Blogson Blue Tige pops the question:

Most of us are familiar with blog parents, blog grandparents, blog brothers and sisters, maybe even blog aunts and uncles. Those things are easy to figure out. What my question is, is what is YOUR input on blog relationships, blog dating, blog husbands and wives, blog flirting? Pick any or all and let me know what you consider to be right/wrong, good/bad, does/don'ts.

Some interesting discussion in his comments.

And he brings up a particular point during that discussion:

My realm for the question is only online. Not wanting to bring the idea of real life meetings into the picture. For instance do people or can people blog statements about so and so being my blog girlfriend/boyfriend, etc.

The important point with blog flirting (as with ANY flirting) is to keep it clear that it's a tease, and not a pass.

Good ways to maintain the clarity:

1) Be happily married and post love notes to your wife on a daily basis. Or at least regularly mention how happy she makes you. 75% of your flirting should be aimed at your significant other, then feel free to scatter the other 25% around as you see fit.

2) I've never heard the term blog boyfriend/girlfriend used. I think the terms have too much real-world weight to be useful for light flirting. Better to use less serious-sounding phrases. For example, I've seen the term "blog-crush". This sounds pretty 4th grade, so not much harm there. You can also take it in the opposite direction and use "love-slave in my blog-harem", which is so unrealistically over-the-top as to prevent anyone from taking it too seriously.

3) Using emoticons - like :-) or ;-) - after a flirtatious statement goes a long way toward preventing your intentions from being misinterpreted.

Aside from that, it's a matter of knowing your audience. Don't flirt with someone until you've read their blog long enough to understand their personality and sense of humor, then exercise the principles from point #2: be either cutely juvenile or blatantly exaggerated.

And always, ALWAYS remember point #1 - devote most of your energy towards flattering the one who wears the ring that matches yours.

Posted by: Harvey at 11:23 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 Good advice, Harvey...

Posted by: Richmond at January 21, 2006 12:14 PM (e8QFP)

2 Hard to do, for those of us who are single and welcome the attentions of those who not only literate, but good with a phrase.

Posted by: Miss Cellania at January 21, 2006 01:12 PM (8HRYA)

3 And something else Harvey does very well is that he spreads that 25% evenly so that the object of his flirtations have to compete for their continued 2% of adoration. That way they know that their special to Harvey they are no means the only one in his life Which makes for a safe and harmless flirtation.

Posted by: michele at January 21, 2006 01:23 PM (UjcAL)

4 homo...

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 21, 2006 01:26 PM (nVA0o)

5 or, of course, if your wedding rings don't match....

Posted by: caltechgirl at January 21, 2006 04:38 PM (uI/79)

6 :-* *big wet kiss for Madfish Willie* :-P (with tongue)

Posted by: Harvey at January 22, 2006 10:14 AM (ubhj8)

7 Well, if you wanna see how ugly it can get when members of a blog family fight, go see what happened between my "blog daughter" and her husband. Oh, wait - you can't. They took their blogs down 'cause they were fighting *in* them. Very embarrassing....

Posted by: _Jon at January 22, 2006 10:23 AM (/R7YK)

8 Actually, SilentWarrior is back posting again.

Posted by: Harvey at January 22, 2006 10:29 AM (ubhj8)

9 Blog fights are fun... I had one once... ONCE!

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 22, 2006 12:51 PM (nVA0o)

10 And if you stick that nasty ass tongue of yours in my mouth again, I'll bite the fucking thing off and stuff it up your ass!

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 22, 2006 12:52 PM (nVA0o)

11 So, you're saying you want to put something up my ass? NOW who's the homo? :-P

Posted by: Harvey at January 22, 2006 02:54 PM (ubhj8)

12 Bloody right: in my last year of U, I lost my significant other to 'chatline buddy'. 10 years ago, & I'm still bitter about it. I'd have to call 'her' a 'buddy', as it turned out my 3-years-must-have-brought-on-boredom-Psychology-major-now-PhD-boyFIEND was doing the rub'n'tug with "Suzanne's" gay roommate, Dave. I was pleased to tell him that: a week after he dumped me for not being 'as pretty' as the woman in the 'group photograph'. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Only last year, my parent's marriage broke up after 40 years, because my denture-wearing geriatric mother started hoisting her nightie on C-U-C-me cameras... *blech* There really should be some form of cheating definition for that level of emotional trauma: losing your S.O. over their freaky masturbatory ritual... BlueBerry Pick'n can be found @ www.ThisCanadian.com "Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

Posted by: BlueBerry Pick'n at January 24, 2006 09:07 AM (RwG41)

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Can anyone recommend any good free software for image compression?

Currently, I usually use Photo Crunch. It's a small, intuitive piece of software that does only one thing - compress images - and does it well. I love the live preview feature so you can tell what your image will look like and what size it will be BEFORE you do something irreversible. The only downside is that it's $8.

It's WORTH it, especially if you tend to post pictures every day like I do, but still...

Anyway, I know that Irfanview is free, and you CAN use it to compress images, but it doesn't have a live preview feature. You just have to guess how far to compress the image, then check it afterwards. Useable, but not user friendly (on THAT feature, anyway. It's great for everything else).

Any suggestions?

Posted by: Harvey at 05:49 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Thanks to a Christmas present from Blogdaughter Michele of Letters From New York City, there's now a Lite version of Bad Example for your PDA. A link will be permanently available at the top of the left sidebar.

If there are technical issues with it, holler in the comments so I can start panicking.

Also, it's currently set to display the last 15 posts. Is that enough? Too much? Nobody cares?

[Hat tip for the magical code: Grumbles Before the Grave]

Posted by: Harvey at 08:19 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Who gives a flyin fuck...

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 09, 2006 10:58 AM (SyfL7)

2 BTW, the link is returning a 404 error page.

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 09, 2006 10:59 AM (SyfL7)

3 The link in the sidebar not the link in the post.

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 09, 2006 11:04 AM (SyfL7)

4 Make one of those for Madfish Willies Cyber Saloon.

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 09, 2006 11:05 AM (SyfL7)

5 MW - DOH! ...typo in the link... Fixed now.

Posted by: Harvey at January 09, 2006 11:27 AM (ubhj8)

6 Hey, hey Blog daddy... Looooking Good! BTW, this format is also good for old computers, dial-up connections, cell phones, and for those work environments where anything other than a white background indicates that you're surfing on the web... like mine. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Posted by: Michele at January 09, 2006 01:30 PM (FRjNx)

7 btw, 15 Post is enough. Any more and cell phone users won't be able to download & read you.

Posted by: Michele at January 09, 2006 01:32 PM (FRjNx)

8 "Glad you've joined the enlightened! "

Posted by: _Jon at January 09, 2006 03:50 PM (/R7YK)

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