In this issue...
| Editorial: The Newsletter |
| Yahoo! News: Users Complain |
| IRCFlirt News and Info |
| Member News |
Why, you may ask, would a Yahoo! community, which is mostly e-mail based need a newsletter. Let me count the reasons. ...offer a few anyway.First, not all members choose to receive our little group via the e-mail option. We have no objection to that fact. In truth, we would kind of prefer you didn't use the e-mail options. We want you to get a sense of place offered by the browser interface, to use all our features, to see our decorations and share in the sense of occasion we hope they convey. Unfortunately, that also means that you may sometimes forget to visit us or lose track of things going on in our community. A newsletter, then, reminds you that we are here.
Second, a message board can occasionally be a very busy place--so many posts, so little time to read them. If you only had gotten to post #8623 out of the fifty or so that had been posted since your last visit, you might have gotten the word that there was a special one hour chat session scheduled at 8 p.m. EDT. Alas, at 9 p.m., you were still reading post #8597. A newsletter, then, let's us post important dates and times so you don't have to hunt for them.
Third, lots of nifty things get said on the message board. A newsletter lets us point to posts without having to reprint them in total so you can check them out for yourself and their context--the thread, the posts around them.
Fourth, not all information is on topic for our message board. A newsletter lets us explore off topic issues such as computer maintenance, Internet providers other than Yahoo! and other web services, and other topics of the day that don't quite fit the message board.
That's enough reasons to have a newsletter, don't you think? Me too; but, you may ask, when will it get published? We're thinking that good times would be twice a month on the second and fourth Wednesdays--around the 10th and the 25th. That way, we get a good recap of the last month, and have some idea what's planned for the next month. Besides, real life is always screaming at us at the ends, the beginnings, and the middle of months so the odd dates might just be calm enough to get things done.
Last but not least, this is not going to be a one-man show. We need everyone to get involved whether it is writing an article, cut&pasting a review, hunting down URLs or pictures, investigating the costs of things, letting us know what's going on in your real life, or just posing a question that someone else can answer. And, since it isn't going to be a one-man show, get ready because I may write you a personal e-mail real soon asking you to write something for the newsletter. ...or you can write me, angelpie_mouse@yahoo.com. Please make sure you reference "IRCFlirt Newsletter" in the e-mail subject/topic line.
Once upon a time, if you had a complaint about a Yahoo! service, you filled out a feedback form and waited and waited and waited. Eventually, you got back a "canned" form letter reply instructing you to go to the Help page that you had used in accessing the feedback form. Not very useful and darn frustrating. If the problem persisted by the time you did receive this answer, you would write a reply and maybe someone would actually read your second request on the matter and fix the problem.In February, about the same time as conversion of clubs to groups began, we noticed an alarming new wrinkle. No reply to feedback; nothing. Worse, the feedback forms began disappearing from the various help files. It wasn't bad enough that they didn't bother addressing our difficulties with the system in a timely manner. Now, it appeared that they didn't care if there were problems. Users could go...well, fill in the blank with how you feel about this development.
There's been no official news on this policy as yet, however, we believe Yahoo! is intending to move to a pay-for-serice arrangement--a teired structure that would still have free-serice somewhat curtailed from what we currently enjoy, but also a subscriber fee-based service. Within the new system, fee-paying users would have access to feedback forms, special e-mail addresses, a limited phone-based help desk (ten (10) calls a month free) and, perhaps, a one-on-one chat expert to report problems. Non-fee paying users would not, or at least would continue to have very limited reporting capabilities.
To some extent, this policy is already in effect. Presently, when you do manage to find a feedback form, make a toll call to Yahoo!, or write them an e-mail, you do not get a reply, you get a repair. Results can be immediate. And, hey, isn't that what you would prefer anyway?
Announcements are the section of this newsletter where we tell you about staff changes, news developments, and general community business that may affect you all.
Is It A Palace Coup? Jen2Jen_70 hands over the leadership reigns to AngelPie_Mouse. Actually, that's not as big a deal as it may appear. We, the moderators of IRCFlirt, have always been sort of equal partners in the administrative duties of this community although someone has to be the "big cheese" and coordinate things a bit. The thing is: Jen2Jen_70 sort of inherited the group on conversion, and she's been just a bit busy lately (see Member News for the explanation). So, why not the mouse?
Per AngelPie_Mouse..."don't look for any big changes, just lots of little ones."
With Deepest Regrets This past month we lost one of our moderators most tragicly. Attrition is one thing. The Internet is volatile. You expect people to drift in and out due to financial situations or interest. You don't expect someone so young to simply pass away, to die. We printed it on the message board; we repeat it now...
Heatherlynne (aka lynne64070), 27, died of congestive heart failure during the night of May 26th. Heather devoted most of her online time to moderating communities about love and relationships--this community and her community concerning long distance relationships, CanItWork2 among others. Her favorite quote was: "Love is what we live for, die for, dream of; Love is everything." We believe she died loving the world.
