“As the smoke subsided, thousands of Galilee settlers, climbed out of their shelters. For the first time in nearly 20 years they could look up at the Golan Heights with pride instead of fear.”
At Mitzpe Gadot there is a tall, triangular concrete monument to commemorate fallen Israeli soldiers of the 33rd Battalion of the Golani Brigade, located at one of the former Syrian bases as well as several subsequent conflicts.
The Man in the Israel Hat
You realize how small Israel actually is when you figure out how close the Lebanon, Syrian, and Jordan borders are. Israel is only slightly larger than New Jersey.
After this, we headed to the Banias, a spring associated with the Greek deity Pan. An ancient shrine to Pan was discovered here. I couldn’t learn about it, because in order to listen to the informational message on the shrine of Pan, you had to pay. I cheaped out, so I had to read about it on my phone.
The Banias was captured from the Syrians on my birthday, June 10th, 1967(prior to actual date of birth) from the Syrians, as part of an attempt to secure against the previously mentioned efforts to divert water away from Israel.
The Banias
During this point, we were extremely close to the Syrian border and the Lebanon border…and later on the Jordan border. We were within sight of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, established in 1974. The UNDOF administrated buffer zone is 50 miles long, and 146 square miles, and seems likely to continue indefinitely. The mission has been attacked several times during the recent Syrian Civil War.
Quneitra, a controversial city in Syria, was a distant view away. In the 50s, the population of the city was about 20,000. The city was abandoned by the Syrians, who falsely
UNDOF Outpost at the Syrian border.
broadcast it had been conquered by the Israelis. The Israelis took advantage of the confusion to actually conquer the city. Syria shelled the abandoned city several times during the 1970s. The year after the Yom Kippur War, in 1974, the Israelis agreed to return the city to Syria under the condition it be repopulated as a sign of peaceful intentions between the two nations.
Syria has built a museum to memorialize the city’s destruction. They discourage repopulation of the area and have left it in its destroyed condition.
The final stop of the day was the Tel Hai monument. In 1999, I had stayed at the nearby Tel Hai Youth Hostel on my trip, but I do not have any recollection of visiting the monument.
In 1919, the British relinquished Tel Hai to French jurisdiction. The local Arabs wanted to be part of the new Arab Kingdom of Syria rather than under French rule. Zionists in Tel Hai remained neutral. The area was subject to frequent border readjustments. However, as newcomers they were suspected of being pro-French.
The Tel Hai Monument
On March 1, 1920, several hundred Shiites attacked Tel Hai. Initially demanding to search the Kibbutz for French soldiers, violence escalated. There is some historical dispute about how things played out. Either the search was a ruse, or a series of misunderstandings escalated into a full conflict which ultimately killed eight Jews and ultimately led to the destruction of the village.
The city of Kiryat Shemonah is named after the eight Jews who died during the Battle of Tel Hai.
This ended Monday.
We’re still not at Jerusalem. Next time on Israel…Part 6: Tiberias, Beit Shean, Beit Alpha, and Gan Hashlosha…before we arrive into Jerusalem.
Monday, June 8th, 2015The Wandering Jew by Nicky Imber in Tzfat
On Sunday evening, we arrived at Kibbutz Lavi. Kibbutz Lavi’s hotel facility is one of their main sources of income and popular with Orthodox Jews. They also make synagogue furniture and engage in the traditional Kibbutz business of agriculture. Agriculture is no longer the primary business of any kibbutz, from what I understand.
Compared to the two hotels I visited, the room was nice, the wifi at the Kibbutz was good, the staff was friendly, and the food…left a bit to be desired. The eggs were powdered, for example. It seemed to be more like a public school cafeteria.
Tzfat was the first stop on Monday. It is the highest city in Israel in terms of elevation. The Jewish presence in the city dates back to the Middle Ages. After the Spanish Inquisition expelled the Jews from Spain, it became a center of Jewish learning, and is considered a center of Kaballah even to this day. Notably, Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of Lecha Dodi, which is sung as part of the Friday evening service.
In Tzfat, we visited a gallery of artwork by Nicky Imber. Imber was an artist who was so skilled, when at Dachau, he’d been able to make a mask out of break and sand of one of the Nazi soldiers, steal a uniform, and walk out of the gates of the camp. His sculptures are still famous worldwide.
Joseph Caro Synagogue
We then visited the Joseph Caro synagogue, built in the 16th century, and rebuilt after a 1759 and an 1837 Earthquake. It was originally a place of learning, and didn’t become a synagogue until 1903.
The Ha Ari Synagogue in Tzfat
The other synagogue visited was the Ha’ Ari Synagogue, built in honor of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari. It may be the oldest synagogue in Israel still in active use. The distinction is questionable, because there are many repeatedly destroyed synagogues that have been rebuilt, in some cases after many years of destruction, including the Karaite Synagogue in Jerusalem.
