Once the shoutbox is added to your site, messages can be posted in it two different ways.  Your users can include the URL to the shoutbox in their tweet, and Jotabl will pick this up and place it in your shoutbox.  Users can also leave a message by signing into the box via Twitter, with the option to have the message tweeted for them.

You also can remove message and block certain Twitter users if they get too crazy with the shoutbox postings.  Now Jotabl doesn’t re-invent the Web, however it does provide a neat feedback interface for your users.  Give it a shot shout at jotable.com.

As you might of (or might not have, depending on how often you visit) noticed, I had DISQUS powering the comments on Mitchelaneous, the Web Hosting Show and Firefox Facts.  However, “had” is the important word.  This morning I removed DISQUS across the board.

Now I’ll cut to the chase, and tell you why.  It seems that no matter how I tweaked around with WordPress, I could never get DISQUS to pick up on all my trackbacks and comments.  One or two a day would get stuck going to the internal WordPress comment engine (which is practically blocked from you after you install DISQUS).

Having grown tired of checking two places for spam and comments, I decided things were simpler before DISQUS was brought into the picture.  It might be an alright comment system for some, but for me – it was just a little more trouble than it was worth.  Just my two cents here, so if you have an opinion that is either positive or negative about DISQUS post it in the comments.

Update: I have recently had a change of heart, and have decided Disqus is doing a much better job now, than ever before.  Before you make up your mind, be sure to check out my re-review and troubleshooting tips of Disqus.

I would like to know what you think of my site, and I like to let other people know what I think about their sites.  What Rev.iew.me does is organize all that under one tent.

One thing people will either love or hate though, is you must earn enough points before you can ask for your own site to be reviewed.  I have a feeling this is so people don’t sign up, ask for a review, and then you never see them again.  It forces you to be social!

How do you earn points?

You can get one point for posting a review between 100 and 299 words.  You can earn three points by posting a review between 300 and 999 words or by referring a friend to sign up.  Last but not least, you can earn five points if you post a review over 1000+ words.  You can read more about the points system on the points charter they have posted.

How do you spend the points you have earned?

• It costs 3 points to plug your site on the rev.iew.me plugboard
• It costs 5 points to add a site to rev.iew.me
• It costs 5 points to push your site to the front page spotlight

If you earn big points, you can trade them in for big rewards!

• For 300 points: get one free .com/.net/.org domain
• For 500 points: get free Star Membership
• For 800 points: get 6 months free hosting for your website

So as I said before, this is a very exciting new service that looks like it has a lot to offer from head to toe – as long as you are willing to be a productive member of the society around it.  Want to get your web site reviewed or share your opinions about what other people can do to make their sites better? 

Typing this as, well, I type I can tell you I am a Kubuntu user.  Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to get it just the way I want it.  Was I successful?  Well as somebody who has used just Windows all his life, it wasn’t easy – but it is now done.

Firefox is installed, Pidgin is up and running, so I now know I can at least do my day-to-day work done on here.

What is the Most Frustrating Thing About Kubuntu?

Well for me, my cries are pretty anal.  I don’t like that windows do not remember their locations when you close and reopen them.  Instead they just rotate corners they launch from.  I guess this will take some getting used to.

What do I like the most about Kubuntu?

The biggest positive is hard to put my finger on.  I like the basic look and feel of it, even more so than I liked Ubuntu.  Ubuntu just never felt right to me when using it, but Kubuntu does the trick.  Guess that makes me a fan of KDE over Gnome?  Hope that is right, getting the “lingo” down is another challenge for another post.

Feel like trying a new OS?  So if you have looked the other way with Linux distros in the past, give Kubuntu a shot.

We all like feedback right?  Here is how crowd sound works.  All you do is sign up for your free account, and then login.  Once you do, you can embed the widget into your web site.  Just copy and paste some simple JavaScript into your own design.

Now with the web site widget, you can add some entries. and then have other visitors vote up the idea or vote down the idea.  So this separates things into the people who want to give you good suggestions and the people who just like to vote for things.  You can also via the widget browse through the most recent or the most popular.

I think crowd sound is delivering a very unique way of looking at feedback gathering from your base.  Those could be customers, they could be readers.  The thing that is important is that you get their views to make your content better.

We will be short on a podcast this week due to the 4th of July weekend madness that has passed us by, but between your cleanup of fireworks and dumping out the barbequed leftovers please take a minute to take this short 6 question survey about the Web Hosting Show. 

Any and all feedback is appreciated and you know I am all about making you all happy so if there is something you like, hate or would love to hear about let me know. 

Take the Web Hosting Show Podcast Survey!

If you have ever wanted to share your opinion to me about what I do this would be the time to do it.  Also happy post 4th of July to all of you and thanks in advance!

Back on June 4th I setup the order and they said they would be here to set it up on the 13th.  Oh goodie I said, can’t wait to get it up and running.  Well, about 9:00 AM on the 13th they said they wouldn’t be here cause they didn’t have enough techs working.  Fair enough, it was Friday the 13th afterall.

Next they were suppose to show up Monday, the 16th.  I got excited again because I thought I’d get to watch WWE RAW on my new TV in high definition.  Oh goodie I thought again.  Well, Monday about 1:00pm (an hour after their deadline for being here) I contact DirecTV to see where they were at.  The first person I talk to doesn’t have a clue but she gives me a local number.  Call the local number and I’m told they still don’t have enough techs to work in the area, and they move my install date again… to today.

So here we are.  Will they show up?  Will I have to call them to see why they haven’t shown up?  Should know sometime this afternoon.  Overall though, I have to say I am pretty disapointed with DirecTV’s customer service in a whole.  What if I was a new customer?  Heck – Dish Network is looking kind of nice by now.  Wonder how good their tech support is?

Update: Still nobody, and they got 20 minutes left to get here to meet their “promise” of behing here from 8AM – Noon.  Posted about it on their user forums too.

Looks like DirecTV deleted my thread without reason?  Wasn’t anything bad there – just going over what had happened thus far.  Once again, DirecTV ends up with two thumbs down as far as customer service goes.

Since production of the podcast has been delayed again this week due to my recent PC problems I have decided to turn a negative into a positive (but I need your thoughts).  Go check out the technical difficulties post over at WebHostingShow.com.

+ Give Me Your Feedback, Suggestions, Compliments and Complaints!

I need all of you to let me know what you love, what you hate, what you want more of and what you could do without this week.  Give me your feedback so I can produce a better podcast just for you.

• HP has yet to update the “status” page where I can check into the progress of all of this. With the FedEx tracking number though I do know my box should be here sometime before 4pm on Wednesday.

• I was impressed with HP’s online support. I explained my issue, showed them the pictures and they told me they’d setup a pickup for it, fix it or replace it and then send it back. They have also promised it would all take 7 to 9 days too.

• I am pretty sure I grabbed all my important documents. I copied them over to an external hard drive and then copied from there to my laptop – so all my bases should be covered there. Will probably try to do the reformat and re-install of Windows Vista tonight so it will be ready to box up and go.

Should be getting Wii Fit tomorrow too, so it should be fun to see if the UPS guy has a run in with the FedEx guy. As long as they keep their brawl out in the street, I don’t mind.

You can check out more photos from my Flickr account.

I contacted HP support, and they will be sending me a box to ship her back in – so I can get it fixed or replaced, and sent back here. I figured, if this disaster gives me anything it has given me something to write about so expect me to chronicle the entire experience with working with HP’s support team right here over the upcoming days.