Links and Minifeatures 04 01 Sunday (No Fooling)

I have reluctantly decided to start requiring comment accounts again. I was getting way too much comment spam for the level of real comments and even those who were real were often trying to drive their own agenda at the expense of the public, as the comments here illustrate - not at all the sort of discourse I'm trying to encourage.



Why comment spam is ruthlessly deleted: When I recently put up one link to my wife's Mary Kay site, my search engine traffic dropped by a full third, week on week. I did that because it's a part of my domestic responsibility. It's gone now because she wasn't seeing any benefit while it was hurting this site, but the illustrative principle remains: You want to boost your ranking at my expense, it's going to cost you some serious cash. A percentage of your net is not going to cut it. If you're not willing to front cash, don't bother.



Of course, the level of this nonsense was practically zero prior to the "no comment account" experiment, and I expect that's where it'll go back to.

**********



I had an accident yesterday and hit my right shoulder on concrete. I thought I was fine, but later on it became plain that this was not the case. It's painful to keep my right arm in the usual place for computer operation right now. Net result: You may be seeing repeat articles for a few days. Sorry.



UPDATE: Just a shoulder separation. Painful, but no broken bones. Need to apply heat. Should be healed in a few weeks.



**********



Since some people may eye the date and think either one of these items is a joke, I will specifically state that they are not. The experiment in "no comment account required" has become an obvious failure, and I really am going to see about urgent care for the shoulder. I would be happier were they jokes, but such is not the case.