--- Greg wrote: > Kenyon, > You and the rest of the guys have done a tremendous > job on the site! I flip back and forth between the > site and the emails all day long. That's good to hear, and thanks for saying something. Folks sure don't say much here on the IML, and sometimes it feels like we're not doing much in the way of viewership or helping/entertaining folks because it's so quiet within our own club email group here, but we do get pretty good traffic says the electronic traffic meter and we keep on going, as Sir Edmund Hillary said about climing Mt. Everest: "Because It's There". > > Do you update the repair section with additional > info as it comes on the regular emails? Or do you > just let the additional info be found through the > search function? > At one Time Chris Trettin was doing a lot of serious archiving and organizing in that area (her work is still visible) and updating the various "aggregate communal knowledge" areas quite regularly. Sadly, she's left the group, and I think that the Archive Search function has taken on greater meaning since she stopped adding things, unless one of the volunteers is doing something that they aren't advertising to the rest of us. We all have our own projects, work at our own pace, and live as far apart as folks on the IML do. We volunteers communicate about website related activity via email on a seperate IML-like message board called WebMonsters. There's been no mention of work on this area recently that I'm aware of.....(webmonsters? anyone know differently?) The general rule is to stake out an area of interest/passion, figure out how to make it happen, and go do it. That's what's behind things like the movies that you can watch, the Registry, and the Scale Models section. Someone decided that it was time that we had it, got the thing going, and BAM - there's a whole new section. What is it about our demographic that produces such passion and good manners both here and on the club website's creative group? > Is there a way to see if the AUTOBiographies in the > Imperials By Year section have been updated? Kind-of. For > example: I'm interested in all Imperials but > specificaly 64-66. I go into the Imperials By Year > section , click on 64, then would have to click on > each person in the AUTOBiographies to see if they > updated or photos added, etc. Then I do the same for > 65 and 66. Is there some place that I could see that > tells you that something has been updated or added? Not explicitly, no. There is the WHAT'S NEW section. There's also a bar at the bottom of almost every page on the website that denotes the last time that it was updated. Both of these are clues to how "seasoned" the information is, but there's no list of such. Skim WHATS NEW once a month is my advice. We have a hard enough time organizing the junk that we're already working on, so I'd not expect too much on that front, but you never know. Amazingly, with at least 700 members on the IML and at least triple that many that have subscribed and subsequently left over the years, there are surprisingly few people that have submitted AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, much less updated theirs. Kerry Pinkerton has to be the Babe Ruth of that genre http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Interior/Leather/index.htm http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Body/Painting101/ http://www.dte.net/57imperial/54saga/index.htm http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1957/Kerrys57saga/explanation.htm http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Body/BodyandPaint/index.htm http://www.imperialclub.com/~imperialclub/Yr/1973/Kerrys73saga/index.htm http://www.dte.net/57imperial/50saga/index.htm but getting more than a paragraph out of most people is just murder. He balances out about 40 other people that didn't say a word and just sent photos. Note that the most that a popular Imperial year might have is 20 AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, and many years only have one or two, so that's an area that's hurting to one degree or antother, and it could be an even more exciting space than it already is with a little more participation from the group. I'd say that we "maybe" get one or two new profiles/updates submitted per month (not counting the ones that I snag for unusual cars that show on ebay like the 1942 Limo). I've written repeatedly here about taking a photo of your car at a local point of interest, writing up a small story about it's features, reasons for being in your family, and so forth, but we get a weak response on that at best. I should think that a freebie web-page of your car in the Pantheon of Imperial Heroes would be attractive, but... You can lead a horse to water, but you can't get him to submit/update his car-story all that easily, it seems. > > How do you come up with the member highlights? Do > they contact you or do you look for volunteers? I > would love to see more of these. http://imperialclub.com/IML-specific/Spotlight/index.htm That was a section that was last run by Leslie Ketterhofen, and she's left the volunteer group for other pursuits, so there hasn't been a new interview for some time now. We have not yet found a new person willing to solicit interviews with club members and others (and there are some really interesting folks here - Bob Hoffmeister might be one I'd ask first). Doing this would consist of coming up with a questionnaire (crib what's already done?), finding people, and getting them to respond/submit photos. The other volunteers would definitely be able to create the final page once that work was done. We're all volunteers, and we each have our areas of interest and energy levels - this item has languished without someone to champion it. Email proficiency and good manners are about the only requirements to do it. Anyone want to spend some time to flesh this area out? Greg? (hey! You asked!!) > > As long as I'm asking questions, how about linking > the sections that show photos and stories of > Imperials that are undergoing restorations and are > restored into a RESTORATION ARCHIVE? > You'd have to provide more free beer and pizza than you could afford to get us to do that. Thinking about the electronic logistics alone makes my brain swim, but if someone can think up a way to pull it off and wants to get behind doing it, well, this is a CLUB and we're always happy to get people involved and participating however we can. Nothing happens until "somebody" does something. I'm here partly because Hugh Hemphill was making public comments about 1958 being such a miraculous page on the website and all that jive (back when there was almost nothing posted at all on any page and he had sent in a cluster of pretty nice ads that he'd amassed over the years). Well, 1960 is my passion, and that page is now better filled out than 1958 (- and fortunately for me, there happened to be more info available and I was able to do what's there today with it, or I'd STILL be listening to guff about 1958's) > Keep up the great work!! > Thanks Greg - I'm sure that the rest of the WebMonsters are following this thread - it was nice to see you voice ideas, compliments, and questions! -Kenyon ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm