blog.bagaki.com

Upgrades started at 3:30 AM CST.

5:10 AM CST UPDATE:
Word Press upgrade complete

I would like to conduct a creative experiment involving those participating interactively with this site and the future design of the entire bagaki.com regime of websites. I would like to encourage you to submit ideas or concepts for the new website design. (Example: color schemes, themes, submitted: photos, sounds, videos, copy or written text, anything you can imagine)

The experiment is to take everything submitted and build or create a website around these contributions. I would like to put a one week window on submissions to keep this idea flowing. Any and all submissions are appreciated and will be incorporated into the final design. Please (and I hate that I have to put this disclaimer here) keep it respectable. I know some of you enjoy rather “odd” things, this is a family website.

Please keep in mind the following websites when participating in this experiment:

bagaki.com
blog.bagaki.com
thebagakiexperience.com
bagaki.tv
bagaki-minsitries.org

I have officially given up with the personal spam filtering. I am just getting tired of digging thorough piles of spam comments to see if a legit slipped through the cracks. I have to do this with several hundred emails a day, I simply refuse to do it any longer on this site.

If for some reason you believe that your comments are getting tagged as spam, please let us know and we will make sure they make it through. Otherwise, to the spam abyss it shall go.

Good day,

Gurt T Luhrman
one lazy blogger

There have been several software upgrades and updates to the “behind the scenes” software that drives this site since we launched version 2 point O. Since updating or upgrading the site ALWAYS results in problems, I have been putting off the update of many of the applications you use on a daily basis. Well, the time is drawing near for major upgrades to most of the core applications (word press being the major one) and some of the “plug-in” applications we use.

I don’t know for sure when this may happen, but I am going to try to do this during off-peak hours. I will keep you informed when the updates will occur so if things are not working properly, you will know why. Part of the reason things have gone wrong in the past has to do with Gurt being at a remote location instead of at the office when he does the updates. He is always screwing things up because “he likes to travel”. I don’t pay him enough for that, so I have no idea how he affords that. I don’t ask questions, I just assume he had a “bad night” when he comes in with bags under his eyes, ripped and bloodied clothes, the smell of liquor oozing from his pours, and handcuffs attached to what resembles the back of a chair on his wrist. He does his job, I give him his space. More employers need to be like me… and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

I was just looking at the numbers for October and things are good, very good. We are up 29% over last month and had 25% more readers than our previous best month. WOW. We have effectively grown readership over 140% since the beginning of the year, and with no actual effort. Not only are unique readers up, daily visits are up too! I contribute this to the increased number of daily posts. More posts = more traffic, any way you cut it. I am predicting even greater growth after the final numbers are here at the beginning of November.

I want to send my monthly thank you to all of our readers and contributors for making this thing happen. October has been a successful month, what a better way to celebrate six years than with gobs of new readers.

We are still trying to determine the cause of our database server going down this morning. I have Gurt on the horn with our datacenter to see what happened. I love whipping that boy, it makes him stronger. I figure it is in his best interest for me to work him hard. If he can handle me, he can handle anyone.

My deepest apologies for those dedicated readers unable to view the site. The issue as of now is resolved and hopefully will stay resolved.

Regards,

Mr Bagaki
Grand Puba

We will be taking bagakiRADIO down for the next day to perform some much needed upgrades to our server. We will also be reconfiguring our drives that contain our music. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Please let us know if you experience any performance issues when accessing our site. Thanks

Mr Bagaki

Sunday, August 13, 2006 through August 19, 2006 is links week. I want to post one week’s worth of cool links. Won’t you join in?

Ever wished you could be emailed when someone responds to your comment. We figured you did, so we went ahead and added that feature for you. Simply check the little box below your comment when posting and viola, straight to your inbox. You can thank us later.

