Often times I have wanted to write a bit more indepth about subjects… have them spell checked (image that), proof read and all that but just seemed like a bit much for a blog. So I am going to start sending out a news letter once a month.

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Between showing the top commentators on the sidebar and the contest to win a MacBook Air I have had a lot of experience with fighting comment spam. Also from being a moderator at one of the busiest forums on the internet I have seen many methods people use to jackup their post counts. Many times people just post “I agree” or “please pm me” and I find it extremely annoying.

Forcing people to post longer comments will not help you much with automated spam (I will have tips on that in another post) but it will help you a ton with human spam. The true human spammers who were going to just type “yes″ will now type “asdf asdf asdf asdf yes″ and now their intent to spam is identified and they can be banned properly. The people who did not intend to spam will simply add a bit more content to their sentence. Thats the hope anyway.

So how to do it? Well I started to poke around the Wordpress files looking for something that made sense and I on line 89 of the wp-comments-post.php file I found this:

Aha! That makes sense. Basically that is saying if the comment is empty then invoke the wp_die function and say “Error:please type a comment”.

While their is no documentation on the Wordpress function reference for “wp_die”, just by trying a comment with no content you can conclude pretty much that wp_die means show a custom page with the message we are passing and then stop.

So I added this right after that:

What does this do? strlen is a php function that gets the “string length″ then it checks to see if it is less than 25 chars. If it is it sends them to the custom wp_die page with the error message of Error: Your Comment Is Too Short. Please try to say something useful.

Now hacking on your Wordpress files to accomplish a goal is pretty cool and educational BUT the next time you upgrade your Wordpress your changes are going to go bye bye…

The long term way is to build a plugin. Which I asked Joost if he could do it and gave him my code. A couple minutes later he had it done. Here it is for you to download.

Last Friday I was on the BlackBerry Geeks Podcast. Up until about 2 weeks ago I was a die hard Palm Treo user but the frustrations of the phone locking up, blue tooth incompatibilities, and other bugs led me to the Blackberry world.

In the podcast I talk about my experiences with the Treo and the 2 Blackberry phones I have used so far.

You can listen to the podcast here.

If you are a blackberry user I highly sugest subscribing to their RSS feed and or following them on twitter!

Probably a lot of people saw this title and thought it was title bait. It’s not. This article is completely about my addiction with MMORPGS. When I posted the other day about my addiction to MMORPGS I bet most people had no idea the depth of it. Anywhere here it is:

I was working at a startup ISP in Moline Illinios. I worked with a bunch of people who were all big gamers. We really had nothing else going on in our lives… We worked the late shift answering support calls. I worked the 3pm until 11pm shift. Most others worked the 12pm to 8pm shift but they all stayed ATLEAST until 11pm playing video games. I have always been naturally good at video games… sports games… whatever. When I was 8 years old I won a tournament in Branson Mo. where I had to play over 14 hours. I beat out over 300 other people of all age ranges. At one time I proclaimed myself the greatest in the world at nhl96 hockey and challenged people to games. I also would play them with no goalie. I was the best. But I digress.

One day while working at Internet Revealed a co worker, Anthony Patrezi was all excited about this new video game coming out from Verant interactive called “Everquest”. He was really excited. I was never really into Dungeons and Dragons although many of my co-workers were. I did not really understand what it was about… He left early that night so he could pre-pay for a copy of the game. When he came in the next day with Everquest he started playing right away…. You see Everquest was a game where you built your own character. You could be a human… or a elf… barbarian or go evil and be a ogre, troll or dark elf. Then you could build the character… give it a certain color of eyes… hair… how tall was it… how fat… etc.. Totally customizable. Then once your character was built you entered the world of Norrath.

I thought the game was simply awesome. I went out and bought it immediately. I made a character…. Choose human… wizard. I named my character Wizinator. (seemed like a good name). I ran out into this virtual world with tons of other people online and started nuking rats with lightning bolts I conjured from the sky. The graphics were AMAZING. I remember the first time I ventured out past the commonlands into the west commonlands and saw a Griffin…. It was this massive flying thing with the head of a lion. In the game everyone was terrified by griffins and griffons. If someone shouted GRIFF you ran like a MOFO to the closest zone. The game was simply magical. After a few weeks of playing more people that we worked with got the game and were just getting ready to start. I realized my choice of race (human) and class (wizard) were pretty dumb and I was going to be in this game for the long haul. So I started over on the same level as these other guys.

