A new badge & Squid Squad updates

I just got this in my inbox. As you can imagine, I am rather chuffed particualrly since the award was by voting from other Squid Squad members!

The Squid Squad did very well:
Every member going for giant who got more than 50 lenses made it
The Top 100 Team won the challenge with 221 lenses

Squid Squad MVPs:
Giant: hlkljgk
Top 100: tirial

My lens progress since the challenge has slowed. I have a whole set of lenses building up in WIP at the moment, because with working full-time I have written the content, but haven't spent the time in front of a PC to select the right books, posters and affiliates for the lens. There might be a few upcoming this weekend.

And of course there's still the summer school challenge: write a lens about someone you respect. Too bad I can't submit the lenses on Brunel or Bazalgette!

What makes a good lens?

There was an interesting post on Squidu.com, that got me thinking:

[quote=interstellaryeller]I do not understand this. Anyone that has 100 or 200 lens in my eyes is a form of spam in itself. nobody can be a expert in that many fields and so I just sift over one or two of their top lens. I really think anything over 10 lens is just nonsence. But squidoo rewards this with lens rank and purple stars. But of course that my opinion.[/quote]

I find that an interesting opinion, but it got me thinking about why I make lenses and what I look for in a lens. I've written well over a thousand reviews. Technically I could turn each of them into lenses (although I prefer to write original content each time) but it would not change the fact that that would be one thousand lenses written from a position of knowledge.

It is certainly possible for one field to generate more than one lens. Astronomy for example has its history, photography, how to take the pictures, the best places to camp to avoid light pollution, observatories, famous figures, equipment etc. so someone who is an expert on those can do lenses on those fields where it's almost certain they know more than their visitors. That's seven fields with space for multiple lenses already. And to rebut the idea that people can't be an expert in more than one field, look up polymaths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath). People like Leonardo da Vinci or Rupert Gould were experts in several. To a lesser extent it used to be expected of the upper classes.

Rather than an expert's guide I tend to see my lenses more as telling enough of the story to involve the visitor, more of a portal site or guide than a complete detailed view. An expert would write an entire book on some of these subjects, and lens don't have the word count to cover everything to that level - nor do most readers have the inclination to go into that depth on their first encounter with a topic (I certainly don't).

In general I'd say a lens is not spam if the user comes away knowing a bit more than they did, having enjoyed the read, and not feeling as though they wasted their time - ideally with more of an interest in the field.

That's just my view, other people may disagree. Any comments?

Three new lenses

#167 The TJX Data Theft case
http://www.squidoo.com/tjx-data-loss

#168 The Mallard - the fastest steam engine in the world
http://www.squidoo.com/the-mallard

#169 Badbury Rings - an ancient British Hill fort
http://www.squidoo.com/badbury-rings

I have a few more half-built, so the challenge isn't lost yet. At the moment it's effectively marking time until both hands are usuable and I can do the typing I need to finish them off.

And I'm still stuck on what to do for squid summer school - what is the most important item to you, and the one you would carry out of your house in a fire. Um, isn't that a bit personal? And my SO is a bit heavy to carry...

The problem is that my instinctive reaction is "I get out." In a fire nothing else matters compared to getting out alive and staying out. Material possessions are insured and replaceable. You only get one life.

Two more live

Not entirely sure what numbers these are, but:

#161 The Brunel Museum
http://www.squidoo.com/brunel-museum

#162 Console Game reviews
http://www.squidoo.com/console-game-reviews

The Brunel Museum was done because they are a small friendly group, who gave me a lot of information for the Thames Tunnel lens, so I felt that spreading the word was a good way to return a favour.

The Console games lens was a chore I had been putting off. I have a lot of video review lenses, and kept telling myself I had to do a lensography. It wasn't a lens I particularly liked writing, and I think it shows. It might get a total rewrite if I get some ideas.

Lens #154 (Hamleys) and a time extension

#154 is now up, which is about Hamleys toy shop, the oldest toy store in Britain and probably the best. It has long been a guilty pleasure of mine, so I thought I'd share it!

The Squid Squad challenge has an extension on the deadline to the 30th June, which is great - gives us more time to make lenses. I'm not sure whether to reset my target to 200 or if that is frankly a bit ambitious, particularly given the other problem...

...Squidoo summer school. With great embarrassment I admit I suspect I am about to fall at the first. The challenge is to find a way to use their new Caption Contest Module. I'm useless at caption contests. I avoid them like a plague. Writing one myself is currently resulting in a very blank mind. Ideas welcomed here!

