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by JM Strother

Hail and Farewell

October 11, 2012 in Community News, Notices by JM Strother

Cropped portion of the painting Catullus At Lesbia's by Sir Laurence Alma TademaThe title line here comes from the last line of Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus’ famous tribute on the occasion of his brother’s passing. In his eulogy the last line reads, “atque in perpetuum frater ave atque vale,” or, “And forever, brother, hail and farewell.”* While the original poem was a lamentation, the last bit of it, “Hail and Farewell,” has come to be used in celebrations for changes of staff common to many organizations — both to thank exiting personnel for their service, and to welcome those who replace them.

So, while it is impossible to have a formal change of staff ceremony here at FFDO, what with the global distribution of our membership, I do want to take time to formally announce some major staff changes.

E. D. Johnson has decided to step down as Editor here at Friday Flash Dot Org. He has been at it for more than a year and feels it is time for a change. I want to take a moment to personally thank him for stepping in to take up the position at a time when I sorely needed the help. In relieving me of the front page duties of the website, he provided me some breathing space to get through a difficult time. He also helped set a new course for FFDO, implementing what he dubbed the a-team (short for Articles Team). You know the a-team as our regular contributing Correspondents, who bring fresh perspectives on the writing experience to our pages once a week. Please join me in thanking him for all he has done here to keep FFDO on track while I was otherwise engaged.

I also want to thank Estrella Azul, who also stepped up at about the same time, to take another huge load off my shoulders by volunteering to be the community news Editor. In fact, she even came up with the name of our weekly news column, The NewsFlash. She has been steadfast in her weekly efforts to scour Facebook and Twitter for news, and in consolidating the emails and messages members have sent to her. Through her efforts we were all able to share in the wonderful achievements you all accomplished week in and week out. Both these people have been wonderful to work with and in the case of E. D. Johnson, will be missed.

Fortunately Estrella will not be missed here at FFDO because she is still going to be around. I am very pleased to announce that Estrella Azul has graciously agreed to take up the mantle as our new Editor here at Friday Flash Dot Org. Please take a moment to pass on your own congratulations, and welcome her to her new post. Estrella will be managing the content of the front page, and she has some terrific ideas on how best to keep the site active, fresh, and interesting. If you have any ideas or proposals that you think would improve the public presence of FFDO please don’t hesitate to send them to either Estrella or me. You can contact Estrella at estrella.azul@fridayflash.org, and me at jmstro@fridayflash.org with your questions, comments, or suggestions.

Of course with taking up the reigns of Editor, she needs to release those of the NewsFlash. As I found out long ago, doing both is way too much work and will quickly lead to burn out. To help preserve Estrella’s sanity our own Angie Capozello will be filling in as the NewsFlash Editor, at least for a while. So beginning with news for next week please send any hot scoops to her care of angiec@fridayflash.org.

This column would not be complete without taking a moment to thank the others who help make #FridayFlash, and Friday Flash Dot Org a continuing success. Our technical team of Tim VanSant, Angie Capazello, and Susan Chambless keep things humming along, constantly bringing incremental changes to the fore in an effort to improve your browsing experience. Then there is the aforementioned a-team: Cathy Olliffe-Webster, Alex Carrick, Catherine Russell,  Jodi Cleghorn, and our newest contributor Dana Sitar, of the popular blog DIY Writing. Welcome Dana, it is good to have you aboard and we look forward to your posts. These fine writers bring us a rich mix of voices, and varied points of view in order to keep our pages useful and interesting.

Then of course there are all of you, the writers and readers who keep the whole world of #FridayFlash spinning, week after week. Our sincere thanks to you all.
~jon

 

* Quote taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_101
Image taken from Catullus At Lesbia’s by Sir Laurence Alma Tadema, which is in the Public Domain (via the Wikimedia Commons).

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The New Collector Is Up

January 17, 2012 in Community News, Friday Flash, How-To, Notices, Services, Tech by JM Strother

Frday Flash BadgeWe are making a few changes here at FFDO to try and keep the site fresh and exciting. We just launched a brand new Collector courtesy of Tim VanSant. We think you will like it better than the old TikiWiki tracker we’ve used thus far in that it looks much more crisp, is easy to use, and has a couple of new options.

