Authors and Editors on Forum Websites

shake.gifWould you like to be an Author or Editor for our forum websites? We’re looking for people to represent our forum communities with news and thoughts related the overall forum subjects. It’s pretty fun and similiar to what you’re reading right now.

INTERESTED?
If you’re interested please PM (private message) the admin from your forum account. If accepted you will receive a PM with your seperate login info for your author account. You must PM from your forum account so we can verify who you are. PM the admin and say “I’d like to be an Author” or “I’d like to be an Editor”.

AUTHORS
An author is a member who writes articles, news and thoughts that would be of interest to the community as a whole. If you’re a member of our forums, you’ve already been an Author!

EDITORS
Editors can also write articles, but also can edit submitted articles and news posts. Editors need basic knowledge of HTML. An HTML view panel is provided if needed for articles. If you use FrontPage, Dreamweaver or have built websites, then you probably have all the tools you need. Editors do NOT need to know how to code HTML by hand, but need to be able to spot layout or code problems if it arises. It’s not very scary if you know a little about HTML.

WHAT’S THE POINT?
We are in the process of updating our online communities and this is a first step into moving them towards more interactive portals. There are a lot of exciting things in the works and you’re involvement is crucial to the growth of our communities. If you are passionate about the subject matter on your particular forum, then you are the perfect person for this.

HOW OFTEN DO I HAVE TO WRITE ARTICLES?
There is no set requirement. You can write one every day or once a month. Your involvement is up to you.

AN EXAMPLE OF ARTICLE POSTS
Let’s say the website you’re a member of is a Snowboarding forum. You could write reviews of snowboarding equipment, post links to new snowboarding products, talk about beginner tricks and tips, post weather conditions at featured ski resorts, talk about your last snowboarding trip, write thoughts about snowboarding articles on CNN.com with a link to the original article, write about the music snowboarders listen to – that’s just a start. You write about what you are interested and passionate about.

ONE PER NETWORK
To encourage the diversity of our communities, members can only be an author on one of our sites.

Networks Upgrading for Web 2.0

web20.jpgOur networks are currently in the process of upgrading in preparation for the coined “Web 2.0”. I started working on the backend several months ago on this and have a steady game plan that will go for months. Read about Web 2.0 on Wikipedia.

We will be blurring the line between our forum and ecommerce networks. Our forum networks will have more interaction and trading available for members, and our ecommerce network will integrate some of the community features from our forum networks.

If you’re a user on any of our networks, you’ll just notice that there’s more to do and things will be a little more fun. Tonight was the first time I started installing what I’ve been sketching out for quite a while. For me that’s very exciting.

Ironically, much of my work has been to make things appear simple. A lesson I’ve learned from music that carries over to IT.

To me, this is Web 2.0 in a nutshell: If three years ago someone asked me how get more search engine traffic; I could have gone on for hours about specific SEO tricks to use and how to manipulate the search engines. A couple days ago someone asked me the same question: “How do I get more traffic to my website?”. My answer was: “Create useful content about what you know and make it readily available to users.”

Some people still refer to my networks as “the empire”. That’s how we used to refer to it in-house and out. It was about domination, controlling SERPS, driving traffic and keeping the behemoth money machine rolling. It’s very rare I used the word “empire” any more, and when I hear it; to me it is a reference to a period of time. Today I refer to it as networks. It is about sharing information and ideas. It is also a reflection of my personal shift in theology; it is about giving more than it is about taking.

My favorite question is: “So how do you make money on this?”. Who cares. This is not about money, it’s about interaction. It’s about leaving the world a little better than when you entered it. As Mel Gibson said recently, “I’m keeping my side of the street clean. That’s all I can do.”

Cute Cuddly Seals

eskimo-seal.gifLook at the cute Eskimo petting the seal. Aw shucks….it’s adorable.

Now visit this really fun web page.

After you’ve read it look at the picture again.

This is an avatar from a member on one of my theology debate forums. It has gone unnoticed by members (and myself). I think that’s kind of funny, and a reminder that we often see what we want to see.

Thank You 1310 AM – Dallas TX

Christmas is always a heavy time for sales (ORly?) but one of my CD’s was going through the roof. And for some odd reason very heavy ordering from Texas. We couldn’t figure it out. There were so many orders that I finallly just had to email customers and say sorry – we can’t do it. Made me very sad not to be able to fulfill all the orders on my own CD’s.

One of the customers just emailed me and looks like we uncovered the mystery of the heavy spike in sales:

****

I certainly understand. Thanks for cancelling. I would guess that the spike in sales had to do with the spotlight the CD received on 1310 The Ticket (sports radio station in Dallas), which is where I heard of it.

Thanks again for the update and the good service.

–Matt

****

Thank you Texas, and 1310 AM Dallas radio.
🙂

10 Mistakes in High School Musical Movie

10 mistakes found in Disney’s movie version of High School Musical.

