CONVERTING THE TQS SITE

[John A.]

We have been looking into converting the site to make it easier and more fun. I plan to keep you updated and also to ask your help and input. The site was started in 2007, which is 100 years ago in internet years. We have looked at many different types of software and many types of tools. TQS has a lot of content. How do we get you to it? When you arrive, what is the best way to present it? How can we make it easy enough for us to create? Whew!?

I have decided to include you all in the process. Sometimes I will tell what is going on and sometimes I will ask for your opinions. Please understand that I will not always use your ideas or say yes to your opinions. Many times I will not have the time to tell you why. For instance, it has taken many months and tens of thousands of dollars to just get everyone's names over to the new system. I had no idea it would be such a big deal. It was. Now we have to make some big decisions.

So, your first job is to help me with Bob's question today. "Do we have to bring over all the history in the member blogs?"

My first question to Bob is always the same--"Big deal or little deal?"

This one is a big deal. We are going to use all new software to host your blogs. We have it down to 2 choices. In either case trying to bring all the past entries over is really hard. The new software will make it easier for people to chronicle their quilting journeys and share with friends.

Can you live with a fresh start to the Member Blogs?

[Judith T.]

Hi, Cap'n John, I personally don't have a member blog but enjoy reading them. Just tell me and the rest of the membership where it will be located and which button to click on and we will be good to go. We old dinosaurs sometimes have problems with change but with directions, we manage. Judy in AZ

[Lotti D.]

Obviously it would be fantastic to have the blog history...
But having worked on our company websites, I realize the huge amount of work, space and cost involved, so I wouldn't give up TQS if we lost that.
Would it be possible to have a limited member blog history? I.e. going back a year ora few years or so?
Thank you for letting us give our two cents worth - and for keeping us informed! That is so appreciated.

[Hannelore N.]

I cannot find the time (working fulltime) to read the blogs. I concentrate on the Daily Blog and the Forum. I hardly ever get around to the Members' Blogs, so I would not miss old blogs.

I think though that it would be very important to give those members who use the blog section regularly a couple of weeks warning so that they can copy and paste their old blogs to their home computer. That way they would not be lost.

John, Bob, I wish you lots of luck with sorting out the website. My very personal opinion on most things in life (I may be showing my age here): If it ain't broken, don't change it. Most of us are creatures of habit and happily settle into a routine of using the site.

[Lois B.]

Thanks for asking. When I first joined TQS and started to become active in the Forum I read quite a few member blogs beginning to end. I didn't have a local guild and TQS became that for me. Being able to research other member's work as they developed their skills was extremely valuable. It helped pull me into the TQS community. Believe me, if I had known about TQS I'd have been a charter member. But I hadn't known about it and without the member blogs I don't know that I could have learned about the vitality and strength of this extremely unique group of quilters. The member blogs helped me learn what a caring community we are and what I needed to do to become a part of it. If continuing to encourage and nurture that community I believe it is very important to retain the history.

[Sherry B.]

I read the blogs and the Forum almost every day, even though I don't comment very often. That being said, I rarely go back and look at the old blogs, so I think you should do what is most efficient and cost effective :-)

[karen f.]

I keep up with the blogs and forum daily and do go back and reread old ones for various reasons. I guess I better figure out how to copy and save my own old blogs that I use as a diary sort of to remember what was going on in my life at different times. Please let us know before they are removed.

[Lois B.]

I guess I have more than just two cents to say about this. We are told over and over and over again. Document your quilts. Document your quilts. Journal about the process of making a quilt. If you do that, the quilt becomes even more valuable. These blogs are a unique piece of quilting history. It's part of a record of how quilting has changed in the 21st Century. We've grown from a craft that connects family and community quilters to more than a world wide quilting guild. We are a world wide community/family of quilters that comes to each other in time of need. The blogs are part of that history and TQS made that happen. Where else does that kind of quilting community exist? Nowhere! Are you sure ARJJ wants that documentation to be gone? Can I live without it? Sure. But I don't think that is the important question here.

