Looking Back on 2007 and Forward to 2008

This email was sent out to all BLOG VILLAGERS. Some of you did not receive it, however, because you have your settings marked not to receive anything but individual emails from the TopList.

This has been a busy year for me, and from the looks of your blogs, it has been for you, too. I've made some changes here that I hope you have found helpful, such as adding the forum and chat, and expanding the Gateway page.

I have also tried to encourage more Villager interaction by requiring at least one HIT IN each month. All you need to do is click the voting link on your blog one time each month to remain an Active member of our community. And you can vote for any Villager's blog you like during the month, so they can stay on the TopList, too.

In an effort to make the list more useful, I have added a Search function to the TopList pages, and I have deleted several hundred bloggers who were not participating.

We have gone Carnival Crazy this year, thanks to several Villagers who are really into this great way of getting to know different bloggers. I'm looking for a Villager now who would like to host the Jan. 28 Carnival on MONEY, who has not hosted one of our BLOG VILLAGE Carnivals before. If you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible. And by all means, send in your post for this carnival. You will find the link to our BLOG VILLAGE sponsored Carnivals in the Blog Carnival widget on the Community News and the Gateway Page.

We haven't had any new Villager Interviews for quite awhile, as our folks have been so busy with other tasks, but if you would like to be interviewed, or like to be the interviewer, please let me know.

I look forward to 2008 and getting to spend time with each of you on your blogs. Now that I don't need to spend as much time being the voting link police, I expect to enjoy reading and commenting a lot more this year, and I encourage each of you to find some Villagers that you can get to know better, too.

May you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's celebration,

Rosemary


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team. And now we have another Villager who has volunteered to join our Interview Team: Marsha!

New BLOG VILLAGE FORUM and CHAT

Have you found our new forum and chat room? If not, you probably haven't been voting for anyone's blog lately. You'll find links to the forum and chat room on the right hand side of the Gateway page. That's the page you see when you click on any Villager's voting banner or link on their blog.

The chat room is there for any Villagers who want to carry on a live conversation with other members, but you'll have to arrange your meeting time via email or comments on each other's blogs.

But the Forum is open all the time, with all the threads there for you to read and comment on. Please feel free to start threads of your own, too. Make the forum into whatever suits you, our members, as long as you keep it constructive. It's perfectly OK to complain, but try to give a suggestion on how to fix what's bothering you. And, just as the TopList is family friendly, it goes without saying that I expect everyone to behave civilly when they post there.

The forum is meant only for members, so that's why you won't find a link to it anywhere else.

I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say!



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

New BLOG VILLAGE Chat Room

At Jackie's suggestion, I've added a simple chat room to the Gateway page. You will need to register there, and the Login is there, as well. Maybe we should try to set a certain day for folks to come by and say "Hi!" What do you think?

A forum would probably be more useful, but this will have to do for now, as I don't think I know enough to set one up, nor have the time to moderate it. If anyone has these skills, and would like to help me set up a forum, I'd love to talk to you.

Added 9/26
I DID it! I found an easy to set up forum for us, so now you can come visit at the Village Fountain any time you please. You'll find the link on the Gateway page, too.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Working on our BLOG VILLAGE Gateway Page

I'm still playing around with the idea of how to make the Gateway page of our TopList more useful, so I decided to try Anthony's suggestion of putting BLOG VILLAGE specific content there, rather than generic content. I can't move the voting button up to the top yet, as I am waiting on the gotop programmers to make that possible. In the meantime, please bear with me as you have to go to the bottom of the page to vote. If you click END on your keyboard, it will take you to the voting button immediately.

Jackie suggested that we start a Chat or Forum, where Villagers can talk about all things related to our blogs, and link to it here, as well. I haven't had time to work on that, but I haven't forgotten about it.

Once I can get the page fully developed, I will probably remove at least some of the extra content, such as carnival banners in between the Villager banners, from the TopList itself, and some of the announcements, too. So, you might want to bookmark the Gateway page, and use it to enter BLOG VILLAGE. That's what I had in mind, anyway.

PS Entering from your bookmarked Gateway page will give you a HIT IN.

Please let me know what you think, as I will consider any suggestions.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.