Justin Germino Ramblings

After weeks of randomizing seeds and experimenting with new Minecraft World seeds, we finally found one that kept our interest and attention for more than 3 days.

This world seed called Naturepeaked is really impressive and creates a wonderful Minecraft world full of variations and exploration opportunities.  It is a fun thing to input a manual seed and see what you come up with, the opportunities are endless for sure.

I still wish Minecraft would add updates more frequently, the lack of variations in monsters and lack of new crafting options, items, isn’t holding my adult interest nearly as well as my kids who can restart endlessly however.  Mods are fun, but many are still buggy and few mods support Minecraft 1.3.2.  I see less newer mods and many of the great older ones were never updated for 1.3.2 with the developers having long since abandoned them.

The great Adventurecraft mod for example has gone stagnant and had a ton of potential with the Zelda mod being based off of it and looking really fun but it too went stale.

-Justin Germino

Recently I visited a promoted article for a peer blogger I respect and enjoy reading their work often.  I was however very disappointed not because it was a bad article, the article was fantastic and presented a lot of good information.

I was disappointed because commenting and conversations were disabled on the article, I was unable to add my feedback and share in the conversation especially when I had experience and information I could add that could benefit the article and other readers visiting.

This lack of 2 way conversation defeats the purposes of what blogging is about, blogging is designed to be a communication 2 way street.  Social Media goes hand in hand with blogging now and being able to interact, accept feedback and allow opinions encourages engagement.

The only main reasons that are valid to prevent commenting on a blog post are:

Article Topic Not Valid

If the article is a contest or an article about a topic that has been irrelevant for a long time, or no longer contains valid information then it makes sense to negate further conversations on the article.  I don’t follow this rule myself, I never close commenting on articles, but I can see where it makes sense.

Spamming for PageRank Links

This is common with bloggers using WordPress commenting, especially with CommentLuv and/or other DoFollow comment enhancing systems.  Your posts as they age start to establish PageRank, so you will start seeing spammers target and leave comments on your articles that have established PageRank.  This doesn’t mean commenting should be disabled per say, only that you need to tighten up your spam rules and or commenting system to weed out the spam further or further cut down on the ratio.

Not Interested in Conversations

This may be a simple vent article or article where you just want to get something out but have 0 interest in anybody taking part, I can see this on rant blogs and other "my share only" type of blogs.

Again, I can see some valid reasons why one would disable comments on a blog, by default WordPress disables comments after 14 days but I think this just kills conversation and ultimately weakens your article’s ability to keep engagement for longer periods of time. 

What other reasons do you have for not allowing comments on a blog post or article?

-Justin Germino

Finally after about 8 months of not being updated I updated the Make Money Online page on DragonBlogger.com last night to include updated reviews of many programs to help people make money online as well as remove ones that had closed down or went dormant.  Included were newer programs that I joined like The Blog Frog, Link Vehicle and Staree which weren’t listed before.

The article is now over 5,000+ words and I am wondering if I should turn it into an eBook at some point that I give away as an incentive to join my mailing list or maybe sell for $2.99 with a fully flushed out updated one?  Practically enough material to turn into a sellable e-book if I elaborate more on it actually.

Anyway, Minecraft consuming all my free time when not working my day job thanks to the kids and just haven’t felt well enough most nights to stay up and due the blogging time so hours are a bit lower.  I still yearn to create more video tutorials and content for the YouTube channel just don’t have the time window to do so efficiently.

-Justin Germino

You know, Punchtab does a much better job of validating the entries than Rafflecopter for contests and it doesn’t do a bad job randomly picking a winner but it does lack compared to Rafflecopter in remembering who you choose and it does not offer the ability to announce the winner(s) in the contest widget like Rafflecopter does.

Choosing a Winner in Punchtab

When you pick a Winner in punchtab, it randomly scrolls down and selects the winning entry and spawns a window for you to instantly send an email to notify the winner that they won.  This is fine and works well, but it doesn’t remember who you previously chose.

Once you have to select a 2nd winner, it keeps no track of the previous winners it would appear.  This makes it hard to know who it selected previously until you receive the email copy to the winner so you remember who was selected.

This is a pretty annoying limitation of the Punchtab contest system and the most lacking feature I have encountered so far.  It should highlight, flag or display the winners with a separate column so you can track the winner.  It should have the ability to publish the winner names in the widget like Rafflecopter can once they confirm, you should be able to click an announce button like Rafflecopter.