We will surely miss Lynne64070.
The IRCFlirt Homepage If you haven't looked lately, our website has been recently refurbished and put back on track. On it you'll find information about our community mission (About Us); our personnel (Moderators); chat software and scheduling including our avatar registry (Chat); our newsletter (Newsletters); contests, events, and games past, present, and upcoming (Contests and Events); the art and graphics we use to decorate our community (Group Pictures); and links we find of interest (Links). We hope you'll take the opportunity to visit and bookmark the website at http://www.geocities.com/ircflirt
We had two winners of our annual Pick-Up Line Contest for 2002 which ran on the message board from midnight May 1, 2002 until June 1, 2002 (we actually did expect more winners). First Place for the Most Lines submitted went to our member, sipayi. First Place of Best Entry went to our new member, hellokittycadet. You can view their entries and see their prizes--yes, there were prizes--in the events section of homepage.
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday -- 8p.m. to 12 a.m. EDT (7 p.m. to 11 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. MDT, and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. PDT) Additional chat times may be added as interest is expressed.
Through the summer, we hope to establish this new chat schedule so that members can come in, get to know each other, and be a little wild. We were hoping to announce our new chat schedule earlier, but delayed because Cheeta Chat has yet to work out the bugs to the groups interface (probably because Yahoo! hasn't settled on the correct code yet).
Why have we been waiting for Cheeta Chat? We've included a great deal of information about this software in the Chat section of our homepage, but let me give you a couple of ideas. Cheeta Chat is a lot less cluttered than the Yahoo! Java module (no ads, uses the full screen). Those familair with IRC feel a good deal more comfortable using Cheeta Chat particularly if they were mIRC users. It is resident on your computer so it is a lot faster with less lag. It has more features than the Yahoo! although it uses the Yahoo! java server feed. And, it leaves your browser available for other stuff so you can multi-task while chatting.
We'll continue to hope that an updated version that lets us use Cheeta Chat with Yahoo! soon becomes available. But, we aren't going to hold our breath concerning Yahoo! getting its act together enough for that to happen (they may be holding back on Cheeta Chat deliberately). We do know there is a work around so that you can use Cheeta Chat, but it requires two members in the chat room to use. So, if we see you in chat maybe we can use Cheeta Chat after all.
The first scheduled chat on the new schedule is this coming Monday, June 17th.
This issue we make sure the welcome mat has been dusted to accept four (4) new members to our community. Joining us since May 1st were: hellokittycadet, a0_a_slutwife, playa999uk, and all_4_roomates_69. We hope continuing members will post a word of "hello" so that these new members can get to know you and that the new members will reciprocate so we can get to know them.
We can't let the occassion go by without acknowledging the anniversaries of some of our long time members. Joining us during the month of June were:
- netbabe57 (Rhonda), 6/1/1999 (three years)
- ooichinwah, 6/2/1999 (three years)
- calamityrules (Sandy), 6/3/1999 (three years)
- queen_foutch2 (MopHead), 6/3/1999 (three years)
- ryans9dill, 6/8/1999 (three years)
- brock_992, 6/9/2000 (two years)
- charlotte6140 (Charlotte), 6/12/2000 (two years)
- isitis79 (Isitis), 6/14/2001 (according to Yahoo!)
- teaseandflirt, 6/26/1999 (three years)
- faisal_abdullah (FaisalAbullah), 6/27/2000 (two years)
- azbell16 (Robert), 6/30/2001 (one year)
Thank you for being a continuing member of this community. We hope there will be many happy returns of the day!
Obviously, this represents a new feature of our newsletter--or anyone else's as far as we know. Since it is a new feature, the mailbag is empty, but we hope it won't remain empty long.
This section of our newsletter offers you an opportunity to send us questions, whether it is about love and relationships, dealing with a broken heart or ditching the jerk, cleaning your computer or upgrading... whatever you want to ask. You may do so annonymously (please stipulate annonymous) or you can have your ID noted in your communication.
To participate, send an e-mail to: AngelPie_Mouse@yahoo.com with the words in "IRCFlirt Mailbag" in the topic/subject area.
Jen2Jen_70 has a baby!
Message: #8430
From: jen2jen_70
Date: Tue Jun 11, 2002 4:17 am
Subject: My new additionHey everyone! Just wanted to let you know, although it is a bit late, that my beautiful child finally made his arrival into this world. Nicholas Ethan was born on May 3 at 8:02 p.m. and weighed 9 pounds and 1 ounce. He measured 21 inches. He is going to be a big strapping man like his daddy! I posted his picture in my photo album if anyone wants to see. If I do say so myself, he is very handsome!
Jen
Okay, so that's why she has stepped down as owner of IRCFlirt. But, she'll still be a moderator.
Congratulations, Jen2Jen_70 and hubby. And welcome to the world little Nick!
If you have news, ideas, or information for any of our newsletter features, please send them to AngelPie_Mouse@yahoo.com Please write the words "IRCFlirt Newsletter" in the subject/topic area.
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