Topic Incubator...ideas for new topics around the Spring

The austen conference just landed here a week ago and it's sizzling. More that you thought possible to know about the works and media productions of Jane Austen. And some of the most engaging poeple you'll ever want to meet. j austen.

Terry, whatever happened to the parenting/homeschool conference we talked about?

I'll set that up tonight. I was just talking to someone who's very big in the homeschooling scene in Austin today.

...cool, cause the eMinds topic is still languishing woulda thought there would be more interest over there

maddog where are you?

(y'mean "mad-wolf"?)

geez, didn't know I'd cause quite the stir *wolf throws her head back and laughs like a mad scientist*

I always find that here in courpus christi that the spring break bunch are a hot topic, I went to the beach last year and saw a multitude of of interesting (top)ics or is that topless anyway I understand that M-TV is coming to padre island. I bet there will be even more topics or whatever this year. drool

Maybe you'll start a Corpus topic in travel?

or maybe you'll go webcast Spring Break... so we can have a visual of all, those, uh, topics, yeah, that's it...

PERVERT!!!!! *silly laugh*

Maybe I will, and, uh, maybe I won't. I've never been to a spring break.

intoxicating T&A fest!

Never been to one myself, Terry. (and I thought that's why we got along, Stacey...)

Marvin Gaye tunes coming to mind...

You win. You stumped me. 'splain, please... (these 99 hour work weeks are killing me!)

damn, wer... ("let's get it on")... (sheesh!)

(sorry... couldn't help it)...

s'okay, Nick, I asked for it...

thanks for clueing him in nick!

OK, now back on topic..... Terry, what about pet peeves? Man, I could fill that up all by myself!

Sure, where should we start it?

I'll start one in GenX...

In fact, it's at http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/genx/15

other suggestions?

Terry, we want an Animal conference!!!!!!

Are you going to host it?

I think the girls already discussed this in Screwed.

YES! FURRY-CONF NOW! Please????

So, who else was in there? Wolf was hopping about, Isabel had the idea first, or was it Riette? Terry, look here: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/screwed/4.81 , you may want to read the prelude in a calm moment, too,... And I would like to see it called AnimalKingdom. FurryConf ain't bad, but it's specietistic - discriminates against feathered, naked and scaled neighbours! And we don't want none of that here! No speciecism on the Spring!

;=}

and i will be more than happy to host (if y'all want me too)

It was your suggestion; it is your figurative conference...I should think it would be yours to refuse! Go for it and we will purr all over it *smile*

OK I'll create 'animal' with wolf and ree ree as co hosts, ok?

oh thank you thank you thank you, *wagging tail furiously and knocking things over*

Should I add any other cohosts? Should I name it animal (singular) or animals (plural).

i think it should be called the menagerie (or however that's spelled)--maybe just call it the zoo. because we'd need to include spiders and stuff in the topics.

OK I like zoo. Just widdle ree ree and big bad wuffie as coshosts?

I'd be happy to be co-host, Terry, but I nominate Isab�l as co-host - didn't she come up with the idea first? What do you all think?

I don't really know what it would mean to be a co-host and if I got the ability that's needed... I'm not very much into html-stuff, all I can do i writing bold and maybe italics and I never know if it really works, unless I see it posted... But I would love to help (somehow)!

Hey it worked! Look!

You can do italics???? �bowing head in huble admiration� Believe me, Isabel, you cannot possibly be worse with computers than me and Autumn (�grin�) - and I'm a host too!

The same like bold, just put an i into the <> instead of a b!

OK so wolf, ree and isabel are co-hosts of zoo? OK?

Go for it, Terry! Mao says he can't wait any longer to be first cat on "the zoo"!

Boohoo, and I wanted AnimalKin.... Never mind! Wanna see Riette's cuddlies! And all the other's, too!

Only, doesn't Zoo do the wild folks injustice? No speciecism!

3 Co-hosts???? ha-ha, Okay! OH! I nearly forgot that we need a cool name for it... hmm... Ventura's Ark?

Too long. And one word to many.

Zoo, like wolfie said? Zoo is GOOD, isn't it?

zoo good. me like zoo. tarzan like jane.

paul like tofu...

ha-ha!!

If Paul is like tofu, and Tarzan (the old cross-dresser!) like Jane, then what is Stacey like? I like AnimalKingdom! Anti-Speciecists of the World, unite!

Uh, and Zoo like Screwed, you know?

just get the conference going, wouldja? (i like menagerie best)

OK, zoo, going once . . .

Zoo is ok but like Alexander said, it sounds like they are incarcerated. I like AnimalKingdom - or just Animals - that could include some dates I have had...!

Ark?

yeah, springark!

Love it SpringArk !!! do it Terry!

zoo or ark?

ARK as in saving the animals, not incarcerating them...no?

Ark, going once.

