10 April 2009 @ 03:22 pm
Come on, shake that ass...Let's Do the Poll Dance Again!!!!  
*taps mic*

*puts on sooper cerial srsly serious face*

AHEM *droning voice of dronenss comes forth*

This is Professor [info]firehead30 and Associate Professor [info]zaipixie, and the very spushul research assistant [info]vl_redreign with a Positive and Life Affirming discussion, application, verification and edification of the poll dance.

Yes class a lesson on shaking your ass, clicky ticky boxes of love and how you too can poll dance. Get ready for the lesson:

Step 1, Talk randomly with your bitches, peeps, friendz, the lovely voices in your head fangirlz of love and squeeing about silly crap for example: why Brian's dicktion delves into Justin's dimpling bud of desire, or who's hotter, Brian or Ben? OF COURSE that doesn't need a poll, but you know for the purposes of illustrating how to shimmy around a poll, this topic could be explored. Ben is hotter, it is a proven polled posture. I digress, let's do the poll dance again.

Step 2, Decide that your bitches are way brilliant *nods and pokes and pats asses*, and really everyone should get to have an opinion on the way brilliant, and yet insane ramblings of said bitches or you know, the voices in your head.

Step 3, A light bulb goes off in your head. A POLL must be done (but unfortunately this you can only dance like Justin around your poll if you have a paid account.)

OK we do have actual steps and pictures and way cool stuff to help you learn, we just wanted to get the um theory and philosphy portion in first )



Huge huge huge smackles and love to [info]zaipixie for her screen cap goddessness and patience with my tardenss
 
 
11 February 2009 @ 02:08 pm
Our favorite Playgrounds...  
We have incredible QaF asylums here on IJ. The perfect playgrounds and places for thoughtful discussions, squeeing over scenes or characters or music, even exchanging recipes.

You name it and we are up for talking about it.
Or looking at pretty little pictures or vids of it.
Or watching a particular scene frame by frame by frame...blue light sex anyone? snort.

What have been some of your favorite posts? Link them in the comments here, chances are some of us missed them the first time around or would love to read them again.

I could list a ton in the almost year I've been hanging out, but here are a few of my faves from just four of our many asylums:
Happy QaF Asylum Moments )

So check these out and be sure to link your favorites from one of our many playgrounds!
 
 
02 February 2009 @ 11:43 am
Icons or "A Little Picture is Worth a Thousand Words"  
Icons are one of my favorite parts of fandom. I love looking for them, gushing over them, stalking supporting their artists, having the perfect little picture for a comment.

They can express our fangirly joys,
Our frustrations with life,
Make us laugh like loons,
Awe us with their beauty,

Or just let us bask in the love!

I may love my icon collection even more than my shoe collection. *shocked gasp*
[info]xie_xie_xie summed up our fandom's love for all things iconic so eloquently in this lovely Ode to Icon Makers: Dear Icon Makers

But not understanding terms like hotlinking or how to credit let alone upload them, it took me a long time to start grabbing these little pics of love. Thankfully, people were happy to step up and walk me through it.
This is what I have learned about icons. )

Icons by [info]youbetterwiseup, [info]brianslave68, [info]url_girl, [info]youbetterwiseup, [info]qafmaniac, [info]zaipixie and [info]maybe742
Technotard assistance from [info]zaipixie, [info]xie_xie_xie, and [info]happier_bunny.
 
 
 
30 January 2009 @ 09:43 pm
How to Post a Vid....  
When I first found fandom in 2007, I was missing my old show and had done a search for QAF that led me to, among other things, some fanvids on YouTube. Maybe because they were the first bit of fandom that I found; maybe because I’m an audiophile; or maybe because I have no clue how to begin making a good fanvid, when I find a really amazing fanvid—one that really tells a story…one that uses the song and the clips and seamlessly blends the two—I get excited and want to share it with my Flist.

In any case, I’m here to share with you how to post a YouTube video into a post on your IJ. It’s pretty simple, really. (Which is maybe another reason why I love posting vids—you get a lot of bang for your buck, so to speak!) )
 
 
Mood: determined
 
 
30 January 2009 @ 05:30 pm
my giant posting cheat sheet  
AKA Semagic.

I fumbled along for quite a while trying to use html coding in my posts but I'm very technically challenged and somehow I stumbled across semagic. I honestly don't remember how but it's been my best friend for posting since I downloaded it.

Anyho' the maintainers here asked me to do a post on semagic so here goes. LOL

You can download SEMAGIC HERE.

Basically it's a word processing program that you us to create posts. And it's nice point and click system works well for this spoiled windows gal. I can bold things, change their size, their color or add a link or a picture or a poll with a couple of highlights and clicks. BUT, the best thing is, I can start a post and save it for polishing or posting later. (Now someone once told me you could do that with your journals too but I could never figure out how.)

I even type some comments up in semagic and then copy and paste them to journals. It's so much easier to post pictures or multiple links. I encourage you to give it a try. I'm betting half of you will be more proficient with it in a week than I am years later. LOL

Questions? Ask away and I'll do what I can. :)
 
 
Mood: cold
 
 
30 January 2009 @ 11:27 am
Coding users and comms in IJ and LJ  
Okay kids, since we're talking about coding I though you guys might like this.

