We're moving along with more software to play with.
If you check the "Families" tab, you will see more capability there.
The idea is:
1. by default, new members join the "Main Family".   You can stay there, or, if you wish, you can look and see if there is another family you might like to join.
Right now, the only other choices are "Vicious Writers" and "The Clumsy Investor".
2. A "description" needs to be available for each family. What it does, areas of interest, etc.  That has not been done yet.
3. Then there is the option to "join" that family.
4. There is a special discussion board specifically for that Family.
5. Special rules and options can be set at the discretion of the Family Moderator.
6. You can publish work only to that Family, or to the whole website.

Have a play with it, see what you think. We'll just keep working on it.
There are going to be problems, and we'll just try and idnetify them all one at a time, and fix 'em.

9/6/2011
Hiya. It never stops. Modifying and upgrading. Code modification #019 is up for testing. At the bottom of the main page are numbers 1-2-3-4-etc. This is meant to help you scroll back through time to previous posts. It seems to work just fine, except the main post (top post) repeats on every page. (We will change that) It's nice when you just miss reading a story, because of new posts. Now you can simply go back a page or two.    Let me know your thoughts!  

7/26/11

Welcome Vicious Writers!

A warm welcome to Damian, Reese, Laura, Lexy, dizzy izzy, Electrode, whoamI,  Aileen Maltese, Legion, alternativeb and HoorayforUnderdog.  

That's some great talent dropping by to support us. All of you are able to post articles and comments straight away.

I'm discussing some ideas with our coders. Feel free to email me with your suggestions.

We are thinking of adding a label "Families" on the Main Page, between "Contact" and "our Friends". Click on that, then a drop-down box opens up. It shows all the families so far, including "Vicious Writers". Click on that, it would take you to the "Vicious Writers" menu.

Now, what options should that menu give you?

I reckon at least these:

A) option to join the "Vicious Writers" family. Damian will be the leader. And he can appoint another moderator if he chooses.
B) option to see the profiles of members of the family.
C) "private" family discussion board, accessible to family members only.
D) Links to family members "personal writing studios".

SOME of this software has already been written a while ago, but not fully tested yet.  

Francis

7/26/11

Main Page Art Work Project


That anchor on the main page was meant to be just a temporary banner. Somehow, it has lasted 4 years.
I'm looking for ideas to jazz that up a bit. I have a vague idea of some Art Work featuring a clipper ship, sailing across the Ocean, with the odd palm tree and sunset floating about the place.

I'm wide open to INPUT....

Francis

UPDATE:  Here's the sequence of events for new members....

The following are the steps with the new registration:

1. user registers
2. They get an email and click to activate their account and send email to admin to activate their account as well
3. Admin approves the user account.

(This attempts to cut off the "bots" and the automated porn programs.)

Francis

4/25/2011

The glitch is that NEW members are getting the run-about on signing in with their user name and passwords. The old members don't have the problem, so it's a glitch with the software update.  What happens is that you log in with your user name and password (case sensitive) and it tells you they are not correct, but that you can try recovering your account.  You try that, and it doesn't work either. Frustrating, I'm sure. It's being worked on as we speak. meanwhile, you can always email me and let me know if you're having that same problem. I check the Admin inbox, or just email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com

Keep the faith! We'll fix it yet.

Francis

UPDATE:  Here's the sequence of events for new members....

Basically following are the steps with the new registration:

1. user registers
2. They get an email and click to activate their account and send email to admin to activate their account as well
3. Admin goes to forum and approves the user account.

4/23/2011

What's working just fine is posting stories, and inserting images, YouTube videos, hyperlinks and audio recordings. Once you are IN to the site, everything works great. I've posted hundreds of stories, images and YouTube videos with no problem.

However. What's lately causing us migraine headaches is the "New Member" joining procedure. What's going on is that we are totally flooded out by new member applications (almost a thousand) which are mostly automated "bot" computer garbage programs. These programs are capable of not only automatically joining a site, but also -repeatedly- posting the same old porn, hyperlinks and bizarre doodles. Of course, these bogus applications swamp the legitimate "real human" users.

We're working with the coders to try and sort this out. Meanwhile, feel free to email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com

WE WANT NEW MEMBERS. REAL, LIVE HUMAN BODIES. COME AND JOIN US.

Francis

4/15/2011

A New Face to Writers Harbor

As you can see, we have a new appearance to the Harbor, and that is part of a steady trickle of improvements.  More than anything else we would like the Harbor to provide reading and writing pleasure for all. That means a continuing effort to make it user friendly, efficient, and versatile.
As always, email me at francismeyrick@yahoo.com anytime with suggestions.

