November 27, 2003
Happy Thanksgiving!
From all of us to all of you.
Thanks for being a part of a pipedream
November 13, 2003
Vanity, Thy Name is Strega
Greetings!
At the request of one of the Elf Crew, I have used the Heromachine to bring Strega to visual life. And here she is, Resident Muse of BlogsOfRoleplay and BlogsOfRealplay.
(this photo may be printed and used to frighten vermin from homes and barns)
Something Fun
Greetings-
After all the stress with the server, I needed something fun and ten dubloons for fun is ten dubloons well spent!
Oaklore pointed me in the direction of the Heromachine and for someone like myself who can hardly draw a stick figure let alone a character, this was like discovering the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
You have to do a screen capture to save the picture you've designed but Hell, you've all managed to learn Movable Type so a screen capture can't be much of an issue.
If you make a character you're proud of, please email me the code for it. I'd love to stick a gallery of people's artwork and/or writing on the site; come to think of it, if you've got ANY artwork or written words you'd like to see in our happy BoRCom community, please send them to me. Real life pictures are fine too.
The attached picture is one I did tonight of Tawny Judge, a character I've played on Waterdeep for the past five years and author of the "Tawny's Puffs and Purrs" blog.
So come on, people. Let's turn this place into more of a community! And while I'm at it, sign the darn guestbook!
The link to Heromachine is located in the General Links block in the right set of columns.
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse Now Gorged on Cookes Pilfered from Fil
November 12, 2003
Technical Difficulties
In a word, Oy.
Greetings, Bloggers!
I'm sure you've noticed we had some wretched downtime the past few days. We were getting some necessary but ugly work done on the server the site is on and it was much more of an ordeal than anyone expected.
Some did not make it out in one piece, like our original Grand Grimoire.
We ask that you change any links you might have from :
blogsofroleplay.com/GrandGrimoire/
to:
blogsofroleplay.com/NewsAndUpdates/
All the entries ever made in the Grimoire have been added to this new site.
Also, if anyone has any problems with logging in or lost data, please email me and I'll get on it as quickly as possible.
Sorry about all of this, the Elf Crew and I are tired and cranky and confused but we'll figure it out.
Blog on!
(we hope)
And please, sign the guestbook, it's rather empty!
All Hallow's Updates
Greetings, Bloggers!
Happy Halloween from myself and the merry Elf Crew.
Just a few updates to inform you of before I go out trick or treating.
Getting a new blog is now as easy as filling out a quick form, we finally got around to re-doing the link and making it even more simple by getting rid of the need to send e-mail.
The grand slaying of the PHP demon is approximately 70% completed.
The Image Gallery is soon to open with a large assortment of images you can use in your blogs.
If you've come to dislike those other journal communities who have gotten too big for their own good, we are happy to say that our sister site is now in Beta stage and accepting new blogs. If you like the setup here and the way Movable Type works, just visit us at BlogsOfRealplay and sign up!
On a more personal and touching note. The Elf who keeps the books came to me yesterday with news of two donations in Ye Olde Cup of Charity. I looked over the parchments and am embarrassed to say I didn't recognise either of the donor names. If your kindness was meant to be an anonymous one, we here at BoRCom thank you deeply for donating. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to add your blog, website, banner, etc. to our Sponsor list, please send me an email. Every tuppence collected goes right to the cost of hamster food and Elf-friendly wine. So thank you once again and good karma to you!
And that, my blogging friends, is a wrap. A few interesting developments and updates on the work that is ever-continuing. Before I go, I remind you all once again with sincerity that we are here for you should you have any questions. Please do not hesitate to call out if you need assistance, it's what we're here for.
A happy Halloween to all of you and as you walk outside tonight and get that strange feeling that the dead walk beside you, open your mind and your thoughts and absorb what the druids have known of for years.
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse
Grand List of BoRCom Hit by Elves!
Greetings and Salutations, Bloggers!
It seems while your resident muse was deep in the land of Slumbyr last eve, the Elf Crew struck again. There was dissension in the ranks as the overall look of the "Grand List of BlogsOfRoleplay.com" page was deemed as aesthetically disturbing and well ..... fugly as a minotaur's behind as the Index Blog had once been. Ever the resourceful buggers, the night was spent in an orgiastic frenzy of planning and design and a few scattered Elfin obscenities.
