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Post by Michelle Mc on Aug 16, 2004 2:18:10 GMT -5
Wow. All of these comments are a big help. I'm glad that, so far, most people can view the banner (Yes, the one that says "sponsored in August by ..." ).
Laurie, I know you are right. I really should put the poll on the homepage or at least the sponsor page. Definitely, more people will see it on the homepage. Good point!
About PayPal ... I've never had any problems with PayPal. I've used them for years now, for Ebay transactions, and for accepting Uno Mas donations, and paying for some UM bills. I think they are very trustworthy.
You may be thinking of my reservations about this Bulletin Board host .. ProBoards. This is a big dilemma for me because I don't like their accounting system ... or lack of it.
I don't like that ProBoards continues to have a statement at the bottom of the page that "This board is hosted for Free!" when we are paying them $7 every month. I also don't like that they usually have a "donate" button on the bottom of the page, taking donations from Uno Mas visitors, without ever having to tell Uno Mas whether anyone donated any money. There is no accountability. And curiously enough, they have never logged any contributions to our site, other than the $7 per month I send them from our development fund.
Bottom Line : PayPal is an invaluable service to small operations like Uno Mas. I've never had a problem with them.
ProBoards: Great Bulletin Board. Poor accounting practices that make me uncomfortable.
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Aug 15, 2004 2:13:49 GMT -5
Thank you so much for responding. Your feedback is very helpful to me. I have a site I'm working on, where I put up a Flash ad, and the owner also runs windows XP. The ad shows up on all my computers. On my sister's mac computers. But not on the Client's windows xp computer!
So, this is a real challenge. I want to make neat looking graphics, but it's no fun if only some of the people can see it. And it would really bother me if some people couldn't see who was sponsoring the site each month.
So far, I'm happily surprised by your votes. But most of Uno Mas traffic comes during the weekdays, so this coming week will also tell me if I need to make some changes.
The Flash format is very appealing to me, because it could apply to the photo album. If I can get good at this, it could give us a whole new level of security. Photos and other files embedded into a flash file, can be much better protected from being copied/stolen/reproduced. This is such an important issue to our site.
But what good is it, if only 50% of the users can see it? That is why your feedback, good and bad, is so helpful to me! Thank you for responding!
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Aug 14, 2004 1:47:46 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
About three or four months ago, I decided to upgrade my skills and take some Flash programming courses. Since then, I started making our monthly site sponsor banners in Flash format instead of animiated GIFs because Flash animation is so much more compact and quicker to load ... plus there are so many more neat effects that are possible in such a small file size.
HOWEVER! Ever since I've done the sponsor banners in Flash, the monthly sponsor donations have come to a screeching halt! I'm not worried that someone won't pony up next month's $20 bucks for the hosting fee, butI am worried that people are not seeing that they are being recognized for their contributions.
Please. Please, answer this poll and offer your comments so that I know if my new fancy flash banners are actually worth the trouble. Can you see them? Do they take too long to load? Please help me decide how to format banners in the future. Thanks for your feedback, good or bad! I welcome your comments.
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Post by Michelle Mc on Mar 15, 2008 15:22:56 GMT -5
Hi Susan, Wow, that must have really been a shock, to hear this at 10 months old!? How unusual! I'm sorry for the sadness you all must be experiencing. But I also want to let you know that many of the scenarios you are imagining your grandson will face in the future ... really may not be the case. Kids with Down syndrome get so much education at an early age, that the old stereotype of a person with DS, really is obsolete. A person with DS is capable of so much more than people ever used to give them credit for. So throw away that image you have in your mind of what you may think a DS person looks or act like!
My son just turned 18 and will finish High School in a few months. It is a privilege to have him as a part our family. When he was first born, and I learned he had Down syndrome, one of the biggest fears I had for him was being made fun of by other kids. I heard that "Kids are so mean." thing so often, that I fully expected he would be taunted and teased all through school. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those days are over. Kids in school, now grow up around kids with special needs. They are better prepared to interact with different kinds of kids. Maybe I'm living in a dream world, or all those High School kids have me fooled... but from my perspective, kids go out of their way to be nice to Casey. It's a really nice thing to have discovered: People are a lot nicer than I ever realized. Especially kids. (Maybe I've run across a few parents with old-fashioned ideas, here and there. But that's been the worst of it).
