Blogger Billionaire Mark Cuban Bans Blogging

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American billionaire slash entrepreneur slash blogger slash Dallas Mavericks owner has banned full-time bloggers from the NBA teams locker room.

According to Deadspin: “Mark Cuban dislikes bloggers who aren’t him.”

The Dallas Morning News, which employs the only writer that’s been banned so far, claims that the new policy contradicts language on the team’s season media passes. Press are allowed access to all media areas, including locker rooms.

Hmmmm. So is Cuban, who has made millions off of blogging now saying that they are not true media? The new policy banishes writers whose “primary purpose is to blog.”

The banned blogger was booted the same day a story that was critical of the Mavs coach was published.

The NBA, and other sport organizations, should reassess their media plans and make sure they offer consistent access for bloggers and other members of the media.

This story puts the “I” in irony.

The Long Tail Applied to Blog Hosting Services

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The Long Tail is a popular consumer demographic often applied to Internet related business and services. In How Many Blogs Are There? Is Someone Still Counting? I proposed studying blogging demographics based on software platform, country or a combination of both. While looking into the blogging demographics per platform it became clear that there are huge national and local blogospheres. A lot of blogs that write about blogging focus on the major platform WordPress and at the Blog Herald we have readers kindly reminding us that blogging does not equal WordPress.

Point in case is: WordPress.com and Blogger.com are big but national blog hosting services may be even bigger.

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Waiting for WordPress 2.5

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Graphic of Arrow and WordPress logo representing WordPress upgrades copyright Lorelle VanFossenUPDATE: According to Weblog Tools Collection, WordPress 2.5 has been delayed about a week. We’re waiting for confirmation from the developers. The developers are working overtime to ensure it is in top notch shape, so don’t worry. The delay is for our benefit. Be patient. It was originally scheduled for the end of March. I’d rather have the glitches fixed than upgrade twice in the same month. :D

I’ve covered the preflight of WordPress 2.5. I’ve written an article asking you if you are ready for WordPress 2.5, and have given you the tips you need to know to upgrade, and here it is March 10, 2008, at 3:20PM and I’m in San Francisco, the main home for WordPress, only a short distance from Matt Mullenweg’s apartment (he’s in Texas, of course), and I’m waiting for WordPress 2.5 like the rest of you.

I’m really looking forward to the new features and the first attempt to integrate the long awaited Administration Panels. I’m especially eager for the new Media Library and having the ability to upload more than one image at a time. Oh, I’ve missed that feature so much.

I really thought that would have already implemented the new version for testing, but alas, we have seen nothing except a bug in the ability to release future posts not fixed since the criminal activity almost two weeks ago caused some server problems, and today’s announcement of a WordPress.com security vulnerability that only impacts those blogs, not stand alone, full version WordPress blogs.

So maybe the developers are busy addressing that issue before 2 million plus blogs are hacked.

So this is Lorelle doing a little blog toe tapping, waiting for WordPress 2.5.

Any minute now.
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UK Civil Servants Can Kiss Blogging Freedom Goodbye

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A 33-year-old blogger who works for the UK government, is under fire for her blog “Civil Serf,” which pointed out “bureaucracy and incompetence.” That’s a combo that goes together more often than chocolate and peanut butter. The blog has since been shut down. And it’s probably the first of many.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell is currently working on rules which will outline what government employees can and cannot do on the Web. From blogging to registering on social networking Websites to changing details on Wikipedia, civil servants should expect a royal smack down.

The Department for Work and Pensions claims that these changes are not due to “Civil Serf,” rather, they’ve been in the works for quite some time.

Riiiiight. Perhaps the new blogging rules will get held up in red tape and will never make the light of day? Likely not. For some strange reason, politicos seem to move fast when their names are the punch line of the joke.

Will You Wait for WordPress 2.5.1?

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As we get closer to the next version of WordPress being released, one of the things that keeps popping up in my mind is whether or not the first release will be stable and secure enough to use. Previous major releases have had their problems and like most desktop software, it can be better to wait for the point one release after a new version. Will WordPress 2.5 be the same?

I know many people who are going to wait a week or two to see what the opinion of the Support Forums seems to be, but will people wait long enough that WordPress 2.5.1 is released?

With all the new features and the design overhaul of the WordPress administration panel, will you be on the cutting edge and upgrade right away, wait a few days, or wait until WordPress 2.5.1?

Another group of people I want to mention are those that aren’t looking forward to upgrading at all because of the administration panel design changes. I wonder how many will cling to WordPress 2.3.3?

Please Vote and Comment Below