As the dawn broke, a bleary-eyed Elf Crew joined together to do the Happy Dance as the new look for the Grand List of BoRCom Blogs was borne. Less clunky, more organised and set up nicely for the conversion to the much-feared .php daemon, I have given the Elf Crew the weekend off to drink wine, be merry and make whoopee to show my appreciation for a job well done.
You can find links to the Grand List of BorCoM Blogs and Authors in the "About BlogsOfRoleplay.com" link in the upper left side of the Index Blog and in the "Links" section of the Grand Grimoire.
The personal information submitted by those of you wishing to be social will also link from the "Blog Author" section of each letter's blog page. Again, it is not necessary to supply information but we are planning to add user pages and a search engine which will include interests.
For the moment though, we offer to you the next step in evolution, the new and improved and quite pithy Grand List of BorCom Blogs.
Viva la nocturnal Elves!
Strega, Resident BoRCom Muse and Overseer of the Elf Crew
Commence Facelift
Greetings, Bloggers of BoRCom!
After a frank and occasionally brutal conversation with the Grand Dame of the Elf Crew, the ole crone told me flat out that the main index blog people see when landing on blogsofroleplay.com was.... well.... aesthetically unpleasant. Unattractive. Flat out fugly like a minotaur's behind. I'll admit my pride was temporarily damaged but I went and took a good look and had to concede to Madame Elf.
With determination burning a hole in my robes, I went deep into the caverns of Design and chanted for guidance. For the next 13 hours the spirits of those more talented than I flowed freely through my veins and I rose only twice until it was there before me, not complete but a kingdom of improvement better than what was once there. I sat and gazed upon it with a smile and a sense of accomplishment, pleased with what I saw.
And now the Elf Crew and I are proud and pleased to offer unto you, our blogging partners in magical mystical creative juju, the new look for the blogsofroleplay.com Index page.
The young and more talented Elf children and I will be working this week to activate each and every link on the page, for the moment some work and each day a few more will become live. Yes, the linked pages will be done in the much-feared .php format as whispered about in shadowed meetings late at night.
The Grimoire will remain the place where all news and updates will be posted. With the new look of the index page, the technical things will start to vanish from the Grimoire, allowing Seneschal the social Elf to make the Grimoire more of a community place. We'll be featuring a random blog and blogger of the month, website of the month and other warm fuzzy community things to make this a happy and interactive place.
We leave you now with a smile, a mug of grog and good cheer. Welcome to our newest BoRCom writers and please, take a moment to look over the new look of the main page. As always, we appreciate and welcome all feedback and input.
Strega, Resident BoRCom Muse
October Update, Part 1
Greetings, Bloogers!
Welcome to October and may the Autumn bring you all the joys of a bountiful harvest now sown. October is the favourite month and start of the favourite season of myself and the Elf crew, we expect and hope to bring many changes and additions this month, including the long-awaited conversion to full PHP/MySQL. For the moment though, I bring to you the latest goings on behind the emerald curtain.
1. Ten new templates have been added to the Template Gallery (Link to the right). They are two-column templates in various colours and as I've said before, they're not objects of beauty but they add some colour and personality to your blog. They are free free free and feel free to use at your will.
2. The Elf Crew is proud to present the sister site to BlogsOfRoleplay.com, our very own and brand-spanking new to BlogsOfRealplay.com!! This site will also be completely free of charge and the real-world place to leave your thoughts and make a journal without any of the hooey. Feel free to visit although it's hardly more than a skeleton at the moment.
3. We have also registered BoRComImageSpace.com which will be a place where those of you who wish to expand your blogging experience will be able to rent space, run guestbooks and/or forum boards through a sub-domain for a ridiculously low price. We run the server as well as the domain, giving us a bit more leeway in what we can offer you.
4. A huge warm fuzzy thank you to Stormbringer, Overseer of the Primal Darkness MUD Blog, for being our first Patron and Donator. Thank you, Stormbringer, you have fed a family of hamsters for a week.
So that's it for now, we're only five days into October! Thanks again to all of you who take the time to write in your blog, sign the Grimoire Guestbook, register on the forums or spread the word to a friend.
Blessed Autumn to you all!
Strega, Resident Muse of BlogsOfRealplay.com and her Elf Crew.
The Template Gallery
Greetings, Blogging Pioneers!
Pardon if the Elves and I seem a bit giddy tonight but we have some rather pithy news to share with you so without further delay, allow me...
