Easy Web Things

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Crowd Strike Update

Futuristic illustration of Laptop with squares of light floating out of the screen.

Hi everyone.

Thankfully it appears our Website Development and Hosting services have not been directly affected by the global Crowd Strike IT outage.

However, we are keeping a close eye on the websites we manage. Please let us know if you encounter any problems!
As some New Zealand banks were affected, we are taking note of any online payment processing issues.

Also please be aware of a reported increase in Scam activity reported by New Zealand banks following this incident.

For more general news on this incident:

Cheers,
Kristie

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Activity Pub

This post is a test post.

Testing ActivityPub. Does editing here change the post when viewed elsewhere?

Yes it does, the answer is yes when the post is on this server, but it seems other servers may show an older copy of this post.

Well, this seems to be working. Good.

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m on about, I’m setting up this blog with Activity Pub, so it can be followed within the Fediverse.

If you have heard of the Fediverse, and are reading this blog on something like the Mastodon social media… Yay! You can see it! That’s great, it works! And also I’m really excited that replies via other clients seem to show up as comments on this blog.

If you have never heard of the Fediverse, well that’s ok. Please read this article that Douglas Adams wrote about the internet in 1999, to emotionally prepare you for new things. https://douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html Then, read about what the Fediverse is on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse

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April 2024 Update

A calico cat staring dramatically down at the camera.

Hello again!  

We’ve been busy, which is great of course.  But naturally, our website and socials get a little neglected because…

Customer Websites
are more IMPORTANT than
our Website 🙂

Thanks for dropping by though, and we’ll endeavour to update more often… soon…

-Kristie, and Mosaic the Office Cat. 

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October Update

Just a short update…

If you’re reading this, this website has made it to a new server!  

We’re also trialing .co.nz URL instead of .com, to make it clearer that we’re New Zealand based.  

 

The Christmas Country Fête

The Christmas Country Fête, whose website we built and maintain, had its big day on October the 26th.  Despite some windy weather it sounds like the event went well.  Looking forward to it happening again in 2024!

 

Halloween

It just so happens to be Halloween as I write this.  I’ve been a bit under the weather so I won’t be heading out trick or treating.  But I will be planting pumpkin seeds in the garden.  A suitable southern hemisphere halloween activity.

Well, that about wraps things up for October.  It’s been a busy month, and things only look busier heading into summer and the festive season.

Have a great November!

– Kristie

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Colourful round garden ornaments that twirl in the wind, set up at the Christmas Country Fete.

September Update

Bright spring flowers, in red, yellow, purple, and blue.

Spring is here, according to popular opinion (though the actual date is subject to some controversy… should the decision be astronomical or meteorological?) 

Here at Easy Web Things we are looking forward to a busy summer, and lots of fun weekends enjoying the great outdoors.  But spring cleaning is on the list in the meantime, and not just for the house and office…

We’ll be spring cleaning websites this month!

Spring cleaning a website??? 

Feel like giving your own website a spring clean yourself? Read on for some handy tips…

Monthly maintenance is great, but sometimes it’s good fun to dive in and really sort things out.  Have a declutter.  Get ready for the coming summer.

Here is a fun acronym with a few ideas for a fun website spring clean.  (Ok, yes, we all have different ideas about what is fun ok, this is fun for me!)

S.P.R.I.N.G…

S is for Server. 

I did think about saying S is for SEO or Security, but these are ongoing tasks, not to be left for just for a Spring spruce up.  

The server is the hardware that hosts your website.  Like a computer, it has memory, a CPU, storage, an operating system, and it is connected to the internet.  The server that your website is hosted on can have a direct effect on your site’s performance.  Possibly your business doesn’t have its own server, but you pay for web hosting and perhaps don’t even think twice about how it works.  

If you manage your own website it can be helpful to learn about your website’s hosting, and the servers your hosting company uses.  Do you have your own server? Is it the whole server or a virtual server?  Is your website sharing resources with other websites?  Is it located in a specific location, or is it a cloud server?  What are the limitations?  

