Comments on: The winner of the “Java I/O” book drawing

By: Jeremy Brooks » I Won Something

Jeremy Brooks » I Won Something — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:58:22 +0000

[...] A few days ago, Raoul Pop had a contest to give away one of the books he reviewed. Well, I won! It was a 50/50 chance, but still, pretty cool. The book came today, and it’s quite good. The section on cryptographic streams is interesting to me at the moment, as my current personal programming project involves using cryptography to enable secure file exchange over untrusted networks. [...]

By: Raoul

Raoul — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:04:04 +0000

Don’t take it personal, Cosmin. It was the language I found objectionable. I dislike tech talk that can be stated in simple words. And again, you’re wrong. My primary purpose is not to involve the site readers. Well, maybe just a little bit. But if they got involved too much, the demands on my time would get to be excessive(approving/responding to comments, etc.). Again, all I want to do is to give away some good books, and hopefully grow the numbers of readers. I’m not asking them to get involved and comment, unless they have something interesting to say. I hope you can see the difference.

Since you’re starting out with your own sites, I wanted to point out that it’s very important you don’t get caught up in the theory and tech of blogging, and focus on the content, and even more importantly, on why you’re doing it in the first place. I’m doing it because I love to share interesting information. Why are you doing it? You don’t have to answer my question, just think about it.

By: cosmin

cosmin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:57:58 +0000

Raoul, I’m sorry that you got me wrong. What I was trying to say is that, as a website owner, one should try to involve the visitors and you’re doing that little by little and this is a nice start & idea of donating books. I was “synthesizing” (for lack of a better word) a personal understanding into a technical fact but, I’m sorry if it came across that bad, it surely was not intended so for what is worth, my apologies.

By: Raoul

Raoul — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:48:00 +0000

That’s a very disgusting way of putting it, Cosmin. Keep it in simple English next time. And you’re also wrong. My goal in doing these book drawings is two-fold: one, to help others that may be able to use these books, and two, to grow my readership. If I get some useful feedback in the process, that’s great, but that’s not my primary purpose.

By: cosmin

cosmin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:34:42 +0000

so, technically, what you’re wanting to do, like all other bloggers out there (including me) is converting the (many) passive readers (of your site) into active participants, which translates into a probable need to target the (written) topics a bit different or through a (slightly) different actionable interface.

Albeit a very small step in the right direction, the book giveaway is a good start. Keep it up!