<O> Housekeeping notices! Please read. (Update 11/13 ~8 am)

Chris Baty is planning to send an email to 90,000 peeps on Monday. Expect the site to tremble, even if it doesn't go down, as more and more Wrimos show up to join us.

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Hey all!

Things have been going astonishingly well on the NaNo site this year - we've only had a few hiccups and a couple of short down times. Our fantastic programmer, Dan Duvall, is focusing today and tomorrow on maximizing site performance so we'll be ready in time for the historical Pounding of the Servers, which is due to begin on Thursday and last through the weekend.

If the site goes down - don't panic! We'll stay in touch through the yahoo group, on Facebook, and on twitter. Chris or someone at HQ will also likely be tweeting on the #nanowrimo band to update us.

Plus, you can access our calendar directly using this link. Please bookmark it for future reference.

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Aside from posting our word count on our profile sheet, where else do we post it, beginning November 1? I still don't know how to post except as a comment. To post a unique question, I don't know the email address, such as:

nano@nano.com (hypothetical)

Wish someonewould let me know so that I don't have to stick only to comments.

Last thing. Do we start at midnight, or 12:01 on the first?

saavedra

I'm confused as to why you think you need to email a unique question to someone. This is much different than an email list, this is a forum, where all the posts are kept on the website and not emailed out to you (I think there's settings to get emails from nano, but I can't remember for sure).

You can post your word count in two places. You can change it in your profile, or at the way top of the screen there's a box with a 0 in it, and an Update button. You can input your word count there and click update, and it updates your word count. Very helpful while the servers are being pounded to death that first weekend.

You can start exactly at midnight because that is when the new day starts. Once it is midnight, Sunday, November 1st; you may write.

LIsa, I have answered your question about making a new post several times on this forum and sent an email to your yahoo account. There is a New Topic button at the top and bottom of every screen. Click it and you can start a new topic.

You can type your word count in the box at the top of the screen next to the Update button after November 1st. Reporting your word count is on the honor system until later in November - probably around the 22nd.

We start writing just past midnight. As long as the clock has struck 12 midnight on Halloween and it is then November 1st, you can start writing.

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Hey kiddos,

If you send me a NaNoMail and would like me to reply to you, please make sure that your mail settings don't block my reply. Unless you've mailed me in the past, I do not have your off-site email address. If your settings don't allow me to send you NaNoMail, I have no way to reach you directly.

Here's where you adjust your settings: My NaNoWriMo, User Settings, Private Message Settings. Please check the Allow Private Messages box. The other option, Aggressive Notification of New Messages, is also useful. It will display a reminder at the top of most forum pages when you have new mail in your NaNoMail folder. Don't forget to choose the Submit button at the bottom of the User Settings page when you've checked your box(es).

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Today's front page video explains exactly how (and why) to home with Austin. Check it out!

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Kiddos,

The site is running slowly right now. When that happens, it often uses a cache of up to 15 minutes.
You only need to click the Reply or Submit button one time. If you don't see your post right away, please be patient.

If you click the button more than once, it will recreate your thread or reply as many times as you click it.
This has happened in a lot of different places on our forum today. It fills up our pages unnecessarily.
Each time this happens, I have to file a separate request for removal for every extra post, and it can take awhile before they are removed.

Also, please don't use special characters in front of the text in your subject header. Special characters are the only way I have of indicating that a post is from me, your ML, and contains information that I feel is important for everyone in our region to know. Edit: .... or sometimes I add special characters to posts by others that are relevant to all of us.

Thank you!

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Thank you for your generous donations to NaNoWriMo! Headquarters keeps track of donation totals for each region - in fact, there's going to be a big regional donation war this year.

Please make sure our region gets credit for your online donations. If you are donating through the NaNo donation station/store, here's how:

1. Make sure you are affiliated and homed with Austin.
   If you don't know how to do this, check the top of this thread.

2. In the Donation/Store, when you've selected a donation amount, you'll see several text boxes.
   In the Which event owes you its thanks? box, select NaNoWriMo
   in the NaNoWriMo/Script Frenzy Username box, make sure to type your user name.

The regional totals for word count and donations are linked to a) your user name and b) where you set your home. NaNoWriMo is grateful for your donations! And we're happy you're homed with us.

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

What would I search for in Facebook to find y'all?
thanks,
Kellie

I'm trying to figure out how to get us a better URL, but for now, click here (it's so long, the NaNo software will truncate it after I publish it!). The group name is Aunowrimo, if that helps.

We'll be doing most of our interaction here, on the main forum, but we'll be there as well....

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

If you are chatting with us online via GoodChatting, please remember that there are young 'uns online and behave appropriately. Our chat room is rated "G." To avoid mucking about in the gray areas, Amber asks that there be no swearing whatever. Thank you!

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Additionally, you can copy and paste the portion of your manuscript that you have completed thus far to the nano word counter for a validation. I did this last night when I finished writing and again just a few minutes ago. It's easy and good practice for the real w.c. at the end of nano. It is stated that this is a 'test' or 'trial' run until they get the real thing up and running at the end of the month. I also don't know if you can do this more than once a day as I have not yet tried to do that.

Good Luck,
Kellie

You can. That's how I updated mine throughout the day yesterday, and FYI, you have to input the whole thing each time. It won't add a second part to a first or anything like that.

Carey

Hmmm. I posted this as a separate item awhile back, but now that it's slipped to the bottom of page two (in my view settings), and it's Friday the thirteenth! it seemed wise to put it here as well:

• Please make sure that your time settings are accurate for your location. If you attempt to verify your word count on Nov. 30th, and your settings are incorrect, you will not be able to verify your novel. You won't be an official NaNoWriMo winner - no matter how many words you have written.
  1. To set the correct time: Go to My NaNoWriMo, Edit User Settings.
  2. On the Account Settings tab, scroll down until you see Locale Settings/Time Zone.
  3. Choose the correct day and time (In the Central Time Zone the last five characters you'll see should be: -0600)
  4. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
• Save frequently and backup your work! Every year, people lose valuable words - sometimes entire novels - to hardware and software malfunctions. You can save your novel on a flash drive, Google docs, or send it as an enclosure in an email to yourself or a trusted friend.

ML Captain of Capital Ideas & Austin, TX Municipal Liaison

Thank you for that, lazym, I had the wrong setting!

TLF