I wonder if adding a comments policy for the first time is like getting your first piece of blog spam — its another sign that your blog has matured so that not only are you dealing with blog spammers, but good ol’ fashioned trolls.

Anywhoo, this blog has persisted for some time now with generally well-meaning comments, but with a recent post and comments I think its time I laid down some ground rules.

The comments policy is over here, and is now linked to at the bottom of every post, and (based on the one I put together for the BlogHerald) basically outlines that I will keep comments unless the have content that:

• is abusive
• is off-topic
• contains ad-hominem attacks
• promotes hate of any kind
• uses excessively foul language
• is blatantly spam

For now I’m tolerating otherwise “anonymous” posts (i.e. fake name / email) provided the discourse is reasonable and adheres to the above.  And of course this being my blog, I get to arbitrate what counts as abusive, off-topic, ad-hominem, hate, foul language, and spam.  For all would-be spammers, take note: I have a liberal idea of what counts as spam (although being blog spammers they’ll be using automated tools to scrape RSS feeds, and therefore not actually reading these posts).

Anyway, I feel like its almost as if I’ve had to lay down hand-washing rules in a hospital — but there you are.

I rarely if ever delete or moderate a comment, but if it happens to yours keep the comments policy in mind before you get a hold of me.

RESOURCE: For those wondering about comment policies in general, Lorelle wrote a great one at the BlogHerald a few months ago.

 Well, I was wondering where all my traffic had gone. Turns out that everything from Google had been dropped a few days ago, but its almost like the tap had been slowly turned off. Today, its nil.That’s right. My number one listing for “Tony Hung”, gone … although there are other listings, in addition to a splogportal entry for Deep Jive Interests (how ironic).

Anyway, the reason for the hate isn’t because of anything I said (hopefully — Google I love you!), but because my blog had been hacked. I presume it was because of some exploits that were known, and that was the reason I had hastily upgraded when I had found out to the most recent version, Wordpress 2.3.1, in addition to changing all my passwords.

I haven’t had any problems yet, but for those interested in the gory details, what had happened was my Template had been hacked so that the footer had included a number of hidden terms, such as “interracial brazilian asian free xxx stories big expression … ” and, well, you get the idea.

What had started happening was that my blog started getting indexed for *those* colorful terms, and … well, here we are today. I’ve re-applied for re-inclusion, so hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later now that my template’s been cleaned up.

I don’t know if what happened was directly because of an old Wordpress version I was running (2.2), but it behooves everyone to keep up with the updates.

Many apologies for not writing for many, many days. Yes, I know — many of you are probably well past withdrawal thanks to my electronic absence. Sadly, a number of factors have caught up with me over the past week and a bit, namely, the following:

• being on-call a lot at the hospital, and being called in. “Home call” — faugh!
• contending with a summer cold that my son gave me (and my wife, and my wife’s mother, and my wife’s mother’s mother. Thanks Ian!
• … and a presentation that I had to give yesterday that took much, *MUCH* longer to prepare than I had anticipated [it had to do with the association between proton-pump inhibitors -- like nexium, for example -- and hip fractures if you must know]

At any rate, thanks to everyone for sticking around, and a few other miscellaneous thank-you’s that are outstanding, namely:

• Patrick Gavin at Text-Link-Ads who continues to sponsor this blog
• Curtis Sund over at FindInternetTV — who incidentally figured out the CSS hiccup that was causing DJI’s theme to not display correctly in MSIE7 (but not 6, or 5, or Safari, or FF or anything else)
• Chris over at GeekFitters.com. Who is Chris, you might ask? Well, he’s the guy behind GeekFitters, which is an online concern which outfits geeks in t-shirts [translation: its a t-shirt company].