After touring both, we wandered around the Artist’s Quarter…otherwise known as random people trying to sell us things. There were some nice items, but nothing so nice I could see myself hauling it around for a week to bring home. The most surprising part was a woman who greeted us “Good Morning” and called me out when she didn’t hear my low and noncommittal response. It turned out, by odd coincidence, when we did speak to her, she had grown up in Westchester and had gone to school with my cousin. Small world.
Later that day, we headed toward the Golan Heights, taking a jeep tour of the area. And when I say a jeep tour, I mean it. Bumpy unpaved roads, dust flying everywhere(and me wearing a dark shirt that day)…certainly an experience.
The Jordan River
And then we get to the Jordan River. There it is….surprisingly tiny, isn’t it? I’m assuming that when Johnny Cash sung about waiting on the Far Bank of the River Jordan…he hadn’t seen it.
The Jordan River is 156 miles long, running from its sources to the Sea of Galilee, and then a lower section down to the Dead Sea. South of the Sea of Galilee, it forms the border between Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan. The flow of the Jordan has been sharply reduced by Israel, Jordan, and Syria. Prior to the Six-Day War, in 1965, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon attempted to divert some of the sources of the Jordan River in order to reduce Israel’s water supply.
I remember visiting the Golan Heights the last time I was in Israel. And I remember signs like these, and being told that they still, years after the Golan Heights were captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981, the mines were still a threat. The Heights are a plateau, from which the Syrian Army attacked Israeli communities in the valley below by firing artillery shells. Without getting into the politics of it, which date back to 1923, returning the Golan Heights to Syria would leave Israel at significant risk.
On June 6th, 1967, Syria launched three attacks against Israeli positions. On June 8th, 48 years to the day that I was there, the Israeli Air Force bombarded the Syrian positions on the Golan Heights.
After 16 years, it is hard to reconstruct the last trip I took here, but it was part of the March of the Living, and I was asked to take notes. I’ve pulled what I wrote that day, after writing my recollection of the more recent trip.
Tuesday, April 20, 1999 – We had gone up the mountain in jeeps, and also returned that way for a nature hike, which was cut short. Bret Gutstein once again appears in this document, hitting me with a large piece of bamboo.
I looked up Bret Gutstein…I believe she is now running a bagel seasoning business in New York.
More on 1999 later, especially since, combining all this material makes me think my narrative here is going to last a lot more parts…we haven’t even reached Jerusalem yet. I had forgotten I still had this notebook till I was writing about the Golan Heights.
Next time on Israel….we visit the the Memorial at Mitzpe Gadot, the Banias Springs, and Tel Hai. And more…Israel: Then and Now.
Drive north to tour Caesarea, once the Roman capital of the region. See the excavations of the crusaders’ city, the aqueduct and amphitheater which has been restored as a concert venue. Proceed to Haifa for a panoramic view from Mount Carmel and visit “AF AL PI CHEN”, the naval museum of the illegal immigration to Israel at the time of the British mandate. Drive to Acre; walk along the old harbor and local market; continue to the northernmost point of Israel at Rosh Hanikra. Descend by cable car into the limestone grottoes.
Sunday morning we bid a fond farewell to the Dan Panorama Tel Aviv and met up with our tour. To our surprise, it was the same guide from Friday. But now we had a full sized bus, more people, and a separate driver.
Outside the Roman Theater…finally, a foot that needs a bigger shoe than I do
The Same Foot in 1974 – It has been moved
Our first stop was the ancient city of Caeserea. Under the leadership of King Herod, whom our guide spent the entire work referring to as “that meshuganah paranoid”, Caeserea was transformed from a small village into an important port city. Caeserea is also home to the country’s only 18 hole golf course.
The Park is where much of the ruins exist, and have been excavated.
The Roman Theater in Caeserea
At the Caesarea Park, we ran into a group on Birthright Israel. Birthright has always been a sensitive topic for me. I went on March of the Living in 1999, and was told that made me ineliglble for Birthright, which is a free trip to Israel for college-age kids. Meanwhile, people who had been to Israel dozens of times seemed to be going for free. And I felt there was more for me to see.
The rules, from what I understand, were changed, and one person who went on March of the Living later told me he went on Birthright. But, no use crying over spilt milk. I was never in Tel Aviv during that trip. Look for future editions of Israel: Then and Now…1972, 1974, 1999, and 2015. We’ll see how things have changed.
The Roman Theater at Caeserea has been rebuilt, and now serves as a venue for music.
Caeserea also began my continual search for water fountains during the course of the trip. Apparently, for a desert country…the idea of public water is not as common as you’d think. The park did have water, which is good.
