Blogging | Piss and Moan

Promotional

Posted on December 31, 2019 by backuphill

I got a rather strange request in my inbox the other day. I am having a hard time trying to figure out if it was a legitimate request or if it was just someone trying to drum up traffic to their business site.

So, someone sent me an email asking if I had actual cups for sale like the Piss & Moan logo.

Hmmm…I had never considered merchandising since I didn’t figure there was much of a market for it. Honestly, I am leaning towards this not really being a legit request but it made me pause for a moment and wonder.

I emailed back that there weren’t any for sale and that I designed the logo myself so I hadn’t ever considered that others might want to buy it.

Has anyone else ever considered marketing or merchandising their blog? Did you find it a hassle? Did you find that it paid off or was it more of just a money sucker? I am curious what others have experienced.

For now, just so you all know, there is no merchandise. The only thing around here worth any money is my opinion and I give that away for free, so you can see the value in that. LOL

400

Posted on December 24, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Breakingpic on Pexels.com

That’s a pretty round number.

This post right here, this one, makes 400.

Hard to believe I have 400 posts, Pissing and Moaning about all kinds of things. I guess I have a lot to complain about. Maybe I really am Scrooge. Maybe I really am the Grinch. Maybe I live “Bah Humbug” every day of the year.

Maybe not.

All I know is that 400 posts ago I had a lot to say. I have Pissed and Moaned a lot of it out. But I am not done. Maybe I’ll just take a pause from it over the next two days.

Maybe not.

Viewing issues

Posted on December 11, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“Want to watch a show?”

“Sure.”

“Let me see what I can find.”

Anyone who travels outside of the US have any issues viewing television or movies on your preferred viewing platform?

When I was in Canada a few weeks ago I was going to try to catch up on a TV show that I watch when I went to Hulu and couldn’t get it to play my shows. I could get to the screen to launch the show, but as soon as you get to the page that typically has the episodes listed it didn’t display any episodes. Was this an issue with Hulu? Was it because it was a TV show?

I didn’t have any issues with Netflix or Disney+, just Hulu (and I didn’t try Amazon Prime).

It just seemed very weird to me as I would have thought that I would be able to access the content no matter where I was in the world. Maybe I was wrong.

What say you, oh world of wise tech folks and blogging friends?

WordPress comment spam

Posted on November 27, 2019 by backuphill

Good grief. Have you taken a look at your comment spam folder?

It’s kind of ridiculous how much comment spam gets generated! How do you even spam comments in the first place? There’s got to be a better way for WordPress to keep this from happening than just throwing them in a folder.

I guess I am glad they catch all this stuff instead of me having to wade through it every day; however, if there was a legitimate comment that actually gets caught in there, how would I ever find it? I know I have had it happen and luckily I caught it early enough before the folder exploded.

Why do people do this in the first place? How do companies combat this crap?

Annoyed

Posted on September 25, 2019 by backuphill

man sitting on black leather padded chair

Photo by Jason Appleton on Pexels.com

There are few things more irritating than playing whack-a-mole on news websites! I mean seriously, why does this have to be such an annoying thing?

OK, to be clear, I am talking about all of the pop-ups, over-sized headers, loud videos, video ads, etc. you get when you visit just about any sort of news site. Whether it is a tech website, an entertainment website, or something else, there are just about always two or three pop-ups that have to be closed to get a clear view of the page.

Annoying! I say. Annoying!

I use an ad blocker, but even that doesn’t get everything. Sometimes it isn’t a third party ad. Sometimes it is even the website sharing it’s own information about something else they would like you to look at. More annoyance.

Why is this necessary? Yes, of course, I know…they make money by clicks and crap like that. Some websites I have just stopped going to (they used to be good ones and I liked them) because I get tired of the same “dance of the pop-ups.” I like whack-a-mole, but not really that much.

All I can say to anyone who might be reading this – STOP IT! You are seriously damaging your name, brand, reputation, whatever by continuing this practice.

*This applies to blogs as well. If you have ads on your blog, make sure you aren’t turning off your readers by having stupid crap like described above.*

Friday the 13th

Posted on September 13, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

WTH?

Almost noon and I am just getting to this thing. Bet you thought I wasn’t going to do it, right?

Friday. 13th. Full moon.

Stuff nightmares are made of. There must have been a solar flare last night or something because computer issues and software issues all morning long for clients. Either that or they have forgotten how their stuff works.

Either way it was crazy busy this morning. Hopefully we are in the eye of the storm right now and the backside will be better than the front.

Can I just go home already? I am ready to sit and drink.

Do you notice weird crap going on during days like this or do you think it is just a mental thing?

Fatigue?

Posted on August 21, 2019 by backuphill

man in green jacket leaning head on blue case

Photo by Marcelo Chagas on Pexels.com

Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you weary from the day to day stuff going on? Have you had it up to ears with everything and everyone?

Me too.

