It's BrickFest-eve-eve! 3 a.m. and I'm still getting ready. I bet I'm not alone though. Heh, heh.

And here I'd thought I started preparing -so- early this year... but once again, AFOL-ness filled up my time with no difficulty. Between looking for a new head of LUGNET, trying to catch up on old posts, hunting down parts via BrickLink, and squaring things away at home before I leave.. It added up to more than I could do. ...I am so very bad at estimating my time.

Some last-minute "MOC-triage" leaves a few models home (till next year). ..a bummer because they were close to being finished. But, I shouldn't feel too surprised. Having just moved my whole LEGO collection to a new location meant that in order to fine-tune anything, I had to go rummaging through the disorganized piles of parts, and it became too time-consuming to justify. But at least I can say I'm bringing something. this will be my first fest (of four) that I'm actually showing a model.

Priorities now are to get my clothes packed and pull together these mountains of minifigs I'm bringing. My plane takes off at 10:30. Yesterday I was ripping my hair out - in a total panic, but now I'm starting to feel less stressed and more excited. ..and, okay, a little high off Mountain Dew.

The one thing I'm still sweating about is wanting to make a bigger LUGNET announcement. Kinda like my MOCs, this project is oh-so-close to being in a "next stage" where it's time to share it with others. I'm pushing on things a bit - to try and get it there for Friday night, but yikes.. some things just take time. It'd be really bad for me to announce something which shortly afterward fell through, or which later didn't pan out. But if I have nothing "real" to report yet, I'll be disappointed. Well, I know what you're thinking: telling people -anything- will be good at this late date. I know. People have been wondering for way too long. I just wish I knew more things for sure.

I hope net access is free at the hotel... I have a feeling my laptop will be busy there all weekend. Hm, and I hope the weather won't be too hot. ..ah! I can at least check that online.

[leaving now to check forecast and finish getting ready]

[sigh] So. For weeks now, the plan was for me to make a nice happy announcement at the beginning of BF. I wanted to put minds at ease. But the organizers apparently have a problem with that, so tossed my request and printed the program with a LUGNET *Roundtable* at the *end* of the fest instead. (?!) Hmm. Imagine my surprise on Sunday when I saw that.

The announcement will still happen on LUGNET of course (just as soon as the deal is made more official), but a BF roundtable? I'm still thinking on this one...

This is a portion of a draft of an announcement I'll soon make to LUGNET. The goal of the post will be to inform users of Todd's and my decision to withdraw as owners, to provide assurance that disruption will be avoided whenever possible, and to name what would happen in the worst-case scenario. ( Read more... )

So, a friend just asked me:

> How are you?

He got a very honest answer because he's a friend (friends get that stuff). Then I remembered some advice I got recently which was to go ahead and post how I feel because it's part of the bigger picture. So, here's what he got (edited slightly):( Read more... )

OMG, I am so tired. ..no, burned out. that's it.

I haven't posted here in like a million years.. It's not because I haven't been working on LUGNET stuff. It's because I've been SO BUSY with LUGNET stuff. AAaargh! I think I'm going insane at this point.

I never really liked e-mail communication, ...ok, I hate e-mail communication. And I've now broken all records of correspondence volume and density. Not even during dot-com long distance love affairs have I written this much for this long. I am the Queen of cut and paste.. My spelling ability has soared. I wish my typing speed would go up, but I'm afraid that's not happening.. I've lost a few pounds from forgetting to get up and eat.. my books and magazines are wailing from abandonment. My cat is happy because he no longer has to follow me around the house. He just plops at my feet in the morning, knowing I won't be going anyplace for a very very long time. It's official, I have less than no life.

But stuff is getting done.

Current Music: Japan-A-Radio

I started talking with people on LUGNET about their use of NNTP in a post here:
http://news.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=13070

The following is my response after the thread has grown to 24 messages.

