This site is powered by WordPress.org and WordPress is releasing a new update to their software shortly – WordPress 2.7.  I wanted to make sure that this site is ready for that update, since it is a major one!  Of interest to any fellow WordPress users out there – I have a new edition of my book coming out within the next month, or so…WordPress For Dummies, Second Edition will hit the shelves in December and will cover all the new features you will see in the updated version of WordPress 2.7.

Right now, however; these are the changes that you are able to see and take advantage of now:

1. New site design.  I thought it was time to re-design Right Voices, since it hasn’t seen a new design since 2004/2005.  I updated the design to hopefully make it more useful for you.  Popular posts are listed in the sidebar, along with most recent posts and site tags to make navigation a bit easier.  Also, the comments are prominently displayed since the discussion on this site is what is really important – it’s nice to be able to see who has commented recently.
2. Gravatars – - you can take advantage of gravatars on this site.  What are they?  They are those pictures you see next to the comment authors name that individualizes the comment a bit more.  If you want one but don’t have one – you can easily sign up for one at the Gravatar website – - it’s easy and it’s free!
3. Speaking of comments – you can also subscribe to individual comment threads that you’re involved in discussion on.  This will send you an email anytime someone responds on a discussion thread that you are interested in tracking the discussion on.
4. Also in the comments is now a new interface that has a WYSIWYG editor – - it allows you to insert text formatting in your comments like Bold, Italics, Underline, Links, Alignment, Quoting – - as well as a spell checker! (yay for spellcheckers!) – that along with the ability to edit your comments makes those little “oops” easier to fix!  You can also “grab” the bottom right corner of the comment box and “drag” it bigger, if you prefer a larger text area in which to type.
5. Our different topics and categories are now found in the very top menu on this site to allow for easier navigation through the different topics we blog about here.

I think that about does it for site changes around here, and before I return you to the regular discussion here at Right Voices, I just want to open up this comments thread for your feedback and any ideas on features you’d like to see implemented here in the future.  I can’t promise I’ll implement all of them – but I would like to hear any ideas on features you would like to see..I’ll take any and all feature requests under consideration!

Happy weekend everyone!

• Upgraded the site to the latest version of WordPress 2.6.1. You really won’t notice a huge difference for the end-user of the site, but it made considerable improvements in the guts of the site which will result in faster loading of the site, overall.
• Gravatars! I redesigned and adjusted the display of your comments on this site a bit. The comments now display your Gravatar if you have one. Gravatars are those small pictures/icons next to your name in the comments. If you don’t have one, the default Gravatar will show next to your name. If you have one – your custom Gravatar will show. If you want to get one – visit Gravatar.com and get one!
• Editing comments. I’ve implemented a feature that will give you the ability to edit your own comments after you’ve hit the submit button. This gives you the chance to correct any typos or phrasing you’ve used in your comments.

Those are the highlights, for now. If you have any suggestions on other features I could include that would make the site a better experience, I’m all ears!

As much as I miss my Mother and wish that she could be with us this Christmas, I am thankful that she is finally at peace. Her struggle was long and painful, but never a complaint. I wish her everlasting peace. I am thankful for our friends and family that got us through her death. We asked that no flowers be sent, please find it in your heart to make a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The flowers overfilled the funeral home, church and my father’s house, yet the donations far exceeded their costs. I am thankful that our Mother taught us the importance of “Finding cures. Saving children”, and I am thankful that her family and friends remembered this.

In October, my nephew graduated from USMC boot camp. Although his future is uncertain, I am thankful that he chose to serve his country. I know that my brother would rather he had gone to college first, but my nephew said he needed to join in order to give back, and so he did. I am thankful that his parents have supported his decision. On Thanksgiving, he waited for me to arrive, and walked out to escort me in. To see him in his dress blues made my husband and I well up with tears. I am so proud of him.

I am thankful that my husband will be home for Christmas. He spent the past week in the hospital and was recovering nicely from what he went in for, but then stupidity stepped in, and because of a nurse, he ended up with clots! He told the nurse the iv line had come loose, but rather than just flush it with saline to check it, she told him it was fine. For 20 hours, they pumped various drugs into his skin tissue, rather than his veins. The arm got infected and clots developed. I am not sure of the long term damage to the arm, but I am thankful he is with me.

I am thankful for the friends that I have made along the way right here at Right Voices! Sometimes we fight, other times we laugh, but hopefully we learn. Each and everyone of you have made it a pleasure to fill these pages with one hot topic after the other.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! And don’t forget who comes tonight!

