…is my health. My health, damnit! I’ve been holed up in bed pretty much non-stop since Saturday because somebody infected me with a bloody cold. What is it with the stream of shit I’ve been hit with this past week or so? Food poisoning (or stomach bug, whatever), then my period [shudder] and now this. All this crap made me miss Annual Q*Bee Blog Day!
Talking of which — sorry, you don’t escape from it that easily — December 15th was that day of the year where everybody cool blogs about the quilting bee. I’m not going to bother twisting your arm to tell you how great it is this year: I don’t have the time or the energy to fight the stereotypes or correct the rumours. Plus, there’s all the other participants who will do that for you. Instead I want to quickly mention all of the things I worked on this year (with the help of my ‘programmer bees’) as a record of my own achievements.
Firstly, and while not a big deal it shows I’m not always a tightass, I took over the financial side of the club. I moved the hosting to Site5 for two years, and renewed it for about 3 years. The move to Site5 meant that some real work could finally be done on the site, because GoDaddy was absolutely useless. Bubs and I then set to work implementing the core functionality that we have now. And boy is it functional!
To put it into perspective, you have to realise that about 4-5 years ago the bulk of the site (with all of its 400-500 members) was ran and controlled by Kimi via a single .txt file. That’s where the member info was kept, who had won what, who wasn’t trading and who was, etc. While I helped Kimberly code a primitive PHP backend to control basic member adding/deletion after she took over, my lack of time and experience — not to mention problems with GoDaddy — meant that it was never finished to my standards.
90% of the site is now database driven. You sign up, you’re in the database. Made a member? In the database. Sent an e-mail? Via the database. Give an award, a mushroom, points or even ooh a warning? All using the database. It makes updating and maintaining the site a lot easier, and manageable with a full time job. It also allows me to control the new referrals, our special points system, permissions, updates and who knows what else we managed to add!
There are still things (a lot of things) that need finishing, and I need to find better ways to manage contests and activities because they’re incredibly time consuming, but generally the club has come leaps and bounds ahead (technologically speaking) of what it’s ever been before.
So what else do I want for Christmas? Continued success of our club and the good health and cheer of the members. Because I’m nice like that :)
17 Dec at 8:40 pm
Ah wow, congrats on all the great work you’ve done in the Qbee! You must be very proud, I know I would be!
17 Dec at 8:50 pm
It was great speaking to you! Happy holidays!
17 Dec at 8:52 pm
Well Merry Christmas Jem, Karl and Cat! Also Merry Christmas Loyal JemJaBella readers/contributors. I hope you get well now :D And well done with the club.
17 Dec at 9:17 pm
Oddly enough I never get sick when the weather changes from fall to winter. I tend to get sick in the summertime :\ Speaking of which, you might like this: http://tinyurl.com/2ylpq6 :o) Merry Christmas
17 Dec at 9:21 pm
I had chicken the other day from a dodgy-asian-style-cuisine fast food place and felt miserable right after, and immediately thought of your food poisoning debacle. I spend too much time online? I remember the good ole days of the Quilting Bee, I was member #27 but I believe I am now replaced. I used to chat with Kimberly quite often on aim, until she fell off the internet. Good job on the improvements, and I hope you’re feeling better soon.
17 Dec at 9:51 pm
I’m still in shock how that site was driven by one .txt file. I always thought it was with databases. Anyway, congrats (I guess that’s what I should say) for doing that :D And I hope you get over your bug, I’m kinda sick and I don’t want to be for Christmas x_X
17 Dec at 10:15 pm
Jem, you are in my thoughts to get better. Merry Christmas Jem, Karl, & Hex You have done wonders with the QBee. Way to go, Jem.
17 Dec at 10:22 pm
I actually think of ninja.gif more than food poisoning when I think of you, so I think that’s a compliment?
18 Dec at 12:34 am
I’m sure the QBee is lucky to have you, and I hope to join one day! Get well soon :)
18 Dec at 12:41 am
Hi, I read your blog about swimchick.net that you wrote in 06, and I think you should make another one. This time, you should write about when she doesn’t get her way, she writes blogs about people ‘stealing’ because someone made a graphic similar to hers. I had made a few brush sets with inspiration from hers, and I guess that just wasn’t ok. So she finally decided to contact my host, and lie, and say I stole a bunch of graphics (which is funny, because shes the only one actually stealing. she even sold layouts with stolen images, and used my brushes in one of them when I said no commercial use) therefor having my site terminated. Before it was terminated, i got over 100 comments of hateful things, just because of her blog. She is an immature 18 year old, that only knows how to be a smart as. I recommend you write another inspiring blog about her. :D Thanks Jordan
18 Dec at 1:21 am
Nice job on the qbee! Get well soon, Jem.
18 Dec at 4:07 am
Aw, I really hope that you get well soon, Jem. The QBee sounds exciting, I’ve been telling myself for YEARS that I’d join one day :S
18 Dec at 10:21 am
Thank you for all the great work you’ve done for the QBee, I haven’t been around the qbee lately but I’m not planning on leaving it either, I love it too much :)
18 Dec at 10:45 am
I love prowling ’round the QBee, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the gorgeous pixels. It really is a marvellous site!
18 Dec at 3:38 pm
Oh well if that’s all you really want for Christmas then I might just not bother cooking a Christmas dinner hehe :o) Only kidding Jem
18 Dec at 3:59 pm
Yay for databases! And yay for the Q*Bee! Y’all should join it!
18 Dec at 7:33 pm
I totally missed the q*bee blog day… I think I was on iRO all day or maybe working who knows. xD
27 Dec at 9:47 am
No fun being sick. I’ve had it for over a week. Holidays in bed stinks!