What is ~Efficient Happiness?

~Efficient Happiness is an approximation of a website that I have wanted to create for some time. As an avid reader, watcher, viewer of Internet media, I am constantly coming across content that I would like to share with others. Some services like Del.icio.us and Digg allow web surfers to tag and share content. Unfortunately, these services are not as expansive as I would like in two ways. First, frequently I only want to share some small part of someone’s work. Second, I want to string ideas together with a common theme using text, pictures, and video. After two years of testing other methods, I decided to just make my own website so that it would be closer to my vision.

Because "blog" connotes that I primarily intend to publish my own content, it seems inappropriate to label ~Efficient Happiness as a blog. For now, I think of it as data sets.

I try to attribute all material on this site to its original source using both title and hyperlink. In addition, I personally ping the links to all the material that I excerpt so that the host of that material will know I am using it and can contact me if they are dissatisfied with my use. At this time I receive no monetary benefit from anyone for the content herein, and despite any arguments I might have supporting fair-use under copyright law, I have a blanket policy to remove any content to which any original author/creator objects.

A few points on style. I readily admit that some of these conventions run counter to some custom that the blogosphere has adopted. But because I am trying to do something novel in form, and not just substance, some of this custom does not lend itself. I hope this explanation will help to create adequate transparency such that viewers do not assume that I am the original author. First, I have begun to use block quotes for all excerpted material. Unfortunately, this merely creates a uniform indentation in the post, which visually defeats the purpose. As such, I also include introductory and conclusory ellipses with quotation marks. Second, given the fluctuating nature of Wikipedia as a tool and its novelty as a resource, I don’t “cite” to Wikipedia by name. Instead, I hyperlink to the page from which material came. Third, because one of my primary goals is to string together content from various sources to confer common ideas, I use “---” between excerpts. Fourth, I do lightly edit and rearrange some material without using internal brackets or ellipsis as a proper editor would. I feel that this is reasonable since I use hyperlinks to the original source and not footnotes. That is, any third party who wants to formally cite any content they find on my webpage is directed to the original and, if following proper citation guidelines, would use that original material to quote the author. Thus, the risk of formally misquoting an author is minimal, while the post preserves readability for the normal user. Finally, although I rarely post my own written material, when I do, I try to cite myself as the author.

I hope you enjoy the content on this site. I am always open to comments and suggestions. By ~Tim Miano