After we left the park, we headed toward Haifa, stopping for lunch at a small mall, where I had a tuna sandwich. We picked Aroma, which is interesting in that it is an Israeli coffee chain that is currently available in cities around the world. The first U.S. Branch opened in 2006. There are 10 in New York, for example.
Haifa is the third largest city in Israel, and a majore seaport. Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, unlike Tel Aviv, it seemed like it would be a place I would want to see more of. However, it is built into the side of a mountain. I learned when I went to school in Ithaca that a large amount of steep hills is an issue for me.
The Bahá’í World Centre Gardens and the City of Haifa belowHaifa, Circa 1974
Matching Hats
And once again, we have Haifa as it appeared then and now. We stopped for this picture of us in our official Costco Sunhats, apparently very popular on our tour group.
The Rosh Hanikra Cable CarThe grotto
The old train tunnel at Rosh Hanikra
We did not, despite the itinerary, visit the Naval Museum. We took a walk through the city of Akko before headed toward one of my favorite sites, Rosh Hanikra. I realized I did not take any pictures in Akko.
Rosh Hanikra is a series of grottos very near the Lebanese border, accessible by what may be the steepest cable car in the world. Nearby is the sealed railway tunnel to Lebanon. The tunnel was built in 1943 to connect Cairo and Istanbul, created a single route that could extend all the way through to Europe. However, the tunnel was sealed, and reportedly was never used for civilian service.
The day ended at Kibbutz Lavi. More on that in Part 4, where we visit Tsfat.
We arrived in Tel Aviv late, as previously mentioned. the tour group had arranged transport to the hotel. The tour company offers a 9 and 11 day tour. We ended up with 10, joining in on half of the two day Tel Aviv tour they offered. On the last trip I took to Israel, circa 1999 as part of the March of the Living, we had gone straight to Jerusalem. I had never seen Tel Aviv.
By the time we got settled in to the Dan Panorama Tel Aviv, we were both very tired. We went to the concierge to ask for a place nearby that would give us a quick bite to eat before bed. Which was my first mistake. I’m used to concierges not being perfect, but…every time I asked a hotel employee for local information…it was not particularly helpful(more on that later).
He insisted we needed a reservation, and booked us into a local Italian place about 15 minutes walk through the dark streets. When we arrived, reservations seemed to not be needed, and they were most disappointed the two of us only shared an individual pizza and drank tap water and left. Guess we weren’t worth the kickback to the concierge for sending us there.
I had secured prepaid SIM cards for our phones, which were supposed to allow unlimited incoming calls, and 1GB of data. Couldn’t successfully get a single incoming call, but the data worked wonderfully. I would have pursued it, but I couldn’t call anyone. Considering the horribly slow wifi at the Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem(which prevented me from uploading pictures most of the time), if I went back, I’d pay for more data and just give up on using theirs.
It was then I tried to use Skype to call my cousin, who could barely hear us, over the hotel wifi, to make arrangements to see him.
Friday, June 5th, 2015
“Visit the Diaspora Museum; drive around the main streets of Tel Aviv, center of business and entertainment of Israel. Stop at Rabin’s Square, place of assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Continue to Old Jaffa, an 8000 year old port city; visit the ancient ruins and walk along the restored artists’ quarter. Visit Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood of Tel Aviv, built in 1909 and Nahalat Benyamin, the pedestrian street of the city with its musicians, hand made jewelry and artifacts. Next, stop at Sheinkin, the lively and colorful street especially known for the unique shops, café life and youthful ambiance.”
As the day started on Friday, we had breakfast in the hotel and went downstairs to wait in the lobby with our Tour Company hats so we could be identified. It was then we met our tour guide. The tour was conducted with a mini bus he drove around Tel Aviv. He didn’t say another word till he picked up the rest of the tour group at various local hotels, then began his spiel. Most of the people had been with him the previous day, I suppose.
The slant I found on their core exhibition was very Israeli-centric, as to be expected. You come to the realization that museum exhibitions try to distill a subject into a simple way for people to relate to it. So, when you look at a reconstruction of the Rashi Chapel from the Synagogue of Worms(Germany)…what is the meaning behind it?
Either way, the lesson of the Museum’s core exhibit was that Judaism had formed as a unique culture and religion in Israel, and had subsequently scattered after the country was conquered, and as a result Jews had spread around the world. That history takes a central theme in the touring of Israel…especially considering I was on a Jewish-themed tour.
We continued on to Jaffa. As we headed through the streets of Tel Aviv, my father remarked it looked nothing like it did 40 years ago. So, in honor of that…I’m adding a special recurring segment to this little documentation project. I call it…Israel then and Now…featuring Warren Shanske, who was my travelling companion for this trip. Looks the same, right?
