Can You Tweak the system; Jonathon.

Winn,

Thanks for the back up.  I agree.  This blog site filled a community void & gave a valuable service to the community.  I doubt anyone knew it would evolve into the communication service we have now.  It does need some tweaking.  Unfortunately, as  I stated previously, I am not so adept with the computer world as most.  I would suggest that the people using the blog, in conjunction with MCS get together & come up with some ideas.  Reading these blogs for the past few weeks is evidence that we have plenty of people out there with an abundance of smarts.  I threw in the idea of using categories because at the time, it was the only thing I could think of.  Damn!  there I go ending a sentance with a preposition.  I don't know about you, but I think the heat is getting to me.  Hope to see some other ideas here.

RichK

Thanks Winn.  It takes an unsatisfied person . . .

Agree 100% re the comment section.  It rolls over so quickly it's hard to keep up with it.  Can it show more comments?  I'm like Rich and little behind the technology curve, but have faith in young Jonathan.  He's doing such a great job so far.

You guys are absolutely right. There is an enormous amount of content flowing through, and all too often the good stuff gets pushed away.

Do you have any specific recommendations? I was thinking we could set it up so that when you write a blog, you can choose from one of 8 or 10 categories, from politics, sports, etc. The categories might show up as a menu in the blog where you choose one or more. 

If you guys don't mind coming up with a few categories, I will start talking to the guys who actually built this site, and see how quickly we can get something in place.  

I will be out for the rest of the day, (I have a root canal - on my birthday, nonetheless) but when I get back tomorrow, I will give an update.  

904.359.4538 e-mail Jonathan

Jonathan,

Just thinking linearly..

Politics-National

Politics-State

Politics-Local

Sports and Entertainment

People, Place and Things

Miscellaneous

News You Can Use

Bloggers, what do you think? Too broad?

Key,

Good selections & I'm sure we''ll have more.  One thing I would change, & this depends on the mechanical limitations, would be to have sub-sections under Politics-Local.  This might come under the title, Politics-Clay & then have sub-sections for the various cities, OP, Mburg, GCS, KH, etc.

I only add this because we have bloggers who have a vested interest in their respective towns, but may not have the same interest in another.  I might be very interested in what happens in OP or Mburg, but not so interested in what hapens in KH.  The reverse is also true.  Just a thought.

RichK

I would suggest making Sports and Entertainment two separate categories.  I may have lots of thoughts on Entertainment including books to read, music, concerts, movies, tv, personalities but not much on Sports even though I am an avid Gator fan. 

Just a question.  What would fall under News You Can use? 

ClayCounty

Traffic jams around Clay County, newsbriefs from MCS reporters...that's my thought but it can certainly be modified.

Many times when an MCS reporter blogs about a timely news release, we blog against that thread. If we read the newsbrief and then started a thread under the appropriate topic tab, that link would stay pretty clean.

From a quick review, I agree with these. 

Politics-National 

Politics-State 

Politics-Local---I appreciate knowing about the surrounding communities so that I may learn from their mistakes and cheer for their accomplishments. 

Sports  

Entertainment 

There are already filters in place that we don’t all use.  You can put in a name in the Search line and come up with every blog where that name was mentioned.   If you have forgotten the blog title that you were last reading, just put in “Jett” and see what comes up.  The title of our blogs can help the users; the title of this particular blog could have been MyClaySun blogs, or MyClaySun blog question.  There could be a Frequently Asked Questions section located where you sign-in to write a blog.  At that point you could also add a sentence or two of instruction about using the Search line to search for your topic. You may be able to join in on a previous conversation or your question may be answered by just reading another thread without starting a new blog. I don’t think I am interested in the list of Who’s New.  I can figure that out for myself.  Removing that would leave more room for the most Recent Comments.

I like the Preview comment button.  This is the point where you remove the foot from your mouth and correct spelling or alignment errors.

Jonathan, root canals are not fun. Who told you that was a good way to celebrate a birthday?  Happy birthday!  Enjoy the ice cream if not the cake.    

From reading this site for a few months, throw these in your pot of choices:

Announcements

Clay County Schools or Academics

Government-County

Finance

Government- Florida

Food & Drink

Health

Home and Garden

Humor

International Affairs

Media

Music

Pets

Religion

Sports

Technology-internet

Travel

Government-US

Volunteering

Writing

Current Events

Sports

Music

Movies-DVDs-Television

Literature

Food & Drink (that's an awesosme idea, read)

Humor/Just for fun/misc.

Oh, and Jonathan, I hear root canals aren't that bad after all the novacain sets in. 