Rafflecopter Handles the Winning Entry and Announcement process better than Punchtab in contests and a contest is about selecting the winner.  This doesn’t affect the contestants who won, but it really makes it more of a pain for the one hosting a contest with multiple winners. Need to open an enhancement request with Punchtab to get this added soon.

Meanwhile, I still like both systems and a hybrid of the 2 systems would be perfect.  Rafflecopter does some things better for contests and Punchtab does other things better, but both of them have different disadvantages and lacking features so that once you start using both you wish one of them would implement the features the other has but that one lacks.

-Justin Germino

I have to thank @avgjoegeek geek who pointed out to me on Facebook that he noticed Punchtab had a snapshot of "Featured Giveaways" for the Punchtab iOS app in iTunes and 2 of my giveaways were listed in their screenshot.

The Lenovo Z585 Laptop giveaway back when it had only 12k entries was listed as well as my Kingston 64GB DataTraveler giveaway which has since ended and Alan Tong was the winner.

But, now that I see this this only makes me realize this is a great feature that Punchtab has that Rafflecopter does not.  I can literally get an app that shows Punchtab contests and pick and join which ones I want to join without having to do Google searches for Rafflecopter contests.

If you like joining contests and maybe getting lucky to win something, there is no reason not to check the Punchtab Giveaways app to see if something you like is being offered that you just may win.

-Justin Germino

On some of my smaller blog which weren’t getting a lot of traffic or comments I decided to start testing the Disqus 2012 comment systems.  I do like Livefyre and have been using it for a while but there were some compelling features of Disqus that made me put it in my blogs to test it that Livefyre just simply doesn’t have yet.

Reply By Email

I am always mobile and being able to reply to a comment on any one of my 7 blogs by responding to that comment via email with it going into the blog and sorting correctly is a very beneficial feature.  Disqus allows email replies to comments, but Livefyre does not yet have this feature.

Image Upload

I am going to use this for contests and other incentive type of programs and Livefyre Comments 3 does feature this, but the current version does not yet. 

Comment Community

One thing I like about Disqus is you have a centralized community for a user, not just the website owner.  I can see all notifications from anywhere, any blog where someone has replied to me and I can go and reply from there.  You can follow/friend users and see their conversations and the whole conversations and community aspect is handled better on Disqus than in Livefyre.

Mobile Login

Many have complained about problems signing into Livefyre from mobile devices, I have had my own share of users complaining, Disqus is more mobile friendly and has fewer reports of sign on problems.

Larger User Base

Many more people already have Disqus accounts so fewer have to sign up to leave comments, this means more people are likely to comment.  The sign up is always the hardest part to overcome and convince a reader to do.  Disqus has age and spread in it’s favor still.

Import Guest Comments

Disqus is intelligent enough to know comments you left on other blogs that were imported into it’s system (after a user puts in Disqus) and you can import detected guest comments into your profile history. 

Summary

So far there may be things I don’t like about Disqus and like Livefyre better for, Livefyre does have the ability to @reply Facebook or Twitter users to call them into conversations (I think Disqus can only do Twitter users).  Livefyre reads in reactions from Facebook Fanpages which Disqus only does from Twitter, where conversations/comments left on those mediums are pulled into the blog comments.

In the end, I may end up converting DragonBlogger.com to Disqus 2012 after I spend a few weeks of testing it on my smaller blogs.

-Justin Germino

Yep, still on the Minecraft topic since it has been consuming my kids lives while they are on fall break and playing it everyday.  I am visiting Planet Minecraft early in the morning before work and at night trying to find them new texture packs, maps, mods and other goodies to keep vitalizing the game.

It is easy as pie to add maps, they are just uploading save games (folders) into your .minecraft/saves folder which is in your %appdata% location in Windows.

Textures you just place the zip file inside the Texture Pack folder and load them in game.

Mods are a bit tougher and there are several types, Mod Loader was the first one I installed and requires you to edit the minecraft.jar file in the .minecraft/bin directory and add files to the archive while deleting the META-INF after.

This then allows you to add mods and resources directories to .minecraft and drop in mods which are loaded at start up.