Warren Shanske ThenWarren Shanske, June 2015 in Tel Aviv(Jaffa in background)
Cities change over time. To my father, Tel Aviv looks like any other city now. It has commercialization, it has tall buildings. But he probably hasn’t noticed some of the drastic changes in New York either.
Back to the city of Jaffa. There has been a major effort over the last quarter century to renovate historic sites, including Muslim ones, in Jaffa over the last 25 years. There has also been increasing gentrification despite a high crime rate, this has had a result of increasing real estate prices and changing demographics.
Tel Aviv and Jaffa have been unified since 1950, and you can see Jaffa is within walking distance of the newer city. My father claimed that was his exercise when he was here in the 70s. He would walk to Jaffa.
JaffaLooking Back at Tel Aviv from Jaffa
While these are the same spots my father saw 40 years ago, things have certainly changed.
I was a bit hot by this point, so we bought some orange juice. I’m not sure what the margins are on this, but you quickly realize when a man is using a knife and a hand press exactly how many oranges go into a cup of orange juice. Makes me feel wasteful, but no wonder it cost the equivalent of $5.
After we finished in Jaffa, we headed toward the neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood in Jerusalem. Neve Tzedek was the first neighborhood to be built outside of Jaffa in the 19th century, but by the 1960s, the southern part of Tel Aviv, closest to Jaffa had become a slum and was targeted for urban redevelopment. However, the plan to replace the area with high rises was stopped due to the fact many buildings were on the historic preservation list.
As happens to many neighborhoods like this when preserved, it turned into boutiques, cafes, galleries…a process not unique to Israel, as I see this in the United States as well.
Yitzchak Rabin Memorial
On Saturday, November 4th, 1995, I was in a hotel room in Massachusetts visiting my brother, who was attending Brandeis University, who was in school there. Nightfall came, and I turned on the TV and saw the news that Yitzchak Rabin had been assassinated. It was a shock. Rabin had actually been scheduled to speak at Brandeis not that long after that…an event that never occurred.
The memorial sits, commemorating this event. There is a bust of Rabin nearby, and a commemorative wall. I think our tour guide summarized it best. He didn’t vote for Rabin’s party, but he respected the man. And despite any disagreement, that was who the majority elected, and there would be a chance to vote them out of office in the next election. In the end, that is all we can hope for our leaders and politicians. That we respect them, even if we don’t agree with them, and we represent our opinion with our vote. Welcome to democracy.
The tour concluded early that afternoon, and let us off. The tour guide advised he would come back to take us to the hotels after we wandered around, or we could walk back. My father and I aren’t shopping types, so we wandered a bit, then walked through the Carmel Market and back to the hotel.
We then met up with our cousins for Friday night dinner.
Saturday, June 6th, 2015
We didn’t tour on Saturday. We woke up at 6, which we did every day in Israel, and headed to breakfast, then attended services inside the hotel. After which, we returned to the room for a rest, ate lunch in the hotel, took a walk along the beach, more resting. There were plenty of people out as we walked around.
That night, without any help, we endeavored to find a place to eat. After wandering around, we finally gave up, had some gelato instead of a meal, and went back to bed.
The official tour began Sunday. Stay tuned for Part 3, where we leave the bustling city of Tel Aviv and head to the hills.
So rarely do I remember what occurred on a trip. Thought I would write it out quickly. This first part deals with air travel. Let’s see if I can cover the whole trip.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
El Al Flight 008, departing 11:30PM, arriving next day at 4:55PM.
Get a message that LY008 is delayed by one hour. Ends up being 1.5 hours late. Considering how long before the crew shows up, my guess is after the delay, the crew transport was delayed.
I was last on El Al in 1999, on a charter flight from JFK to Krakow, then Warsaw to Tel Aviv, and finally Tel Aviv back to New York. It was the same plane, a 747. There have been some minor changes. They have individual screens…although it is not on demand. I didn’t watch a single second of it.
I didn’t spring for Economy Plus…because it is incredibly hard to do so. The logic of an airline requiring you to apply for the privilege of getting a better seat, as opposed to just selecting one of their website is beyond me. I tried to call and had a less than satisfactory conversation. I was offered a chance to bid on having an empty seat next to me…but fortunately, I got that for free.
Sunday, June 14th, 2015
El Al Flight 001, departing 12:45AM, arriving 5:50AM the same day.
You’ve got to love Israeli security, or maybe you don’t. Before we even got to their airport, there was a checkpoint of armed soldiers checking cars. Then a guy outside the terminal who was watching, and could stop you and inspect you there.
We checked in at a kiosk. Actually the first time I’ve tagged my own bags at a kiosk. That isn’t very common in the U.S. I noticed that despite the fact people got the tags, they didn’t apply them till they got to the counter.
