Welcome to the premiew edition of THE THIRTEENER CARNIVAL! In this issue we will highlight thirteen non-T13 posts from thirteen Thursday Thirteeners. The Thirteener Carnival will be published each Monday morning. The requirements for inclusion in the carnival are:

1. The post must be a NON-weekly Thursday Thirteen list. Since we read each other’s Thursday Thirteen list each Thursday, we want to read something else for the carnival. This is a way to get to know other sides of our T13 friends.
2. The blog must be part of the Thursday Thirteen family.
3. The post must be appropriate and something of general interest.

We had many submissions, and we can only include thirteen of them. It was so hard to chose which posts to include. We pretty much randomly chose and many wonderful post were not included. If you submitted a post, and it isn’t included, please submit one for next week’s carnival.

If you have a blog and a few hours to spend putting together a THIRTEENEER CARNIVAL, please send an email to thurs13 (at) gmail (dot) come. Hosting is fun, but it DOES take some time to put it together. The carnival will be crossposted on your blog and here at the Thursday Thirteen hub. So let us know if you’re interested.

Here’s your job as a reader: Do your best to visit all thirteen highlighted posts and read them and comment on each one. If you can’t visit all thirteen, then visit as many as you can. Feel free to trackback to this post if you are a Thirteener and link to this post in your post. Now, on with the carnival!

I’ve just gone through the entire Thursday Thirteen blogroll and wanted to let you know the results.

It has been quite some time since the blogroll was updated. Let me give you the rundown on why blogs were removed:

• Haven’t participated since the first week of November or prior to that time.
• Do not have blogroll displayed or I couldn’t find a link to a page where the blogroll is displayed
• URI invalid, deleted, or redirected to :gasp: p*rn!
• Blog has gone from public to private/registered users only

I understand there are many reasons for all of these things, and I approach the blogroll removals in a completely unbiased manner. If you feel your blog was removed in error, please contact me and I will be happy to chat with you about it. If you join in again after a big gap in participation and your blogroll is displayed, I’ll be happy to put you back on - but please understand I can’t possibly know what your intentions are and don’t mean to insult or offend anyone.

I also noticed that there are some pretty clear derivative meme’s based on the setup and workings of Thursday Thirteen. Please be sure you’re observing Thursday Thirteen’s Creative Commons license in the process of flattering my baby to pieces.

Thanks to all of you for making Thursday Thirteen such a wonderful experience, and happy blogging!

I’ve just launched a new feature for Thursday Thirteen - a forum for Thirteeners to gather and share stuff! You can post your own header graphics, your ideas for weekly theme ideas, ask questions about TT related stuff, and just hang out with other bloggers!

I hope you enjoy it, use it, and remember that it’s in the blogroll now right at the top above the Hub link. I’ve also linked to it above in the menu here at the Hub, so you can drop by while you’re here.

Enjoy!!
 

We’re in the process of checking the blogroll, and you may want to check the next post and its comments to see if your blog is listed and why. Just little changes, not a big deal - don’t panic. We’re not Thursday Thirteen hitlers, we just want the blogroll we display on our own blogs to have fair guidelines that everyone on it can meet.

Let’s review the blogroll info one more time, just in case you missed it. I would hate to see any further misunderstandings, like this one, for which I am deeply sorry to have caused her so much upset during her recovery.

1. You do not have to be on the blogroll to do the meme. Period. You can still do it if you’re not on the blogroll.

2. You can do the meme however you want. On or off the blogroll, it isn’t moderated.

3. If you’re on the blogroll, you should link back here for people to get the code, and it would benefit you and the meme to have the technorati tag. You also need to have the blogroll displayed somewhere on your blog.

4. If you’re on the blogroll, you should participate at least once a month.

5. You can do whatever you want, really. I’m just trying to help you maximize traffic by offering the blogroll and getting linked up with Technorati and stuff. You don’t have to do any of it. If you choose not to do any of it, you won’t be on the blogroll. Not that big a deal, unless you want people on the blogroll to be able to have easier access to your blog throughout the whole week, or if you’re looking to increase traffic through linking in general.