Anyway, being a bit of a geek requiring outfitting, Chris sent me a few shirts to try out earlier this month. One day soon I’ll post a picture of me in one of them. Nevertheless, the service was fast, friendly, and the t-shirts themselves are actually quite nice. Specifically, the “Vintage cut” is actually a nice fitted t-shirt. Its not loose and billowy, and the cotton has a nice feel. Its a bit of a lighter weight, so its ideal for summer. Of course, the graphic on the front is a bit cheeky — and I chose the one that said “I put the STUD in STUDY”. Which would be apropos given that my royal college exams will be coming up in the new year, and I will in fact be studying like a banshee (if banshees were to study real hard). If I had any complaints it would be to give the actual site and shopping cart a bit of a make over — it looks a bit long in the tooth, shall we say.

In other news around people in blogging that I may have missed there are two things of note:

1. Jason Kaneshiro has joined the BlogHerald, joining a stellar cast of bloggers already. Who’s Jason? You might know him already from his own blog Webomatica. Jason will be dishing thoughts and things he’s learned from blogging a la “Blogging 101″ every Wednesday. Jason’s been on my radar for a long time, so check it out! (and his blog, if you’re not already doing so!)

2. Aiden Aidan Henry of Mapping the Web got a regular gig over at Read/Write Web. Aiden Aidan is another blogger — and Canadian, naturally — that I’ve been keeping my eye on, at his own blog Mapping The Web, which has a nice web2.0 focus. Congratulations to Aiden Aidan, as I understand he fought tooth and nail through 4 rounds of interviews, applications, and actual, real, physical combat to secure his position. That Richard MacManus throws one helluva round-house, I hear. :)

Anyway, I should be back to blogging over the next week — thanks everyone for their patience.

… wow, its late — but better late than never.

The winner of the Spock.com beta invite was David Bisset of DavidBisset.com. Congratulations, man!

Spock.com, for those still paying attention, is a search engine focused on finding people. I still plan to write my own opinions about it, but suffice it to say, its kind of interesting to claim your own name.

Well, actually, I did run another small test, just for the hell of it.

You may have heard that Vator.TV launched the other day? Its a new media concern that allows companies to post video clips of their elevator pitches in hopes of securing VC funding. Webware.com, a CNet production that reviews web applications and web2.0 companies, did a small review on Vator.TV — but also featured a clip from Vator.TV as an example.

As I was watching the clip, I thought — “Man, this guy [who's doing the pitch] has a great voice. No wonder he’s the chief of communications. I wonder if he’s ever done any professional work before … ? ” So, of course I powered up Google to find out a little more about this dude, named Mil Arcega.

After all — how many “Mil Arcega’s” could there be?

Probably not as many as “Tony Hung” (almost 2 million entries), right?

Anyway, it turns out that Mr. Arcega was a former reporter and anchor for a local Washington news station, and affiliate of NBC. That, and apparently he likes Chinese food. That’s what I was able to figure out from a quick Google search. Also, by actually going to the Vator website, there are a few other tidbits, like the fact that he was the “Business Correspondent for the English Language Services at Voice of America.”

So, you might wonder … how did Spock.com fare?

Well, it showed up a Mil Arcega’s MySpace page. This one. That’s it. And to be honest, I hope that’s not *really* Mil Arcega, Chief of Communications, and award-winning reporter … because he doesn’t really look like someone you’d give VC funding to. Maybe a couple bucks for a coffee, but that’s it.

If you’re interested in a Spock invitation of your own, I might be able to hornswaggle a few extra invites in the future. Leave your name and comment below, and considered yourself pre-entered into a future Spock.com contest!

A few housekeeping notes for DJI watchers out there:

Where DJI Has Come From, And Where Its Continuing To Go

This blog started out as a repository for my own notes on a number of issues such as web design, CSS, blogging, and a smorgasborg of other things. For evidence on this, check out my archives and the first few months of blogging. A lot of non-sensical posts, but then again, my intention was to never really have an audience of more than myself. Taken from another point of view, its the evolution of me blogging and as a blogger. Some beginning bloggers might find that interesting (I would have — and I only say that as a *partially* narcissistic comment).

