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How do you keep up interest in your site?

Forums: General Discussion [Sticky]
Created on: 04/13/09 04:04 PM Views: 45457 Replies: 138
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 4:04 PM

It has been so exciting for about 6 weeks now with new members practically every day. However, we are starting to run out of leads. I can see through my statistics that most people still check back almost every day, but with not much new material added ... how long can that last?

Do you put surveys on? Do you try to add new photos yourself? I feel like I have hit the wall. Everyone has been so appreciative of the site and how much fun it has been, but no one is really doing anything to help me locate any more classmates.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks, Ann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 4:26 PM - Response #1

AnnMarie we are both in the same era and boat. Your site looks great and very inviting. What I suggest is keep searching for classmates. There are a lot of avenues still to try so don't give up. I would sit down weekly and make phone calls once I had some leads. Then people were still joining the site. That gets them excited to see a new profile appear. Email me and I will give you some more options to find people. Also what I did is made several photo albums one is our city then and now. I took pictures that I located thru people or in the back of the yearbooks scanned them and then put a what it looks like today after it. We also have "mini reunions" if someone comes to town we set a time and date and meet at a local restuarant. I post that on the homepage with a list of who is coming. Then I take pictures and add that to an album they can view of just the mini reunions. We have had one every month since I put the site together. Our most visited day is the day after the pictures are posted. And the attendance is great. The out of towners enjoy being the special guest and get to see many people at once. We also have an on going forum. Someone started the conversation of places they remember in town and the memories started flowing. We have only had the site since Sept and we had 110 pages at least of postings. I change things on the homepage occasionally and post parents death notices on the homepage with the sign in book link. I try to keep them informed of what is going on with the site but not to the point that it's annoying. Maybe once or twice a month. Hope this helpsRazz

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 5:05 PM - Response #2

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to have to check out putting a playlist on like you did. Also, can you tell me how you made the photo albums. I just have my pictures in one of the items on the left, pretty dull.

Ann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 5:51 PM - Response #3

I used Picaso for my pictures it's a free site but I know there are others out there. I will send you a private message letting you see what the pictures look like. Ann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 7:31 PM - Response #4

What I do is, I have made two rooms that are theaters, and I had a half time show during the NCAA Championship game, told the men they entered at their own riske, went to Jib Jab, made a Chippendales show out of some the guys head, everyone loved it. We also for the beginning of the NCAA took Photo shop, and took movies,and tv shows from our youth and put our heads on the people and made a movie. Right now I am working on a Military movie for the ones that were in the military from our class. I have also found a picture of Barbie, and posted her on the front page wishing her a Happy Birthday, go take a look at Barbie at 50. We made another Video for on how Monday's suck. We are planning picnics, and mixers and drinks, I just change it up every few days. Everyone is loving and can't get enought of it. I am also a legal assistance so I have the ability of finding people for everyone that they really want to join.. Please feel free to stop by and have a look at my home page. Oh we also use it as a the Home page as news on illness, deaths and much much more.

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 7:58 PM - Response #5

Wow, Ann. YOU are my hero! Thanks so much for all the info. Should keep me busy. My daughter stayed overnight at my mother's last night and she still lives in the old neighborhood so we took the scenic route home today and took all kinds of photos. So I'll get them in a slideshow and get them up on the site.

The playlist sounds great too, that should be a good conversation starter on our message forum.

Can't wait to get at it.

Ann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 8:02 PM - Response #6

Joyce,
Thanks for your reply. I enjoyed your site. I'm going to really have to get busy, both you ladies are so creative and I was impressed with myself until I saw both of your sites! In my defencse, I have only been at it for about 7 weeks and have spend all my time searching for people.

One question, though - what is the Sheep Room?

Ann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 8:04 PM - Response #7

We are an older class, class of '59 to be exact, but right now we are planning a reunion which is sparking and interest, a year away is not to soon. Enlist others to help you find sections of the class by calling etc. If you have addresses, send out cute postcard announcing your site as a few suggestions. On note of interest. Right now I am publishing sections of our senior will we wrote when graduating. One of the classmates sent the school paper to me. I belong to the newspaper archives and search through it for news through the years of our classmates. Right now the class is sending me their favorite highschool song and their family recipies with a little history behind them.. I put monthly birthdays on. I used to do one at a time but that was more work. I have found that classmates like their name in print and pictures. Slides of past reunions are good. I send out emails once in a while letting them know when I change the site significantly. Take a look at my site, of course you would want to customize for your younger age group, ha ha. Site is www.moberlysr59.com. Let me know what you think.

Libann

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Monday, April 13, 2009 at 8:05 PM - Response #8

LOL.....I will open it up so you can see it. It is a long story, but to make it short, we had two classmates that hiked across England last summer. There were a lot of jokes about the classmates and Sheeps so we found a video, and told everyone that was the reason they stayed in England so long. It is really cool, and you have to know the whole story to understand it.
But go and watch, just give me a min. to open it to you.

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Edited 04/13/09 8:08 PM
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 9:13 PM - Response #9

Great site Libann! Thanks everyone for their suggestions. I did a slideshow of the pictures I took tonight. How can I make it bigger? The slideshow pictures are very small for our old eyes.

