BCC Contest! Enter now, and win!
At long last, our first contest. It was only a matter of time before we gathered enough intellectual and spiritual capital to unveil such a rich opportunity.
Without further ado, here is the contest!
The Prize: A Google Email account, courtesy of yours truly. Think of it: 1 GB of free email, cutting-edge technology and 10 MB max attachment size. Never empty your inbox again! See here for more information on how Gmail could change your life forever.
The Challenge: Come up with a good idea for BCC, whether a suggestion for a post, an idea for added functionality, or a different and new approach to LDS blogging. Post your ideas below.
The Rules: Anyone can apply, including BCC staff members, random people from the bloggernacle, even visitors from T&S. Suggestions for posts should be at least somewhat LDS-related, and the person winning with a post suggestion must write the post and reply to comments. Suggestions for added functionality must be Blogger-compatible, and the person suggesting the functionality must show us how to do it (unless it’s something lame like, “uh, the sidebar doesn’t show up in Netscape”). Judgments will be made by a group of BCC posters after we’ve received some good ideas (which, based on the number of comments lately, could take awhile).
That’s it! Put your faculties to work, brethren and sisters, and win the sweetest email account around. These email accounts have been going for crazy prices on Ebay, but it’s yours for the taking. Email me with any questions.
Alas, Dave, Kim Seiver already proclaimed that idea.
I think we should consider more basic ideas like font changes, sizes, layout, etc.
Comment by Steve E. — November 30, 1999 @ 12:00 am
I have three ideas, Steve:
1. Clone Nate.
2. Buy advertising.
3. Embed subliminal messages. Perhaps you have some fancy Java code that does this already. If so, use more of it.
Comment by Dave — June 9, 2004 @ 4:34 am
How about a “survivor” like contest, where we get to vote our co-bloggers off of the island, and the last one standing gets a million dollars?
*Note: We’ll need to find a source of funding first.
Comment by Kaimi — June 9, 2004 @ 2:28 pm
Dave, I’d actually thought about buying advertising, like some popup window on T&S or something, like “click on the polygamist to win a DVD player!”
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 3:08 pm
I already have Gmail, so there is no incentive for me to post suggestions.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 9, 2004 @ 3:20 pm
Kim, you could do it for a shot of BCC fame…
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 3:31 pm
Steve,
I foresee a larger problem. The population most likely to know about blogging is also the population most likely to have access to gmail anyway.
Comment by Kaimi — June 9, 2004 @ 4:02 pm
Hire a nanny and/or housekeeper for Kristine, so that she can blog all day!
heh heh
Comment by Kristine — June 9, 2004 @ 4:17 pm
Kristine,
Isn’t that what polygamy is for?
Comment by Kaimi — June 9, 2004 @ 4:17 pm
Kaimi, do you have a Gmail account already? That’s interesting…
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 4:22 pm
Kristine, the thought of you blogging all day is the best idea so far.
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 4:23 pm
A thread on our heroic organists, and how to keep them from leaving the church permanently.
Plus, a side thread on how to do your home teaching effectively using only a weblog.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 9, 2004 @ 4:34 pm
A scavenger hunt.
Hmm, better make that an easy scavenger hunt. Blog readers have short attention spans. Err, what was I saying again?
Comment by Kaimi — June 9, 2004 @ 4:38 pm
I already have BCC fame. Short of becoming a guest blogger—is that copyright infringement—how much for fame can I garner?
Comment by Kim Siever — June 9, 2004 @ 5:04 pm
Alright, it’s time for serious suggestions if I’m going to get that Gmail account. I’m sick of Yahoo. (1) It’s time to revamp the links to show real site names, expand the list as everyone loves to be linked to, and provide category links for the archives. Does Blogger do categories?(2) Must display recent comments list on sidebar, otherwise discussion of any but the top post withers quickly. Can the Blogger template be jiggered to do this?
Comment by Dave — June 9, 2004 @ 5:18 pm
Shocking news, but I have a board of my own.
http://pub101.ezboard.com/fsondheimandusfrm2
It’s a public site, but you will have to register before you can participate.
It’s just a group, called Sondheim and Us, where we discuss musicals, music, movies, and anything else that suits our fancy. Though small, we are getting about 20 posts a day.