[Lois B.]

I don't have a blog here and don't read the blogs regularly. I do however, read someone's blog if I happen to see them make a reference to their blog entry in the forum. Then I will go to their blog, and read quite a few back entries. Reading older blog posts gives me a better sense of the person and the topics they are discussing... some quilters do use their blogs as a documentation method for their quilt process.

I would be fine with a 'clean slate' approach or an 'archive' approach. But perhaps you really need to ask those members who HAVE and USE a blog here. Can you send them a group email to make sure they give their opinions?

That said, websites change all the time. Some close. Some morph. If you are backed up you won't lose your data/entries/posts if that site is no more or changes. This happened with Webshots, Google Reader and another quilting forum I was on... I wasn't happy but I survived.

[Nancy R.]

Thinking about it, I haven't ever gone back to read old blogs except to find a specific blog that I had written that a friend wanted to read. So I wouldn't be devastated if the history went away. But it does sadden me. I did write my blogs with the idea that I would be able to use them as a journal of my quilting. So, I wouldn't be angry if you had to drop the history, but I would be disappointed. I love this site and wouldn't want to ask you to do something that would be too expensive for you to accomplish.

Thanks!

Nancy

[Paula D.]

Retaining all the blogs historically would also include ones that have been abandoned by their authors. I vote for "let's look forward, not back". I would leave it to the bloggers themselves to repost anything they deem so important. Bottom line, what's ever easiest for you guys in the "control tower". But let's not get "blogged down". LOL

[Keith D.]

Here, here, Lois!! And Heartnsoulquilts! And Lorchen and others...

Hi John! When I started blogging here, one of the primary reasons was to document the history of my quilts - not just the finished work, but the process and the decisions that were made - the joys and the frustrations. And to share that with others.

If the blogs don't go forward, I'd need to do some work to get the information on my computer or print them and store the paper (yuk!).

I wouldn't be angry; I would be a little sad. And I would certainly understand if it had to be done for the improvement of the site and our community going forward.

[Robin G.]

Dear Capt'n John, Thank you for including us in the process! I sometimes marvel at the amount of power and storage it must take to run this site, and I know a lot of these questions will be "a big deal." I imagine you're going to (or have already) faced the same issue with the Forum. Regarding the blogs, I agree with previous comments—I don't very often go back at look at others' previous blogs, but once in a while I do to follow the thread back (such as Keith's development of some of his quilts). I more often go back to look at my previous blogs because, like others, I use my blog to document my quilting development and, as Karen said, my life at that time. I don't have a blog outside of TQS. I liked Lotti's question: Would it be possible to keep the past year's worth of blogs? And would there be some way that you could help us capture our own blogs so that we can keep them? I don't necessarily mean on TQS, but I certainly would want to keep what I wrote in my blogs, along with the formatting and photos. I guess the bottom line for me is that I would be sad to lose the blog history, but could live with it as long as I could find a way to capture my old blogs. Again, thank you for including us in this process. I appreciate it!!

[E.M. T.]

I read the blogs daily....I don't blog..yet ! I will miss being able to revisit Keith's quilt progress or Lottie's
trips...Rita's work...Sherri's docs on those glorious quilts....and others. And countless others ! Perhaps we will
have to move on...but I won't like it and I, too, will be sad !! A year isn't much in the life of some of these events
but that would be better than none at all. IMHO.

[Annette R.]

I personally would like to keep the old blogs. Ok I am probably a minority but that is where some of my work is documented and I can refer people to it. I have my quilt pictures full or almost full so without more spots on my personal profile, I cannot document any more quilts without deleting ones I love. What a dilemma!!!! But in the long run would I quit TQS without the blog history? You have got to be kidding. I have been here since the beginning and the only way I am going away is in a box (my ashes) so do what you think is best for the entire community and for your company. Hugs, Ann