Latest News for ThePoeticLink.com

To Write to me, simply send mail to: Webmaster@ThePoeticLink.com I read all of your comments and suggestions... don't be shy!


Displaying News 166 to 175 out of 175 Total News.
Click one of the following to display the: First 10 ... Previous 10 ... News.

News Entry Date: 3/31/2000 3:59pm

Well I finally got this darn NEWS entry thing automated. Now I can give you updates all the time :) And it's super easy for me :) Woohoo! Anyway, I have added more tweeks and features. I have added a new Chat program also! I will be working hard over the weekend to give you even more features and reporting tools to see how you are doing. I have to be very careful not to give too much information. I don't want to discourage any new visitors from trying their hand at critiquing or submissions if they see some of the higher scores for the current month. EVERYONE has a fair shot at the prizes. I have added more prizes :)

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/24/2000 3:55pm

Lot and Lots of Tweaking! Man it's almost crazy, the more I add to this the more ideas I get for adding even more features. I am starting to add features for you guys now. They will be coming slowly, but coming none-the-less. I keep a little hand written list on my computer table and each time I'm done with the last one and throw it away, I start on the next one that I had been writing and adding to while completing the tasks from the first list. It's an endless cycle I think *laugh* Seriousely though, I am starting to really enjoy this. This is the part where I put my flare and personality into things. All you see right now is the BARE BONES of a fully functional increadibly complex tripple checking quadruple rating system. I am rather amazed at how complex it actually is now. Some of the problems I tackle take 30 minutes just to formulate what I need to address to add a feature :) I am not exactly sure how I would like to address the problem of your scores. They do exist and some are quite impressive already in just 2 days. They are achieved by a mix of numbers derived from what you do as well as how your poems and critiques are rated by others. It's too complex to explain, so let's just call them scores. I am feeling that posting them directly would be a bad thing. Even though everyone starts at 0 each month as a critiquer and every poem of course starts at 0... they soon start climbing like mad. If I put the results on the page openly, I am afraid new visitors will be discouraged from participating, simply because they realize they have sooo much catching up to do that month to win. I think I may perhaps allow you to see the top 10 or top 5 in poem scores and critiques. But NOT the score... Just the names of the people and titles of the poems. You could see the list shift around and get an idea of where you stand once your name appears on it. I am just not sure how long to make the list. Do I show EVERYONE ranked on it or just show the top 5 or 10? Help me out here with suggestions guys :)

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/22/2000 3:55pm

Well guys... We're Live! I beat my Live Target by 10 days! The system is running perfectly and I felt that there was no reason to hold everyone up. Anything that you enter from this point forward should be permanent. There may be a bump or 2 along the way but they should be minor at best. I want to extend a HUGE Thank You to the small handful of people who helped me test my new database and get it to where it is at now. I think you will be absolutely thrilled at how this system performs. If you have any suggestions or comments, please write to me at webmaster@ThePoeticLink.com and I'll be happy to look at any good ideas you send me. Well goodnight for now! -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/19/2000 3:54pm

Wow the feedback and testing is going so well, I may actually push the live date sooner than 4/1/2000. I really appreciate all of you guys getting in there and using the Test Database for me. I am sorry that your work will not be saved but you got some free feedback and that's always good :) Man, I have implemented so many small features and it's really coming together. I just hope it's easy for you guys to work with and to understand. I am going to try adding some e-mail features tomorrow so you can get in touch with someone if you like. Again, I can't thank you all enough for the help and the work you are putting into this. I can't wait to get this baby live. I think it's going to be the most increadible Poetry Page out there on the net. It sure has a dedicated programmer behind the scenes *wave* so that can't be all bad right? Please send me feedback. I need to know what you guys think of this thing and how you like it. I only have 10 people in the database so far which is far less than I had hoped, but it's still good enough for helping me to test and find problems. Right now the MOST help you can give me is feedback! Let me know your thoughts and ideas if you have any for the page and I'll see what I can do. -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/17/2000 3:53pm

Wow I can't believe all of the little things I added and changed in the past 2 days! I think I am ready to open this baby up to you guys now on a much larger scale. I still have some things that I would like to add but for the most part everything should work smoothly. I am going to put a link in the main page and ask people to try the database for me. As incentive I will be offering Submission Credits to the top 3 Poets and top 3 Critiquers! Let's see how this all fits together now :) ** Our New TEST Database is Finally Live! ** Please help me test the New Poetic Link Database, it is 100% FREE right now (everyone gets 200 FREE Test Database Submission Credits) so you can use it heavily! I will be Awarding the Top 3 Poets and Top 3 Critiquers, REAL Submission Credits in the Live System. 1st Place wins 15 Submission Credits, 2nd Place wins 10 Submission Credits and 3rd Place wins 5 Submission Credits! Please use the New Database and help me to find the bugs if there are any. *grin* If you find any problems or confusion, write to me at support@ThePoeticLink.com and I will try my best to fix things. So what are you waiting for! NOTE: This TEST Database will be Wiped out when the test is over so nothing you submit will be saved.

