Lights, Camera, ACTION!

I need help to get more material on this blog.

I particularly need more class photos.  Just check to see if your classes are here by looking under the Calendar Year(s) applicable.  See this post for info on the filing conventions.  If you scan them in, PLEASE do them at 300 dots per inch (300 dpi) for archival purposes.  They will never have to be re-scanned then.  It will be a bit slower and will take longer to email to me, but worth it in the long run.

Anything can be emailed to me, the best address to use is  peter_deane@bigpond.com

We also desperately need to get NAMES for the class photos that are online.  Several have got lists of names, but so many do not even have a start.  The longer we leave this, the harder it will get.  You can use the COMMENTS section under each photo to jot down your suggestions as to who's where in the photo.

And please, if you read a post and you feel like doing so - MAKE A COMMENT.  It's not hard, and when we look back on this site in another 20 years it will be magical for memories.

And don't forget: there are reactions after every post.  Good, bad or indifferent.  Takes as long as like-ing something on Facebook, but you do have three options here.

Blog Sorted!

It should now be a lot easier to find things on the blog - all posts have been sorted into years.  There ARE some entries made in 2012 and 2013 posted as normal posts, including the very first post on 7 June 2012

But say you are looking for a class photo of 10S1 in 1980.  The key is we use the calendar year (in this case 1980) then the SCHOOL YEAR is specified in the month.  So a Year 10 article would be under October - 10th month, you see. Then the class number is the date.   So for 10S1 in 1980 you look for 1 Oct 1980.  Which will land you here.

If you can't remember the exact year, you'll have to fish around the year it MIGHT be.  Just remember general stories are usually in the months of January and February (the start of the year) and Class Photos start in July (7th Month for Year 7) and can range through to December (12th Month for Year 12).  For example, Year 12 of 1982 (there was only one photo) is filed under 1 Dec 1982.

Essentially, you can find all the articles under the year they apply to.  I use the months from January to June (1st to 6th months) for general posts from that year.  Take a look and see what you can find.

Comments (please!!!)

Okay, Okay, Okay, I have finally figured out how to turn the comments on so you DON'T have to be a member of an obscure network in order to post a comment.  Mind you, if you DO have a Google identity (perhaps you have a Gmail account or have actually joined Google+) then it's probably the easiest and most convenient way to post comments on to this blog.

However for the not insubstantial number of you without membership of Google, OpenID or the other options, I've now opened the blog to comments from two other types of users.

Firstly there is the Anonymous user.  Obvious what happens, but gee, please don't use it unless you have a really good reason for hiding your identity.  Alternatively post from Anonymous, but leave your name in the actual comment somewhere.  However the other way of doing it is to use the Name/URL method.  You can enter your name and then add a website you're related to (if any) and it will come up after your comments.

For now (and hopefully all time) I'm not moderating comments, which means they will appear on the blog instantly.  I prefer this, but if objectionable content does get posted in the comments (eg excess profanity, racism, offensive material, etc) I'll be deleting them, and possibly turning on the moderation if it continues to excess.  This will mean comments will have to wait for me to read them and okay them before publishing.  But I most certainly don't ever want to resort to this.

Mind you, with live comments, a pair of you MIGHT get involved in a live slanging match - so please guys, it's only a hobby and take a step back if you should feel termpers fraying.  (This is, of course, assuming ANY comments at all go on the blog).

Another thing I'm interested in is whether or not to allow Google ADVERTISEMENTS on the blog.  I have turned them on at my other blog (ie Bustopher Said... ) so you can scroll down and take a look at what they might look like if we turn them on here.  They come up between every third or fourth blog post, and at the column over on the right-hand side (down the bottom).  They are supposed to be context sensitive (eg next to the blog entry about my Princess Cruise in March 2012, will probably appear an ad for a cruise liner).

Advertisements give the potential to raise a very small amount of revenue.  So far, from Bustopher Said... I have raised 42c over about two and a half years.  However we'd probably be getting more traffic on this blog, so it might accumulate faster.  Incidentally, once the total hits $150.00 they'll send me a cheque.  Mind you, I'll probably be over 350 years old before this happens...

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Ads, and please - just leave a comment to say hello and let me know the blog IS getting used - I need the feedback.

Right... What now??

...phew!  As you may be aware I used to have a Gorokan High website up on my personal web space with my ISP IntergrityNet at Gosford (not a bad ISP - excellent service, but expensive).  When I changed ISPs back to Telstra BigPond, then that website disappeared, and it has been down for a lot longer than I had hoped it would have been.

We are now back with a vengeance, and with the option to include a lot more data (unlimited - it's hosted by "Blogger", which is a service provided by Google, so one can assume they have a big hard drive or two to keep the data safe).  My personal web space was limited to a mere ten megabytes, and at the time of it going offline, the thing was occupying 8.96 megs, so we didn't have far to go.

Putting the site on to a blog is going to be tricky, as the arrangement of the blog is primarily chronological.  IE the articles will come up in order of when they are posted.  However the hosting charges are nil and as mentioned we have unlimited space, so there are huge differences.

The old blog was restricted to just MY year at Gorokan High (Year 10/1980).  There is no reason to limit this blog to any year at all.  In the early days of the blog, my material will naturally come from the early years because that's what I've got, but if I come across anything else useful from future years (or the one before), I'll put it online.

- Yours truly.

In addition, Blogger allows user comments (and I want to see a lot of them, guys).  So it has the chance to be alot more interactive than the old web site. Another big plus is that it doesn't just have to be me adding the blog posts.  If anyone would like to become either an editor or blogger, and you have the IT skills to be able to do it properly, please send me a line by email.  (Finding my email address on the blog might be your first challenge - although it IS very prominent)!

Okay, so away we go.  What on earth am I going to make the first (substantive) post, I wonder...

Inaugural post

Okay, this is EARLY days, but the old Gorokan High site I used to have up will be transferred here in a new format shortly.  For now this blog is merely a placeholder.  But don't panic, we will be placing MANY things here in the near future.

-Peter Deane  (Year 12/1982)  (Second year of GHS)