Oh, this is getting too long. I will click "Post" and write more later.
There are a several good books I would recommend too: Babies with Down Syndrome: A New Parents Guide. Also a DVD that would be a great place to start, called Down Syndrome: The First 18 Months. (By Will Schermerhorn)
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Mar 15, 2008 14:18:44 GMT -5
Hi everyone. This was posted in the homepage comments by a grandmother named Susan. I wanted to post it here, because I know that it won't get viewed much where it is:
HI, JUST FOUND OUT LAST NIGHT THAT MY YOUNGEST GRANDCHILD HAS DOWN’S SYNDROME. HE IS ALMOST 10 MONTHS OLD. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE BEST WAY TO HELP MY DAUGHTER GET THROUGH THIS INITIAL SHOCK. SHE KNOWS WE SUPPORT HER AND LOVE JACOB NO MATTER WHAT. IT COULD BE SOMETHING ALOT WORSE IN MY OPINION. NEED TO KNOW I CAN SAY TO HELP. ANYONE WHO HAS GONE THROUGH THIS, I WOULD BE SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR INPUT. THANKS, SUSAN
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Post by Michelle Mc on Mar 15, 2008 14:43:49 GMT -5
Thank you so very much for all the nice comments. They are profoundly touching and encouraging to keep the site strong for another 10 years. I wish I posted more too! I have a hard time finding a healthy balance when I start posting on forums. It gets all consuming to me. I also have the terrible feeling that I'm neglecting to answer someone. I'm so afraid of hurting anyone's feelings by overlooking their post, that I just end up not reply to any! That's a bad solution.
I've been thinking about re-opening the Message Board, since lately we've had a lot of new visitors posting to the Your Story page and homepage, as though they were a message board. I find the linear setup a little less overwhelming too. So, if I do open it back up, I would make sure that I monitor that section constantly. And encourage them to use the BB too.
Casey is now 18 years old! Is that crazy or what? He just participated in a "Mr. Bronco" contest at his school where Senior guys compete. It was a lot of fun. I was really proud of Casey for taking part in it. If I can figure out how, I will try to imbed a video clip. It's a hoot!
A lot has changed since I started Uno Mas. When Casey was 8 years old, there were no sports teams for kids with special needs in our area. Now, there are so many programs to choose from. It's really encouraging, and so nice that the community is making an effort to include our kids.
We just got started with a new Challenger Baseball team. When Casey put on his uniform, I asked him if he was excited to play. He said "Yeah, Mom. But after this, no more sports teams. Three's enough." Ha! I guess he's right. He is on 3 leagues: One is "Bill Special Kids" in Moreno Valley, which varies the sports every couple months. Also a Temecula Soccer team, that is part of the regular Soccer league. Overall, the sports take about a weekday afternoon and a Saturday morning. I don't think that's too much.
There have been many other changes, of course. Some good, some bad. I can say that I'm facing a few issues that I'm not sure how to handle. I will post about them later. Maybe Jackie or others who have been through the "young adult" stages can give me some guidance. I've been embarrassed to ask, because I didn't want to post only when I need help.
Well, I promise to post more. I appreciate all the kinds words. You guys are the greatest!
Love, Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Jan 5, 2008 3:04:06 GMT -5
Hi there! I was thinking about phasing out the monthly sponsorship, just out of pure embarrassment that I'm so bad about getting the banners up on time. I also thought I might be able to bring our costs down by moving the photo album elsewhere. But now that the photo album is back online, I'm afraid to touch it!
So, if someone is offering to sponsor the site for another month, well ... who am I to decline the generous offer?! If you like, just go ahead and use the sponsor page listed above . In the meantime, I will try to make the link more obvious from the home page.
Thanks for asking! Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Mar 31, 2007 23:45:23 GMT -5
When I realized the domain name was down, I thought "Oh my gosh. People are going to think I just shut down the site!" So: no, no, it wasn't anything intentional.
I have thought about moving the Bulletin Board off of ProBoards many times, and back onto the regular domain ... but I consider having the site spread over 3 different servers as a form of insurance. The BB hosted on ProBoards and the photo album on an entirely different host/server and domain ( http://www.unomas21.org) ... this way if one section goes down, there should always be a way to connect.
