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Post by Laura (Lori) on Mar 20, 2013 8:39:37 GMT -8
Just a heads-up on what I'll be working on in the next few weeks...
I'm WAAAAY behind in summarizing competition results - I'm working on American Cup 2 and World Cups 5 & 6 now - followed by Jr. World Championships, World Championships, and last (but not least), Nationals/American Cup Final.
After I summarize results for each of those competitions, I'll update the skaters' individual threads with their results (and pictures when I can find them).
We'll also be adding threads for some new skaters who are now skating at Group 1 American Cup level:
Tyler Kroll Matthew Lai Ryan Pivirotto Benjamin Oh Amanda Trimble and possibly Sarah Shires (she appears to be Canadian, but was obviously eligible to compete at Jr. US Championships - maybe dual citizenship?)
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Mar 28, 2013 22:42:58 GMT -8
Our forum stats tell us that we have visitors from all over the world - in the past week alone, we've had guests from 12 different countries. We LOVE the skaters from other nations, and we know that our USA SKATERS develop friendships with the skaters from other countries!
My husband and I have hosted skaters in our home - and from those contacts and 'friends of friends', we have developed hearfelt relationships with skaters from the USA and at least EIGHT other countries...
However, there's only so much that one woman can do. It's all I can do to keep up with our USA skaters. We have some international members who keep us updated periodically with skaters from their nations, and we really value their input.
This is a plea to those from other countries - PLEASE share with us any articles, photos, etc., for YOUR skaters - we want to learn about them!
In some of our more spirited conversations during the LIVE competitons, we've had people from several different countries sharing with each other the "Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat"...
Even though this is predominately a 'USA' site, please share with us any info you have about non-USA skaters - you'll find us very receptive, and you'll most likely find your country listed in "The Rest of the Short Track World" board...
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Apr 6, 2013 20:44:30 GMT -8
I just noticed that last Friday morning, we set a new record for most users on the forum at the same time - 160!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on May 27, 2013 6:57:39 GMT -8
I'm only about a week away from finishing up posting race results to the skaters' individual threads. There are only Varsity skaters left, and I'm only posting one per day so that each of them will have at least a day to 'shine' before I enter results for another skater.
I thought I'd tell you what I'd like to work on for the rest of the off-season - I certainly won't get everything done, but I'll keep plugging away as time (and energy) allow:
1) Continue gathering information for fans who are interested in attending various events - those traveling, and those who want to follow along at home for those events that will be broadcast in some way.
2) I want to add more helpful info to the Original Posts on each individual skater's thread (such as a basic biography). So I'm going to take each skater (probably in alphabetical order) and do some in-depth research online. Add their Twitters, Websites, Birthdays, Hometowns, GoFundMe account info, a representative photo and other 'stuff'. I'm also interested in starting to do the Rocker-U Interviews again, and I'll be transferring the interviews we have previously done to the skaters' threads.
3) Develop a 'resources' section - a collection of links to other ST-related websites that will be of interest to fans. Some examples of the type of links I'll be posting would be the National Speedskating Hall of Fame, Short Track HD, etc. Even a Yellow Pages for skating-related merchants and people who are selling used equipment.
4) The Boots & Blades forum is where most of the action is, so I'll be gradually 'trimming down' the Rocker-U.net site. It will be used primarily as a tool to advertise for this forum and point guests in our direction.
5) Complete the S.O.S. board with any fundraising efforts for the skaters and/or clubs - and for charities that the skaters are involved with. If the last Oly cycle was any indication, many of the skaters who made the Olympic team started selling cool T-Shirts for their supporters. We want to help advertise those efforts and any other opportunities to help the skaters financially.
6) Go through the site with a fine-tooth comb, checking for broken links and fixing them, if possible. I may also eliminate some older threads by merging them into other ones. As the Olympics approach, we'll probably get a lot of new visitors - the goal here is to provide a more streamlined experience for them as they try to 'catch up'.
7) Learn more about our new, more versatile ProBoards format. I'd like to try to make the site look more like Rocker-U.net, and there are some tools available that would allow me to do that. I may be adding sidebars, changing the header, color schemes, etc. And I also want to go back to our old emoties!
These are some of the things that are currently on my 'docket', but it's certainly not all-inclusive. I can't make any promises that I'll still be doing this a year from now, but as long as I'm here I want to do the best job I can!
...and here's a #8 edit that I totally forgot about: There are a number of ST skaters who have made a wholesale shift to LT. I want to delve into the LT world and report on the progress they've made in that discipline. You'd be proud!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 6, 2013 21:47:36 GMT -8
The custom emoties are baaaack! In the Reply window, click the Smiley face - it's pretty intuitive. (To see the generic Proboards emoties, you may have to click a button to "enable smilies" - especially if you're a Guest). If you have any problems or questions, let me know.
