Blog: Site Changes

Progress has been a bit slow lately, due to my need to work for a living, and such. Still there have been things happening here on the site. A couple of new contributors have shown up, adding valuable information in comments, both on the resources and on my outline, and contributing to the resources by translating from the French and the like. On the whole, it feels like the site is taking off, and at least my outline is shaping up. I am very grateful to everyone who has contributed.

New Features

The site itself has a couple of new features: new features for tracking new contents. First off, there is a new entry under "Background Material" in the Site Navigation sidebar: Resource Changes which will take you to a new page that lists the most recently created and updated reference pages: Characters, Events, Sources and Pictures. It doesn't list chapters or other book sections, blog postings or comments. Those are listed in their own sections in the right-hand sidebar on each page. If you come to this site to research La Maupin herslef, you'll want to check the Resource Changes page.

The second new feature is the new flag (), which appears for recently created or updated entries in the various index pages: Characters, Events, Sources, Pictures, Blogs, and for reviewers, Chapters and other book sections. If you aren't logged in "recently" for the purpose of this flag is 10 days. If you are logged in, its the last time you were logged in or if you've logged on and off multiple times in one day, 10 days ago.

New Sources, Translations and Polishings

Besides software changes, much of what we have done here has been adding sources that I know about that are not yet documented here, translating some of the French (Merci, Clorinde! Merci, Rappar!), and polishing much of what was entered in crudely. There are still more sources to add, and lots more to translate.

One thing more related to the site than the research or the novel that has been polished in the last few weeks is our Terms of Service page. You'll find that is about as "plain language" as you'll ever encounter. I Tried to make them sensible and understandable, straightforward enough that they leave you wondering why anyone would have to put common sense into words. Sadly, my privacy policy is nowhere near as well done. If anyone has a good replacement or template, let me know, either as a comment here or via email.

Making Use of the Features

One of the features that Morgan and I have used a good deal on the software and sysadmin side, but which I really haven't been using so far in the research and writing side is the "Research Questions and To-Do Items". I've started using it, and I would invite others to use it as well. Anyone should be able to see the research items, and editors can alter them. If you'd like to work on one of the research items, either change the user to yourself, if you are an editor, or send me an email letting me know that you'd like to claim an item.

While we're on the topic of site features and user roles, let me point out that besides reviewers, who can see the work in progress, and editors who can proofread and copy edit my work, there are also bloggers, who can write blog articles. If you'd like to post a blog entry regarding la Maupin, life in France and the Opera of her day, smallswords and fencing, or any other related topic, just write and ask me to make you a blogger.

As things start getting up to speed here, please also consider updating your profile. Add links to your own web site, write up a biography, personalize your avatar. We're trying to make this a rich and friendly environment. The site is designed and built by Eldacur Technologies, and we're becoming proud of it, but not too proud to take criticism, suggestions and feature requests.

One last thing. If you have a web site and it would be appropriate, please link here, either to the site itself—http://lamaupin.com/—or to some clever bit on it that you think worth pointing out. All the great people who have helped me along the way started by finding la Maupin and me on the Web. The more links, Facebook citations, wiki entries and the like that exist, the easier it is for people to find us.

Thank you, all.