The new features of the Collector are four fold:

  • There is a new field to indicate if your story is part of a series. While we encourage you to write stand alone stories we know many of you write serials and we’re fine with that. Now you can tag them as such when you list them.
  • There is a new field to indicate if your story is narrated. Some of you do podcasts of your stories, which I really enjoy. The new Narrated flag will mark such stories making them easy to find for those who enjoy listening. Both these tags will eliminate the need for you to append such information to your titles, making for a cleaner look.
  • The Collector is now interactive in that once you enter your story details it gets listed at the bottom of the page. This will replace The Master List on the old tracker.
  • All the entries go into a new database. Tim hopes that this will eventually make specific searches possible.

We realize that some of you do not want to wait for the Report to come out and prefer to browse The Master List on Friday or Saturday in order to find and comment on stories in a more timely manner. Listing the stories at the bottom of the tracker as they are entered should help quite a bit in that regard. As of now Tim has it set to list stories added within the last six days, but he may fiddle with the settings over the next couple of weeks for best effect.

And the new database should help people find your old stories as it grows over time. All the more reason to add your links to help create that long tail we always hear about. If someone reads one of your stories and likes it they could search for your name and find all the rest, thus driving more traffic your way. We hope to incorporate the stories from the TikiWiki database sometime in the future as well, but some technical issues will need to be resolved before that happens.

Another improvement enabled by the new Collector is that the entire Friday Flash Report will now be much more automated. The old process was semi-automated thanks to Susan’s good work, but there was still a good deal of drudgery involved. Truth be told, that is why the Report was often late on my part, it simply became a burden to face each and every weekend. Now Tim has it much more automated, so hopefully he will not feel overburdened anytime soon. It also means that the Report will be much more timely than it has been of late.

The staff here at FFDO really appreciate the writers who participate in Friday Flash, be they regulars, debuts, or one-time posters. We strive to keep the site vibrant and alive and are always open to suggestion on how to improve things. If you have any questions on the new Collector, or have any suggestions you would like us to consider please feel free to leave them in the comment section below. You are the best writing community I’ve ever been associated with. Thank you for your ongoing support and participation.
~jon

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What Ever Happened to BOFF 2?

December 29, 2011 in BOFF 2, Community News, Friday Flash, Notices by JM Strother

The youngest black hole knownOne of the most frustrating things a writer faces is sending a submission off into a black hole, never getting a response, not knowing what the heck is going on. Unfortunately BOFF 2 has become something of a black hole for all of you who have submitted. It is well overdue and we are sure the frustration level on your part has to be approaching the limit. We apologize for being so unresponsive and will try to set things straight in this post.

We had 82 submissions in all for BOFF 2. Our initial plan was to have 52 stories chosen from the general submissions to represent one story for each week of a year, the reader’s choice story, and then up to three editor’s choice stories as we have three editors. If you do the math that means a total of 56 stories possible, meaning 26 stories will not make it. We thought one round of judging would bring enough clarity to the situation that we would be able to make those 56 selections without too much trouble. However, after the initial round of judging, wherein every story received three votes, we found that there were only a few stories that had clear cut results, meaning about two-thirds were still a muddle our my minds.

We also had to work around the fact that the submission manager we are using decided that the free account could only have five staff members. Since we have three editors that left room for two judges, which slowed things down, as we had to juggle judges in and out to get three votes on each story. As a result things pretty well bogged down into a state of angst and indecision, at least on my part.

Hopefully that is now all behind us. We have decided to take the stories with 3 positive votes forward and then subject the remainder to another round of judging in hopes that will bring further clarity to the situation. As a result BOFF 2 is now making forward progress again. Additional judges have been recruited and they are now working their way through the stories. As before they will have to be juggled in and out, but the judging process should be completed within a month. We hope we can have the whole project wrapped up by the end of the first quarter of 2012 (end of March, early April time frame).

If after reading all this you have decided you’ve had enough of my bungling around and you wish to withdraw your story we certainly understand. You may be able to find a better home for it elsewhere. If you decide you want to stick with the BOFF we sincerely thank you, and hope we can make your wait worthwhile. Please feel free to use the comments below to ask for further clarification, offer moral support, or simply vent.

