Guilt Of The Day 2/27/09: Kevin Pollak Does His First (and Hopefully Last) Vlog

Alright Mr. Pollak, you put the challenge out there — so I'll bite. Your first attempt at a YouTube vlog was, well, let's just say it was not award-worthy. In fact, I would say it's not even worthy of the time you spent making it nor the time I wasted watching it. My conclusion: you're doing it wrong.

Now, don't take this the wrong way Kevin (may I call you Kevin?); I am not a "hater" — quite the contrary — I typically enjoy your work. Maybe that's why I felt so cheated by your first vlog. The lighting was poor, the Simpsons poster in the background was tacky, and like Dustin Hoffman you should've left the hat out of it.

As for the content of your video... let's face it: there are so many others who've done Oscar commentary already, and it has pretty much all been better than yours. I mean, you're a comedian, aren't you? Do you mean to tell me that you couldn't have come up with something, anything, better than a mediocre impression of Walken (Yours is better than Spacey's, but Jay Mohr's is the best IMHO) and terrible impressions of Arkin and Shatner (Your Shatner isn't bad, but you could have at least made it relevant). I know impressions are your "thing" Kevin, but yours need more polish overall. Work on that, won't you?

I have some tips for your next vlog Kevin:

1. Lose the hat. It makes you look ol... nevermind.
2. Lose the Simpsons poster, too.
   
3. See that light on your desk? TURN IT ON.
4. Write content that's a) relevant and b) actually funny.
5. In general, stop using bad and/or stale impressions and BE MORE FUNNY.
   

Yours Truly,
Brian
iamguiltyof.com

New Blog Feature: Guilt of the Day

I've decided to add a new feature to iamguiltyof.com... Guilt of the Day. Yes, I know, just about everyone in the blogosphere has a "________ of the Day" post — I wasn't trying to claim points for originality.

So here's how it works: every day I will post a new Guilt of the Day along with whatever I feel like saying about it. Most of the GOTD (holy crap, an acronym already!) will be collected from the Daily Confessional RSS Feed (hint: keep your confessions rolling in). However, some days I will post something topical from the day's events.

If you'd like to help out with this post feel free to send links to articles, videos, pictures, etc. to info(at)iamguiltyof(dot)com or use the feedback form to send your stuff.

Brian

Subscribe to the Daily Confessional RSS Feed

Today we're introducing a new way for you to stay connected with iamguiltyof.com (and take us with you wherever you go): the Daily Confessional RSS Feed.

You can subscribe to the feed from your favorite browser, feed aggregator, desktop reader, mobile reader, etc. by clicking on the RSS feed icon that appears in the footer of each page (right next to FEEDBACK), or you can navigate directly to the feed by going to http://iamguiltyof.com/digest-rss.xml.

The Daily Confessional is updated once every 24 hours, typically at 5:00 AM EST.

That's all for now folks - to find out more about feature updates, news, etc... keep it tuned here or follow @iamguiltyof on Twitter.

Mardi Gras: A Day Without Guilt

Alright, I'll come right out and say it: I'm Catholic. I'm not a bible thumper, in fact I'm far from it — I usually only go to mass for Christmas and Easter. But, as lapsed a Catholic as I am, I am not unaware of Mardi Gras.

When I was in my early twenties, Mardi Gras was nothing more than an excuse to have a party. A Really. Big. Party. I'm sure that for many people of all ages Mardi Gras still is nothing more than an excuse to have a party, and who am I to judge? After all, the tradition of Mardi Gras, Carnival, Shrove Tuesday, or whatever it may be called in your culture is one of grand celebration. There's music, dancing, costumes, food, and all sorts of substances — both legal and illegal — that are sure to aid in the making of questionable decisions.

But this year feels different for some reason. Maybe it's because this year is different. A year ago my b-school classmates and I were asking ourselves seemingly hypothetical questions like "what if bigger banks collapse," "what if the economy keeps losing jobs at this rate," or "what if the stock market keeps declining," all the while assuring ourselves and each other that the worst-case scenario was unlikely to happen.