So, you might want to bookmark the main BB page. Also if the unomas21.com ever runs into a big crash, I would use the .org domain to communicate what's going on. (www.unomas21.org) Gee, I wonder if I let that one lapse? I'd better go check!
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Mar 31, 2007 13:01:32 GMT -5
Oops. Thanks for the heads up. I forgot to renew the domain name! I knew it was coming up for renewal soon but forgot the date.
It's paid up now, so it should be back online in a few hours.
Thanks for the heads up!
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Jun 12, 2006 14:01:55 GMT -5
For the record: "Just a little something extra" was also trademarked back in 1998, in case you were planning to plagiarize that as well.
Also, when you say you haven't copied anyone's work: Would using my company name, logo (including the font and exclamation mark) and opening a cafepress account with the words Uno Mas! and Unomas21 in your store and in the url ... you feel that none of that constitutes copying my work?
I'm shocked you didn't add three chili peppers! Apparently exchanging 3 hearts for the peppers makes all the other stuff irrelevent.
Did you notice on the homepage of this site it reads: © 2006 Uno Mas! Down Syndrome Online - All Rights Reserved
What did you think that meant? I simply can't understand how you thought that this was okay.
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Post by Michelle Mc on Jun 12, 2006 13:28:08 GMT -5
Uno Mas is a trademarked phrase & logo and all associated graphics, information and products are copyrighted material. Uno Mas has been selling t-shirts, bumperstickers and gift products since 1998. Your use of the phrase Uno Mas on your bumperstickers is trademark infringement and legal action will be taken if you do not cease selling them immediately. A trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase, used to identify a particular manufacturer or seller's products and distinguish them from the products of another. 15 U.S.C. § 1127. -------------------- Michelle McIntosh Webmaster, Uno Mas! www.unomas21.com
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Post by Michelle Mc on Apr 15, 2006 15:22:50 GMT -5
Those were really good suggestions. Do you think I should delete the "whos who" section altogether or just leave it "read only?" I tried moving all the posts to the general forum and it was a mess. All the current topics got buried underneath years of old introductions. So I moved them back to whos-who and locked it.
Re: education/iep forum. Do you think I should just let it get itself going? ... or move current education related posts into that board in order to get the ball rolling? A "this topic has been moved to..:" message will show in the general forum where the thread once was.
Michelle
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Post by Michelle Mc on Jul 30, 2005 13:08:19 GMT -5
This is Connie not Michelle Mc as it says so this is from me!!! This thread is getting us no where and is begining to become hurtful for some and taking us away from the true meaning of this site.
It is now locked!
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For Bob
Jul 18, 2005 18:52:00 GMT -5
Post by Michelle Mc on Jul 18, 2005 18:52:00 GMT -5
When I saw this thread and topic I was worried but I as Moderator am very pleased at the way you have handled it and yourselves. From time to time it is nice to debate a topic because I believe it opens our minds to different views and beliefs and makes us see things from a different angle. See something that we may not have thought of on our own.
But, with that being said I can see controversy beginning to start and do not believe that is in the best interest of this site or friendship that have evolved from it to allow it to continue. So for right now I am locking this thread but will not delete it because I believe all of our opinions are valuable. Thank you for understanding, Connie
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Post by Michelle Mc on Jun 30, 2005 22:07:30 GMT -5
I appreciate all the thoughtful posts on this subject. I agree that posting precious photos of your child on this or any public internet bulletin board is not a great idea. This BB has read-only access to any unregistered visitor on the internet. Only registered members can POST messages or photos. But (at this time) anyone can view it and, if determined enough, can lift the photo and alter it.
I'm not really sure why this topic was brought up, because we haven't had a problem since ... well, nevermind.
The photo album is MORE secure, because unregistered members can not view or post photos to site. For the past year and a half, the general public can only see thumbnails in the photo album. We have not have any problems with photos since I installed these safeguards.
WWW ... that means the "world wide web" ... that means anything you write or post is out there for all the good people and the mean people in whole wide world to access. When it comes to the photo album, I've done my best to make it "less easy" to be a jerk.
I can make changes to this Bulletin Board as well, to make it that no one can post photos to the bulletin board, but that would mean no hyperlinks and probably plain text only posts. I haven't had any reason to do that in the past few years, but I can if neccessary.
Michelle
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