Root canal on your birthday? who set that appt up? 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU  

Today makes Tommorow

That was good information concerning the a/c repair experience. 

Would that story have gone under Home and Garden or do you need a Consumer Complaints section, Consumer Opinion or CC Consumer Reviews?

I could see that you might not want to name companies involved for liability sake but you could, as this story did, recommend that you get more than one opinion when doing your repair shopping.  That reminds me of reading a label.  When a list of ingredients is added to a label, the items named first are the ones that are in the box or can in the greatest quantity.  Usually sugar comes first.  In this case, if the ad for the company has a long list of brand names that they sell as well as repair, just research with eyes wide open.

Bloggers,

I have an admission to make. I am OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) when it comes to organization and planning.

Make plans, follow up. Just like clockwork.

So this idea stems from my need for organization and planning. A disclaimer: I recognize the need to allow new bloggers in and integrate with those of us who have been writing for some time. Having said that, we've been talking about tweaking this blog site and the idea came that in conjunction with expanding or reorganizing the way we read the blogs, maybe we could rotate a monthly blog chairperson to initiate new blogs to keep the conversations going.

There is a certain ebb and flow to the web site. I feel a responsibility to introduce timely postings and generate lively debate. The key to longevity for MCS may take some organization. Most things do. But not so much that it cuts off creativity. There is a fine balance.

A point person would allow for fluidity - which I believe is important. But it's just like a book club or anything else. When there is a leader, everyone feels reasonably assured that things will go smoothly because there is some direction.

Some of you may be anti-organization. That's fine. Tell us so. But don't crucify me because I'm a planner and like to have left and right margins. It's an idea and it needs to be fleshed out against the needs of the bloggers.

OK, let's open the lines of communication and see what we get.

Organization is fine; it’s how it is administered that makes the difference. Hitler was organized and look what he accomplished. I don’t get the disclaimer; did I miss something?

 It takes a unsatisfied person to make things satisfactory. Winn1955 

  Key2life, I don't understand the post from you above.  No one said anything negative about organizing or catagorizing.  They joined right in.   Again.

No, you didn't miss anything.

Who wants to lead our August discussions?

Winn1955...Marsha...lilyslore...read44...richK...jimmaxie? Someone step forward.

If we have a discussion leader topics will never vary. If I were a discussion leader we'd never talk about anything other than what's going on in New York Knicks camp or whether or not those are new pickups in Jack White's guitar. If someone like Baxley or RickK were discussion leader we'd never talk about anything other than politics. The way it is now lends itself well to varied discussion, but that just leads us right back to the original point, which is of course that blogs should be tagged to a topic.

Watch out you guys, next key2life will want to add 2 additional at large positions with one being a Chairman (discussion leader) for 4 years. Is that really necessary?

HarryBreitner I dislike that idea too.

Read44 has done an excellent job of explaining how to search the blogs above. For those with OCD here is a review of that comment.

Submitted by read44

There are already filters in place that we don’t all use.  You can put in a name in the Search line and come up with every blog where that name was mentioned.   If you have forgotten the blog title that you were last reading, just put in “Jett” and see what comes up.  The title of our blogs can help the users; the title of this particular blog could have been MyClaySun blogs, or MyClaySun blog question.  There could be a Frequently Asked Questions section located where you sign-in to write a blog.  At that point you could also add a sentence or two of instruction about using the Search line to search for your topic. You may be able to join in on a previous conversation or your question may be answered by just reading another thread without starting a new blog.

Why make things harder than they need to be? If you miss the blogs for a couple of days/weeks search for any word that you remember that was discussed and when the blog comes up read it and you can respond. Then the comment will show up on the recent comments side bar and can be reviewed by everyone. If everyone stays within the topic discussed then it should work out fine. You can always go through the pages that are listed at the bottom of the blogs and see each blog with the number of comments that has been discussed. You still have another option which comes up at the bottom of the blogs.... People are talking about.... and it shows the recent blogs with the most comments. Having the categories would be the best concept that has been discussed. Otherwise, it is a minimum amount of work to review the blogs if you miss some comments. Kudos to the site builder I think they have done a great job!

Harry,  That is what these things are called, I think, tags.  What about Pet Peeves?

What got your goat today, a driver or the man in the fast service line with 35 items?

Announcements

Clay County Schools or Academics or Education

Government-County

Finance

Government- Florida

Food & Drink

Health

Home and Garden

International Affairs

Media

Music

Pets

Religion

Sports

Technology-internet

Travel

Government-US

Volunteering

Current Events

Movies-DVDs-Television

Literature

Humor/Just for fun/misc.