If you are running low on space, check that you haven’t filled your allocated space up with old backups.  Keep what you need, and ‘declutter’ the rest.  

Consider getting some help if you’re having performance issues and don’t know where to start.  It’s great when the person managing your hosting works with you to achieve your goals, and you’re not left in the dark hoping for the best. 

P is for Plug-ins

One for the WordPress users… What plugins do you have installed? Do you know what they all do?  Do you still need them all? 

Maybe there are some you installed for a single short task, that’s now complete.  Or perhaps you have some plugins that do similar jobs, and an upgrade of one has made another obsolete?

List all your plugins, document each of their purposes, and ensure you are only running what you really need.

Deactivate and delete any plugins that aren’t needed anymore. 

R is for Review and Refresh

Read, review and refresh your main page’s content. Check the accuracy of information that is important to customers, like your business hours, prices, and contact information. 

Update your Frequently Asked Questions with the questions customers asked you most often this year.  Especially the kind of questions that take up time but don’t necessarily lead to sales.  

If you have an online store, review your products.  Are they all current? Do you need to remove any you won’t stock anymore, or update any with new variations? 

I is for Intent

Consider the true intent of your website.  

If your website is intended to gather sales enquiries through organic search engine traffic, is it doing that?  

If the intent of your website is to sell through an online store, is it achieving that goal?

If your website’s intent is to allow bookings, sell tickets, deliver learning, or answer customers’ frequently asked questions, is that what it actually does?

If you have a lot of features that don’t align with your website’s intent, consider carefully whether these are being used, or are actually a distraction for the main purpose of the website.

It’s ok to remove under-utilised features and focus on what your website really needs to deliver.

N is for Navigation

Is it easy for customers to find out what they want to know, or get where they need to go? 

Find someone who is not very tech savvy and ask them to complete a common task on your website, while you peer over their shoulder taking notes.  Don’t give them any hints!  Can they do it?  What makes it hard for them?  Can you improve the navigation so it’s easier for them to get where they need to go? 

G is for Graphics and Images

Do you need to update your site’s images?  Watch for old pictures that don’t show your best work, or are low quality or just look unprofessional.  Consider taking some new photos if your front page images are outdated.  

Also, make sure that your graphics and images have helpful alt text to describe images to people using screen readers.  Make it useful and relevant, don’t just fill it with SEO keywords.  

Have fun with your spring cleaning your website!

And if it really doesn’t sound like fun to you… well, you know who to call.

Thanks for reading,

Kristie

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June Update

Happy New Website...

Happy New Website day to The Christmas Country Fête!

The new website for The Fête is up and running, with Early Bird tickets now available for purchase.

Website screenshot of The Christmas Country Fete

What we've been up to:

It has been a busy month here, and I missed writing a June update.  (Though, as I write this on the 1st of July in New Zealand, it is still June in some parts of the world. So I’m definitely counting this as the June update!)

Getting the new website online for the Christmas Country Fête was a real highlight this month.  The event runs on October the 26th this year, and it looks like a lot of fun!

Mosaic the Office Cat has neglected the Easy Web Things Social Media a little, again.  She gave no excuses, and simply admitted she just prefers snoozing in the sun.

It was exciting to see some snow appear on the mountains this month, then disappointing to see the rain wash it away, and then exciting to see it come back again.

Douglas Adams and Elementor AI

Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Douglas Adams

This quote is from an article written by Douglas Adams in 1999, titled “How to stop worrying and learn to love the internet.” 

I’ve always harboured this quote in the back of my mind, and I may be showing my age but this year it’s been launching to the forefront of my mind on a regular basis!

Specifically around the subject of A.I.  (Which I’m sorry so many of my updates have mentioned, but it’s been a much-discussed topic this year.)  

Elementor, which I use daily, now incorporates AI text and image generation right there in the page builder.  It’s just there, awaiting an easy click of a button to fill a page with content.