BlogsOfRoleplay.com and its Elves and Resident Muse are jubilant to offer to you the opening of the Template Galleries! As is the policy of BlogsOfRoleplay.com, the templates are completely free of charge, we ask only that you leave the "Design by WebKittyn" link intact. The Templates were all done by myself over the past 48 hours and while they might not be works of .css art, they are colourful and free and a nice replacement for the static white that Blogs are automatically set up with.
The Template Gallery is linked to the Site Index Blog and clicking on a thumbnail will take you to a full screen image of the layout and links to download the two necessary files.
I would be more than happy to convert your current Blog to a new layout if you are not comfortable puttering with it yourself, just drop me an email and I'll take care of it for you, no problem.
We would also love to offer your design to BlogsOfRoleplay.com members, if you have a layout you wish to share, see the above email and you will receive full credit and an Elf hat. We will be adding templates regularly as the Resident Muse becomes more familiar with the technique.
We hope you enjoy the templates and find one that suits you and we thank you all for any and all spreading of the word about BlogsOfRoleplay.com you have done, we survive by word of mouth.
Viva la Templates!
Strega, Resident Muse
The Elves Need Help!
Merry Met, Bloggers!
Upon the request of my most senior and trusted Elf, I am putting out a call for assistance. A call to a Wizard or Wizardess skilled in that most confusing of magicks - the SQL database.
What we are attempting to do is expand the search part of the system as well as incorporate a more community-based setup for the users. For example, if a user has "Waterdeep" as an interest, we'd like to see Waterdeep as a link on that user's information page that when clicked will pull up all who have entered Waterdeep as an interest. Whether this will involve adding onto the existing MT database or creating a separate one is something we don't know.
Compensation is limited as we are piss-poor but we can offer a high-end, state of the art place to host your website forever, free of charge. You will also have our undying appreciation and the honour of getting a little Elf hat that says "Staff" on its brim. If you do not have a domain of your own, we will register one for you and take care of the setup. This is the best we can do, may the barter system flourish!
If anyone reading this feels inclined to help answer the call of the database, please email me here. It's not that the Elves and I are lazy and looking for someone to do the work for us, we are genuinely confused novitiates when it comes to this type of alchemy.
Thank you for your time.
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse and Utterly Confuzzled.
Our First Milestone
Originally Posted August 1
Merry Met!
One of our more sentimental female elves just pointed out to me that today marks the one-month anniversary of the opening of the site! We here behind the scenes would like to take this time to thank those of you who have joined us over the past month as we evolve from infancy to toddler status. It is because of you that work continues and new ways are sought to make it even better.
Let us raise our glasses in a toast to blogs and bloggers and the warm fuzzy combination of both that has become BlogsOfRoleplay.com!
We salute you!
Blog on,
Strega
Backups
Merry Met, Bloggers!
The elves suggested I post a short note to let you all know that the full site is backed up on a weekly basis, usually on Thursday evenings. Should there ever be some sort of unforseen disaster, there will always be a backup no older than the prior Thursday, tucked away in a safe place.
And while you're at it, sign the guestbook and get in on the forums. You never know where a pearl of wisdom cloaked in a passing comment may be found.
Good karma to all and blog on!
Strega
Where Have All the Entries Gone?
...... long time, passing...
Where have all the entries gone?
Long time ago...
Seems one of the elves pushed the wrong button and while the past entries are there in the "recent entries" box, they're not right there for people to read.
Worry not, said elf will receive 20 demerits and no supper.
This is sometimes very confusing.
Part Deux!
Immediately after the posting of part one, said elf panicked over not having his supper and returned to us the missing entries.
Mystery solved.
Recently Updated List Added.
Good Evening-
Elves never sleep, Goddess bless them. At the suggestion of that same senior Elf, we've added to the right a list of recently updated blogs. Eventually this list will automatically update itself but for the time being it will be done manually by yours truly so I may miss one or two here and there, have patience with me.
Again, we invite you to explore the Grimoire if you are new here and the Elves and I welcome you.
Blog on.
Strega, Resident Muse
Guestbook Added
Greetings and a pleasant Sunday to you all!
One of our older and wiser Elves suggested to me that we add a Book of Visitors, a Guestbook. Not being one to argue with a senior Elf, I have added said Guestbook, link to the right underneath the Forums. Please feel free to jot something down, even if you are merely a wanderer and not sure how you got here.
