And the blog is...?

You might be asking just what's the point of having a blog on a dictionary site? Surely the words are all there to be read so... ?

Well for starters it gives us a chance to ramble about the site, and changes or improvements etc we make. Also we can add in links to news about slang or interesting developments we've read.

Also, hard as it is to believe, there are dozens of *other* sites out there you might find of interest so we'll select a few of those and get a bit of critical assessment up for you.

Loads to do eh? Best get down to it then. Back soon.

The ODPS Blog rides again!

Some two years after it's last post... and after several iterations and layout changes, the blog is making a reappearance.

As you can no doubt see I've left *all* the posts from the previous version of the blog extant (I like that word :)) so you can read some of the problems we had back then!

For now... this will do. Maybe one day I'll get 'above myself' and add an incarnation via Wordpress or similar, but for now... this will do.

Feel free to comment, write rude words, jump and shout... even offer marriage... so long as you read the site and have fun my work'll be done. Sorta :)

Not gone again surely?

Well nope... apologies for those who arrived to find the site dead as a dodo last night. All thanks *must* go to Phillipa who kindly let me know.

The problem turned out to have been a server error which deleted the entire database!! Because of Phillipa, I was able to get to the host and get the database rebuilt before anything was overwritten. :)

We are now up and running again... and just as offensive as ever we were :)

Hello again!

Long time no see! Where've I been? Well actually I've been updating another little site I run called Talk Tidy which is an odd little place... but I like it.

I've also been looking at ways to integrate the current installation of Glossword with Mambo... and guess what? Can't do it. It *is* possible to integrate the two (up to a point) but it appears it's only possible with new installations of both Mambo *and* Glossword. Now you might say... so? Well this is because you've not tried to manually enter the 4500+ words and definitions we have in here :)

So.. I'm still looking at installing the forums here instead of using the forum/blog site but I'm not sure yet how we can make the sites work together. For example, It would be relatively easy to link the CMS/Forum to the Dictionaries, but the problem comes when I try to link *back*.

To make the dictionary functional you need the linkage to take you to the words... but if I add a link *back*... where will it land? Well it'll land back in the CMS/Forum instead of the front page of the dictionary.

Anyway... I *am* going to work on it... but I think until I can get hold of Dmitry again and ask him to do the work for me (well it *is* his software I'm using ) integration will just have to be a bit of a dream :)

Ah well... enough of the rambling.... back to work. :D

The Forums? Oh... perleease!

Actually, I *have* just installed forum software on the Forum/Blog site but you can't see it just yet :)

Actually I'm looking for a way to integrate the blog with the forum so they share a common theme... not easy apparantly... something about them not sharing much coding... ah well. If you'd like a sneak preview of the 'bog standard site'... then click here where you can register, post, or whatever... it just doesn't *look* quite right yet :)

Ever felt like a parrot?

Not this isn't some gastronomical quiz, not is it an advert for some fetish group. It's just that I seem to be constantly repeating "Who's a silly boy then?"... or some similar theme.

Talking of themes... that's what I did... changed the theme on the forum/blog site to one that wasn't 100% ready for use... and sort of... killed it :)

Kyte - bless her little cotton socks - has fixed the theme. and I'm currently uploading it. My assumption is that it'll repair it self and all will be well... tell ya... this blind faith is an amazing thing!

'Corse it might well *not* work and if it doesn't I'm of a mind to scrap the whole thing yet again and take it back to a 'proper' forum... maybe using 'Simple Machine' software this time. Xoops was just a bit heavy for what was after all more of a blog than a forum.

Anyway... less chat - more action. It *might* yet work... we'll see!

Oh Lord, I can be SO stupid!

After all this time I've realised why we weren't getting the usual floods of submissions... I changed the 'mailto' address to a gmail one... and it all *bounces*. Flaming Google probably thinks it's spam or something..

Problem fixed - it's back to the original one - but how many words have been lost forever.

People who feel like kicking me - form a line :(

The March Back Begins!

I've been looking at the stats and it looks like the ODPS is beginning to recover. Of course we still need more submissions and similar but at least visitor numbers are increasing so... we're on the way!!