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, The Midnight Sun, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Stix Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate’s Cove, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, 123beta, guerrilla radio, Adam’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Allie is Wired, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Blue Star Chronicles, CORSARI D’ITALIA, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Speaking of Lisa, there is some exciting news to report.  Lisa not only owns this blog, among others, but she is also the owner of  E.Webscapes which is a blog design and web development studio. She also own Blogs About Hosting – which is a blog and webhosting service. I know I am leaving out some of her other businesses, but I don’t want to look like her braggart!  Blogs are her business and that doesn’t leave her much time to actually get into the act of blogging..I do want you to know about her next big project.  I am so psyched for her and I see this as a win win situation for the reader:

Lisa is writing “WordPress for Dummies” for Wiley Publishing and it should be finished by mid-April and in the stores by August 2007.  How cool is that?  Here is a link,  in case you don’t know what Word Press is.

Please give Lisa a big shout out!  And please let me know if you are still having problems with the system.

Thanks again!

Peejz

May you have food and raiment,
A soft pillow for your head,
May you be 100 years in heaven
Before the devil knows you’re dead

Here is a toast to lying, cheating, stealing and drinking:
If you lie, lie only to keep a friend.
If you cheat, may you cheat death.
If you steal, steal your lover’s heart.
If you drink, drink deeply of the joy of your new life together.

Congratulations, I wish you much love, health and happiness!

Love,

Peejz

In October 2004, we made the change from Boycott Hollywood to Right Voices – because, really, how much can you really say about Hollywood liberals before you’ve said it all, and it becomes predictable?

Through it all – we had a very lively front page blog, but we also had a very active discussion forum. We closed down the forum in January of 2005 because of our inability to really manage the forum – - it got so busy and so big . . after 2.5 years, it was time to give it a rest.

I never changed the forum, though – and to this day it remains in tact with 6,247 Threads, 34,087 Posts and 900 members! I spent some time over the past week getting it ready to re-open – - upgrading the VBulletin license and software, configuring the forums and re-configuring the design to match the one we currently have on our front page.

Going through it was pretty entertaining! There were some pretty heated arguments in there – and some really great discussions. . . . opening up was pretty nostalgic for me – - and if you are a visitor who has been with us from those days, it could be for you too. Reading my own posts and comments in that forum was really enlightening, as well – - it shows me where I was 3 years ago – - and how many of my views have changed since then.

There were some pretty heated discussions during the Presidential 2004 campaigns, the War in Iraq, and even the old site-nostalgic Boycott Hollywood/Celebs.

We’re reopening the discussion forum again to the public. If you’re interested in starting your own political discussions – the topics and forums in there are pretty comprehensive and cover all aspects of politics and current events. If you have suggestions for other forums and categories in the forum – just visit the Site Suggestions thread and drop in your ideas!

As always at Right Voices – our forum welcomes folks from all walks of political life – - Right and Left wing alike.. and everything in between. The Right Voices Discussion Forum allows you to view the posts and threads – but in order to participate, you need to register as a member… feel free to register and start up some good discussion topics.. or just browse the forums and have a read!

If you were once a member of the forum – your user account still exists in there – I didn’t delete anyone. If you don’t remember your password, just use the ‘I forgot my password’ link to have it emailed to you. If you’re not using the same email as you were when the forums were open – drop me a line and let me know and I’ll be happy to change it for you.

We’ve upgraded the platform software that runs this site, WordPress, to the latest version 1.5.2 that addressed some security issues and other bug bits. Along with it, we’ve upgraded and updated our anti-spam program. Last time we did this – some of our users notified us that they could not leave comments on the site, and we’ve seemed to work those issues through. With this new update – please let us know if you have any issues leaving comments and participating in the discussion here.

Some improvements worth mentioning:

The design and look of the site is pretty different, hey? It was time to clean the site up a bit and reformat it so that the load is quicker and the information not so jumbled.

Looking for the archives? – the archive listing by category and month used to be in the sidebar. Now, if you click the tab at the top that says “Archives” you can browse by year, month and/or category.

Looking for links? They used to be in various places in the sidebar – - to clean up those side bars, our links are now found under the “Links” tab at the top.

Search this site The search results page has now changed. When you do a search for a keyword… say something like Michael Moore, you used to get a return page with full posts on the topic. Now, the search page returns snippets of the results along with a link to the full article, as well as a “Next Results.. Previous Results” navigation feature at the bottom.

Site updates – there is now the option to be notified via email whenever a new post is made to Right Voices. In the sidebar to the left, you’ll see a box that says “Enter your e-mail address to receive notifications when this site updates” – enter your address, and you’ll get an email whenever the site is updated with new content. It does also give you the option to unsubscribe in the future – - the unsubscribe link appears in the email notification.

Those are really the top four major changes. I made some changes in the discussion area in the way the comments are displayed – - seems to make it easier to see who said what, and when.. and just some overall changes to the display of the site that I hope makes it easier to navigate, read and discuss.

I think that’s it!

The Political Teen has got the video.