As long time readers will know, I am a big fan of Alan's Korean Blog List. Alan lives in Tokyo these days, but he still maintains the list very diligently. I went out for drinks with him, not that long ago, and he mentioned that he hoped to put some improvements in place on his site.
I got an email from him yesterday to let me know that he has implemented the first of the new features on his website. If you have a blog on his list you can now go to the site and change your blog listing. You can also declare your nationality and location. In the future, when enough bloggers have updated their details, this will become a searchable attribute. He promises other features are coming soon.
I took a quick look at some of the new blogs on the list and there are, as always, plenty of new and interesting blogs on Korea out there. The total number listed stands at 399 this evening.
These are some I liked, in no particular order :
Your Daily Shot of Soju An ESL teacher in Seoul with some amusing observations on life.
That One Moment Some high quality pictures from a lady photographer based in Seoul.
The Constant Crafter Becky has some amusing photos and stories of life in Suwon.
Lemon Soju Alan's own blog. Lots of advice on losing weight.
Mr. Glenn, Memoirs of a Geezer tag line : "0 hours : 0 mins : 0 secs until now". Glenn has just completed six months of Life in "The EnglishZone" in Incheon and seems to be surviving OK. (excellent photo there.)
Seen in Jeonju Dedicated to Korean Movies.
Gyopo Wife A recently married gyopo, who has moved to Seoul from LA, shares her tales.
Egg Bop "Exchanging thoughts about Korean food, craft, art, and culture".
Any many, many more.
14 comments:
I've been trying to get him to add me to the list for about a month, no success. I'm not sure who actually checks it, though (besides you I guess) because it's so massive. But still . . .
Brian,
Jon contacted me to say that you'd been trying to get on the list without success.
I'm not sure what happened - maybe some email got lost somewhere - but if you resubmit, you should get added OK.
Alan - Korean Blog List
Jon,
Btw, the "advice on losing weight" has now been moved to its own blog: http://www.lickthelard.com/
Lemon Soju remains my life in Tokyo as normal.
Thanks for the mention. Let's get together again for drinks sometime.
Alan
Hi Brian,
I'm very sorry to hear that you've not been added. I have emailed Alan directly, so if you submit your blog again, it should be added very quickly.
The Korean Blog List is always a big source of readers for me. This month it was the 7th most popular site for referrals with 35 visitors surfing in from there. It always provides me with a steady stream of new readers.
I agree it's a very big list and it's difficult to guess which blogs might be worth checking out. But at least you can be sure that all the blogs exist, are still active, and have something to do with Korea.
Some of the enhancements Alan is working on will, I hope, make it even more useful so I think it is well worth trying again to get on the list.
Thanks Alan, that's what I call timing!
I'll add that blog to the list too.
hey, thanks for the shout out man
like the blog
were you at SMOE last august?
I submitted it again two days ago, but got the message that the blog was already submitted. Anyway, not a huge deal, but I was just curious why it wasn't working.
Brian,
You should be approved now. For some reason, the notification to approve you was not received by me - but the database had been updated. I've been having some problems with the hosting company recently, and that might be the reason. I'll do a quick check to see whether others are in the same situation.
Thanks for raising this.
Alan
I found out why - gmail filtered them into the Junk folder. Bad Gmail. Naughty gmail.
Problem is now solved. I've implemented new controls to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Brian - sorry for the inconvenience.
Jon - sorry for making a mess of your blog with these comments.
My name is CJ Miyake. I am an English Teacher in Japan. I created a social networking type site for ESL teachers. Its at www.oshieroo.com. If you have any ideas you would like to share, please come and share them. If you need an idea, you can come find them there too. If you have any questions, or comments please let me know ! You can email me at feedback@oshieroo.com.
Hey, thanks for the shout out! I too had had a hard time getting listed. I had been trying to be listed since July and only recently was I able to. Not sure why but I feeled honored that you mentioned my blog! I am getting very spoiled the good friends that I've made that want my Korean experience to be wonderful. Been here 8 months with about 2 1/2 years to go. The adventures continue.
Becky,
It's Alan, from The Korean Blog List.
I can only apologise to you.
I think that Gmail filtering messages into the Spam folder has been going on a lot longer than I realised. My spam folder for the last month has 14505 messages in it. Since most approval request messages were getting through, I hadn't been checking the Spam folder. This experience has made me wary of using Gmail.
When I updated the code for the website last week, I sent messages to everyone that had not been approved, and gave them the opportunity to list again.
I also now have new procedures in place to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
Jon - Apologies again for filling up your comments on this. I just want you, Becky, and everyone to know that there was nothing deliberate about anyone's lack of listing.
Now if someone's listing is rejected on TKBL, they will get an explicit email with the possible reasons why (eg, blog not in English, not regularly updated). Listings should become 'lost in space'.
Alan: I'm glad we resolved that problem.
Brian in Jeollanam-do : Your blog is now on the KBL.
Matt: I'm afraid I don't know what SMOE is, so, no, I wasn't there.
CJ: Thanks for the link to your new site. I shall add that to the list of EFL related links I have on my blogroll.
Hi, thanks for the mention... i must say after visitng Tokyo in February, part of me wishes i was an ESL teacher there... really cool city. I don't know if you've heard of couchsurfing.com but they have a great network of people in Tokyo.
Cheers again,
Glenn
Post a Comment