New Feature List

We are looking at this on a long-term basis. Not sure where we'll go with it. On the one hand we like the community building and conversations that occur on this site, on the other hand we are a site that aims to help you all write better. So how can we frame chat rooms around our aim as an organization? Thoughts?

You know there are a couple of things that are not quite working right since our new upgrade... you'll notice that you don't see "submitted by" on all the posts. I've finally figured out the pattern -- if you have a keyword the submitted by appears... and if you don't it doesn't.

The "new" for some reason is not appearing on the story itself. It is appearing in some lists. We're not sure how to make it reappear but, again, we'll try to develop this.

gg

We are working with an author to set up a new type of feature...a forum in which the author checks in once a week to respond. More coming...

gg

Yes, it indeed is within our power. Our plan is to add more mentors and to draft some retired teachers and writers into the mix. We definitely will be having more feedback...

Remember no idea is unworthy...

cheers
g

That would be great!

As you can see you now can see the Who's online list...

cheers
g

Oooooh!!! That would be awesome. We could have people on something like a friend list, which can be totally customizeable.

I have taken Recent Comments down for a couple of days. We had a comment last night that was inappropriate and I am monitoring the comments myself a little more closely. This is, sadly, part of the territory and is part of the effort we make to keep this project safe. It was a new user and we've blocked him. So no harm done.

It'll be back...

Also, folks have sought a search by username function. We may be able to make that easier for you but it's complicated... We do not give folks access to users' profiles and because of that it prevents functionality of the modules that are out there to allow search by username. But we'll see what we can do.

Also, I am still searching for a potential site for you guys to have a winter conference....
cheers
gg

So tell me this, when you type in the comment box or the body box of a blog do you notice, when you misspell a word, a red underline under the misspelled word?

The way we have this set up, you should see a red line when you have misspelled something. You should see a green line when you have a grammar issue.

Further, what browser do you use? I know this works for FireFox but I'm not sure it works with Internet Explorer.

Your larger question is a good one. We probably will build that functionality into the site at some point but I am of two minds about it: I feel learning to spell decently IS important to writing. If we can sound out the words and if we can present them visually the correct way, we are learning an important skill related to writing -- how does it sound? And what does it look like? And here's another point: When writing, we often are searching for the right word -- either consciously or unconsciously. We have a tendency to AVOID words we can't spell; so, the result is we may not choose the "right" word, the word that pops into our head at the moment, because we're afraid we can't spell it correctly.
Which gets to my other mind on this issue-- if we know we will be provided information that the word IS misspelled, we might be more apt to use it. And if we are more apt to use the LESS common word, our writing might have more variety and interest....

WAY more than you expected, I'm sure, but we probably will build this capability but probably not until next fall after we do another rebuild of the guts of this site.

cheers
gg

So here's something that I discovered that I haven't been able to fix. The blogs do NOT display the time submitted UNLESS you put in a keyword.
And I've changed the time method on the recent comments though, another mystery, I'm not sure why I have lost the ability to include the username of the person posting the comment.

Software can be mysterious. And with all else I do in this one-man band, I can't always tackle things like this....

cheers
gg

I realize this isn't on the topic of new features, but have any of you thought about taking your responses to the Presidential Debate Question 4 and fashioning them into submissions for this week's Newspaper Series Entries on "Global Warming"
cheers
gg

The way to take ANY blog piece you've written and submitting it for the Newspaper Series is to copy it, and then go to Create Content and then Create and "Entry." Then paste the blog entry AND THEN clean it up....

For instance, the PREZ Debate responses are probably OK if you say, "If I were President, I'd...." And you might want to REVISE them to make them clearer or more powerful or clearer, etc....

cheerio

gg

Yes, Mango... 24-hour time IS militasry time

He he he!!! I like that idea!!! It would be interesting to see who wins on the site and who wins in the actual election.
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May the random people of the world be random! ~Katelyn