) ( ) Good Morning Family! .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . \| |// ...and we even have decaf, | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! \ / ------ Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. WE HAVE A DOMAIN!!!!! (*VERY IMPORTANT ... PLEASE READ*) 3. WHOPBOF Yearly Competition (begins December 5th, not the 7th) 4. Genweb.net hacked If you've been with the family for at least three weeks, you'll probably want to skip the following paragraphÂ… TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer/Baur/Bro[u]wer lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bau[e]r/Bro[u]wer lines or any of the 81+ variant spellings that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://www.crosswinds.net/~bowerhomestead>, or you can use our shortcut URL of <http://embark.to/Homestead>. We also have a newly opened sister site, the Bower Cottage, that we've begun to fill. There are currently only a few names there, but give us time... :) The Cottage is at <http://www.crosswinds.net/~bowercottage>, or you can use the shortcut URL of <http://embark.to/bowercottage>. WE HAVE A DOMAIN!!!! :) YES!!! We have a new home, and a permanent one at that! What's more ... IT'S ALL OURS!!! YIPPEE!!!! (clap clap clap jumpa jumpa jumpa) I spent every day last week researching this domain business and finding a webhost. On Friday morning I signed us up for a domain and our name. On Saturday I finalized the registrations processing. We are now unequivocally, undeniably, completely and totally ... bowercommunity.com ...or, bowercommunity.org ...or, bowercommunity.net!! First off, how we became "Bower Community" ~~ All the people that responded to the Coffee last week were given the opportunity to vote for our domain name. Since this is a family effort, I did not decide the name myself, but allowed those voting cousins to make the decision. I found a webhost that gives us 200 MBs of space, 24/7 tech support (of which I have already abundantly used!), no monthly fees, and unlimited e-mail accounts (those e-mail accounts are a bonus I wasn't looking for; more on this later). The cost: $200 = domain registration and set up (a one-time fee) 10 = .net registration (I'll explain this below) 10 = .org registration (again, below) --- $220 outlay for bowercommunity.com/.net/.org Annual fees will be: $35 = annual fee 10 = annual fee for .net registration 10 = annual fee for .org registration -- $55 annually for bowercommunity.com/.net/.org RE: The .net and .org ~~ I registered for bowercommunity.net and bowercommunity.org so nobody else could use those names and cause us to lose traffic with surfers trying to reach us and get someone else instead. Not only was I guiding surfers to us with .net and .org, but also any inline cousins! Anytime someone gets confused as to whether bowercommunity is .com, .net or .org they'll still reach us. RE: The unlimited e-mail accounts ~~ just like a lot of us have accounts with Hotmail, Netscape, Excite, etc., so we can do the same thing with our domain. I don't know how this works yet, but once I get our sites back online and everything working correctly I'll do a quick study and let you all know. RE: Domain support ~~ please understand straight off ... NOBODY is REQUIRED to help support this effort. It is all voluntary and in no way will you be prevented from using the Homestead, the Cottage or any other site, page, etc. we may set up at Bower Community. There are cousins who have offered to help offset my expenses for our new home. However, if you would also like to contribute to this effort I will very humbly and gratefully accept any donations: Colleen Pustola P.O. Box 13154 Fort Carson, Colorado 80913 IF the donations exceed the $220 I have paid out, I will roll those extra funds over to take care of our annual fees. I will NOT retain any of the funds for myself, but keep it all within the family to pay for our home. I'll discuss more about this in another Coffee. If you'll click on the following link you'll be taken to our new home. However, there is nothing on the page except a small "we're moving in" paragraph. Still, you might want to have a look ... You can reach us two ways: <http://www.bowercommunity.com> or, <http://bowercommunity.com> (notice the www is missing in the second URL?) ... and of course, you can also use <http://bowercommunity.net> or <http://bowercommunity.org>. Those cousins that were in the family at the beginning of this year know what's in store for me now ... transferring all the files out of Crosswinds and into our domain. Since I'm not having to fight for an FTP port like I had to at Crosswinds, I hope to have all the files moved over in the next couple days. Once I've moved everything, the Homestead and Cottage will have to have all the links checked. Every page will have to be opened, and every hyperlink clicked on. Cousin Gloria Motter <[email protected]> has very graciously volunteered to do this, but she can't do it alone. Will some of you come together as a team and help her out? Please e-mail me or Gloria if you have the time to spare. WHOPBOF YEARLY COMPETITION Okay cousins, it's coming up fast. The dates were moved up two days from what I told you last week. The competition starts on December 7th and ends on Saturday, the 9th. Voting day will be on Wednesday, December 6th. As before, I'll explain more on this voting as the time draws closer. Once I get us moved I'll start working on the Homestead's front page for the competition. Cousin Ron Myers came up with a brilliant idea for the porch light that I'm going to have to learn how to do. If we have any web techs or designers in the family who know how to apply onMouseOver or how to set up a voice recording, please contact me. I'll need your help. Does anyone have any other ideas or changes they would like to see happen at the Homestead, particularly in time for the competition? If so, please let me know right away. MORE CROSSWINDS WOES On October 12th, Crosswinds announced they were having to break one of their front-page promises of not forcing anyone to use banners on their sites. So, for the time we're still at Crosswinds, whenever you visit the Homestead or Cottage, you should expect those large annoying pop-up banners on every single page. It seems Crosswinds wasn't generating enough revenue to meet their hardware expenses and make vitally necessary upgrades. They also say they are fighting to stay alive now. Cousins, I think we're getting out at a good time. GENWEB.NET HACKED Do you know of any sites at <http://www.genweb.net> or possibly belong to any of their lists? Have you been having trouble accessing the genweb.net site this week? If so, you're not alone. Sometime last weekend genweb.net was hacked, shutting down the entire server. I know there are a few US GenWeb sites at genweb.net as well as a host of other sites who are now also offline. The thousands of e-mail lists had to be rerouted. At last word, Randy Haight, the owner of genweb.net wasn't sure whether or not he'd be able to put it back online. Family ... it's what we're all about ... and this week our family became its own presence on the World Wide Web! :) We're making memories, cousins, and we're doing it TOGETHER! I so enjoyed this time with you. I hope your upcoming week is filled with health, productivity, fun, and above all, filled with love. ) ( ) _.-~~-. (@\'--'/. Colleen ('``.__.'`) `..____.'