Well, happen it did. Last month alone the U.S. economy coughed up another half million jobs, well-established investment banks have tumbled before our eyes, and many more banks and corporations are seemingly desperate for federal bailout funds lest we risk the unemployment rate soaring even further.

So, perhaps for some a big party is exactly what's in order given the times. I beg to differ, however. I think what we need — what we really need right now — is each other. I'm not saying that we should all have a hippie love-fest a la 1969, but I do think that we need to have a coming together of sorts. Because let's face it: the guy down the street who just got laid off is probably not going out tonight to the local mega-chain bar/restaurant to get hammered on overpriced drinks. And that young wife or young mother whose husband is deployed overseas? She's probably not going to be showing her breasts to anyone in exchange for beads. But does that make either of them less deserving of a good time or the company of friends and neighbors today? I think not.

I propose that today, in light of the current economic strife that in some way affects us all, that we all seek to find what's good, and worth celebrating, in ourselves and in each other. So maybe you shouldn't go down to the mega-chain bar/restaurant to drink your face off tonight, and maybe you shouldn't show off those breasts for some plastic multi-colored beads (especially if you're a guy who could be Chewbacca's stunt double without a costume — no one needs to see that). Instead, maybe you should stay home and invite over that guy you know who just got laid off or that young woman whose husband is deployed or that brother or sister with whom you haven't spoken in just a little bit too long... to dance, and sing, and laugh, and celebrate the things that are still good in this world today: its people.

Brian
iamguiltyof.com

Tweet Your Confessions

Hello there and a happy Monday to you all. We worked hard over the weekend and here's what we have to show for it: you can now tweet your confessions!

How to get set up:

1. If you don't already have a Twitter account, go to http://twitter.com and create one.
2. Follow guiltyof (that's the name of our Twitter bot, not to be confused with iamguiltyof, which is actually a real-live person who runs this site).
3. Wait about 5-10 minutes to receive notification that our Twitter bot is following you.

How to tweet-fess:

1. After you receive notification that our bot is following you, tweet your confessions by sending a direct message to guiltyof containing your confession. You can leave off the "I am guilty of" portion of your confession — we'll add that for you.
2. Within 5 minutes your confession will appear on the recent confessions feed @ iamguiltyof.com and will be posted as a status update on the guiltyof timeline.

If you have any questions or experience any problems please hit us up via our feedback form to let us know about it.

-Brian
for iamguiltyof.com and Driscoll Web Development

Quick Day 2 Update from the Frontlines at iamguiltyof.com

Hello there! This will be a quick update to let you, our 1000+ users (so far) know about what's going on over here at iamguiltyof.com.

We took some time today to add a couple of features and fix a few glitches on the site:

1. For you IE users, we've fixed the bug that was preventing you from seeing our intro on the home page.
   
2. We've also updated the code that counts and displays the number of characters you have remaining to type - now in addition to counting it will also LIMIT the number of characters you can type so that if you don't notice that you're down to zero characters left it will be obvious.
3. Finally, and THIS IS A BIG ONE, we're supporting links in the text entry fields. You don't have to know any html or do anything special, just type the link (make sure you start with http://) in the text field and it will automatically become a link when you submit your entry.

Just in case you're not quite sure about #3 above here's an example:

You type: "I am guilty of... visiting http://iamguiltyof.com a lot"

We display: I am guilty of... visiting http://iamguiltyof.com a lot

It's that easy! So now you can expose your guilt on our site and link to related pics, videos, websites, or whatever else online within the body of your confession.

Since there's a 160 character limit on your confessions we recommend that you shorten your links — our personal favorite service is bit.ly (if you're a geeky programmer like we are, see why we like bit.ly here).

Well, that's all for now... see, like we said, a quick update. Now it's back to work!

