This whole integration thing...

Is sort of a trip for me. It’s so funny because when we all first started playing on the internet, it seemed like part of the charm of the whole thing is that you could be anonymous…you could be whomever you wanted to be, in different guises, all over the place. That thinking has obviously completely reversed, but I can’t lie and say it didn’t make me nervous to think of integrating some of the pieces of myself into this one place. I kept thinking “Is there anything embarassing in there?!?! Anything to be ashamed of?” Well, if so, I figure people who find this either already know me and know enough about me to not be shocked, or it’s maybe personal and they shouldn’t look too close =)

This is also a place for me to use as a testing ground. Now that I’ve taken on some private web clients, I REALLY need to update my skills too, so I can keep up with these folks and give them what they want. I can’t believe how much has changed and how much is possible with the inter webs and all the stuff that’s happening these days. I am quite sure I am getting old, but I could spend all my time working on this stuff! Oh, wait, I already do =) That’s not entirely true, but I do spend A LOT of time doing this stuff.

Right now, as part of my web work with Controlled Burn, I am trying to find another, open source bulletin board software. So far, the ones I have access to are smf and phpbb. I don’t know that much about forums. I’ve administered them before, but mostly from the advanced user perspective. I’ve installed smf for another client (Asha) and it’s pretty cool, so far. There are some limitation. Here are questions I have about smf:

1. I turned on the spell check, why doesn’t it work or how do I access it and/or make it work? 
2. Can I make it have a facing “announcements” style page like what CB currently has? 
3. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want whoever is writing that ‘repeating event’ add-in for the calendar to be done with it. 
4. What sort of minefield am I entering if I try to import the old forums to the new ? 
5. How far back to archive? 

Honestly, phpBB seemed sort of cool, but the basic package is SERIOUSLY barebones and absolutely anything cool you want to do requires additional tweaking and/or installation. Just not sure I am up for that, although I am sure once I learn it, it would be good.

I didn’t really intend to talk about that here today, this started as a whole “integrating my identities” thing =) I guess as a gemini, this should be making me nervous, eh?

I am also seeking a good flickr widget or plugin that will put pictures in posts. I’ve tried a few, but they don’t work when you activate them. I also need to clarify what the person I am helping wants, exactly =)

Finally, I am looking at a good feeder widget that would allow me to post once on the main wordpress site, and then feed to at LEAST facebook and myspace. This is for Controlled Burn. I’ve tried a couple, but again, on installation, they don’t work right.

That’s it for now….back to the drawing board.

 Peace.