"For every minute spent organizing, an
hour is earned." ~~Benjamin Franklin
Hi all,
Welcome to the second newsletter of 2021!
It's occurred to me that it's been a while since I did a sort
of web site tour. So I'm gonna do that now because I've
been re-organizing some things. If you're ever on the
web site and think "It'd be really helpful to have this link
here or..." please let me know and I'll see what I can do.
God bless,
Jenni
A Tour of the JABB Web Site:
2021 Edition
Firstly, there are three different ways to explore the site, one
of which I find most useful:
1. Via Frames-
Personally, this is the one I use the least... as in basically
never. Way back when, I think someone said it might be
helpful so I did it. It's kind of nice if you're wanting
to click quickly through various pages without repeatedly
navigating back to the Table of Contents. Other than
that... not sure it's very useful.
2. Via the Main
TOC- For many years, this was the main way to navigate the
JABB site and it's still not bad... except for the fact that,
since I no longer use it, I sometimes forget to update it.
But most everything can be accessed from there and it's got a
nostalgic look to it, IMO.
3. Via the JABB Portal-
This is the way I prefer to get around the web site. It's
got a cleaner and crisper look to it and the categories are most
helpful to me when I try to focus on different updates. So
the remainder of this tour is going to follow the JABB Portal
order. So here goes!
After viewing the lovely photos of John and that beloved TBAA
quote from which the site takes its name, we have the First
Time Visitors link. I created that web site back
when it wasn't entirely uncommon for me to get emails from folks
who assumed I knew John Dye or... stranger still... that I was
John Dye. (To date, I still really wonder what sort of
person they thought John Dye was to create a goofy fan club
containing top tens and such about himself but anyway...)
After that come the links to all the newsletters. One
change I have made there is that I used to create a new TOC for
every 30 newsletters. I've decided to up that to every 50
newsletters. And I'm about due for a new one.
Then there's an email link and a link to the classic TOC for
anyone who wants to bail on the Portal.
The section that comes next is JABB
Info. There's the Updates
page which is exactly what it sounds like. The
JABB Encyclopedia follows which is, I believe, the largest
page on the whole web site. If you're reading a Dyeland
story and really like a particular character, you can go there
and get a complete listing of which stories and newsletters they
appear in. Or maybe you want to see all the times Doc Hock
comes up. That works, too! Next up comes the JABB
Calendar which lists important dates. It does have
some Dyeland character birthdates and such but there's another
page that's better for that which I'll get to later. Welcome Newbies
is a more practical guide for new members. I am going to
eventually replace the Web Site section with the contents of
this newsletter. JABB
News and Reminders isn't a page I use much any more.
But if another John Dye series was ever released, I'd note it
there... though perhaps at a delay as I realized only today that
I never got the news about Promised Land added.
Oops.
One thing I've started to do is mark pages that are basically
archival. I don't delete them because I'm sentimental but
they're also useless, out-dated, or not being updated for other
reasons. JABB Info has six such links: Things You
Should Know About JABB, Our FAQ,
JABB
Member Links, About Us,
The
"Green Pages", and The JABB
Self-Help Pages. The first one is just plain
hilarious to me because I mention how JABB isn't about
angel/human romances. Haha! I would scandalize
younger me... Anyway, I basically only keep that page
because it cracks me up. The FAQ was a fine enough idea
but is basically a rehash of Welcome Newbies. I'm trying
to cut down on having the same information on different pages or
at least having to update the same information on different
pages. Member Links is something I'd be happy to bring
back. There just hasn't been any interest. But if
you'd like to share your blog, fanfic site, etc., I'm happy to
add it. It doesn't have to be TBAA or John Dye related at
all. If you do submit a link, please also include a brief
description. About Us is the same sort of thing. If
someone would like to provide a bio or Q and A, I'm happy to add
it. But there's not been any recent interest so I archived
it. I'm not even keeping my page there updated. And
"The Green Pages"... That was a case of me being like
"Oooh! New toy!" but without really having a reason to use
the new toy so I just duplicated some stuff. It used to
have a cool Flash intro but, of course, Flash was retired so it
no longer works. I may eventually delete the whole thing
but, for now, I sometimes look at it and appreciate the time a
former member spent taking digital photos of her TV screen back
before screen shots from DVDs were possible. Kinda
touching, to be honest. The Self-Help page used to
be useful because it contained a step-by-step guide to using
YahooGroups... with screenshots! But, of course, I deleted
all of that since YG is no more. But it was a pretty page
so... I left a tiny bit. But it could probably be
deleted. Just... again... sentimental.
The second section is TBAA
and More. I'm sure the most popular link there is
the Photo
Gallery featuring screenshots from many John Dye
projects. The TBAA
Episode Guide follows and one thing I'll note there is if
anyone would ever like to submit their own thoughts about an
episode, please do! Useful
Links is probably not terribly useful but you can give it
a shot. If there is a link that you would find useful,
please let me know and I'll consider including it. I'm not
sure if any station is playing TBAA any more but, if so, I'll
add a link to their schedule. Poems
and Stories has some fanfic, thematically related poems,
and more. I should probably mark it as archived but, who
knows, maybe I'll get back to writing poems as Ivy someday and
put them there. Andrew's
Historical Timeline is badly in need of an update with
Dyeland information but as far as TBAA info, it's pretty
solid.