We all started our characters out on this new server…. This time I chose a druid as my class and a half elf as my race. This also means I started in a new area…. Called Quenos. With a fresh start I started whaling on stuff, gaining in levels fast with my fellow co workers. We had a really good system at internet revealed. We were able to play Everquest while we worked. After work I would book home as fast as possible to play until 7-8 AM until I passed out. I had no time to cook food or have any sort of human interaction with the world outside Everquest. I ordered pizzas every night and drank water like a fish. I also had TONS of cartons of cigarettes in the house. When I played at home I smoked like a chimney. Sometimes smoking 2+ packs of cigarettes in the 10 hour+ sessions we played. On the weekends it was time to really get in some play time. I am such a completely obsessive person that I never could quit playing. On weekends I would not sleep on Saturday nights…. Hardly ever. I had to be the best…. I had to level up.

Basically how leveling up worked was you got experience from killing mobs (monsters) and when you got enough of that experience you raised a level. If you died you would lose experience. Sometimes as much as half of a level. The experience loss from death was devastating. Sometimes 1 death would cost you as much as 8 hours worth of grinding on mobs experience wise. I remember one of my co-workers in particular who was on a customer support call when he died and ended up shouting at the person on the phone just like “YOU’RE A FU*KING IDIOT I DUNNO HOW TO FIX YOUR PRINTER”… like whoa dude… Some people told him c’mon its just a game and your going to lose your job.

But the thing was it wasn’t a game… It had become our lives. We were spending 16+ hours a day living inside this virtual world. We also had jobs inside this world…. I was a leatherworker… another one of my RL (real life) co workers was a blacksmith… another one was a jeweler. As I reached level 20’ish it was being revealed that by killing some mobs you could get special random stuff… like a badass sword or armor… or whatever. So now we would setup camps where these special items dropped. The random drops were pretty nuts… like sometimes 1 in 30. So you just had to grind it out. Being it was so random though it sucked. Also there became huge jealousy when people would get their items. There started to become a market outside the game for these items….. You would see them being sold on EBAY! So now not only were they sought after in the game but now people were getting them just so they could make money on eBay… and make money they did. Also now if you were in a group of 5 people all of different classes and as a item dropped that was druid only people who could not even use it would be like dude I can sell that I am going to roll on it (rolling meant rolling a virtual magic die. In the game its how disputes were settled).

Lots of stress… Things became very political in the game. Eventually they implemented a Guild system where you could band together. This was awesome because now people in the guild would help eachother.

Well long story long now ending shortly is I became lvl 50 pretty fast on the server. In fact I was the 5th over all and the first half elf. I was awesome. I had the sword that sparkled and all my cool gear from the plane of fear. I would roll up into town and newbs everywhere would just be in awe.

I ruled the world….. or this virtual one anyway….

Meanwhile my real life had fallen apart. I had lost my job and was in debt with creditors calling ringing my phone off the wall not even to mention I was fat as could be weighing over 400lbs. I could not deal with my real life. I hated any time that took away from my Everquest time. I was ruler in that world.

Then one day my power was shut off…. Omg…. I was so depressed. Not only was my online world now shutoff but now I had to confront my life that I had neglected for the last 2 years. It looked pretty hopeless so I decided to move out of my apartment that was driving me more into debt and possibly go live with my parents.

My parents came over to help me move all my items into a storage closet and offered to let me live with them. I love my parents but I was like 25 years old was not about to move in with them. My friend George Schaeffer III suggested I come live with him in Des Moines Iowa and try to find work there since it was a much more thriving area. I made the move and what a amazing move it was… I wont go into all the details but soon after I met my girlfriend (now wife) and 3 years later we are living together in Omaha Nebraska. It had been a long time since I played a MMORPG like Everquest and I had just started my own business and doing pretty well. I had been dreaming about Everquest though for the last couple years… killing snakes in blackburrow… camping the ogre for the bone bladed claymore… hunting that asshole that dropped the great zweilander in the barbarian land… (you guys who played EQ know what im talking about). It was amazing that I was still having dreams about this game YEARS after I had played it.