Then there is the Israeli security check, where they ask you questions and put other tags on your bags before you are allowed to proceed to the counter.
After the counter, you get to go through a more traditional security line, where they don’t care about liquids, they don’t ask you to take off your shoes…and this is the highest rated airport security in the world.
Then, you get your exit visa(I got mine from another machine), and head toward the gate.
The Service
The food on El Al was reasonably decent. Each direction served a dinner and a breakfast. There was one single drink service on a 10-11 hour flight, and coffee and tea service with breakfast. Unlike the last time I was on, you could go to the galley if you wanted more to drink. I took a page from the guy next to me and got my own water bottle out of my bag and had them fill it for me so I wouldn’t have to bother them so regularly.
Objectively speaking, the service is good, but the product is somewhat dated compared to many airlines. Delta, having a flight that left around the same time, beat us to and from Tel Aviv. From the employees, it wasn’t the disinterest I remember from last time.
They were all friendly and helpful…except when they refused to speak to the man in front of me on the way out about the fact he reclined his seat before takeoff and left it reclined, even when I was trying to eat. I remember a different airline actually made an announcement asking people to sit up for the meal period so people could eat.
Once again, unveiling new features for the site. WordPress does not have built-in location support for posts by default. There is a Geolocation plugin that is not actively maintained and does not support HTML5 geolocation, which allows me to click a button and have the coordinates retrieved.
For those interested, the plugin, known as Simple Location, is now available for download in the WordPress Repository.
The map and address information are courtesy of OpenStreetMap.
As many of you who have been watching know, I’ve taken up WordPress development as part of my involvement in the Indieweb movement. So, this is sort of a status update.
After developing a lot of my tools on Github, I’ve decided to move them where people can use them, the official WordPress repository. I’ve added two of them so far, the ones I’ve deemed ready for other people to try.
Post Kinds – Allows WordPress posts to respond and interact with other sites, as well as certain passive post types.
Syndication Links – A basic plugin that adds links to other sites to the bottom of a post. If you check this post, there are icons indicating I sent a link to it to Facebook, Twitter, so on.
So far, if you watch this site, I haven’t been posting much. Need to work on that. I do seem to have users though. Most notably, one in Australia. I say notably because compared to my sporadic posting, my plugin is in regular use by someone, which encourages me to evolve and iterate…and even add some features I didn’t think of.
I now support passive kinds of posts. This would be actions like Listened To, and Watched. I’d better start listening and watching things.
But most importantly, I’ve always felt myself a horrible programmer, since I gave up on it many years ago. Having a project that I enjoy doing for myself, and at least a few other people are using, inspires me to try to be better. I think I’ve graduated to mediocre programmer. If I keep at it, I might get to decent.
In my recent development of the Post Kinds plugin, I’ve felt the need to try to explain what exactly a Post Kind does. I needed a way to distinguish the custom taxonomy I’d created. So let’s define the competition for the terms…
A Post Format is a piece of meta information that can be used by a theme to customize its presentation of a post. Confusingly, the slug for post formats is ‘type’.
A Custom Post Type is a single item of what is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. It is more a custom content type.
A Taxonomy is a grouping mechanism for some posts.
A Post Kind is a taxonomy that allows posts to be classified according to the kind of post it is.
So, not so much of an invention as a necessity to distinguish from similar concepts
They have gone through some changes. But, at the moment, they are designed as a drop-in replacement for post formats. There are actually many good reasons why the WordPress developers decided a set of standardized formats would make sense…most notably the ability to change themes without losing your customization. Fewer and fewer people are using post formats, however.
Indieweb Post Kinds are designed the same way. The two can exist simultaneously, but you are better off disabling formats in favor of a single solution.
As more and more sites incorporate concepts like “Like’, ‘Favorite’, and so on, one’s own site should support these. This allows for that.
The plugin supports sending webmentions via the WordPress Webmentions plugin, to send notices to other sites you might be ‘liking’, replying to a post on, etc…assuming the other site supports it. But more and more indieweb sites are doing so.
I found out about Indiewebcamp in March of 2014, so I have not yet been involved with it for a complete calendar year. But, I’ve decided, with the end of 2014 approaching, to take stock on how I’m doing, and can reassess next year.
As part of this evaluation, I am using the Indiemark system, a set of metrics for measuring the indieweb-ness of a site, and a step-by-step approach to incrementally adopting indieweb features.
Identity
Level 2
I own my own domain, and I post h-card contact info and an icon on`my page.
I have given much thought to people-focused communications, which falls under this category. Need to develop this more.