Ark. We won't let them drown.

Going twice.

morning Paul! going three times! I like it!

Gone! ark it is then!

Either riette, wolf, isabel or stacey (the hosting team) has to join and create a topic for it to be active. No one else can go there till one of these folks does that. Go to the ark, in pairs, please and one of these hostesses will check you in.

SpringArk is up and running now at http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/SpringArk/all

Thank you, sir!

Are you, Marcia, supposed to be on the host team as well?

OK....it�s great to create new topics but have you ever noticed that compared to the number of conferences and topics in the Spring, there is only a very small group of people taking part in the discussions actively and regularly (outside drool). New people are rare or at least they don�t stay for very long. Why is that, anybody figure? Seems to me that there is something wrong with the inside culture of this place (again, I�m not talking about drool). New people are not actually welcome in the other topics and every now and then they�re practically chased away in a subtle or a less subtle way. Topics end up with the familiar small group of regulars having fun together and having actually not much to say.

My services were requested when it was apparent that Isabel needed help and wolf and ree were busy ladies. My conference does not need extensive time anymore so I will be happy to help as much or as little as is needed. Please enter me as host, as well. Thnak you! Elena come back to Geo - you promised us pictures of your back yard and its denizens! Beetles in particular...!

Elena, Spring is like any place you go in the real world. If you are friendly and interested in what is going on in a topic and post that way, you will be welcomed just as in Drool. I have found no exclusionary tactics here. And, I was a Droolian to begin with, just as you were. Many topics need rejuvination. I have also done that...and when you do, others will appear and have a conversation with you. Please try again. John is a new guy here who is quite at home now. You just need to befriend the pe ple here and they will reciprocate.

Yep, the only 'internal culture' going on in this part of the Spring is a lack of pedestals.

Amen, Ree! Long may it remain just that way.

We welcome any newcomers with open arms! Please invite all your firends online and offline to join us!

Of course one can always diminish a problem or an argument by personalizing it but surprise, I wasn�t talking about myself only, I was talking about the hermetic Spring culture in general. I think this is a thing to discuss but self-criticism isn�t fun of course, however fruitful and even fun it could be.

I'm a newy! And I never felt the Spring being hermetic in the two weeks I'm here. (Two weeks? ...seems much longer to me) I never felt offended or not welcome at all ( Maybe it was so subtle, I didn't notice). Ok, they're a nosy bunch sometimes (*grin*), but nobody ever was unfriendly or even offending. Some might have been a bit, let's say - cautious? at first, but I can be, too (I never talk to strangers, mommy told me so). There may have been some misunderstandings, too, but that was partly caused by me - wasn't I cheeky when I entered the Spring? (hihi!) (...and me not giving a real email-adress might have caused misunderstandings, too. Just didn't know I should've done it. Found out later, that I was - nearly - the only one who'd done that) And I had problems with some reactions to my posts first, but so what? You can't expect people to react like you want them to! [I'm still pouty, that NOBODY cared what happened to me in screwed after the brain-suckers from outa space got hold of me ;-( Why do I keep coming back? Maybe it isn't me any longer? Maybe I got brainwashed? What have ya done into this psychedelic screwed-backdrop, Terry?] And I haven't made the experience that I can't take part - See I just jumped in! BTW, some thought me coming from drool and so I looked it up. I can't say if people there are friendly or not (I assume they are!), because I didn't join. Drool seemed very hermetic and cryptic to me. I'll never find out what you girls are talking about, sorry! I don't mean this as an affront, but I REALLY just can't understand all the acronyms there and what keeps you talking about - ooh - filmstars? ( Would take me a whole lifetime, to get into this) I can't tell why the community is so small ( In my stadium as a lurker, I got the impression that it's much bigger, don't know why), why people aren't coming back or if somebody was chased away, and if it were so, I can't tell what to change. Can you? But what have I to say? Nothing that really matters, I like talking rubbish! If it gets serious, in philosophy e.g., I keep away - My heads to small for thinking! ( I fear I could loose some of the bullshit in it) Please forgive me! ;-)

We're all getting to know each other and we're growing. I don't like it when people we love drop away. If our chemistry keeps happening, other people will sense it and want to be a part of what we have going. It's fun here, there are a lot of communities on the net that are rougher and tougher and where the level of discourse isn't near what we have here.

Isabel, you know you are one of us. (some day I might tell you just what you happened to stumble into, but not right now...)It is, as Terry points out, a colder and crueller world out there. In here I am home and warm and fuzzy, even when we disagree. We are never intentionally cruel, and when you happen on us on a bad day (I am talking like Queen Victoria with the "us" and "we"!), we spend a week trying to make amends for any hurt we have caused. *Hugs!* We genuinely care about each other on the Spri g...at least, I know I do!

