Editor's Roundup
 A blog post from Alyssa Gregory made me realize it's Self-improvement
Month. Yet, it never hurts to have a helping hand and there's no better
place to find one than in a community like the SitePoint Forums. So, this
issue of the Crier is devoted to "The Improvement
Movement"; that is, how we can help ourselves and each other improve
our skills and our web sites. As well as Alyssa's blog post, you'll find
plenty of links to helpful blogs, articles, books, and tutorials in Around the Town.
Pathfinders explores our colorful SitePoint staff
badges and what each color means.
As usual, Simply Brilliant shares the news about our current
Member of the Month and introduces a new staff member.
Our Shout-out reviews who our members said they'd most like
to interview from last month, and asks a self-improvement question for
September.
This month, the Crier undergoes some improvement as well with
the introduction of two sections: Take the Challenge encourages you to improve your
design and content skills, while Lend a Hand enables you to help fellow members make
improvements to their web sites.
Finally, Hello There introduces some of SitePoint's newest forum
members.
Are you ready for the Improvement Movement? Let's go!
Summary
Around the Town
Blogs
In How
I Plan to Do More (Better) in September, Alyssa Gregory celebrates
Self-improvement Month with five tips that we all can use to improve our
businesses. In another blog post, Alyssa gives us a list of 20
Crucial Tools for Working on the Go.
Are you tired of trying to do everything at once? Maybe it's
unnecessary. Craig Buckler recently examined The
Myth of Multitasking and asks some very provocative questions.
Following up on SitePoint's offer of a free ticket to Web Directions
South, Matthew Magain recently announced the winner here.
If you missed out on the free ticket, you can still buy your entry through
the Web Directions South web
site.
Articles
If you're unable to make the Web Directions South conference, Ben Balbo
has some advice on what it takes to put together an unconference
in his article, Unreal
Unconferences.
Tutorials
Obtaining good feedback from web site visitors is often difficult, but
Kai Koenig shows you how to make it easier with his article Five
Stars! Add a Rating Widget to Your ColdFusion App. After you take
the tutorial, test your skills with our quiz and download the source code
for the article as well.
Books
As browsers continually upgrade with new versions, CSS continues to
change right along with them. The recently released third edition of The CSS
Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks has been
completely revised and updated to keep you current with the latest
techniques and browser updates. Available in either print or PDF (or
both), The CSS Anthology is a useful companion for the
experienced web developer, as well as the novice.
Pathfinders
Exploring SitePoint Forums
SitePoint Forums' staff members are a colorful group of volunteers from
all over the world. More than just distinguishing marks of service, the
orange, green, blue, and red badges they wear are there to help members
find the right assistance to make the best use of the SitePoint Forums.
All SitePoint staff members are available to answer your questions and
concerns through PM, but we thought you might find it useful to learn more
about the duties assigned to SitePoint Administrators, Team Leaders,
Advisors, and Mentors.
SitePoint Administrators wear red badges. They're the forum
staff's direct line to interpreting SitePoint policies, and pass on new
information from SitePoint headquarters. They're also the only forum staff
members who can approve a SitePoint member's username change.
Because our forums are extensive, SitePoint has placed each forum
category into a separate team. The blue badges belong to Team
Leaders who work to keep their section of the forums running
smoothly. Team leaders also moderate threads, nominate new members for
their team, participate in staff polls, and help new Advisors and Mentors
find their footing.
At SitePoint, moderators wear green, and because they do much more than
just moderate forum threads, we call them our Advisors. Along
with Team Leaders and Administrators, Advisors approve threads in the
moderation queue, stick important threads, feature threads, and close
threads. They also help select new Advisors and Mentors, the SitePoint
Member of the Month (MOTM), and help initiate and organize SitePoint
events such as our annual Community Awards.
Orange badges are worn by Mentors. SitePoint fondly recognizes
our Mentors as "the eyes and ears" of SitePoint Forums. Mentors
play a vital role in the smooth operation of SitePoint Forums. Although
they spend a great deal of time finding and reporting posts that need
moderation, Mentors also suggest new projects, forums, and subforums, and
changes to existing forums, as well as help select new staff members and
Members of the Month.
Simply Brilliant
MOTM
Besides the orange, green, blue, and red staff badges, you may have
noticed the purple badge. That's the one reserved for the SitePoint Member
of the Month.