Ann

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Edited 04/14/09 8:46 AM
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 10:24 PM - Response #10

AnnMarie

It's a constant job trying to keep the site fresh and interesting.
I had a classmate sign on today, and that's been the only one in about a month. I have contacted several people, but, they are not interested in joining. I can't even get them to post on the forum.. I just hope they are sending private messages to each other and keeping in touch..
Some do visit the site about every day, but, I don't know how long they will keep it up, if there are no new profiles.
Good luck

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 6:10 PM - Response #11

I have just found out how to keep classmates coming back for more! I was so disappointed yesterday moring since we were at an all-time low attendance according to our statistics. So I changed up the photo show on the homepage, added new things on the homepage, and added some other new items on some other tabs then I emailed all the class and said HERE'S WHAT'S NEW ON OUR WEBSITE - come check it out! I had a record number of people on our site today. Just change it up every 2 weeks and send a all calss email to let them know of the changes and watch your attendance rise! It really works! 9 classmates are on here right now and are chatting in our message forum. It feels so good to see them on here and when you get a good feedback from them. Smile

I hope this works for everyone else out there!

Dawn

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 6:32 PM - Response #12

Dawn,
Just checked out your site, it looks great. Can I ask where you made the cool slide show on your home page?

Ann

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 7:22 PM - Response #13

Slide.com. It is an awesome site! Also Smilebox and photo bucket works great too! Brad Switzer recommended these in the FAQs above. That was very helpful for me setting up our website.

Good luck and feel free to use anything on our site!
Dawn

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 7:51 PM - Response #14

I added some old photos from the local newspaper about our football team when we were seniors. That got a few people to look in. I plan to go to the library and get more things like that. Plus someone sent me an inspirational slideshow that got a lot of support.

But I want to ask about your site: the notepad and bulletin board--where can I find them?

I also find it tiring to constantly look for new things. I really am shooting in the dark to add widgets because I actually don't know much about sites that have them that are free. I can't add video games...they didn't exist when we were children.

KWink

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Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 11:26 PM - Response #15

Initially we weren't having much "conversation" either, then in January I added "25 Random Things About Me" and our website EXPLODED! It is our 40th reunion of a class of nearly 600 so we have lost contact but this has made a huge difference. People are commenting on each other's posts, e-mails are flying and calls are being made. It has really generated excitement in the reunion (next Labor Day weekend). This is how I started it:
"THE GAME HAS BEGUN on our 40th Reunion Website. Check often to see the latest entries. RULES: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note in the Message Forum with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about youself. At the end, choose someone else from the reunion website to be tagged. If I tagged you, its because I want to know more about you. We once knew pretty much everything about each other, now . . . not so much. Anybody been in an earthquake? (I was) Whale watching? Grow jalapenos? Boston Legal fan? Season tickets to ball games? Have 10 grandchildren? Weigh what they did in high school? Weigh twice what they did in high school? By-pass surgery? Lasik and would you recommend it or not? Everybody had their colonoscopy? Anybody? (I bet more women have than the men) See, we aren't movie stars and didn't grow up to be president, either, and that's okay. We want to know you again and be friends. Hope you join the fun."
Then I posted my 25 Randoms and tagged 2 or 3 other people. The rest is history! Good luck.

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Friday, April 17, 2009 at 8:33 AM - Response #16

That's a great idea! Of course it will probably take me all weekend to think of 25 random things to start it off! I'll have to get more daughter to help me out.

Ann

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Friday, April 17, 2009 at 4:48 PM - Response #17

We just had our 5th mini reunion in the last 6 months span. Another great turnout. I hear comments from other people we run into of "I wish our class did that". "You have a website how cool". "I will never attend another class reunion for my class I wish we had the closeness your class has". So I really recommend the mini reunions. It brings them to the site especially when they want to see those pictures. And it's a blast we were at the restuarant for 5 hours!! But this time I got something special. Someone had the classmates will. I am going to start posting a new one every week. I might make it "Guess who wrote this" That will keep them coming back for more.Very Happy

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Monday, April 20, 2009 at 11:35 PM - Response #18

HI.. love your site.. I see that you added music. I have music too but I have the Media player there and I don't know how to remove it.. you don't have that. I have tried everything to get rid of it.. can you help me? thanks Karen

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 7:50 AM - Response #19

Karen your home page is password protected that we can's view what your music situation is. I added mine seperate so that they can play the music without being signed on. I don't care for the music starting as soon as I sign onto a site. (Just my taste in music) So I embed them into a separate place. I asked the class to send me their choices of music they would like, on the forum. That went on for several days so it kept the forum going. Then came Christmas time and we did the same thing.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 9:07 AM - Response #20

Thanks very cool..how did you do it separately is it hard? I hate that player thing.. I am not the best at this computer stuff, I am a nurse. but working on it.. thanks Karen

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 10:03 AM - Response #21

I read where you did this so I started it 3 days ago and you were right! I have been having record number of classmates checking it out. I absolutely love reading what everyone is writing - they are so funny! Thanks so much for the idea. I think I may try the mini-reunion idea too. Our 30th class reunion is 100 days away but I think this will be a neat way to gear up for it!

Have a great day,
Dawn

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 8:03 AM - Response #22

Karen go into edit site pages and then you will see the password options. Click the ones you don't want password protected like your home page. Then others can view it. You will get more classmates to sign up. The password for homepage can scare people off. Then we can see what you have in as your music set up.

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Edited 04/22/09 8:04 AM
Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 6:26 PM - Response #23

Carroll - can you tell me where you got the flag spread at the top of your military service page?

