Came2Pass.com Archives - Stay N Alive

Category: Came2Pass.com

Competitive Ad Filter for Mormons

Posted on by jessestay

It is really sad that Google can’t add a word filter to their adsense filters. I thought I’d share the list of URLs I’m using for my competitive ad filter I use for Stay N’ Alive and Came2Pass.com. Note that not all of these urls are anti-mormon sites, and I have no issue with any of the religions listed – they just produced something that was in conflict with what I was publishing. They may have just had material that I thought either competed with came2pass.com or was at least somewhat questionable. Am I missing any that you have?:

about-mormonunderwear.info
admitoneproducts.com
adventures.org
all-underwearmormon.info
allabout-mormonunderwear.info
allmormonunderwear.info
bestringdownloads.com
cardoffers4u.com
ccvonline.com
christianconnector.com
colloidforum.com
desertparadise.com
directfromtv.com
downloadrings.com
emiusa.org
familymissionworks.org
freeringtonez.us
getitonus.com
getmusicfree-jump.com
glendaleuniversity.com
htallc.com
irr.org
lhvm.org
libertyonlinedegrees.com
mjblige.com
mormonunderwear.info
ncbc.net
nellyfurtado.com
newlifekc.com
newsgator.com/enterprise
onecommunitychurch.com
proactiv.com
ringringmobile.com
shorttermmissiontrips.com
trinitysem.edu
watchman.org

New “I’m Presenting” Badge

Posted on by jessestay

I was just given this badge to display on my blog to encourage everyone to register and come see me present at UTOSC. As mentioned earlier, I will be presenting at the Utah Open Source Conference, September 6-8, 2007 on development of Pligg Modules, and probably a little about Pligg itself. This conference gets bigger every year so reserve your tickets early! I hear Bruce Perens, author of the Open Source Definition will even be there. I’ve got a couple other presentations in the works as well (at other arenas), so stay tuned.

Comments

Posted on by jessestay

I just realized I had a ton of comments awaiting moderation. In switching to WordPress lately, I didn’t realize I had moderation turned on. In noticing I wasn’t getting any comments lately, I went and checked, and sure enough, there were over 50 comments awaiting moderation. My apologies to those who commented to get no response from me. I will go through all the moderated comments now and try to respond to any pending questions. I need to decide now if I want to leave moderation on or just turn it off and risk a little spam here and there.

Collaborate With Smaller Groups of Digg Users Using Pligg

Posted on by jessestay

Yesterday, I announced the release of a new feature of Came2Pass.com, allowing users to specify a Digg User ID in their profile, and have all their Digg-submitted and voted-for articles automatically appear under 2 new categories with other Digg users on their Pligg-based website. Today, I’m happy to announce the release of the code for that feature of Pligg.

Using the link below, you can install a module into your Pligg installation which will take the Digg User IDs of members of your Pligg-run site that also use Digg.com. Once they have entered their Digg User ID in their profile, feeds will begin to import into 2 pre-specified categories (be sure to edit your digg_users_settings.php beforehand to specify these categories!), of which will show all the Digg submitted stories, and Digg voted stories of your Pligg site’s members.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Well, the big deal is you can now bring smaller groups of Digg users into one location, encouraging them to use your site, while being able to congregate, collaborate, and continue in the great community that Digg.com provides. Consider it a grouping tool! This is only the beginning, too – in the future, I hope to add search features to look for particular digg user ids on your Pligg website. You’ll also soon, when adding users of your Pligg website as friends, also add them as friends in Digg if they have specified a Digg ID. The possibilities are endless! Also expect future similar grouping tools for other social bookmarking websites as well (delicous? flickr?).

So, to install, just download the link below into your modules subdirectory in Pligg. Untar and un-gzip it in that directory. Now, under your God/Admin user in Pligg, go to Admin, Module Management, and click on install next to the Digg.com User Feeds module. You’ll also need the “Profile Extra Fields” module by AshDigg for it to work. Good luck, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions!

http://forums.pligg.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=37&act=down

Are You a Mormon? Are You a Digg User?

