Site Announcement

Sunday, January 25, 2008:

As regular site visitors are already aware, one of our editors, Winston, is departing to pursue other opportunities. We here at the RAG wish him the the very best in his new endeavors.

We've also added a number of new staff, so it is probably time to re-introduce our existing editors, as well as introduce our newcomers.

I'll also take a moment to briefly describe the various sections at the site.

On the front page, our senior editors are Machiavelli, Redbeard and Wes Morgan. Between the three of these gentlemen there ranges a wide range of views--from the left, right, libertarian, and places in-between, allowing our readers the opportunity to read and comment on articles from various perspectives.  In support, we also have GrayRider and SargeantJack, both who do a fine job of rounding out opinion from the right. To maintain a healthy political balance, an additional editor will be added to this section to represent the left sometime in the next few weeks.

Fornax, our resident astronomer, will continue to drop by periodically to keep site visitors updated on numerous great bands in the Music section.

Skinnydipinacid and I will continue as site editors, and will be responsible for addressing site design or issues, and all the general mechanical things. And both of us will be popping up most anywhere to provide back-up and support to the other editors and sections. 

Our two newest editors, kwAwk and Xanadu, have been brought on board to assist in other sections of the site, directing their efforts to creating new sections and to address some of the neglected areas, to give these sections some devoted attention and regularly-updated content. Currently, kwAwk has his own section, Serendipity, which provides a potpourri of topics for discussion. He will also be helping out on the front page from time to time. Xanadu will be running the Movies section, as well as assisting in Music and in other areas depending on the site's needs. Please welcome both of them when you see them.

We will most likely be adding a full-time Music editor in the next couple of weeks, and hope to add a new editor to run the Video Games area soon.

Speaking of the site itself, I just want to take a moment to remind readers that there are other areas besides the front page, so I'm going to introduce them, describe them, and provide some posting schedules where available.

I've mentioned Serendipity. This is a new section edited by kwAwk, and provides a wide-range of topics accompanied by commentary and insights from our newest editor. Please stop by and pay him a visit.

We have the Sports Bar, run by Skinnydipinacid, where you can get the latest in baseball, football, basketball, and other sports-related articles.

Music is currently supported by Fornax, Skinnydipinacid, Xanadu and myself. The section does have a regular posting schedule: as a general rule there will be music videos posted three times daily on Monday through Friday, usually at 7 and 11 am, and another at 1 pm. On weekends we'll be leaning toward silly songs on Saturday mornings and a featured band or performer for the Sunday Oldies. Although the music is generally rock-and-roll oriented, expect to see some regular jazz, classicial and country music features in Music in the near-future.

The Movies section is now directed by Xanadu. She will be providing regular movie and television reviews and opinion, and has also volunteered to watch reader-requested movies and review them so that our site visitors won't have to waste their money on bad flicks. Please pay her a visit, she has a creative approach to film, and is planning on providing regular features. Once she has a schedule finalized, we'll post a new announcement.

Gaming currently consists of two areas: one where actual games are featured (and unearthed by Skinnydipinacid); the other where game articles, reviews or game-related pieces are highlighted. This section is still in flux but will soon be a regularly-maintained area of the site.

I'm still not quite sure what Distortion is about--there is a bit of history, science, satire, surrealism, and flat-out craziness in this section. It does provide two regular features: Ancient Film Babes on Friday nights and Saturday Cartoons. As a general rule, you will find new articles posted in this section three times daily during the week (7 and 11 am; 1pm) and more during the weekends. I take the blame for this section.

To round things out there is also the Scribbles section where you will find occasional poetry and fiction, and our Original Articles section where periodic general interest articles will be posted.

Oh, and before I forget, there is also the Wild West. You need to be a member to see this section (but registration is easy) because this is where you'll find content that is generally unsafe for work.

Obviously the BL RAG has changed over the past few months, and will continue to undergo modification for some time forward. Our goal here is to provide various articles, threads, and topics of interest and create an atmosphere where people enjoy visiting. We have a ways to go in some areas, but we share a common goal, so the site will only get better as time moves forward.

I want to thank those of you who visit, and those of you who contribute regularly. Without reader support, this site would not have enjoyed the success it has experienced since its inception. We have along way to go, but with your continued support, the sky is the limit, so I want to thank you for visiting and making this endeavor possible.

Zoy Clem

(I'll move this to the Announcement section later this week).

The Site is Back

If you attempted to visit earlier this morning you probably received an error page instead. It wasn't because we forgot to pay the bills--honest.

Apparently a power transformer died somewhere up in New York and it knocked our hosting service out for awhile. Things should be back to to normal now.  We apologize for the inconvenience.

