I redid the way my Daily Links work, so I'll be able to do a lot more with them. For the 99% of you who don't know what those are, the sidebar here is what's been sucking up all my attention from the writing I used to do on this site. One of the improvements is that the XML feed for the links has stopped sucking like it used to, and now works right. There's also an RSS .91 version. I still have to fix the ability to work with the Mozilla sidebar and pretty up the stylesheet, but the fact that the RSS works right and is linked on my sidebar should answer most of the questions I get.
Since I killed an evening getting all this stuff fixed, I guess I should ask: Does anybody read this stuff other than me?
I check your site once or twice daily, both for your posts and your sidebar links. They're awesome. I've stolen a few for my own site.
So yes.
Sure!
nope. i just read the latest entry.
Yea, I read them all the time.
I use the version that opens up in the search pane. very handy!
Yeah. My lady keeps asking me why I send her so many Michael Jackson links and then questions why I have such an obsession with the gloved one. I say, "Hey, it's not my obsesession."
I'm a huge fan of the quicklinks format as popularized by Jorn, but made interesting by people like you, Fimoculous, and Muxway. Your sidebar has become one of my essential daily reads.
I've been all about the daily links, Mr. Dash, ever since I was one.
Yeah, doggies.
I've found many a cool site and link since I started looking at your sidepanel - I especially like that you use the alt text as a description of somewhat why you made the link - very efficient and useful.
I generally just look at them in the context of your blog.
I love the sidebar, and it's a daily read. I go to it before the main text.
I love the sidebar links, they're great. Also funny are the titles TO the tags. I often just hover over the links to read the descriptive and/or scathing-funny titles. Some of the articles are good food for thought, some of them just make me cackle maniacally.
Would you consider telling some of us more technically inclined types how exactly you go about using MT to do the sidebar links? Not manually, surely?
Quite regularly, actually.
I'm really happy to see the sidebar trend expand through the blogging community. It's probably the easiest and best way to tackle the "weblog or journal" argument.
Man, this is better than psychotherapy. Do some work, post a "do you still love me?" question, and then wake up to a whole bunch of answers.
Next up, why do you all love me so much?
Anil, please keep up the good work on the sidebar links. I check them 2-3 times a day!
Of course we do, my lamb! You're the linkiest! And now I have two Anil Dash subscriptions in my rss aggregator! Twice the Dash, twice the deliciousness!
I use them all the time. Always interesting content.
I check it at least 10 times a day.
Yes, probably not as regularly as some here, but I do check the ones on this page whenever I am here. have discovered some fabulous ones here. Thanks for the thought provoking 'Murder in India' link.
I do I do, and thanks for your efforts!
Nah. That sidebar stinks! Who would ever want to go "links" from your page? I mean it's not like you put anything interesting there.. wait...hmm, nevermind.
I really like your links sidebar!
The sidebar keeps me entertained constantly throughout the day. I think of it as AnilFilter.
I don't follow all the links, but I read most of them.
Sometimes I click the link and miss the title tag.
Anil,
I am a big fan of your entire site. Your writing is excellent, and, to answer your query, yes, I do read the sidebar's linked articles. Several times a day. (Full confession: I out & out stole the idea for my own blog. It solved the problem of wanting to share off-topic/not blog-related posts. Sorry. Thanks!)
(BTW, to echo Sam's question, is it done manually?)
Thanks for a great site!
David
Oh! There's a sidebar!
*ducks*runs*
I do the sidebar as a separate weblog, Movable Type makes that kind of stuff easy. I just include the links in the sidebar here and in the page at /links.
For those of you who know MT, the link text that you see is the Title of the entry, the URL is the body of the entry, and the title for the link is the More text for the entry. Then I can just output those fields into the appropriate place in the XML or HTML. I fill out those fields by popping up the MT posting form, which was why I was excited to see context menu support get added to MT.
Yeah - basically I look at your links at the Daypop top 40 to track buzz.
[puckering up, whincing, holding my nose against a big brown ass] I rely on your links for my Internet edutainment.
I read too!
No, or yes, it depends.
I always check your links. I love seeins which new ones you have added.
Yes. I likey.
Yes. I mean no. I mean I just found your pages, so... yes from now on I guess
Yes, yes, yes. I want to steal the idea, in fact.
Spotty. I give a glance over there but don't bite unless it's something specific. Some of that stuff takes forever to download and you don't give any warnings. And then it could be a waste of time. This irks me. But the java mouseover descriptions you've been putting on them are somewhat helpful. I came over today to find a link you gave about fonts. I want to copy some info the guy gave. Now let's see if I can find the damned article without getting sucked down the endless garden path here.
They are superb. Never know what you'll find!
There's a little bit of NYC nostalgia you might enjoy.
Anil, I wish someone would explain exactly what this means: 'forget info'.
Does this mean that you get the info privately, but it doesn't show up publicly?
Or does it mean that it never appears at all, even to the owner of the weblog?
I almost never want my info to be randomly exposed to the public. There are too many freakazoids and spamazoids floating around out there.
Not always Anil but having the option of doing so makes the site great.
I do try to give warnings if I know it's something huge, but I've been spoiled by broadband for so long that sometimes I forget. The mouseover titles aren't javascript, they're regular old title="" attributes in the link tags, which are a convention I've long advocated.
Forget info means the cookie on your computer that pre-fills your information into the form gets deleted. I only have whatever information is posted onto the site, except for IP addresses which I have private access to.
Well, I've been coming here looking for that oyster cracker and Dashes spice mix recipe for the holidays, but I can't find anything with all of this RSS this and IPP that. I don't know why my grandson even put me up with this Internet. I will keep checking back but soon I'm going to have to find another party mix recipe. And I did so want to avoid making Chex party mix this year. Good-bye.
Thank you for the info about 'forget info.' Hmmm...
And I copied the explanation about the tool tips, but I am often slow to get this kind of thing.