One Sentence blog http://www.onesentence.org/blog Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:26:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en For sale: one brain, never used. http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/29/for-sale-one-brain-never-used/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/29/for-sale-one-brain-never-used/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:26:21 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/?p=40 To all the folks that have ever submitted Hemingway’s famous six-word, single sentence story as their own: did you really think I wouldn’t notice? Or that a dozen people before you hadn’t done the same thing?

Sheesh.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/29/for-sale-one-brain-never-used/feed/ Performance Improvements http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/15/performance-improvements/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/15/performance-improvements/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:02:55 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/15/performance-improvements/ The stories page has always been kind of slow because it stupidly created the tag cloud on every page load.  Last night I whipped up a little caching code and it now only creates the cloud once every hour.  It’s much, much snappier now.

Also, since the cloud was growing a bit unwieldy, it’s only displaying tags that have two or more entries associated with them.

(I haven’t moved the site to the new server yet… time got away from me this weekend.  Soon.)

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/15/performance-improvements/feed/ Downtime and moving http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/11/downtime-and-moving/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/11/downtime-and-moving/#comments Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:10:55 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/?p=38 Apologies for the multiple instances of downtime this week. I’m finally going to move 1S to a new host this weekend. So, there will be a short time this weekend where the site is once again unavailable, but rest assured that once things are back up and running, the downtime issues should disappear.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/07/11/downtime-and-moving/feed/ Back to the lab http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/23/back-to-the-lab/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/23/back-to-the-lab/#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:48:50 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/23/back-to-the-lab/ Hey there!

I’m back after a few (very needed) days off and away from the Net. New sentences resume today.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/23/back-to-the-lab/feed/ Oops. http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/10/oops/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/10/oops/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:38:18 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/10/oops/ My One Sentence for the day:

I accidentally clicked “approve” instead of “disapprove” for a submission that was three sentences, not one.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/06/10/oops/feed/ New feature: unapproved stories http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/05/21/new-feature-unapproved-stories/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/05/21/new-feature-unapproved-stories/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 19:21:54 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/05/21/new-feature-unapproved-stories/ One of the most common things I hear via e-mail or the blog’s comments is that either I don’t approve enough sentences or that I should enlist help in the approval process. The thing is, I have a certain vision of the type of stuff that should appear on One Sentence and I have trouble giving up even a little bit of control to someone else.

At the same time, I understand how One Sentence junkies need more to read. So, with that in mind, I present a new feature:

Unapproved Stories

That page displays a single random unapproved sentence (but not a speficially disapproved sentence) and then asks you whether the sentence should be published on the site. You can answer yes, no, or skip it. Once you vote, you’ll be presented with another random sentence. On and on and on until the end of time.

Periodically, when I’m approving sentences, I’ll check to see what readers are either liking or disliking and take that into account. How’s that for a good compromise? You get more to read and some input into the site and I get help in finding gems I may have missed!

Enjoy the new feature and let me know if you have any feedback.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/05/21/new-feature-unapproved-stories/feed/ Daily Dish’ed http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/22/daily-dished/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/22/daily-dished/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:05:32 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/22/daily-dished/ Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for yesterday’s link to 1S. He found the site courtesy of Frank Wilson, who found it via novelist Lynn Viehl, who came upon it thanks to author Rosina Lippi.

Thanks, everyone!

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/22/daily-dished/feed/ Downtime? What downtime? http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/15/downtime-what-downtime/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/15/downtime-what-downtime/#comments Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:49:44 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/15/downtime-what-downtime/ You’ve probably noticed some pretty serious downtime over the last few days. Don’t worry, I didn’t go so broke I couldn’t pay my hosting bill… the server the site is hosted on (along with the majority of the other sites I run) fell on hard times. There was almost 36 hours of downtime beginning last Friday morning and then another 24 hours starting yesterday morning. Apparently, a disk had started to show signs of faultiness, so they moved the data but ran into some issues during the transition. Things seems to be back online now and running in a relatively stable fashion, so hopefully it’ll be clear sailing from here on out.

I’m going to make a new backup soon, though, just in case.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/15/downtime-what-downtime/feed/ Are ads bad? http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/02/are-ads-bad/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/02/are-ads-bad/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:47:52 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/02/are-ads-bad/ So I’ve decided to try a little something for April and run some text ads in the sidebar.  I went back and forth on the idea of running ads for a while.  I was a little uncomfortable doing it because, hey, the PostSecret guy doesn’t.  But he’s also running his blog on Blogspot (and presumably not paying for hosting there).  Not that I’m paying loads for hosting, but One Sentence does use more bandwidth than any of my other sites…

In any event, consider this an experiment.  I’m going to run the ads for a month.  They’re going to be limited to a 120×240 pixel banner in the sidebar.  The RSS feed won’t have ads.  And I’ll donate 25% of any money I make to a to-be-determined charity.

If the ads drive you nuts or you feel very strongly that I shouldn’t run ads, speak up.  Let me know here or via the contact form.  If the masses speak and the ads drive you batty, then I’ll ditch ‘em.

]]> http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/04/02/are-ads-bad/feed/ President Bush: Fan of One Sentence http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/03/26/president-bush-fan-of-one-sentence/ http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/03/26/president-bush-fan-of-one-sentence/#comments Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:35:06 +0000 Ryan http://www.onesentence.org/blog/2008/03/26/president-bush-fan-of-one-sentence/ Bush Pardons 15, Commutes One Sentence

Why thank you, Mister President! This site appreciates being commuted.

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