Welcome

In a world gone crazy, there are those who are certifiable.

BTW, if you figure it out (and I haven't directly told you), feel free to blurt it out. ;-)

New job!

Sadly no, in any real sense, but the literally minded might say yes (and the pedants would disagree, turning on the definition of 'new')

Hey Tom,

Lately whenever I've seen the "unapproved users" thingy at the top of the page I've approved/disapproved based on the amount of numbers in the name and email address. Nine times out of ten I reject them outright but I'm just wondering - should I just reject the lot?

(once in a blue moon there's a username/email that doesn't look bot-like but I think that's false hope...)

Yeah, unfortunately there's not a real good way to see how spammy they are.

I'll look to see if there is some add on to have them write a paragraph on why they should be added.

Dear (Spork) Forum:

I've been a long-time reader of your excellent publication, but I've never written. Recently, something happened to me that I just had to tell you about! I was working late at the fast food restaurant I manage. All the employees had left, I was just finishing doing the books for the day. Before leaving, I went out to make sure that the lights were off and I heard somebody rapping on one of the doors. "We're closed," I called, as I approached the door. As I drew closer, I saw that it was a woman, and boy what a knockout! She had the kind of body men dream about, slender, with large but perky

[CONTENT EXCISED]

... and I was dehydrated for a week. Thanks for listening (Spork) Forum!

I never thought these stories were true until...

Since clearly we have everyone on the edge of their keyboards in antici... wait for it... pation, I suppose it's time to unveil the news before the stress of not knowing causes unwanted side effects.

Work is now underway to officially bring MacEdition back with both Tom and me involved, as well as anyone else who wants to contribute.

The focus will be on what we always felt was the strength: in-depth coverage, opinion, and analysis. The "breaking news" aspect will effectively be zero. The focus on Professionals will still be 100%, though we all have to admit the definition of "Professional" these days is a little different than it was 10 years ago (yes, 10 years!)

I'll be building the infrastructure for the new site shortly, based on WordPress.

Anyone who wants to be involved either follow up with me at bbrighton@macedition.com (if you want it to be private for the time being) or here on the boards if you don't mind talking in the open.

I'm excited to be back involved and about what we still have left to create!

I was just sitting here thinking I'd love for some 'text' media to find a way to do text-to-speech and put out a podcast/audio of the written word.
I have been impressed with some text to speech that I've heard, but I have no idea where people are getting the very high quality conversions.
Just a thought if you'd like to expand your audience in this manner.

Interesting idea, Bill. Might have to see what can be done with that once the core site is live again.

And... w00t!

Angry Mac Bastards kind of eats up a lot of Mac podcast oxygen but... ooh! Brad, I could contact them and see about getting you on to announce and promote the site, if you want.

ddt

Interesting. Are you going for the "daring fireball" angle regarding content?

Wordpress is a good choice for a CMS (says me based on one week's experience with it). You building a custom theme or just going to tweak one already online?

ddt, when we get closer, sure! Tony, several of the sites I've been pimping lately have been WP sites. Theme? Off-the-shelf "custom" to start with. Daring Fireball-ish? Kinda, but broader. To be honest, it'll be mostly the same sorts of content we had before, minus the breakers and most rumors.

I'm wondering if we should have a thread that non-members can post to to let us know they are real people when they apply for member status here. I see the un-approved users messages but I just have to guess if they are real or not.

Porruka,

I'll hold my hand up to help out in some limited role. I'm getting my hands dirty with a lot of wordpress stuff so it may be good experience. I'm not sure how many or how often I could generate genuinely insightful/useful content pieces though. Aside with coming up with actual ideas, are there any other roles that need filled?

Bearing in mind the demise of the POCWACTSO files and so on - I don't want to over-promise and under-deliver...

Tony,

I'd like to talk to you privately about some ideas I've had re: content. If you want to admin too, that's certainly a possibility.

email me when convenient...

Happy early birthday to dem0n1... .

ddt

Has there been a change to the style sheets for Spork?

ddt