We here at FFDO wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year, and great success on the publication front. Keep on writing.
~jon

Photo from NASA, Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/D.Patnaude et al, Optical: ESO/VLT, Infrared: NASA/JPL/Caltech

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FFDO, BuddyPress, and Groups

July 14, 2011 in Dot Org, Groups, How-To, Notices, Tech by JM Strother

A group of men and women outside a building inNorwayLater this week ED Johnson will announce some new features here at Friday Flash Dot Org. Last week he asked for ideas on how we can better serve the community and you all had some great suggestions. We will try to  fulfill some of your requests as we can, and will roll them out over time. We promise not to bombard you with too many changes/enhancements all at once so you have time to learn and absorb each one as they make an appearance.

I don’t want to steal ED’s thunder, so I won’t tell you any more about what is coming, but I do want to key you in on how you can best take advantage of these new features.

FFDO is built on WordPress in conjunction with BuddyPress. BuddyPress is an open-source community support system which allows organizations to build custom environments for their users. That is what we are trying to do here. Much of the BuddyPress magic revolves around the concept of Groups. Groups are simply that, groups of users clustered around a central theme. Groups are not forums, though a group can have a forum. Confused yet? It’s not bad, really.

Groups can be set up to be Public, Private, or Hidden, each with their own features and privacy settings. The BuddyPress site explains the privacy setting for groups as follows:

  • Public groups are visible in all group directories. The contents of the group – activity updates, forum posts, and any additional group functionality you might add through plugins – is publicly accessible. Anyone in your BuddyPress community can join a Public group.
  • Private groups are also visible in group directories. The group name and group description remain available for all to see. However, the contents of the group are accessible only to members. Moreover, group membership is controlled: members of your broader BuddyPress community must request membership, which can only be granted by a group administrator.
  • Hidden groups are invisible to non-members. These group names and descriptions are not listed in site-wide directories, and their contents are accessible only to members of the group. Because the group is unlisted, users cannot request membership. Instead, individuals can only join the group by invitation.

Here at FFDO only Admin groups will be allowed to be hidden. You, as members, are free to set up public and private groups to your heart’s content. Keep in mind that Admins will be able to visit private groups even if we are not invited. If things start to get out of hand we’ll let you know. This is such a great community we really don’t expect many problems.

The new services we intend to roll out in the very new future are going to be based on Private Groups. That means in order for you to get into them you will have to take the initiative and ask for an invite. Then the group administrator will grant you access. This means things you post are not available over the broader Internet. So should you happen to post a story, poem or article you don’t need to worry about the “previously published” dilemma. It also means spammers and hackers will not be active in our group activities.

So how do I request this invite, you ask.

When ED announces the new service just click on the Groups tab on the front page to see a list of available groups. If you are sufficiently interested click on the group title.  This will send a notification to the group administrator who will in turn approve your membership. Once you are approved you will be able to participate fully.

This may all seem somewhat cumbersome, but it is the best way we know to allow us to have a safe and secure environment for us all to interact and help each other grow as writers. And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.

~jon

Photo by Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane, via Flickr Creative Commons

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FFDO Staff News

July 4, 2011 in Community News, Dot Org, Notices by JM Strother

Fireworks from the WhitehouseIt’s July 4th. Here in the States that means Independence Day, which marked the birth of a new nation. It is also Independence Day for the Philippines and the day, in 1817, that work began on the Erie Canal. In short July 4th is a great day to celebrate new beginnings.

So it is here at Friday Flash Dot Org. Today, I have the pleasure to announce that long time member of the Friday Flash community, E. D. Johnson, is taking up the reins as Editor. Last week, Olivia Tejeda informed me that she wished to step down for personal reasons. E. D. was already working for Olivia and FFDO behind the scenes, so I asked him if he would be willing to step in to fill the position.

So please welcome E. D. Johnson as the Dot Org Editor. I am giving him broad editorial control of the front page, but I am sure he would appreciate all the help he can get from the community at large. If you have any ideas you would like to share with him please feel free. He will be making a short post later this week introducing himself and outlining his plans for the future.