Subject: Re: Dear NNTP users,
Author: Suzanne Rich Green
Newsgroups: lugnet.admin.general
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:56:08 GMT

In lugnet.admin.general, Suzanne Rich Green wrote:
> For those of you using newsreaders, I have a few questions.I'm curious:
>
> what other sorts of stuff do you follow via newsreader? Anything cool?
> Are there many things you've been forced to switch to viewing other ways?
> How do you follow rss feeds?
> Is there any such thing as a good aggrigator?
> What's up with projects like nntp//rss?

Thank you, thank you!

I am so happy with the responses and discussion in this thread. It's great for
me to hear all your views and to learn so much in a hurry. Some of it's over my
head. ..I'll still need to read the posts carefully, and take a few notes to
makeup a summary. Don't stop talking though!

(Actually, If any of you are feeling ambitious, I'd love a little "cheat sheet"
lowdown/summary on what we have determined and how we feel about nntp.)

I'm trying to complete a report addressed to potential new site owners that
lists our (we LUGNET users') concerns for the future. I'd like for it to include
a wishlist with suggestions. In the case of NNTP, I might have a couple bullet
points like: NNTP is priority level "X" and here are a few suggestions for
simplified support.

I'm discussing all this with you because I'm an old geek who was using the
Usenet a million years ago. I like it. And I highly doubt a re-build of LUGNET,
or a moving of its groups would support NNTP. LUGNET's unique ability leads to
my feeling of urgency.

At the beginning of my "shutdown/rebirth" discussions, a few months ago, my
initial priority list showed NNTP at the top. But when I left Boston, it dropped
off the "save-it" list entirely. The sort-order had changed, and suddenly it was
gone. I'm not happy about having to switch from a paper that was essentially
titled: "Things to beg the Heavens to save" to a new one titled: "Triage at
best"

....

Does it make any sense for me to set up a poll for LUGNET members? I'm thinking
not, but perhaps you have ideas I don't. What might we ask? What about a
question or two for .general?

....

Do -any- of you know of anyone/anything/anyplace that can help?
(Yes, that was an intentionally vague question, sorry.)

....

I still am curious if rss-to-nntp converters are any good. I'm guessing they're
not because the rss feeds do not come with enough info to take advantage of a
typical newsreader's more powerful features. Am I correct? Anyone tried it? I
admit, I have not.

Please pardon my ignorance.. I should read up on this stuff, but.. I'm so short
on time here.

Is there any such thing as a beefy rss feed? What if someone were to provide,
say, in addition to a standard rss feed, a deviation [gasp] which sneakilly
contained extra stuff specifically for an rss-to-nntp converter to use? that is,
to fool a newsreader into recognizing rss as fullblown news. Hmm, sounds like a
dumb idea now that I say it, considering how different the two are..


Hee-hee ...now I'm imagining silly names for such a bastard feed. [in voice of a
distinguished gentleman AFOL] "Why, yes, I subscribe to LUGNET groups via
snurp!" (^^) That sounds like a Todd-ism. How about ...psst? ...strn? ..sprts!
Yes! lol. "My news comes to me in SPuRTS."

okay. Too much coffee. (^_^)

-Suz (trying to keep a sense of humor)

Here's the link to the above post:
http://news.lugnet.com/admin/general/?n=13099

This was written weeks ago. I'm posting things now to the journal in reverse chronological order. I hope this won't make things too confusing..

Background: At about the time I left Boston, Todd and I had just discussed the big picture. It was my feeling that the site should be broken into obvious pieces. If LUGNET could be shaved down to something more manageable, perhaps it could continue in a lighter-weight format. ( Read more... )

Here's a thing I was going to send to rtlToronto and NELUG, but didn't because in hindsight it looks misleading. Like either I'm shepherding the LUGs away to ORA's wimpy UGnetwork, or I'm excitedly telling them about something pointless...

