It's that time of year again:

NaNoWriMo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month

Here's hoping everyone is ready to buckle down and crank out the words. :-)

And if you have any friends who are interested in buckling down too, be sure to bring 'em on over to Oort-Cloud.

-p

Fred Saberhagen has died. :-(

I really like almost all of his work: the "Swords" books, the "Empire" books, the "Berserker" books, etc.

Is it possible to hold a galactic empire together without faster-than-light travel (including portals, teleportation, etc.)?

Got a big kick out of this interview with Philip K. Dick (thx, Alf):

Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything.... The problem is simply this: What does a science fiction writer know about? On what topic is he an authority?

http://downlode.org/etext/how_to_build.html

We have added a page with RSS Feeds from people worth listening to who discuss both science fiction and the future of publishing. That's right, we tried it with books, and now we're trying it with people. :-D

http://www.oort-cloud.org/?q=aggregator/sources

In keeping with the open mode around here, the RSS feeds administration page (http://www.oort-cloud.org/?q=admin/content/aggregator) is editable by registered members. This means the commuinity is responsible for adding and deleting feeds.

The upshot of all this is:

When we started Oort-Cloud we tried some things just to see if they would float. Some did; some didn't.

"Books Worth a Look" is bobbing.

This post is just to solicit your opinions on whether or not we should:

1. leave it adrift
2. sink it
3. rescue it
4. launch a new ship in its place

and, we'd also like your suggestions about how to do it.

Rick and I started receiving spam via the contact form a few weeks back, and then it showed up on a post in the comments.

To combat this I have installed a SPAM protection module.

As always, if you note any issues, please let us know.

If you are like me (and I know I am), you will want to know that we changed the system clock on Oort-Cloud to Eastern Time in the U.S.A. (only because that is where Rick and Paul -- the admins -- live).

You may notice the change on the timestamps on your posts.

UPDATE:

(The original post is below). As it turns out, the permissions issue that caused authenticated usrs to be unable to either post or read had nothing to do with the Groups module.

Looking through the logs, Rick and I discovered that sometime midday on Saturday, the problem began, and thanks to discussion among users (which confirmed the problem) and a few timely emails to Oort-Cloud, Rick and I were able to fix things.

Much thx to everyone who, one way or another, participated in the event and its resolution.

-p

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Just a quick post to let people know that "versioning" is included on the bottom of your posts if you want to use it. (Alternately, you can use titles or tags).

All you have to do is click "Publishing Options" and then check "Create new revision" before you submit your post. Afterwards, you will be able to see all the versions of that particular post.

I will add this to our HowTo docs and post another announcement.

-Paul