Work continues behind the scenes to enhance the user capabilities of the site even further. For those of you familiar with that big journal place that makes you spend money or get codes, we will be adding individual user pages like you see there with interests linked for searching. We will also be incorporating the ability to search by user name, ICQ or any of the other messenger services, geographic location, email address and anything else suggested by you.
The conversion to a full PHP/MySQL site with fully functioning databases is a challenging one for me and one I openly seek assistance with. However I felt it prudent to share with you all what the Elves and I work on that you cannot see.
The Forums (link to the right) are starting to take on a bit of personality with customised emoticons created by Navarre and a large list of topics. We will be looking for Moderators from all over to run individual forums, why not take a moment and register.
As always, we thank you for your support and kind words and all that you can do to spread the word.
Good cheer to you all!
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse
BlogsOfRoleplay.com Discussion Forums!
Greetings and Salutations-
The elves are definitely feeling the mojo and running with it. They have asked me to convey to all of you the birth of the official BlogsOfRoleplay.com site forums!
The goal of the forums is a simple one - to enhance the overall community feeling of the site and bring greater familiarity while making the gargantuan world of online gaming a little smaller by combining resources, knowledge, opinions and discourse.
As with the rest of the site, the forums are only in the beta stage but we wanted to open them to you, the pioneers. We are always taking suggestions and will be looking for forum moderators as things fill in.
So feel free to register, while there will be changes there will be no startovers (knock on wood) or deletions of accounts made.
The forums are linked to the right in the Gaming Forums box. Come on in, have a doughnut and a cup o' joe.
Strega, Resident Muse
Email and a Facelift
Greetings!
All the email addresses were created last night and should be working by now. Please let us know if you encounter a problem.
The main index page is undergoing a facelift today, please pay it no mind as it will appear to be in disarray. It is not, it is merely the elves hard at work to improve the aesthetics of the site.
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse
@blogsofroleplay.com Email!
This weekend we will be creating @blogsofroleplay.com email accounts for all users. These POP3 accounts may be viewed through any normal reader or our provided webmail link, offering the choice of NeoMail or Horde.
There are no charges or hitches, consider it a token of appreciation for your support of our efforts.
The email will be
Blog on!
Strega, Resident Muse
Notification
If you are interested in being notified via email when this Grand Grimoire is updated, please leave me a comment/reply. It is not necessary to leave your email address for the public to see, just let me know and you will be notified when this Blog is updated.
Strega, Resident Muse
At the Request of
...Navarre, we have added a link from this blog to the log-in screen. Thank you for the tip, Navarre.
Please, if you see something you think is missing or just have general suggestions, we want to hear them so we can find a way to add them.
Blog on!
Strega, resident Muse.
Upcoming Changes
Greetings once again.
This is just a quick note to let you all know some of the more immediate things we are working on to make your experience here even more fulfilling. Some of them might take some time as I am a novitiate in the scary world of MySQL but things will happen.
We are a babe in swaddling cloths now, those of you who are with us are with us for the toddler stage. We ask your patience and welcome your input as it all comes together.
Join us, grow with us.
Strega, resident Muse
Welcome to BlogsOfRoleplay.com!
Greetings and salutations, travelers.
Come, sit. Indulge yourself in a pint of ale and pastry, my name is Strega and I shall be your muse.
What you are part of here is something that will be growing and maturing with time; the Internet's very first free of ALL catches journal community JUST for Gamers. Pretty nifty, wouldn't you say?
What this BlogOfRoleplay is to be is the place to come for news and updates to the BoR site and to get your questions answered until we get the forums up and running. For now, let me touch on a few things for the beginner.
Before I do, I reiterate that I am here to assist you in any way I can. No question is a bad question and I urge you to ask freely all the questions you have.
When a blog is first created, it is created in a very simple standard template with a very simple look. In NO way does your blog have to keep that look. While total customisation can be a tricky process, if you are unfamiliar with any HTML, PHP or design language, you can still have a custom look with a simple copy and paste.
This site is done in Movable Type. At the MT website they have 6 or 7 default template styles you can choose from to give your blog a different look. The website is at:
We plan to offer to all bloggers, at no charge, different sets of templates and graphics. If you are a designer and would like to donate a template set, that would be appreciated and credit will be given.
Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you and offer as much as possible for you.
And I cannot stress this enough. I am Strega, muse and answerer of questions. If I don't know right away, I shall consult the Oracle and find the answer.
Let the journey begin.