Wouldn’t it be possible for Dr Language and Brad to post the current WotD to the Agora as a New Topic immediately upon releasing it ? Ordnung muss sein !, as our German friends say….
Henri
PS : Didn’t someone earlier suggest a little trick which performed an alphabetisation operation on the list of past WotD ? I’ve forgotten just how this was to be done, but a reposting would—at least for me—greatly facilitate searching through the list, so as to avoid supernumerary suggestions….
Actually, Henri—I’ve got to stop saying ‘actually’ so much!—once you open the Archives page, you can choose Edit, then Find (on This Page)... to find the word you might be looking for. You don’t even have to enter the complete word; just a portion of it will do.
Those directions were specifically for Internet Explorer, but all the browsers on the market have a similar function.
I used to do this every morning when I got to work, but it has slipped down my list of priorities as other tasks have overwhelmed me.
I will try to get back to doing it regularly.
Unfortunately, I can’t post it as soon as it goes out because it goes out at 3AM my time. By the time I get to work here and post it, it’s 3PM in Germany and 8PM in Sydney, so some folks won’t get it first thing.
[quote author=Brad Ross-MacLeod link=board=a-suggest;num=1047287010;start=0#3 date=03/13/03 at 10:40:12] ... I will try to get back to doing it regularly.
Unfortunately, I can’t post it as soon as it goes out because it goes out at 3AM my time. By the time I get to work here and post it, it’s 3PM in Germany and 8PM in Sydney, so some folks won’t get it first thing.
Good enough, Brad, and thanks ! This will help to put a little more order in our wild discussions….
Aha! I hve always wondered if the WOTD is received at 12:00am by everyone (n their respective time zones (that’s when I get it), or if it goes out at the same time. What a funny thing time zones are. More sensible than daylight saving time, I suppose.
Actually, the old mail server was ancient and took ALL DAY to send out the WotD in batches. Part of the problem recently was that it would eventually get to midnight and if it didn’t have all of that day’s mail sent out, it would just quit and start the next day’s. The people who were usually affected by this were the ones who signed up most recently.
However, we sent out yesterday’s word (voluptuary) using the new system and it sent out 5,000 in 15 minutes (which would finish the entire mailing in a couple of hours…). So things should be looking up.
With the new system it looks like most people (with the exception of insomniacs) should have the WotD waiting for them in the morning. But, knowing how computers work, I won’t make any promises.
[quote author=Brad Ross-MacLeod link=board=a-suggest;num=1047287010;start=0#8 date=03/19/03 at 09:42:28]. . . we sent out yesterday’s word (voluptuary) using the new system . . .
The mailshots are working fine now, I’ve received mine every day since 19th between 11:15 and 11:30 GMT (UTC). Before then they were all over the place - when they came at all.
My WOTD arrives usually at 12:00 (I’m in Central European Time—-6 to get New York time). But, there have been strange occurences: once the same WOTD came four times in four days! At other times, it didn’t come at all!
I think Brad once said the board has a funky (Def. 4b, with emphasis on the eccentric) way of picking the WOTD at random from a list of WOTDs. I think he said when the list gets low it tends to repeat.
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So when the words start to repeat they’re probably hard at work paying the bills, so go buy something from the online store! :D
That’s an excellent idea. Why don’t we all go get a t-shirt and a coffee mug today?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If it’s free, it probably isn’t worth anything. Why not charge MONEY to be part of this forum? I wouldn’t even mind if I had to pay and some people got in free.
I pay for salon.com, I pay for Encyclopedia Britannica, I pay for several newspapers. Why wouldn’t I? Just because I’m reading it all online, do I take it for granted that it’s somehow put there by magic (and free) fairies?
Reality check. People would like to be paid for what they do. Or at least not have to lose their ass on doing what they love.
Yes, we are busy paying the bills. Some major projects, some potential projects, various annoying projects that should be finished but won’t go away. You know how it is.
The WotD actually takes a fair amount of time to compose and research. And when we are busy it becomes more difficult to fit it all in. We just hired a new person, so there is hope that things are improving and that more time can be spent improving the website (at least that is my fervent desire).
Yes, please purchase something to help keep us going. The eReference is probably one of the best things we sell. And we may be removing the yourDictionary promo items because they are not selling at all.
Also, you mention paying for the Agora. I want to let you know that this is not entirely out of the question. One of the projects I am doing is research into how to charge for some of our free services. It is abuntantly clear that we can’t afford to be giving away so much of our labor. I will post something here with some possible subscription packages to get feedback from you people before we do anything.
