JapanSoc social bookmarking service FeedBurner FeedFlare
One of my blogging New Year Resolutions is to network more - indeed just network full stop - so one way is to give something to the community of Japanese bloggers that doesn’t quite exist yet, despite some action towards that goal.
Some of you might have heard of JapanSoc, a digg-like social bookmarking thingie for Japan-related news stories, but it seems to be suffering from a lack of readers. So, in order to spread awareness of its existence and to increase the number of stories posted and therefore voted on and clicked-through to, I’ve written a small FeedBurner FeedFlare that puts a “JapanSoc It!” button at the bottom of each post.
If you as a blog publisher want to use it, sign up to both FeedBurner and JapanSoc if you haven’t already done so, then from your feed’s FeedBurner menu select the Optimize tab along the top, then the FeedFlare option on the left. Look for the edit field with the “Add New Flare” button beside it, and type http://whatjapanthinks.com/misc/japansoc.xml into the box and press the button. Now, everyone who reads your feed will have the opportunity to submit your stories to JapanSoc.
This is an unofficial add-in and I’ve only previously hinted to Nick that I was doing something for his site! If you want to know why you should use it, Nick posted today on boosting traffic with JapanSoc. Oh, and perhaps Nick might like to make this suggested change to the submit.php page to handle resubmissions, or even do something like this.
If you as an RSS feed consumer want to use it, sign up to JapanSoc and whenever you see the “JapanSoc It!” button on a good story (like this one?) in your RSS reader, just press the button and submit it.
If you don’t use an RSS reader, try Google Reader for size.
Note that another similar site, TokyoGraph Link, doesn’t seem to support automation, so I cannot provide a widget for that.
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Nick Ramsay said,
January 7, 2008 @ 23:08
Thanks Ken, I hadn’t heard about FeedFlares before, but what you’ve put together is fantastic. I’ve added your JapanSoc FeedFlare to my blog’s feed, as well as the flares for StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Digg.
This is seriously good stuff! If you’re a blogger using FeedBurner, go and add these to your feed now, it only takes a minute! Don’t forget to copy and paste the link to Ken’s JapanSoc FeedFlare into the Personal FeedFlare section.
(Ken, I’ve also made the changes to the submit.php file you suggested and it seems to be working nicely. Much appreciated.)
Jamaipanese said,
January 7, 2008 @ 23:48
signed up a few days ago, not much traffic yet but I am willing to watch it grow and play my part!
Candadai Tirumalai said,
January 7, 2008 @ 23:55
It is not a blog but I have found Blaine Harden’s occasional articles on matters Japanese in the “Washington Post” very interesting. There was one this morning on robots, the aging of society, and the decline in the birth rate. He knows how to grip the attention of the reader and to educate him.
Simon said,
January 8, 2008 @ 00:04
Signed up for this and added it to my FeedFlare! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Thomas (nihonhacks.com) said,
January 8, 2008 @ 00:07
Done and done! Thanks for writing this up. I hope together we can get JapanSoc off the ground
Tori said,
January 8, 2008 @ 02:05
Ken, have we told you lately that we love you?!
This is exactly the type of comradery DailyJ has been trying to promote and bloggers like you and Nick have been showing! It will definitely be mentioned as an example on The Japan-related Web series at RisingSunOfNihon.
Keep up the great work helping others out and encouraging others to do the same!
btw, the JapanSoc button is brilliant! I’ll do my part to promote it.
Wow, this is really exciting!
Drew said,
January 8, 2008 @ 09:34
I write blog posts sometimes, and some of them are about Japan, but I must admit that I don’t really understand anything about the blog community. I don’t really know what digg is, or feedburner.. Which is really sad considering how much time I spend in front of a computer.
Is there some sort of tutorial or intro site to this world? I might post more often (which would make my friends and family happy) if I had some sense of community…
Deas said,
January 8, 2008 @ 14:24
Sweetness! I signed up and am sporting the JapanSoc flare on my feed now. Thanks very much.
Daily J » Topic » Catching up said,
January 8, 2008 @ 22:17
[…] really interesting development is Ken YN’s latest post over at What Japan Thinks. Ken has kindly made a gadget to help the fledgling JapanSoc project. This type of collaboration […]
Chris G said,
January 10, 2008 @ 02:38
Just a warning; there are apparently Phishing scripts installed on the site. I tried to access the site and OpenDNS blocks it. I contacted them and they responded with:
“There are phishing scripts installed on that site. You may want to
contact the site administrator regarding this issue.”
