Email subscriptions update

My old email subscriptions provider (Feedburner) is apparently shutting down next month, so I've set up a new service with MailChimp -- see the "subscribe via email" form towards the bottom of the sidebar if you'd like to be added to the list.  Hope it works.  Tomorrow I'll try to transfer over the 160-odd subscribers from my Feedburner list, but if you find that you aren't getting email updates any more, maybe try re-subscribing manually, check your spam folder, and then let me know if the problem persists...

P.S. I still personally recommend RSS using a service like Feedly, if you follow multiple blogs.  I also share most of my posts on Twitter and FB for those who prefer that, but I gather those platforms are less reliable as their algorithms will determine which content ends up getting presented to you.

Testing Google+ Comments System

The good folks at Blogger have released a new commenting platform that's integrated with Google+, which I'm curious to try out.

The main advantages seem to be:

• Any public discussions of the blog post on Google+ will also show up on the blog itself
• Comments get a "+1" button, and can be sorted by rating so the best comments drift to the top.
• More privacy options: you can post non-public comments, only shared with certain "circles" of friends, if you prefer.
• Commenters can easily "share" their comments on Google+, encouraging more people to join in the discussion.

Potential disadvantages:

• Google account required to comment
• Limited threading of comments (only nests 1 reply deep, it seems?)

What do you think?

Update: reverted to the old commenting system, for two main reasons.  (1) I don't seem to be notified in any way of new comments, unlike old system where I receive email notifications (and readers can likewise subscribe for email or RSS updates to a particular thread).

(2) As a reader pointed out, there are real concerns about the long-term accessibility of comments using the new system.  The old system seems more stable.  (For example: the old comments still appear when you switch to the new system.  But new Google+ comments do not remain if you switch back to the old one.  They thus seem more "fragile".)

If these two problems are addressed in some future update, I may later make the switch.

Philosophers' Carnival: New Directions

After eight years (!), I'm stepping down from running the Philosophers' Carnival.  Fortunately, Tristan Haze of Sprachlogik has volunteered to take over the reins, and I gather that he has plans to revive the carnival and get it out of its recent slump.  So, my thanks to Tristan.  And for any old fans of the carnival: keep an eye out for improvements to come!

Philosophers' Carnival Submission Method Update

Since the BlogCarnival submission form no longer works, the Philosophers' Carnival is upgrading to an all new, more reliable system: Email!

From now on, to submit a post to the carnival, just send along the URL and post title (and preferably a short description) to r.chappell+carnival@gmail.com, with "Philosophers' Carnival submission" in the subject line, and it'll be automatically forwarded along to the next carnival host.

Update: I've added a new submission form (powered by google docs) to the Philosophers' Carnival homepage. Please use that instead!

Links via Twitter

Google Reader has annoyingly removed their "shared items" functionality, which I'd used to generate the "Elsewhere" links that used to populate this blog's sidebar. So now I'm trying out Twitter for sharing links instead. So, if you want to see the links that have struck me as particularly interesting recently, you can find them on my Twitter page. Or, for those who (like me) prefer RSS, here's the feed.

1 Million Visits!

According to SiteMeter, this blog just received its millionth visit this morning! And I'm sure at least half of those must have been from people who aren't me.

Seriously though, congratulations to the anonymous browser from Michigan State University, who came to this page through a google search for 'positive right and negative right'. I do hope you're not plagiarizing my essay for a school assignment. In any case, you win a year's free subscription to Philosophy, et cetera. As does everyone else.

New 'browse' view

The good folks at Blogger have added a new 'dynamic' display format for viewing Blogger-based blogs. It offers a much faster way to browse recent posts. (You need to return to the old-style format to post comments though.) You can try mine out here.

Souper!

The editors at PEA Soup kindly invited me to join their blog. I'll continue my usual half-baked blogging here, but look forward to occasionally sending a more developed idea to PEA Soup for further scrutiny. (On such occasions, I may reproduce the body of the post here for archival purposes but disable comments so that the discussion isn't split. Or I'll just link to it.)