But, I am wondering have you had enough of Piss and Moan? I suspect not, but it is odd that the views and visitors have gone down over the last couple weeks. Maybe that is just those spam bloggers not doing their daily clicks to try and get people to visit their sites or buy their crappy services.

Or maybe I just haven’t done a great job of categorizing and tagging my blog over the last few weeks.

Or maybe I just haven’t Pissed and Moaned on a subject that really sparks your ire, frustration, anger, dissatisfaction, or discontent.

Perhaps it is all of those together or perhaps it is none of those at all. Maybe people are just on vacation and don’t have time to take a look.

Do you ever wonder why your stats are down? Me too.

Anyway, if you’re tired, just keep plugging along. Keep moving forward, no matter what it is from. I’m still here for you and I’m still here to chat about those things in your life that just wanna make you Piss and Moan. Even if you didn’t know you needed it!

Awards Culture

Posted on August 6, 2019 by backuphill

Yesterday’s post was the 300th post on this blog. It was kind of a serious post, which is mostly out of character for this blog since it is really meant to be kind of a tongue and cheek kind of attitude.

Today, however, I decided that I really needed one of those blogger awards. I see them being bounced all the time and I keep wondering when someone will nominate me. I am not sure they are really serious awards, I mean it kind of seems like people just decided “I like this blogger so I am going to award them a moderately fake and self-aggrandizing award.” Makes sense.

We live in an awards culture (some call it a “trophy culture”) where everyone gets an award just for participating. They don’t deserve it for anything other than just showing up. Makes sense. I get it. Showing up is hard and takes extra effort.

So, in the spirit of the awards culture, I created my own award! I feel much better about myself now. I mean, it’s about time someone is finally recognizing that I showed up and that I am almost worthy of an award, even if I have to do it for myself. Call it “self-care.” That’s a buzz word floating around out there these days.

Also, in the spirit of “sharing is caring,” I want you to nominate someone (or maybe even yourself!) who is totally undeserving of an award but maybe feels left out. Actually, please nominate yourself if you also think the “blogger awards” thing is stupid too.

Drop your nominations in the comments section, or borrow the award and tag me in the post where you award yourself. Either way, is fine with me! Have fun with this, since that is really the intent!

Drawn and quartered

Posted on June 21, 2019 by backuphill

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

There are very few things in life that seem to warrant the old punishment of “Drawn and Quartered.” It used to be reserved for high treason, but it isn’t used anymore. Something about cruel and unusual…whatever…

I have determined, and I am sure many of you will agree, that this punishment should now be returned to service, not to be used for high treason but for something much worse.

Being the creator of spam.

In EVERY single form it exists.

We are all aware of the spam we get in our email. We are also all now very aware of those auto-dialers that create spam phone calls. Spam on social media is now a thing too. Here’s one you may or may not be aware of…

Have you checked your blog comments section for spam? Good grief. There is a lot of crap in that file. Thank goodness it gets filtered! But good grief, how do you get like entire Wikipedia science articles spliced into 18 different comments? Yeah, spam. Lots of it. It seems this is all hidden behind “proxy” type addresses, so it is easy to quickly decide it is spam and delete but the fact that you have to do it at all is really annoying.

So, I submit to you all that we bring this medieval punishment of “drawn and quartering” back for a 21st century crime. It might not stop the behavior as a deterrent, but it would be totally satisfying to see the spam creator suffer a just punishment.

Just saying.

#endspam

Who’s with me here? Do you agree? Do you have a better suggestion?

Avoid or ignore?

Posted on June 11, 2019 by backuphill

close up photo of woman covering her ears

Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com

No, I am not talking about doing that childhood favorite of skipping down the road obnoxiously swinging your arms, smiling, and just generally being carefree.

I am talking when someone purposely and obviously skips (avoids?) you but manages to respond to everyone else.

I don’t make it habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs just so to leave a comment. I am selective and I try to put thought into it so that it can generate a conversations. I also make every effort to respond to comments left on my blog as I believe engagement is a good thing (at least when the comment isn’t purposely malicious).

Anyway, I have noticed that certain bloggers out there are really good at leaving a comment, a thank you, a thumbs up, etc. for the people who take time to comment on their blog. I think that is great, especially if there are a lot of comments, because it takes time. Returning the love is a good thing.

However, it also becomes a rather conspicuous omission when they fail to respond as well. As an example, a blog I made a comment to yesterday had 48 comments as of this morning. Now, we know that WordPress (for some reason) counts all comments, including the ones from the author, so really there were fewer than 48 comments from people who read the blog. As I scrolled through this morning to see if I received a comment (maybe I had missed a notification?), I noticed that every single comment the blog received go a response except mine. In some cases, there were multiple responses from the author.

Hmmm, weird.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not butthurt here. I just think it is rather interesting because it is SO OBVIOUS.

What habits of bloggers to you find annoying? Do you have any that you really appreciate?