But, whenever I’ve been tempted to use it I’m disappointed that it doesn’t do my job for me and I still need to engage my brain.  Maybe more so than usual. I spend too much time rolling my eyes at it, fixing it, huffing and puffing at it, and then I usually delete what it writes and I go back to the old fashioned way.  

I’ve developed a special loathing for the generic AI style of writing.  It’s stuffed with mindless filler.  And if you choose any of the ‘personalities’ on the Elementor AI, it’s stuffed with cringe*.  The only good news is, if you try it, you may start to value your own natural writing style a little more.  And you will certainly appreciate writers who can get their point across neatly. (Not me. I use more than the Yoast recommended amount of passive voice don’t you know.)

Listen up, fellow humans! According to the wise words of someone, somewhere, anything invented between fifteen and thirty-five is the cat's pajamas! Like, totally awesome! And you know what? You've still got plenty of time to jump on that bandwagon and make a name for yourself. But beware, my friends, after age thirty-five, apparently it's all downhill from there. It's like the universe says, "Sorry, you're too old to handle all this newness." But hey, don't let that stop you from trying! Keep those creative juices flowing and maybe, just maybe, you'll be the exception to the rule. Don't let the natural order of things hold you back!

A 'Witty' Elementor AI rewriting of the earlier Douglas Adams quote

Thanks for Reading!

– Kristie

*apologies to GenZ for using the word cringe, undoubtedly that was totally cringe of me.

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Website screenshot of The Christmas Country Fete

May Update

An AI generated image of a cyborg writing on a laptop. The image has a crayon logo, to show it was generated by craiyon.com

I can’t believe it’s really already May!  I keep thinking I’ll have time to write some useful posts in between monthly updates, but time fills up fast.  So a monthly update is about the most I can fit in right now… I’ll at least make it a long and rambling one.

What we've been up to

Me: Working, business as usual.  No new launches last month to show off, but steady progress on current projects.

Social Media Manager Mosiac the office cat: “Meow” (Cat stuff)

(Mosaic has been a little slack with keeping our instagram up to date, but I will have a word with her.)

Thinking about AI?

AI has been a hot topic lately, with the launch of ChatGPT and other tools.  

There seems to be a few opinions out there, most along the lines of; 

  1. AI is evil and robots will kill us all
  2. AI is great and I’ve already used it to generate 9,707,532 items of content
  3. AI is next to useless, and sadly hasn’t been able to actually do my job for me, despite my best efforts to replace myself with ChatGPT so I can take the day off

 

I’ve yet to fully form an opinion, but I’ll probably fall into camp 3. 

AI language models are fast, I’ll give them that.  And cheap.  

And they can spit out plenty of confident sounding writing that seems great superficially.  But they get things wrong.  And, I guess everyone gets things wrong.  We’re only human after all.  But AI is not human, so I don’t think it should get to use that excuse.  

But really, when you get right down to it, it comes back to the age old saying;

“Pick two out of three.  

  • You can have something done fast
  • You can have something done cheap
  • You can have something done right”

 

Chat GPT seems to have fast and cheap down, but it still needs a lot of work on its accuracy.  

So if you do decide to use AI generated content, check it.  Fact check it.  And make sure it’s useful, don’t fill up the internet with nonsense.

And if you’re not sure what’s nonsense, you can use this post as the bottom bar.  

So what did ChatGPT have to say about that?

I popped the above into ChatGPT and asked it to rewrite it.

I then asked it what it had done differently.  

It accurately identified that it replaced my casual tone with a more professional tone.  But it also said this:

Chat GPT: “I also added factual information to support the claims made in the post, which enhances the credibility of the information.”

But here’s what’s interesting, ChatGPT DID NOT add any factual information to support the claims I made while spouting off a bunch of generalised opinions.

After several back-n-forths ChatGPT reluctantly accepted the possibility, that it had not added any new information when rewriting the post.  

ChatGPT: “While my version aimed to present a more structured and professional approach to the topic of AI language models, it is possible that it did not add significant new information beyond what was already included in the original post.

In the future, I will aim to provide more substantial evidence and information to support the claims made in my writing, to ensure that it is truly informative and valuable to the reader. Thank you for your feedback, it helps me improve my responses.”