Someone go wake Jonathan up.

HarryBreitner,

While some might consider your comment @ Baxley & I a small slam, I think that you are right.  I can't speak for Bax, only for myself.

I have an interest in many topics, but for practical & personal reasons, I tend to concentrate more on the subjects of politics and church state/religious issues.   (Recently, more on the political side)  I'm not saying they are better or more important than others, just my preference. 

It is gratifying to see that so many people are making contributions to this site.  From day one, I knew it was a good idea.  Once again, thanks to all who have made this site possible and an obvious success.

RichK

I didn't mean to offend you or jab you or anything, I was just looking for a couple users on the other end of the spectrum, discussion wise.

Harry,

I didn't think you making a jab.  I only said it to forestall anyone jumping down your throat.  Some of us bloggers have shown ourselves to be a protective/defensive lot.  Not altogether a bad quality.

If one were to look back into the blogs, they would find evidence to show you right in your assessment.  So no worries mate.  My skin is thicker than that.

RichK

Great suggestions so far, and let me add a couple of things:

Thanks to read44 and Angela. You guys are right, we do have a way of sifting through all of the information on this site. The search function is far from perfect, but it is a great way of looking for specific words. For example; want to re-visit the Christy Fitzgerald blog from a couple of months ago? Just type in "Fitzgerald' into the search bar and you will see everything with the word "Fitzgerald" on the site.  Of course, the same would word for the word "politics" or "Rutledge" or "RichK" (fyi,RichK returns 9 pages of material).

However, there is another good way of keeping content linked together. If you noticed, in my own narcissistic way, I keyword everything I write "awesome". "Awesome" then appears in the tag cloud on the front page of myclaysun.com (it's towards the bottom of the page). Click on "awesome" and you'll see everything I have written. Same thing for the search bar- enter "awesome" and my stuff will appear. 

Some of you could do the same - Harry, you could include the keyword "Knicks" into everything you write, regardless of topic. Doing that would keep all of your content intact. 

Of course, none of these suggestions are exactly what we are asking for; merely ideas you can use until we get some categorization in place. I have e-mailed the guys who can help get this in place, and I'll let you know as soon as I hear something. 

904.359.4538 e-mail Jonathan

Jonathon,

I didn't realize I had 9 pages worth of stuff.  Hey!  I never promised you a rose garden & I have never denied that I was a ratchet jaw.  Hope the root canal went well.  I've only had one & it went great, turned into a disaster then turned fantastic.  Hope we are providing you with some good ideas for the tweak, as it has come to be known.  Keep up the great work.

PS.  Whatever they are paying you, you deserve more.  I can suck up with the best of them.  Just another tip.

RichK

Jonathan,

I just had another thought.  Once again, please remember that I don't know enough @ the makings of a blog lite.  But I think it would be good to take into consideration any future tweaking.  I'm talking @ the mechanics.  Say, for instance, that if you do present us with a new format, as time goes by we may find that some categories just don't generate much interest.  How flexible would the system be?  How easy would it be to eliminate it?  Change it?  What would the criteria be?  I'm sure there are other questions, but these are the ones that came to mind.

RichK

Well, it's like this- I can pretty easily add/subtract/move/promote anything that currently exists on this site. For example, those blogs on the front page of MyClaySun.com are  blogs that I promote there. Or the Restaurant Violations page. Since the black menu bar previously existed, I only had to add another element to it.

Adding completely new elements to the site (such as the option to categorize blogs) requires me to ask the guys who are really the architects of this construct, which is why some changes take longer to initialize than others. 

But the short answer is Yes. As this site progress and changes, we do have the power to change things. If the changes are to previously existing elements, I can probably do them on the fly. If the changes require new elements, that's when it takes some more time. Regardless, all you guys have to do is ask, and if it's possible (or reasonable ) it can be done.

Oh, and a note about the blogs on the front page: I really prefer highlighting blogs with avatars (the tiny pictures). So if you don't have an avatar...ahem, RichK...you should consider getting one. 

904.359.4538 e-mail Jonathan

Jonathan, RichK may have a hard time choosing an avatar. I suggest a contest to help him out. Since he and I seem to have many similar (if not truly anarchic) ideals, my proposal would be something along the lines of Kurt Vonnegut's picture or maybe a representation of Billy Pilgrim.

Next?

