Yep, I know Sherry, and yes, I knew we could do that.
And I am not ruling out the idea though Steph doesn't seem to be behind it, I'm not behind it right now, so people that want it will have to convince us that it is worth OUR time.
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Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.-Camille Pissarro
Well, a mass email from the message board would not be possible from our present pm system; that is ONE of the reasons I'm dubious (the boxes will only hold 50 messages max). If it could be sent and only count as one message, then we'd still have the problem of the majority of members not having the message alert system switched on; it would therefore probably need to be a special email address set up from the site, not the board. Then there's the fact that quite a large number of addresses are ones I have banned for spam - it's all very fiddly. Moreover there is the difficulty that Sharon cites, of people turning up only for chat (but this might be the case whatever we do) and the fact that we are trying to increase board numbers, rather than simply involve current members, implying that advertising needs to be done outside, but on a smallish scale so we don't have an unmanageable number of people trying to get in. Etc!
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"We make our lives out of chaos and hope. And love." - Angela Montenegro
Ah Steph, I didn't know you couldn't do it from the message board. But I was talking about actual e-mail, outside of the board where it is possible to do what Sherry suggested. People could opt in and give their e-mail addresses, because there already is a special e-mail account just for the board, it is where all the contact mail goes. I still don't like the e-mail idea though, mostly because if people don't have time to come to the board to look for announcements once a week or so, they shouldn't have time to come to the chat!
I do realize we might run in to the problem of people just showing up for the chat no matter what we do as well. But if it doesn't seem to be working, and it ends up being a lot of work for TJ (which I am sort of feeling it was already but need to talk to him about it), we'll just find a new way I think.
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Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.-Camille Pissarro
I have now for the last 4 days tried to come up with a suggestion but nothing..
Couldn't come up with an idea that was on the same level as what already have been suggested.. all of them good.
So the only thing I can say, I might already have said either here or on FB.. Had a blast chatting while waiting for TJ's response, the excitement/thrill on who was next in line.. And to quote Jade, our "fearless leaders" (love it ) did an amazing job holding a tight grip on us ladies - keeping us in check.. and for organizing this.. It was more that what I had expected, much more.
So (can't believe I'm using that word again).. a big thank you to Sharon, Steph and off cause to TJ for giving us his valueable time (almost 3 hrs - wow ).
Sharon, I hope TJ realizes that he is not in any way required to stay that long every time. If the chat is set up for an hour, and he has to go, that's what happens. If he doesn't have anything pressing and feels like he wants to stay a little longer and chat, he has that prerogative as well. But we do not expect him to stay for hours on end. If the chat is an hour, it's an hour. Period. If he needs to get out by a certain time, he can always let you or Steph know ahead of time, and have you interject at five minutes to the hour or something, saying Tj's only answering one more question, or he's just got time to make a final goodbye post and that's it, thanks everyone for participating in this month's chat. Or whatever.
About the email thing -- I never said I actually needed or wanted to be emailed. I was just chiming in about the possibility and potential issues (or non-issues, as the case may be) because someone asked about it. I haven't put in a vote for anything in particular. I was just discussing. So please don't feel like I was pressuring either of you (Sharon or Steph) to do something that you don't think is workable or necessary or helpful.
I will say this, however: doing one thing (like emailing current members about the chat) does not negate the possibility of doing other promotional ideas as well. You can certainly post alerts to other communities, to draw in more visitors to the site. But perhaps the current, loyal members would enjoy a 'reminder' email when it gets close to the chat date, just so they don't miss anything. Especially depending on when the chat is initially announced (if it's 2 or 3 weeks beforehand).
Just a thought I'm throwing out there for consideration.
TJ knows he doesn't have to stay that long, I told him several times how long he stays is up to him, and when we actually talk about the chat I'll definitely make sure I tell him that again. We do all really appreciate that he stayed that long, and I know people were wondering about it but I do believe he would have left if he really felt he needed to leave! I hope so anyway!!!
Yeah, still not convinced about the e-mail. I know it isn't either/or, I just am not thinking it is something we need to do. Pretty much all the active members showed up for this last one or knew about it in advance and said they couldn't be here. A few were away and just missed it. Those that come every few months, or less, well...that is why we are trying to get people to be more active here! LOL Look what you miss when you don't come here often enough!
Hope everyone knows I'm not trying to be mean. I'm sorry that ANYONE missed it, we want everyone, old members and new to be able to take part. But we also want old and new members to participate in the boards ALL the time, I personally think we have the best group of people here and we are lucky in that, and I hope even more great people will join us! That said, there is just only so much Steph and I (and TJ!) can do and I don't know that either of us want to take on that e-mail thing at this point. It was NOT a bad suggestion, and like I said, it hasn't been ruled out, but right now, I don't think that is going to be happening.
Sharon
P.S. TJ just said he liked the chat, and he prefers doing it that way so looks like we are a go for another one. Date to be determined.
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Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.-Camille Pissarro
For those of you that didn't get your question answered, TJ told me today that he actually answered them all and in order. But it appears he had problems at the beginning with that board feature that makes you keep hitting submit if someone else has posted (which explains the long delay in getting anything from him) So he did answer them. I've explained the way the board works as far as posting so hopefully he will not have that problem the next time.
*salutes our fearless leader Sharon* Yes, I did happen to call you that. Heeee.
I'm very glad to hear that TJ liked the chat, and that there's opportunity for another one. That's fantastic.
Sounds like you guys have it all well in hand. Thanks for being awesome and working so hard to make this site fun for all!
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I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating [& sharing their experience]. I don't care if it's a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music… I think this world would be unlivable without art. ~ S. Soderbergh
O wow! Hmm, *ponders what his answer was*
I wonder what he said haha, I think I'll ask again, it'll probably help him to have a question he knows the answer to hahahahaha
I'm so glad we're doing it again, WOO HOO!!!
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"Work hard, and love the work and the 'work' becomes nothing other than the love." - TJ Thyne
So sad I missed it! Couldn't get online. My computer was broken.
Hope he will do it again sometime!
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Angela: Well, what about love? What do you have to say about love?
Hodgins: It´s overrated-most of the time Dexter: They make it look so easy-connecting with another human being. It's like no one told them it's the hardest thing in the world.