We were about to go on a trip so I downloaded this mini Everquest game to my PDA. What harm could it do? I mean it was a PDA game…. I took it on a trip to Vegas with my wife and played it with all my free time. I would wake up in the middle of the night and go in the bathroom and play it… I had the bug back. I started talking to my girlfriend about it saying I was feeling like I wanted to play. She was pretty ignorant about how the massive online world games worked and kind of encouraged me to look into it.

About that time a new game was about to come out called “World of Warcraft” and I was intrigued. I also liked how there was virtually no death penalty. I purchased the game and started playing. I was doing really well on the internet making several thousand dollars a day completely passively… So why not take a little time for myself? I mean seriously I deserved it right? So I started playing during the day while my wife was at work…. It was kind of the same deal as Everquest… you make your character.. pick your race and other stuff then get going. Course this was many years later and they had done a lot better in the graphics although it did not have nearly the amazing earth shattering effect as Everquest did when I first started playing it. Anyway I played this about 8 hours a day while my wife was at work then when she went to bed I would play more. I was able to level fine but I could not camp for the cool items… so I did what any other wealthy person who didn’t have the time to play did… I bought them on Ebay… In the next few weeks I spent thousands on eBay. I bought enough gold to buy my level 60 horse… a sword that shot flames… it was awesome. My wife never knew and I do not think still knows the depth of my addiction.

Then about 3 months after I started playing World of Warcraft it was Christmas… I was traveling back to my hometown. I was almost pissed off that I was not going to be able to play Warcraft..

My sister was married to a guy who had 2 kids from a previous marriage but this guy also had a addiction to online multiplayer games. He came over to my parents and would sit in another room and play his game the whole time. He completely ignored his kids. It was …. So sad.

I believe at that time I had what alcoholics refer to as a “moment of clarity”. I envisioned myself neglecting my family and kids. It was very very very awakening. I confessed to my wife that night that I had an addiction to playing online games. I think she understood but kind of downplayed it. Like I said I still to this day do not think she understands the depth of my addiction. Anyway I can never play a game like that again. I now have a daughter and a very happy marriage and I live for my kid and wife. I have never played a massive multiplayer game like that since.

I do from time to time play games like desktop tower defense or something on the xbox 360 but nothing that encases me like that. I also have made people around me very aware of my addiction. Especially people like Dillsmack who can spot it a mile away cause he would know if I got wrapped up in a online game.

Anyway all this sounds pretty crazy right? Well I dunno that I am that odd… I am reading about people getting trapped in these worlds all the time in the mainstream media… whether its 2nd life…. Everquest… World of Warcraft…. Whatever. People have even committed suicide over it.

So I still dream about Everquest…. Kiting hill giants and frost giants with my druid…. Powerleveling my twink rogue. The scariest thing is I am on a plane right now writing this post and remember all the above things with such clarity….

Addiction is a motherfsckr. I know this addiction is pretty pathetic compared to some peoples….. But its there and I know its something I always need to be conscious of.

My favorite events I have ever attended are just regular get together that you never hear about. Just networking with regular people learning about what they are doing and offering advice from my experiences if its asked for.

Often even at the biggest events I am RARELY seen at the actually conference but rather prefer to spend my time meeting up with shoemoney.com readers for drinks or just hanging in the bar talking to people.

Anyway I just signed up to attend this Midwest Conference called the “Midwest UnConference”. The Midwest UnConference is a FREE event being held in Chicago, Illinois, on October 17-18, 2008.

I will see you there!

RaceScore.com lets you set up nascar fantasy race leagues on your websites. Check em out.

Thanks for the shirt guys.