Oh, and I spent over 2 years in Drool before I ever ventured out. Now I free float back and forth. It is most assuredly different in there, but not one whit less nurturing than elsewhere, and perhaps more protective than any other place on Spring. I am truly sorry about your brain suction from space monsters, and for giving you grief if I did so!

Nothing to be sorry about! No offense taken! Everything's fine! :-) Don't worry your little head to much! ( I won't anyway!)

Nothing to be sorry about! No offense taken! Everything's fine! :-) Don't worry your little head too much! ( I won't anyway!)

Ya mean it's ok to go back to the kitties and fishies and stuff like that?! OKAY! ...race ya!

Oops! Why do I always say things twice? Ok, it's 4:30 in the morning (!) Have to get some sleep! Good night.(Oh, Ok, wanted to make the second o on too, that's why this happened!)Gawd, hafta go sleepin' look at da watch!

you got your brains sucked out? (see, i don't venture into screwed too much)...maybe that's a topic to be discussed in paraspring! aliens and all *grin*

Sorry hafta race to bed. Tomorrow's another day for playing and having fun with ya kids. ( You know Calvin and Hobbes "The days are just packed!" - love them!) Good night, John Boy!

night mary ellen...

Why are you always quicker than me are? Yeah, let's relive paraspring, that's agood plan for tomorrow! But I REALLY have to go sleepin' now, ot else I won't have time to play with you tomorrow. I just quit now, Ok? GOOD NIGHT!

What's that plays name? "You'll never get out of this topic alive"? *grin* Night Wolfie, night Marcia! I will REALLY go sleepin now.....................................

me too (but it's 9:30 PM here)

G'night - it is still afternoon here...!

you don't sleep do ya?

I do - but it is only 4:40pm here (Thursday) and I will go to sleep about 10pm. The PC goes off at about 8pm and on at 7am (or earlier) tomorrow...so I do sleep! You are out playing while we are still waiting for the sun to get to us.

I AM concerned about Isabel being up till 4:30am, though! She must not sleep at all!

Elena, does Drool not consider itself a part of the Spring? Marcia, perhaps Isabel is being .... uhm ... abused by the brain-fuckers from outta space! Ya know ... SAXUALLY! Ha-ha! Isabel, I'm glad you feel at home here; you're a cool one. And we Europeans will outnumber these Yanks yet!!

Hehe, now, ain't that true? And then we'll mouth off, and never get visa again :=/ Anyhow, Riette, you're right, could be a trend here - I got a Nachbar, a neighboer, a neighbrit, a neighportuguese and a neighfinn! I must be a rich man! Talking about neighfinn - Elena, what do you think about this? I mean, they all sound so happy up there, but yet, something resonated in me from what you wrote... Hmh.

Rise and shine! It's 13:30 and I just got up. So you see I do sleep!. I cam eback from a concert at 2 or 3 o'clock last night, and I was sooo nosy about the Ark that I had to look up all the new topics, before I went to sleep. But I got that problem, that I can hardly sleep at nights, but can't get up early in the morning...

Alexander - We won't get a visa if we would, let's say - purely theoretically spoken ( I would never do something like this!) - make little funny jokes about - uhm - THE IMPERIALISTS! They wont let us board their beautiful country, REALLY?

Riette, I don�t know why you�re asking! Isabel, I liked to read about your newbie experiences....yes, Drool can look cryptic for those who don�t know all the names of the movies of *someone* by heart, like MLSF etc. It can be very off-putting, I know. But I don�t think Drool is hermetic, people there really sincerely wish newbies to join in and we also show it openly when it happens. I wouldn�t like any sort of cliques to spoil Drool and if there are some, at least they�re wise enough not to manifest themselves too much. Well, I think there was a minor crisis last March when a part of the Drooleurs met in London and others could only read about it! But Drool survived..... The more regulars we have, the more information and opinions, that�s the only way it can work. Ignoring somebody and talking only to the members of your own club is what makes new people leave and I think that many of the Drool people are aware of this.

Hmh.....Alexander, what�s that resonating Something?? (D�you ever feel like an alien.....:-)

D'ya ever feel like an alien? The first time we went to Britain, it was the oddest notion to this American that I had become an alien AND an immigrant at the same time. Very unsettling! We are the losers for making European countried obtain Visas...do not understand why in the least...other good and friendly places, as well.

I'm frustrated. I loaded all posts since whenever and logged off the net, because we have these extremely expensive phone costs here (upside: WE have ISDN...), so I wrote sumpdin' really pretty and nice for Elena and Riette and everybody, tried to dial up and submit, and BANG! lost all to some http error 404-crap. Bah! Go to a party now, try again tomorrow (when I come to again...). Cheerio, dear people!

Party Hearty, Alexander, and put your supply of aspirin by the computer...just in case!

Ooops, next time save your eloquent post to the clipboard or to a text file at least!

