MuseBlog

We’ve found some software that lets you enter moves with your mouse, directly on the board. Just click on the piece you want to move, and then on the square to which you want to move it. Easy, no? Try it!
 
 

 
This board won’t save your moves for other people to see. (At least, the documentation says it won’t. We can’t tell.) To make it do that, you need a MuseBlog chessplayer’s account with a password. Then you could log in and play your opponent without having to post your moves for an Administrator to enter. We can make those accounts if there’s enough interest. Note that a valid email address is required.

What do you think? Comments, please:

Are you new to MuseBlog? Make this your first stop. We’ve got some pie fresh out of the oven, and friendly locals ready to answer your questions and help you feel at home.
Read more »

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page. (Making you re-request these every month helps to weed out the no-longer-fit.)

(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.) Read more »

Many of our threads have continued over numerous parts, which sometimes makes them baffling to newcomers or even intimidating. Without a guidebook, it’s not always easy to know where to begin, and the prospect of reading through hundreds of comments is daunting to say the least. Although a quick reference isn’t a substitute for reading, it can help someone decide if the thread is ens cup of tea.

We’d like to add a summary page to the HG2MB to give MBers a guide to the continuing threads, but we need your help. With all the newcomers around lately, there’s no time like the present, but GAPA schedules are pretty full right now. Therefore, this thread will serve as a place where anyone who wants to help may draft out useful descriptions of the threads they’re involved with. RRRs and RPGs are obvious candidates, but any multi-part thread — Wungs, Hot Topics, the H&H — also has its traditions and expectations.

These should be BRIEF descriptions, not detailed plot summaries. A reasonable paragraph would be ideal, somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-150 words. Think catalogue listing. Course descriptions. How would you answer the question: what’s going on here?

Thanks!

~the GAPAs

We’ve reinstalled the chess plug-in, so games on the old chess threads (such as Chess 4) will be visible again.

Don’t get too attached to them, though: we’ve found another program with some very useful features, if we can make it work. Stay tuned…

We’ve added something new to your comment forms: a “preview” button that lets you see in advance approximately what the comment will look like. If you don’t like it, don’t post it — just change it and preview it again.

The button should help you avoid typos, avatar slip-ups on the Alter Ego thread, and other bloggish “oops!” moments. Let us know how you like it and if it causes any problems. Otherwise, enjoy!

Here’s our policy about meeting other MBers offline:

• MuseBlog’s administrators do not encourage you to do it.
• We won’t help you plan to do it.
• If you insist on holding a real-world meeting, your parents must plan it and supervise it.
• To assure us that they are involved, your parents should e-mail us at gapa @ musefanpage.com. We will help them exchange e-mail addresses, and they can take it from there.
• Any details about meetings (exact time and place, what you’ll be wearing, etc.) must stay off the blog. Please don’t try to post them. We won’t let you.
• After a Kokonvention, we will post photographs of Kokonvening MBers with parental permission.
• That’s all we will do.

Your friends,
The GAPAs

The challenge is to write a story within the 10 levels of nesting. Sort of a Round-Robin ‘Riting in miniature. The term “story” may be interpreted loosely. Experimental fiction and prose poems are also acceptable.

The rules:

> If two (or more) people reply to the same entry at the same level, the story divides, and each comment may be built upon separately.

> The “tree” may branch where it will, except that the 10th nesting level must always close out that story line.

> You may copy a piece of one story to use as the beginning of a new story.

> More than one story may be in progress.

That should do to start us off. This is an experiment, so don’t be afraid to branch out have some fun with the format.

Back during the old days (before April 2009), MBers added their posts to the bottom of the comments page. They had no choice; it was all the blog software offered.

When they revived the blog after the Great Hacking Incident, the Administrators added a feature that allowed nested, threaded comments. Now MBers had the option of replying directly to others’ comments, in a hierarchical, outline-like form. They could also reply the old way, with a new comment, if they chose.

Nested comments have several advantages but one big disadvantage: you can’t read them in chronological order. That’s hard for people who don’t check the blog every hour, or even every day.

Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Should we scrap the nesting? Keep it for some purposes but not for others? Let’s talk about it.

For centuries, people have spoken of them in whispers. They are the covert-action wing of the Kokonspiracy: a shadowy cabal devoted to committing anonymous acts — some simple, some spectacular — in the spirit of the Muse known as Mimi. They are the WD-40 that keeps the gears of civilization turning, or at any rate loosens the lug nuts of civilization when they get stuck. Who reshelved that beautiful astronomy book that some idiot had stuck in the middle of the football section, where neither the librarians nor anybody else would ever have found it? They did that, and much, much more besides. Make no mistake about it: Unlike a similarly named supersecret organization depicted in certain popular books, movies, and video games, these are GOOD guys.

They are

And they want you.

No membership fee if you sign up now!

Here are the 10 most active MBers, as reckoned by the number of comments they’ve posted so far.*

# Alice (10,843)
# the man for aeiou (5,314)
# Jadestone (4,487)
# Purple Panda (3,792)
# Cat’s Meow (3,426)
# Prarilius Canix (3,319)
# Kokonilly (3,234)
# E2MB (2,871)
# KaiYves (2,578)
# Red-tailed HAWK (2,353)

*Our statistics count different names as independent entries, so you’re at a disadvantage in the rankings if you’ve changed your name, added points to it, or anything along those lines. Alas, we Administrators don’t have time to add comments from everyone’s aliases to get a true tally. (And we refuse to think about the Alter Ego threads.)

What is your name? The Kokonspiracy.
What is your quest? World domination.
What is your plan? Mostly Harmless.

Is MuseBlog really a plot to take over the world? What else could it be?

Continued from TK2K8P3.

A round of Muse Academy’s uniquely zany card game is in progress and desperately needs new players. It’s easy to learn but extremely challenging (sometimes dangerously so). Please stop by the Muse Academy Student Lounge and give it a try!

Read more »

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page.

(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.) Read more »

The comments sections now available on some pages are NOT normal MB threads. They are for posting information only. (“Pages” in WordPress nomenclature are the information posts accessed through the menu below the MuseBlog title banner: Who’s Here, What’s Here, etcetera.)

On the HTML page, for example, please don’t post questions asking “How to do I do such-and-such?” or experiments along the lines of “Will such-and-such work? Whee, it did!” That’s what the HTML Practice and Typographic Tricks thread is for. If you feel like telling others how to do something, however, go right ahead. We’ll transfer the information to the page and delete your comment to keep that section clear.

Thanks,

The Management

Spare the other threads; post your experiments here.

Continued from 2008.3.

Things are different around here. Here’s a place to post your questions, suggestions, observations, discoveries, and tips for navigating this somewhat-strange, somewhat-familiar environment.

Here is the story, as far as we’ve been able to determine:

Apparently on February 25, some evil non-MBer hacked MuseBlog’s WordPress code to show advertisements at the top of the lefthand sidebar. Now the inserted code is malfunctioning and causing slowdowns and other problems. Robert has been trying to track down the problem, but the commands are well disguised and seem to be spread out among the files in a way that will break other parts of the blog if he simply starts deleting them. He’s going to reinstall our software tonight. (He tried to do it last night but had to go to bed before he could finish the job.)

That’s our tale of woe, so far. With luck, it will have a happy ending soon.

For those who missed this year’s April Fools’ Day Blog or who may be feeling (*shudders*) nostalgic, Filboid Studge is on display at filboid-studge.com.

It’s read-only; you can look but not post.

Howdy, stranger! You new around here? Come right in! We’ve got some pie waiting for you, and friendly locals ready to answer your questions and help you feel at home.

For starters, we recommend that newcomers (that’s what “neophytes” means) look over The Rules and The HG2MB (Hitchhiker’s Guide to MuseBlog), which contains more helpful information than you can shake a stick at. We don’t know why you’d want to shake a stick at it, but now you know you don’t have to bother.

