The Bunkhouse Blog

Hi Neighbors,

Yours truly, the caretaker and occasional janitor of The Bunkhouse, stops by - http://remry1.blogspot.com/ - once in a while to see if it needs my attention.

After several days of detecting no activity other than my own, I've decided that the familiar adage, "If you build it, they will come" should read, "If you build it, will they come?"

The answer is, "apparently not," but that's okay. I thought The Bunkhouse might become a substitute for The Brand Spankin' News, but perhaps it's more trouble to you than it's worth. I'll continue to offer it as a place for you neighbors to interact; some things take time.

Perhaps my long-winded instructions have made it appear more complicated than it truly is. Some of you have had difficulties commenting and that also erodes confidence.

Once in a while, when I "comment", it is rejected on the first click of the "Post Comment" button. I click it again and it has always been accepted on the second click. Perhaps if two clicks won't work for you - then the third time's a charm. I have tested the "comment" section a couple times this morning and I was successful although one test took a second click of "Post Comment" after the first failure. If you are successful, it should let you know that your comment is awaiting my screening.

Somebody somewhere in blog land understands the uses for the weird selections in the "Comment as:" section. I don't. Just scroll below the weird stuff and click either "Name/URL" (type something into the "Name" box and leave the "URL" box blank) or click "Anonymous." If you click "Anonymous" you can tell us who you are in the body of your comment.

A few of you "neighbors" have accepted my invitation to author posts although no one has yet tested the water. Come on in; the water's fine!

Sincerely,

Raleigh Emry

The Bunkhouse - Status Update

Good Morning Bunkhouse Buckaroos,

The Bunkhouse is off to a slow start; yet, I believe it may catch on. Charlotte Griffith posted a comment to the blog and mentioned its major drawback, ". it doesn't just land in your inbox, it is easy to forget to look." Charlotte mentioned that she bookmarked the web page to help remind her. Subscribing is another way to get reminders; you can do that with the subscribe buttons in the sidebar. I believe if the Brand Spankin' News was important to you, then it will only be a matter of time before you regularly go to the following link to The Bunkhouse in addition to your checking your e-mail.

http://remry1.blogspot.com/

There may some confusion about posts and comments.

Posts are the original contributions with titles that you see in the major column of the blog. Posts can only be written by me or the blog authors.

Comments can be left by anyone at the bottom of the Posts.

As I've explained, anyone can comment to any existing Post. If you enjoy reading the comments, then it may be a hassle searching back through all the posts to see if new comments have been posted. I'm attempting to get an application to work that will show you the latest comments in the sidebar. So far, I've had no luck. I'm probably not holding my mouth right.

For your convenience, I have written a Post entitled "Quick Comments" where you can leave general comments. You can easily find that post by looking for "Quick Comments" under "Labels" on the sidebar and clicking it. If everyone will write their general Comments to that Post, they will be easier for everyone to find.

Some of you may be having trouble leaving comments. I think that, with practice, it will become easier. The blog, like all WebPages, may get persnickety at times and return an advisory that you were unsuccessful - to try again or try later. Perhaps the BlogSpot server is being over-tasked at the moment. I'm just guessing. However, each time I've had that problem, I first made sure that I hadn't inadvertently made an error and then hit the "Post Comment" button again. Each time, I've been successful.

The new blog authors have yet to post; perhaps no one wants to be first. If you are unsure of the procedures, I will explain:

If you have completed the blog author process, when you visit The Bunkhouse, you should see an indication at the far right top of the page -outside the dark blog border - whether you are signed in. If you aren't, you first must click the words "sign in." It will then ask you for the e-mail address and password that you used to become a blog author. When you are signed in, that line should show this sequence: "(your e-mail address) : New Post : Sign Out" Click the words "New Post" and a window will open with a screen very much like an e-mail drafting screen.

Anytime you are ready to become an independent Bunkhouse author, let me know via e-mail and I will send the invitation:

Brand Spankin' News - Crunch Time!

Brand Spankin' News

Crunch Time!

Good Morning Neighbors!

Okay, here's some more mind-numbing stuff regarding the blogity blog. The good news is that this will be the last. I'm attempting to answer all of your questions so I apologize in advance for being verbose and repetitive.

Here's my goal - pure and simple: Keep our group effort alive but without me being the middle man.