You'll see that each custom emotie has a name, such as blush, rofl, thumbsup, etc. If you find that you're using some of them often, you can skip all the dropdown menus and just type in the name of the emotie, enclosed in double colons - such as:
::snore::
Thus far, I've only added the ones we used to have before the format switchover, but as time goes on I'll add others.
I've also discovered that there's a plugin that will allow each member to add up to 25 personal favorite emoties - I'll look into that later...
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jun 17, 2013 21:04:19 GMT -8
I have a Google Alert on every listed skater, as well as 'speedskating' in general. However, I've noticed of late that my Google Alerts haven't been all that reliable. Upon further scrutiny, I've discovered that Google Alerts are possibly 'going away' - which is not good news for this forum.
I've already had to find an alternative to Google Reader, which will be gone after July 1 - GR assembled all of my Google Alerts into one (very convenient) place - but the rumored demise of Google Alerts themselves is huge.
I don't have the time to do individual searches for news on every skater. Google Alerts are our life's blood. I'm searching for an alternative - suggestions would be appreciated!
lori@rocker-u.net
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Aug 18, 2013 6:24:24 GMT -8
Hi - I apologize for my absence this week. My husband is coaching a baseball team of 13-year-olds who made it to the World Series in Williston, North Dakota. He flew with the team, but I left home (driving) on Tuesday and after spending a day with my brother in Salt Lake City, I finished the drive on Thursday & Friday. About 1600 miles! Since then, it's been all baseball.
I thought in my downtime I could get caught up here, but the internet was sporadic or non-existent most of the day yesterday. (Older, dated hotel.) Working fine this morning, but I have to leave for our game in about an hour.
Anyhow, just wanted y'all to know what was going on. If the 'internet gods' are smiling this afternoon I have SO much to post!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Sept 28, 2013 0:55:27 GMT -8
I just noticed that we are only 400 hits away from hitting the 300,000 mark on the forum! Who will be the one to put us over the top? It'll prolly happen this weekend!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Sept 29, 2013 8:17:45 GMT -8
Sometime during the final World Cup racing session this morning: WE GOT OUR 300,000TH BOOTS & BLADES VISITOR!!! It took us about 4 years to hit 200,000 - but only a little over a year for this last 100K... "Thank You" to all of our loyal readers!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Dec 13, 2013 11:44:33 GMT -8
We just got our 200th member!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Dec 20, 2013 23:43:56 GMT -8
My apologies to everyone about my lack of attention - I've been checking in to monitor the forum, but I haven't had much time to post. I have 50+ people coming to my house tomorrow night, then Christmas, then preparing for two trips and more houseguests in the first half of January. All of this while Larry & I have been somewhat 'in charge' of meals for the family of 10 that we're hosting (their mom was out of town for the past week)... I can't promise that my participation will improve in the short-term - but I'll do my best! And I AM reading!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jan 4, 2014 6:47:32 GMT -8
Holy fajita - 684 visitors in the past 24 hours!!!Thank you, everyone, for putting faith in us, and WELCOME to our new members - it's SO encouraging to feel that people are reading and find value in what we're doing here! EDIT: One day after this post (Jan 5), our 24-hour visitor count was climbing so fast I finally stopped counting at 1,621... It was so crazy that I even contacted ProBoards and StatCounter to see if I had been hacked - they both assured me that the hits were legit... I guess lots of people were reading during Olympic Trials!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Jan 23, 2014 19:24:48 GMT -8
Just a heads-up. With the Olympics approaching, the news is coming in so fast that I can barely keep up. There will be multiple posts daily on many of our boards - particularly the Road Trips Game Day Chat Board (Olympics Thread); The Varsity and Hall of Fame Boards (all of the 2014 Olympians' threads are on those boards); The Rest of the ST World Board, and Our Canadian Friends.
If your habit is to go to the Home Page and see what boards have new posts (shown in red or green under the Last Posts column), or if you usually click on Recent Posts (only shows the last 15) - you may be missing some posts (or a lot of posts)!
If you want to see everything new that has been posted, your best bet is to scroll down on the Home Page and click the 'Recent Threads' link - it'll show you each thread that has new posts. If it's a thread you're particularly interested in, note that there may be multiple new posts on that thread, so scroll up!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Feb 7, 2014 18:07:56 GMT -8
I've been having some issues with slow loading of pages here on the forum periodically over the past few days - and sometimes I can't get pages to load at all. It seems to be ONLY the forum - other websites are loading fine. But in this small window of good service, I just wanted y'all to know what's going on if I'm not posting much!
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Post by Laura (Lori) on Feb 8, 2014 21:56:23 GMT -8
Thanks to all the people who are visiting - waaaay above our averages! Sadly, I'm still having problems with page-loading - to the extent that it's very frustrating trying to post. ProBoards is working with me on the problem, and it seems to be better at this very moment (not sure why - maybe my computer has 'healed itself' - or maybe the wonderful peeps at ProBoards have worked their 'magic' behind the scenes). Please keep checking back!
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