Bags of fun challenge

There is a bit more news on the Bags of Fun challenge. Firstly Allison Aller has chopped off a pair of jeans and has an image on her works in progress blog. Arlee of Albedo Design is also excited judging by the comment she left yesterday. Beche-la-mer of Two Cents has also started. Annie Whitsed has posted an image of a bag she made a while back. I was envious at the time of this bag as I did not have time to make one.Sorry Becky of Creative passage I forgot you yesterday – now that’s not nice is it. I am sorry Becky now we have 2 Beckys! We also have more participants who don’t necessarily have a blog so a big hello to Jacqui Mulcahy, Froma Sommers, Cindy and Sybil Horton. Roxie is going to set up a blog and Tracey. Its great to see that this is not going to be a bloggers only challenge as I was a little worried about that happening. I want it open to all and for people to feel welcome.

I have set up a Bags of fun flickr group. It’s public so people can post images of their work as they go. I notice that Linda of Chloe’s place has already found it. People don’t have to so this it is just available if you wish. All you need to join flickr (its free) and join the group. In your photo area upload your photos, describe them and tag them. This area will become your spot to use as you like. For instance here is my flickr page . When you have some photos there if you click on the photo in other words go to the page the photo is on, in the top left hand corner there is a little button ‘send to group’ click on it. A list of groups you are a member of will be displayed. Select the group and click. This means your photo will appear on the group page too. The group feature means that people can browse what has been going on easily from one site. Also for people without blogs and the like you can put images online, have people comment and generally join in. I don’t want people to feel left out!

With flickr you can tag photos. Tags are simply key words which people can use to browse through. I will be tagging my photos ‘bagsoffun’. If other people use this tag it means people can browse by the tag as well. Other tags I will be using are tags like needlework, embroidery, bags, and denim. It simply means if anyone is browsing through the needlework tag for instance people will find the project. No doubt there are other things this project can be tagged by, but I will let the group develop their own and tags will evolve naturally as others think of probably better ones. Another advantage to flickr is if people have an RSS aggregator like bloglines you can add the group page to your account. It is a long challenge so I am looking for ways to keep people enthusiastic and enjoying it.

I have not administered a flickr group before so I am learning here. As I said the group is public. Anyone can join the group but as an administrator I can kick out and ban people from the group. This is only likely to be done if we are hit by a Troll. ‘Trolls’ are horrid people who join a group to annoy and offend people. Since they really like attention it’s best to ignore them but they can upset people and poison a community. If any appear I will have no hesitation is clicking a ban button.

I have set up a separate page which lists the participants in the bags of fun challenge and gives the guidelines. I have yet to get everyone in my sidebar but I will do that but probably people will find they can browse the links on the guidelines page with greater ease.

I have also set up a separate category in my blog so people can read or subscribe to just those entries in an RSS reader. I think this project will be heaps of fun. As I said it’s a long challenge but hopefully we can keep the interest levels up if people link, flick, and comment it should stay alive. No UFO’s here! If you want to join in leave a comment – just remember comments are moderated so it will not be immediately published on my site until I approve it. This is just to block spam not conversation. The same applies for any questions you might have just leave a comment. If you have a website let me know so that I can cross link to it. So who apart from those who have already jumped in is up for this challenge?

Oh dear I think I have just been found out – remember I stole Jerry’s old jeans for the bags of fun challenge I have just read his blog … giggles to self I wondered how long it would take.

Now I must go and organize a couple of links for those link addicts who are not in the bags of challenge – see I have not forgotten you!