Launch Day Redux

619 hits
145 confessions
58 comments

Not bad for the first day... Thank you to everyone throughout the Twitterverse and the Facebook community who helped spread the word over the last few days. We couldn't have done it without you.

We'd like to keep the numbers up over the weekend — so please keep telling your friends and families about us! Keep confessing! Come back often to see what others are confessing. After all, what makes the site interesting is... you.

Brian
for iamguiltyof.com

Coming Next: Tweet Your Confession And More!

In case it isn't already obvious we're planning to add more features to iamguiltyof.com over the next few weeks.

On the top of our list for users is to integrate Twitter's services into iamguiltyof.com, so that you can tweet your confessions from wherever you are, whenever you want. We'll most likely have this available to you sometime next week and we'll of course make a big deal about it.

After all that we're planning to add browse/search functionality to the site so that users can look for confessions that have specific tags (remember, iamguiltyof.com DOES support hashtags RIGHT NOW so you can feel free to tag up your confessions).

On the top of our list for developers is to implement a RESTful web service that exposes certain parts of our API. The services will be available on a limited basis to developers who apply for a developer key with us; we'll have a form up shortly for you to get a key...

For now, keep those confessions rolling in and keep it tuned here for more updates on what's going on at iamguiltyof.com!

Brian
for iamguiltyof.com

Launch Day 1 So Far... over 90 confessions and counting!

Alright, so maybe 90 isn't such a great number, but we've only been up and running a few hours so it's not all that bad!

This is a quick update to let you know that we're monitoring how things are going and fixing problems as they arise. If you spot anything, though, don't assume that we know about it already — use our feedback form to let us know about it. Also, we definitely want to hear any suggestions that you may have about functionality, integration with other sites/services, design, etc... so please feel free to comment here or contact us via the feedback form to let us know. We've got some ideas already (Twitter integration and RSS feeds are two big ones) but we know that we don't know everything and are more than willing to listen to you.

On that note, we've already gotten some feedback from our users — both positive and negative — and we'd like to share our reaction so far. Most of the feedback has been positive, with users indicating that they're already hooked on iamguiltyof.com, and we love to hear that! Some users have said that they wish there were more new confessions to read... our simple answer to that is: tell more people about iamguiltyof.com... we're sure that if you do the lack of new confessions will work itself out. Other comments, unfortunately mostly negative, have been regarding the design of the site. We know we're standing on principle here, but the site isn't about great looks — it's about providing a forum where people can anonymous confess any thought, deed, feeling, etc that they feel guilty about. It's also about being entertained and possibly enlightened by the confessions of others. After all, don't we all sometimes feel guilty about something but are afraid to admit it because we think that other people will think we're nuts? At the end of the day, we just want to provide the outlet you need to get things off your chest, and possibly laugh a little (or a lot) at yourself and/or others.

That said — if you don't like our site, don't use it. We won't feel guilty about it.

Best,
Brian
on behalf of iamguiltyof.com and Driscoll Web Development

Announcing: the iamguiltyof.com Favorite Icon Competition

With less than 24 hours left until the launch of iamguiltyof.com we don't have much time for a full-blown update, but we do have a quick announcement:

The iamguiltyof.com Favorite Icon Competition is officially underway!

A favorite icon is the little icon that you see in your browser's navigation bar, tabs, and bookmarks next to the name the site that it belongs to. For most companies that have websites it's an extension of the company's brand or logo.

We don't really have a logo or anything like that, so that's why we're holding this competition... if you're interested, read on.

Contest Rules

General: You may submit as many favorite icons as you'd like.

Format: Your submission must be an image in .ico (image/x-icon), .gif, or .png format. It must be 16x16 pixels and no more than 24 colors.

Content: The content of the favorite icon image should represent or identify iamguiltyof.com in some way. Your icon must be an original work, and must not be a copy or derivative of another site's favorite icon.