That is awesome!!

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 6:37 PM - Response #24

Brad or Jessica,

Is there anyway we can make this topic "sticky"? I believe it will be a forum that a lot of administrators will keep coming back to for ideas.

Thanks so much!
Dawn

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 6:39 PM - Response #25

Yes Carroll - I love what you did on your Military page - very professional! Awesome job!

I just copied your flag and may use your idea if that is okay with you. I like to ask permission before stealing. Smile

Dawn

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:37 PM - Response #26

I just started the forum and posted the Tag You Are It on it. But I really don't understand how you tag someone. Do you go to their profile and send an email or what? I probably should know this but I don't. It sounds like fun or at least worth a try. WinkK

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Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:16 PM - Response #27

Dawn Estep wrote:

Brad or Jessica,

Is there anyway we can make this topic "sticky"? I believe it will be a forum that a lot of administrators will keep coming back to for ideas.

Thanks so much!
Dawn

Sticky it is.


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Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 7:44 PM - Response #28

Thanks, Carrol! I stole your idea and it seems to be a hit!

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Monday, May 4, 2009 at 8:04 AM - Response #29

Hi AnnMarie,
Our site has been up since March with 100 class members, 58% participation, and an average of 25-35 of them on it daily.

I noticed, too, that the visits were dropping off a little, so I "organized" an on-line reunion. I sent an e-mail out to everyone and also posted the schedule on the Home Page. I chose 2 different days with times in the morning and evening that spanned 2 hours, considering the four different time zones.
Our "who's online" box is activated, so it was fun to see who all was online at the same time. This created 100's of private e-mails to each other when they saw classmates across the U.S. they hadn't see in at least 5 years since the last reunion...some for 40 years !

Also, I always post a "Happy Birthday" message to a fellow classmate and ask that classmates either send a private e-mail or post a message on their profile. If we don't have a classmate celebrating a birthday, I try to find a famous people, especially a musical one, post their pic, and then add one of their hits to our playlist on the page. That way there is a new song playing everyday.

Our classmates are diligently sending in memorabilia to me. I place it on the Home Page for a few days, then move it to "The Broadcaster" our class newspaper.

We have a guest writer classmate who regularly posts stories on "This Just In..."

Many of our pages are "open to the public" so if you want to go look, have fun.

Sincerely,
Kathy Very Happy

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Monday, May 11, 2009 at 2:19 PM - Response #30

We also recently did a "10 Reasons to go to our 30th Class Reunion" and that has been a hit too! Some of our classmates reasons are soooo funny!

DawnLaughingLaughing

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM - Response #31

Whenever we have a classmate with a birthday, I post his/her pic on the Home Page belows our birthday cake, asking our group to go to that profile and either send them an e-mail or post a comment.
If we have no one in the class celebrating a birthday, I Google May 12 birthdays, for instance, and find someone famous who has a birthday on that particular day. Then I add a song to our playlist that "goes with" that person. Today it's Yogi Berra and the song playing is Centerfield. It's very easy to post a pic of a recording artist, song writer, etc. and then just choose one of their hits. My classmates have commented that they try to visit everyday to just see what new song is playing on the Home Page.

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Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 11:25 AM - Response #32

I don't think anyone answered the question of how you tag someone. I would like to try the idea but my problem is the same as yours. Hope to see an answer.

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Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 11:37 AM - Response #33

I believe the tag was... you write some information about yourself. Like vacations in the past, funny moments in your life etc. Then you send that to a couple people tagging them. You ask them to do the same and answer the same things that you wrote about your self. And when they are done they are to send it to someone else, that they would like to know more about tagging them. It works a bit like the chain letters you get where you answer the questions and send it on to 5 more people. Only it is done on the forum or you could do it on the home page. I haven't done it yet but our forum keeps rolling. We get about 6 or more posts a day. Another thing you could do is play tag but ask them about a landmark in your town or a favorite food from high school. Ours went on for weeks talking about skipping school and going to lunch. The idea is to get the ball rolling and get them to talk about fun things.

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Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 1:11 PM - Response #34

You tag someone by just emailing them and saying "You've been tagged". You tell them how to play the game and then they are to "tag" someone. It is a lot of fun and we got a big response. We had a few poor sports that wouldn't play but as the administrator I would just tag a few extra people.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 9:13 AM - Response #35

Please keep your ideas coming! Anything that really seems to keep the classmates coming back for more... I used the 25 random things about you idea and it worked great! Now I'm in the process of doing a little Trivia in the Classmate Forums and I put an Instant Chat room and are having Mini-Reunions in there every Thursday night starting at 8:00pm. Last Thursday was our first and it was a big success.