Update: my first post is up!

Comment Box Woes?

Alex notes:

perhaps this is just me - though I doubt it - but this comment box is weird. I can't move the text cursor around except by mouse, and nor can I cut, copy or paste in it

Anyone else having problems? (Please email if you somehow can't leave comments at all!)

N.B. I sometimes get an error the first time I click 'post comment' (if I'm not already logged in), but a second click always does the trick. I haven't noticed any other problems myself (using Firefox and Chrome). But if enough others are having persistent problems, I guess I'll have to shift back (yet again!) to the awful 'pop up' comments page.

"Sitemaps" for Blogger

Amanda at Blogger Buster has a useful guide on 'How to Create a Sitemap with Google Feed Control'. This lets you create a page that automatically lists all the posts that are categorized under various 'labels'. (It doesn't include the full posts -- just a "table of contents" -- so is much easier to navigate than Blogger's default label pages.) I've so far set up four such lists:
(1) Ethics Sitemap (for my various ethics and political theory categories)
(2) LEMMing Sitemap - Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Mind
(3) Useful Lists of Blog Posts - for higher-order labels like "favourite posts"
(4) Full Sitemap -- all my categorized posts on one page.

Unofficial NDPR feed

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has lamented the lack of any rss/atom feeds for keeping up with the wonderful Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. So, I went and created one:

http://ndpr-mirror.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ndpr

Enjoy! (Combine this with kindlefeeder, and now I can read each new NDPR on my Kindle -- how cool is that!)

Blog 'Follow' Gadget

In case anyone was doubting whether bloggers are megalomaniacs at heart, the folks at Blogger.com are now encouraging us to prominently display a list of "followers" on our blog sidebars. Heh.

Amusing word choice aside, a closer look suggests that there's more to the gadget than I'd initially thought. For example, you can click on a reader's portrait to see their public profile [if they've filled it in], including a list of other blogs they read/"follow". So, at a minimum, it offers a new way to find possibly-related blogs to check out. (In the same way, I suppose, it could bring readers of other sites to find this one, if you sign up.)

The gadget also makes it extremely easy to actively recommend this blog to your friends, should anyone feel so inspired.

Finally, on a more symbolic level, it might serve to develop the blog's "community", by introducing regular readers and commenters to each other, and explicitly recognizing them as part of the blog itself. (And I expect Google will continue to add more social-networking features.)

Anyway, I figure I may as well try it out. Feel free to join in, and let me know what you think.

About this blog

[My old 'introduction' was getting a bit outdated; here's a replacement.]

Welcome to Philosophy, et cetera. My name is Richard Chappell, and this blog contains my thoughts on academic philosophy and - occasionally - other stuff.

My 'web of beliefs' offers an overview of the past year's blogging, and of my various philosophical views. The main page sports my latest posts, or you can browse my monthly archives in the sidebar. Alternatively - and perhaps more usefully - you can scroll to the bottom of any page to see a list of 'categories', and select a topic of interest to peruse.  You might also want to check out my favourite posts, as well as my 'lessons' diagnosing common philosophical mistakes (which I hope may impart some useful insights to budding young philosophers).

Comments Policy

If you're an academic philosopher or grad student, go right ahead. Non-philosophers: read carefully. This blog is a place for me to explore my ideas. I welcome the opportunity to improve them, so intelligent critical feedback is greatly appreciated. To that end, here are some ground rules.

(1) Keep it focused. The comments section is emphatically not an invitation to rant or "express yourself" however you please. The purpose of the comment threads is to continue the specific conversation started in the main post. [Exception: open threads.] If you want your own soapbox, get your own blog.

(2) Add value to the conversation. Don't just assert your disagreement, offer reasons why I should change my mind. (Questions are also welcome, of course.)

(3) No trolls allowed. Maintaining this blog is my hobby; receiving rude or abusive comments is not.

In general, I reserve the right to delete any comment that I judge to detract from the discussion. (Its author may email me to request a copy of the deleted comment.)