If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here

The one thing we are going to build with ShoeMoney Tools is the most advanced, ultimate set of internet marketing tools anywhere ever assembled. We have already incorporated a lot of the tools that were use here at ShoeMoney Media INC and from the initial feedback so far and judging from the amount of use the site is getting from the existing tools we are off to one hell of a start.

But we know there are a ton of experts out there much better in their niche so we thought we would form a board of advisers , who will also be part owners, to help us put together a dream set of internet marketing tools.

Current Advisory Board Members:

Social Media Chair – Muhammad Saleem Muhammad is one of the most sought after social media consultants and has a arsenal of ideas to help users with social networks.

PR Chair – Chris Winfield When it comes to PR for internet marketing Chris Winfield is the Rev Pimpdaddy. He also has been great on feedback and given us a lot of direction.

International SEO Chair - Joost DeValk Not only a very well respected SEO but a great PHP developer as well. A great addition to the team! Joost was our first pick for obvious reasons.

SEO Chair – Todd Malicoat Todd was one of the first SEO’s I ever met. I originally told him about my idea for the domain finder 4 years ago and he gave me a lot of help from a seo perspective on what to look for. Since then I have enjoyed working with Todd on projects. He is one of the old school SEO’s who does not talk a lot but just gets results. He is a very welcomed member!

We also talked to several affiliate networks and asked them who we should talk to about being our PPC and affilaite char people. The same 2 names came up pretty much everywhere. You do not know who these people are… they do not have blogs and have zero online presences. The only way you would have ever meet them is by attending some of the private “top affilaite” functions where I originially met them. They are both welcomed members of the board of advisors and we welcome their input.

A lot of people have been sending me emails about when the price will go up. Basically we intend to keep the price 99$ until we are out of beta… I do not see us getting out of beta for a bit. We squash bugs as fast as we find them but we are making new tools so fast that there will be some bugs in them.

If you want to sign up for the beta you can here. Please keep in mind it is beta and a lot more is coming. We are working on the toolset everyday.

IF you are on the border line of signing up now or waiting until it is out of beta I would recommend you wait. While the tools are functional, they are very advanced and most people new to the industry will be lost if they do not have quite a bit of experience.

If you still want to sign up for the beta you can here:

The 125×125px format is super hot for Wordpress blogs and I stumbled across this plugin today that makes managing them a breeze.

Its about as easy as it gets but you can do some more advanced stuff with it like customizing positions of your ad layout.

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to put 125 ads on you blog check out this new plugin.

I wrote a bout a new service last week called 12 seconds which allows you to record only 12 seconds of a video. The site also has some nice networking features.

Anyway the founders contacted me and have given me 100 invites to give out to Shoemoney.com readers. Just leave a comment with the words “invite me”.

I was reading this morning on the BBC website about a 22 year old gamer who purchased a Island in the game Project Entropia for $26,500.00 dollars. Back when I used to play MMORPG games (Everquest, DAOC, WOW) the companies used to be VERY MUCH against you selling an in game content. But lots of people got away with it anyway. I was the first druid in the game of Everquest to reach level 50 (I know I am a nerd) and promptly sold my character on eBay immediately for $2400 wayyyy back in May of 1999. It had taken me about 1 month of hardcore playing (living in the game pretty much) to get to that level so fast. I kept buying accounts… building charectors and selling them on eBay. Sometimes the auctions would get canceled but even when they did I would get offers. I never got as much money as I initially did for that first character.

A.D.D. MOMENT: Sometime I should write about my addiction to MMORPG games.

So what did he get got his 26k ?

The virtual island includes a gigantic abandoned castle and beautiful beaches which are described as ripe for developing beachfront property.

This game is very different because it actually has a exchange system which converts the in game currency to real money and back again. Pretty slick.

Back in my Everquest days my biggest competition in selling in game content (swords, armor, characters) was N. Koreans who were basically working for slaves wages for companies farming equipment for their boss’s to sell in real marketplaces.

Everquest took place in a virtual world called Norrath and I remember a article one time that talked about how if Norrath was a real country in the world based on estimates it would be one of the top 10 richest countries in the world.

Project Entropia is just getting started already has 200,000 players. I think this is going to be huge.