So I decided to upgrade to the latest wordpress software today, what a pain in the ass. First, the darn thing wouldn’t upgrade correct. Then after I finally got the site working, none of the plugins would work correctly. Now that I have the plugins working, the theme is having issues. Something happened when I imported the files into GoLive. It was actually easier and quicker to launch an entire new site than it was to upgrade the backend software. I was going to do both at the same time, I kinda wish I would have. Well, now we are in business. Enjoy…

Friends, readers, members of the occult, I would like to take a moment to talk to you about our upcoming format changes here on the blog. I have been working hard over the past year to help generate content and a sufficient reader base to make this blog a worthy experiment. Since our 1st birthday, we have successfully re-designed the site and added a plethora of new features and pizazz. Now that the eye-candy phase of the project is complete, we are implementing the second phase, better (read original) content. In order to avoid simply re-publishing news covered elsewhere I personally wanted to create a more unique reader experience. This all starts with original content.

We began several months ago by increasing our daily post level from 1 to a minimum of three. Now Gurt, myself, and others contribute to produce three or more posts a day, with semi-daily video clips, links, and other mindless drivel. Here comes the content. We will be releasing and developing (over a period of time) a series of original pieces along with several running series. To simplify here is a rundown of what we have planned.

That pretty much sums up most of what we have planned. My email inbox was filled with inquiries spam over the weekend for writers to come aboard. I guess you will just have to wait and see what we have in store for you.

PS: Has anyone noticed I just figured out how to use the strikethrough tag in posts. Just a heads up, I will be abusing this for a while until the novelty wears off.

Have a swell Monday

Kindest Regards,

Mr Bagaki
Editor in Drag

Looking to make an impact on a growing audience? Looking to spread your propaganda to the masses? Looking to work for free? Then do I have a proposition for you. I am personally making a request to all talented individuals who feel they have something worth saying and want an audience to say it to. Come and write for me, Mr Bagaki. The pay sucks, but hell, I make up for that with the benefits.

Would you like to be a part-time or full-time contributor to this blog? Let me know, send me something to convince me your worthy of an account and you’re on the team. There is some small print, but nothing you need to get a team of lawyers for, thats why I have mine.

You say to yourself, “Why should I write for bagaki.com when I could start my own blog?” Here are my pleas…

1) Simple, audience. We already have a sizable and growing LOYAL audience. Our numbers prove that. We have already shown a 62% increase in viewers this month over last, and that is a trend that isn’t stopping.

2) Be part of something greater than its parts. The bagaki.com website is greater than all of the characters it is made up of (except me of course). Be part of the family and fight with other writers to the death for your paycheck.

3) To try something new. Why use myspace or blogger when you can use bagaki.com. Our platform is friendly and efficient. You have almost complete reign of your post and you don’t have an evil empire looking over your shoulder.

Drop a message and see what fortunes lies before you.

Ok, ok I just could not wait to unveil the new design of the blog. There are a few things that Gurt and I will be finishing up over the next few days, but otherwise everything is in working order. We have installed a bunch of cool new features, here is the run down:

I think that sums up most of the changes. Besides a slightly updated design, everything else is the same. Let me know what you think. Have a great Wednesday.

UPDATE:

It has been brought to our attention that certain features don’t work so hot under Internet Explorer. After some further testing, it has been concluded that the “rolling archive” along the top will not work in IE, as well as some small features here and there. My suggestion to you is to change your browser immediately anyway. IE is ridden with security flaws, but unlike other browsers, it is also the target for attack. It’s close integration with Windows make is additionally critical to avoid. There are now two options for your web browsing needs:

Firefox and Opera

Both of these browsers are “standards compliant” and are freely available. They will also improve your browsing experience, increase your computers security, and guarantee that this wondrous blog displays correctly on your computer.

If you have been on the site in the past few hours you will have noticed many different things, especially the way things look. We are testing (I know, we should test on a different server) our new implementation of the of site. We are installing new features and configuring everything to work properly. There are A LOT of bugs and things to get aligned. Please bare with us over the next few days as I slave away trying to get this thing up to par.

It will take some time, so you will be bounced between our current site and the new one. If you see anything you like or don’t like, give us some feed back. We will let you know when we are going to launch the new blog.bagaki.com 2.0, so don’t worry too much about that.

UPDATE:

Things are moving along GREAT!!! The transition is going a lot faster than planned. I guess I have learned a lot in the past year. We are planning to continue upgrading throughout the night, who knows maybe tomorrow we will have the new site live!!!