It isn’t specifically LDS, but that’s probably a good thing — my eyes are blogged from reading all these LDS blogs.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 9, 2004 @ 5:20 pm
My suggestion is to switch to a Blogger template and offer Blogger and Haloscan comments.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 9, 2004 @ 5:27 pm
Dave is the winner thus far, plus I’d slip in a bonus prize if someone could figure out how to make the recent comments thing work in Blogger, or for that matter a way to excerpt posts. Kaimi’s current setup is pretty good.
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 5:40 pm
Alright, here’s my idea:
First, the two inspirations for the idea. You may have heard of the movie “Supersize Me.” For those that haven’t, it’s a documentary in which a man eats every meal, three times a day, at McDonalds, for an entire month. It documents his health and the changes his body makes throughout the month, as a sort of longitudinal experiment on what McDonald’s food does in high doses, to the human body.
Second inspiration: Gary Cooper’s post at Doctrinal:net on studying the scriptures intensely. Specifically, Gary writes that on his mission he was able (I do not know how) to read the scriptures for four to six hours a day, which resulted in an extremely heightened spirituality, including the receipt of many revelations.
So here’s the idea: I’m going to mix the two. I’m going to go on a diet of pure Book of Mormon, allowing no other optional inputs in my life. Meaning: outside of work and encounters with actual people, I will not have anything put into my brain besides the Book of Mormon. For a month I won’t watch TV, won’t read anything else, won’t do movies, music (except background sacred), or internet (besides blogs). Every spare moment when I don’t need to be doing something else will be spent reading from the Book of Mormon. It will be a month of pure Book of Mormon.
During and after the diet, I will report on the experience.
Of course, while it may be interesting for BCC to host this feature, it’s not a big deal if they don’t, as I’ll probably run it at my blog instead- I’m thinking either July or August (nothing on TV anyway after the NBA finals end, right?) However, the cross-pollination of doing it here might be fun as well.
Anyway, there’s my submission.
Comment by Ryan — June 9, 2004 @ 5:42 pm
Hmmm, you want categories. I suggest switching your blogger software to Wordpress. You’ll get your categories feature right away.
How about some artwork? Anyone out here artisticially talented? Besides the occasional poll, some kind of Mormon-themed drawing could help break up the page a little more — maybe even add some color.
Comment by danithew — June 9, 2004 @ 5:53 pm
Nah, Ryan, you’ll get translated, and nobody knows about internet connectivity after that!
Comment by Kristine — June 9, 2004 @ 5:55 pm
Ryan, that idea is so messed up, I love it. You could make it even more messed up - just read the PgP over and over and over.
Danithew — not going to migrate to WP, MT, or anything else. Play within the current parameters!
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 6:05 pm
Steve, if you offer Haloscan comments on the new Blogger template, I see no reason to not have the Recent Posts as you have it set up now.
Also, for the record, every Blogger comment has an ID for it. I don’t know how Kaimi coded the recent comments, but he may be able to use the same method.
Blogger doesn’t excerpt posts yet. I’m not sure why that would convince you to switch to a new template since you currently donÂ’t excerpt posts.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 9, 2004 @ 6:32 pm
“I’m not sure why that would convince you to switch to a new template since you currently donÂ’t excerpt posts.”
I don’t except them because I can’t, not because I don’t want to.
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 6:52 pm
Kristine, you mean you can’t blog from heaven? I thought that was the only explanation for Kaimi’s prolific blog output.
You make a good point though. I’ll come up with some kind of counterweight activity to keep my purity points just below translation level (you don’t object to me getting my calling and election that month, though, do you?)
Comment by Ryan — June 9, 2004 @ 7:05 pm
P.S., if someone can come up with a way to do a recent comments sidebar with blogger comments, please let me know too! I’d pay many, many Gmail accounts for that.
Comment by Ryan — June 9, 2004 @ 7:06 pm
Ryan,
Maybe we can work out some kind of indulgence system–*I’ll* sin just enough to keep you out of heaven
Comment by Kristine — June 9, 2004 @ 7:08 pm
If what you want is a lot of posts, it seems like the best idea would be to put up a contest a week.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 9, 2004 @ 7:09 pm
Another serious suggestion that falls within the parameters of Blogger is to move from Haloscan commenting to Blogger commenting. The advantage is you get a page link that shows the post (in full) with all comments below it on one page. Go look at Arwyn’s blog for an example.
http://arwynevenstar.blogspot.com/
Grasshopper at Let Us Reason is using both Blogger and Haloscan comments, with comment counts for both displayed under each post.
http://letusreason.blogspot.com/
Finally, I think Blogger will continue to upgrade features, so before too long there will be a way to post a recent comment list on the face of the blog. Google bought them–how long can Google let six guys in a garage (Six Apart does Movable Type and Typepad) put out a better product than they do?
