smenita hits again

According to a reliable source, smenita hit the Blogger comment system again on June 28. Speaker of Truth has details.

smenita hits again

According to a reliable source, smenita hit the Blogger comment system again on June 28. Speaker of Truth has details.

Smenita is back sending waves of panic through the streets of Bloggerville

Just when I thought it was safe to close comments on the centre for smenitalogical studies, a fresh outbreak is throwing blogs in the blogger system into chaos and creating widespread dismay.

A reliable source wrote me this morning:

Smenita has reappeared! Blogger was down for a long time today, and now that it has restarted the word verification word for both [a major blog] and for [another influential blog] has reverted to "smenita"! But it does seem to be accepting comments (rather slowly) on both blogs, and then giving a new word verification of "smenita".

Tried to post this to http://smenita77.blogspot.com/, but you have
closed that to comments, no doubt assuming this subject is dead. It
hasn't died that quickly!

Despite the fact that I'm living in a part of the planet so remote that there is not even high-speed internet, I have managed to reactivate comments.

Please report your smenita experiences here and we will do our best to get to the bottom of this crisis.

One question remains unanswered by the powers that be in the lofty towers of Googleopolis: If this isn't a random occurrence, then why are the Blogger bosses allowing it to continue?

See other links in the sidebar of this post for various kinds of emotional and technical support related to smenita and the suffering it causes.

Lingamish

Smenita is back sending waves of panic through the streets of Bloggerville

Just when I thought it was safe to close comments on the centre for smenitalogical studies, a fresh outbreak is throwing blogs in the blogger system into chaos and creating widespread dismay.

A reliable source wrote me this morning:

Smenita has reappeared! Blogger was down for a long time today, and now that it has restarted the word verification word for both [a major blog] and for [another influential blog] has reverted to "smenita"! But it does seem to be accepting comments (rather slowly) on both blogs, and then giving a new word verification of "smenita".

Tried to post this to http://smenita77.blogspot.com/, but you have
closed that to comments, no doubt assuming this subject is dead. It
hasn't died that quickly!

Despite the fact that I'm living in a part of the planet so remote that there is not even high-speed internet, I have managed to reactivate comments.

Please report your smenita experiences here and we will do our best to get to the bottom of this crisis.

One question remains unanswered by the powers that be in the lofty towers of Googleopolis: If this isn't a random occurrence, then why are the Blogger bosses allowing it to continue?

See other links in the sidebar of this post for various kinds of emotional and technical support related to smenita and the suffering it causes.

Lingamish

Translation, Linguistics and Bible at Lingamish

Thank you for visiting the centre for smenitalogical studies. Research on captcha related phenomena has been suspended due to time constraints. You're always welcome to report smenita outbreaks here.

My other blogs are:

• Lingamish: Writings about linguistics, bible translation, and missionary life.
  
• Nyungwe Bible Translation: A photo-journal of the Nyungwe Bible translation which is a project in Tete, Mozambique where I serve as a translation consultant.
  
• Afri-Kers: A "cute kid" blog with pictures of our kids and their life as missionary kids.
  

Ben Yancer, Inc.

Ben Yancer, Inc. and company have been posting recently on smenita.

His post contains a rather poignant comment by Carissa:

"My experience with Smenita scarred me and has had far reaching effects. My enthusiasm to comment has significantly diminished for fear of that impossible mode of verification Blogger might ask of me."

Good to know that the centre for smenitalogical studies is there when people need it.

Share your stories of smenita here.

5 Slices Of Baloney

I've started a new blog incorporating several "techniques" to increase visitors and effectiveness of the information. The blog is called "5 Slices Of Baloney" and is about tracking "baloney" that is, fallacious argumentation, on the web.

Techniques include:

A weekly award to web sites which will hopefully tap into the base of those sites.
A chance to nominate "Baloney" on the web.
An online poll.

The new blog is partly an attempt to rescue my old blog from the topic of logical fallacies!

Eye Tracking

Jakob Nielsen has a recent article on the F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content. This article has food for thought on how we design web pages for maximum effectiveness. He has another link in that article to guidelines for writing for the Web which I intend to check out if I ever get around to it.

Blog promotion ideas

In the continuing quest for greater blog traffic, I found "Promoting your blog" in Blogger Help. Maybe it works... maybe it don't.

smenita through the ages

Someone by the name of Mad Maggie named her blog "smenita." The blog is completely empty and dates from January 2006. What could this mean?

In March 2006, Steve also started another blog named smenita.

The earliest blog named "smenita" dates from December 2005 and expresses unspeakable befuddlement. The blog is full of cryptic references to queen, offer, sue and skype. This blog has the distinction of actually holding the URL for smenita: smenita.blogspot.com.

What is the earliest reference to smenita in history? According to my search on Blogger, December 3, 2005 seems to be the original outbreak.

Smenita debuts in fiction

At Artistic Nonsense, Smenita has entered the annals of literature as a name for a castle.

The castle Smenita. It was quite a thing to behold, covering as much land as any farmer's field and boasting as many fortifications as the royal castle Bloggdor. It was not a place any would attack without a plan. ...

Source: The Braedsen Village Chronicles IV

It also gets a mention in The Braedsen Village Chronicles VI

As we mentioned in a previous post word verification captcha codes are already being used by lexicographers at Zrharc!. According to one of their experts, they will begin work on a definition in the near future for smenita.

Hey guys, here's the proof image when you're ready: