Stop Abuse!!

Thousands of bloggers from around the world are joining together this Thursday, September 27th with a single message: Stop Abuse!

We would love for our Villagers to be very vocal on this important issue, whether your personal concern is child abuse, animal abuse, elder abuse, or any other form of abuse that is an issue to you!

On Thursday, September 27th, post about any abuse topic you care about - child abuse, domestic abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, political abuse - and let the world know you stand united with thousands of bloggers as part of the Bloggers Unite "Blog Against Abuse" campaign. Depending on your topic, you can even link to local, regional, national, or international organizations that you care about or support. Every post will count!

There are dozens of badges you can add to your post (or make your own):
http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/bloggers-unite/discuss/entry/ badges-for-blogging-against-abuse-place-them-on-your-blog


And there are several places where you are invited to add a link, like here:
http://www.blogcatalog.com/group/bloggers-unite/discuss/entry/ three-great-places-to-leave-your-post-link

As well as http://www.topix.com/forum/topstories/T4EUFS0AVNJ08ASPT

You can e-mail your link to blogforhope@yahoo.com by Oct. 10 with any results (traffic, comments, etc.) By doing so, you will automatically be be entered in to win $250 for charity (from Copywrite, Ink.) six months of premium services (from BlogCatalog) and gain more recognition for your blog and the topic you post about. (More details can be found at
Copywrite, Ink.)

This is shaping up to be the biggest Bloggers Unite campaign in BlogCatalog history! Please join us on September 27th and blog against abuse. Every post will count!

Thanks, Jackie, for bringing this cause to our attention! I hope we have a lot of BLOG VILLAGERS participating.


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Working on our BLOG VILLAGE Gateway Page

I'm still playing around with the idea of how to make the Gateway page of our TopList more useful, so I decided to try Anthony's suggestion of putting BLOG VILLAGE specific content there, rather than generic content. I can't move the voting button up to the top yet, as I am waiting on the gotop programmers to make that possible. In the meantime, please bear with me as you have to go to the bottom of the page to vote. If you click END on your keyboard, it will take you to the voting button immediately.

Jackie suggested that we start a Chat or Forum, where Villagers can talk about all things related to our blogs, and link to it here, as well. I haven't had time to work on that, but I haven't forgotten about it.

Once I can get the page fully developed, I will probably remove at least some of the extra content, such as carnival banners in between the Villager banners, from the TopList itself, and some of the announcements, too. So, you might want to bookmark the Gateway page, and use it to enter BLOG VILLAGE. That's what I had in mind, anyway.

PS Entering from your bookmarked Gateway page will give you a HIT IN.

Please let me know what you think, as I will consider any suggestions.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

A Sad Ending for Some, but a New Beginning for Us

Today was not a fun day for me, as I just finished deleting over 100 blogs from BLOG VILLAGE. But, we continue to gain new members each day, so our Village is still alive and well. I also emailed all the Villagers who have not voted FROM their blog yet this month, and I wrote to a small number of newer Villagers who have not put the voting link on their blog yet (those blogs are now marked with the asterisk).


Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Copy of Email to All Villagers Who Have Been Warned of the Sept. 15 Deadline

Please be sure YOU vote for YOUR blog FROM YOUR BLOG before the end of this month, and each month, which is a requirement of membership.

This is a copy of the email I sent out today to all the blogs that have the asterisk on their name on the TopList, just for your information.

The September 15th DEADLINE is almost here. I have emailed each of you, posted on the Community News, put warnings on the TopList itself, and done everything I could think of to warn you that you are about to be deleted from BLOG VILLAGE. Some of you have dormant blogs, with no new posts in a long time. Most of you have very active blogs, but you are not displaying the BLOG VILLAGE voting link on your blog.

After Sept. 15, I will be taking one last look at your blog. If I do not find current posts AND the BLOG VILLAGE voting banner or link, I will DELETE your blog from membership. You will not hear from me again.

If I do find current posts AND the voting link, I will vote for you myself this time, since any blog that does not have at least one vote FROM YOUR BLOG (HIT IN) by the end of September will also be deleted. You will need to continue to vote for yourself FROM YOUR BLOG each month to maintain Active Status on our Village.

I would love to find that you have decided to be an Active member, with current posts and the voting link displayed. I do, however, understand that some, if not all of you, did not realize that continued BLOG VILLAGE membership involved active participation. I hope we can part with good feelings, if you are one of the blogs I delete.

Regretfully,

Rosemary

http://blogvillage.gotop100.com

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

Trying to Find Ways to Make BLOG VILLAGE More Useful to YOU

I'm playing around with some ideas about making the front page of the TopList more like a PORTAL page. So, for the meantime, I've added a NEWS FEED and a WEATHER link. My thinking was that it might help you come up with something to blog about, or just be for your own personal reading pleasure. I'm trying to figure out some way to let each of you have an area where you could add favorite links, too. If someone knows how I could do that with script for HTML or CSS, please let me know.

Also, if you think this might be useful, or a waste of space and time, I'd appreciate your feedback. As I said, I'm just playing, and perfectly willing to delete it all and go back to the way it was. Or, continue to look for new Java scripts and such that will work.

For the time being, I've moved these changes to the Gateway page. That's what you see when you vote for a blog from the link on the blog. If you all like the portal idea, it would be simple enough to bookmark your link page, instead of the main TopList page. Or, I can move it back to the top or bottom of the main page. I'm completely open to suggestions on this one, as I'm just experimenting.

So, let me have it - positive or negative opinions welcomed!!



PS. You may have noticed that some of the Ratings have gone up on the Village. I am in the process of manually deleting ratings given by a certain person, whose IP has now been blocked. If you have one of these 0 or 1 ratings, without a comment to back it up, please let me know, and I will delete it for you.



Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.

VOTE FOR YOURSELF This Week

If you want to remain part of the BLOG VILLAGE community, then you must show your involvement by voting for your blog FROM THE VOTING LINK ON YOUR OWN BLOG in the first week of each month. So, it's time to click on your banner on your blog. Don't have the banner on your blog? Then add it from the code in the left hand column of your control panel. Can't find the code? Email me, and I'll send it to you.

Many Villagers have received an email warning that their blog would be deleted, if they did not make a new post or add the voting link to their blog. Those blogs are shown on the TopList with as asterisk at the beginning of their title. I have no desire to delete anyone, but I also have no desire to carry blogs who are not participating in our community. So, I have set a deadline of Sept. 15 before I delete any who have not complied.

If blogs you enjoy are in danger of being dropped from BLOG VILLAGE, please encourage your blog friends to fix the problem, vote for themselves this week, and once at the beginning of each month, and become an Active participant. And, of course, YOU can vote for any blog you like from the banner on their blog, too. It only takes ONE HIT IN to keep a blog showing on the Village.

Right now, all the blogs are showing to give these blogs in danger of being dropped extra time to fix their situation, but after Sept. 15, only those with a HIT IN will show.

I know some of you are getting dizzy with all the changes I seem to be making lately, but they are all done to accomplish one thing. And that is to get our Village down to a list of blogs who are genuinely interested in belonging and being involved. Those are the bloggers who will take the time to read and comment on what you have posted. Without participation, the others just don't belong here.

I do appreciate those expressions of thanks many of you have sent me, as this does take a good bit of my time. But I truly believe our Village is worth the effort, and I hope you agree.

Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start HERE.

If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact Janey Loree, Kilroy, or the Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.