We’ve put some new software on the site and here are the main changes we’ve introduced. You need to be logged in to use most of them.
My Account

Click on “My Account” and you will find a ‘control panel’ which you can use to perform various functions. We will be developing software to allow you to do more here over time.

There are 4 headings

* User Settings – this gives you your basic details, allows you to change your name & password and allows you to unsubscribe from the newsletter should you wish to do so. Note: if you change your name here it does not change the name on your profile. If you have put any events onto the Gig Guide you can manage them from here.
* Profile – here’s where you create and change your profile
* Comments – a list of all the comments made by other people on your profile or blogs
* Blog preferences – you will notice on ‘Blogs’ that you can exclude all the blogs posted by anyone whose blogs one doesn’t want to see at the moment. Blog preferences gives you a list of all those you have excluded and allows you to remove the person from your ‘excluded’ list.

Blogs

To try to help you navigate the ‘Blogs’ a little more easily there is now a facility for you to exclude blogs from anyone you feel like by placing them on your excluded list. The blog poster(s) won’t know you have excluded them and you can take them off your ‘excluded’ list any time you like - see above.

The way Blogs are displayed has also been altered slightly. The first 50 Blogs are still displayed initially but now, as long as you have the latest browser software, once you click on ‘Show more entries’ the next blogs are shown. This corrects a bug in the last software release.

Discussions

Although Discussions looks different it works in essentially the same way as before, though the latest contribution in a discussion thread is now at the bottom rather than the top.

Galleries

Galleries have changed slightly, now the latest gallery is shown as you enter though you can easily find earlier galleries by clicking on them.

looks good, Paul.

An excellent solution. Those who want more control over what they read can exercise it - those who don't can continue as they are. Bob's on the job!

Excellent - many thanks to all involved.

Many thanks Paul and to all those who are working behind the scenes.

very subtle solution i should have added before.. well done guys!

Loving it.

Let me enthuse a little more...

Am loving it too - being able to press the back button and have it take you to where you left off is wonderful. The only problem is that I have to log in to use these features so you get to see just how addicted I am!

Thanks to everyone who worked on this solution. x

C'est fantastique ce que vous avez fait là !
Merci beaucoup : )

Can I add my thanks too? The site is even more greaterer than it was before! xx

Yea! Since I said that WOL's been off air!! (my fault obviously!) xx

You have done a thorough job, and my thanks for all the hard work. For me, exclusion of any given poet never crossed my mind, only the encouragement to practice considered judgment. I find the red flags of 'beheading' a poet every time a blog is made disheartening and even antagonistic; I'm not so keen to read the blogs anymore.

I too would never consider "x"ing anyone. I did feel like Cynthia at first about seeing the red exes, but I find I don't even notice them now. And every time I get a comment I think "Yea! So and so can't have "x"ed me then!" I feel it is a better system than restricting people like me who like to post more frequently than others. It must be very nice for those who found that certain poets got up there nose, that those certain poets need never darken their doorsteps again. Sad, to me, though, that they may miss out on some good stuff as people's work progresses.

I was reading this discussion thread and began to imagine a WOL annual awards event (not a bad idea?) with the person who had been X'd the most proudly walking to the podium to collect a statuette of a large red X. Funny how the mind runs away at times. Whoever they are, the 'top X' must have something, to keep stubbornly posting.

I hear what you are saying Cynthia. The facility to remove a poet from the blogs could have been put somewhere else in a more subtle way. The red X does rather sit there like a guillotine. For me the pros far outweight the cons though. I am aware that people who programme are giving of their time voluntarily so am loathe to criticise. I love having this facility - just red exing a handful of poets has cut my blogs down enormously - which is great when you are looking through past blogs to see other people's comments. Personally I don't give a stuff if someone chooses to redex me. Nor do I care if I miss the odd pearl that a multiple blogger occasionally posts. There is so much good poetry on here from other poets that I struggle to find time to read...

Hi Paul (all) Thought this could be an area to continue the discussion from the end of the BW meeting. To repeat my biggest probs at the mo
Problem (1) - We need a way of deleting all our comments on our profile. If I try and leave a comment on (for e.g. Ann Foxglove's profile) I have to wait for ever (as my conection is so slow) for the box at the bottom to be usable. It would be impractacle for her to delete each comment individually but soon people with lots of comments will stop receiving any more as their list lengthens.
Problem (2) - Reading and adding to a discussion thread if long causes a similar problem. A 'toggle' button to show 'newest post' or 'oldest post' first is available on many chat facilities on the web and would solve this. It would also make it easier to use if you were part of the discussion already and needed to look at the latest addition.

the site is so much better than it was and these refinements are not as important as those already solved but would (as Anne says above) "make things even more greater"

Win x

Yes The items are now on the development list though our tech people seem to not have much time at moment.

Just a thought on item one, have you tried hitting the 'End' button on your computer which should take you to the bottom of the page much more quickly than scrolling down.
Though may not be as helpful with a slow connection worth a try.

P

Or try <control> end - works for me
Cx

end to get to bottom (and also'home' for the top of the list) both WORK BRILLIANTLY! Thx. Yours Computer nincompoop!

Sorry to correct you Win - I am nothing if not pedantic - but I think you will find that Ann's word was"greaterer"; the extra 'er' clearly designed to increase the emphasis.

Just to pick up on the comments on profiles feature and the need for poets to be able to remove some comments. This was a feature we used to have with a further option to change our minds before deleting.
I can't understand why this facility was removed. After all, some comments are inappropriate to the content and some no longer viable where they might be a direct comment on a profile poem which is no longer there.
Some poets do like to read other users comments but there may be occasions when it takes too long for admin to remove them on behalf of the poet and surely places more pressure on admin too?

With the best will in the world, there has been occasions when unwanted and/or unsuitable comments have been placed.
I think most of us here are adults and aware that there might be times when and where our comments are not appreciated. Please credit us with some common sense and replace the feature. Thank you :-)

ps. I think the site and it's many new additions are fab and am looking forward to joining in many of its features. Super job guys and girls.x

I see my name's being taken in vain here! (Or is it vein? Or even vane?) Maybe if the comments on people's profile pages were turned upsidedown, then that would be even more greaterer still! I don't seem to have a problem, I must have a quickerer computerer! xx

Janet, I am sure that we can still remove any comments we like from our profile page, or perhaps I have misunderstood you? Nice to have you back around the place by the way!

Hi Ann and thanks.
I was reading through the thread. Must be something i missed in my time away or maybe i misread what was actually being said. Got to admit to not having noticed when they were posted that's all. Yes i can see now on my new profile that comments can be removed at will. How lovely to have choices ;-)

Ann / Julian.... Sorrier

Janet. Yes, as Ann says there is no change , if you log in you can still delete individual comments.

Winner

As in Michael? ;-)

LOL no. As in Winnerston Plowser X

I see you've solved the problem some people had with ploughing through the reemes of comments at the bottom of poet's profiles. You are a clever lot! And I love you ALL! xx

yes! fantastic isn't? I have passed on your joy to the tech team. Its the perfect solution as the old posts are still available, the site gets better and better! Win x

Everything is very slow at the mo - is it the weather? This is in no way a complaint - except about the weather!

Joyeux et joyeux et James Joyeux.
Ceci n'est pas une pipe!
Le plastique c'est fantastique
Frappe moi avec ton rhythm stique
Perfectment!

Yeah, and my coalman is Ulyses, cos he ain't come yet! He's totally ulyses in fact! Even tho when he asked me if I needed more coal I said "yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!!!!!!!!!"

You think you've got problems, lady? My coalman is Finnegan and he alweighs lives me an undered wight of commodious vicus

Well tell him to Wake up and smell the coffee! Or maybe the cinder toffee!

coalman is as Coleman does
Ann Packer's going to do it
Nutty Slack's the stuff for us
Ann Thracite long will rue it

Just tried to post a (nice) comment and it said "Sorry, you dont have access to: entryrow,r,17770" What does that mean???

Just to say, the new poet's profile style is great, very clear. You lot deserve something very nice in your christmas stockings this year!!!

I've just seen that you can put poets on a favourite list. I started to do that but realised that it showed your favourites to everyone. I can't imagine this function is much use unless made private. Who wants the world to know the poets they like and dislike within such a small community like this? I've removed the two I put on there now.

Where's that then? Not that I'd use it either - can't see it tho ;-)

There are two things that you can do on the new profile.
1. When you look at anyone's profile you will see 'Add profile to favourites', if you click on that, a link to that persons profile will appear in your profile. You can add as many profiles as you want.
2. When you click on any event (that you might be interested in) in the gig guide, you will see 'Add to profile calendar'. If you click on that, a calendar will be created on your profile and the events you add will be displayed there. You can add as many events as you want to though they can only be events in the future.