Please share your ideas and what has worked for you. We need each other to have a successful website! Smile

Dawn

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Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 6:14 PM - Response #36

I create stuff for Holidays like slideshows with corresponding music. The song lasted exactly to the end of slideshow. Here is the one i used for MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. I also got all the pictures ready for the 4th of JULY so it won't take much effort to post it.
You just click on source to paste this link to a NEW ANNOUNCEMENT. The work's done; just copy, paste and enjoy!


value="http://www.profileplaylist.net/mc/mp3player_new.swf"
/>


border="0" width="1" style="width: 1px; visibility:
visible; height: 1px;" allowscriptaccess="never"
src="http://www.profileplaylist.net/mc/mp3player_new.swf"
flashvars="config=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.indimusic.us%2Fext%2Fpc%
2Fconfig_black.xml&mywidth=435&myheight=270&playlist_url=htt
p://www.indimusic.us/loadplaylist.php?
playlist=64047620&t=1243024049&wid=os" name="mp3player"
wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-
flash">
href="http://www.mysocialgroup.com/download/64047620">


height="400" width="402" type="application/x-shockwave-
flash" wmode="transparent"
src="http://w622.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?
pbwurl=http://w622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/CGCHS69/0413
bbbc.pbw">

style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">It is the VETERAN, not
the preacher, who has given us freedom of
religion.
style="font-size: medium;">

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us
freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not
the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.


It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN,
not the politician, Who has given us the right to
vote.


It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag,

It is the VETERAN who serves under the Flag,

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

We can be very proud of our young men and women in the service no matter where they serve.

God style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);"> Bless them style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153);">all ! ! !


style="font-family: Comic Sans
MS;">Makes
you style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">proud to style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">be an style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">AMERICAN !
! ! !
href="http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/CGCHS69/Memor
ial%20Day/?action=view¤t=zg8w-1c2-1.gif">alt="Photobucket"
src="http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/CGCHS69/Memori
al%20Day/zg8w-1c2-1.gif" />

Regardless of what your plans are this weekend;

we hope it will be a safe and happy one for all of you!

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Edited 05/30/09 12:00 PM
Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 6:51 PM - Response #37

Jeanne - This is a beautiful tribute. I love posting things like this for special holidays. Would you mind sharing your 4th of July one?

Thanks so much - Debra

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Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 8:25 PM - Response #38

Feel free. Others have used it as well. If you look at my post just above yours; the link is there to copy. All you have to do is copy below the bold and you'll be able to paste it into your website.

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Monday, May 25, 2009 at 12:10 AM - Response #39

Look for it around the beginning of July 2nd. I'm also creating one for Father's Day; although right now I'm stumped on what music to play with it... Any suggestions?

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 9:31 AM - Response #40

Nice idea Jeanne! I used your idea as well and had great feedback!

Are there any other fun games that you all have used to attract classmates? The "25 Random Things about Me" worked great and now I'm looking for some other ideas. We have 2 months before our class reunion.

I appreciate any input. Idea

Thanks,
Dawn

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 11:41 AM - Response #41

I just have to say - the 25 Random Things idea is magnificent!

Our 20 year reunion is the 3rd week in august. I could see that a lot of people are checking frequently but not a lot of people are interacting. I was reading through the forums and found this post and tried it - WOW.

People are really having a lot of fun with it.

It has been a huge hit.

If we get enough responses (we already have 25 in 5 days), I am considering doing something with it for the reunion night. Like either a slideshow with 1 random thing and their name below it - or printing them for a book - or something. I haven't got that far yet but my wheels are turning!

One classmate even posted 10 things about one of our deceased classmates - which brought up another great idea.
I created a new topic for each of the 9 deceased classmates. In each one, I ask that everyone post their memories or random facts about that person - using pictures as well.

If you aren't tagging people and promoting 25 Random Things - get going on it! We are tagging as well and I am sending emails out everyday tagging new people. I have also created a group on Facebook for our class - in case they are on Facebook but haven't been to our site yet. This has been great. I interact a lot on Facebook in regards to advertising the site there - and tagging people in my status and such. We are trying to avoid snail mailing anything out so we are spreading the word electronically!

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 10:17 PM - Response #42

Jeanne Ellenwood wrote:

Look for it around the beginning of July 2nd. I'm also creating one for Father's Day; although right now I'm stumped on what music to play with it... Any suggestions?

Jeanne I put your request out on our forum and they came up with a ton. Here are a few to check out Father's Day by 2NU - Just the two of us - Will Smith There goes my life - Kenny Chesney Greatest Man - Reba Father and Son - Cat Stevens Father and Daughter - Paul Simon Dance With My Father - Luther Vandross Papa Can You Hear Me? - Barbra Streisand Daddy's Little Girl - Karla Bonoff Seein' My Father In Me - Paul Overstreet Butterfly Kisses - Bob Carlisle Fathers' Day - Lady Clown

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Edited 05/26/09 10:24 PM
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 5:34 PM - Response #43

Daddy's Hands - can't remember who sings it though

Butterfly Kisses is a beautiful song - it was the song my husband and our daughter danced to at her wedding.

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Edited 05/27/09 5:36 PM
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 6:39 PM - Response #44

I still cry every time I hear that song. I love that idea of a slideshow for each holiday. It makes the site more interesting. Thanks for all of your ideas! You all are the best! Smile

Dawn

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 5:47 AM - Response #45

Wow what great ideas. Jeanne you as so generous to share your hard work with us. It was amazing.
I will be looking for your Father's Day version.
We have a lot of talented classmates that have been contributing to the site. If you check our site out look at "Our Vetrans" page. One of our classmates did a video to honor classmates and relatives of classmates who have served in the military.
We had a huge jump in views yesterday when he sent an email out announcing the video was posted. I think pictures are the key to keeping people interested. People are always updating their profiles and we all want to see what is new in their lives. Our goal is to get 50% of our class to join. We just need a few more and we will be there.
Keep up the great job everyone. All of your sites look great and the work and love you have for your class shines through.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 11:23 AM - Response #46

I got a funny email today which I share with my fellow alumni. I laughed so hard I just have to share it. It's on my home page.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 4:47 PM - Response #47

Thanks - That was funny. We have a "Need A Laugh" thread on our threaded forum. I borrowed that and added it. I am such a thief!

