14 Feb Administrivia: Our daily email and embedded videos
Over on the right side of this page, you’ll find a notice that reads:
Subscribe to contrarian
Three ways to subscribe:
1. Once a day by email […]
Readers who click that link and supply an email address are added to Contrarian’s FeedBurner list. Shortly after 5 o’clock every morning, FeedBurner sends them an email with a copy of any stories I’ve posted in the previous 24 hours. No posts. No email.
FeedBurner is a useful service launched in 2004 by a quartet of independent techies, who sold it to Google in 2007. As too often happens, Google lost interest in the product, and allows its continued existence only in a zombie state with no technical support.
The deprecated service is plagued with glitches, one of which is the terrible job it does managing embedded videos, especially in emails sent to Mac products.
Contrarian’s hundreds of email subscribers often get a post that obviously should include a video, but it’s missing. I try to include a link to each video, but I sometimes forget, as I did last week with the Yes Prime Minister’s wonderful “Something must be done” scene.
There are several other things I don’t like about Google’s deprecated FeedBurner. I am searching for alternatives, but most require monthly fees and a lot of fussy setup work that is beyond my ken. FeedBurner, for all its flaws, is free, and doesn’t require me to pay for, or mooch, tech assistance.
In the meantime, email subscribers who sense they are missing an embedded video can simply click on any headline in the email, and be taken to the actual post on the Contrarian site, where they will find the embedded videos and any corrections or updates I’ve added since the email went out.