I think I've come up with the solution to our problem of filling our blogs with tiny posts about our word counts. I'm in the process of setting up a Bravenet web site. It's free, the domain name is free (ugly, but free) and we can put a link to it on our blogs so that anyone who want to follow our progress can. I already have a word count meter that I think we can use. I need to check with the software provider first because I don't want to break any copyright or usage agreements. I need the rest of the week to set it up, but I think we can have it running by the weekend.
In the meantime you can check out my progress... or lack thereof... at http://wordcountbuddies.bravehost.com Right now everything is a placeholder. Let me know what you think.
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Very creative. It's a wonderful idea. Makes mine of using the list function in Blogger to show it on the Blog seems childish. =)
That's okay. You've got the brains for this. I'm just having fun. Let me know when it's all set up.
About your idea to use Blogger's list funtion: I don't agree at all, Theadra. It was a great idea. The only problem with it is that Wordpress doesn't seem to have a similar function.
I've emailed Margaret Fisk, the author of the Word Count Meter to see if it's okay to use it for everyone. I hope she says yes because t will be a really nice way to display our progress.
Check out the website and give me your feedback. There are things we can do with it if we want, like each having a personal page. I've added a few tools just for the heck of it. Perhaps we won't want to go with them all, but a forum sounded kinda cool. I'm not sure about a chat room, some one has to moderate it or you get all kinds of wierdos saying stuff that doesn't need to be said in public. I added a mail form so other people can join in if they want. But we might need to limit the numbers or it could get out-of-hand if this takes off. That would be a real measure of success though, wouldn't it.
And now back to work... and I still have to write my words today... and get started on that critique!
I love the idea of having all our word counts in one place. It'll be easier to check up on everyone. I'd rather not have a chat room. A forum might be nice, but it might also be just another thing to take up writing time. :)
I agree completely about the forum and chat rooms. They are a really cool idea, but I don't think we have the man power to properly moderate them. And if it does take off...none of us would get around to actually writing.
Liz, I was back out there today and I love the site. I bow to you this one. Let us know what you want us to do and when.
I think it sounds like a great idea. I don't know if I'd use the forum or not; probably depends on how many people catch the Fever. The more who join, the more difficult it will be to hand out floggings.
I'm glad you all like the idea. I've found a better hosting site, one that has PHP (needed for the Word Count Meter) and MySQL included. There is one drawback though. It doesn't provide templates to get the website started. What? You thought I did all that fancy stuff myself? Nope. But in a fit of madness last year I did buy FrontPage with the intention of learning how to use it. And you can guess what happened to that idea. Anyway, this weekend I'll put a few hours into getting this working for us. With any luck at all, by Monday I should have a working website that looks half decent. I won't include the forum or chat rooms. We can add them later if we want them.
Updating your meters is really simple, you'll just need to enter a URL and fill in your latest numbers. It might also be possible to display them on your blogs. I need to check that out though.
Do you want me to include personal pages? If we can drive traffic to the website it may make sense. It's entirely up to you, If you want one let me know and I'll set one up for you. It can always be deleted if you decide you don't want it.
I just did a quick Google search for 'free website templates' and found about a million. www.dreamtemplate.com has some cool ones.
=)
Thanks Aestril! There's an absolutely perfect one out there. It shows an open book as the graphic. I'll download it and play around with it.
Are you going to join us in the challenge? Please do. It's huge fun, honestly.
I'm now planning on setting up a Wall of Shame, so the tardy will be displayed for all to see. If this works out right you'll end up placing yourselves on there by filling in a small form. It probably won't be ready for Version 1.0 of the website though.
Ack. The templates are free, but only if you join the dreamtemplate website site which costs $60 a year. Oh well.
The good news is that I have found another template that is free. I think will do admirably. I still need to play with it, so it won't be ready to view until sometime during the weekend. And if you all hate it I'll find something else.
Yikes! Sorry about that.
Dang, this is cool!
I kind of like the idea of a forum, though I do see how it could become a distraction...still, I don't see how it would be much worse of a distraction than blogging already is. :)
I like the start you made on the Bravehost space. Looking forward to the coolness of the new place you're setting up!
(You know, if it comes down to a desperation choice, WordPress has--supposedly--a lot of flexibility, and some one of us could even open a new WP blog/site to function as the Word Counters' Union Hall. But maybe it won't come to that.)
Hi Everyone. When you get a minute take a look at the new website http://wordcountbuddies.byethost33.com This one doesn't have pop-up adverts which is nice. I found the photos on stock.xchange.com. They seemed rather appropriate. The links to our blogs work. I'll get the word count meters fixed next. I'm planning to use your names as the labels. Let me know if you're not okay with that.
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