8 posts tagged “vox”

:NOTE: If you can see then and are expecting something else ... log in to vox.

I use the privacy/security features of vox heavily. Most of my posts are made for neighborhood, or more restrictive. I have always said that I blog primarily for myself, then to communicate with people I know, not the whole wold.

Every so often people I attempt to send posts to have issues getting to them. Today I received one such email.

::: Key Point :::

This makes since, if you are not logged in the vox server does not know who you are. A Friends & Family post is marked that to limit who can see the post.

::: Goal for this Tip Nation :::
Be able to know if you are logged into vox or not.

::: Neighborhood :::
One great way to check new posts of people you want to read about is to look at your neighborhood. At the same time it is somewhat subtitle to be able to tell if you are signed in or not.

-- Not Logged in --

-- Logged In --
These two screencaps are of the same page with one difference. I was logged in on the second one and not the first. Both were looking at my neighborhood.  If your neighborhood looks like the first you need to sign in (the colors might be different), if it looks like the second, notice your icon there and it says "hi, <your name>" then you are logged in.

::: Single Post :::
I use the vox system to sending posts to people many times. This system is easier for me to use then for you to check the post. Like the above, you have to be logged in. Thus here is how it works again:

Step 1. I sent you a post.
Step 2. You Receive an email similar to the screen cap to the right
There are three links there.
- 1 "nation" - this is my vox user name, it links to my vox blog. If you are a signed in you will see what I have authorized your account to see. If not you will see less.
- 2 "Read More" - this links to the actual post I am sending to you. When you click on this it will look one of two ways, see below.
- 3 "Nation" - this is at the end of my message and links to my vox blog. Same at the above.

Step 3. You click a link and it goes to either my blog or the specific post. Since there is not a lot of difference between the two, we are focusing on you knowing what it looks like when you are going to find something that is not "public" or for "anyone".

The above post is what most people see when they click on the "Read More" link. What is going on? Well, you are not signed in. If you look in the gray section under the search box you see "Already a Member? Sign In" That is what you want to click. Also notice, like the above example. Your icon is not in the top middle.

Log in and it should go back to the post you are looking for. Otherwise you might look in your neighborhood once you are logged in. This will show the posts, though not necessarily the one you were sent.

When you are logged in and looking at the post it looks like this:

Notice the top line, how my icon is there, it says hi to me, and I can access my messages, account, etc.

I hope this edition of Tip Nation has helped you enjoy and understand Vox even more.

Today is Vox's first anniversary since the official launch.  What's the best experience you've had on Vox in the past year?

I am going to go with two:

::: 10 Thoughts :::
At one point, soon after this was posted. Someone, maybe more the one person, sent me this post. It was funny enough that I marked it as a favorite and still find them funny.

::: [Vox is Good] :::
REDmjck made this post about why she uses vox and such and the kind words she shared about other people and her highlights was a good example of a great experience I've had on Vox.

I am sure I could post more, I could talk about posts I have made. Times when I sent out mass messaged to my friends or asked for help or just shared with some very close friends. In the end, the act of communicating, the responses I have received, and the information I have sent out has been the basis of all the good from my part.

Happy Voxiversary!

I have been posting on Vox for one year. This post is my 290th post. Of those posts:

79 have been Questions of the Day
22 have something to do with Business
12 are taged Political
This is the 36th post I have made public for all the world to see.
I have uploaded 190 pictures to vox, but I have shared many more using picasa and flickr.

Some podcasts have been shared through Vox, and roughly 35 youtube videos.

I have about 35 people in my neighborhood that I keep up with as frequent as they update.
19 of my friends now have Vox profiles and eight of my family.

There are 4 private groups I use to communicate with specific groups of people.

It has been a good year and Vox has changed during it for the better. It will be interesting to see the difference between now and the future. When I first posted I stated that I like Vox for two primary reasons:

• Ease of use
• Privacy features

Now I can probably add a third, I like vox and use vox as opposed to my own blog or a program I write, because it allows me to use one place to put up lots of different information that I can organize and find later on. It is not perfect at this, but it is getting better.

One of the major reasons I use vox as opposed to just blogging with another site or even setting up my own blog (I am currently running 4 sites with blog software or something really similar) is the privacy features.

A blog for Law Students titled "Top Law Student" recently did a piece titled Delete Your MySpace Page and most of the main points apply to almost everyone.

