Hello, admins! Time for some housekeeping.
July 15, 2007
Welcome to all new admins! There are now somewhere between six and ten of us, depending on who’s signed up so far.
For now, we’ll keep it at that, and not add any more, unless future circumstances warrant it.
This post is to outline a few basics, to get everybody oriented and settled in.
So here we go with a list!
1. Everybody has full “admin” powers, meaning you can change anything and everything to the blog — including delete it entirely. So please, I beg of you: use your power wisely and responsibly!
2. If you don’t know how something works, or how to do something, I very likely will not know the answer either, as I am as much a newbie with WordPress (and with blog software) as most of you are. Among all of us, it seems Thanos has the most WordPress knowledge, so you can try asking him (though he is going on vacation very soon, and will be inaccessible for a while). WordPress has a very useful FAQ (http://faq.wordpress.com/) and “forum” (http://en.forums.wordpress.com/) where you can ask questions, and they get answered pretty promptly, so you can try that as well. Or you can ask the other admins. One way or the other, we’ll muddle through!
3. Though one assumes we will all agree and cooperate about everything, and for the most part will function as a federal democracy (one admin, one vote) on matters of stubborn dispute, the Unforgiving Flyswatter of Totalitarianism still looms in the background, and as the initiator and founder of the LGF Dictionary, in extreme cases of group disagreement, I reserve the right to dictatorially make “executive decisions” to resolve intractable disputes. I seriously doubt that will happen much (if ever), and I’m generally extremely laid-back and agreeable, but I just thought I should mention that “the buck stops here.”
4. Until we have spruced up the dictionary and the site a little, PLEASE do not give a link to this WordPress site as a comment on any blog, especially LGF. Even a single link will cause the site to get indexed by the search engines, and then we will start to get unwanted visitors. So hold off on any links for a few days.
5. This will not really be a true “blog” in the familiar sense, as the “LGF Dictionary” “page” will be the URL that gets 98% of the traffic. The blog front page, with the threads, will exist just to communicate about changes to the dictionary. Threads may and will be deleted in their entirety (including maybe even this one), once they have served their purpose. Or, in certain cases, the threads can stay permanently, if they’re not embarrassing or confusing in any way.
6. Please leave the “theme” of this blog as the one I have chosen: “Blix.” I took a while to choose it, I like it best, and I even uploaded a custom header jpg (the antique dictionaries photo). If you have no idea what I’m taking about, good — and ignore this comment.
7. But aside from changing the theme, if you think of some interesting way to spruce up the design and look of the site, such as with “widgets” in the sidebar, or whatever, be my guest and “go for it”; but do notify everyone (with a comment on a thread or via email) what change you implemented. Also: Don’t start new threads quite yet, until we set up a system for them. Again, if you have no idea what I’m talking about — ignore this.
8. Soon, very soon, we will actually get down to the nuts and bolts of editing the dictionary. So in case you’re wondering — yes, the action will start in the next day or two. I will get the ball rolling with a post specifcally on that topic, and not about “housekeeping” (as this one is).
9. The basic locus of our work will be here: go to the LGF Dictionary “page” at http://lgfdictionary.wordpress.com/lgf-dictionary/, and then click on the “Edit page” menu choice at the top, which should take you to a page where you can edit the actual html code of the dictionary content (the page may be here, as a shortcut: http://lgfdictionary.wordpress.com/wp-admin/page.php?action=edit&post=3 ). Look into the abyss, my dearies, for that is where you will be playing. Scroll down the editing window to see what we’re talking about. And if you’re completely unfamiliar with html, don’t worry — everything will be “template-ized,” so it’ll be easier than you think.
10. If I’ve left anything out, concerning this basic “housekeeping” stuff, drop a comment on this thread and ask a question!
Entry Filed under: Tasks. .
19 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
ChenZhen | July 16, 2007 at 12:08 am
Oops!
It’s OK gang, your secret is safe with me. I’m actually very familiar with how the wordpress thingy works so I’m actually here to help if you want it.
2.
vxbush | July 16, 2007 at 12:25 am
I can think of one thing we can add: Charles’ code to show the current short-list of recent links.
Otherwise, I actually have some experience in writing topic-specific dictionaries like this. Plus I have some experience writing a style guide.
As for the technical aspects of the blog, I haven’t worked with wordpress, but it seems similar to blogspot in some areas.
3.
killgoretrout | July 16, 2007 at 2:14 am
ChenZen,
What the hell are you doing here? Mum’s the word.
Shhhhh…..
4.
lawhawk72 | July 16, 2007 at 2:24 am
Greets and saluts. Just dropping in to say hi and I’ll be around awaiting what needs to be done.
5.
DesertSage | July 16, 2007 at 3:50 am
Heh…Killgore, I like your avatar.
6.
DesertSage | July 16, 2007 at 3:52 am
Hey, where’s my avatar?
Oh….I guess I have to login first?
7.
zombie | July 16, 2007 at 5:31 am
OK, I just turned off the “email me whenever a comment is posted” setting. That was certainly starting to get annoying! Hopefully, it turned it off for everybody. If not, you can adjust it for you on this page:
Discussion options.
Excuse me if that link doesn’t work — non-intuitive inteface here!
8.
vxbush | July 17, 2007 at 12:39 am
Actually, I never have gotten any emails from the site, so it must be on a per-user basis.
9.
vxbush | July 17, 2007 at 12:40 am
And what time zone is this set to? GMT? Yuck.
10.
vxbush | July 17, 2007 at 12:51 am
Here’s a term we should probably add: DinnerJacket. Could be included with one of several variations on the Ahmedinejad’s name.
Just so I don’t forgot…
11.
zombie | July 17, 2007 at 3:33 am
10. vxbush
OK, keep that one in mind. I’ve got a big pile of unimplemented changes emailed to me over the years by lizards, which I’ll post here hopefully soon. Maybe tonight if we’re lucky.
12.
ChenZhen | July 17, 2007 at 4:10 am
I think there should be a special section just for things that I’ve been called LOL
13.
zombie | July 17, 2007 at 6:50 am
12. ChenZhen: No, to be serious, that is the exact thing we absolutely must avoid: one of the fundamental rules of the Dictionary is: no narcissism and no nepotism. The entries must be completely even-handed, valid, and not unduly focus on or feature one clique or individual. One cannot nominate words one coined oneself, nor which were used only once.
Sorry to be humorless about it, but we can’t get off on the wrong track.
14.
zombie | July 17, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Hey, everybody, in case you’re reading this:
Kinda busy today (Tuesday), so I won’t be able to “get the ball rolling” until tonight. But I do hope to do so within the next 24 hours — start making posts about editing, and letting everyone “do their thang” to the dictionary.
Patience! And there’s no rush — it’s been sitting there unchanged for two years, so another day won’t matter much!
15.
noamsayin | July 18, 2007 at 2:58 am
Okay, I’m in.
16.
noamsayin | July 18, 2007 at 3:03 am
Just trying something.
17.
noamsayin | July 18, 2007 at 3:04 am
Crap. No Avatar. No worries, it’s not important.
18.
DesertSage | July 18, 2007 at 3:51 am
Noam, you can actually change your nickname to look like this-
Noam Sayin’
Instead of just - noamsayin.
Just sayin’
19.
WriterMom | September 26, 2007 at 10:32 am
I feel stupid. How do I actually try out an entry in the Sandbox? Sorry-I’ve never done this before.