Edited to add: Why not? I made the 150 by the 13th June.

New Target: 200 lenses New deadline: June 30th.

Can I do it? Probably not, but I'm certainly going to try. And since I'm now on Twitter (Tirial_A) you can follow my progress there as well.

The new squidoo

Well, they've put the new Squidoo live.

My first impressions are mixed. The shorter bios mean I have 150 lenses to rework, but aside from that and some HTML tweaks there's not too much to do on that front. From a useability standard point it is much much better with easier bookmark links, a smaller titlebar, and larger text.

The problem is I don't like it. I'll wait a day and hope it grows on me. But frankly, I'm not that fond of it, mainly because I find the grey text hard to read and the large areas of white are frankly painful to look at on a large screen.

Hopefully once they've fixed the remaining bugs (and yes Wikipedia and Feed my search are STILL broken) I'll get used to it. But there might a be lot of CSS hacks and font overrides going on on my lenses if I don't.

The other problem is that five articles on bukisa for two weeks have earned the same as most of my lenses earn in a month.

A new challenge!

The Squid Team Challenge doesn't end until the 15th, and my team is lagging, so I might be turning out a few more lenses before then. And I won't know if I got Top 100 until June 30th. So rather than be bored or nervous, I am taking on a new challenge!

Squidoo have now started a summer school - the challenge? To make eight lenses in eight weeks on preset topics.

More here: Squid Summer School

I don't get on as well when I can't pick my own topic, so this should be a bit harder!

Lens 150 - The A1 Tornado

#150 The A1 Steam Tornado
http://www.squidoo.com/A1-tornado

The A1 Steam Trust's Tornado is the first steam engine built in Britain for forty years, and is currently in mainline operation. A Peppercorn class she is capable of great speed pulling a nine coach train - and looks absolutely stunning in motion.

I had been debating what to do for 150, as I wanted to do something special for my target lens. The A1 Tornado is definitely something special. Besides, as I like steam engines and jet planes, a steam engine named after a fighter jet is the best of both worlds.

#149 The Iron Railway Vineyard

(Did I mention the three extra articles I've just added to Bukisa? No? Well I just did, and they'll appear inthe widget in the sidebard shortly.)

My 149th lens takes me back to alcohol, like the madeira lenses.

A small vineyard that I stumbled across at Coulsdon Market while I was researching the Farthing Downs lens. I'm not a wine drinker, and my friend was definitely more interested in their cider range, but I think there's enough there for a lens!

I'll be seeing if I can get more info on it to bulk the lens out a bit more. Meanwhile lens 150 is in the works, and hopefully will be going up very very soon...

...and then I'll get some sleep.

#148 The Flying Scotsman

Not really complete - it still needs a lens image and more details on the engine, but since I hit publish automatically it is live.

Officially that puts me on 148, so I didn't make the 150 before I started work, but I have a few others in the pipeline and now I am aiming for the end of the week.

I've got until June 15th to complete the 150 for the challenge. Fingers crossed!

HMS Glowworm

HMS Glowworm
http://www.squidoo.com/hms-glowworm

In 1940 a British Destroyer, HMS Glowworm, found herself in an unequal fight against a german battleship, Admiral Hipper, which was seven times her size. The story is one of gallantry at sea, and unusually it reflects well on both sides.

New lens: Two lumps webcomic

#137 http://www.squidoo.com/two-lumps
Two lumps webcomic

Down with a heavy cold so updates may be erratic (never really kicked it after the obeservatory visit, and its back with a vengeance). Finally got up this evening, had a brief look at a web comic I follow and figured why not do a lens on it?

Also quite surprised as Great Western just broke into the top ten on Squidoo, and has been changing ranks between 9 and eight. It's even reached number two in its section.

A traffic seeker report and Out of ideas...

Running a bit out of ideas, so I am taking a short break from lenses and turning one of my lenses into a full website (handicapped by my complete lack of artistic talent...). I might have another lens up by the end of today, I don't know.

The initial results from trafficseeker have been good, and my test site has increased its exposure to visitors and backlinks. Unfortunately the lens I used it on wasn't that well ranked, so an increase from two to four visitors a day might be co-incidence. Nonetheless, there's cautious optimism going on here, so I'm trying it on something a bit higher ranked.

Now if I could just get some more ideas...

Lens of the day

Having missed the extremely, extremely obvious - the little box on the side of the control bar that says Lens of the Day - I can confirm that Great Western Railways actually is Lens of the Day.

