I’m in the middle of testing some new stuff that I normally would only do on a testing blog… But I would like to implment these things on several sites, so… Stonegauge may be a guinea pig for a while.

For a couple of years I had my writing online on various extensions of this domain name. Basically it was one short story and about a hundred poems that I had decided to put online.

Being the busy bee that I am and having other things to do online, I decided instead of keeping the site up and running, I took it down. All while saving the files.

Well, in a limited case I’m putting a definitive writing section back online. You can access it directly and you can also access it from the above menu by clicking WRITING.

Oh, and for the moment you can jump to the poems directly on the sidebar here on der Stonegauge’s main site. Some were never part of my collection on the old writings site and some were.

So just in case you haven’t been on Stonegauge in a matter of days, just so you know, I updated the look of the site to something totally different… What do you think? (Oh, it’s not like I expect any comments as I don’t get any comments — but I ask anyway just for shits and giggles).

“Hockey Rumors”

That’s all it takes right now. Stick the phrase “hockey rumors” somewhere on you site and presto – you’re going to have a dumpload of hits.

I’m saying this while Boltsmag / Raw Lightning nears it’s first 400 hit day. By “Hit” I mean how many site visitors the site has had. 400 Visitors is almost half of what I used to get at Beatle Lyrics.com (now Fab 4 Lyrics) which set the bar for me on the web.

Boltsmag / Raw Lightning are setting a new bar for me though.

I’m doing big time late-summer-cleaning on Der Stonegauge and that means upgrading software, deleting old files, etc… And seeing I have had der Stonegauge in several variations since 1998 (and this domain since 2002) there is a lot of cleaning to be done….

The site theme is being changed around and I plan on changing the Favicon as well, hopefully soon but you never know…

I used to frequent Tampa Rail on the norm to read about someoen lobbying for mass transit in Tampa and in Florida in general….

But as I cited in another blog post a few weeks ago, Dave Pinero – the site owner, has been weak in trying to press his issue during a hellacious time in Tampa where traffic deaths are up and gas prices have skyrocketed.

He really went off the deep end, however, comparing Tampa’s urban planners to Nazis.

With his piece-of-shit “Battle blog” software, it’s impossible to link directly to the article in question where David decides to try sensationalism in an attempt to win supporters for his cause… Adding the Swastika to the rant in order to underline his point.

You don’t help your cause by goign fringe in yoru argument, David. You alienate yoru base and you turn off those you want to bring into your cause. Nazi comparisons? That’s just plain weak on your part, and a reason this blogger no longer supports Tampa Rail’s efforts — because sensationalism isn’t an effort, it’s a distraction to the real issues.

Well, until I figure out how to get this page to look like it should – and right now it looks like shit because I’m still trying to figure out what I want Der Stongauge to look like – consider the site under construction. I apologize if the look of the page makes you want to barf.

I have an odd Dilema with Baseball Boards. I have a very limited number of posters and lack of reputation under the current name. The lack of posting is hurting just as much as the lack of members is hurting.

That being said, I’m still playing with the idea of what could improve things and improve member additions to the site.

The site merger is all but nixed — too much uncertainty and too much negative outlook. Too little control. What I am toying with to bide the time, however,is to have vBulletin put onto the site instead of phpBB. VBulletin gives a better look to the forums and mroe functionality. PHPBB is open source, hackable… Extra spamable.

I need to ask around if I should make the switch… Its just a thought right now – and it will set me back 90 bucks at least.

OK, I want to try to do a weekly thing that will at least keep me from being entirely bored with der Stonegauge…. It’s soemthign that I usually reserve for Internet Message boards and the like. So I figure it can’t hurt to try it here on the site.

OK, what will happen is eithe ri post a quote or a question concerning films. Just answer the question and presto. You can eithe rask me a question to follow up or you can post a quote and ask me what movie it’s from.

Anyone willing to play? I’ll make the first one easy:

What was the phrase that is inscribed in black-speech on the One Ring in Lord of the Rings?

John F – former Administrative Community Manager – FanHome.com

John F – former Administrator - The MLB Forum

John F – Administrator – Baseball Boards

John F – Administrator – The MLB Forum?

TMLBForum has had a whirlwind couple of weeks – a negative whirlwind at that. The owner threw a hissy fit and took all of his sites off line. His posters are on another site, he’s caused a great deal of damage…

And oen of my firends who post there and talks to the guy suggested that i take over the ship when the site is live again.

I have reservations becasue I want Baseball Boards to be a success. I have a few of my own people who I am loyal to who I want to agree with me on anythign that goes down.

I also think taking over that site with such a negative vibe will mean more work. Those who don’t know me will not trust me. Those who know the site and what happened will not trust the site to remain there for them. You can NOT be professional and take something so personal that you close the buisness down in a hissy fit, and then expect people to come back. People will come back after technical problems, people will come back after downtime, but people don’t want to come back whent he site no longer seems to give a damn about the fact they are valuable members.