Joe Citizen is an IBA contributor behind the scenes, and has been for some time. In addition, he is a quite a photographer. His work ranges from the sublimely beautiful, to the lovely and delicious.
You see what I mean? The guy has an eye for beauty, doesn't he?
Anyway, today I want to thank Joe Citizen because he has agreed to take on the role of technical advisor for IBA. I am a technotard, meaning I can't write html to save my life, and I can barely find the on switch on my computer half the time.
So, Joe has his work cut out for him.
He and I kicked around some ideas today. We might make some fundamental changes to IBA in coming weeks. If we're able to figure out how to implement our ideas, IBA will become an expanded version of what it already is.
The thing I love about IBA is the sense of community that we have had here since the very beginning. To me, IBA is like the neighborhood pub. We all know each other. We all pretty much like each other. And, we all pretty much know what will set each other off.
We know Epaminondas is going to come at us with five or six intense ideas a day. We've all seen Pim's Ghost in a bikini (you've seen those shots, right?). We know that every few days Dag will come in in a really hornery mood, and he'll start dishing out death threats and the like, but then one of us buys him a pint and he gets right back to being the funloving Dag we've come to love.
And, of course, everybody knows I'm a loudmouthed fuck who really ought to sit down and listen a bit more, eh?
Anyway, my point is, I'm hoping to make IBA even more like the neighborhood pub. I'm hoping we can get Pim's Ghost to come down with her band and play on a Friday evening. I'm hoping we can get Joe Citizen's thong babes to come out on Saturday night and put on a show for us. We want this place to rock.
Joe and I are going to figure out how to do it, if we have to go down to Barnes & Noble and buy one of those damned computer manuals and read the whole damned thing.
Well, there you go, that's my news for the day.
If anyone has any ideas for improving IBA, let me know.
15 comments:
This is great news, Pastorius!
Joe does beautiful work at his site; I try to stop by there at least one a week--feast for the eyes.
Hopefully, this will work out the way it is planned. It ought to be fun.
How about a subject index of Islamic topics?
The keyword could be followed by a phrase to give context, which links to a very short simple introductory description (fits on one screen). The short description can contain, or be followed by reference links to detailed archival articles and pages on other sites.
eg
ABROGATION, attempts to reconcile logical contradictions in the koran
AISHA, Mohammed's child sex-slave
ALLAH, Pagan origins
ALLAH'S SISTERS, the expurgated Satanic verses.
AYESHA, Mohammed's child sex-slave
BEHEADING, ritual human sacrifice to Allah
BLACK STONE, meteorite worshipped by Muslims
BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN - example of Jahiliyya (religious vandalism)
CHILD ABUSE, institutionalised by Prophet's example
CLITORIDECTOMY, removal of clitoris to destroy sexual pleasure.
COUSIN MARRIAGE, one possible cause of Muslim mental instability
DA'WA Muslim missionary activities
DECAPITATION, ritual human sacrifice to Allah
EID, ritual animal sacrifice to Allah
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION (FGM), destruction of women's sexual pleasure.
etc.......
Thus AISHA and AYESHA are variant spellings and would link to the same brief description. Similarly, CLITORIDECTOMY and FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION would link to a single summary, as would BEHEADING and DECAPITATION.
stoli on the rocks, with a twist please.
Think about Movable Type ...and host it ourselves.
You can do more with pix, Flash, etc, and have more control over what it looks like
Yeah, I have some concrete ideas. They won't change the look of the site. They will include new pages to which you will be able to click over.
I like ROP's idea of having an index of articles.
WC has suggested having an index of original essays by IBA contributors, which could be assembled by topic, like chapters in a book.
I like that idea as well.
My ideas have more to do with fostering the community and culture of IBA.
Like I said, please give me any other ideas you have.
Michael,
Thanks for the suggestion about making this a "sticky" post.
Here's the problem in a nutshell, I am so stupid I don't even know what a "sticky" post is.
I'm in my early 40's. I know, from your blog that you are 22. Believe it or not, when I went to college, we didn't even have Personal Computers.
I didn't start to learn to use a computer until I was 32 years old.
Imagine that, huh?
Want to hear about what the world was like back in the days of the dinosaurs?
:)
That's aawesom! Joe, your site is AMAZING. It does crash my computer though, so don't make IBA TOO fancy on me, or I won't be able to load it! I wish I could see your site again, BTW :( The photos the 1st time really impressed me.
Well gee, I hope I am not overselling the changes.
That would be pretty sad if Joe and I implemented our new ideas and no one even noticed.
:)
I didn't start to learn to use a computer until I was 32 years old.
Don't feel bad, Jaco, I didn’t learn how to drive a car until I was 30 and my mother, sister and wife still don’t know how do drive. No, I don’t live in Saudi Arabia … just New York City. But that’s another story.
I’m old enough that when I learned how to program it was on a computer that had a dozen machine instructions and we would program it with computer tape. This kid from Seattle was doing the same but he opened this company called Microsoft, perhaps you heard of it …
Michael, I like the idea of a logo button. Do you know how to do graphics? It would be great. I've got some ideas, if you know how to do graphics, I'll send my ideas to you.
Jason,
I know from our discussions that I'm not quite as old as you, but get this, I learned synthesizer on a patchcord synthesizer, you know, like the switched-on Bach guy/gal used to play?
I brings back memories of the 60s, Jaco.
Sorry guys, forget tape, I learned this stuff on CARDS WITH RECTANGULAR HOLES.
Oh heavens, can't we leave the bikini shots behind? I'm actually rather embarassed about that now. But I'd love to play some music! Not quite as embarassed by my singing.
I'm not sure, but I think Cato the Elder started on the abacus.
;-)
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