Comment by Dave — June 9, 2004 @ 7:23 pm
Wow, Kristine, sinning by proxy. I give you points for creativity. By the way, if you do the sinning in my behalf, which of us eventually has to repent?
Comment by Ryan — June 9, 2004 @ 7:49 pm
“Kim Seiver already proclaimed that idea”
So did Kim Siever.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 9, 2004 @ 8:04 pm
Uh, like I said, I second Kim’s idea of adopting a Blogger template and adding Blogger comment capability. ;-o
Comment by Dave — June 9, 2004 @ 8:57 pm
I can’t contribute any real web/blog savvy, but
How about a post on the continuity between the spiritual realm and the supposedly temporal realm as we experience it, particularly the way the Holy Spirit fits into moral experience for those who don’t believe in the Holy Spirit?
Comment by Ben Huff — June 9, 2004 @ 9:36 pm
Ben, by that are you referring to how non-members interpret it when they feel the Spirit, or are you talking about the extent to which they can/do?
Comment by Steve E. — June 9, 2004 @ 10:15 pm
Here’s a real simple one:
Update your template so that your bcc: image banner links readers back to the main page.
—
But of course the best improvement you could make to the site is add a link to mine.
Comment by William Morris — June 10, 2004 @ 12:27 am
Here’s another one:
How come the permalink for bcc: posts is that tiny little pound sign? It took me a few seconds of hovering my cursor around all the ‘bottom’ post material before I realized that you did indeed have permalinks.
Comment by William Morris — June 10, 2004 @ 12:34 am
two good ones in a row! Thanks, William!
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 12:37 am
Here’s an idea to drive LDS traffic to your site… in the sidebar, put up a counter, based on statitstics available from the Annual General Converence, of how many members there are, updating in real time.
As a collalary, based on retention percentages, you could put up a counter for “Fallen away year-to-date”
Comment by Measure — June 10, 2004 @ 12:40 am
And finally I have to ask:
Are you really satisfied with the color scheme. It reminds of a ’70s American-made luxury sedan. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But did the colors come with the place or were they chosen on purpose? Cause it’s not hard to change that. You may notice that I changed the color of my ‘hover’ link from the awful (imo) rust color that seems to be a Blogger standard (it’s the one used on this site too) to what I think is a much nicer olive green.
Comment by William Morris — June 10, 2004 @ 12:41 am
Steve, well, more how they feel it, and how to connect what we say with what they think/say about those experiences, but that presupposes that they do feel it. Can’t say I’ve followed BCC closely enough to know if this has been discussed recently; just something that I’m thinking about lately.
Comment by Ben Huff — June 10, 2004 @ 12:45 am
Wow.. . measure, that’s a great, great idea. Can you come up with the code?
William, I don’t think anyone’s really tied to the color scheme, but olive ain’t my style, either…
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 12:46 am
Ben, that’s a cool idea, I don’t think it’s one that’s come up on BCC.
Note to self: come up with searchable index of archived posts. Hey, did I just win my own contest?
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 12:49 am
I have consulted with my programmer and he says he could work on a basic counter app like we’re talking about, but he won’t be able to do so until after the 18th, as he’s very busy with work right now.
He says if we want it updating real time, it would take Java, and he’s not too good at that, but if a counter that updates when the user refreshes his browser would suffice, he can help.
Comment by Measure — June 10, 2004 @ 1:27 am
All right Measure! A very cool bid for the prized email account.
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 1:28 am
whoah, sorry, I don’t know how that happened.
Comment by Measure — June 10, 2004 @ 2:23 am
This is a beautiful blog.
Did you want more traffic? Here’s an idea . . . keep it just like it is, cozy and homey, and just skim a little of the cream off the refugees from T&S as it (according to the doomsayers, Heaven forfend!) becomes unmanageable in the coming months due to extreme traffic : )
Comment by Ben Huff — June 10, 2004 @ 2:34 am
An upside to not having excerpts, for the casual reader, is you can read the original posts (which are, on average, the highest quality-per-word part of the site) without feeling like you have to get sucked into the comments : )
Comment by Ben Huff — June 10, 2004 @ 2:36 am
In complete seriousness, I have a couple complaints about these blogs that you can ponder.
