The Mortal Mist NewsletterMarch 4, 2009
Greetings, fellow Mortals!March 26 marks the two year birthday of the Mortal Mist community. That newsletter will be reserved for anything YOU may wish to say and have published. Please pm your thoughts and comments to pj some time before March 25 so I have time to organize them. For an idea of what has been done in the past, you might take a look back at our one-year birthday issue:
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,1851.msg51317.html#msg51317--
Drupal Front End Ready To Go!mu has pretty well completed the retrofit of Drupal for our front pages. This essential step allows anybody with the proper access to create and edit the front pages without the need for direct server access or file editing. In conjunction with finalizing our mission statement, the time has come to begin rebuilding and restructuring our front pages. All we need are people do to it.
What needs to be done?
We need a graphical theme that will be consistent throughout the front pages and into the forums. This does not mean that every page has to look exactly the same, but there should be some consistency as people move through the site.
Content needs to be written, edited and organized. We need to find better ways to bring people from the front pages into the forums, as we have more than enough front page visits to sustain any level of growth we desire.
The pages must actually be created, set up and organized. A basic understanding of HTML is required, though Drupal provides very powerful interfaces and options that would normally only be possible by delving into Java and other languages. This new system opens up a lot of creative possibilities!
If you have any interest in being part of this rebuild and restructuring, please make yourself known in the Creator's Guild:
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,2802.msg76827.html#msg76827--
VisibilityA variety of efforts are ongoing to increase the visibility of Mortal Mist. While it has never been our intent to compete with the established giants of the online Lucid Dreaming world, the survival of any online community is dependent on maintaining a level of activity that keeps things interesting enough for people to hang around. Members will always come and go, and individual levels of attention and activity will ebb and flow. It is essential to maintain enough growth in membership to compensate for these fluctuations.
We have a number of terms now showing up as first page hits on the major search engines. (Lucid Dreaming is not one of those first-page hits, but we have risen considerably from where we were just a few months ago and have probably reached a point where the hits resulting from our new positioning will continue carrying us slowly upward.) The Drupal project will improve our visibility as well, by doing a better job of laying out all we have to offer people searching for information about lucid dreaming.
We are also open to link swapping with anybody who shares our passion for Lucid Dreaming. Of particular interest are lucid dreaming forums in languages other than English, as one of our goals from the beginning has been to join together with lucid dreamers from all over the world. If you are aware of anybody who might be willing to swap links with us, please go ahead and initiate contact!
If you have any other ideas as to improving visibility or working with other established sites and communities, please start a thread either in Town Hall or the Ambassador's Guild.
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March Monthly Meeting Place - The Cliffs Or Moher In Ireland Or A Dream HouseA visit to both places and finding another dreamer in either place earns a Platinum Award. I visit to both places without finding a dreamer in either place earns a Gold Award. A visit to either place and finding another dreamer there earns a Gold Award. A visit to either place without finding another dreamer earns a Silver Award. And dreaming of going to either place earns a Bronze Award.
Please record all of your visits to the Above Here:
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,2794.msg76557.html#msg76557--
March Featured ChallengesYour
Basic Challenge for the month of March is to find a four leaf clover, in honor of the Irish holiday St Patrick's Day.
Completing this challenge will, at the beginning of next month, give you one cup in place of your regular stars, set your member group title to "Completed Basic Task", and will make your name appear purple in the online users list at the bottom of the main page.
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,2796.msg76605.html#msg76605The
Intermediate Challenge for the month of March is to watch a meteor shower.
Completion of this task will, at the beginning of next month, give you two cups in place of your stars, set your member group to "Completed Intermediate Tasks", and make your name appear purple in the online users list on the main page.
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,2797.msg76606.html#msg76606The
Advanced Challenge for the month of March is a very important one! Easter is at the beginning of next month (4 April), and the Easter Bunny needs your help delivering all of those eggs. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save Easter by ensuring all of the Easter Bunny's eggs get delivered to their proper homes.
Completion of this task will, at the beginning of next month, replace your stars with three cups, replace your member group with "Completed Advanced Challenge", and will make your name appear purple in the online users list.
http://mortalmist.com/forum/index.php/topic,2798.msg76607.html#msg76607--
System and Community Notes- The DreamSketcher is somewhat functional again! Just be careful to save your post before using it - there have been reports of lost post content when launching the DreamSketcher. We will continue working on getting it functioning the way it used to - and hopefully even better.
- DrTechnical has the Research Guild focused on DC Investigations - developing methods to use Dream Characters to help induce lucidity. He also has a call for members to participate in his ongoing lucid induction through Cranial Electro-Stimulation studies. Learn more here.
- The Chat system has been updated, and now seems (for most people) to be faster and much less error-prone. If you are having problems using chat, please try logging completely out of the chat and forum, clearing your cache, and logging back in. Locally cached copies of the old client-side code can create problems. If you experience any ongoing difficulties using chat, please let either mu or me know.
- Due to being very busy in real life, Aquanina's Featured Artist in News, Events and Inspiration will not be changed weekly. She will continue updating it as time permits, so be alert to a new inspirational treat showing up at random intervals!
- If you enjoy or see value in what we are doing here at Mortal Mist, please consider submitting an Alexa review for us:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/mortalmist.com?p=rwidget#reviews
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Closing ThoughtsThe ebb and flow of activity here in the Mortal Mist forum has always intrigued me. Throughout each day, we range from a couple hours at a time with nobody here to high averages of close to 20 people. If you log in and find you are the only one here, that doesn't mean nothing is going on and nobody is posting! Check the links at the top of each page -
Show Unread Posts and
Show New Replies - to find plenty to read and respond to.
The chances for most of us to achieve lucidity are very much enhanced by focusing on the subject of lucid dreaming throughout the day. We offer a lot of opportunities for just that! If you don't find anything that catches your fancy in the Unread and New lists, you might try the Dream Roulette at the top right of each page; clicking D will take you to a random dream, L to a random lucid dream, and F to a random fragment. If you find something interesting or enjoyable, be sure to drop a comment to encourage the journal owner.
Don't forget to PM me your thoughts and comments for our two year birthday Newsletter by March 25.
Until then, I hope to see you in my dreams.
pj. . .