Deep Jive Interests has gradually evolved into a soapbox where I’ve spouted off on a number of new media issues, focusing on a whole bunch of things, such as social media, public relations, the business of new media and the evolution of old media. Deep Jive Interests has found its niche in this area, I think, and will continue heading in this direction for the forseeable future.

New Blogs, New Horizons

Since DJI has evolved into what it is right now, it really isn’t the appropriate forum for me to comment on *other* things. Its kind of like what Lorelle had vaguely mentioned to me in the past with respect for blogging at the BlogHerald (who, I should add must be one of the most prolifically awesome bloggers I have *ever* run into / had the pleasure of working with / has written a bible on blogging — you should really check it out [DISCLOSURE: The BlogHerald has helped her publish it]) … sometimes the blog you started changes, finds its own niche, and it doesn’t allow you to write about other things that you might have an interest for.

In the very near future, I am planning to start another blog to replace what DJI was initially — a journal for my own thoughts on things that I am doing and things that interest me, that are *not* new media related. For blogger voyeurs, I will be embarking on a blog that will detail my own adventures, frustrations, and successes (humbled as I am that I have them) in the following areas:

• monetizing deep jive interests — want to know how my adsense is doing? how about those text-link-ads? how about text link ads? Or my banner ad sales? Or what I’m planning for in the future? Keep your eyes peeled, because it will all be revealed — in as much as it can be without violating Google’s TOS.
• web designing adventures — redesigning DJI’s theme from scratch was awesome. Awesomely frustrating, but awesomely awesome at the same time. Did you know that I started blogging in the first place so that I could re-acquaint myself with web design? I have a love interest with web design that goes back to before medical school and even during my undergrad years (gulp!) 10 years ago.
• thoughts about blogging — meta blogging, as it were … the art of blogging from the perspective of someone who has had some success with blogging in a field where he doesn’t have any experience, had no contacts, and continues to have a nonsensical domain name; also, my thoughts about managing bloggers may slip in as my adventures as the editor of the BlogHerald may slip in from time to time (cheap plug: The BlogHerald relaunched May 14! You should check it out)

Anyway, keep an eye out in this space for the launch of *that* blog, because its coming soon!

Meet Me In Toronto, I’m Speaking (Sort of) At Mesh

Mesh 2007 is coming May 30/31st, the new media conference for Canada. I’d exhort you to purchase some tickets, but I think they’ve all sold out :P At any rate, if you’d like to see me / hear me / buy me a drink, you may be interested to know that I’m up on one of the panels at Mesh, speaking on the panel called “Pro vs. Am: The War for Attention”. I’ll be joined by Paul Sullivan, former editor of Canada’s national newspaper the Globe and Mail, and Steve Herrmann, the editor of BBC Interactive. I have *no* idea what I’ll be saying in the company of such media professionals, but I do want to thank Mat Ingram, Mark Evans, Rob Hyndman (as well as Mike McDerment) for giving me the chance to be up there in the first place. DJI has come a long way for allowing me to participate in the conference in this way. Thanks guys!

… And Adding Some Asian Flavour To Tech Conferences

Incidentally, what with the long running meme of people at technology conferences being perennially white and male, Jeremiah Owyang, Director of Corporate Media at PodTech has drafted a North American roster of Asian talent to speak at such conferences, over here. For the number of “Asian” individuals (using the term as broadly as possible) who are supposedly in tech, there are about 50 speakers, ranging from Om Malik, to Joi Ito, but also including Wagner James Au, and smaller bloggers like yours truly (yes, I thought it was also funny to hear my name in that list). Jeremiah is looking to expand that list so if you’re of the Asian persuasion (or, think you are) leave him a comment on that post, why don’t you?

Whew … long winded update.

Here’s the recap

1. DJI is continuing the new media thang
2. Look for a new blog for a behind-the-scenes look at my personal notes / adventures / misadventures in blogging
3. I am speaking at Mesh in a couple weeks — hope to see you there.

Excelsior! :)