The Bunkhouse will only be an alternative to the BSN if others join me. If it works the way I anticipate, it will be your meeting hall where you can walk in at any time and get on your soap box or just sit there and take it all in - and all without waiting for me to show up, unlock the door and lead the discussion.

A few questions from you good neighbors can be paraphrased this way: "Why can't we just e-mail our contributions to you and then you can put them on the blog?"

First: That keeps me as the middle-man. It could possibly make it even more complicated than the e-mail BSN. There is no point going to all this trouble if it continues or makes worse the hassles that I'm attempting to eliminate.

Second: If I forwarded your contributions they would post as if they came from me. I would then have to edit them to make sure they reflect the correct author. And what if I err and post a personal note from you thinking it's for the blog? That's too much like concocting the BSN . No thanks!

There are exceptions. If I receive an urgent notice from someone who hasn't signed up and hasn't been a regular contributor in the past, then I'll post it. On those occasions, I will also e-mail the important message to my address list. If you become a "guest author" and receive something urgent from someone, you can do the same.

If you see a potential loophole, not so fast! I won't fall for the trick that everything e-mailed to me is an "urgent notice" or an "important message" and I won't mind posting it. I'm smarter than the average bear! If someone routinely has a lot of urgent and important stuff to share, then they will have to sign up and become a cog in The Bunkhouse sausage mill.

Here is a collection of other concerns boiled down this way: I don't want the hassle of signing up. I don't know anything about computers or blogs.

I am confident that anyone who has contributed to the BSN can complete the sign-up and learn how to send a blog entry in less time than it took me to concoct one e-mail BSN edition. If you are deliberate and already have a Google account, you can probably complete the process in only a couple minutes.

Okay, listen up!

Instead of picking and choosing invitees from my address list, I am inviting all of you to be "guest authors." The blog supports 100 guest authors and that's far more capability than we need for our group. Only about ten percent of my address list has contributed to the BSN. If only a few of you sign up now, others can be added in the future.

If you want to give it a go - and yes, that means you - then please let me know by e-mail and I will send you the sign-up link.

Note: When I signed up as a "guest author" pretending to be Terry, the step-by-step suggested that "Terry" could also start a blog at the same time. You need not have a blog of your own; just ignore those steps and accept the invitation to post on The Bunkhouse.

Note 2: If you do not intend to publish your own posts, you need not sign up. You are in like Flint to read and comment on existing posts without doing anything other than keeping this blog link handy: http://remry1.blogspot.com/

Before you take the leap, please keep this final thought in mind: When you are considering whether you want to participate, please disregard all thoughts about my feelings or my expectations of you. If you do not wish to participate, then that's certainly okay with me - no explanation is necessary; I mean that sincerely.

In any case, The Bunkhouse is available and if I'm the sole occupant, I'll keep the latch string out and the coffee pot on.

Sincerely,

Raleigh Emry

Brand Spankin' News - Gettin' Down to the Last Gasps!

Brand Spankin' News

Good Morning Neighbors!

I know . I know. For someone who has given up writing the Brand Spankin' News I've certainly had a flurry of activity to the contrary for the past few days. Although many of you are supportive of my terminating the e-mail and beginning a blog, my e-mail blizzard is driven by many notes that could be boiled down to this theme, "Well, what do we do now? Where do we go from here?"

After stringing you along for maybe fifteen years, I owe it to you to give you a lifeboat before I scuttle this old tub.

Perhaps there is someone else who will volunteer to captain the e-mail ship. I've heard rumors, but no one has stepped forward to say, "I'll do it." Until something better comes along, the blog "The Bunkhouse" is open for business as a meeting hall.

http://remry1.blogspot.com/

The blog is better suited to our purpose than Facebook and it's much easier on the host than e-mail; speaking from experience, that is for certain! Yet there is reluctance against the blog.

I asked Fara Lee Ignert, "Why do you suppose some of the good neighbors are either reluctant, totally turned off or maybe even fearful of the blog idea; I mentioned that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had opined, 'There is nothing to fear but fear itself.'"