I’ve contacted Nick and hopefully he can get this sorted out.
Otakustuff.com: For Otaku! | xorsyst.com said,
January 10, 2008 @ 02:58
[…] is JapanSoc.com. I have heard this site’s name before, but never actually read the site until Ken from WhatJapanThinks.com posted an article about it a few days ago. When I heard about it from the […]
Nick Ramsay said,
January 10, 2008 @ 03:10
@ Chris G
The site was hacked last month, but I found and removed those phishing scripts within a few hours. That was a while ago now so it’s frustrating to hear you’re having problems accessing JapanSoc. I’d be interested to hear if anyone else can’t access it.
Chris G said,
January 10, 2008 @ 05:19
@ Nick
Thanks for clearing that up! I guess OpenDNS haven’t properly re-checked the site. I’ll email them again and see what they say. It might be worth you getting in contact with them and explaining it.
It’s only a problem for me at work, who I guess use OpenDNS to filter out phishing and adult sites. It’s a shame it’s not handled internally or I would get our system admin to allow the site. Obviously this is only for browsing during my lunch break
Chris G said,
January 10, 2008 @ 05:31
@ Nick
I let them know what you said and they replied, almost instantly(!), and they’ve now unblocked it
Tori said,
January 10, 2008 @ 09:39
@ Nick,
That stinks that you were hacked by phishers. I had a similar problem (I think it was also pligg related) and my site was actually suspended for half a day until I worked out the problem with my host. Not pleasant.
Nick Ramsay said,
January 10, 2008 @ 11:53
@ Chris
Thanks! I emailed OpenDNS, too, and got the same response: “The block has been removed on the domain”. Phew.
@ Tori
Actually, it wasn’t such a big issue because it didn’t affect JapanSoc or its users at all. The script sent out fake PayPal emails which pointed people to a folder buried deep within the bowels of the site, where no-one would even notice. My web host warned me straight away and they helped me find it, too - without suspending the site. Had they suspended the site, I would have been fuming!
Tori said,
January 10, 2008 @ 12:20
You’re lucky.
They (the phishers) are probably googling sites running on the CMS. There must be some sort of hole, there may be a hotfix. When did this happen?
In my case it was awhile ago. I was using v8.2 I think when I was hacked. Inside of the Paypal script there should be email addresses of the phishers. I submitted those address to some internet watchdog sites but nothing came of it. I HATE phishers!
You changed your password/ etc., right?
Questions for JapanSoc Users #1 « LongCountdown.com said,
January 11, 2008 @ 01:01
[…] the JapanSoc FeedBurner FeedFlare to your blog […]
Daily J » Topic » A quick guide to all the (hectic) activity going on here at DailyJ said,
January 12, 2008 @ 06:38
[…] from JapanSoc soon. Also (hopefully) I will be doing a post explaining how to set up the “JapanSoc It” gadget that KenYN from WhatJapanThinks generously made for the […]
Japan Exposed Through Opinion Poll Translations « LongCountdown.com said,
January 12, 2008 @ 21:12
[…] His new found fame has brought him some publicity in the form of an interview with the Japan Times, and now he’s sharing his fortune with the rest of us by hosting crowd-pullers like the Japan Blog Awards and using his web skills to promote the JapanSoc social bookmarking site with the JapanSoc FeedBurner FeedFlare. […]
JapanSoc Toolbox « LongCountdown.com said,
February 9, 2008 @ 00:51
[…] confused, watch the introduction to FeedBurner video in this DailyJ post, and then read Ken’s article so you can implement the JapanSoc FeedFlare into your own […]
Daily J » Topic » Thank yous and lots of Japan-related web activity! said,
February 17, 2008 @ 12:11
[…] has been a lot of love going around on the Japan-related web lately. Starting with KenYN’s contribution to the JapanSoc project, other bloggers have come along and contributed to several projects. Deas from RockingInHakata […]
Val said,
March 11, 2008 @ 20:59
Take a look at http://www.entopica.com/, a new online system that allows you to easily access, categorize, share and store your bookmarks online.Its free to join and registration is both quick and easy. Discover a whole new world of social bookmarking.