By the way - you might wonder where the new words are... well... as yet another excuse for not doing any work I've had my sister and brother in law staying here for the past few weeks and to be quite honest... real life beats the virtual one hands down! We've been out doing the tourist stuff and having fun... but she leaves in a day or two so then is when I'll get back to it... honest... so send 'em on in and they'll be up there by Monday ok??

And slowly times change!

After some short deliberation... oooh... a good ten seconds... I decided to totally remove all traces of the 'old' forum site and create a new 'forum/blog' site built around Wordpress... which I might add is a nice bit of kit!!

Ok it doesn't have the same 'feel' as before, but it's a lot more practical to manage and update. So far it's there... with a couple of posts... but little else:) It'll fill up slowly as things start to happen with the Dictionary... but in the meantime... if you'd like a sneak preview... try here... it's at ODPS Forums/Blog - what else would it be called?? :)

Seedy Songs indeed :)

Finally finished off re-entering all the playground songs and rhymes I found in the database. There *are* more out there... millions of them... I just need you to send them to me! Well ok... maybe not only you... maybe your friends? family? strangers on the street? We always need new material and since the site has been down we've lost a lot of the impetus. Let's go guys!!

And now... let's get to the 'Dirty Ditties' of the Rugby Songs!

Getting there slowly.

At the time of writing I've managed to get 175 terms re-entered into the 'Seedy Songs' dictionary. There're still another 200 or so to go that are still in the database, but the work is at last going on. Give me a week and it'll all be back up ready to put in the *new* entries. Then I can get on to all the filthy lyrics in the Rugby songs... now *that* ought to be a giggle! :)

My fingers ache!

I've spent most of today uploading entry after entry to the 'Seedy Songs' dictionary and have so far made very little headway relatively! At least I mananged to extract a database dump of the 'old' entries which is allowing me to do it. The thought of having to look through four years of mail trying to find the entries one at a time still gives me the shivers! On the other hand, looking through all the entries again has been real fun... some have made me laugh as much as they did when I first entered them :)

Anway, for those of you new to the site you'll have *no* idea what I'm talking about so just ignore me and go enjoy yourselves... for the regulars... well it will take me days, maybe weeks, to get each entry ready for inclusion so bear with me. It is happening. Soon the site will be restored to its former glory... so go get your friends and relatives and get more slang, songs, and games. C'mon guys... let's get the ball rolling again!!

The Times they *are* a changing!

Well - this time I really *am* back. The slipped disc is sufficiently recovered for me to start working on my sites. I've already revamped my 'personal' blog and sorted out the forums on Talk Tidy which is another dictionary site dedicated to Wenglish, the English dialect spoken around the place of my birth, i.e. S.Wales, UK.

The time has come to look closely at the forum site (odps.net) which also seems to have suffered a total collapse while I've been away. My feelings on this are to pretty abandon it in its current form and to simply replace it with either a vanilla phpBB forum or reduce it still further to essentially a 'blog' site. In fact, I've been wondering whether to simply extend this occasional blog/update window to fill the other site and allow it to accept comments etc as a means of communicating between each other.

As usual I'll be guided by the comments I get to via contact/feedback mail I get via the link above.

I'll move onto the main ODPS site - i.e. here - once the other sites are in place. There is simply too much to do here for me to be able to work on the other sites concurrently and, since they are all far smaller, I may as well get them updated and functioning before settling down to rebuilding this.

On that theme, after the eventual debacle surrounding Dmitry's rebuilding and loss of the backups [grrr... ] I'm looking round for a new source of dictionary building software. If anyone has any suggestions I'll be pleased to take a look - even commercially sourced software will be acceptable!

Finally, once more this blog is seeing me apologise for the mess the site is in and the way it deteriorated so badly. It really wasn't intentional, and despite my best efforts I have just been physically unable to give the place the attention it deserves. Hopefully, this will be the last apology from me for a while, and from here on I'll just be posting *good* news :)

Eeehhh..... I'm *so* mad I could crush a grape!

I *thought* I had the backups for the other dictionaries... but it turns out they aren't onsite at all. I'm now searching through the old database files in the vain hope I can locate something to let me rebuild them. Grrr.....

Errr.....

Well ok.... so I might've exaggerated a bit about how soon I'd be able to get onto the site to improve, sort, include, add... etc, etc.

