Looking Back on 2007 and Forward to 2008

This email was sent out to all BLOG VILLAGERS. Some of you did not receive it, however, because you have your settings marked not to receive anything but individual emails from the TopList.

This has been a busy year for me, and from the looks of your blogs, it has been for you, too. I've made some changes here that I hope you have found helpful, such as adding the forum and chat, and expanding the Gateway page.

I have also tried to encourage more Villager interaction by requiring at least one HIT IN each month. All you need to do is click the voting link on your blog one time each month to remain an Active member of our community. And you can vote for any Villager's blog you like during the month, so they can stay on the TopList, too.

In an effort to make the list more useful, I have added a Search function to the TopList pages, and I have deleted several hundred bloggers who were not participating.

We have gone Carnival Crazy this year, thanks to several Villagers who are really into this great way of getting to know different bloggers. I'm looking for a Villager now who would like to host the Jan. 28 Carnival on MONEY, who has not hosted one of our BLOG VILLAGE Carnivals before. If you are interested, please let me know as soon as possible. And by all means, send in your post for this carnival. You will find the link to our BLOG VILLAGE sponsored Carnivals in the Blog Carnival widget on the Community News and the Gateway Page.

We haven't had any new Villager Interviews for quite awhile, as our folks have been so busy with other tasks, but if you would like to be interviewed, or like to be the interviewer, please let me know.

I look forward to 2008 and getting to spend time with each of you on your blogs. Now that I don't need to spend as much time being the voting link police, I expect to enjoy reading and commenting a lot more this year, and I encourage each of you to find some Villagers that you can get to know better, too.

May you all have a safe and enjoyable New Year's celebration,

Rosemary


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. And now we have another Villager who has volunteered to join our Interview Team: Marsha!

I Feel Like Grinch!!

Over the last few days I have deleted a large number of blogs from the Village, for not participating on the TopList. They have been warned repeatedly to click on the voting link on their blogs at least once a month, which takes them to the Gateway page, where the forum, chat and carnival links are displayed. By clicking at the bottom of that page, they see ALL the Villager's blogs. The idea is to visit these Villagers sometime during the month. If they don't care to share in the community, then there is no point in them being on the list.

I am sure that I have deleted some that I probably will regret losing, but they can apply again, if they really want to belong. Most of them are never even going to realize they are no longer a member, as they don't ever go to the TopList page, anyway.

I started to email each of them as I deleted them, but decided I did not have the time, energy, or desire to get into an argument with any of them.

So, for those of you who really participate, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And for those that I am deleting? Bah Humbug!



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.

Freud Plays a Hand

Well, for the second month in a row, I have not deleted the blogs that I had warned I would. Last month, I was really too sick to be dealing with this, and this month, I just let the time get by and the month ended before I thought about it. Nobody's fault but mine. I did think about deleting all of them a couple of days before the end of the month, but I wanted to give everyone as much time as possible to click on their voting links. It really pains me to think of losing close to 200 blogs in one fell swoop. Maybe the whole episode has been a Freudian slip. I don't know.

Anyway, I still have my list of who was warned to vote for themselves or lose membership, so I will be deleting these blogs during this month, without warning, IF they do not have at least one HIT IN.

And, why, do you ask, am I so determined to get rid of these blogs that do not vote for themselves? There are two main reasons. One - it means they are probably not ever looking at the TopList, which means they will not be reading any other Villager's blogs. Two - it means I would have to keep checking on all these blogs each month to see if they still have the BLOG VILLAGE voting link on the site. And that's just too hard to manage with so many people to check on. I'd rather be spending my time READING and COMMENTING on fellow Villager's blogs - not being the "banner police"!!

So, again I remind you that you are required to vote for yourself ONE TIME Each MONTH to keep your membership in our Community. Vote for yourself FROM YOUR BLOG, and then go vote for those Villagers you would hate to see deleted. Seems easy enough to me.

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.