If you use the "regular" way to code a user or comm:

<lj user=flamencanyc> or <lj user=qaf_drabbles>

the little symbol before the username will default to the right one for the journaling system you're posting in. In other words, here it's a tweakface, but on LJ it's the little LJ user symbol. And the icon and username will point to the user's profile page and journal in the current journaling system (IJ or LJ). Like this: [info]flamencanyc or [info]qaf_drabbles. That's great most of the time.

But what if, that user or comm doesn't exist on IJ, only on LJ? Like, for example LJ's xhaleslowly or whatsup_qaf?
If I code it that way now, we get this since I'm posting on IJ: [info]xhaleslowly or [info]whatsup_qaf, which if you click on them just give you errors, since they don't exist on IJ.
And what if you want to point to an LJ for a user or comm who has an IJ too?
Same problem applies in reverse when you're posting from LJ about an IJ user or comm.

You needn't say "LJ's xhaleslowly" or "IJ's qaf_alumsnnews".
Instead you can code them so they look and work correctly, like this: xhaleslowlyxhaleslowly! Here's how:

Instructions under here! )
 
 
30 January 2009 @ 10:12 am
An Easy Cheat Sheet for html  
One of the hardest things to navigate as a newbie is coding your posts. I've been around for a few years now and I still don't always feel like I have a handle on it :)

When you go to post an entry in your journal, you may notice two tabs that offer the choice of "Rich text" or "HTML". I like most new fans started out using Rich Text, which basically does the coding for you. I found that I often couldn't make it do what I wanted and when it did work, the post was full of little flaws that I couldn't seem to get rid of.

I'm technologically challenge, but to make matters worse, I can also be lazy :) So I ignored the imperfections and went on with my life. LOL!

But it bugged me. Plus I couldn't do italics in my comments for quotes or strikeouts just to be cool :) And then one day I wanted to send in a story I had written for one of the challenges, but it had to be html coded for easy loading.

UGH!

So it was time for me to learn html. But the good news is that it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be and now I can do a lot more in my posts and comments. In the long run I find it even easier than Rich Text.

I keep a "cheat sheet" for myself with html code and then I cut and paste from as needed. That's what works for me... maybe others will share what works for them.

Many people also use semagic for their coding which someone much smart will have to explain we'll get to in another post.

Anyway here is my basic cheat sheet (under a cut in case you were wondering what those are). Please comment with any questions... no matter how "silly" :) These are just the basics, but we will get to posting pictures and videos soon!

ETA: [info]flamencanyc was kind enough to teach me an easier way to show the coding! To learn from her check out the comment section. In the meantime I have edited the post! Thank you!

ETA2: Thanks to [info]zaipixie for the addition of font size and color!

Cheat Sheet )
 
 
26 January 2009 @ 02:02 pm
MAKING FRIENDS AND JOINING PLACES TO PLAY  
I remember not so fondly how intimidating creating a journal can be and then, to actually post in it or comment with it...I almost gave up the first day. I mean, I didn't even know what html coding meant, let alone the actual codes. And rich text v. html. ACK. I felt so stupid and I have a post-graduate degree that I wanted to cry. Plus I had to figure out what the hell friending was and all the journaling terms.

So this post is for anyone COMING OUT to play for the first time...or maybe you've been around for a while but you felt uncertain about all of this "friending" stuff.

This post will focus on a few basics about friending but have no fear, info on posting and coding is coming your way soon!

Friends/Flist/Friending
A flist (friendlist) is the page on insanejournal where you can read all the posts that your friends have made.

I suggest friending away. I was shy at first and didn't feel comfortable but I wish I'd stepped out of lurking sooner, so come and play with us. If you're still feeling uncomfortable, consider this an engraved invitation from me, [info]happier_bunny, to come and friend me. I'll friend ya back!

There's a couple different ways that you can friend someone/add a friend to your flist. You can go HERE and type in names. Or if you're looking at someone's profile (aka diagnosis), here's mine, there is a set of links at the top. The first one, is how you can add a friend. Just click it.

If you're joining an asylum, like [info]qaf_comingout, be sure to click JOIN THIS ASYLUM (qaf_comingout's diagnosis/profile) and add it to your flist so that you're an actual member and you can see the posts on your flist.

Asylums
These are communities created usually for a shared interest (like music, Queer As Folk, politics, etc). They allow members to post to share info with other members. Or in the case of most of the asylums I maintain, they can be used to be silly. lol Either way, join as many as you can find (and you don't have to limit yourself to QAF, there's lots of political stuff, etc out there to) because sometimes people post there instead of posting in their personal journals.

Sometimes, asylum maintainers moderate their membership for one reason or another, so don't panic if you get a message telling you that the asylum isn't an open asylum and asking you to verify your interest. A maintainer will either approve your membership or give you a reason why they didn't.

If you have other questions about IJ, you can probably find the answers at THE FAQ PAGE...or leave a question to this post and I or someone else will try to answer it.
 
 
Mood: calm