Perhaps LDSelect.org is the best choice for you
Ladies and Gentlemen! Brothers and Sisters!
Bugged by the Mormon Archipelago site are you? Unhappy with the blogs they have included or excluded in their fancy blogroll? Bent by the way they have organized the blogs there? Interested in sticking it to The Man? Have I got a site for you!
Seriously, have you checked out LDSelect.org? DKL took our MA aggregator idea and added all sorts of fancy features. The most important of these is that you can customize the page to include or exclude any blogs you want from his rather wide list of Mormon-themed blogs. Further, you can order the feeds to your favorite blogs in any way you want. Interested in all DMI all of the time? You can do that. Want as much of the Mormon Wasp as you can read? You can do that. Want Mormon Stories for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? You can do that. DKL is a multi-talented man and among his talents is a set of first-class coding skills. He has done a humdinger of a job with the site and service.
If you are using LDSblogs.org (The Mormon Archipelago) and find yourself dissatisfied with it I recommend you try LDSelect. It is an excellent alternative.
Of course if you are using the MA site and like it that is a good thing too. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
[Associated radio.blog song: The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour]
I am switching to LDSdefect.org because of that cool Egyptian eye thing. That is what The Mormon Archipelago is missing, a cool logo, I mean five semi-symetrical dots, come on, did Rusty come up with that? Whatever.
Comment by Kurt — August 29, 2006 @ 7:33 pm
I use both.
Comment by Eric Russell — August 29, 2006 @ 7:36 pm
Ok DKL–Geoff sang your praises as
But, how did you hack into the Thang and post as Geoff?
Comment by Guy Murray — August 29, 2006 @ 7:52 pm
Per John’s suggestion, I am creating a website that will be like digg, but for LDS content (blog posts mostly). More to come soon (hopefully… my girlfriend takes up lots of my time :-P).
Comment by Connor Boyack — August 29, 2006 @ 7:57 pm
Whatever it takes to distract the legions of sniping whiners… (grin)
Comment by Geoff J — August 29, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
Looks like someone’s trying for some Google juice. :)
Comment by Kim Siever — August 29, 2006 @ 8:22 pm
Ooh — good point Kim. I should have done this post a long time ago. I could have gotten some Google love and I would have had a post to direct all the whiners to when they felt compelled to call the waaaaahhmbulance about the MA site.
BTW – I didn’t mention this in the post but let me make is clear that I don’t think LDSblogs.org is broken. I plan to keep using it for a long time to come
Comment by Geoff J — August 29, 2006 @ 8:45 pm
waaaaahhmbulance. That’s funny.
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 5:23 am
I use the MA almost exclusively. I appreciate those who maintain it.
As the bloggernacle grows, will group blogs become like ‘wards’ and aggregaters become like ‘stakes’ and the term bloggernacle kinda loose its meaning?
Comment by Eric Nielson — August 30, 2006 @ 5:49 am
Kurt, Kurt, Kurt… must you defect to the literalness of the eye or stay with the subtlety of the five dots (there were originally five founders, they act as green islands in the blue sea, and they make the shape of “M” and “A”)?
Comment by Rusty — August 30, 2006 @ 7:40 am
Wow, Rusty, I am awestruck by the subtlety and grace of your explanation, and will therefore boycott the big blue eye with excessive eyeliner forever. ALL HAIL THE MORMON ARCHIPELAGO!!! WORLDS WITHOUT END!!! We all know DKL doesnt shave his head like any self-respecting ancient Egyptian would have anyway.
Comment by Kurt — August 30, 2006 @ 8:02 am
There are seven dots.
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 8:26 am
SIEVER!
Comment by Ronan — August 30, 2006 @ 8:42 am
Sorry. I’m such a literalist.
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 8:44 am
Rusty lied to me. I believed you man. Thats it. I fully embrace the blue eye and will never, NEVER, return to the seven, SEVEN, dots even if DKL doesnt shave his head and would eat mutton in a heatbeat.
Comment by Kurt — August 30, 2006 @ 9:02 am
There originally WERE five dots, expanded to seven when we added two more people. Plus, the “MA” thing still worked but in a different way.
See how brilliant it is, it can expand when the brand expands. I mean, what would DKL do? Add another eye?
Comment by Rusty — August 30, 2006 @ 9:13 am
OK, well, if DKL adds another eye to his recetnly accounced 2.0 version (1.0=one eye, 2.0=two eyes, 3.0=contacts, 4.0=glasses, 5.0=radial keratotomy, 6.0=lasik, his brand can expand too), then I will leave in utter disgust, cast [even more] aspersions at him, and then return to the Archipelegiasts. But only if this new Mormon Digg thing doesnt have a cooler logo, the McBloggernacle Golden Arches or something like that.
