Disqus is currently installed here on The Broad Brush and other blogs I run. I settled on it a good while back and it’s generally been good to the blog and the commenters.

Their team has released a new version in beta. I’m a fool, so I’ve installed it in place of the current release. So far it appears it didn’t eat the old comments. Let’s let it rip.

What do I want from you? Even the smallest comment you feel up to leaving. It’s easy. There is no registration required or you can sign in with  your Twitter or Facebook or other IDs.

Say anything, leave a cryptic code, include a link or three. Try to break it if you’re up to it. Oh, and leave a video comment if you’re brave.

Cheers to Disqus.

Listen to the 2 minute audio above. It’s great advice.

Most folks joining Twitter or Facebook today, they’re advised to follow a bunch of folks. Likely these aren’t folks they are not only direct contacts with in the physical world, but not even a friend of a friend.

This sounds like fun until that newbie drowns in the messages, messages with no meaning. Sure, they might make one or two friends out of that mess, but likely they’ll initially just be frustrated.

In the end, the recommendation to follow a bunch of strangers is just bad advice. There’s no relationship building going on. It’s like trying to make instant bake success.

So what works? Organic one relationship at a time growth of contacts. Instead of focusing on stratospheric numbers, focus on one new contact at a time.

How to do this?  Best advice I’ve received is to watch who your friends engage with. Listen in on those conversations. See what those folks who do interact have to say and how they say it.  If you see something you enjoy, friend that person.

New contacts you add, be sure to let them know how you found them. Be sure to mention the shared connection, and considering adding a note about one of the new friends messages. It lets them know you’ve been listening.

In summary, build your network one valued connection at a time. Give them your best. Your network will grow fast enough.

Watch and enjoy learning how to use your Poken. I’m sure wine is a required element of proper use.

Words With Friends

Words with friends isn’t you, me, and a dictionary; it’s a take on Scrabble(TM) developed just for the iPhone and Touch. The play is the same but the board layout is unique.  You’ll find double word and triple letter scoring just not in the same spots.

WWF is entirely touch play, beginning with game selection.

Words with friends screenshot game selection

Games where it’s your move are displayed in time sequence from most recent opponent move to oldest. In the shot above you’ll notice the eyes. Those indicate your opponent is watching the game. Additionally, if a number is displayed on the line, it means you have chat messages waiting for you in the game.

Tap on any Words with line and the game is highlighted. The screen then slides to the left displaying the board.

Words with friends screenshot playing board

The game board has two views. Zoomed out if the default. Zoomed in allows you to move it around.

Words with friends screenshot zoomed game board

Playing is easy; just tap the letter and drag it onto the board. If it ends up on the wrong square, just tap and drag it again.  There are buttons to Play (submit), Recall (clear placed letters), swap (allows swapping letters, don’t preselect, select after hitting swap), and Resign.

Topping up the screen are the Games and Chat buttons. Games goes back to the sorted list. Chat takes you to chat just for that specific game.

Play isn’t instant or demanding. Each player takes their turn and then the game waits for the opponent to make their move. There is no game timer, nor nudge option.

The game uses built in spell check, preventing players from making illegal moves. As in Scrabble, words formed cross-wise also must work..

Locating other players is a bit odd. You can invite someone from your contact list, a random person, search for another player by name, or choose Pass and Play.

Pass and Play means you and your opponent play on the same iPhone versus each other. You just take a turn and pass the iPhone over.  I’ve not tried this mode out yet.

The game is crash free, plays with wireless, and has push notifications. Being so easy to pick up and play makes this a great value and an equally great time sink.

Words With Friends on iTunes Store

Apple’s iPhone and Touch app, Brushes, is coming to the iPad.  The video above demonstrates how this tiny app can turn out true art work.

The buzz around the app on the iPad is the social networking built in. Images can be saved to Photos as before but can now be emailed, posted to Flickr, sent to Twitter, and sent to Facebook. The iPhone Users Guide has screenshots.

The Apple Event provided a Brushes iPad demo, please check out this video:

Based on these demos, I’ll be purchasing the Brushes app for the iPhone.

Is this an app you’ll be using? Would it be a killer app for the iPad for you?

Google Existence, because life is too short for social interaction.

How does it work?

Live happily ever after. People want to know what’s going on in your life. But all you really want is to play World of Warcraft. Xsistence is what you need!

Just add water. After you’ve initially seeded Xsistence with your social network logins and some information about yourself, it lives your life for you. Tweets about your daily commute, Facebook status updates and pictures from that great party you were at, and more!

Keep up with yourself. Xsistence sends you regular status updates about all the things you supposedly did so you know what questions to expect when you actually have to talk to people outside your guild.

Gee where can I sign up?

Internet Vices - Patrick Moberg

When I saw this post over on Patrick’s blog, I couldn’t help but pass it on.

It’s titled Internet Vices and it about ways we share socially on the net. Enjoy.

The White House The President is in Lorain County, OH today taling to foks about what the economy is like on the ground during these tough economic times. The video team sent us a first look clip of town hall tickets released — check it out.

The above was shared on Facebook. Beyond the fact that the last sentence makes little sense, what’s with the gross spelling errors, ‘taling’ and ‘foks’.

Picking on folks is fun, but the video they link to is worth the click through, First Look: Lorain County. President Obama came to Lorain County and the video shows the ticketing process and some of the people waiting to see him.

Follow the Whitehouse on Facebook.

SuperPoke! Pets Haiti Support, originally uploaded by Tojosan.

Slide, the folks behind Superpoke! Pets, has rolled out some Haiti support items. Most are gold items requiring real dollars to end up purchasing. 100% of all Haiti item purchases will be donated to the American Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

From their site:

Hi everyone,

As we’re sure you all know by now, earlier this week the country of Haiti was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Our hearts go out to all those affected, and in the wake of this tragic event, Slide and its employees have started a donation pool to aid in the global Haiti relief efforts.

In addition to the contributions we are making, we want to invite the SPP Community to show your support. We just released Haiti-themed coin and gold items in the Pet Shop. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the Gold items will be donated to the American Red Cross’ relief efforts in Haiti.

Donating to this cause is only part of what we can do here, though. We can show our support for the people of Haiti the SPP way by using these items to decorate your habitat and send a message of love and goodwill. Share your habitats in this thread, and let’s show how many of our hearts are with Haiti here in the SPP Community!

Thanks everyone. Let’s do our best to help the people of Haiti when they need it most.

-keane

That leaves an inescapable conclusion. Nobody has a million followers on Twitter. And being on the suggested user list doesn’t add value to a Twitter account, regardless of whether you’re a regular guy like me, or one of the biggest brands in the world.

So says Anil Dash on his blog post, Nobody Has A Million Twitter Followers.

Anil tackles the topic of whether a million followers translates to a million people who actually follow what you say and act upon it. He challenges that only a small percent are likely engaged.

Go read the article. He’s giving away $25 Amazon gift certificates for a suggestion on using the wealth of data he’s collected and for someone to program that solution.

Cheers,

Todd aka tojosan