Now that things are settling down a little on the boards, (though
I'm cringing at all the work I'll have to do to make a summary of the
first weeks Dream Team entries, I've decided to concentrate on that
when Munchkin is NOT crying after the computer and driving me nuts and
possibly after I'm up to date on the laundry), I've done some book
reviews where I had little to say, some others where I had a bit more to contribute and wanted to ask my adoring fans
(where's the big-eyed, tongue in cheek smiley when you need it 
) whether my "basic" blogs are okay for those books where I don't have much to say
Would you like me to use more tags, less tags, more smileys, more adjectives,
adverbs and vocabulary in general? - there is a Roget hiding around
here somewhere
Distinctly lacking in enthusiasm and energy so far in 2008, can only
hope things improve, otherwise I'm not very optimistic about my efforts
to keep you entertained
Supposed to be getting dolled up on Friday night for a "do", but at the moment am
almost irresistibly tempted to tell DH, the brother and the Munchkins
to go without me and spend the evening relaxing at home
I probably will go, but at the moment a week in bed sounds so much more appealing
Ah well at least I'm reading to take my mind off my "troubles" 
Funny you should ask…
I was just blogging about the feeling this year.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
I've been nursing a migraine ......
off and on for the past few days ..... so I haven't had much umph to read the book reviews .....
I do HIGHLY recommend that you TAG all of your blog entries both with the Dream Team ..... that way we can find all the entries together on one page when we click on Dream Team at the side ....... tags are not limited to just book reviews, they are tools to help "you" and others who have like interests to find content .....
so if you and your team mates tag all your blog entries, regular blogs and book reviews with your team, everyone will be able to find your team in one spot
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Posting
I have come to the conclusion I dislike this new forum. It is difficult to move around in, difficult to read, and I already deleted my blog... why would I want another??? Not to mention that it only gives you a snipet of the post so you have to open yet ANOTHER window.....
I admit I haven't had the chance to read the rest of the entries b/c I've been advoiding ehqn since I discovered the new format.
YUCK!!!!
I admit that if it doesn't fill that little space there's a 100% chance, I won't open it the rest of the way to read your review and I expect a lot of others won't either.
Sheri
By all means Tag away
It does make things easier to find providing you can ever find a sort-of-complete list of the tags as opposed to a list of just the hot ones.
I think I may agree with Sheri about the new format. The board this year seems to lack the "stop by and chat" feel that it's had in the past. But then again, for me it may just be a matter of trying to adjust to a benign change I didn't find necessary.
Lisa
It's choppy
You use to be able to come in every few days or a week and scroll top to bottom and it would be all there. Now there's only a few blogs per page and you have to keep flipping pages.
I appreciate a lot of work went into it... but unless you play here and here only.... it's not "casual visitor" friendly.
Sheri
thoughts
Tags are good. Do whatever insoires...I am just so happy to see your thinkin blogs to inspire me in 2008 as well as your book blogs!
AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus
I sympathise with those who can't get here every day
because unless you've favorited every single post, and if you post
often that quickly becomes impractical, it's really difficult to find
the discussions you left
I'm having trouble identifying previous bloggers and just finding
the kind of stuff I used to drop in on when I had a spare moment
It feels like I "need" at least half an hour just to find the stuff and that leeches my enthusiasm for comments
I hope the people who were pushing for the update are happy, because
I personally felt no need for the update and so am in the "why
bother fix what wasn't broken" camp, stalling and crawling along until
things make sense, but if the people who actually wanted the changes
aren't happy with them, well it would seem a little self-defeating
change does not always equal progress
Dream Team 2008 Challenge blogs
I hear what you are saying ......
Sadhbh, they had to do something ....... the big surprise was the response to the Book Challenges ..... I believe Jayne mentioned that the Book Challenge was bringing in more than double the traffic of the other areas of the Community ..... so a change had to be made to the server to accommodate that traffic ...... I would assume (as I don't know for sure) that with the server change, the software needed to be changed as well ...
some changes are unavoidlable when the population grows
if you are having trouble finding the content you like to follow, I wrote a bit of a tips and tricks blog .... there are so many ways now to keep track of the content you like .... I mentioned to FF as a reply to one of her blogs or maybe it was a comment, that if you click on the Dream Team tag, and the bookmark the results page in your webbrowser you can bring back that page again, and refresh it to bring it up to date .... ah, I think I posted that in the Community 2.0 thread, 'cus I asked Jayne if there was a way to add to favourites from a tag result
as far as WHY some posts show up a certain way on the book challenge page, I will be doing a "How I do a book review" blog to explain how to get the "trimmed" version to show the content you want ..... I've been trying to get to that the last few days but wasn't feeling up to it ... will try again today
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Software changes
I totally agree with my dearest Gnat, and not just because she is my dearest. :wink: It seems that everything has to be upgraded. I mean, try buying a car without electric windows and a sophisticated computer system (that, BTW, you can't fix if it breaks down without spending an arm and a leg).
Now, I can understand changing the underpinnings to deal with more traffic, but I don't really feel the cosmetic changes were needed. LJ already exists. The bookmarking you mentioned will help me find the Dream Team, but I don't want to bookmark every post I comment on, nor to add them to my favorites list, and going through the recent posts lists takes a long time. So for me, the change is decreasing the amount of time I spend on eHQ cuz I can't just stop in for 10 minutes when I feel like it.
However, I do sympathize with the people who are doing the upgrade. They have worked/are working very hard to take care of the bugs inherent to all new computer/software elements. But I would have preferred the Challenge be structured as it was last year, with perhaps all the book reviews compiled in one central spot, but also with a list of all individual and team blogs that you could access easily. That way the reviews would feed into the central counter, but you could still find the individual or team blog that you wanted tofind on the list with all their posts, both reviews and commentaries.
But what do I know. Maybe there is a "computer" reason that it can't be done that way.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
Actually, FF the way you describe ............
I think was more or less what Jayne had in mind for the Challenge blog ....... the main Challenge page would appear as it does, and our book reviews would appear on both the main challenge blog and our personal ones .... it was the team blog dynamic that created a problem, esp. as there would be three "book counters" involved ... the individual, the team and the whole challenge ........ hopefully, as time progresses the techs will be able to figure something out and we'll be in better shape for Challenge 2009
when the 2006 Challenge started ... I had thought our book reviews would appear on one main challenge blog .... I was very surprised to see we got individual blogs ........ and I think the book reviews are actually getting more hits this way ....... I'm seeing more reviews with comments now because we don't have to open up an individuals blog to see what they've read ... all the reviews are in one place, visible .... what may suffer at first is the "social" part of the blogging, but as we see already that's working out too as more and more people are creating personal type blog entries, just as you did
unfortunately, we can't go back .... I too would prefer to have a cell phone that didn't take pictures ... but in order to that I'd need to buy the armed forces grade phone that costs a bundle .... all the cheap cell phones here in Canada have that silly camera ..... we're forced to progress, and I agree, it's not always a good thing
I do think in time, once every one takes a bit of time to discover what works for them ... this site will have even more participation than the old one
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
progress
we're forced to progress, and I agree, it's not always a good thing
I'm a semi luddite. :wink: I still have a small B&W TV with rabbit ears. (Of course, I never watch TV, but that is beside the point.)
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!