In nearly all the responses to the recent SOPA/PIPA blackout I've read recently, from both sides, there is a disturbing undercurrent and dangerous assumption being made about the legislation – that somehow it is necessary on some level for Congress to address piracy, and that this round of legislation is just too heavy handed and needs to be tweaked. Even those calling for the death of SOPA/PIPA entirely often couch their statements in a “clearly, piracy is a problem that needs to be addressed but” disclaimer.

Columns. While it may seem like a good idea to a graphic designer, the idea of newspaper-style columns strikes fear in the hearts of themers everywhere. In particular, you may run into an instance where you need a list view to be A-L in the first column, then M-Z in the second column. I'll walk you through a method for doing just that, using a little PHP. Note that this is for Drupal 7, but is easily adaptable for Drupal 6.

I will note first that there are a couple other quickie options that might work for your situation.

A blogroll is useful for many different reasons but it is mainly based on creating links to other websites. They can be a great promotional aid and may help readers find related content that could be useful to them.

Blogroll Auto Linker – This great tool is useful in making it possible to easily link to another site in your posts by using your blogroll. This also allows you to use the auto link feature with smart tags by putting the name of the blog in brackets.

Having a chat running on your website is a great way to keep visitors entertained and engaged with your writing. You can offer chat in various locations and visitors can chat amongst themselves.

Geesee Chat – This is basically a chat client that is available to use with many different platforms including WordPress. It is very useful in keeping in touch with your readers and allowing them to talk with each other to discuss your writing.