I can also confirm I am currently rather shocked, stunned, happy, and going to get a drink since I wasn't sure whether it was the web or me that had gone insane.

ETA: In my defense, I had my head down for a couple of hours working on the Canberra lens and when I popped up to check comments there were more than a few...

Ahem, excuse me for shouting but - I GOT LENS OF THE DAY!!!

Normal, calmer, service resumes shortly.

#124 Brunel Lensography

#124 Brunel Lensography
http://www.squidoo.com/brunel

This is live but unfortunately still a work in progress. The same thing delaying my Thames tunnel lens is affecting the lens image for this - the requirement to get to the Brunel Museum with a camera...

Unfortunately this is largely down to the recent rainfall, and the effect on British Rail. You'd think British trains would be used to the weather but apparently not. f course, I'm not keen on going out myself in this weather either.

Anyway, I've put it up as it's a quick reference to the Brunel lenses - and to be honest there are already quite a few of them. Its also up becase I am tackling a difficult project as a new lens, I don't want to get distracted and I'm not sure I can do it justice.

The new one's going to be toughter than GWR to write. Fingers crossed it's as well received.

#123 Tim and Tobias

New Lens #123 Tim and Tobias
http://www.squidoo.com/Tim-and-tobias

All about the Tim and the Hidden people books by Sheila K. McCullagh. I grew up with these, and they were one of the best ways to get into reading I know of. Judging by the number of 5 star reviews, I'm not the only person to think that. As rare books that were only briefly reprinted, there is a lot of interest in them.

However, the information about the books is scattered around, so I thought I'd pull it all into one location. Amazon.co.uk links are already available for the books, but I am still waiting on a few international books sites to get back to me with link permissions.

I might turn this one into a website. It depends on how much time I have.

And Farthing Downs just gained a few items on Zazzle.

#122 Farthing Downs

#122 http://www.squidoo.com/farthing-downs

A lens about the Corporation of London open land inside London. This was an interesting one, because when I first started I could find very little. However when I changed tack to bulk out the lens, looking at ramblers and archeology I was suddenly flooded. As a result it feels a bit scrappy, and I will be adding more content once I have the images to go with it.

It was also tricky since when you are standing at the top of Farthing Downs with your camera is not when you want a) to have the batteries go flat and b) for it to start raining. I can take a hint, so new images can wait until I've dried off!

#118 and #119 and a change of charity

#118 Etiquette Hell
http://www.squidoo.com/etiquette-hell
What can I say, I have loved the e-hell site for years, and setting up a small fan homage seemed apropriate, even if it's not quite in keeping with the Brunel theme recently.

#119 How NOT to fundraise online
http://www.squidoo.com/bad-fundraising
How NOT to raise funds and profile online for not for profits. Inspired by some of the classics I've seen while developing fundraising strategies, and by a recent comment from a charity rep who just lost my support for his cause permanently. Don't ever beg me for £2 a month, when you already turned down a lot more!

New charity required! I am looking for a new charity to support through squidoo. If you are a UK-based aviation-focused charity and you want to register for my aviation lens income let me know. You will need a Paypal account and to register for Squidoo (which requires proof of charitable status).

Do email them. The site says US only but I have confimation from Squidoo that as long as you can prove you are a charity they will consider your application.

110 lenses and a group

It seems with the lensrank delay I lost track: I actually have 110 lenses live! I am busy continuing to strip out clearspring modules and replace them with handcrafted links - frankly they may not have the functionality, but they look better in most cases.

To keep my interest up however, I am turning my new Madeira lens into a series, with four new lenses about the four types:

Sercial
Verdelho
Bual
Malmsey

These are tests, so they will gain new content (particularly once I find a few more suppliers with product feeds), but the basic framework is up.

I'm also revamping the British Aviation group, which has gained a few extra modules, and a snazzy English Electric Lightning as a lens image. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of people covering this topic on the largely US-based Squidoo, so I am having trouble recruiting more lensmasters. If you have a lens and want to submit it, please do!

Madeira - New lens #108

Lens Number #108
http://www.squidoo.com/madeira-wines

A new day and finally a new lens. The Brunel ones are fun but tiring, so I threw together this lens on Madeira, a fortified wine that I like.

I've even located an eBay shop that sells it for the lens. However, there is no guideline on whether you can sell alcoholic drinks through a G-rated lens. Nothing says you can't so the link is there, I've emailed the squidoo team, and I'll update when I get a response.