This month's honoree is C. Ankerstjerne, who's hard to catch
since he's very active in nearly every SitePoint forum. This month two of
SitePoint's advisors, Dan Schulz and Molona, agreed to
chase him down. To see who was successful at catching him, see C.
Ankerstjerne's interview thread in News and Announcements.
New Staff Member
There's been a rumor circulating back in the alcoves that SitePoint
Forums will soon have a new Community Manager. I've now secured the
details and I'd like to welcome SitePoint Technical Editor, Raena
Jackson-Armitage to the position. Read all about Raena and what the role
entails in Shayne Tilley's post here.
Shout-out
August: Who Would You Interview?
Last month we asked the question, "If you could interview just one
person, who would it be and what is the first question you would ask
them?" We received lots of answers from Einstein to Elvis and yes, a
few members even mentioned the living!
-
Kohutek would interview either Hugh Laurie or Stephen Fry and
ask them to formulate their definition of time in ten words.
-
Armchaircritic would ask the deceased Bob Marley about his
views on topics other than music.
-
Kikykuang would ask Larry Page and Sergey Brin the secret to
having a web site appear on the first page of Google Search results. (And
we all want to know that!)
-
Dan Schulz would ask General George Patton why he believed he
was the reincarnation of history's great generals.
-
BlakeAnthony would go to the source and pick Brandon Eich's
brains on JavaScript.
-
Iceman90 would ask Bill Gates why the screen of death is
blue. "I used to like that color," he said.
-
From Molona's answer, it looks like she would listen in on
several members' interviews.
Stop by the
thread to read all of the entertaining answers and tell us who you
would interview.
September: Shout-out for Improvement
This month we're asking for your help on self-improvement. Alyssa
Gregory reminded us that September is Self-improvement Month so we're
asking, "What do you plan to improve or have you already improved on
during September?"
Please
share your ideas on self-improvement, whether it be personal or aimed
more to benefit your business. (I plan to do a better job of staying ahead
of my deadlines!)
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Take the Challenge!
Do you love a challenge? SitePoint offers several ways for you to sate
your thirst!
Graphic Wars
This sub-forum of Design Your Site gives our artistic
members the chance to strut their stuff, but it's in severe need
of some new juice. We need your help to give Graphic Wars a kick-start.
Post a drawing or photo and watch as it evolves into something entirely
different.
Photo Challenge
ParkinT has really grabbed hold of the reins of the Photography
forum's monthly photo challenge.
We've all heard that "a picture is worth a thousand words." September's Photo Challenge is to post a photo
"for which there are no words." ParkinT's entry is
spot-on! Can you top it?
Content Writing Challenge
This month we introduce the Content Writing Challenge. The idea is to write an
article or story by collaborating with other members. Stop by the thread
and add your two cents worth or just have an enjoyable read! Our topic
this month: "Somebody had to say it!"
Lend a Hand
Whether you're planning to improve your web site or just willing to help
other forum members improve theirs, SitePoint's Reviews and Critiques Forum is the place to visit.
We'll use this space each month to highlight a few of the latest review
and critique requests we find before press time.
This is the place to post if you seek a second, third, fourth opinion on
any recent designs you've developed. It can be anything from logos and
color schemes to that Flash application you've devised for your site.
-
Shabalaka
is looking for some constructive criticism on the new home page of his
portfolio.
-
SummitHosting
wants your opinion of his new Windows hosting site.
-
Sedmi
has requested your input on a number of pages on his web site. Please stop
by and help answer his questions.
Hello There
New Member Welcomes
Be sure to stop by Introductions to welcome our newest members to the
SitePoint community (and encourage them to subscribe to the Community
Crier). We've selected a few recent introductions to help you become
acquainted.
-
From the land of orient pearl, cecille20 joined SitePoint to stay updated on SEO.
-
A retiree from rural England, BobMartin wants to find out more about OOP.
-
xLx says, "If your kung fu is good ... I can make
it better."
-
Jito14 is a web programmer and SEO specialist with six
years' experience.
-
Ace2110 runs a USA-based wine club and hopes to pick
up some SEO tips in order to grow a customer base.
That's it for this month. Thanks for reading and until next month, I'll
see you at SitePoint Forums!
Linda Jenkinson
crier@sitepoint.com
Editor,
SitePoint Community Crier
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