The bad thing is many mods don’t work with 1.3.2 version of Minecraft so you really have to pay attention to the mods, and what is needed to load them.  Fortunately when a mod crashes and prevents Minecraft from loading you usually have a good indication on which mod to remove.

1 mod so far required me to scratch Minecraft install completely and re-install it which is also easy to do, but no game has so much flexibility that I have ever messed with before.

I haven’t even started on the 32bit, 64bit or higher texture maps yet that greatly improve the graphics of the game, but require different loaders and MCPatcher to modify the game to support higher quality texture maps.

-Justin Germino

What To Do When a Child Hates School

So many kids come home from school telling their parents that they hate school. They say their classes are boring, or too hard, or that they have too much homework. If you hear those same complaints and want to change their attitude about their education, here are some great ways to get started.

Get Involved

Children are very smart about picking up on how their parents feel. If you show a lot of interest in their, school they will follow your example. If you don’t care, why should they? Being involved with the PTA or volunteering when they have special activities at school, attending the school events with them or just knowing your child’s teachers will let them see that you are a part as well and interested. Kids need to feel that you are supportive of their school and have a positive attitude about it. If there is not a good relationship and attitude, your child will sense that and not have one as well.

Grades

It is our responsibility as parents to care about what grades our children make and to discuss them with the teachers if they have some problems or are falling behind. Don’t let their grades be the only thing that is your focus or set your expectations so high with your child that they feel overwhelmed. Kids have to enjoy school too and we have to know that the point of school is to learn more, not just make a specific grade. Focus on their learning and maybe agree that they are doing their best and to keep trying!

Slash Boring

When kids come home and tell you that they hate school because it is boring, what they are really telling you is that they are frustrated with that they are doing or learning. It could be that they are doing something that is just too hard or difficult and they don’t relate. Maybe they don’t understand how it is being taught so they cannot focus on it, or they may even be worried they won’t do well on a test because they don’t understand it. If your child tells you they are bored, talk to them and find out why. There could be a new solution or strategy you can give them to try. Let them know that all kids are different and they have different likes and dislikes. Not every subject may be their favorite or allow them to be their best at it, but that trying is expected and that it can be fun. Just them knowing that you understand it may not be their thing can help them lose the stress they feel.

Homework Help

Kids seem to hate homework. That may be part of what makes them hate school. Helping them with some homework tips can be something that changes that attitude. Try to help your child get on a better homework schedule. Try to have one set time that you have them do homework. Homework may need to be done right after school and after a snack or short break, but before they go outside to play or before they watch television at night. Stick to that routine and it will help. Help them get organized and if they have difficulty with homework sit down and try to help them and show you are interested. Part of the enthusiasm your child feels about school will be based on how you interact with them and their school. Be a bigger part of their school and show them that you care about their education as well.

About the Author

Jerry O’Rourke is a Social Work college professor and father of five.  He enjoys sharing his experience in working with families.  He stresses the importance of using http://backgroundcheck.org before hiring a nanny or babysitter.

Having moved into our new house just a few days ago we are still in the process of unpacking but only have about a dozen boxes or so left to go so have been making good progress.  I didn’t take more than Monday off of work so only unpacking when I can.

I however incentivized the kids to help out around the house more, they are so into Minecraft since getting it as a gifts last week that now I reward them with new minecraft maps, textures and packs after the complete chores.  1/2 hour of pulling weeds netted them 3 new texture packs and 3 new maps.

So far it seems to work, when they want something new in Minecraft I give them a task or chore to complete and they work it to get the reward.  So at least I am not constantly feeding them new stuff, this will only work for so long, my 9 year old could figure out how to find/download and install his own minecraft mods pretty easily and hopefully he won’t go seeking how to do it himself so this incentive system works for a bit longer.

Meanwhile, I haven’t had time to do virtually any blogging and even less gaming, I haven’t even logged into Guild Wars 2 in a week and Gunther Dragonclaw idly waits until I can return to play him again.

-Justin Germino

I redid my Twitter profile background and header a little while back after learning (late) that you have the option to customize the profile logo space at the top of the page in addition to the background.  I saw @JohnAguiar share this on Facebook which is how I learned about it.

Obviously tying in my Dragon Blogger brand into my identity is big for me and part of my online social media presence.  Feel free to take a closer look at @DragonBlogger on Twitter and let me know what you think about the new customized background.

Have you updated your profile background image yet in your Twitter account?

-Justin Germino