I’ve been following Yongfook since I wrote about 8apps on Setting Contexts. Unfortunately, 8apps is gone (would be GREAT to see someone buy that and run with it…) and Yongfook has moved on - he’s the guy behind Sweetcron, a self-hosted Lifestreaming solution.

Sweetcron is a simple (10 minutes install) solution with an already active community - it’s Google Group is very active, with members helping each other and discussions about developing themes, plug-ins and more.

I initially had an issue installing on one of my other hosts (it seems that a database prefix was the issue) and my subsequent install on a new DreamHost account went smoothly. It really did take only a couple of minutes to do and I like the results (www.nycjane.com).

Self-hosted Lifestreaming solution

There have been a few issues with feeds (Brightkite) and someone else’s avatar is showing on my Twitter feed - but I’m confident that’s just tweaking. I also installed Disqus for comments and a WuFoo contact form (as recommended). Both of these last 2 additions were made easy by searching through the Sweetcron Google Group. They had really specific instructions - and all seem really helpful!

Sweetcron (along with some new Open Source microblog platforms) is something to keep an eye on - especially as we inch one step closer to Enterprise adoption of these conversational marketing tools.

Other examples of Sweetcron installations:
* Yongfook
* Sean Percival’s Hurricane Gustav Aggregator
* Mine
* Sean Percival’s TechCrunch50 Aggregator
* Roycifer.com

Please add others in the comments!

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• Disqus - Threaded comments on your blog (18)

Thanks to my FriendFeed, I saw a blog entry from Fred Wilson about Disqus.

Disqus adds threaded comments to your blog, instead of the usual inline comments and or using the @convention. This has been a nagging annoyance of mine - threaded comments makes for understandable conversation flow. It’s hard to interact when every new comment seems to start a new point and conversation, even if it’s an actual reply.

Disqus replaces the existing comment structure with their own (hosted) solution. Once I uploaded and activated the plugin it took me only a few moments to set everything up - I was worried about losing existing comments and checking the “entries with no comments and future posts” option left everything intact. I then went to the Disqus website to set up my profile and enable my settings.

In his post, Fred Wilson says that the number of comments and interaction on his blog has gone up five to tenfold. I tweeted about installing Disqus and immediately got a response from Daniel Ha (co-founder), who pointed me to this FAQ page.

Disqus features:

• Integrates with your blog
• Receive/reply to comments by email or SMS
• You can subscribe to conversations
• Moderate and block unwanted comments/commenters
• Very customizable

Disqus works with a number of blogging platforms including WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger and Tumblr (my next Disqus site!). Sites that have implemented Disqus (according to the post, there are over 10,000 blogs) include Fake Steve Jobs, Scripting News, Rev2.org and, of course, A VC.

I’m looking forward to seeing what impact Disqus has on the conversations on my blog and will update with any significant impact.

Other posts on this topic:

• Mathew Ingram
• Howard Lindzon

UPDATE: ReadWriteWeb’s Corvida compares SezWho to Disqus and Intense Debate

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