Last week I spent way too long trying to install SparkleShare. I think I installed and uninstalled and re-installed four versions. I couldn't get any of them to work (some versions were old, and some I must have built incorrectly), and so I wasted a couple of days. Luckily, Lapo Calamandrei asked a friend of his to make a ppa, and then he and Andreas Nilsson walked me through the installation process (Thanks, Lapo and Andreas!). All went well, and now you can look at the icons I'm working on. These are all drafts, so please feel free to suggest changes. I have close to thirty in process right now, and I am hoping to add at least ten more by the end of the week.

Last night I read a lot about reducing file size...Now I have a fairly complete (I hope!) method for reducing it:

1. Remove unnecessary gradients
2. Look at icon in outline mode to check for forgotten objects
3. Set alpha layers on fills to zero when possible (This sometimes makes a difference, and sometimes it doesn't. I also may be imagining that it does.)
   
4. Vacuum defs in the terminal using "inkscape -f file_name.svg --vacuum-defs (Lapo mentioned that this method is less buggy than vacuuming defs via the drop-down menu)
5. Delete unnecessary nodes
6. Save as plain svg (Vish recommended this)
   

In general, this method is reducing file sizes by about 1/2, sometimes more, which is good, because my file sizes were much too large.