The 4th of July seems to be an auspicious date in the publishing world as well. Nathaniel Hawthorn was born on this date. Both Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” first made print on the 4th of July. And it was on July 4th that Henry David Thoreau moved to Walden Pond.

This seems like a great date to launch into a new regime here at Dot Org. I hope E. D. enjoys his stint as Editor. I am sure you all will do your best to help make it a successful one.

Welcome aboard, Edge.
~jon

Photo via Whitehouse.gov

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The #FridayFlash Report – Vol2. #52

June 2, 2011 in BOFF 2, Community News, FridayFlash Report, Notices, Submission Guidelines by JM Strother

Wow, has it been two full years already? This week marks the end of year two. Next week we start it all over again with The Friday Flash Report — Vol 3, and you know where that will likely lead. We closed out the year in fine form with 66 stories and 5 debuts this week. Our debut participants are Dominic Perry, Stacey Larner, Matthew S Williams, Timothy Collard, and Syd Gill. Please give them a warm welcome to the Friday Flash community.

This is the last week you can enter a story for consideration in the Best of Friday Flash – Volume Two. Any story presented as a Friday Flash from the beginning up to and including the ones in this report are eligible for consideration (except if they were in BOFF 1, of course). So if you have not done so already visit the submission guidelines and get that story in before midnight tomorrow night! (Yes, I still need to submit my own – I put the “pro” in procrastination).

As usual, if your story is not in the week’s listing it will be included next week if you visit the Collector and add the details. Speaking of the Collector, you may want to check out my previous post, Heads Up. Someone is obviously using zombie computers to spam the Collector and you may want to see if your computer matches one of the profiles. If so, please take corrective action. I’d hate to have to ban anyone.

I heard from several sources last week that we made the London Evening Standard. Be sure to check out Twitter Inspires Flash of Genius by my new most  favorite journalist in the world, Jasmine Gardner. Yes, if you couldn’t tell, I am a little pleased. Be sure to check out the community news below the listings for more news. If one of the entries looks vaugely familiar, we’ll…

Thanks again to everyone who helps make Friday Flash a weekly success.
~jon Read the rest of this entry →

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Heads Up

June 2, 2011 in Notices, Tech by JM Strother

We occasionally have the Collector spammed by some annoying person or persons unknown. Last time that happened all the offending entries came from the same IP address from somewhere in Russia. I simply banned that IP address and went on. Well, today we were spammed again. About a dozen fake stories with such creative titles as HTFVQoiMhBYEirmfzAR, written by the authors such as BnlBqSMrkkrTi, with the Twitter IDs like ZJTTSjGlniVj were entered into the Collector.

This time each bogus entry came from a separate IP addresses scattered about the world. Our spammer seems to have gotten more sophisticated by taking over some zombie computers and using them to spam the Collector. The typical response is to ban those IP address, but instead of perhaps banning some unsuspecting Friday Flash regulars, I thought it best to let you all know about it so you can scan your computers to make sure you are not running some sort of malware.

If you are from one of these locations and have one of these service providers I suggest you investigate how secure your computer is. I won’t ban these IPs as a knee jerk reaction, instead I hope the jerk gets his zombies shut down by their owners.

Comcast Cable – Powder Springs, GA
Comcast Cable – Port Charlotte, FL
Fasthosts Internet Limited, Gloucester, GB
Comcast Cable – West Mifflin, PA
University of Calgary – Calgary, AB
Comcast Cable – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Comcast Cable – Columbiana, OH
Comcast Cable – Baltimore, MD
VICNET. State Library of Victoria – Melbourne, AU
Comcast Cable – Greenbelt, MD
Telus Communications – Surrey, BC
Road Runner – Bellflower, CA

If one of the above closely resembles your set up feel free to email me and I’ll send you the actual IP address. Then you can go to cqcounter.com (a whois look up service) and check to see if it matches your IP address. If it does, you have a security vulnerability you need to plug. You may also want to report it to your service provider so they can try and track down the originator and ban them from their systems.

In the mean time I’ll just delete the bogus entries in the Collector and carry on.
We now return you to your regular programming.
~jon

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