Posted on by jessestay

Are you a Mormon or hold Mormon values, and a Digg.com User? We’ve added a few more features to Came2Pass.com that you will like then. The first is a new field in your profile called “Digg User ID”. At the moment this is only visible to you – we will be updating this in the future to be visible to everyone so they can not just find you on Came2Pass.com, but on Digg.com as well!

Now, here’s the second, and best part. Go into your Profile, click “modify”, and add your digg user id. Within the next hour you will notice under “Digg Submitted Stories by Members” and “Digg Voted Stories by Members” it now imports all the stories you have submitted and voted on! Now you have a one-stop shop to come in and view all your Mormon (and similar-valued) friends’ articles on Digg. Click on the link, and it takes you back to Digg to vote on the story your friends on Came2Pass.com voted on or submitted.

This is just the start. Expect in the future to automatically add friends in Digg when you add friends on Came2Pass.com. Expect to be able to see the number of Digg votes directly on here! The possibilities are endless! So get on Came2Pass.com, set up an account, and add your Digg username to participate in the Digg.com and Came2Pass.com community!

See More at:

http://www.came2pass.com/Miscellaneous/Are-You-Digg-User-1/

Email_Latest Pligg Module

Posted on by jessestay

As promised, I’ve created a Pligg module that will allow users to “sign up” for Pligg pages. Right now I’ve only finished the “sign up” part. You will need to create your own cron script that interfaces with the notifications table, and integrate it on your own into the user profile page if you want your users to be able to remove themselves from notifications. I wanted to get this out there anyways so others could help me out on it. “Release early, release often”. Expect the other features I mention above here shortly, and if you happen to beat me to them, please let me know with the code you’ve produced so I can integrate it into the next build! Here’s the download link:

http://forums.pligg.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=38&act=down

To install, copy to your modules directory, and untar and un-gzip it. Then, go to your admin and you’ll see the module under the Module Management section. Enable it, and you’re set! Read the readme.htm file (or click on the “Email Latest Stories” link) for more details on installation. You’ll also need to add the notifications table to your pligg database, included in the notifications.sql file.

Marketing and Sales – a Bad Thing?

Posted on by jessestay

I have been criticized for “Profiting from my Religion” on Came2Pass.com. All this stems from ads that I place on the site to keep a steady stream of income (if you count $.50 a day as income) to help support the site. The ads are usually from other LDS businesses, some times non-LDS businesses that are pertinent to the content that is currently on the page. We do not make money off our users. It also stems from a marketing campaign I am doing to quickly attract new users from all stereotypes, in which we are giving money and prizes to our users.

As many who know me know, I am a huge proponent of “Donating One’s Time and Talents to the Building of the Kingdom of God”. IMO, if you truly believe in something, all your life should be spent building upon those principles. I believe so much that I’ve helped start a group called LDSOSS, which focuses on this principle in regards to software development.

So I got thinking – if one can spend one’s time and talents developing software towards the building of the Kingdom of God, can one spend one’s time in Marketing or Sales doing the same? Is marketing and sales truly a tool of the Devil? I know about 6 marketers or sales people that would digress, but then again – they’re sales and marketing people. Who wants to listen to those people anyway? They don’t have time and talents to give, do they? Or do they?

I’ve thought about starting an LDS news site without ads, donating my time and talents in software development to help accomplish such. If I were to do so, a few people would join and bond together, some would even invite others, but how long would it take until I had a large enough community to fend off anti-Mormon attacks and spam on the site? I have a day job to support my family – would I have enough time to pay attention to the site every waking hour? Something this important should not just be a side-job.

I want Came2Pass.com to become the internet’s largest LDS news portal. There is strength in numbers. If I can use my talents to market and sell to bring in masses of people to one location for one purpose that helps build the Kingdom of God and at the same time drive away any anti-Mormon propaganda that is out there, is there anything wrong with that?