I plan on doing a full Tip Nation tip soon that will take his suggestions and apply them to Vox, because even though Vox is a better service, privacy wise, there are still some options you might want to consider including making your default posting to a private group.

As you know, Vox is currently “Invite Only”, this makes using the privacy features more difficult, because you are limited to who you can authorize as “friends” and/or “family”.

The good news is that Vox gives you invites every so often.

From time to the top banner will change to this:

Clicking on the image will take you to the invite page where you can see how many invites you have and all.
    

Vox invite page1

I suggest you give out all your invites and when doing so, remember to make them a friend or family (if you want them to be) and make suggestions for their neighborhood and or image.

Why? Why is it so important to give out the invites?

From my experience, they either only give invites to people who have given out their originals or to people who have given out all the invites they have already received.

Vox invite page middle

I have seen how often people receive invites, for me each week I have given all mine out they tend to give me more, but when I have not given all of them out I receive none. Also some who have never given out any invites still have the same number.

Some of the selling points I see is that without an account a person cannot see the private posts, and for me they are missing about 90% of my posts.

Posting Defaults

This section just sets your default. It can be overwritten, on a case by case situation. Normally this adjustment is made in the lower left of the post box.

 

Posting defaults

If you are like me, and mostly use this to keep up to date your friends and family. You might as well go here and change your setting to “your friends and family”. That way it is quicker to post and instead of thinking. It is easier to release stuff to more people, but once it is public, it might be out there and you can never get it back into the can.

 

This is one of the best things with Vox. The ability to blog, but still keep your private life private. There are many things you should not want to inform the world about, but want to tell your friends and family. This is especially true if you are using either your real name or a “standard” name for you. When you apply for a new job or meet a new person, odds are someone will do at least some basic searches on your name, email address, and any nickname they know of you. The thing with the internet is stuff sticks around a lot longer then you would think.

 

Simply put, you can always increase the number of people who can see something, but once it is public … you can consider it public forever.

Every day I scan over hundreds of articles and news items. I have really started liking RSS because it saves me so much time. Before I was using RSS I would:

1. 

   Google Reader
   open each page; I currently follow 40+ feeds
   
2. scan over the news
3. try to figure out if any of it was new to me
4. check each page a couple times a day, if they are the type that would update more then once a day.

Now, all I have to do is to open up my RSS reader, I use Google Reader, and see if there is anything new. I check that page every few hours, or minutes, and can quickly see what is new to me.

In the "old'en days" when the Internet was in it's first "bubble" the big way to get news out to people was though email and email lists. The new way is going to be through RSS. Here are some of the advantages to me, the user, by using RSS:

• They don't have my email address - thus they cannot sell my email address to a spamer.
  
• I know where the message came from - I don't need a spam filter on my RSS feeds.
  
• I have the control - if I am tired of receiving what a organization is sending I can just remove the feed.
• If I don't check it (because of vacation, or I am too busy), then it waits on me
• They can attach other things then just text - the org can send me podcasts, or any other file like a PDF, or video. They only automatically download if you are using a desktop RSS reader, not a webbased one.
  
• They can be password protector - this is a *newer* development, but will probably happen more in the future to allow more personalized RSS feeds.
• It does not have to take up hard drive space & you can check for new, or look at saved updates anyware in the world - if you are using an online service like Google Reader or Bloglines then it is less on your hard drive.

There is one small disadvantage I need to point out, if you are a company or org considering doing this.

RSS can eat up bandwidth. Leo Laporte talked about this in one of his early shows of This Week in Tech. Something about a $23,000 bandwidth bill one month. To help prevent that, there is a company that will host your RSS feed for *free*, called Feedburner. Basically you host your feed at a weird address, and tell them what it is, and they host your feed on their server. They have some neat additional services they will do for you including keeping stats and serving ads, if you want.

Vox offers some RSS feeds, one if for your public posts, and another is for the public posts of your neighborhood. I hope in the future they offer either a unique RSS feed that you can use to see all the Friends & Family posts others have made available to you or a password protected feed to do the same.

There are two main reasons I like Vox.

First it is rather simple to use, sometimes too simple for computer users like my wife. At the same time, it’s great for people who have never run a website or such and I have managed to get a few of my family members to already start using it. I see this as a great way to keep those I want to be close to informed.

Second there are privacy features. As I have already stated, I plan on mostly posting stuff for my friends and family, not the whole world. Today is an exception because Vox has sent me a few more invitations.

If you know me, contact me and I will try to get you an invite to Vox.