cool’s insufficient Pownce substitute

Blogmktg

When I wrote about the goals, history and move of the Web Development Blog, I mentioned that the move would present some marketing challenges. Specifically I wondered how long it would take to transition readers to the new location so that readership would equal, then surpass the levels I had on the old site. In conversations I've had with many of you both online and in the real world I've promised to share my progress. It's now been just over a month since the Web Development Blog moved to it's new home, so today I thought I'd update you on the progress I've made so far and the strategies I've employed.

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I'm honored that you want to follow me. Seriously, though your mini-bio shows an interest in shopping and grooming tiny dogs, while mine does not, I'm sure we could find oodles of tiny poodles to discuss in 140 characters or less.

Granted I feel the Internet (Amazon comes to mind) was created so I wouldn't have to suffer the trials and tribulations of shopping malls and department stores, and my canine sensibilities tend more towards Rottweilers and German Shepherds, but perhaps we could have found common ground...if you had spoken.

How might I possibly hazard a guess as to whether you prefer Prada while I don L.L.Bean? How might I know if we both have a penchant for the philosophy of John Rawls or a predilection for pomegranates if you've yet to post a single Tweet?

Sure it's keen that you've found 134 people to follow, none of whom I know. And I applaud your sense of diversity for choosing friends who post in so many different languages. It's great to learn from other cultures and if you are truly multi-lingual enough to follow them all I applaud you. I'm sure I'd love to hear your insights on linguistic history. But until you hazard to Tweet a word yourself, I fear there is nothing for me to follow.

Sincerely,
Heidi

Dear Pownce,

I am not committing Powncicide, but plan to stick it out to the end. I don't want to miss anything...I even just accepted a friend request! (Guten tag, Andy!)

I know many of have been going through the stages of grief:

Denial: This can't be real, something will save it.
Anger: Blaming 6A & the Pownce Team.
Bargaining: Pleas to Six Apart of find a way to keep us.
Depression: Where will we go? We can't depend on Twitter, aigh.
Acceptance: Exporting our data, posting our other profiles.

This is perfectly natural. But what I've said before and I'm going to say again, is the reason we're going to miss it so is the fact that it is (soon to be was) a great service.

We've not found the perfect alternative yet, because it doesn't exist. Leah, Daniel, Mike, etc. put together a system that clicked for us. It's intuitive to use, has a breathtakingly clean design and it gave us the tools to find one another and create this brilliant community. A community that overflowed beyond it's borders as we sought (even before the announcement) to reinforce our friendships on the other services we use.

The Pownce team also used the service, they were part of the conversation, forged connections, and let us see what was going on in their world. To a far greater degree than I've seen elsewhere they were accessible to us.

So as disappointed as I am, I also know that I wouldn't have met all the wonderful Powncers I know now if it weren't for their creation.

I wouldn't have made this my defacto destination for lunchtime and evening conversation.

I wouldn't have jumped headfirst into the sea of social media, where before I'd only stuck in my toes to test the waters at Flickr and Facebook. People have made slights against the team for building their resume, but my experience here has helped me do the same. And isn't that always a part of what we all do in our work? Build skills that we will continue to use in the future?

As a Web developer, I've gleaned great insights from Daniel Burka, Alan Houser, Wayne Smallman and countless other experts/peers in my field. I've experimented with new social media, SEO and SEM strategies and put them into practice in my job. I've gotten tips from fellow Powncers on points I should include in my blog entries, and gained new readers from the group.

I've also had more personal conversations here on Pownce where we've shared advice and ideas about the problems of our real lives. And we've shared humor and entertainment: discovering someone has posted just the right amusing video, just when we needed some cheering up, or seeing an article that offers insights into an issue we've been pondering.

I could go on and on, but the point is really simple. Pownce gave us a social network that really did what such a network should. It allowed us to connect on myriad levels.

And so, while our hours are numbered, I'll keep checking in until the end. As some of the Pownciciders used food analogies to explain their early departures, I'll use one too.

If someone put an enormous tray of chocolate truffles on the table and said I could eat as many as I wanted until midnight tomorrow, well heck, I'd eat some truffles! Why walk away from a good thing just because it won't be there next week?

So, to everyone on the Pownce team, and in the Pownce community. thank you for the chocolate, it's been delicious.

Gothmailmacmailsm

As the semester winds down, and the holiday season encroaches, it seems there are more and more events to publicize, greetings to send, end-of-year newsletters to distribute, holiday sales to promote, etc. T'is the season for HTML e-mails. Alas, as many of you know, creating and distributing an HTML e-mail message is far more complicated than building a regular Web site. As we struggled in the days of the browser wars, today we struggle with the myriad ways popular e-mail programs support HTML. Anyone who has had to create an HTML e-mail message, or has received one they couldn't read, knows what I mean. So today I'll present five tips that should help to make your e-mails readable by the masses.

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I'm writing a blog post on HTML email in which I'll post some tips, how-to advice for the coding and discuss things to avoid (like messages that are composed of images only). Have you any particular pet peeves you think I should address?