Lily's Lore "I don't ever want to be rescued And I don't ever want to be saved I got a feelin' that I'm gonna be alive forever Dancin' on the edge of a grave..." Jim Steinman

Jonathan & Lily'sLore,

Thanks for the good news @ the apparent ease in tweaking the blog.

About the avatar.  Thanks, but no thanks.  I jealously guard & protect my anonymity & for very good reasons.  I have had occasion to write letters to not only the Times Union but also the Miami herald.  The subjects were politics & religion.  I have had anonymous phone calls calling me various names & one, from Miami, long distance, wanting a meeting with me.  Oh yeah, I'm going to respond to the nut cases & the whack jobs in the area.  They seem to not realise that not eveyone goes through life with their finger up their noses.  I, for one, am not that stupid.  For those, & other reasons, I choose to remain as anonymous as I can. 

I did have one encounter that was interesting.  A person with whom I was engaged in conversation & also was a participant in the blog, took a guess & thought I was someone in the area because of my name tag of Rich K.  It took a bit of convincing, but I had to explain that I was not that person.  How & why I came up with the tag might be considered interesting.  The why is what I just told you.  The how is a different story, almost funny.  Recognising the need for anonymity, I took the easiest route.

I fanned the JAX phone book for the first name  of the person my finger landed on.  That was a person named Richard.  I decided that I would do the same  for the first letter of the last name.  Voila!  The next fan landed on the leter K.  Totally random.  I got the idea from a movie I saw once.    

I am not shy in the least to say that I do not trust people, especially strangers.  Anonymous phone calls, especially long distance ones, are red flags that I respect.  One tends to lead a safer, simpler life when one respects ones instincts.  So I will remain just plain old, simple Rich K.  Or uncle Rich, if you prefer.  Makes no difference.  If you have a sugestion for an avatar, I would be more than happy to consider it.  Then you just have to tell me how to insert it on the blog.  I wasn't just pulling your yaktabay when I said that I was not a computer type.  Note bene.  Yaktabay is a real word.  Watch some old episodes of Taxi, I think.

I am looking forward to see what the changes bring.  I, for one, am happy for the opportunities that MCS offers the community.  Yes, just another tip from uncle Rich.

RichK 

Categories are good.  Too many are bad.  Great ideas.  Harry - you're right.  Always talking about the same thing does get boring.  Even to me.

RichK's avatar - the profile shot of Alfred Hitchcock.  Uncle Rich - I'm devastated.  And all along I was imagining a real guy named Rich whose last name started with a K.  You are a guy right?  Please tell me you are at least an uncle.  Big Smile.

Bax,

As I said, I would consider any idea for an avatar.  The problem is going to be figuring out how to get it on the screen.  Oh well, one thing at a time.

No worries @ my gender.  I can't remain a complete enigma.  I'm a male & an uncle.

RichK

Uncle Rich,

Uncle Rich was a board game I think, how about using him? 

He might be Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly.

Here's a how-to for anyone curious about adding an avatar to your name:

1) Make sure you're signed in. Click "edit profile" in the middle of the top green menu (it's just above Pets in that black menu bar)

2) Scroll down until you see "Picture". It will have a clickable "Browse" box, and if you have your the avatar you want saved on your computer, click browse to find and select the avatar. 

* note, the avatar needs to be small, no larger than 200x200 pixels and 60kb in size. you can either re-size a picture or just Google "avatars"- you'll find plenty of choices. *

3)Once you have selected your avatar, click "Submit" at the bottom of your profile page, and that will be it. 

904.359.4538 e-mail Jonathan

Jonathan, 

With the recent barrage of Animal Control entries under the Recent comments list, I tried to see if I could put in a date in the search box and have all of the blog comments for that date come up; it didn't work. 

Example---Type in 02/12/2008 in the search box and all of the blogs that had comments added to them on that date would show up. 

Can you make that happen?  

What say ye?  Look up.

Read-

Good idea. Let me see if I can figure something out.

Thanks! 

904.359.4538 e-mail Jonathan

I have noticed that sometimes a recent comment does not show up on Recent comments.  Why is that?

Is there anything that can be done about the time delay in signing off?  I think some people make a comment because it appears that that person is signed on and reading when in fact I know I have signed off before and continued to read or left the computer but my user name continues to show up under Online users. 

It just might help a little with the response times to the blog entries and the flow of conversation if that could be corrected.

If you are online, look up.

If you are still in front of your screen, I have another idea/question about the site mechanics.

When a blog is more than one page long, is it possible for you to have the page numbers at the top of page one instead of us having to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to turn it, or could it be set up so that when you click on Recent comments that you go directly to that post?  I hope this is clear enough.