Leah
Archachatina puylaerti
Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?
Posts: 1,261
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Post by Leah on Oct 2, 2005 18:22:23 GMT
I've been thinking (uh-oh!). I think that when someone becomes a member of the society they should get a welcome e-mail (or something) that kind of shows that they're now a member blah blah blah. We could have a set email that is sent when someone joins that gives details of exactly what we do and what they can take part in, and that explains they will now recieve the newsletter.
The reason I thought of this is because I have a friend (omg!) who knows someone who wants to give their son a snail for his birthday and a membership to the snail society. Thats great but the problem is we have no officail way of becoming a member. If this lady could give her son an e-mail that states he is now part of the society it would be a nice addition to his birthday gift, and let him know what he can do with this membership. Likewise, it would be nice for all new members.
This poses another problem. We'd need a set way of becoming a member, other than just coming onto the forum and saying your into it.
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Post by copigeon on Oct 2, 2005 18:35:09 GMT
What a good idea The phasmid study group uses numbers... PSG numbers, it means when trading you can quote your psg number, or use it as a point of reference. Also gives you some sort of membership referance. Makes you feel like youre part of something which is essentially what the social implications of a club requires. Some form of identification with a group. So you get your number get added to the list as it were, and your space for listing what species you have. Easy then to search the list if its numerically arranged as per membership number. Curious, is your society newsletter going out as email only? Not postal? If you want this to really kick off, how about a more formal welcome? Something sent by post? A brief GALS and other snails handguide? How to get started? A brief rundown of prices and equipment, what you expect to pay, which snails are best as starters and which should be left till youre ready? Just as an initial "youve joined" pack. Good for young people more than anything else, makes it seem more real, might get better participation... and something they can show thier friends. Wouldnt be too expensive, use second class post to save on stamps, I work at pc world they have some nice fancy paper "partchment" styled which works out inexpensive with staff discount.
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Leah
Archachatina puylaerti
Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?
Posts: 1,261
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Post by Leah on Oct 2, 2005 18:45:07 GMT
That's exactly the sort of thing I meant. Correne designed a care sheet, we could send that, a welcome letter and general info such as prices n equipment, and the best snails for newcomers thing you suggested. Maybe we could give a choice of a letter or email. I don't mind writing the letter, and general info bit.
I was thinking we could have a join up form to fill out. So you could enter a bit about yourself, general info and contact details (if wanted). What snails you have (although this is changeable so could be tricky) and wether you want a letter or email. I think the newsletters have been decided on just internet at the mo. Although I can see that as a little unfair, seeing as not everyone is lucky enough to have a computer. It's just costs and printing and distribution problems I suppose, we could get around costs by have a membership fee but I hate that idea. Otherwise we could have fund raisers. Then theirs still printing.
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Arno
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,493
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Post by Arno on Oct 2, 2005 18:53:14 GMT
I really like the idea of the welcome package and email(would make a great gift).That might get new members more involved.Don't see a problem with the newsletter being an online one because this is an internetforum too.That would also mean less or no costs.
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Post by Paul on Oct 2, 2005 19:03:32 GMT
I can do the signup and auto-email, that's no problem. As you may have noticed I haven't been around much for one reason or another, but I am hoping things will settle down. Doing it isn't a problem, I'm always torn between all the different tasks. But, if this is a priority, as soon as my problem section is done, I'll do it. I mean, it does need doing.
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Leah
Archachatina puylaerti
Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?
Posts: 1,261
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Post by Leah on Oct 2, 2005 19:20:47 GMT
Your a star Paul! I did notice you haven't been around as much, hope your well! Hows this for a welcome letter and general layout? It looks a bit better in Word, lol. I wasn't sure about the wording. It's difficult when its got to appeal to everyone. (society logo goes ere) www.petsnails.co.ukWelcome!Dear new member, We would like to welcome you to the International Gastropod Society and hope to see you taking part. Along with this letter you have been sent a care sheet on looking after your snails and some general information on them. Your membership includes an internet newsletter, which includes articles written by other society members, on snail care, identification, housing, competitions and much more. We would also love to include articles you have written. The aims of our society are to reach as many people as possible and to get as many people involved. We love to hear all about you pets and love to see pictures of them (which, in turn, could be printed in the gallery page of our newsletter). We also aim to do our own research into these amazing creatures. Information on them is hard to find so we’re finding out for ourselves! Your input into this is greatly appreciated, we want to hear of your ideas and observations. Every member will be listened to so we can all learn from each other. Your member number is (enter member number ere) We hope you enjoy your membership and look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely All at the International Gastropod Society
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Arno
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,493
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Post by Arno on Oct 2, 2005 20:25:31 GMT
Looks very good to me,well done Leah!