Rights: By sending your favorite icon submission to us you will be legally transferring and assigning all copy and digital rights to iamguiltyof.com. However, the author of the submission that we choose will receive attribution on the iamguiltyof.com home page.

Deadline: The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm on March 3, 2009. Winners and honorable mentions will be announced shortly thereafter.

How to submit: Send an email with the subject "Favorite Icon Submission" to info@iamguiltyof.com with your favorite icon image attached.

Good luck!

2 Days to iamguiltyof.com Launch Day: How it works, sneak preview, and more!

We're just 2 days away from the big launch event on Thursday, February 19! With that in mind we've dedicated today's blog post to the site itself.

How It Works
The most obvious point to address is: what is this iamguiltyof.com site — this so-called social confessional — and how does it work?

The concept is fairly simple (we think): iamguiltyof.com is a site that allows users to anonymously post their confessions of guilt, and allows users to comment on their own posts as

well as other users' posts. Since the site's user-created content is 100% anonymous, there are no accounts to create or passwords to remember. All you have to do is confess... it's that easy. The screenshot to the right shows an example of what an entry (with comments) might look like.

Since the site's user-created content is 100% anonymous, users will not be able to modify or delete their own entries or comments once they have been submitted. However, we will have a form available for users to request that we delete entries for them.

Usage Requirements
Besides agreeing to our terms of service, iamguiltyof.com users must have a javascript-enabled browser in order to view the site's content (click here to learn how to enable javascript in your browser).

Other Features
iamguiltyof.com will support hashtags out of the box so that posts can be grouped by topic, and within a short period of time after launch users will be able to search or browse posts by tag.

For mobile users we'll be working on a mobile-friendly version of the site within a few months. We're considering developing mobile platform-specific apps (ie: for Android, IPhone, Blackberry, etc.) but we may leave that to the development community (see below).

For the development community we'll be implementing a RESTful web service API that will give developers the opportunity to create their own applications or mashups based on iamguiltyof.com content. Right now the web service API launch date is TBD, but it's fairly high on our priority list.

Last but not least, we'll most likely be adding a line of apparel and other merchandise so that die-hard fans of the site can take iamguiltyof.com with them wherever they go.

We're sure we haven't thought of all the possible features we could add to the site, so we've created a feedback form on iamguiltyof.com so that our users can share their ideas with us. We'll implement any good idea that seems to work in the context of what we're all about.

Final Thoughts
We're pushing for a big first weekend, and any help we can get from you is completely appreciated. If you haven't already read our first post about how you can help us (and earn yourself some free iamguiltyof.com merch in the process), please do... and spread the word!

Brian
on behalf of iamguiltyof.com and Driscoll Web Development

T-minus 3 days to lift off...

iamguiltyof.com, the social confessional, opens its doors this Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 at 7:00am. We want to get as many people as possible involved in our Launch Day event, and that includes you! Here's how you can get involved and be an informal member of the iamguiltyof.com Launch Day Street Team:

1) Follow iamguiltyof on Twitter, and re-tweet our updates (be sure to put the #guiltyoflaunch hash tag at the end of your post - see below).

2) Check out our event page on Facebook (http://bit.ly/guiltyoflaunchevent) - mark yourself down as "attending" and invite all your friends to come! Write on our event wall about how much you can't wait for Launch Day.

3) Tell your friends, lovers, ex-lovers, ex-lovers who are now friends, family, neighbors, pets, neighbors' pets, co-workers, co-workers who are ex-lovers, etc... about our site and our Launch Day festivities.

4) Come pay us a visit on Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 and confess your sins!

That's all there is to it - it's a piece of cake! Everyone who re-tweets our Twitter updates (remember the hash tag above so we can find your re-tweets!) or writes on our FB event wall about how much they can't wait for the launch will receive a special gift in the mail this June to kick the summer off right.

Get out, spread the word: the social confessional is coming!

Brian
on behalf of iamguiltyof.com and Driscoll Web Development