I can come up with all sorts of excuses... bad back, sickness, new foster kids, Xmas, New Year... err.... well all sorts of things... but at the end of the day I've just not had time to get into the site propery... well ok - at all... honest!! Would I lie to you??

However... for those of you who've put up with the months of crap and inactivity... I'm sure you'll all be ecstatic to learn I've finally started to get things going again. I've located the backups for the rugby songs and playground songs... and will be hard at work over the next week or twenty getting it all back to its pristine glory.

How? Well for starters the kids are finally back at school... in Oz remember summer holiday time is over Xmas so things really *have* been hectic.

Anyway.. on with the motley... drop by tomorrow evening... or morning depending on where you live... and you'll see things starting to happen. Tra for now

Almost there, we're almost there...

Yes... Dmitry has managed to overcome my gross misuse of his software and has got the whole slang section of the Dictionary back online - well done Dmitry! Lord knows how you did it but I am *so* grateful.

We still don't yet have the playground games, playground songs and chants or the rugby song collections but at least the worst is over. And yes, there are 'errors' on some of the entries... but over the next few weeks I'll be going thru the entire dictionary updating the entries and making sure all is looking as good as it should.

I also have a ton of *new* entries to load in so keep watching this space and... as usual... if you have corrections, complaints or more especially new words, phrases, anecdotes or whatever to send in... we'll be more than happy to get them.

By the way - if you hadn't noticed, Xmas is coming round again... so now is the time to get into the bookshops and order your copy of the print version of the site... if you're like me I'm sure there are wowser relatives you'd like to annoy the hell out of?? You *could* always buy it from Amazon if you wanted?

Was I frightened? Wouldn't you be?

As you can see, the site is on it's way to recovery. Dmitry has upgraded the software to the latest version (1.6.4) and as far as I can see all he needs to do is import all the terms. From now on I think we need to make sure the site is upgraded version for version so avoid major jumps... and also to do regular backups!

At the very least we owe Dmitry a large vote of thanks.... I will be so relieved to see the place back to its previous 'glory' with all 4 dictionaries and all 3500+ terms in situ.

Panic over guys - bear with us... just a little while longer :)

OK... something ain't right here!

Well ok Dmitry is working on the site... but currently we seem to have lost all the dictionaries.... in fact the entire site other than this page!

Come to that the logos have changed to display the Glossword native ones. Err... I hope he can fix this!!

I'll be on pins now 'til its sorted :(

Bear with us.... I'm sure it'll all be alright soon.... won't it??

Well... I'm back!

Unfortunately it looks like the site isn't - all I can say is aaarrggghhh...!

Anyway. My abject apologies to all who visited and found they were greeted by a blank page when they tried to access the dictionary. Apparently during a server upgrade the index file was corrupted and so the site won't load. Of course the data is still there hidden in the depths of the database so I've got on to Dmitry who developed the Glossword Software and he is going to do a full software upgrade and rebuild the site for me.

I don't know how long this will take but no more than a day or two I hope - but since it appears the site has been down for a month... perhaps a few more hours won't matter too much?

From now on I'll be checking the 'public' access a lot more often as well as simply loading new words into the dictionary via the admin access.

Sorry it's taken so long - and I hope this doesn't happen again!

Strange but True
 
Since the ODPS forums opened, new submissions have dropped to an all time low! Maybe visitors think the forum is the place to leave new words, but when they get there - find it's weird and forget :)
 
If you want to leave new words, games etc, either fill in the submission/feedback form at the top of the page - or just mail me direct!
 
All mail is read and all submissions are received gratefully - especially reminiscences of schooldays.

ODPS News:

Got bored with the look of the front page so did a few changes - like add a few books we liked the look of. We may well change the entire front page eventually... but this'll do for now.

Forum News:

No real changes there - and of course it's still early days. There is a load of configuration work to be done but it's still very useable. If there are changes you'd like done faster then let us know.

Other than that... it's the same old, same old... and still a laugh :)

target="blank"

Forum News:

Things are moving along slowly but surely. We had a minor hitch the other day when I cleverly blanked out the entire site for a few hours... but thanks to major support from the guys at Xoops.org the site soon reappeared.

Visitors are dropping by, but seem a little reluctant as yet to join in. This could be because the site doesn't seem to be fully developed - but if that is the case, then maybe it isn't clear that we need input from even a casual visitor to make the place develop more to their needs!