On a more positive note:
* You're welcome to comment on older posts. As always, I can't promise to respond, but I often will. Links to 'Recent Comments' are listed in the sidebar.

* I recommend signing in with a Google/Blogger account, so you can check the 'email follow-up comments' box to be notified of any responses.

* If you'd like to discuss a new topic of interest (while respecting rule #1 above), feel free to email me the topic request, and I'll often be happy to start a new thread for that purpose. I'm also very open to the possibility of publishing 'guest posts' by other academic philosophers. Again, email me if you're interested.

Comments Broken?

Blogger has officially released the 'embedded comment form' I'm using below, so it should now be working (one would hope). But I've had one reader email in to let me know that it's still eating his comments. Is anyone else still having problems posting? (You're welcome to try leaving a test comment on this post.) Please email me if you notice it not working -- if it's not an isolated problem, I'll revert to the pop-up comments window.

Half a Million Visits

Philosophy etc. just received its 500,000th visit a few minutes ago -- not bad for a philosophy blog!

Thanks for dropping by. (And if you have any suggestions for how to improve the blog further, feel free to leave a comment or email me.)

Commenting Bug

Huh, Blogger was disappearing my comments rather than posting them (has anyone else had this problem?), so I've temporarily reverted to having a separate 'post a comment' page (which seems to be working more reliably -- though you might want to copy your comment to the clipboard before posting, just in case). It also has the benefit of letting you subscribe by email to follow-up comments.

Update: let's try the embedded comment form again -- they've now added a 'subscribe' link to this too (see bottom right). Please email me if you encounter any problems.

Inline Comment Form

At long last, the folks at Blogger have created an inline comment form, which I'm now testing out.  Email me if you have any problems using it.

New Website

Crooked Timber has a post on 'The importance of Web sites for academics'. It seems like good advice, so I've composed this page (now linked in the sidebar, in place of the generic philosophy department homepage which is currently broken in any case). Design tips welcome.

Blog Navigation Tweaks

You may have noticed I'm still playing around with the blog template a bit.

[Update: I've added a new sidebar list of 'recommended posts' from other blogs, to supplement my 'commenting elsewhere' list.]

(1) I've moved the labels/categories list to the page footer, clearing more room in the sidebar. (The horizontal 'cloud' display is a bit harder to read than a vertical list, unfortunately, but I think it's probably worth the savings in screen space. How often do you use the list anyway?)

I've also made the basic list of 'recent posts' more prominent at the top of the sidebar, since that is probably more useful.

(2) Individual post pages now automatically list "related posts", i.e. recent posts tagged with the same category label. I imagine this could prove useful.

(3) I've upgraded the ratings widget with two new (experimental) features:
- My top rated posts are displayed in a sidebar list.
- By comparing and correlating ratings between posts, the widget automatically generates recommendations. Generic recommendations simply list other posts that were highly rated by the people who liked the present post. But if you have rated several posts yourself, the widget will cleverly offer individually tailored recommendations for you, based on the ratings of "people like you", i.e. who have made similar ratings to you in the past.

The more you (and others) rate, the better the widget will be able to recognize and cater to your 'taste' in posts, so the more useful it will be to you. How cool is that!

Post Ratings and Template Changes

I've just added this cool widget to my blog and RSS feed, which lets you rate each post (out of 5 stars). It looks like a fun and convenient way to get more reader feedback...

Update: I just realized this won't function properly with my custom template, since the sidebar navigation lets you read posts other than the original page that the widget thinks you're still reading (rating). So, only those who read my blog via a feed reader will get to use this.

P.S. Perhaps I should revert to a more conventional template? I know that many readers were displeased by the change last year. Now that you've gotten used to it, what do you think?

Update II: Okay, I've fixed my template and reinstated the widget -- rate away!

I've also (1) added fade-in expandable posts, with thanks to Ramani; (2) restored author comment highlighting, as before; and (3) made various cosmetic tweaks (colours, borders, etc.). Do you like the new style?