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Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 12:27 PM - Response #48

Joyce,
I'm looking for new things to add to our site to generate some "noise". I would love to "see" how your theater pages work...can I take a peak at them?
Thanks,
--Trish

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Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 9:50 PM - Response #49

Sorry, I just saw this. A classmate saw it on someone's jacket, took a picture, downloaded it, viola.

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Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 10:43 PM - Response #50

Dawn,
I love your cork board notes...will you share your HTML code for the cork board and note so I can write my own notes for my site?

Thanks!
--Trish

P.S. Thanks Jeanne for your awesome Memorial Day tribute! I too added it to my home page and look forward to more Very Happy Great job!!

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Edited 05/31/09 10:50 PM
Monday, June 1, 2009 at 9:27 AM - Response #51

Hi Trish,

I'm at work right now but when I get home this evening I will send you a blank one to you - okay?

It would be nice to have a forum with just those cool clipart kind of stuff we like to use on our sites, huh?

Talk to you later this eve,
Dawn

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Monday, June 1, 2009 at 10:14 AM - Response #52

Dawn Estep wrote:

Hi Trish,

I'm at work right now but when I get home this evening I will send you a blank one to you - okay?

It would be nice to have a forum with just those cool clipart kind of stuff we like to use on our sites, huh?

Talk to you later this eve,
Dawn

A seperate forum for cool cliparts would be great!! It is one of the things I look for on other sites. Brad can we have a seperate forum for cool cliparts and home page ideas that we can share?

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Monday, June 1, 2009 at 12:55 PM - Response #53

Now that is a most excellent idea.


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Monday, June 1, 2009 at 3:23 PM - Response #54
blank bulliten board.gif

Okay Ann - here's that cork board with notes I promised ya. I plan to put it on the NEW Building Block forum as well.

I have other things to attach as well and will be oing that in the building blocks forum so check it out later for more ideas!

Dawn

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Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 6:52 AM - Response #55

Here is a new twist on the 25 random questions. We started doing the randoms and one of the classmates posted his 25 on the forum. The difference in his is he had 7 of them that were correct. Then he put out the challenge. The first person to identify the correct 7 would win one dozen donuts from one of the favorite bakeries in town. Including shipping if they lived out of town. Since the bakery was a hometown favorite and everyone remembered the donuts from the day, we had a good response from some that had never replied to anything. The one that won said she just can't stop when it comes to a challenge. She emailed me 30 times before she got the right combination of the 7

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Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 6:45 PM - Response #56

Great idea Ann! The "25 Random things about me" game has finally died out but I like this version but will probably call this "10 Truth or Fiction things about me" and see how it goes. We finally got to our goal this morning of 50% classmate participation. We now have a record number coming to our reunion compared with our 20th and 25th. I am floating on a cloud right now.

Thanks again for your great ideas to keep interest on our sites!

Dawn

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Monday, June 15, 2009 at 10:11 AM - Response #57

I was reading another forum this morning where a website administrator was asking how to word a question she wants to put in her preference questions and it made me think! She was wanting to include a question like a bucket list. So I started a new game called "The Bucket List" where my classmates post 10 things that they would like to accomplish on this earth and once they've posted their 10 they tag 2 others. I just posted mine in the Message Forum and hopefully this will get a good response.

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Edited 06/15/09 10:12 AM
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 1:20 PM - Response #58

Okay all you administrators! The Bucket List is all the buzz right now in my message forum and so much fun to read! If you want participation back on your site - I can verify this works!

The Bucket List- have you seen the movie? Write down 10 things that you would like to accomplish and then after posting, tag 2 other people. Check your statistics tomorrow and see it grow!

Good luck!
Dawn Very Happy

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 7:10 AM - Response #59

Jeanne Ellenwood wrote:

Look for it around the beginning of July 2nd. I'm also creating one for Father's Day; although right now I'm stumped on what music to play with it... Any suggestions?

Jeanne did you get the Father's Day one done? We are getting close to the day Very Happy

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM - Response #60

Dawn-how are you doing your chat room? I love the idea and like how you have a banner announcing when it is!

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 10:10 AM - Response #61

I use www.everywherechat.com for my chatroom. I actually use one page dedicated just for the chatroom. I have music in there that we can listen to on Thursday nights while chatting. We've been averaging about 8 - 20 in there.

As for the scrolling message - copy this and paste it on the top of your homepage: PUT YOUR MESSAGE IN HERE


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Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:55 PM - Response #62

People like to see their name .. and their picture... I've not been at this as long as most of you, our site is just a few old... but I found posting announcements that so-and-so is coming in from out of town and several are meeting after the game seems to generate a lot of interest. One thing I am thinking about doing is "interviewing" a classmate and do a feature page on them. Appeal to the ego.... Has anyone tried this with any success? If so, I'm wondering if you have a series of questions you are asking.... I was in journalism in 10th grade ... my interviewing skills are non-existant...

Thanx, Jeff

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:47 PM - Response #63

Dawn,
I love your home page and thus used some of your ideas...hope you don't mind!