Still, it's very early days yet and we're having fun.

Other News:

I've been looking at upgrading the version of Glossword we use from the current 1.4.2 to the latest 1.6.1 but the upgrade path looks daunting to someone who isn't a programmer. So - maybe I'll get a bit more experience first... I'd hate the whole thing to disappear - again! :)

Online Dictionary of Playground Slang - Forums:

Still here and the news site is looking better than ever. The forums are actually working now (apologies to people who couldn't access them) and the theme is a bit brighter. As far as I can see we're ready to rock so I'll be amending the links on this page to show forum access as part of the menu.

All we need now..... is for you to come along in and help give the site some direction and turn it into what you would want it to be!

Cya there :)

Online Dictionary of Playground Slang - Forums:

Well, the forum site is now at least active (click above)!

We are now sitting and waiting for your input to decide which direction the the site will move. One of the topic sections to be added will include submissions we need definitions for, another will be for discussing whether some entries deserve to be there or not. For example we recently added a bucketload of Geordie words which could be seen to be not slang at all, but rather words from a distinct dialect or even language.

Other sections, topics, categories, modules, resources etc. Can be suggested by yourself and we'll add them in if it's possible.

So let's go!!

Err.... apologies.. .... changed my mind...

Having spent a couple of days fiddling around both with Mambo which is currently on odps.net, and PostNuke which I have on another site, I think PostNuke is probably the more 'powerful' of the two.

It seems to me that since we haven't yet had too many visitors from ODPS 'proper' that I ought to just drop Mambo and move to PostNuke now rather than later.

If you have an opinion on either - let me know or I'll simply move it now and hope all works out ok :)

The reasoning for this is quite straightforward. PostNuke for all it's weirdness does have a huge number of modules you can install which allow greater flexilbility of design.

True I have no idea how to use them yet, but knowing they are there will mean any suggestion put forward for site development will be better able to be accomodated and that being the case, sooner would be better than later.

I've been a member of sites which chopped and changed before and having to resubmit your details to re-join became annoying to the extent I dropped out of the forums - so - better now than later. We'll work with postnukes peculiarities and see what develops, literally. :)

Forums:

OK.... I gave up and went back to Mambo on the basis that if I don't do something then nothing will be done.

It's installed as a 'bare' site at http://odps.net/CMS/index.php but only available to those of you who read this! So if you want to be "in on the ground floor" and help design the place, here's your chance!

What you decide now will direct the way the forums develop so if there is something you want to see... now is the time to make your opinions heard,

Cya there!!

Gawd....

Blogger is driving me crazy! I worked out what the problem is eventually despite having had them look at the site a few times. It seems that despite my changing the settings, when I republished it refused to save them and continued to use the old settings. Ah well.... the wonders of modern technology.

On the other hand, I understand that invitations to gMail are only being given out to the favoured few and some of those are coming from Blogger.com so if you want to try out gMail it looks like you have to part of Blogger.

Having said that I didn't get an invitation via Blogger, but from someone I know on a different 'forum' so I will shortly be changing the 'send to' address for ODPS to the gMail one which should make sure I never lose another submission - all heave a sigh of relief :)

I enabled comments on the blog by the way so if anyone wants to insult me - feel free.

Other than that, odps.net is in the process of being registered and I'm going to install eXoops on that. I tried postnuke and didn't like it much - sorry.

Forum Update..


So I tried out Mambo, and PostNuke, and I can't say either of them were particularly appealing to me. Either Mambo or I were too 'simple' and I wasn't fussed on PostNukes ability to change themes depending on the users fancy - tho bearing in mind how powerful it is this really shouldn't matter. I suppose I want to keep some consistency of style between the dictionaries and the forums. If anyone has any suggestion feel free to make them.

Am now back to experimenting with eXoops. I'll install it on a different site for now and see where it takes me. If all else fails I can install phpForum here which, whilst not in the least attractive, is at least functional as far as it goes.

I'll get back to you on it asap.

Aha!

Just discovered that the past few missives didn't get here.... why I didn't notice when I visited the site don't ask.

