Hello Chandler Guild Member,
A hearty thank you to those who have visited the Chandler Guild web site
and given us your opinions about the upcoming First Continental Congress of
the Chandler Guild of Village Chandlers.
The purpose of this announcement is to remind you of the importance of
giving us your timely feedback about the Continental Congress, and to share
a couple tips and updates about the Chandler Guild web site.
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= Chandler Guild First Continental Congress Planning Input Needed
=
Although the percentage of responses is still very small, folks seem to
be interested in holding the Congress as soon as possible, as in early to
mid August. If this timeframe is not good for you, visit the web site and
let your voice be heard.
If this _is_ a good timeframe for you and you have not weighed in with
your feedback response to our polls about calendar and weekday timeframe
preferences, also please visit the web site and let your opinion be heard.
The sooner most of you make your opinions and ideas known, the sooner we
can push forward with meeting planning.
To vote in our Continental Congress polls, to give us your best ideas
about what activities you'd like to see included in the Congress agenda, or
to just learn more about the Chandler Guild Continental Congress, please
visit:
http://chandlerguild.com
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= Join the Conversation - Guildmembers Are Sharing Best Practices
=
One of the challenges of getting an on-line collaborative community
going is hitting 'critical mass'. Initially, there isn't much content to win
your attention and keep you coming back. And how many of us suffer from
'On-line Lurk-itus'? That's the all too natural tendency to watch a
community rather than to leap in and be visible by joining the conversation.
Well, we're happy to report that we're inching toward that critical mass
where the spark of Community Life takes hold. As we cross that threshold,
spontaneous and useful content blossoms.
It's kind of interesting. There seems to be a 'magic number' of around
50, where organizations either come to life and flourish, or they sputter
and decline. Last week we hit that magic number of 50+ on-line Guildmember
user 'accounts' at the Chandler Guild web site. (There are more soy wax
Village Chandlers than there are Chandler Guild on-line members. Some
Village Chandlers do not have or want Internet access. Some Guildmembers are
not 'official' Village Chandlers in terms of Mike Richards' unofficial count
of the Founding 100. Remember, we're still in the formative stage of
figuring out who and what we are.)
As we hit that magic number in our on-line membership, content is
starting to blossom on the Chandler Guild web site. Folks are talking about
pricing models, candlemaking 'best practices' and supplier recommendations.
If you want to get a taste of what you might be missing, check out these
links:
http://www.chandlerguild.com/node.php?id=42
http://www.chandlerguild.com/node.php?id=43
http://www.chandlerguild.com/node.php?id=30
Web Site TIP #1: One way to keep abreast of the latest comment activity
on the Chandler Guild web site is to visit the 'View New Comments' page.
Here's the URL for this page if you want to add a link to your browser's
Favorite list:
http://www.chandlerguild.com/module.php?mod=tracker
You'll find a link to this page in the right side navigation links when
you are logged on as a site member.
Web Site TIP #2: If you find that direct links like those above keep
bringing you to the user log on page, try clicking the 'Remember me'
checkbox the next time you log on. You'll find this checkbox under the
Username and Password input fields that let you log onto the Chandler Guild
web site to participate as a Guildmember. The 'Remember me' feature writes a
cookie on your local computer that 'auto logs' you on the web site so you
don't have to sign in each time you visit our community site. DON'T USE the
'Remember me' feature if you access our community web site from a public
computer such as one in a public library, at school or at an Internet cafe.
You wouldn't want strangers to come to the site and have member-level access
through your account.
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= Web Site TIP #3: Using Theme Settings for Improved Readability
=
As many of you know, you can't please everyone all the time. This old
adage is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to web site design. The type of
computer, the operating system, and the browser you use dramatically affect
what you see on the screen. HTML, or Hypertext Mark-up Language, is the
'page description language' used to tell your browser how to render the web
pages you view. This HTML code can only 'suggest' how your computer,
operating system and browser will display the page.
For example, Netscape and Mozilla browsers routinely render a page such
that it looks about 20% smaller than the same page viewed by the Internet
Explorer and Opera browsers. Macintosh computers show pages differently than
Windows machines, and these operating systems show pages differently than
Linux based machines, etc., etc.
Well, our resident TechnoWeenie (that's me, Sohodojo Jim) holed up over
the weekend and did some Deep Weeds solution seeking. The result is that we
now have a 'HAVE IT YOUR WAY' set of Chandler Guild themes that will let YOU
decide what look and feel works best for you at the Chandler Guild web site.
We are using the Drupal Open Source platform to create our community web
site. Drupal provides a powerful 'theme management' system that allows us to
separate the _display_ of information from the _content_ to be displayed.
Themes, sometimes called 'skins' or 'dynamic templates', are 'behind the
scenes' stuff that let us define what the Chandler Guild web site looks
like. Themes let us control colors and graphical images, etc. But most
importantly, a theme let's us specify a 'stylesheet' that determines the
overall typographic sizing and positions on text on our web site's pages.
We now have three Chandler Guild themes, self-evidently entitled:
* ChandlerGuild_small
* ChandlerGuild_medium
* ChandlerGuild_large
Our default theme is the medium-sized one which is generally most
comfortable for folks using Internet Explorer and Opera browsers. Folks
using Netscape and Mozilla browsers may find that the ChandlerGuild_large
theme displays our site in a more legible format, comparable to what folks
see using the default (medium) theme when viewing with Internet Explorer and
Opera browsers.
If you are using an older laptop or desktop computer with a smaller
display monitor at 640x480 or 800x600 pixel resolution, you may find that
the ChandlerGuild_small theme works best for you.
So, rather than us deciding what's best for you and serving it to you
based on our server-side programming, we're putting this very personal
display setting preference decision in your hands.
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR CHANDLER GUILD 'THEME': 1) Log on to the Chandler
Guild web site using your username and password. 2) Click the 'Edit
Account/Profile' link you'll see toward the top of the right side navigation
links. 3) On the 'User account >> Edit user information' page, you'll see
the Theme setting right at the top of the page. 4) Click the drop-down list
and select the theme you'd like to try. 5) Scroll to the bottom of the page
and click the 'Save user information' button. 6) Voila! Behold the refresh
of you page under the new theme setting!
Happy Chandlering,
--Sohodojo Jim--
for the Chandler Guild
http://chandlerguild.com
P.S. You will find an archive copy of this and previous Chandler
Guildmember Mail List Announcements here:
http://www.chandlerguild.com/module.php?mod=forum&tid=20