New Version of Software

The company that hosts our site went to a new version last night. If you are experiencing problems logging in, or in how the site displays, you will need to delete your temporary internet files. If you are not sure how to do this, see the following site:

http://blog.squarespace.com/

If that doesn't resolve the issues, post a comment below (login not required), or send a message via the Contact link and one of us will work to assist you.

Sorry for the inconvenience: we didn't know about the upgrade either!

Note: I'll move this post to Announcements in a couple days.

Update on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 20:25 by Zoy Clem

If you actually log in (on most pages it is not required to post), be aware that the software does not support Internet Explorer 6 any longer, so some pages may appear funny. For the most part this only affects the site editors, but some pages that members view may also appear skewed.  Note that we are installing our new server this weekend and will be moving to new software over the next few weeks, so the browser issues should go away with the move. 

Site News for July

Independence Day, 2008

Greetings

We're small...no one knows us...but we don't care. The editors here at the BL RAG are dedicated to making this site a place interesting to varying viewpoints and various interests. Expect to see additional enhancements and changes as we learn and grow. 

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News

Regular visitors and site members have probably noticed some of the layout changes here at the BL RAG over the past couple of weeks. Skinnydipinacid designed our new logo, and Wes suggested the other noticeable layout changes (wider margins and a better situated menu). 

Speaking of Wes, we've been remiss in announcing his joining the site editor staff. Please welcome him the next time you comment on one of his threads.

Site Additions

News: We're going to start running more straight news snippets as well as opinion on the Front Page.  And of course, you'll still have the biting journals of Redbeard, Skinny, and Winston to go along with our new co-conspirator, Wes.   

Expect regular Caption Contests in the Distortion section.

For members, a somewhat Not Safe For Work section (NSFW), The Wild West, has been activated. Blame Skinny for its activation!  Note that the general public cannot view this new section, and members must login to see it, or comment. Members should be forewarned that the content thus far is primarily male-dominated sexist T & A (we have no female editors at the site -- where are you, Karen-O, to provide your blogette goddess sense of balance?) .

Notes on Existing Sections

For the sports fan, Skinny is keeping the BL World up to date with his manic humor and sometimes cynical Cub-view in the Sports section. It was a dark hour indeed when the fabled Goat Curse was uttered...

Music: Yeah, we're actually branching out a little and producing a few music videos for new and upcoming area bands (Washington DC - Los Angeles). Expect to see more over the next few weeks and months in the Music section. We hope to present new bands on a regular basis. And, of course, we'll still present music videos from established acts (I know, it's mainly punk -- we'll be running regular Oldies, Classicial, Country, Jazz, and other special interest music videos as we get settled in with our call letters in the cyberspace musical Blog Land domain).

Movies: Expect periodic movie and television reviews as well as offbeat artistic criticisms in the Movies section. 

Saturday Cartoons: Felix the Cat and his varied group of friends will continue to grace the pages of the Distortion section, as well as game videos, satire, comedy, and weird events and activities caught on film.

Scribblings and Original Articles: We'll have some new pieces up here in the next week or so...poetry, and who knows, perhaps a bit of fiction. Bozio has an upcoming piece on the rather delicate (and soon-to-be-regulated) subject of obesity.

Other Site changes

Some of the menu items have been re-ordered. I've removed the Opera section for awhile (although old entries will still be preserved). The section will be re-opened once I have time to do it correctly: probably late summer.

The Future

Contributor's Section: Around mid-July we'll be opening a new section to members that will allow them to post their own blog topics and threads. We'll move the more interesting or newsworthy contributions to the Front Page. 

The Server: Finally...we purchased our own dedicated server recently (a powerhouse), and have a dedicated hosting service but due to unforeseen and unhappy circumstances we have had to delay its installation for a still-indetermine time. We hope to have it up and running soon, and once we do, you'll see a gradual migration to a new host with expanded capabilities and a vast realm of new features.

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We're getting there. Now, if we only knew where where is.

***

Thanks again for visiting the BL Rag. We hope you enjoy your visit and return often. And please feel free to register. The only requirement is an e-mail address (to confirm your registration).

Changes to the Site Layout

We'll be changing the look and feel of the BL RAG this weekend, and likely enough the look may undergo a few iterations of change until we come up with a happy new design that we're all satisfied with. This is a temporary modification, as we will be moving to our own dedicated server here in the next few weeks. After the server has been configured, we'll eventually move to different software, to take advantage of a number of features we don't have now (such as private messaging and a better forum).   We'll post additional announcements here  in this section as we approach the time of migration to the new server.

Thanks for visiting the BL RAG.