I agree Annie's concert is questionable, though I think it is a good thing to promote the efforts of individuals in the Meeting in the interest of Community. For example if you have an Opening I'd feel that would be appropriate for the Calendar. But really, what is the policy? Has it ever been thought about, other than by individuals (mostly, the three of us) so that we could resolve questions like this by asking "the policy"?

The reason I thought it would be consistent is that I thought things which are appropriate for putting in the Meeting's Newsletter would also be appropriate for putting on the Calendar. And Annie's concert will be in the Newsletter.

I also put Joe Fenstermaker's 4/24 film on the calendar even though it is "off-campus" and the work of a person who is not even part of our Meeting. Do you think this would be appropriate?

I guess I am in favor of a rather loose interpretation of what is appropriate, since I view it as a kind of up-to-date extension of the printed Calendar and things that could go into that medium.

Conversation welcome...

Doesn't seem consistent with the policy as I understand it.

A
..... ... .. . .

On Apr 21, 2009, at 4:44 PM, QT - Roger <qtopic-42-uiCfEBQTxRaZ6@quicktopic.com > wrote:

< replied-to message removed by QT >

Annie Patterson is giving a concert at the Echo Lake Coffeehouse (run by Diane Crowe, also a Mount Toby person though not often seen there recently) so I put a notice about her concert on the calendar, at May 23. I hope this is a legitimate use of the calendar. What do you think?

It seems to me that a picture width of 100px is about right for the calendar cells.

I was puzzled about why changes to the calendar did not result in email notification to David and myself, since I thought I had filled out the form properly. But it turns out that in order to get this email notification, we would have to move to a different server which is slower. So the price to be paid for this automatic notification is that the whole calendar would run more slowly, because that more complex and older server is set up to send a lot of emails (for example, "reminder" emails when an event is coming, etc.) I think this is too big a price to pay. What do you think?

Edited by author 03-26-2009 08:29 PM
The latest try to solve all the problems - I changed the line in question to
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><div align="center">
Request a calendar update or a
Meetinghouse reservation<br>

I suppose an alternative would be to have two tiny pages, one for the link on the left, and one for the link on the right. This would seem to satisfy your objections based on the worry that a viewer would revisit the page, wasting a valuable click. But to me it would be a decrement in quality since then you would cause the viewer who is poking around just to see what is on the site to make two clicks rather than just one. Why is this better?

Or, maybe it would satisfy your objections if there were only one link, on the text "Request a calendar update or a Meetinghouse reservation" - that is, the whole line. Would you prefer that?

Two reasons:

1) Rather than reading to navigate, web surfers generally click their way through a site. I am certain that most will click on both links and ask, "wasn't I here before?" or the like

2) Another principle of web navigation is "don't make me think". Why present the user with a choice that causes them to stop and consider, "Now let's see, am I updating or reserving" before they can proceed?

Fun sport, this web development dialog! apg

Re: 41 - the reason I put two links there is that there are two very different reasons behind that page. One is for "insiders" wanting to post an event on the calendar, the other mostly for "outsiders" wanting to rent space in the building. That is why the drop-down messages are different for the two links. So while "Scheduling requests and updates" is briefer, it seems less clear, and an outsider may not understand it as leading to a way to reserve the building. In any case, clicking on either link leads to the page that explains how to do either task, so the reader will almost certainly not go out and click again, and if s/he does it seems a small price to pay for the additional clarity (IMHO) of the current line.

"Request a calendar update or a Meetinghouse reservation"

These link to the same page, a needless extra step for the visitor. I recommend the following:

Scheduling <link>requests and updates</link>.

I got tired of having to fish around for the technical support page for the calendar, so I added a link for it in the calendar footer.

How to create and edit things on the Mount Toby online calendar - put here for future reference in case new people need the information, so that we can copy this text and paste it into email for a new Editor-person.

On the Mount Toby website (mounttoby.quaker.org) click on Calendar
(Sometimes I have found it necessary to "Try Again" to get it, or to refresh the web browser page.)

At the bottom left of the calendar there are three types of events that you can add or edit:
  Daily - for scheduling one-of-a-kind events
  Duration - for events that stretch over a span, like the recent Young Friends event, Friday to Sunday
  Periodic - for events that occur on a regular schedule, like first Tuesdays or every Friday, etc.

Click on the appropriate type of event to add, and then you will be asked for your username and password:
  User name = mttobyedits
  Password = [ask David or Andy or Roger]
Enter those and click OK, and you are in. This access level lets you add, modify, or delete calendar entries.

Use the first two lines to navigate to the right month and day for the event (or the first day of a periodic event)
If you are Creating an event (as opposed to editing an existing event), click on Create
Enter the start time and AM/PM (and optionally, the end time too)
Enter the calendar text (this is what shows up in the calendar cell)
In the Popup Text or URL link enter more details about the event if you wish. This is the information (in addition to the calendar text) which will be shown if somebody clicks on the calendar text. If you do add this information, the calendar text will be underlined like a regular internet link, but clicking on it will just show the popup. If instead of text you enter an internet URL (=address) the user will be taken to that site.
Best to leave the colors alone for uniformity on the calendar though we have agreed on three pastel colors for occasional use, for example the background green on March 16th.
You can click on Help if you want more instructions.
Finally, click on Submit.
Then you get that horizontal date listing across the top of the page with a yellow "View Calendar" at the left. Click on the yellow to see what you have created and if it is what you expected. Test the popup if you have entered text in the popup section.
If you want to change something you have created, click on the date number at the top of the calendar cell, and you will go back to editing events on that date, including what you have just created.
There doesn't seem to be any way to "log out" of your status as editor, so just leave the calendar and go away. It seems that a cookie is planted in your machine so that if you return to the calendar later the same day you will not have to log in again, and you can just start editing. But the cookie seems to go away after a day, or maybe overnight.
The procedure for editing periodic events is a little more complex since you have to pick the frequency, the day (e.g. fifth Sundays), but you should be able to figure it out, especially with the aid of the Help file.

When you change or create something on the calendar, David Scott will (I think) get an email notifying him about it.

Some things require a bit of care, for example making exceptions to periodic events. The source for answers is at
http://www.calendars.net/calsetup.htm and the answer to that specific one is at http://www.calendars.net/calsetup4.htm#periodic

Sorry for being insistent...no problem.

Andy

It seems to me that we are worrying too much about a nonexistent problem. Anybody who looks at our calendar knows perfectly well that "Northfield" is miles away and that Jim and Jill's place is also. David knows this so it will not confuse the Scheduler, and everybody else, when they click on the event, will see the address, which is clearly off-site. So what is the problem that we are trying to solve here?

Re: 32

This is more on the question about off-site events. "Worship Group at Northfield" would indicate that it is off-site, otherwise a visitor could think that the Northfield Worship Group meets at Mt. Toby.

We could take it further and use the "at sign" @ to indicate these off-site events. For example,

Sabbath Worship @ Jim & Jill's
Worship Group @ Northfield

I rather like this approach. It is clear and consistent.

re: 32 again - I note that in the Mt Toby website, Schedule page, the group is listed as "Northfield Worship Group." So our calendar is consistent with that description.