Authentication
Level 1
I have set up Indieauth, which allows me to authenticate to sites using my domain name. But this exposed a bug in one of the libraries indieauth runs on, which has gone up the chain for repair. There is currently no level 2, but a level 2 may include two factor authentication, which I am trialing as a security measure…
Posts
Level 3
My Post Kinds/Taxonomy plugin supports different kinds of content. And while I support the following types, I am actually planning to limit myself due overlap.
like or favorite, depending on your preference – I have the hardest time with deciding
photo – post where the primary content is an image
repost – this is a complete reposting of the original, haven’t really done those
rsvp – only used once. I really need to go more places.
Syndication
Level 2
I syndicate(POSSE) my posts to applicable silos(Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus). I am not currently linking back to the originals, as I previously did, unless relevant, as I haven’t gotten my syndication working the way I’d like.
Posting UI
Level 3
It’s hard to say where I am with this. I have a UI for posting, the WordPress interface, one I created for adding context information for replies, but I’m still not happy with the UI for syndication.
I’d like to work on a simpler UI for the future. The WordPress one is very useful, but has a lot of ‘stuff’ to finish a post. Great for an article, not so great for a note.
Navigation
Level 4
I have previous/next navigation, time based archives, and tag based archive pages, so I’ve covered this category as of now.
Search
Level 4
My site is searchable using the built-in WordPress search functions.
Aggregation
Level 4/5.
Thanks to the work of Matthias Pfefferle, I receive webmentions and show comments and mentions from other people on my site. That achieves the notes for Level 5.
However, I’ve spent a lot of time on reply-contexts, which I am manually entering. My project continues with plans to pull in more of this information automatically, which is more of a Level 4 goal.
Web Actions
Level 3, but not Level 2.
I had hard-coded actions and web actions on my site. They were removed for now, as they didn’t work the way I wanted. They will likely be back.
I do provide syndication links on posts of all other places the post can be found.
Security
Level 5/6
I serve the site now exclusively over https, and redirect anyone requesting a plain unencrypted site. The site supports SPDY for increasing speed over an SSL site.
The site has an A rating with Qualysis SSL Labs. It uses an SHA-2 certificate and supports Mozilla’s Intermediate Compatability Cipher List. This makes it fairly up to date in this category, but I am holding out for the A+.
Miscellany
This site is also now delivered over IPV6 as well as IPV4.
The site runs on Nginx, and uses a caching system I wrote.
Conclusion
One of the most interesting things about getting involved in this group has been building things. I have always loved making things, and have never been good at it. I still think I am a reasonably good idea person, but a horrible programmer.
I still have 4 days in 2014, if I want to build something else.
My involvement with the Indiewebcamp movement continues, and I want to encourage what is possible.
One of the building blocks of Indiewebcamp is the webmention.
Webmention is considered an update to pingback. Pingback was proposed in 2002 as an automated version of the Trackback concept that added link verification. The basic principle of a Pingback is Person A posts something. Person B posts something that links to Person A’s post, which sends a pingback. Person A confirms by visiting Person B’s site to check the link exists. The pingback specification uses the XML-RPC framework as a method of transport.
Akismet, a hosted anti-spam service, has taken the measure of blocking all of them by default, because they’ve become such an avenue for spammers. We certainly think Trackback support should be discontinued, and Pingback likely behind it. It isn’t just that they’ve become an avenue for spammers…but they add no value.
Webmention is similar to the pingback specification in use, but it is carried over plain HTTP as opposed to XMLRPC. This means it is easier to implement, and a simple HTML form can send webmentions.
Most pingbacks and tracks contain title of the post that sent the trackback and ellipsed […] … […] summary text, which is of little use. No improvement of presentation is likely to go forward without addressing the underlying protocol.
The proof of concept of this is the WordPress webmention plugin, which adds support for webmentions, and its companion plugin, Semantic Linkbacks, which takes the output of any sort of linkback and turns it into human readable text, along with a profile picture. It allows for a much nicer presentation.
The way Semantic Linkbacks does human readable text is that it parses the site that has sent the mention. It counts on the site being microformats 2 complaint, although it will try to fall back on the original microformats standard and other information if needed.
I’ve thus filed a feature request with the people at WordPress, the start of my attempt to make WordPress more friendly. It is specifically for Microformats 2 support in WordPress, which would allow better parsing of WordPress sites.
With this, more sites will display markup that will allow sites receiving mentions from them to better present those mentions. Part of the reason mentions are mostly garbage is we have made them that way with neglect.
I’d like to not only see Webmentions baked into more sites, but improved presentation tools and discussion around them, and then…the Spam problem will be one worth solving. There are efforts underway to address this.
This site runs WordPress, but there was some question as to how I set it up and what I use to run it. It continues to evolve, but I thought I would go over it…specifically how I sent it up for some of the Indieweb stuff I’ve been working on.