Terry, I've been having hosting trouble with my PhinisheD community (bb for stalled dissertation writers), and was wondering if you'd take it in, at least for a while. I'm moving back to Chicago, and just don't have time to go shopping for a new virtual hosting outfit. The board is broken right now (can't read messages) but you can get the flavor by looking at the index page: http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/phinished/phin.cgi This feels like deja-vu all over again. The conference probably should be named phinished Amy

Sure, phinished can have a home here. We'll create a conference if you supply us with a description, introduction, and, most important, list of hosts. We'll roll out the welcome wagon.

Thanks so much, Terry. Description: A discussion and support group for people who cannot seem to finish their dissertations or theses. Intro: This discussion and support group is for you if: - You are sick to death of people asking you "How is your dissertation [or thesis] coming?" (but you really would like to talk about your troubles in finishing -- with anybody except those who keep asking, no matter how genuinely concerned they may be, or may seem to be). - You have vague fears about finishing, but don't feel you have a safe outlet for discussing whatever it is you seem to be afraid of. - You're having organizational problems or blocks. - You are not getting the kind of support you need -- from your university, your employer, your family members or friends. Maybe you don't even know what kind of support you need, just that you don't have it! Face-to-face support groups offered by your university don't suit you, for whatever reason - You've been in this stagnant state of incompletion, and want to help those still plugging, or flailing. And it might be for you if: - You are an undergrad thesis writer, novel writer, or other type of writer staring down a mountain to climb that seems to touch the moon. If you can cull something from the discussion here, good, but the board's focus will hover tightly around graduate students, who seem to possess some singular needs and fears. - You are a family member or SO who wants to try to understand the pressures. Hosts would be me, Amy (I'm lowercase amy here, amyloo@bluemarble.net), Rochelle (t_rwilli@bellsouth.net), and Tom (ab9619@wayne.edu).

OK. Have pointed the poor lost souls to the anticipated URL. http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/phinished/phin.cgi

It is up and running, Amy...

You guys are great. Thanks so, so much.

You've got a new conference, Amy? Tell us more about it! Alexander, you wrote somethin' nice fer us? Awe! �:-O

Riette, PhinisheD is a small but active group of graduate students who listen to each other's stories of academic backstabbing, make pacts with each other about work on their dissertations, and generally cheer each other on. No, I'm not one. Since getting my B.A. in 1974 I've done nothing along those lines, save writing for grad school catalogs maybe a dozen times. I set up the bulletin board two years ago to help Henry (Terry you remember The Mysterious H.C.). He never did take to the group much, but did finally earn his PhD last year, and it's really helped a lot of other people. They're a very warm-hearted bunch, and I guess if you were desirous of their branching out into other areas of the Spring, you might want to ask their advice about topics that come up in other conferences to draw them in -- use them as experts. Who doesn't like to say what they know? They come from just about any field you can imagine. I think my bios database is still working. That script doesn't seem to have bogged down the server of my cut-rate little ISP as the webbbs script seemed to. "http://crossmyt.com/~amyloo/cgi-bin/prophiles/db.cgi?uid=default&view_records=1&ID=*

Yapp didn't see fit to include the asterisk at the end of that URL. If you put it in manually, you should be able to see all the database entries.

Thanks to the pervasive conf admin!

Tom and Rochelle were either unable or just didn't register as just plain Tom and Rochelle, but as TomJ and RochelleW, and so they aren't getting the host privileges. Wer, could you change them in the config file? I don't seem able to; I guess I'm not in the cfadm group anymore.

Thanks, Amy! Do you think they'd branch out into the rest of the Spring if we asked them to? It would be great to get more people over here, and they sound like an interesting bunch.

They are interesting, every last one of them. I think in time they might spread out if encouraged in a light way. Alexander's invite to Rochelle was nice. He asked her to drop by Geo; she's in earth science. I think it's like going into a new family, like when you go visit an SO's family for the first time and don't quite get the family humor and stuff? I have to say I felt a little invaded by mrchips coming into the Celebration Hall topic. It's a special thing when somebody passes their defense or comps, we always post congratulations and it's very inspiring to all the others still toiling and worrying. I guess I felt a little violated, not in any enormous sense, but just kind of put off that the topic was j ked about? I guess in time we'll all get used to the little one-liners and harmless banter. I'm probably being too -- too.

Thank you Alexander!! I was about to give free samples to the first ones through the door - just to get people to peek into Geo - including John, the elusive. He peeked and fled. It is not that bad or that boring...! Amy, Your conference looks wonderful - congratulations!

And the usernames have been corrected as hosts for the conf, Amy.

Thanx, wer!

I had a look at your conference as well - it's good. I can see how it is different from the stuff we go on about in here. Studying is fun, but hard as well - I think it's a great place for keeping people's spirit up.

Good words from '99 from Riette Walton.