Hope this helps.

I thought the same as Isobel and we are reconsidering where to put this.

I've spotted it now. Why would anyone use it? We can do a name search if we want to find find a particular poet. I don't see the reasoning behind it meself. ;-)

'Favourite Profiles'
The idea is that the software will be developed over time so that e.g. you will be able to say auto-notify those on your favourites list when you post a blog

Comments
If you now click on 'My Account' then click on the 'Comments' tab you can now see all the comments you have posted as well as the comments people have posted to you.

I like the 'favourite poets' option. There are some writers whose work I feel I can consistently connect with or enjoy, I like most of their output and always want to read their latest blogs; others whose work I like some of, and read when I have the time; and yet others whose work I have yet to appreciate.
These lists change all the time, and have little to do with how I feel about some of the people on here.
I have met some amazing, wonderful people on WOL, and some really good writers - they're not always the same people! - if you see what I mean.
The favourites list is just a quick way of finding people you read most often - not a condemnation of either the work or the personality of anyone on here.
Cx

Another little tweak to 'profile'. Up to 10 of your audio files are now displayed there.

Has it suddenly changed - when you look on the Home page and see that someone has made a comment and you click on it it goes straight to their actual words, so you don't know where the comment is? I find this less easy to follow somehow. You have to scroll up to see where the comment is. Makes no sense reading it if you don't know who it's to. Just my humble little opinion. xx

What do people think? Do you agree with Ann or not?

If you copy and paste a youtube url, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0e4ZqxJSnM&feature=related into your text when you are creating a blog, it will automatically turn into an embedded video

Yes, I definately agree with Ann. She ALWAYS talks a lot of sense IMO! ;-)

HEY! I've discovered that if you go to the homepage of someone with several audios, you can listen to them all at once! Just did it accidentally with mine cos my audios seem to be very quiet and I was trying to compare them.

The new home page is very good. Not sure what you've done but the way Discussion, Comments, Blogs and Changes to Profile are in columns and can be followed back works very well. Thank you

sorry to repeat but my 'hide blog entries' doesnt work. the poets are listed at blog preferences but their blogs still appear on blog listings...

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT : )
The blog situation has been solved!

Merci !

I'm afraid I hate it. But I can see it will be very popular. (New blog system)

Bloody brilliant. I love the fact that for each poet you can see and look at all the poems for that month in one hit. Great idea. Thank you. An idea for future consideration may be adding current number of comments by the side of each prior poem. Then as you flick through blogs you can do everything in one hit ie see the activity on poems you have taken an interest in. It would be easier and less time consuming than checking every poem you've made a comment on.

I love the way this site is always developing - it just gets better and better.

Excellent. Many thanks to the volunteer programmers.

I think the site is looking just fabulous at the moment. Great changes made and well done to the team involved :-)

Blog section particularly is easier to navigate without traipsing through multi blogs by the same author and yet still having the option to read their latest as well as their more recent entries :-)

Loving the new lay out of the home page and it's great to see 'features magazine' more prominently advertised. I for one hope this picks up again as the year progresses as some features were brill to read and get interactive with :-)

I've been more on the side lines recently but still pop in to read most days. Just not much time to be more active at present.

ps. Rachel - Have you tested the options to hide blog entries of your choice while logged in to the website? If not logged in you will be able to see them anyway. Just a thought :-)

Has anyone else had the same problem as Rachel i.e. finding that the 'red X' feature on blogs doesn't work for you when logged in?

Well it's the first of Feb now and looking back over January's bloggs (poor Tom Harding posted a jolly good poem at four minutes to twelve - silly boy) January's bloggs look so meagre now we are only allowed one poem each to survive without looking for it. AND Poor other Thom (must be in a name) - cos he's organising the comp, his one and only visible blogg isn't a poem at all it's a reminder to everyone about the childhood poem. I don't want my one and only visible poem to be my miserable writer's block one (well, it isn't miserable really as I was being tongue in cheek) so I'll have to delete it. I may be in a minority of one but this new blogg system - I HATE IT!!!!!!!!! (But I still love you all!)xx

Why did we make the changes to the public Blogs area?