Anyway... moving along from the embarrassment... I have had a few queries about when the forums will be in place. Well up until a few weeks ago they were all ready to fly, just needing some adjustment to the entry page. Then our hosting service moved all to a new server and somehow we lost the entire set up. We're in the process of trying to set Mambo up on site to see how it looks so please be patient. If it doesn't suit, we'll revert to exoops, xoops, postnuke or similar tho' the learning curve is horrendous :)

Of course my constant fear in all this is that somehow we'll overwrite some major file required to access the dictionary proper.... just the thought gives me nightmares!

Lastly we're considering opening the forums with a competition for contributors to create a new logo for the ODPS!! The prize will be small I'm afraid, probably a copy of the published version, but our appreciation will be immense. Watch this space.

Geez...

... doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It doesn't seem so long since I last added to the the blog, but it's been months (sorry). All sorts of things have been going on, none of which I'll bore you with but it's kept me away from the site for long periods. However we're back now and will be adding in all the words you've sent in. Also I'll be taking a close look at the forums Kyte added a while back and geting them up and running.

I might even get round to updating the advert for the book... though as we're now past Easter as well maybe I should change to suggest it light summer reading or something??

Yaaaawwwnnnn.....

OK - Christmas and New Year are over and gone so it's back to the same old same old. Kyte has installed the forums on the server but they're not yet running properly due to a slight disagreement over the final look af the portal. No doubt once she has again rearranged my facial features, she'll get her own way and the forums will be active.

Other than that I'd like to thank each and everyone who has supported the site by buying a copy of the book. It's not sold enough to make Jeffery Archer jealous but has produced sufficient income to assure the continuity of the site for the forseeable future.

All we need now is a huge influx of words, songs, reminiscences etc to keep the old place alive and fresh, and this I leave to you :)

On so.... with the motley!!

And a happy Christmas to one and all.

Except of course those woeful individuals who exercised their right to free speech by dumping on the printed version of the site (Dictionary of Playground Slang) at Amazon UK. If any of you have a few minutes to spare we'd really appreciate your nipping over to the site and giving us a more balanced review.... pretty please??

Moving on, the ODPS has had a couple of bursts of publicity in the UK and Australia lately which have produced several hundred new words or so all of which have been dutifully uploaded - but of course as always we still need more so if your friends and relatives haven't been bored to buggery by repeated requests for old or new slang words then now is the time to do it. If you don't I'll have to spend time with my family over Xmas and that'll never do!

What else is new. Well not a lot really. You'll see we added a section of Rugby Songs, chants and similar called 'Hymns and Arias'. If you have alternate words, if you have more songs, if you'd like to record MP3's of yourself (and friends?) singing a few choice verses... send them on in and we'll load them up!!

We're also in the process of working out a few other ideas for the site such as a mailing list in addition to the proposed forums. If anyone likes the idea of a mailing list please let me know and I'll set one up. We were thinking of including, for example, all the words that come in without meanings or with obscure references to meanings we can't get to grips with. This way you can have a direct input into the content of the site.

I think that'll do for now. Please go give us a decent review at Amazon UK and if we don't see you for a week or two... well have a safe and pleasant holiday over Xmas and the New Year.

1-2-3 Jump...

Hey hey -we're 'live'!! For those of you new to the site, and the regulars who've been redirected from the old 'cyberscriber' site - welcome. For the newbies, look around and have fun. I've not set up an FQA yet but will do so in response to the questions that come in - and there're bound to be a few!

For the old hands you'll see a few real changes. For a start the search function will make it much easier to find obscure words. In addition we've separated the the site into three sections 1. Ghastly Games - with the games and rules, 2. Dictionary of slang - 3000 terms of weirdness, 3. Seedy Songs and Rotten Rhymes - lyrics, poems etc.

As before we really need as many more as you can send us - and if you feel like just sending in some reminiscences of your schooldays, well they're welcome too.

As soon as she's able, kyte will be installing a forum option onsite where some of our joint interests can be discussed.

Oh the joys of editing!

Well to start with it means I get to laugh again at all the stuff that arrives. On the other hand I just uploaded 600 words to the Dictionaries and feel shattered. Serves me right for doing it in bulk I suppose.

Either way, the new site is almost ready to go 'live' but first I'm going to take a stab at adding as many of the words from the 'old' site as I can before I have a breakdown. As soon as it's ready (or as soon as I collapse) we'll redirect from cyberscriber to the new interface, but with the option of returning if that's what people wish. Having said that, from now on all new words will be added to the new site only so those who don;t look at it will miss them - which is sad.