Comment by Kurt — August 30, 2006 @ 9:36 am
Hmm, I’ve tried registering on LDSElect.org twice now, and it never sends me an email… That means my usernames and emails are all occupied now and inaccessible. :-( I don’t know who to email for help.
Comment by Jeff Day — August 30, 2006 @ 10:42 am
Hey, I only said the site was a decent alternative to ldsblogs.org (at least for those who feel inclined to whine) — I never said it was bugless…
Comment by Geoff J — August 30, 2006 @ 10:57 am
Oh, LDSdefect is loaded with bugs, hence the name. Just look at the way it lists “Issues in Mormon Doctrine” and “Blogger of Jared” as the leads in the default setup of Box 4. IMD has been dead for months, and BofJ moved off that site months ago. There are probably more in there too.
Jeff Day, sent DKL an e-mail at admin@ldselect.org and tell him his all seeing eye of Horus needs glasses.
I am sure all outstanding bugz will be eliminated in the stellar new 2.0 version.
Comment by Kurt — August 30, 2006 @ 11:24 am
Frankly, I don’t get the use of a digg-ish list. Seems like I can get the same list from technorati tags.
http://www.technorati.com/tag/mormon
I’ve always used the MA bloglist because after I read all the founder’s blogs I wanted more of the same.
Comment by Johnna — August 30, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
and BofJ moved off that site months ago. There are probably more in there too
Crap, I was hoping you were going to say the bug was that we should be listed in box 2 by default at least..
/I gotta stop defining my level self-respect by where the aggregators put me.
//www.bloggerofjared.com for those who were wondering where we waltzed off to.
Comment by Ryan — August 30, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
Does the voting thing really work at LDSelect? I check it once in a while and nothing seems to move from box to box. Perhaps I am not as observant as I think.
Comment by Eric Nielson — August 30, 2006 @ 2:12 pm
Johnna – Thanks. I feel the same.
Ryan – Well we got ya covered bro.
Eric – Dunno.
Comment by Geoff J — August 30, 2006 @ 2:37 pm
Eric,
It’s not voting per se. It’s personalisation. It’d be cool though if it could keep track of how everyone sorts their pages and then customise the default view based on that. All web2.0 and what not.
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 2:52 pm
Thanks for the plug, Geoff.
Though I wrote the code for the site, with regard to its links I’m just a user like everyone else. And I rely on blog owners to alert me of changes to their blog’s links and their feeds. I think I have a pretty good track-record of being responsive to change requests.
Kurt, funny comment about the eyeball quantity corresponding to versions. That makes the current version a Cyclops.
Comment by DKL — August 30, 2006 @ 3:24 pm
Kim,
I was under the impression that that is in fact how it works. I could be wrong though.
Comment by Tim J. — August 30, 2006 @ 3:45 pm
Maybe it is, Tim. DKL, can you set the record straight?
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 4:50 pm
I’d like to see an aggregator that would calculate when a blog has gone dead for a specific period of time and that a) would at a minimum notify the aggregator-host of that fact or b) at a maximum, demote the blog from the aggregator. I’d also like to see a registration system that would allow a person to add/remove his blog url from the aggregator. Perhaps there could be a filter whereby the aggregator-host could approve a blog’s addition to the aggregator (a quick scan for some kind of LDS connection might do).
However, after writing all these ideas, they may not really be necessary. I am now quite interested in what mr. Connor Boyack is doing over at Sustain’d …
Comment by danithew — August 30, 2006 @ 7:40 pm
Whoops. Wrong link. Sustain’d is here.
Comment by danithew — August 30, 2006 @ 7:42 pm
Tim and Kim, I adjusted the default view based on the preferences of users, and there’s an explanation of how I did this on the site. I haven’t done it since, but I plan on doing it again shortly. Though I don’t anticipate any huge shifts (there certainly weren’t any in the first change up).
Comment by DKL — August 30, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
So, it’s not automatic then?
Comment by Kim Siever — August 30, 2006 @ 8:30 pm
That is correct, Kim. It is not automatic. I have a formula that I developed. I do the tabulations manually, and input the changes by hand.
Comment by DKL — August 30, 2006 @ 11:13 pm
You know, if ldsblogs.org cannot get the bugs ironed out of their stuff, then people will be going to ldsdefect for no other reason than ldsblogs doesnt work, since all redirects yield:
Access denied for user: ‘root@localhost’ (Using password: YES)
It seems to have a complete meltdown about once a month. And if your root password really is “YES”, then you guys are about to be hijacked by a bunch of pimply teenagers.
Comment by Kurt — August 31, 2006 @ 3:29 am
Yeah, we’re switching hosts shortly.
Comment by Geoff J — August 31, 2006 @ 8:23 am