United States :: California :: South Bay

[STICKY] Regional Calendar for South Bay Nano events

idunno — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:02:50 -0700

So it's currently empty, but the South Bay regional calendar is available.

When you enter this forum (United States :: California :: South Bay), you may or may not notice the link 'Check the Official South Bay Calendar of Events' at the top of the list of forum topics, right under the [New Topic] button. Clilck on it and wham-o! you're transported to our regional calendar. (On Firefox it opens in the current window, probably the same behavior under Internet Explorer, so be aware you'll leave the nano site.)

As I said, the calendar is currently empty, but as November approaches, we'll be adding the write-in events to it, as well as the Meet n' Greet and October 31st First Minute write-in events. We'll also post that info here in the forums.

So keep your eyes peeled!
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

United States :: California :: South Bay

[STICKY] Known bugs for the site

idunno — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:48:05 -0700

There are some known issues with the site at this time. Including the one I just discovered, which is that it can take up to 15 minutes for a post to appear in the forums! Anyway, here's a list of known bugs at this time:

Disappearing posts: Disappearing posts - This is not a bug, but a feature. There is an approximately 15 minute site cache that can delay the display of new posts. If your post disappears, wait a while and check back... it'll pop up.

Signatures: Signatures are not displaying at all times. This is a known issue. Posting a signature test here will not work; when the page refreshes, the signature will again disappear. Signature display is consistent, so it's more likely an unintended feature than a bug.

Here's the current behavior:

* The first post in any topic shows the signature.
* An unread topic (completely unread) shows ALL signatures. However, refresh, and only the first post's signatures appear.
* A read topic with no new replies, that hasn't been visited yet this session, also shows all signatures. Refresh it, and again, the replies' signatures disappear again.
* Topics that have been read this session, that now have new replies, completely hide all signatures past the first.
* Topics that were read in a previous session, but now have new replies, show all signatures, but upon refresh, they're hidden again.
* Topics which have multiple pages may not show any signatures on the second page at all.
* Quoting a topic will include both the quoted post/comment's signature, AND the original signature. This will cause a double display if not deleted.
* Signatures DO appear, and when someone pastes their signature in the body of posts, it results in double vision when they do display properly.

Search: Author and forum search may be disabled in an attempt to improve site performance. If you can't find them, have patience, it'll hopefully be back soon.

As a workaround for not being able to use the site's built-in forum search function, you can use google to search the site by adding "site:nanowrimo.org" to the search term.

So to search forum posts for "Dragonchilde" you could use this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Dragonchilde+site%3Ananowrimo.org
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

United States :: California :: South Bay

HELLO'S and catch ups!!!!

WELTY69 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:25:57 -0700

HI GANG, and noobs

My name is WELTY69 (Nathan Welty) I live in sunnyvale and this will be my 5th nano

I love to write (duh!) and read although what I know now is a real pain in the butt when I watch movies. I am always picking them apart if i see it, and mentally re-writing some of the scenes or dialogue.

I can not wait till the midnight write in !!!! yaaay!!!

gonna see some old pros and some new guys

WELTY69
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You want safety and security? The only way to have safety and security is to NEVER to be too secure....

United States :: California :: South Bay

Regional Slogan contest!

idunno — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 10:32:16 -0700

Hey everyone, we need your help coming up with an awesome, shame-all-other-regions slogan to describe the South Bay. Currently, when the regional forums are listed, our description header reads:

United States :: California :: South Bay
Silicon Valley writes code -- and novels, too!

But we know you guys can come up with something better than that. So we're going to have a contest. The winner gets his or her slogan published...under our region name!

So what phrase best captures the essence of the South Bay? Let us know here!
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

United States :: California :: South Bay

meet and greet planning

marcopolo — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 15:15:30 -0700

It's time to start planning this year's South Bay Meet and Greet. "What's the South Bay Meet and Greet?" you ask? It's a casual, late-October gathering of NaNoWriMo participants from the South Bay, getting together to meet one another, catch up with old friends, talk about novel ideas (or lack thereof), and generally get excited about November. There will be food, there will be door prizes, there will be FUN!

Ian and I have come up with three potential dates for the meet and greet. On any of these dates, the event will take place in the evening, probably between 7 and 9pm. PLEASE REPLY TO THIS THREAD saying which dates you are be able to attend, and we will do our best to choose the day that works for the most people.

* Friday, October 17
* Monday, October 20
* Tuesday, October 21

We'll likely have the meet and greet at the Round Table Pizza on Old San Francisco Rd in Sunnyvale, where we held last year's event. We are open to suggestions of alternate locations, but be aware that due to the size of the group and the free nature of the event, the requirements are fairly restrictive. We are looking for a public, all-ages venue where we can reserve a private room that holds at least 30 people for no charge (or a very low charge, no more than $20) in a place where food can be purchased or where we can bring in food. If you know of a location that meets this criteria, please let us know.

Remember, REPLY HERE to vote for your preferred meet and greet date!

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United States :: California :: South Bay

Wanna be quoted in an online publication about nanowrimo?

idunno — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 14:59:19 -0700

Just had this forwarded to me by a friend. It's a bit last minute (deadline is ~6pm TONIGHT!), but then again, isn't nano last minute too? Obviously, don't give them any personal information you don't want to, and certainly NOT your social security number should they ask (!!!). If you're under 18, ask your parents first!

If you do reply, put "NaNoWriMo Participant" in the subject line and just give her the requested 20-25 words (and you thought the slogan contest was hard!). I'm told that because it's a reporter, you should spell-check what you send - if it's riddled with errors it probably won't be considered. And it's a serious editorial request - so please don't respond with a 'joke' reply.