I'll soon announce this on LUGNET, but I want to tell you first to get feedback if you have any. O'Reilly (who's the publisher of the "animal-cover" computer books and is partners with No Starch and Syngress) has invited LEGO User Groups to participate in their "User Group & Professional Association Program". This essentially means a weenie-bit of public recognition of the LUGs as "real" User Groups (please pardon the implication you'd be anything less!) within the hardcore geek community. (heh, it also means we can rub our "L.U.G." URLs in the faces of Linux users everywhere! muahaha)

-------------- - - - - - -
Please pardon this interruption: I'll go insane if I can't use my usual ORA = O'Reilly. So just make note. ("O'Reilly Media" used to be "O'Reilly & Associates" and my old acronyms die hard. ora.com still works, so I can't be -too- much of a fossil.)
-------------- - - - - - -

The sheer fact that one of us LUGs getting listed at their site means ORA will have to create a new heading for "LEGO User Groups" among all those Linux and Perl clans gives me a thrill. So I'm giddy w/joy & LEGO pride over here bigtime, but I don't know if anyone else will "get it" or give a darn. Read on and LMKWYT.

If you decide to apply, there are perks once accepted. They'll send a bunch of free books, like (?) the dozen or so titles from No Starch and Syngress related to Mindstorms, LDraw, etc. They provide group discounts. They put you on the "speaker circut" and some other stuff. Online, they have a little Wiki thing goin' on:
http://wiki.oreillynet.com/usergroups/index.cgi?UGResources
The main page: http://ug.oreilly.com/

For me, in my mission of late (pointing LUGNET toward serving needs & desires of LUGs, rather than focus on themed-forums), this is both a symbolic accomplishment (I had to talk with them about it) and a chance to show LUGNET readers and potential LUGNET developers what a network of UGs is like.

O'Reilly's is centered around their products, of course, which are all computer-related.
There are others I could point to, but they aren't always called 'UG's, they don't have the name-recognition and clout that ORA has. Some groups appear more 'fanclub'-like or hobby-based than 'Power-in-Unity'-like.

I know it's going to be up to the Community to do what they want. I'm certainly not foolish enough to "build this and see if they come," but w/so many ears on me, I can't resist making this vision known, possibly educating a few people to possibilities, and giving it whatever shove I can before I sit back down in my little LEGO room and play alone again (i.e. LUGNET dies).

So, my hope is that a few curioius and hungry LUG leaders will look around outside the little AFOL universe, and start thinking about what LUGNET could become. If they hurry up and talk about that at lugnet.org, it'll feed prospects that a programmer w/too much time on their hands will appear from the woodwork to help build something.

Apple supporting its User Groups:
http://www.apple.com/usergroups/
http://www.apple.com/usergroups/find/register/
http://www.apple.com/usergroups/leaders/answers/

Registered Apple User Groups can receive resource materials, logo merchandise, discounts, and the opportunity to attend user group activities and events. Registered groups also appear in the Apple User Group Locator. It is essential for group leaders to keep their information up-to-date so that materials can be delivered and potential members can be referred.
Register a Group
If your group is not registered with Apple, start here.
Edit Your Group’s Information
Update your user group profile and contacts to continue to receive materials and ensure potential members can find you.
Start a Group
Many resources are available to help you start a new group.
Questions about User Group Registration

also see:
Apple User Group Advisory Board
http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/
note the Ambassador Guide.

Here's a reply from Eric Kingsley of NELUG...

"What could a true LUGNET offer NELUG that it can't offer on its own?" If you want an answer to that I can have a go...

Our site happens to be loaded with RSS Feeds that are native to the software we chose to use. If LUGNET could use these feeds and host a Master Calender, Master Story Queue, and a Master Links page using these types of feeds it would keep LUGNET updated with most LUG information while requireing little maintenance after the initial coding is done. Of course the biggest issue in that would be getting enough LUGs to provide similar feeds to make it worth while. My guess is that with interactive sites like NELUG's becoming easier to set up and with RSS the current HOT technology this could be a good way to be on the Leading edge of something big.

All the LUGs manage their own sites but instead of going to every other LUGs site to see what they are doing they just go to LUGNET and get it all at once. All Lugnet has to do in interpret the RSS feeds and update itself from each site a couple times a day.

Now that would be cool...

- Eric