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Waldenwoods.Org - A Quick Tour
These are highlights of the main features of the web site, but there is much more for you
to find when you visit.
Maps
How to get here - online you will find printable maps to direct your guest to our
area.
News
You will find the newsletters from your Board of Directors. No need to pocket the
paper flyers. In fact, by returning the survey below you can save the association money by
electing to forego "snail mail" delivery of notices. (For now the homeowners
meeting notice will given to everyone on paper. It is a requirement of the Bylaws.
There will be other newsy stuff posted, some more time urgent than a flyer can accomplish.
If we have another wet winter, the website can post local advisories of the latest
conditions. It can be great for getting out the word about school or summer events and
opportunities, or any special problem that needs attention.
For instance, did you know that the land east of Boulder road is in active development?
This is quite a concern for many. You will find a special news section about Los Lagos
III at your website.
Interactive Calendar
But www.waldenwoods.org is still much more, or can be much more for you by virtue of its
interactive pages. Check out your interactive calendar, where anyone (meaning you) can
post notice of coming events.
Ever miss a neat event just because you didn't know about it, or had forgotten that the
event day has crept up on you? The WW calendar can solve this for you. Click
on the events calendar page and you'll see this month's calendar with today's date
highlighted. The calendar squares will look much like your own, with the title of coming
events on several squares. Click your mouse on one of the event squares and you will see a
longer description of it along with the contact information you might need to RSVP or
where to get tickets, etc. You can easily scroll the calendar to other months to find
future events. For instance, if you pick October you will see an entry for the Walden
Woods annual garage sale.
Below the calendar is an entry form for you to use to add you own events. Just enter the
right day, a short title, then the longer description. Be sure to include the necessary
contact person, phone numbers and location address information. Click enter and that's it!
Your event is registered for all of us to use. Now when you see a great play is on in
Loomis, or you want to gather a group to do a festival activity - this is the way you can
get the word out.
Walden Woods Forum
The calendar is ok, but the really neat part of your website is the place where
you can engage in interactive discussions with everyone else. For instance, what do YOU
think about the Los Lagos III development? Do you have a idea about some aspect
that you think others care about? Or do you need an answer to some important question and
don't know who to ask. The forum is the right place to turn.
The forum uses a system called "threaded guestbook" style, which is best for our
type use. The first look shows discussion titles that are organized in a tree much like
your computer's file system folders. This is so we can have multiple discussions at once
without them messing up each other. At the message level all messages are shown on one
page. This allows you to read all the topic's messages without having to repaint your
screen to view each one. This is a great time saver versus the newsgroup style of
discussion. I think you'll like it.
Go visit your forum and look around. Try posting a message in the test
area first. You will see how easy it is. The input box asks for some personal information.
You can leave all this blank except you must give a user name. This can be your
"handle" or real name, whatever you want - just that it is necessary to have
some name in order to follow your conversations. On second thought, just skip the test
area and find the "guestbook" discussion. I want to know what you think of the
website, so please leave me a message there!
At the top of the discussion forum you will see some areas are already set up. I have
created one called the "Eagle's nest" intended for our area teens.
If you attend Del Oro, then this is your area to use. One request - keep it clean. This is
a rather public place that will not have offensive stuff laying around.
Now what new stuff is under construction?
Since there are things of interest to us that aren't right to have accessible by every
yahoo in Munich or Liverpool, we are planning an area that will be under password control.
We plan to have just one "username/password" combination that will not be
published, but available only by word-of-mouth from myself, any HOA Board MEMBER, or any
resident that already knows it. This will give the right amount of convenience and
security from spammers and other malcontents for general personal information.
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