I would love to see how the bucket list via your message board is going - will you share a password so I can view it? I included a segment in our message board, but am not sure how to "tag" others for participation.

Thanks!

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Friday, September 4, 2009 at 4:44 PM - Response #64

I'm new at this and working on a class that won't hold it's 50th for 2 years yet.

One idea is to create a special 'profile of the week'. Another classmate and I are going to interview someone on alternate weeks, write up a 250-500 word biography about them and their life since HS.

Everyone has a story of some sort. We're hoping that will bring people back at least once a week to find out who the featured person is and what's happened to them since 1961.

And when we finally meet in July 2011, we'll already know a lot about 100 people from our 525 class. Hope that will work.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 10:47 AM - Response #65

Hi Trish!

Hope you were able to get on my site and get the info you were looking for in our Message Forum relating to the Bucket List. How is your game coming along?

I am going to do another game probably sometime next month and still trying to think of a good one. Maybe WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU TAKE WITH YOU ON A DESERTED ISLAND AND WHY?(EXCLUDING PEOPLE OR MECHANICAL OBJECTS SUCH AS GPS, RADIOS ECT.). I would love to see what my classmates woud come up with! Laughing

Dawn

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Edited 09/22/09 10:51 AM
Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 12:06 PM - Response #66

Hello Dawn!
I did gain access to your site and reviewed your message board. You're still using the old message board which is great. Much easier to follow. I opened the new message forum up, but haven't had ANYone add to it. Hmmm, makes me wonder how user friendly the new vs old message forum is. I'm seriously thinking of switching back. Back to the Bucket List - I couldn't find where or how you "tag" people! Did I miss it somewhere???? I've been working on adding more pages to our site and sharing survey results. I really enjoyed your site - lots of great ideas! Thanks for sharing.

--Trish

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Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 6:26 PM - Response #67

Hi Trish! I tried the new forum but it just was not popular with my classmates ~ they did not participate and they kept emailing me askling if I could put the old one back on so I did. I deactivated the old in case I want to use it later for something else.

As for the Bucket List - I will put you as a guest again on my site so you can go to page 7 of my Message Forum to see when it started. We are on page 21 now so it's pretty far back when I started that game. All I did to start the game was to "tag" 4 classmates (meaning emailing them with the rules) and the rest was up to them. I put my Bucket list on the Message Forum and my site was clustered with classmates getting on to see who posted next and see what they put. Of course, like all good things, it fazed out. I am constantly trying to think of new ways to keep the interest on my site. Even 2 months after the reunion has passed we still average 25 to 30 classmates on here daily so I feel good about that. We have a classmate who was recently diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and she is in the hospital and all of her "updates" I put on the Message Forum so classmates can see how she is doing.

Good luck with your site and as always, I'll be happy to help you anytime. Smile

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 1:29 PM - Response #68

We just came up with a great idea for Halloween to share. We are having an on line Halloween party!! We will have some games posted on the home page to play, a few riddles to answer, and an on going story that we will start on the forum and everyone will add to the story. We also will have a movie list from 1973 for them to unscramble. We will set a certain date and time for the party so that everyone who can join will be on the site at the same time. We have a live chat room if they would like to get a conversation going there too!! We are still in the planning stages but wanted to share the idea in case you would like to do the same.

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3:37 PM - Response #69

Ann ~ I love the forum idea of a story that people add to. I may try to do that one. I tried scrambles and games and my classamtes didn't seem to bothered about it but the chat room is busy every Thursday night for us.

One of our classmates had a bonfire last night and we had a nice turn out. This was a mini-reunion get-together. Everyone brought a fingerfood and we all hung out around the bonfire and socialized. I took lots of pictures that I put on one of our pages of the website. We are planning on a family night of bowling soon. A Christmas get-together is also in the planning and we may play stingy santa with a minimum to how much you spend ($10.00). The gift can be homemade too (which is encourages).

You always have so many great ideas and I look forward to reading posts by Ann! Very Happy

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3:51 PM - Response #70

Thank you Dawn we have a mini reunion every month when someone comes to town from out of state and I take lots of pictures. Then I post them on the site. That is the most visited day for the site. Everyone wants to see who came and what they look like I guess. This Halloween party will be a one night thing. So the games will only be there for that time. I will probably have a seperate forum than the regular one for the story so it's not interrupted. The old high school will be torn down next year so we are thinking of making it "The last tour of WHS" or something on that order. We also have a spooky area called Rogues Hollow so it might have something to do with that. Like a "Class reunion at Rogues Hollow". I'm also thinking of a scavenger hunt and sending them to different areas of the site to find their clue. Depends on how entergetic I want to get with it. I'll report back on how it went.

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 7:12 PM - Response #71

Hello Dawn,
Our Bucket List has been put into play! Thanks again for your idea!
--Trish

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Monday, October 12, 2009 at 9:34 AM - Response #72

Hi Trish!

I'm glad to see the game is successful on your site! Your website looks great! Very nicely and tastefully done. I'm going to post another game but will probably wait till this winter when things are slow and classamtes are looking for something to do. I like Ann's idea of starting a scary story in the forums and having the classmates add to it - I will probably start that one this week. This winter I will post a game I'm calling "Deserted Island". I will tag several classmates to tell me the one thing they would take on a deserted island and why (excludes people, GPS, or any mechanical object). I'm dying to see what they come up with.