One of the things that we think is key is the way the site looks to the newcomer or passing browser.

The other week if you looked at blogs there was a block of 13 by one member. At another time there was a block of 7 by one member followed by a block of 5 by someone else.

Anyone looking at those times who didn't know the site, would think it was a little used site i.e. just 1/2 people doing all the posting, and therefore a little used site.

Coupled with that is the fact that with the number of blogs is increasing substantially each month and we believed it was important for potential new members to get a feel for the site and a limit on blogs displayed helps to do that. We had already introduced the red X facility to give existing members a tool flexibility in using blogs but, of course, that only works when one is logged in.

What we didn’t want to do was be prescriptive and curtail the number of blog postings anyone wanted to make but rather to change the way blogs were displayed in public. At the same time we have made changes to the profile so that it is more of an area to showcase your work with the display of the latest ten of one’s blogs and podcasts as well as your CV, photo, samples etc.

Ann, I’m sorry you feel so angry about the changes but I hope you can see why we did it. It certainly wasn’t just a case of reacting to what members wanted – the solution suggested by many was to curtail the number of blogs anyone could make to one or two per month and I’m sure you would have been even less happy with that.

I don’t understand what you mean when you say that the only poem people will see is your latest poem (e.g. the writers block one). Surely, on the old system the first poem anyone would see would be your latest, so what’s the difference?

I'm not angry. I suppose saying that I hate it in enormous capital letters might lead you to suppose that I am! Especially with all those exclamation marks! But I don't see how you can say your last paragraph is correct. If you'd scrolled back through the poems, in the past, you'd see every poem as you went along. If you saw one you fancied reading you clicked on to it. Likewise, if there had been an interesting comments bit at the bottom you might notice more comments had appeared and want to take a look. And it really only takes a second or two to whizz past a chunk of poems by someone that you don't want to read. This is something that we should maybe explain to people who put 13 poems on in one go - hardly anyone will read them, so the only ones losing out will be them. Anyway, back to what I was saying - now when you scroll back you'll only see the last poem that someone blogged. If you want to click onto their "recent poems by" bit underneath, you'll have to remember if it's one you haven't read before. Or you don't go and look and miss some interesting or enjoyable comments. I do see what you are getting at about appealing to visitors to the site - I'll give you that one! But angry is the wrong word - I'll reserve that for politicians and fox hunters - not sweet poets who are only hoping to please! x

We're considering ways in which to notify people if someone comments on a blog they've previously commented on, if you see what I mean.

I realise I am being a fly in your ointment who's pissing on your cornflakes (no mean feat!) I do prefer the new system to the previous suggestion of rationing the number of poems put on in one week or month. I'd REALLY hate that! xx

Oh you lovely man. That would be the icing on the cake for me and I think it would make Ann feel a whole lot happier about the new system too. After all, we both log on often enough to know what our favourite poets have posted. It is just a question of catching up on the crack of previous poems. An easy way of doing that would be superb!

I'm afraid I can't take the credit for this idea and I don't know how quickly it can be designed and implemented.

However, in meantime, we're showing last 15 comments on the Blogs page which may help a little.
And if one clicks on 'Comments' on the front page one sees the last 45 comments.

Not sure if it's a coincidence but when I tried to put a link to a youtube video as part of a blogg it won't work now. It always used to. I may be the first person to try this since the changes here. Maybe what I did before (giving a link to a youtube video) wasn't legal? I guess embedding is the thing that makes the difference, and I can see that this facility is for poets who have their own video that they can now put straight on here, which is good.

I would like to flag up the inadequacy of the site software in being able to receive mathematical formulae. This disappointing as my next blog will be in hieroglyphs and the one after that a dream.

Dear John
Yes, I noticed your little dilemma yesterday evening and most amusing it was too! Good luck with the heiroglyphs!

yours sincerely

Rosetta Stone (Mrs)

Hi John, cleaned up by admin. but it did look hilarious. Win

Yes - thanks Win. Only kidding - in fact, you'd rectified it before I'd posted the above. Get ready for the hieroglyphs though!

We used to get site stats at the beginning of every month from Paul. Is this a facility that we can retain? It was of interest I think. (Ann Anorak)

Hi Ann. Yes I think this was a useful monthly post. We are aware of its non sppearance recently and hopefully it will resume. Win x