Standard Plugins
Character Count for Post Content and Excerpt(Link) – Because I need to be aware of the 140 character limit of Twitter, one of the services I send my content to, I need to know the character count of what I’m typing. This adds that to my editing screen
EWWW Image Optimizer(Link) – It reduces file sizes for images to ensure faster loading
Pushover Notifications(Link)or the forked alternative Pushbullet Notifications(Link) for WordPress – This plugin sends notifications of site events to my phone. The Pushover version is actively maintained and allows for extensions.
Simple Local Avatars(Link) – Overrides the default of using the Gravatar service for profile pictures to storing them locally.
WordPress SEO by Yoast(Link) – While I’m not obsessive about Search Engine Optimization, I find this plugin assists in my writing by reminding me about the importance of certain elements.
Hum(Link) – This is a simple URL shortener. So for each post, there is an equivalent URL address at di5.us. This allows me to give out easier to enter links to longer post titles.
The Indieweb Stuff
WordPress Webmention(Link) – Adds webmention support for WordPress. This allows communications between sites.
Semantic Linkbacks(Link) – Adds richer content to WordPress comments received by Webmention. For example, interprets them as reply, repost, like, favorite, mention, etc. This allows different displays and actions to be done with them
Semantic Comments(Link) – One of my own plugins. It changes the display of WordPress comments based on the information from Semantic Linkbacks. It presents the profile pictures in a Facepile for the various types of mentions with the comments separately below.
Indieweb Taxonomy(Link) – Semantic Linkbacks is all about receiving webmentions for the various semantic types. But this plugin, another one of mine(although I credit several with contributions), adds new terms to WordPress posts for responding to content on another site. So, a post on this site can be a reply to another site, a like, etc. It will automatically send a webmention to the other site, if that site supports it, of course.
Syndication Links(Link) – Another project, which adds fields to a post for the corresponding versions on other networks. It also adds links to same to the post.
H-Card Tools – Still under development and not yet available for download, this is just the profile widget marked up appropriately, in the sidebar of the site.
A Few Choices
There is an alternative to my Syndication Links plugin…a plugin called WordPress Syndication (Link). It automatically adds the links to the post, and extracts the data from a variety of sources that post to other sites. This includes NextScripts Social Network Auto-Poster(Link) or Mailchimp’s Social plugin(Link), and even Bridgy(we’ll get back to Bridgy in a moment).
The theme I use is a custom one I built, but the most popular theme for Indieweb sites is Sempress(Link). My theme isn’t quite refined enough for most people, but if you want it, a copy can be downloaded here. The version in use on my site is just a colored version of the minimal style the theme offers.
Bridgy
Bridgy is not a WordPress plugin, or something you need to install(although you can host it yourself). It is a service that you can link your accounts on places like Twitter and Facebook to, and it will pull in comments, likes, etc from those sites and send them to your site to be integrated. This requires the Webmention and Semantic Linkback plugins to understand what is being sent.
To the Future
I enjoy developing this site as a learning tool. I hadn’t done much WordPress development before this and it is very useful to know.
For anyone who comes here considering trying my setup, I’m always available to help. For those who are trying my plugins…they are still being refined, but feedback and contributions(of code) are appreciated.
This site is under development, so it does change regularly. I will often summarize some of the changes with a post, but sometimes not.
Back in April, I announced Version 2.0 of this website, since I relaunched it. Now I announce Version 3.0. I wrote the code again, which continues to be a learning experience.
But in order to finish it, I needed to bring it live, so I could test out the various options I’m experimenting with. There is a lot similar to the previous edition. For now, the links to various syndication and communications methods, as well as a search box, are shared on the menu bar with the various ways to filter content.
In addition to Articles, longer form text like this, you can see the types of notes I’ve been filing. There is still more to do to clean that up. A lot of it is based on a custom plugin for WordPress I wrote to add Likes, Replies, and other common conventions, as well as the necessary markup for them. My development of this site and its plugins is why I now have the Github link to that work.
The site is continuing to iterate, and I’m continuing to learn. In the meantime, comments are appreciated. I have more to do. Writing pieces like this is aspirational.
Such as bring back the syndication links on individual posts, which involves rewriting that, which is another plugin
I have two other options coded for a banner image to test
The Bio on the Sidebar is still part of a bunch of behind the scenes development I want to do
And all of this…and I haven’t actually been writing much. Oh, well.
In my last article, I was contemplating how to handle communications with individuals using this website. Unfortunately, technology isn’t quite there yet. Someone will have to build it. To some part, that might be another hobby for me.
The problem as I explored this that has keep me stalled is the walled garden problem. Sites like Facebook or Twitter want you to embed their code, which does a lot more than open up the service. At the least all these scripts embedded in your website slow it down. Some functions don’t even have the option for integration.