That aside, it still did a good job on the rewrite I think.  

But I was very interested in what ChatGPT thought the improvements were.  And surprised that it thought one of it’s improvements was providing factual information to support the claims made.

Here's ChatGPT's version;

“AI has been a hot topic lately, thanks in part to the launch of ChatGPT and other tools. There are various opinions out there about AI, ranging from those who believe it is inherently evil and will eventually cause our demise, to those who see it as a powerful tool that has already generated millions of items of content. Personally, I have yet to fully form an opinion, but I do see some potential pitfalls.

While AI language models like ChatGPT are certainly fast and cheap, they can still get things wrong. Of course, we humans are not infallible either, but AI doesn’t have the excuse of being human. This means it’s important to check any AI-generated content for accuracy, and to fact-check as necessary.

It all comes down to a classic saying: “Pick two out of three. You can have something done fast, you can have something done cheap, or you can have something done right.” While ChatGPT is definitely fast and cheap, it still has some work to do on accuracy.

So, if you decide to use AI-generated content, be sure to fact-check it and make sure it’s useful. Don’t fill the internet with nonsense. And if you’re not sure what counts as nonsense, you can use this post as a benchmark.”

But what did AI detection say?

It seemed as soon as AI language models poured onto the scene, so did AI detection tools.  

Copyleaks is one such tool.

When I popped in a chunk of my own writing, the part below “thinking about AI”, it came back as only “41.9 probability for human” with that tool.

ChatGPT’s rewrite, came back with ‘30.01% probability for human’ for all the text except for the last two paragraphs.  These paragraphs contained text that the tool considered was 94.2 probability for AI.  

But, with my casual and unprofessional tone, why am I coming back with such a low ‘human’ score.

I’m pretty sure I am a human, so I set out to rewrite this in a more human way.  With assistance from the well known human, Grammerly.  

Using the free version of Grammerly, actually improved my human score, to 44.6%.  To be honest, I was surprised, and slightly disappointed.  To find I am not human enough on my own.  

Determined to bolster my faith in (my own) humanity, I tested another AI detection tool. 

Thank you, zerogpt.com, for understanding that my brain produces 0% AI content.  zerogpt.com gave ChatGPT’s version 69.16% AI/GPT generated.

There was no difference between my version and the Grammerly corrected version with zerogpt.com

In conclusion;

I don’t really have a conclusion, I just started writing the monthly update and got a bit side tracked.  Hey, I’m only human!

AI (specifically AI language models) have been an interesting topic lately.  

I was really intrigued by the idea of human writing being perceived as AI generated, after seeing a video by a friend Dr Lyndon Walker, who had some of his own writing fail a humanity test. Check it out here: 

Thanks for reading!

Have a great May, and let me know all your thoughts on the latest gen of AI when we next chat.  

-Kristie 

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April Update

First quarter of the ‘real’ year, last quarter of the financial year, and the penultimate quarter of the astronomical year in the southern hemisphere… Done!

If that didn’t make any sense to you, you can safely ignore it.  As they say, “anyone can write anything on the internet”.  And purely by the inclusion of a little nonsense, you can safely assume this was written by a human.  And not the office dog, or cat, or chatgpt.

Now for more serious matters…

Getting Seriously Green

We’re always looking to reduce our environmental impact here at Easy Web Things.  

We provide carbon neutral hosting for wordpress sites, and so we’re stoked to be listed on the Green Web Foundations Green Hosting Directory 

We’re also really happy to be getting good results on websitecarbon.com and we want to improve the scores of our customers sites too.  

Screenshot from https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/easywebthings-com/ showing that this website produces 83% less carbon than other sites tested.

3 quick tips for a greener website

1. Lighten up!

Declutter, get rid of any clutter or features your site doesn’t really need.  

2. Speed it up!

Optimise images, and use a CDN.  

3. Make it easy!

Make it quick, clear, and easy, for your websites visitors to find what they need.  

Want green hosting?