Good luck on your site! Very Happy

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Friday, October 30, 2009 at 2:53 PM - Response #73

Halloween party update. Today is our online Halloween party!! So far it's going great! We have had a lot of classmates checking out the homepage and a few are starting to add to our on going scary story. They really have some imagination lol. Kind of scary. We also invited another class to check out our homepage games and videos. Then we are meeting at 8:00 pm on the site to chat or use the forum or message each other. I can't wait to see how many are on line at that time. I hope we don't overload the system lol

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Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 2:04 PM - Response #74

Hi All!

Just wanted to share something with you all about a way to keep the classmates interest. I noticed other administrators putting wills on their sites and think that is such a great idea and then a classmate friend of mine came over to my house a few weeks ago with a box full of old school stuff and I found the list that was read at graduation with all of our class prophecies on them. I sent out an email announcing this "treasure" was found and I am adding 4 on there each week. I noticed a big jump in my statistics right away, especially the beginning of the week when they think I am going to add to the list. I also found lots of other "treasures" in the box that I plan on adding to the website after the first of the year.

In otherwords, give them a little taste and they keep coming back for more. Don't just put the whole list out right away. Once I have completed the list of 175 prophecies I will put the list in our Do You Remember tab.

I did a Halloween page (which is now deactivated) and have recently completed a Thanksgiving page that includes Thanksgiving poems, facts, a quiz, other links, etc. Lots of those ideas came from other administrators such as Kris and Ann. I will deactivate that page on Black Friday and I have already started on a Christmas one that will be activated on Black Friday and continue till after the New Year. All of these seasonal tabs can be used the following year with no work at all...just a matter of clicking on the activate button. All of my seasonal tabs are made from "survey" tabs.

Please keep the ideas coming! Very Happy

God Bless,
Dawn

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Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:27 PM - Response #75

Don't know if this will bring any results, but you might enjoy our message that went out today. I'm figuring on having a little "booster message" every so often, to pique people's interest.

Sallie

Dear Classmates,

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Now here's a suggestion for your holiday. Whatever you have planned, you are going to need a break: from cooking, cleaning, shopping, watching sports, whatever.

What a perfect time to go to the internet! Sign up for the Class of 1965 web site! See what everybody is saying and doing!

So, whenever you feel a lull in the holiday activities, reach for the mouse and find out what is going on with your high school classmates. Push those children/grandchildren/cousins out of that computer chair, and get yourself some screen time! Show those techie relatives what a techno whiz you are.

Show them [---]'s prom pics and [---]'s forum post about the good old days. Show them all the profiles with all the good stories about you and your school days. Make up some stories of your own. Add them to your profile. Or just cruise around the site.

For extra credit, dig out some old pictures, upload them to your profile, and explain to your family why on earth you looked like that in high school.

See? You get family bonding, along with all the joys of revisiting your past.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!


Sallie, Holiday Planner

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 2:33 PM - Response #76

Dawn, I just took a peek at your site. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your Featured Falcon page?

Thanks!

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Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 7:21 PM - Response #77

My Kernersville, NC '73 classmates love our website - primarily coz they never know what to expect. Updates are made 'almost daily' - and often - multiple times per day.

Email me @ jcomer1@triad.rr.com if you'd like access to my site (most of the tabs are password protected) Nothing fancy at all -- some of our tabs are silly - but just plain fun.
Irma Comer 336 655 7186

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Monday, January 11, 2010 at 7:16 AM - Response #78

Gayleen Plakunov wrote:

Dawn, I just took a peek at your site. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your Featured Falcon page?

Thanks!

Hi Gayleen,

I decided to feature a classmate each month to really get to know each other even more. I try to pick classmates who maybe didn't put a lot of info on their profiles. These are the questions I ask them:

1. Where do you live now and where else have you lived and how long?
2. What did you do right after high school?
3. What do you do now and how did you get into that?
4. What do you like to do in your spare time?
5. Married? Kids? Grandkids? Pets?
6. Travel much and where?
7. Favorite vacation spot and why?
8. What is your favorite memory or regret at CHS?
9. Favorite food?
10. Favorite movie?
11. Favorite music?
12. Anything else we should know about you?

I also ask for them to email a few pictures of them and their family to include on the page and to tell me some of their favorite songs and I include a playlist with their songs on the page. Early each month I noticed a peak of attendance and I'm sure that is the draw then.

Have a great week,
Dawn

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:19 PM - Response #79

How did you get the pac man game on your site?
i tried pasting the embeded code but the game didn't come up, just the code.
i'm new to coding. any help would be great. thanks.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:31 PM - Response #80

Make sure you press the Source button in the upper left corner of your editor prior to pasting any third party source code into your site.


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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:58 PM - Response #81

thanks. that helped for one code where i have only that on the page.

however, i can't get my music player to show up.
i tried putting it at the bottom of my home page, and set it to play automatically. it shows the outline of the player but that's it.

thanks!!

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 8:42 AM - Response #82

Dawn Webb wrote:

thanks. that helped for one code where i have only that on the page.

however, i can't get my music player to show up.
i tried putting it at the bottom of my home page, and set it to play automatically. it shows the outline of the player but that's it.

thanks!!

Dawn, I can see the music player. Are you still having problems? What browser are you using?

Maybe you are confused by the fact that in the CONTENT EDITORS, you will only see the outline and never see the actual embedded object. You need to save the content in the content editor and then view the page to see the real content.