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1 – Mistake Revealing: When Troy says “I’ll sing with her,” Ms. Darbus turns around “in response” to his voice before he even says anything.
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2 – Mistake Continuity: In the cafeteria scene Sharpay and her brother are watching from above. Towards the end of the song, after the pause for Gabriela’s line, Sharpay starts to walk toward the stairs. Then the camera pans out, but she and her brother haven’t moved and are still standing in the old spot up above. Back to an instant close-up of her and she’s halfway down the stairs.
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3 – Mistake Factual error: When Troy and Gabriella swap cellphones to give each other their number, they take a picture and put in a number. Both Troy and Gabriella put in less than 6 keystrokes, while the US standard for cellphone numbers is 7 digits.
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4 – Mistake Audio problem: In “What I’ve Been Looking For”, when Sharpay sings the last verse the first time around (“.I finally found, what I’ve been lookin’ for”), listen closely as Ryan takes away the microphone. Her voice remains the same volume, and does not get any quieter or disappear as Ryan pulls away the microphone. Only when the mike is about 10 inches away does her voice disappear.
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5 – Mistake Other: As people file out of Ms. Darbus’s class the day after winter break, the kid with the yellow undershirt and the blue jacket comes out of the classroom twice: once when he says to Troy “She’s crazy.” and another time when the camera switches back to Gabriella as she’s explaining her mom’s transfer.

6 – Continuity: During the song ‘start of something new’ as the shot changes from close up of Troy to a full shot of him, his microphone jumps repeatedly from his hand to the stand and back again. This is in the middle of the song and goes for about 20 seconds. (Timecode available)
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7 – Mistake Continuity: When Troy tries to ditch Chad to go to the musical audition, he is wearing a belt (as seen when he is going down the school stairs) and white tennis shoes (as seen when he is almost caught by his dad when he rests against the side of the building). However when he makes it to the audition he is now wearing navy blue tennis shoes and no longer wearing a belt (as seen when he “volunteers” to sing with Gabriella).
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8 – Mistake Continuity: When Troy gives Kelsi the “play ball” he is wearing his basketball jersey, but as they start dancing, he is in his warm up gear.
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9 – Mistake Other: In the cafeteria scene, when Gabriella slips in the spilt milk, her tray is not only shot up, but tilted as well. However, after the camera cuts back to Gabriella, there is a cup of “sauce” yet it doesn’t slide or tip off the tray.
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10 – Mistake Continuity: When Troy is avoiding practice to go to the auditions, he makes several shoe changes, all during the period when he’s supposed to be evading a lot of people. When he’s being chased by Chad, he’s wearing blue Adidas sneakers. In the part where he’s avoiding his father, he’s wearing casual white Asics shoes. When he gets backstage, he’s wearing black Adidas shoes.

Source: MovieMistakes.com – Visit their site for more mistakes found in movies.

High School Musical Cast List

Cast list now posted for Disney’s High School Musical presented by Tag.

Character

Performer

Understudy

Troy Bolton

Ryan McNamara

Steven Marrinier

Gabriella Montez

Miranda Zickler

Lauren Leer

Sharpay Evans

 Havalah Calderon Adria Finch
Ryan Evans Peter Grace Nate Young
Chad Danforth Mikel Armstrong TBA
Taylor McKessie Emma Lynn Lauran Sigfusson
Kelsi Neilson Sarah Damstra Mandy Vander Mey
Zeke Baylor Steven Marrinier Stefan Vanden Kooy
Martha Cox Kaela Springer TBA
Jack Scott TBA
Ms. Darbus Laurie Miller

Coach Bolton

Bruce Vilders

Cheerleaders

Haylie Engman

Carly Richter

Lisa Wallace

Ellis Jones

Jocks

Stefan Vanden Koy

Jake Updegraff

Justin Lawrence

Jordon Lange

Connor Crosby
Tyler Luvera
Miles Lee (ballboy)
Brainiacs Camille Jeeter
Emily Lester
Alec Hernandez
Micaela Baca
Madeline Furlong
Ann-Kristin Becker
Thespians Rebecca Wright
Amelia Furlong
Lauren Sigfusson
Mason Eger
Nate Young
Chloe Roberts
Emma Ferguson
Karissa Nichols
Nicole Jennings
Skaters Lindsee Nichols
Demi Fair
Chelsea Hawkinson
Courtney Blunt
Jana Collins
Kyle Mitchell
Kyle Conyers
Wildcat Dancers Mikalah Barem
Adria Finch
Gina Wallace
Braelyn Whited
Victoria Gomez
Miranda Peterson
Malia Woodard
Felisha Palomera
Wildcat Students Teylor Wilber
Kiralee Nichols
Ashley Christoferson
Hanna Dunning
Dorothy Howard
Laura Andrich
Mandy Vander Mey
Anna Martin
Emily Watilo
Lauren Leer
Emily Shapiro
Hannah Ermi
Jeff Huschka

Subdomains and Search Engines

Great article on Subdomains and Search Engines from Nov. 2005 by Vodabot from Vodahost. Also read an article from May 2005 talking about the downsides of using subdomains.

On another article I read the generally considered limit for pages in a subfolder is 65,000 – I have been burned before with security flaws in some software platforms and would like to seperate some of them with subdomains. Having also been burned in the past with SEO practices that were too aggressive; it leaves me in a quandry. Is it ok to seperate to subdomains simply to isolate different software platforms. Everytime I come to a conclusion, I seem to read a discussion that supports the opposite of where I am at the time.

If sticking to the golden rule of doing what’s best for users, then subdomains is the right answer for me. But the real answer is what do the search engines think is best for my users – that’s the slippery slope.

Jury is still out, but check out the article – Lots of good info in there.