Testing Clipmarks [Disappeared February 2012]

Just testing a new application:

My main dilemma is I am a two finger typist only and I have a strong desire to share my finds from all over the internet.

I tend to believe my finds are also of interest to my readers.

A decent way of doing this is manually copying and pasting information into a WP post, edit it and then add the url to the original information location. That, however is very time consuming. Even editing a Carnival post takes a lot of time. I simply lack the time to do it that proper!

On the other hand I don’t want to become a “scraper”, someone who simply imports via an RSS import plugin without any original thought or pointer.

Thus far I have tried several approaches, like:

• Sharing reads in my Google reader and putting a Google reader widget here in the side column. Recently I found out through a nifty Firefox Plugin, called firebug, that all widgets take waaay too much time to load. Hence I kicked all widgets from my side box including the Google one. Then I tried to import shares from my Google reader in a separate page…didn’t get it working.
• Earlier, for some time I believed Tumblring (off course there are other services alike Tumblr) was the solution. It even seems possible to Tumblr from your own site, but digging into the necessary code took me too much time and I abandoned the project.
• I have been using the Quickpress plugin for WordPress. Problem with that is you only can clip and paste one paragraph and can hardly edit it. Moreover Quickpress copies the original title of a post…mostly I don’t want to copy the title at all, because it doesn’t fit in this blog. Finally you always ought to make clear that you clipped something from someone else. Time permitting I solved it by adding b-quotes around somebody elses text.
• The Press it plugin which is part of the WordPress suite does some things similar to Quickpress. At least you can save the clip as a draft post and then attack it from the WordPress editor. However, with my lateral approach of everything including blogging, I use to have a constant flow of about 80-100 draft posts lying around here withaout the attention they deserve. Once and for all I want to get rid of them.
• Another approach could be using Stumble to it’s full extent: First stumble, later when you have time look back to what you stumbled and maie it into a decent post…However I am unable to fully grasp it and use it to it’s full possibilities.
• Posting stuff as WIP (work in process) with the intention to later edit and augment it, like I am doing with this post. Actually no way to go at all, because before I edit it again something new comes up every time.
• Then I discovered Amplify and experimented with it for a couple of weeks. I like the way you can order and edit your clips, the header and the way you can add your own thoughts. I simply put up the question if I could use it on my own blog and then one of the Amplify guys directed me to Clipmarks

Why I believe Clipmarks might work for me:

1. You can create your own header
2. While clipping you can very precisely choose the order of your clippings. What you clip first comes first. Usually I want to show a photo or picture first and give comments thereafter.
3. The whole clip is clearly visible as a clip. You don’t put your reader on the wrong foot presenting something as your own product.
4. If I want to add more obeservations to a clip I can leave the clip as it is and simply add more stuff…the clip remains as it is, a clip

Let’s see how it works.

Update March 6, 2012

Recently Clipmarks and Amplify have ceased operating. Even without an advance notice. Snap bang closed! Actually What I’ve feared from the outset. The original demo I featured here in this post is still left as a leftover on the internet. I’ve pushed it to the end of the post until it will disappear as well.

Last edited by GJE on March 13, 2012 at 4:14 pm and added to my Internet Graveyard Category