The first one is, my posts take a little bit of time to upload, and sometimes don’t “take” at all. This is particularly a problem at Times and Seasons.
The second complaint is that I would like editable functionality, so that I can spell-check and stuff afterward.
My third wish would be for full HTML functionality like on the boards I’m used to, fonts, italics, and so forth.
I’d like to know who everyone is, where they live, and so on.
Other than these few quibbles, I’m happy to keep posting if you’re happy to have me. If you’re not happy to have me, you’re stuck, I guess.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 10, 2004 @ 3:26 pm
D., if it makes you feel better, you can use limited HTML tags.
you can include links: Hyperlink
Bold text
Italics
New Paragraph
Line break
As for editable functionality, admins and blog posters have that, but I don’t know of any commenting system with spell-checking (unfortunately). Perhaps you can take comfort in knowing that if I don’t like your posts, I’ll edit them?
As for your Patriot Act-style suggestions, what, our Blogger profiles aren’t enough??
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 3:59 pm
Weird, I’ve always used the brackets before.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 10, 2004 @ 4:17 pm
More random ideas: (1) Change the tagline. I like “A liberal-minded Mormon blog: we tolerate dissent but discourage stupidity.” No matter how you wrap it, a claim to be intolerant rubs most people (i.e., all those who don’t live in Montana with an arsenal in their cellar) the wrong way.
(2) Start a “Visitors’ Blogs” list, where we put links to blogs of those who drop in for comments.
(3) Consider giving each poster their own short link list, i.e. “Steve’s Links” or “John’s Links” where each can put their own favorite sites about absolutely anything. Encourages diversity, creates links, gives posters something to blog about.
(4) Make an “Emeritus” list to move the posters who no longer have time to post.
My suggestions flow from the view that links and comments are the lifeblood of a good blog, and we have room to grow on both counts.
Comment by Dave — June 10, 2004 @ 4:43 pm
I’m not sure if blogger offers this option… but perhaps you could insert a “style switcher”? Then you could have a variety of styles, font-sizes, etc. for the readers to choose from. You could keep this color-scheme but have some other options as well.
I haven’t put one of these on my site yet but they can be a nice asset to a blog.
Comment by danithew — June 10, 2004 @ 4:48 pm
“discourage”??
oh, how lily-livered you are, Dave. Come on, man! We HATE stupidity around here…
Kudos for the other ideas — but how would we incorporate those other lists, practically speaking? A pop-up window to a page of links? If so we’ll need to host it somehow.
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 4:49 pm
For the church membership code.
Put this ibetween your head tags:
function MyCalc(){
now = new Date();
yearEnd2003 = new Date(’Dec 31 2003′);
document.myForm.myResults.value=(Math.round(((now - yearEnd2003)/1000*0.0108)+11985254));
setTimeout(”MyCalc()”, 1000)
}
window.onload = MyCalc;
and this between your body tags:
<form name=”myForm”>
<input type=”text” value=”" name=”myResults” />
</form>
Comment by Kim Siever — June 10, 2004 @ 5:01 pm
The emoticon should be replaced with:
“8 )” without the space or quotes.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 10, 2004 @ 5:02 pm
Oh, I should mention that it takes several seconds before it updates since the Church has a fraction of new converts every second.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 10, 2004 @ 5:03 pm
Thanks Kim! Do you happen to have an inactivity counter, too?
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 5:17 pm
Yes, I’d like to know how quickly people are leaving the Church — one a minute?
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 10, 2004 @ 5:52 pm
D., the more important question is how quickly the Church leaves its people — never.
lol
Comment by Steve E. — June 10, 2004 @ 6:14 pm
I beg to differ, Steve. Certain leaders of the Church are pretty quick to leave their people, purging the Church of fringe members who are struggling. I have a personal witness of this.
Comment by D. Fletcher — June 10, 2004 @ 6:56 pm
Steve,
If I knew the statistics, I assume I could create one.
Comment by Kim Siever — June 10, 2004 @ 7:28 pm
I am no longer in need of a Gmail account. Still, feel free to use my idea, and let me know next week if you still need any more coding for it, but it looks like you’re covered.
Comment by Measure — June 13, 2004 @ 5:22 pm