Tuesday, September 26, 2006

[Members] Spring Cleaning Invites

Hi Everyone

I just did some spring cleaning in the members section of this blog. There were dozens and dozens of food bloggers who had asked to be pupils but who had never ever completed the signup by accepting the invitation. Some of them dated back a year and a half. So I removed them all and wrote to each individual to tell them what I had done. Everybody is welcome to reapply for membership, of course. I think some people thought they were memebers because a link to their blog appeared in the pupil's blogroll, but the truth is I would make the link before double checking they had finished the signup process and I want to try and stop this from happening going forward. So, in addition to removing the links of the pupils who never finalized their sign-up there will be a new two-week window going forward for new pupils to accept the invitiation. Only after that two weeks will the new pupils be added to the blog roll. Hope that all makes sense.

"This invitation is only guaranteed valid for two weeks from now. If you do not accept this invitation to join the school within that time period, the invite could be removed and your blog will either not be added to the blog roll,or it runs the risk of being removed if it has already been added."

This is all fairly time consuming, so if anyone has any better ideas of how to handle this, please don't hesitate to suggest alternative methodology.

Thanks


This Post was written by Sam from Becks & Posh

11 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Sam, I can only imagine how much work this is for you. I wish I had a great suggestion. The only thing I wanted to add is that you should make it very clear that they aren't a member until they accept the invitation by clicking the link. I read the site for months, and then I remember (ducks head in shame) that when I wanted to post a question I wasn't actually signed up. You were nice enough to send me another one, but I'm sure it's a pain.

People who don't use blogger or haven't been on a group blog are especially likely not to understand about the invitation if they're fairly new to blogging.

Thanks for keeping this going for the benefit for all of us.

cookiecrumb said...

Headmistress butt-smacking! I love it.
Please, Ma'am, may I have another one?
(Kalyn: I made the same error.)
I think you're right on, Sam.

Anonymous said...

Sam, that was extraordinarily kind of you to write to everyone individually! I just received my invite yesterday but I haven't been able to accept it because I'm using Blogger Beta and the sign-in is a problem. If I sign in using my old user name I get a message saying to sign in with my Beta name, and if I sign in with the Beta name I get "User account not found." I will try accepting from my home computer because I use a different browser there (IE at work and Firefox at home) but I don't know if that will help.

Sam said...

we have several people with this beta problem.
I need to write to blogger about it.
Or someone else could?
I am busy cooking today.
otherwise i try and contact them later in the week.

I know they are having some issues with group blogs and beta users.

thanks to anyone else who can look into this

sam

Anonymous said...

I sent Blogger an e-mail just now - their blog of "Known Issues for Blogger Beta" says the problem was fixed on Sept. 26 but I've tried to accept the invite several times since then and it's still not working. I'll let you know, Sam, if I hear anything useful from them.

kitchenmage said...

Sam, here's my weird thing with FBS/Blogger. When I go to the profile page to tell it to show FBS in my profile, it's not in that list. Is there something I screwed up in my signing up waaaay back? Or should I ask Blogger?

Thanks for all your work on this site. I think technology education is critical and the way to start is with the tools we use all the time, it's less painful for the non-geeks. And as a geek, I love the atmosphere here, it's so much less snarkville than most.

~km

Sam said...

well you have to have it on or off for the entire blog, not perindividual member. I must have switched it off at some point, and now have switched it back on to see but I am not sure that members will approve. Every member is listed. Please let me know what you all think!

kitchenmage said...

ooooohhhhhh... hmmm, well i didn't mean to force some change on everyone... i figured it was an individual thing and just me...

*slinks away*

Anonymous said...

no need to slink away!
it was a valid question.

I will elave it there a while and see if anyone complains.

The google profile page is so ugly don't you think?

this long list doesn't make it any prettier.

I try to leave comments without my progile on blogger blogs, by selecting 'other' and filling in the name and url each time. Hopefully this means that my profile doesnt get seen to foten these days

Anonymous said...

Hi Everyone - Hi Sam!

Just wanted to mention here that I, too, have not been able to complete the sign-up process due to my switch to Beta.

So, Sam - I did try. [Really. Twice.]


Blogger says the Beta vs. Blogger bug is fixed; but I cannot comment on any non-Beta Blogger blog unless they allow Anonymous comments [and I comment as Other].

What's up with THAT?

Parisbreakfasts said...

From a nere-do-well, light-weight, who forgot to read the small print :( I did reapply and am truly, madly sorry I messed up with the signon / acceptance procedures. I promise to do better next time. I like this site a lot.