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Arno
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,493
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Post by Arno on Oct 2, 2005 20:37:01 GMT
I can do the signup and auto-email, that's no problem. As you may have noticed I haven't been around much for one reason or another, but I am hoping things will settle down. Doing it isn't a problem, I'm always torn between all the different tasks. But, if this is a priority, as soon as my problem section is done, I'll do it. I mean, it does need doing. I think that there are quite a few people here who are willing to take some of those tasks on them so that you have your hands free to finish what needs finishing(and enjoying your snails ;D )Also some sections of the forum could be moderated by others(just a suggestion )
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Post by Paul on Oct 4, 2005 15:15:52 GMT
I can do the signup and auto-email, that's no problem. As you may have noticed I haven't been around much for one reason or another, but I am hoping things will settle down. Doing it isn't a problem, I'm always torn between all the different tasks. But, if this is a priority, as soon as my problem section is done, I'll do it. I mean, it does need doing. I think that there are quite a few people here who are willing to take some of those tasks on them so that you have your hands free to finish what needs finishing(and enjoying your snails ;D )Also some sections of the forum could be moderated by others(just a suggestion ) You're absolutely right. The website jobs obviously can't really be shared out other than if people are willing to try and knock up some static pages like the basis for some species pages coz that is lacking. The Veronicella sloanei page took no time coz we collaborated. So if anyone is interested let me know and I'll discuss it off-list with you. As for moderators I have decided that you're right, membership has increased so the job is getting bigger. I don't just want someone to be a moderator for the sake of it. Really, I'm looking for knowledgable people who can discern between what is relevant and what needs binning, what sections things should be in and people who have a lot of time. If you fit the bill give me a shout. Another thing that needs doing is a few information pages for people. The first one is a forum FAQ which I mentioned. I see the same questions coming up, so I'd like help working on an FAQ which is kind of an index of and links to important parts of the forum. Another is an identification guide, not how to identify snails but rather a guide to what to take pictures for someone wanting us to identify them. So, for instance, pictures of the aperture and columella, spire, tail etc. I'd like the guide to illustrate some points of ID, like what parts of the snail are important for IDing and why, with pictures. So, explaining about the columella and parietal wall, what it is and how it is used to ID. This will help people without the ability to take pictures to explain to us properly. This is obviously an ongoing thing that will develop, but I am sure a simple instruction guide to what to illustrate can be knocked up. Another help would be the gallery. I need people to select pictures for the gallery. I'd also like them to clean-up, crop, sharpen and alter the colour balance on the photos to get the best possible shots. And to produce thumbnails. I'd like each picture to count if you see what I mean. So people good with photoshop etc. needed here. I have rucks of pictures but they need sorting out so this'd be a great help. Also, it'd be nice to hunt out pictures of species I don't have pictures for. My species guide is basically the possible Achatininae snails plus other species I know have been kept in captivity. There has been a ruck of other European snails recently, so I'd like owners of these to take pics, write about behavior and care. As always, look at the Achatina achatina page for an example of this. It is the best one, because there is a lot of information about this snail. But that is the benchmark for each one. You don't need to make the page, I just want the info. I get a lot email so I'm thinking of dividing this up if anyone is interested in receiving some. You'll get a petsnails.co.uk email address (providing you have a pop3 account to send through) and I'll put you on the board as the person to email for, well, whatever we decide. PHP programmers - My site is a mix of static and dynamic pages driven using php and mysql. I have a development webserver, so if you would like to help with the coding give me a shout. If you use linux that would be an immense help cause I can let you edit the scripts directly and control the box from your end. If not, we can still arrange something. My member section will be tied by the schema, but essentially there is a number of modules that could be written fairly independently. I'll still do the core, but there are some "projects" that could be tackled. If I can create a few things, to automate things like the owned/wanted page and my desired snail directory & search engine and the stuff listed above, it'll mean that when I get time to spend doing stuff (which is tight at the moment) I can concentrate on the core stuff that'll make things much more community based. I suppose there is no rush, but we have all these ideas and they're begging to get done. thanks... over and out paul
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Leah
Archachatina puylaerti
Do you want me to sit in the corner and rust, or just fall apart where I'm standing?
Posts: 1,261
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Post by Leah on Oct 4, 2005 16:22:41 GMT
Erm....the gallery? I don't have photoshop but I do have something called photoImpression3. I'm ok with it, its fairly self explanitory. How good do I need to be? I'm willing to try n help with that if you want.
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Joram
Archachatina marginata
Posts: 34
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Post by Joram on Oct 5, 2005 0:47:36 GMT
I can program in PHP. Not on Linux unfortunately. Also I've never used SQL or other databases, I always work with flatfiles. I could go bughunting if necessary. Along with PHP programming, I learnt HTML 4.01 Strict and CSS. If you think I can help you, just let me know.
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