We would be happy to host you, but be aware we only host sites that are build by ourselves or our associates.

This is because a neglected site can affect everyone on a shared server, so we want to be sure we host sites that are regularly maintained and updated.

If you’re looking to host a site that you will build and maintain yourself, we recommend Green Geeks

Dreaming of a decentralised boutique solar powered data centre...

One day, when I have the spare time and money, I’d love to build a small locally owned and operated data centre using renewable resources for hosting our sites.  Hey, if you want to give me a big lump of money to do it, I’ll find the time! 

Thanks for reading!

Well that’s about all I have time to write right now.  

Hope you have a great April!

– Kristie

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Screenshot from https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/easywebthings-com/ showing that this website produces 83% less carbon than other sites tested.

March Update

Screenshot of The Rock Factory website.

Happy New Website Day: The Rock Factory

"Thanks to @easywebthings for re designing and updating our website! https://therockfactory.net LOVE IT!"
Michelle Klaessens-Rawstron The Rock Factory

The Rock Factory website has been around a long time, and Michelle is pretty capable with her own website, and has worked hard on SEO over the years. 

But she’s also a super busy business owner, sound engineer, and Mum, with a lot on her to-do list!

So I’m very happy to be able to help out and free up some of her time.

A bit of travel

I’ve had to unexpectedly travel a little recently, but I’m relieved to say my portable work set-up has worked well on the go.  Just a mac-book air and a cell-phone.  I do miss the full home-office set-up, but I’ll be back to it again soon!

Mosaic the Office Cat

Having a cat in charge of Social Media has been fun so far.  She seems in her element on Instagram.  

Small Business Web Design Package

I’ve just introduced a Small Business Web Design Package. 

Next quarter, if time permits, I will look at bringing out smaller web design packages for micro-businesses and blogs.  

If you have any feedback, suggestions, or questions about our website packages I’d love to hear from you!

Up-skilling

Technology and the internet are constantly changing, so I’m always learning new things.

I’m currently working through an SEO course, to ensure my knowledge is up to date with all the big changes occurring with Search Engines recently.

I’ve also been following googles recent changes, and it really seems like they’ve moving towards prioritising websites that are useful and helpful to people rather than severely skewed for rankings and selling ad-stuffed content.  Which honestly, as a human, sounds great!

Thanks for reading!

Take care, and give us a yell if you need anything.

– Kristie

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Kicking off 2023

Suddenly it’s February…

Busy January… so let’s just kick off the new year a little late!

Previously...

At the end of 2022 I handed over a new site for Source Elements Academy.

Source Elements Academy provides in-depth online courses to Source Elements customers and staff.  

Due to my audio background, I had been involved in Source Elements Academy since 2021. Before creating the newest version of this site I had been writing course content and quizzes, creating technical diagrams and slides, and you can even spot me in a couple of educational videos if you know where to look.

The new site makes it easier for students to find their online courses and view their progress, and its now easier and more cost effective for the company to maintain this website in-house. 

Currently...

During January I’ve begun new website projects with:

  • an Auckland event production company
  • a Canterbury scenic camera site
  • a Tauranga Orchard
  • and my own business Easy Web Things

Introducing...

I’d like to introduce Easy Web Things new Social Media Manager, Mosaic the Office Cat.  

Mosaic has been a hard working Office Cat since I began working remotely at the start of the pandemic.  

When I started Easy Web Things this year, she was very keen to be promoted to the role of Social Media Manager.

She is looking forward to engaging with other office cats online, and maybe even a few humans as well.  

Thank You....

Thank you to Michelle at Maglev Studios for the Easy Web Things logo design! 

It’s been great fun working with Michelle, she is an awesome and experienced graphic designer among her many other skills, and I will be trying to involve her in as many future projects as I can.  

If you need a new website this year, get in touch! 

Follow us on social media to enjoy the adventures of Mosaic the Office Cat as she takes on her first Social Media Manager job:

instagram.com/easywebthings

twitter.com/easywebthings

facebook.com/easywebthings 

– Blogged by Kristie

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