Francis

3/21/2011

Friends

Looks like we have had a malicious hacker attack on the site, with some major files being mysteriously deleted.

We are attempting to restore from backups.   It ain't easy.

Oh well...

Francis

12/25/2010

Happy Christmas!

The site has been up for the best part of three years now. During which time we have quietly developed a lot of capability WITHIN each post. Images, fonts, colours, YouTube videos, series function, hyperlinks, it all works well.
Two other domains are embedded ("hosted") within "writers harbor. ORG" (www.tunaboathelicopters.org and www.myoilyfinger.org)and that is all working just fine as well. If you have your own domain, you can embed it within the site as well if you wish, to take advantage of the site's features and tools.
We have had thousands of visitors, and some stories have been downloaded ("hits") thousands of times.

There are hundreds and thousands of writers' web sites out there, some of which last a long time, others of which suddenly disappear. I've not pushed real hard for members at all cost. It's nice to grow, but the site already works well, and I'm not panic stricken about not having thousands of members. Some sites push for membership like demented road warriors. But sooner or later, the reason becomes clear: intrusive pop up advertisements everywhere. I gave up on "MySpace" when I couldn't find the page controls anymore. It was that cluttered with advertising garbage. Here on Writers Harbor, we just soldier quietly on.

I'm turning my attention now to "site navigation".
We are looking at ways to make it easier for new members and visitors to "explore" the site. That will mean some serious beta testing, and -probably- an upgraded opening page.

That which a writer (or reader) does within the story page, is well developed, works good, and is streets ahead of many other sites. However, the overall site navigation for newbies, is a bit complicated.
We're working on it.

As always, you can contact me anytime at francismeyrick@yahoo.com

I wish everybody a safe 2011. Life is not always good, but it is always interesting.  And there are always good people around, the trick is just to recognize them from the two-faced, devious back stabbers that also abound.

In terms of Politics and Economics, 2011 and beyond looks scary.
In terms of Life, Death and the Universe, nothing is radically different. We are still the same, small, insignificant, limited creatures that inhabit a remote speck of dust called Earth.

Carl Sagan had it right.


Francis

The SERIES function is both a little complicated, and also rather interesting to use. Go to your "ACCOUNT" button. Click on it.
Then look left to "Create series".
Once you type in a name for the series, then you drag and drop any of your titles to the open box below.
Hit "apply" and you're done.

To "edit" a series, click on the title in the left hand panel.

In this way the whole site is becoming easier to navigate.

Francis

November 10th 2008

That completes the posting of "Jeremy's War". That's all the chapters on the site. Also, if you notice, once you open ANY chapter, on the left side, you get the whole series. So it becomes easy to click on the next chapter in sequence. Looks much tidier as well.

I'm not too sure how to handle the jumble that's beginning to appear under "View all works". Once somebody actually clicks on a chapter, then the above mentioned "series box" is neat and in sequence. But what you see under "view all works" is less pretty.
We'll work on it.

Francis

If you're suddenly unable to log in, as has happened to one of our members, you can always contact me by email, francismeyrick@yahoo.com

There always seems to be the odd gremlin trying to drive me around the bend....

There is a new feature available. A "guest hits" counter.

If you go into any writer's "view all works" function (click on name + click on 'view all works') you will now see an extra column labeled "hits". This counts all non-member internet clicks on the story or poem concerned. It measures "guests" activity as it were. The "member views" column continues to show how many Writers Harbor site members have clicked on the story. Voting and commenting can still only be done by site members.

We hope of course that more people will take the small trouble to sign up and become more active...

Admin

April 8th, 2008

As you will see on the opening page, the "most active readers" (who participate in the site by leaving comments and feedback) are now being recognized for the part they play, in their own listings.

There have been several inquiries from people who wanted to know if it was okay to join although they were not writers. Sure! Of course it is.

Join up, and have fun!

March 6th 2008

Our ever diligent coders have added a new feature: the capability to insert clips from YouTube. If you check out the story "Separation" (go to Francis Meyrick, click on his name, look left, click on "view all works") you will see an example of the use of this feature.
It's also on "Piano Lessons"
and
"The Lonely Butterfly - part 1"

To use this feature, look for the small YouTube icon in the control panel when you are posting work. You need to insert the 8-15 character long alphanumeric soup you see in every YouTube URL. In the example of "separation" the code was: "P_C_WxkSJ5g".

The Writers Harbor software does the rest.