And now we come to the section that I use the most: Dyeland
Stories. As you can see, it's divided into two
sections: Stories and References. In the first section,
really only the JABB
Story Index is routinely updated. Every Dyeland
story is documented there whether it first appeared in a
newsletter or was stand-alone. The
Author's Cut is next. Originally, all stories that
were NOT from a newsletter were listed there. But when I
put together the Story Index, it became redundant to add a story
there unless I had substantial author's notes. And even
when I have author's notes, I tend to add those to the
individual story's page and not the Author's Cut. That
being said, I have no plans to ever delete the Author's Cut as
it does have some good info about older stories. And then
there's the Friends
of Joshua Forum which I think was a cute idea but,
ultimately, just way too time-intensive. The actual
formatting took way too long and then there was the matter of
having to keep a timeline straight. It just wasn't
sustainable.
The second section is Resources. First we have the Dyeland
Map. Then there's the Timeline
which gets updated with every story's information. More
recent stories have extremely detailed entries whereas older
ones... not so much. Then there's another link to the
Encyclopedia because while it also has general JABB information,
I tend to utilize it most often when working on Dyeland
stories. Each character has an entry listing which stories
they appear in. Cultural
References lists all songs, books, etc. alluded to or
mentioned in Dyeland stories. This can be useful if you're
looking for a story you remember reading but can only remember,
say, that someone sang "Oo-De-Lally." (That's "Triad," by
the way.) The Birthdates and
More list is what I alluded to earlier. It largely
replaced the JABB Calendar for Dyeland stuff. After that
you can find a list of what characters'
names mean. Next up is Biblical
Era Characters which gives each one's name in Aramaic
which is what I tend to use in stories and then also lists the
name as most commonly used in English. There are three family
trees for Joshua's family, JenniAnn's family, and the
Chandler/Moretti/Wells/Reese grandparents situation. Then
we have the Official
Flowers of Dyeland for any of you language of flowers
fans. Meanings
Behind the Place Names explains where some of the castles,
islands, etc. in Dyeland got their names. Next are some Guidelines
for Writing Dyeland Stories. Even though it hasn't
been updated in a good while, I did read it over and it holds
up... unlike that "Things You Should Know" list from
earlier.
And then we come to the three archived links: Dyeland
FAQ, Dyelander
Info Database, and Laws of
Dyeland. I'm kind of ambivalent about the
first. It makes sense to have it in some ways. In
others, I'd rather people just ask me directly since things can
always change. But, hey, it's there if anyone needs it and
is still legit. The Dyelander
Info Database was a nice idea but, again, too
time-consuming. I didn't want to constantly be updating it
for dozens upon dozens of characters. Finally, there are
the Laws of
Dyeland which are terribly old and out-of-date but we've
gone this far without needing updated rules so I'll just leave
it as is.
And now to the fourth button on the Portal which is Fun
and Games! First up, we have the Easter
Egg Cheat Sheet. For a good while, I hid some small,
virtual prize in the newsletters. I don't do that any more
because, again, time constraints. But you can look at that
list and see what you can dig up. If you want to Contribute
to JABB, you can find out ways to do that there. Contest
Rules and Information is archived and, to be honest, could
probably be deleted since we haven't done a contest in a good
while and won't be until the pandemic is over since I don't want
to be trekking to the post office. But I have hope that we
can do that sometime in the future so I'm keeping the page since
it's easier to make updates than start from scratch. I'm
being optimistic! JABB
Contests and Games is also archived but if you're ever
bored, you can play the games there just for fun. Then
there's Dye
Scouts wherein you can earn virtual badges by completing
assorted tasks. It was popular in its day and not so much
any more. And some of those badges are real ugly...
I'd probably redo them if anyone ever was interested. JABB's
To-Do List follows. It's not been updated in a good
while but what's there still looks kinda interesting if there
are any takes. Finally, I added a link to all those
Andrew, TBAA, Dyeland jigsaws
I created during lockdown.
Finally... the Best
of the Rest which is the stuff I couldn't decide where
else to put! There's the Graffiti
Wall. I no longer have the program I used to use for
that but I think a program I currently have would work so...
there's that. Then we have Andrew's
Blog which was eventually taken over by Violeta only to be
entirely abandoned because yours truly couldn't keep up with
it. Next up is the Dictionary
and, gonna be honest, I don't remember the word "ungether" but
kinda dig it. Disclaimers
and Credits is exactly what it sounds like and hasn't been
touched in years. To be honest, pretty much that entire
Best of the Rest section is archived but I wouldn't mind
updating it so I didn't mark it as such. And, yes, the
CafePress store is still around but I don't manage it much and I
only get a small cut of the proceeds so if you see anything you
like, definitely order it. I have myself. But don't
think I'm relying on it for income or anything. It's just
for fun!
And that's the web site!
This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye for
inspiring a web site that seems pretty sprawling to me since I
just spent about three hours outlining it!
(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from
Touched by an Angel and owned by CBS Productions,
Caroline Productions, and Moon Water Productions. They
are not being used to seek profit.)