Don’t forget to stop by Who’s Here (see the menu at the top of your screen) and announce your arrival in a comment there, so we’ll be sure to add you to the official list.

MuseBlog Veterans: Please use this thread only to welcome newcomers as they arrive and answer questions that they ask.

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page.

(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.)

Current categories:

ADVENTURES IN THE MUSIVERSE
Other Muse Academies https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1317
Ships’ Logs https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1555

LIFE BEYOND THE VIRTUAL DIVIDE
College / University / Higher Education https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1288

SILLY FUN
Harry Potter Trivia-Off, Part 2 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1492
World of Piecraft, Part 4 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1644
Ble! Newluj!-No Fulst, Part 2 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1577
Quotations, 2009 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1633
Coy Woodnesse https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1621
Song Parodies https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1531
Polling Place https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1516

DAYDREAMS
Reclusive Gardens https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1520

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
Superheros and Mary Sues https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1642

RRRs AND WRITING
Searoc https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1412
Etheterre https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1167
Alchemy https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1554
Books in Progress! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1659

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE
Computer and Video Games, v. 2.0 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1508
Books and Reading, 2009, Part 1 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1597
Music, v. 2009 https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1598
Song Lyrics https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=905
Visual Arts https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1574

USEFUL ITEMS
Suggestion Box
March’s DFTT
HG2MB v.2008.1

Howdy, stranger! You new around here? Come right in! We’ve got some pie waiting for you, and friendly locals ready to answer your questions and help you feel at home.

For starters, we recommend that newcomers (that’s what “neophytes” means) look over The Rules and The HG2MB (Hitchhiker’s Guide to MuseBlog), which contains more helpful information than you can shake a stick at. We don’t know why you’d want to shake a stick at it, but now you know you don’t have to bother.

MuseBlog Veterans: Please use this thread only to welcome newcomers as they arrive and answer questions that they ask.

Help others navigate the blog by signposting your favorite threads here, when they’ve scrolled off the main page.

(Note: Please include the URL (Web address) with your requests. It also helps if you limit your requests to a few at a time, four or five at the most.)

Current categories:

ADVENTURES IN THE MUSIVERSE

Ships’ Logs: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1555
The Peace of Zemtee: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1206
The Chronicles of Museica: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1469
Student Lounge: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1561

LIFE BEYOND THE VIRTUAL DIVIDE

Vegetarians, Vegetarianism, Vegetables, Vegemite: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1587
Just Friends: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1208

SILLY FUN

Alter Ego Thread! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1662
World of Piecraft! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1644
Stupid Senseless Smiley Stories: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1461
Harry Potter Trivia-Off, Part 2: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1492
Let’s Get Physiognomical: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1535

DAYDREAMS

Reclusive Gardens! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1520

ROLE-PLAYING GAMES

Searoc! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1412
Etheterre! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1167

RRRs AND WRITING

Books in Progress! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1659
Alchemy! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1554

OTHER THINGS WE LIKE

Coy Woodnesse! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1621
Books and Reading! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1597
Visual Arts! https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1574
Writing: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=1498

USEFUL ITEMS

Suggestion Box
January’s DFTT (February’s never amounted to much — sorry about that)
HG2MB v.2008.1

Yesterday Kittymine reported:
((GAPA’s: URGENT MESSAGE- SOMEONE HAS POSTED A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF ABOVE THE USUAL SIDEBAR.))

And Groundhog amplified:
…it’s on the sidebar, above the calendar. It looks a lot like the “Most Recent Posts” list, except that it doesn’t have a header. It’s a list of “buy this, buy that” sort of stuff. I’m not going to mention what they wanted you to buy, it’s kind of inappropriate. It’s not showing up on my laptop either, but I can confirm that it was showing up on our family’s computer.

Does anybody else see what they’re seeing? The GAPAs don’t, and our Web host says our site’s code seems to be in order. If it’s just Groundhog and Kittymine, then it seems likely that their computer has been infected and they need to run some anti-virus software.

If you ever see advertising of any kind on the blog, please let us know, because we certainly won’t have put it there.