The printed version seems to be selling well which is nice. I've had nothing but good responses from feedback which is even better!

So... I'm back to work. The faster the words are transferred, the faster I can start reading the rest of the new crop of words as they arrive.

Have fun!

So...

At last the book is on sale in the UK at least and I can relax. Some of you may have caught my embarrasingly amateur interviews on Five Live, Radio Newcastle, Radio Three Counties etc et. for which I apologise :)

I think now though that the main pressure is off at last and I can start to properly populate the new site and I can only apologise profusely to everyone who has sent in words over the last few months and wondered if they disappeared into some black hole never to be seen again. I promise you I *have* stored them all away and am now getting them online - in fact I'm adding all the new words to the site first so it'll be worth visiting and getting to know.

Have lots of fun.... and thanks again for all the support!

We're off!!

Ok, the book is published. It's on pre order at Amazon (click here) and ready to go.

The cover looks great. The content is as bad as it can be and still be legal and is an ideal Xmas present for anyone you hate.... or love.... life is odd like that.

I look forward to seeing you at the book signings. Bring your camera and I'll even grimace a bit for you :)

So.... long time no write. But at least there's something definite about the book. The copy has been submitted, as has the bio and a couple of piccies. Release date is around October in the UK and November in Aus - not sure about other release points yet - but it'll be available through Amazon and as soon as I have the details I'll post a banner onsite.

Remember folks, this book is a sure fire Xmas present for any crabby old relative you want to really annoy!! :)

I'll be back in the UK in a week or so and taking notes. If you look over your shoulder and see a fat old man hunched over doing something furtive under his mac....don't hit him.... it might be me writing down new words into my organiser!

Be warned !! :)

Interesting bit of news for you...

The ODPS has been talking to a publisher about the possibility of getting the old girl into print.

Well...... we signed our contract a week or two ago and are waiting on the return of their copies, but it look as if the book of the site of the slang of the playgrounds of long ago may become a reality.

The version to be published will be 'edited' of course..... especially as we're now restructuring to move games and songs to their own pages to make the site more accessible, but the best bits will be kept in.

We'll keep you posted but hopefully by Christmas you should be able to go get a copy and wave it about saying...... I've been to that site and I heard it first!! :)

Fingers crossed eh??

Another day dawns and the sparrows cough a happy tune to greet the dawn.

Well ok I lied. It's 10:00 at night in Sydney, Australia and still warm and humid despite being the last day of summer. Nights are drawing in rapidly but we do at least wake to the sound of dawn breaking.

The new site is still no better than it was I'm afraid. No extra words added and none of the duplicate entries removed. We've taken a day off to review both progress and mistakes.

In addition, I appears that some of yesterdays blog report didn't make it. We're not having much luck eh?? :)

Still. Things have moved ahead in other areas and we should be back on track by Monday to carry on uploading and formatting etc. Fingers crossed there'll be no more nasty issues to deal with.

Oh bugger........

Well...... no real idea what happened... but virtually all of the new site got wiped today. This is as they say "a bit of a bugger" and means the whole thing has to be knocked up from scratch again and all the data previously entered and uploaded also has to be re-entered - happy days.

Annoying yes - but we have to remember these things happen from time to time. Luckily of course this is just a test site and the old site still functions as well as it ever did.

You may well ask why we don't have a backup that we can just upload - and the answer is we do and we don't. Being a php based web interface, Glossword stores the database online so if the access permissions are corrupted somehow it means you can't actually access any of the information directly... as far as we know.

Currently we're uploading the backups we do have in the hope it will reset the access permissions to a previous version. This is most unlikey to occur but it's all we have. The alternative is a rewrite :)

It's been an "interesting learning experience" - and as always one we could have well done without!!

We'll keep you informed.

Oops.... sorry.

In the eagerness to get the trial site up and on show, we forgot to change some of the links to reflect the online situation - in other words they link to the 'test area' rather than where the files were actually loaded.

We'll attend to it as soon as we can - probably tomorrow.

In the meantime thanks for pointing it out.. work is in progress!! If any other little quirks pop up please be sure to let us know.

