Nathan W. Bingham’s Microblog

...well there have been many people Phishing on Twitter lately, and sadly, many people taking the bait.

If you don't know what I'm referring to, here are the words from the sometimes helpful Wikipedia:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

If you're on Twitter* or you've had reports that your account has been sending out SPAM direct messages, I suggest you read Ed Stetzer's article, How to Avoid (and Apologze for) Falling for a Phishing Scam and Sending Out Spam.

* Even if you're not on Twitter the article may be helpful as Phishing Scams target users of Internet Banking for example, and basically any online service that requires a username and password.

Approximately 10 hours ago Tweology (@tweology) had its first official tweet.

"What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. (WSC.1)"

I'm thankful to all who are following so far and for all those who have re-tweeted or given shout-outs to @tweology.

For the first week I'm testing how helpful it is to repeat two of the daily tweets at differing times to help cater for those in the USA as well as my fellow Australians. If you're in the USA it shouldn't bother you (unless you're on Twitter when you should be working) and if you're an Aussie it shouldn't bother you unless you're awake really early in the morning.

If you're not already you can follow @tweoloy on Twitter and/or find out more at the official website, Tweology.net. Presently a new web site and an official Tweology logo is being developed. Stay tuned!

Update: I've been unable to repeat tweets at a better time for those living in Australia as Twitter isn't allowing them. I'll investigate if I can find a work around. I've found a work around. As of tomorrow my trial of repeating certain tweets will officially begin.

A fellow Aussie, Andy Tan, contacted me not too long ago asking if I had any ideas for a Twitter account he had registered (@tweology). I responded with several ideas. He liked them and agreed to pass the account over to me. I'm preparing to launch @tweology next week once there are a few more followers and I've prepared some more content. This is the temporary description from the official Tweology website:

"Tweology is a new Twitter account that will be 'bringing theology to Twitter.' Daily providing a mixture of theological tweets, including theological terms defined, quotations (or tweet summaries) from Reformed theologians and Reformed confessions."

So if you're a tweep (that is, one who's on Twitter) please follow @tweology and let your friends online know about it.

Since moving to this new format several months ago I've learned many things (some of which I may post about another time). I've slowly moved the sites focus and attempted to align it more centrally with what I'm thinking, doing, reading, and experiencing. I've not done this because I believe there is anything particularly interesting about "me" but more so to encourage transparency. I'm not using this domain to manipulate readership growth, or supplement an income, so I don't see the need to force my writing and microblogging to a particular niche.

That said, I'm also convinced more and more each day that I am unworthy of offering comment yet alone writing full articles. There is so much God glorifying, theological rich, Bible saturated and history attested material, that I'd rather post a quote from a book and pray the Lord blesses you instead of attempting to "re-invent the wheel."

This move has cost me readers. A lot of those readers were "dead" anyway and had only subscribed to enter give-aways. Some were not. It has brought along new readers and new commenters. You've had a chance to see a fuller picture of who I am. My workload has been reduced "online" and has allowed me to do more where I am needed most..."offline." The biggest downside I've seen since the move is interaction on comments; my intereaction. Posterous is not the best in that area nor is it anything like WordPress was.

So that's a quick update on the state of my "microblog" (from my perspective anyway) and now you may be interested in Trevin Wax's thoughts on the state of the "blogosphere" in general. He has some interesting thoughts and has made some interesting observations.

I look forward to seeing what happens in 2010. As always, there are a lot of ideas ticking over inside my head.

Recently, Twitter released the long awaited feature Twitter Lists. These lists allow those on Twitter to better organise people they follow into groups or categories. Better yet, you can follow a "list" and receive updates from all those in the list without having to follow those people individually. For example, a company or group blog could create a list with all their employees or contributors, and you could simply follow that list to receive all their updates.

As a result of this there have been many lists started simply entitled "Reformed."  These lists are very generic and most often simply mean, do you agree to most of the "five points" of Calvinism. I thought it would be helpful, at least for me, to have some confessional lists. Therefore, I created three lists:

@nwbingham/conf-westminster (for those who confess the Westminster Standards)

@nwbingham/conf-threeforms (for those who confess the Three Forms of Unity)

@nwbingham/conf-london1689 (for those who confess the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith)

If you're on Twitter and you hold to one of these confessions, leave a comment with your Twitter username and I'll add you to the list.

I get nervous when I blog, and I'm very cautious when I comment. Am I in the minority in the blogosphere? According to Carl Trueman I might be. Over at Creed:or:Chaos, Joshua paraphrases Carl Trueman's thoughts on blogging when he says:

Do not pretend like you are a scholar when you are not, and do not perpetuate the democratization of ignorance. If you do, do not expect anybody to listen to your blogic. Be humble. Think twice (no thrice) before you type. Just because you have the right to speak, does not mean that you have a right to be heard.

This charge is fair. I laughed as I read the above paragraph as you'll often hear me saying very similar things to my wife in response to blog posts and comments I read online.

Believe me, I'm not an authority and I've been guilty as charged! I take this as a humble reminder; maybe you should too?

Update: "Blogmeisters" was a label supplied by Carl Trueman.