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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:21 AM - Response #83

I am viewing my home page and still only see the outline of the player.
I will try working on this more later.
Thanks for your help.
Dawn

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:31 AM - Response #84

I have viewed your site in both Internet Explorer and FireFox and both browser show a playlist with songs inside of it. The playlist started playing, too.

Maybe you have a browser cache problem and need to press the refresh button on your browser.


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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 12:50 AM - Response #85

Dawn,

I would like to "borrow" the red flashing NEW symbol you have on your site...can you tell me where to get it? thanks, Melissa

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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 9:37 AM - Response #86

Melissa Goihl wrote:

Dawn,

I would like to "borrow" the red flashing NEW symbol you have on your site...can you tell me where to get it? thanks, Melissa

Just an FYI: for any image on any website, you can find out where on the Internet it is located by right-clicking (assuming a Windows machine) and choosing Properties. Then just choose SAVE IMAGE AS and you can save the graphic to your hard drive. Then you can use the image on your website (Image button in a content editor, then BROWSE your hard drive, then UPLOAD).


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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 4:48 PM - Response #87

I am using a MAC and unable to right click the image and follow your instructions.

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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 4:58 PM - Response #88

The equivalent of a right click on Mac is command-click.


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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 5:12 PM - Response #89

I'm still missing something...I used the command and click to select it, but there is no option to view Properties. When I do a Save As and save it to my hard drive, then go to choose it and upload into my site, it says "Invalid format".

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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 5:47 PM - Response #90

Melissa Goihl wrote:

I'm still missing something...I used the command and click to select it, but there is no option to view Properties. When I do a Save As and save it to my hard drive, then go to choose it and upload into my site, it says "Invalid format".

Make sure you're not actually selecting it in some way, you want to hold down the command key while you're hovering the mouse pointer over the image, then click. When you do you should get the flyout menu that includes an option to see information about the image.

If you save an image to your hard drive, make sure you're saving it in the same original format the image is in now. I.E. don't save it in any type of Mac format, don't change the file extension at all, make sure you keep the 3 character file extension when you save the image, etc. If you alter nothing, you will be able to upload that same image back to your web site. The incompatible image type error you got means you must have altered or omitted the 3 character extension, or modified the image from its original format.


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Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 7:54 PM - Response #91

got it to work on my MAC using the Control key, not the Command key....now it works as you describe. Thanks!

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Monday, February 8, 2010 at 7:17 PM - Response #92

What has worked for us is that I posted messages on Classmates (surprised it did not get marked off (****).
and I also posted on Facebook...One other friend has a profile on facebook called Nogales Amigos which is just people from our small town so every now and then I re-post the link to classcreator...just like I do with classmates...Also I opened up a Facebook account under the Apache name which is our mascot and I have had lots of people "request" to add as friends and I keep pushing the site...of course no-one knows who El Apache is as I have my own profile to keep it separate...I have been taking care of the fees but so far I have received a few people that want to help pay to keep it going for more years which we will do once we establish a good bunch of people...I am flying down to Arizona this month and because of Class Creator we have those who live in the area going to meet ...A mini reunion since our class just had the big 30th a few months back...But this site is AWESOME...Not to mention that in the long run it is cheap compared to classmates who just raised their fee again to $39 per year...and that is per person...
I have been doing this myself and I have had people e-mail me pictures...For some reason they think El Apache is computer savvy...LOL

But do try Facebook and Classmates...One other class member has been "Our Gatekeeper" for over 15 years and the past few years the "newsletters (e-mails) have been far in between and this takes care of everything he would cover...Our people are really liking it and they also keep pushing it...

We just started a few months ago and I think we are doing really good...

Good Luck...hope my suggestions help..

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Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 10:11 AM - Response #93

I am lucky enough to come from a large class of over 800 classmates. I have about 250 that have joined. I do several things to keep interest.
1. Every month I send an email of all the birthdays for the following month.
2. Email when I make changes to the site.
3. Email the class and ask them for ideas for the site.
4. I just added the photo gallery so classmates can upload pics they want to.
5. Email the class if someone passes away.
6. I allow classmates to post announcements on the Home page.
The birthday email generates the most traffic. Currently we have about 100 hits a month. Not bad since our next reunion is 4 years away.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 3:57 PM - Response #94

I like your 25 random things idea. How do you tag someone?

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Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 2:18 AM - Response #95

THANKS for you insight! How did you get your SUGGESTION BOX on site and ability to put a slide show of reunion? thanks again

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Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 12:16 PM - Response #96

The slideshow is the "gallery Creator" option on the left. If you want the suggestion box right click on the image and save to your hard drive and upload to your site.

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 11:30 PM - Response #97

thank you!
I still cannot get slide show.
Went through the steps, embeded, activated.....just don't know where to PASTE that it will show on a page.
I have tried 3 different pages and its just comes up
embeded message....not slide showSad

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 12:05 AM - Response #98

Nadine,

When you PASTE the embed slide show, you need to click on the SOURCE button first. (I did it for you). What you usually need to do is move to where you want the slide show and type "PASTE SLIDE SHOW HERE", then click the SOURCE button and search for "PASTE SLIDE SHOW HERE" and then delete the words "PASTE SLIDE SHOW HERE" and paste the codes that you copied from the Gallery Creator.

This is what you need to do with ANY TYPE of source code or 3rd party object.


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