It's a long, long road.... etc

Slowly but surely the old words are moving into the new site. It's taking a long time and we're noticing some idiosyncracies with Glossword that we hadn't really been aware off before.

One obvious one is that the html formatting isn't apparant in the short version of an entry. So for example, if the original has a rhyme in it, in the short version you see one long paragraph. Whereas in the long version you see it properly formatted.

To get to the long version you have to click on the word itself - which is neither obvious nor intuitive. I'm not sure how we can get around that but we'll work on it and get back to you if changes can be made. Other than that it all seems ok.

Thanks for all the comments by the way - it's good to know the interface hasn't met with any serious objection - except for Ron who would prefer we darken the scroll bars on the 'Planarchy blog section.

And so it goes....

The new interface seems to have been well received so far. We've begun populating it with words, games and songs/rhymes but it'll be a longish process so I hope you'll bear with us.

The site designer, Kyte, has implemented Planarchy as the blogprog of choice... but for whatever reason it currently won't auto-upload so we're doing a manual jobby.

Some even more exciting news about the ODPS is on the horizon but I'm not yet at liberty to let you in on the secret. But as soon as I'm able I promise you'll be the first to know - ok??

As they say in the papers... watch this space!! :)

Oh dear what can the matter be...

How peculiar! Dropped info. into the blog but it didn't appear onsite. Teething troubles maybe.

If this doesn't arrive I might move to planarchy just for the hell of it!

On the other hand maybe I'm just too damn impatient......

New Dictionary Format/Interface

Ok. For anyone interested the interface has been loaded up to the host. So far it's not populated (i.e. no words to look at) but it's there if you'd like to make comments on useability etc.

I quite like the functionality, but I really miss the look and feel of the old site.

You can find the new version here. (http://www.odps/index.htm if the link fails for some reason).

What do you think??

Still working on Blogger... it's fun actually. There are all sorts of formatting errors to make and bits of the template to ruin. Maybe an upgrade to Blogger Pro might be worthwhile. On the other hand there's Planarchy which also looks as if it might repay investigating!

It occurs to me that anyone reading this will wonder who the hell 'Sky' or Skyrider' is. Well obviously that's me.

When meandering around the newsgroups as is my wont I use the name 'Sky Rider' (or variations). I've been using it for 3 - 4 years now and it's become second nature to me. I could use 'Chris Lewis' of course, but that's such a boring name.

You'll find me hanging out in well worn places like alt.fan.harry-potter, aus.tv and the like. I also hang out as a founder member of alt.ozdebate. This started life as a 'flame group' but now we just hang around and bitch at each other and any other poor soul who passes by for no obvious reason.

Of course I also hang around the newsgroup dedicated to the dictionary.... 'free.odps'.... which for some reason never gets the number or quality of posts it deserves. If you have nothing better to do, please drop in. It gets quite lonely in there sometimes!!

OK... I think I'm finally getting the hang of this now.

I'm writing this 'blog' for a couple of reasons. Firstly because I want to pass on information about the development of the ODPS as it grows and changes. Secondly because I talk a lot naturally and being alone at the computer means I have a lot of time to spend with nobody to whinge at! And pretty much because I can ( I loves computers me... well OK I hate them as well but that's another story).

Moving rapidly on. The ODPS has been around for 3 years or so and in that time has morphed from more or less 'home page' to what is virtual cult in its own right. We've had around a million visitors which is a respectable total. So, we think it's time to update the site and its image. Yes we love the old fashioned look of the original site, but sooner or later it has to change. We've been asked over and over to make it more user friendly and to add this feature or that. So... work is in progress.

In a few weeks we hope to have a 'sampler' page up showing off the new site, albeit maybe with few words on it to begin with. All the new words will be entered into the new site and over a period we'll transfer the old words in as well. When it's complete... we'll relegate the old site to an archive where the nostalgic can go and wonder what the fuss was about.

The new site will have a much 'easier on the eye' interface, will have a decent search facility, will show all the new words added and will have an enhanced submission page.

What else it will have isn't definite yet, but I'd like to start a 'community' so will start looking at producing a regular newsletter... but first we need to get the site up and running. Please bear with us while the work is carried out. there may be a few 'hiccoughs' along the way :)

Of course I have no doubt that within days I'll be writing about politics, religion and anything else that passes through my mind, but if I do and start to ramble a bit, please let me know.