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/15/2000 3:53pm

Well guys I did a lot of work today on cleaning things up and making them a bit more presentable. I added directions and squashed several bugs. I did all of the things below that I wanted to do so I feel pretty good about that. Tomorrow I will be contacting Cyber Cash to see about setting up an entirely new system for you to submit your poems without even having to worry about the credit card crap. You will only need to enter your information 1 time in the beginning and that's it. I am also going to make a simple way for people to keep track of any Submission Credits that they may have. Overall, I am happy with the progress. The ideas are flowing freely and being implemented nearly as fast. I hope more of you start using it to help me test things. -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/14/2000 3:53pm

Well, I just got back from my little 2 day vacation. I had some people sign on to the new database and it was very helpful. Thank You! I have now added support for the single quote ( ' ) character. You were unable to use it before. Things like don't or can't did not allow your submissions to process. That is now fixed. Tomorrow, I will start working on the directions and better documentation. This will allow people to better test the new system and to see how it operates. I am also going to try to add some more functions. A few things I would like to add include. User Information Confirmation, Poem Submission Confirmation, Change User Information, move New User Info Entry to a secure Link, add rating descriptions to critiques and replies. After that important stuff, we'll see where I end up. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to see this thing taking shape. I am much farther ahead than I thought I would be. Please get into the new system and play with it. Try adding some poems and some critiques as well as critique replies. http://ThePoeticLink.com/pl -Book Mark it NOW! :) Take Care, -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/12/2000 3:52pm

Congratulations! For those of you who care enough to read this file... you are going to be the first to get a look at the new database and format of The Poetic Link. Please follow this link to the new database and give it a try. http://ThePoeticLink.com/pl You should bookmark that link right now so that you can return back to it easily. There are a lot of dead ends on the new setup and clicking the bookmarked link will make returning easy for you. I suppose now I will really see just how many people are reading this news file. A word about the database... I have not added a lot of features to it yet as it is still being developed, but rest assured that they will be coming shortly. I will be adding a TON of real-time statistics to it for you to see how well your poems and critiques are doing against others and so forth. For now, I have a lot of the foundation laid. Enjoy... it's FREE to test it out, but everything will be wiped out several times during the testing process, so don't put a lot of time into your poems OK. Also, don't be offended if you get some harsh comment or something goofy, people are just playing with the database as I have asked them to do. NOW GET BUSY! -You better write and let me know how you like it OK :) I will be on vacation for 2 days so when I return I hope to see how things worked out. I regret not being here to see how the first day or two of my new database is received by you guys.

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/10/2000 3:51pm

I have finished reading all of the poems for February and after updating this news file will start publishing the poems that made the 'cut.' I know many of you are displeased with the voting structure, and that is one of the main reasons that I am programming the new page. This new format will be based on a REAL Time rating system, where people can critique your poem entries and leave you comments right here on the web page. You will even be able to reply to their comments. The entire thing is a work in progress but I think you will be overjoyed with the final outcome. I am going to push for a BETA version to be open to you for testing sometime in the next 2 - 3 weeks. It won't be pretty, but it will work. I will be looking for suggestions at that time. The BETA version will be free for you to try, and will be wiped at the end. Nothing in there will be kept so you can post old poems if you like, just for testing purposes. I wish I could convey to you guys, just how much I care about everyone who comes here to support my efforts. Heck, I don't even know if you are reading this news page or if you care that I am working long hard hours to produce an entirely new web page design that should blow every other poetry page out of the water. Maybe I'm doing this all for nothing :) -Bah, I'm learning PHP and MySQL so that's good I suppose. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hope this pays off as much for you guys as it does for me. I never intended to turn ThePoeticLink.com into some money making scheme like other pages you find out there. But I would love to turn it into something that has a solid financial base. This would allow me to pay you guys some NICE returns on your work. I think this real-time system is going to give everyone what they are looking for; you as well as me. After 9 months of work on this page, I think my little bank account is up to $500 last I checked. That's pretty pathetic if you consider that is about $50 profit per month. But anyway, I'm seeing the bigger picture here and I think it will finally start to take off here shortly when I'm done the updates. Suggestions, comments... just tell me you're alive or that you read this and I'll be happy. Take Care, -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

News Entry Date: 3/6/2000 3:50pm

You may have noticed some links not working properly in the past few days. This is because we have moved from our previous host Earthlink.net to a new host. During the transition period, there are always a few glitches, it wouldn't be any fun if it went 100% smoothly. But at any rate, I think I have all of the problems addressed and well under control. If you are a member of our banner exchange, there is a small change that you need to make to your banner code. Letters were sent around to each of you explaining the small change. If you did not receive notification of what you need to change, please write to me at webmaster@ThePoeticLink.com and I will be happy to forward you the instructions. The main reason for the move to our new web host, was to support Database functions. I am learning PHP and mySQL programming. It will take a bit of time but I think you are going to be super happy with the results. Basically, there will be a system in place for almost immediate feedback on your poem submissions as well as a lot more interaction with other poets. You will really be able to make ThePoeticLink.com your home. I am going to keep this short since I must get back to coding, but if anyone out there is good at programming in PHP and mySQL, could you please drop me a line at the above e-mail address. I could really use some help and if you are willing, it would be a blessing. There is much to be done! Take Care, -Chris

Poetry Contests Online at The Poetic Link

Click HERE to return to ThePoeticLink.com Database Page!

Displaying News 166 to 175 out of 175 Total News.
Click one of the following to display the: First 10 ... Previous 10 ... News.