---

Summary: NaNoWriMo participants
Category: General
Name: Maija Haavisto
Email: maija@writeme.com
Title: freelance writer
Media Outlet/Publication: Suite101
Anonymous? No
Deadline: 6:00 PM PACIFIC - October 6

I'm looking for one or two people to feature in a short article (not much over 600 words) about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), to be published in a large online magazine.

* A person who has won NaNo last year (or 2006). Doesn't matter if they have participated before or if they're going to participate this year, but please mention it if you have/do.

* A person who either hasn't done NaNo before, or did it but didn't win, and thinks they can win this year.
In either case I'd need a short statement of about 25-50 words:

The first person should briefly describe what it was like, e.g. easier or harder than they thought, enjoyable or hell, what was the hardest part, what came out of the novel.

The second person should explain why they are doing it, how are they preparing, what are they going to write, why they think they can do it etc.

Age, gender, location, genre/language of novel don't matter, though of course it would be nice to have some variety. Please include your name, age, city, country/state, language of novel if not English (and your gender, if there's any chance it might not be clear to me!). If you have a good website/blog related to your writing (or if your novel's online), I may link to it.
A photo of you would be great too. This is an online magazine so it doesn't have to be high-res, but you have to be able to give permission for me to use it. Also, tell me the name of the photographer (if it was a school photographer, a machine, a random person on the street or something, I'll credit to you).

I'll need everything today, Monday the 6th (doesn't have to be before the end of business hours, but by late Monday U.S. time), so please email me ASAP! If I use your "blurb" I'll send you a link to the finished article.
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

United States :: California :: South Bay

October's Introductory Regional Email Message

idunno — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 10:58:00 -0700

If you didn't receive the October Regional email, you either have not affiliated with the United States :: California :: South Bay region, or your spam filter bum rushed the message and sent it sprawling into a tangled heap of shattered words and letters (serious bummer, dude).

You can affiliate here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/og

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Greetings, South Bay Nanos, and welcome to the 10th annual NaNoWriMo. November will be here before you know it (oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, we can hardly wait!), and we wanted to go over a few basics before things start.

Be sure to check out the forums, which are a hotbed of information AND conversation! Of course, the most important region of them all is ours, the South Bay regional forum! You haven't experienced a proper NaNoWriMo if you haven't gone to our forum, which can be found here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/168

In the regional forum, you'll find other members of our community introducing themselves, general information posted by your MLs (us), people asking for and offering writing advice, a contest thread to come up with a regional slogan that describes our group, and of particular urgency just now, a discussion on when and where our Meet n' Greet party will be hosted later this month.

Yes, that's right, we said Meet n' Greet party! This will be a chance for you to meet your fellow South Bay Nanos before the craziness of November strikes. You can keep abreast of the latest and contribute to that discussion here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3013561

We also have a regional calendar. Yes, there is no form of technology we won't use to keep everyone aware of what's going on. In fact, next year, there's talk of an automated phone system that will call every nano with a reminder the day before each event. Isn't it amazing what modern technology can do? But until then, we have to make due with an online calendar. There's a link just above the list of forum topics in the regional forum, or you can visit it directly by following this link:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=jfr990q58jkvdc26cr0fi1gubo%40gr...

The calendar is empty right now, but we'll be adding events to it soon, including the upcoming Meet n' Greet, the official NaNoWriMo Kickoff Party, the schedule for the regional write-ins, our Halfway Party, and anything else cool and relevant we can think of.

Speaking of write-ins, we'd like to strongly encourage you to attend at least one write-in. South Bay turnout has always been off-the-charts (we've practically taken over coffee shops at times!), and nothing better demonstrates our sense of community than a huge group of writers offering encouragement and inspiration to each other. The energy level at these events is incredibly high, and attendance is a proven word count booster. So come on down! Times and dates will be posted both in the forums and on the regional calendar.

Finally, and most importantly, congratulations. For having the courage to commit to such an awesome undertaking. For being a trailblazer. Yes, a trailblazer. How many people do you know who have or are going to write a novel in a month? Unless you live in the NaNoWriMo Co-Op in Campbell, not many. That makes you a precious rarity. This November, you will be embarking on a fantastic journey, where you will be taking not the road less traveled, but a road that doesn't exist yet, a road that YOU are building. You will be reaching into the depths of your imagination and creating something that wasn't there on October 31st. You will be writing a novel. You will be an author.

See you on the other side of November!
Ian (idunno) and Lisa (marcopolo), your South Bay MLs
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idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

United States :: California :: South Bay

The Scoreboard

windral — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:43:04 -0700

I'm procrastinating from homework (practicing for November) and I noticed that California:: South Bay is currently at the top of the Donations chart at $1075! That is pretty sweet.

Where are we hoping to rank on Word Count this year? If I remember right (I rarely do), we were 23 or 24 last year. I think Maryland slaughtered us. Who should we challenge?

Have I mentioned I'm procrastinating?
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Meals are books for the body.
"Lies are attempts to hide the truth by willfully denying facts. Fiction, on the other hand, is an attempt to reveal the truth by ignoring facts." -John Green

United States :: California :: South Bay

we're back!

marcopolo — Thu, 2 Oct 2008 17:23:26 -0700

Well, the NaNo site is back up, and if you're reading this, it's still up. You can read in Chris's message about what happened and what's happening, and the fact that all changes made to the site on Tuesday were lost. That means a bunch of introductions in our intro thread were lost. If yours was among them, please, please post again. We all want to know who you are!

%) Lisa/marcopolo
South Bay co-ML
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United States :: California :: South Bay

Site's up for 2008!

Kandybar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:14:29 -0700

Wheeeeeeeee!
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