Fara Lee said, "Well them years of FDR was a much simpler time. The only things folks back then had to skeer 'em was a BIG Depression, dust-bowls and droughts, dirty thirties, a stock market kerlapse, a World War Two or two, mushroom clouds, soup lines, bein out of work and maybe catchin' tyfloid fever 'er polio and wearin an iron lung fer the rest of yer borned days. FDR was only opinin' the oblivious, that none of that was skeery. But that was years before The Blog!"

I asked Fara Lee if she was familiar with a blog.

She said, "Alls I know is "The Blog" is only one letter away from that horror show back in the late fifties where Steve McQueen got his start in Hollerwood. That oozy goo that gobbled up everthing in its path was certainly skeery. I figger a Blog is nuthin more than a Blob with the tail draggin' on that last "b". Them blogs are out to gobble up our personal information and set us to runnin' in the streets without nary a stitch to our names. Bossman, the innernet ain't to be trusted!"

I said, "What if I told you that a blog is no different than any other webpage? You don't have to sign up to read a blog; you don't have to give out any personal information to read a blog or comment; you don't have to be a "Follower" or subscribe. In fact it's safer in that regard than Facebook where you do have to join.

The only ones who will have to register to use the blog are those who want to contribute independently and on a regular basis. Then it's only a Google account. Many folks may already have a Google account and not even realize it. If you use Picasa for your photos or use Gmail, you have a Google account. If you use Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Chrome or use iGoogle or Blogger, changes are you have a Google account. Google, in my assessment, is safer than, for example, some on-line greeting card services that collect e-mail addresses, etc., when people use them.

"Blog" is short for "Web Log" - a specialized webpage designed specifically for people who want to keep a log and then either keep it private, share it with a select few, or open it for everyone. A Web Log could as easily have been called a Web Diary or Web Journal but the designer called it a Web Log and it became known as a Blog. Sort of like the army's General Purpose (GP) vehicle becoming known as a Jeep.

Fara Lee thought for a moment, "Well maybe it ain't so skeery afterall. I tell you though, bossman, If'n Blog is short fer "Web Log" then I can see why the inventer din't call it a "Web Journal."

I asked, "Why?"

Fara Lee opined, "Then one of them innernet nerds woulda giggled and called it a We-Urnal and that's what we'd be callin' it today!"

This is what happens at the bunkhouse when the Fair Bride is not around to keep order.

Tips on Commenting.

The block below the area where you type your comment has a drop down menu of several suggestions entitled "Comment As." You can access the menu by clicking the little down arrow at the right side of the adjacent window.

All of the selections are probably confusing to folks who don't do this too often. If all you want to do is have your note say it's from someone other than "Anonymous" you can select the "Name / URL" field in the drop-down menu and place your name in the "name" field and ignore the "URL" field.

You need not use your full name; you can even use a nickname. For example, Dale Coleman, responded only with "Dale." and so his comment reads "Dale said ..." instead of "Anonymous said ... " Of course you can leave that field blank and simply put your name within the comment field as did Annie Johnson. Her note is from "Anonymous" but she shows her name in her note. Either way will let readers know who you are.

If you prefer to be Anonymous then that's okay; however, I might think it's spam and not allow it when screened.

Confusing but amusing.

Invitation to Guest Author - Test

Here is how it will work if I invite you to post directly to "The Bunkhouse" blog. I sent an invitation to Terry at her e-mail address. I then went to Terry's computer, found my request in her inbox, and responded as if I were her. To do so, you click a link. To post a blog, requires that you have a google account. If you don't have one already, I recommend opening a Gmail account before you respond to the guest author request. (Gmail is a handy and free e-mail service.) If you open your google account prior to responding to the invitation to be a guest author, your user name and password will be fresh in your mind when you proceed.

You then follow the on-screen directions.

As soon as the administrator of the blog (that's me) acknowledges your request, you are then free to post as frequently as you wish and 24/7. I'm now at Terry's computer and creating this post.

This might be intimidating at first but the learning curve is fast. I also uploaded one of Terry's flower photos as and experiment; it was easy. I simply clicked the "Add Image" icon at the top and selected a photo.

You will notice that the lastest post will take the place of the previous one at the top of the post screen. "Change of Pace" will either show below the new post and/or at the blog archive link in the right column.

Some of you e-mailed me that you had attempted to comment but ran into difficulty. Check out the three comments at the bottom of the "Change of Pace" posting on hints about how to comment.