One can’t rely on asking people to install pieces of software, especially the less technically inclined. Which means you need to have a simple solution that takes advantage of what people already have.
So, in terms of instant messaging, we have Facebook and Google Hangouts(formerly Google Talk). Both had support for a common standard, XMPP. Google Hangouts is still backwards compatible with XMPP for who knows how long. Facebook is compatible until April 30, 2015, when they will discontinue support. Neither has an alternative way of accessing their service, other than their own tools.
So, that leaves me with little choice right now but to roll my own solutions. But that is the essence of the Indieweb movement I’ve gotten involved in. Of course, I’m not really a programmer, but I can do some things.
So, if you look at this test for a new configuration for this site(may be in place if you are reading this in the future), I have the links at the time, which are all syndication points…Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, RSS, etc… other locations to see the same content, if that is the way you want to seem them.
Below the syndication links(aka social media), I have the mockup of the new business card style profile. I want to add communication icons to this card style I have, but other than email, I, at the moment have none. This has been stalling me for some time now. This is not the final version.
Here is the old layout…I have no better tagline…I really need one. But, I hope to add the buttons for email and other ways to reach me. But I lack many methods.
So, next, I’m thinking of trying an experiment. Setting up some software you can click on the site and communicate with me. You don’t have to know what the protocol is, and it should hopefully work in a browser. There is one individual I saw in researching who allows you to click a link that rings his phone.
So, what do you think? Remember, you can comment using any of the links below. You can even use the contact form on this site by clicking here.
A while back, I was reading Tantek Çelik’s attempt to better define People Focused Mobile Communications. I have had the pleasure of meeting Tantek on two separate occasions at Indiewebcamp events. Ever since I missed a discussion on this matter at the end of this month, I’ve been thinking about it, although not just for mobile.
Tantek asked, “What if our mobile devices focused on people first and apps second? Remember when they used to? When you looked up a person first, and decided to txt, call, or email them second?”
I remember when I used Trillian on Windows, and now Pidgin on Linux to unify my instant messaging contacts. I didn’t have to care if Bob was on AIM, YIM, ICQ(dating myself there, aren’t I?).
I don’t mind installing applications as methods of communication, but that is the plumbing. I don’t see people going off and saying they want to know how their water gets to their sink. They just want it to work. But, as time has gone on, companies have moved away from allowing third-party clients, which means that third-party clients that take multiple services and a common interface may not be possible in the future.
So, that means that any people-focused communication has to tell a service to launch their application to handle it. The proposal would have you visiting the person’s website, see their page that shows methods of communications in order of priority, look for the method of communication, tap/click it, and you are taken to the website/native application that handles that service.
And, if you make the site smart enough, it can change the presentation based on availability and other factors. If you want people to authenticate their identity somehow, it could show different presentations to friends over strangers.
It sounds very nice. But how does one build such a thing? Or even start building toward such a thing. I’ve been building things I myself want to have for my site. .
There are two ways for a web browser to register handlers for specific types of communication. One is outlined in this Mozilla document and shows how websites can register themselves. Gmail, for example, offers to registers itself to handle email. The second is the registering of an app to handle these. This is pretty common on Android, for example…that a specific action can launch an external application to handle it. For example, if I click a Youtube link on a webpage on my phone, it will ask me if I want to open it in the Android Youtube app. Until recently, iOS has done this using URL handling schemes, but apparently in iOS 8, they will be getting something called App Extensions that will allow this functionality.
Even Facebook got into the app to app communications issue at their last developer conference with AppLinks.
So, in the end, the barrier is that the desktop experience is fragmented, the mobile experience slightly less so, but there is currently no way to ensure a consistent communications experience. If you don’t believe me…try clicking this email link. Did it open your usual email or webmail client?
If the web is the medium by which we communicate, and the web is being sectioned off into silos or walled gardens…sites whose goal is to keep your communications and activities wholly inside their ecosystem, then how do you make communications transparent so the person trying to reach you doesn’t have to know what medium you prefer, that is all handled for them?
So, let’s go back to how we build such a thing. For now, it is create a space…a website that tells people where to reach you. In the old days, we’d use a business card…but the modern tools have the same utility.
In the below shot, from one of my previous articles on this site, I have a series of social buttons that tell you how to find me on Facebook, Twitter, etc… but not how to communicate with me.
That will be changing…or at least enhancing…as soon as I figure out how to convey that. In the meantime…you are welcome to try and find me whatever way you wish…
So, if you look at this test for a new configuration for this site(may be in place if you are reading this in the future), I have the links at the time, which are all syndication points…Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, RSS, etc… other locations to see the same content, if that is the way you want to seem them.
