power we devote to improving Richmond, and I wanted to create a resource that would allow for some consolidated storage of all of those great ideas.

Thus was created the concept for a new website I launched this week, Richmond Brainstorm.com.  It’s a place where people can submit their ideas for how to make Richmond better, and discuss the ideas already on the site.

It’s not going to be a place that tries to then take ownership or leadership of those ideas.  It’s not trying to promote one kind of idea over another, or to advance any particular agenda.  I’ll leave that up to everyone else to do in their own work.  No, this is just a place to collect and refine ideas to make our community better.  Some of them may sit there a while untouched, but my hope is that some day, perhaps when someone with new time, energy or money comes along and asks “what can I do?,” we’ll have given them a head start.

It’s been beta tested pretty thoroughly now (thanks Anna Lisa, Carol, Amy, Jim, Scott, Mark, and Aaron for your feedback!), but I’m sure there’s room for improvement and new features.  I hope you’ll try it out and let me know what you think.  Most importantly, I hope you’ll share your ideas.

Lately I’ve also taken up the habit of using the someecards motif to create my own cards, which often channel some dark thought or bit of sarcastic humor going through my own mind in moments of weakened self-discipline, but that I wouldn’t really ever want to say out loud.  It’s fun because other people on the site will vote and comment on them, and sometimes even send them to their acquaintances (er, enemies?).

So, check ‘em out, add your own, and send me a card. Or…maybe berate me for indulging? It’s always interesting to see how it plays out for different senses of humor…how does that stuff strike you?

• Friday’s episode of On the Media was excellent as usual, but did an especially good job of covering the strange way the 11 PM Eastern network television calling of the election works, cognitive dissonance around the world about electing Barack Obama, and difference between real grassroots organizing and just another marketing campaign. Great stuff.
• Clearing Up Basic Misunderstandings – some interesting post-mortem thoughts on the McCain/Palin ticket from Alan Pavlik.
• Last political links, I promise: What the silence in Grant Park said – yes. The one where she makes her post-election political statement – nicely put. Got to admire the geeks who were behind the flood of website traffic leading up to and on election day.
• Whitewater Valley Artists Consortium – I think I’d known these folks had a group, but just now found their website. Glad they’re here!
• Drama Prairie Dog – can’t stop watching it!

Some topics I’m thinking about, and may eventually blog about:

• The possibilities and problems of pacifism, from a primitivist perspective
• Even though complex relationships bring joy, how do we navigate the complicated privacy and sensitivity issues that come up when we wear multiple hats, and even sometimes have competing internal agendas?
• How to talk usefully about peak oil and relocalization with those who haven’t encountered the concepts before, and who might be personally resistant to exploring them further?
• Where we could set up a Flash Mob event in Richmond?
• Psalm 40:1-3
• The over-saturation of “green” messages, products and events.
• The cultural and economic advantages of having community and retail spaces that take advantage of “swerve,” compared to single-destination lifestyles

How about you…what’s on your mind?

I’m removing Google ads from my blog.  I’m tired of them, and they’re not earning their keep.

You can now subscribe to the comments of a specific post such that you receive an e-mail message when new comments are posted.  Look for the checkbox right where you submit your comment.

As always, feedback is welcome, drop me a line.