Speaking of traffic, How has your traffic been since you started participating in the Thursday Thirteen? How many new friends have you met through it that you might not have? Do you think the blogroll is pointless? Should it just be dropped? Any other thoughts on the whole thing? Your input is welcome!

In working on blogroll additions this morning, there are some issues I’m seeing repeatedly:

BLOGROLL NO-NO’S

• Bloggers who have the blogroll on display but don’t participate anymore.
• Bloggers who participate but don’t have the participation paragraph within their Thursday Thirteens. I’m not too concerned about the wordy paragraph - but the TT’s ought to contain two links: one back here for the code, and one Technorati Tag link. This is a new requirement to be on the blogroll, so if you don’t have it in your entries, please add it before we start verifying the blogroll.
• Bloggers who participate in a totally separate section of their blog and don’t link it on their main link on the blogroll. It has to be linked. That’s just how it is.
• Bloggers who participate on a totally different URI., and want the blogroll to link to their “normal” URI. Opinions on this one welcome - but I think the URI on the blogroll should be where other TT’ers can find your TT. Thoughts on that?

These are the main issues. The blogroll is meant to promote other Thirteeners as well as the meme and the community, fairly.

That being said, I need volunteers who are willing to take a section of the blogroll, visit each blog, and verify the following:

BLOGROLL RULES

• The blogroll is present, or there is a visible link to it on the main page.
• The blogger has participated within the last say - 4 to 6 weeks
• Two links are present in at least the last 3 TT’s, ***This is new, and will not be strictly enforced until everyone knows about it.** the text “Get the code here” should be linked to ThursdayThirteen.com (it can be linked to a hostess site, since it’s still in transition), and the “Visit other Thirteeners” should contain a Technorati Tag that reads Thursday+Thirteen. Both links are required. This promotes your blog in Technorati, and promotes participation in the meme. Both are beneficial to you.

Seeing the blogroll is days long now, I’d like to have at least 10 volunteers to make this quick and painless. We can do this all in the comment section here so that everyone knows if their blog is going to be removed and why - no hard feelings - we’re just going to make sure everyone is playing by the same set of rules. If your blog ends up being removed, please re-apply or use the contact form to let me know if you take issue with the reasoning.

The only exception to these rules is Petroville, because MommaK co-hostessed with me before she drove off the cliff, she’s got an honorary place on the roll (she will continue to have the TT blogroll on display at her place, too.). As will Nicole and Lindsey, if they ever stop participating.

Do I have any takers? The blogroll check has begun, please be sure your blog complies with the rules, or you may find yourself missing from the blogroll over the next couple of days. Thanks for understanding this is a community, and we all promote eachother, not one more than the other!

Any questions?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

~Leanne

Technorati Tags: Thursday Thirteens, Thirteeners, TT, ThursdayThirteen.com, Thursday+Thirteen

Upon request, I’ve coded up a new way to display the blogroll for those of you who would really like to keep it on your main page sidebars. It’s getting awfully big, I totally agree! (And isn’t that cool?!) The areas that are configurable are the height and width, you can alter this for the best fit for your sidebar.

You can find the new code on the “Join Blogroll” page, and just to double up for good measure - here it is:

If you’d like to insert the blogroll as a set height & width with a scrollbar, use this code:



It will look like this:

I hope that works for everyone who is looking for a smaller blogroll display area!

~Leanne

Welcome, Thursday Thirteeners! I’ve just launched the new and final hosting grounds for the Thursday Thirteen! Here is your source for all things T-13 related. The code page is up, the blogroll, heck I’m even pulling in feeds from those Thirteeners who are using the Technorati Tags on their 13’s!

I have some modifications to make to the stylesheet and page formatting, so there are still some minor tweaks to come. I’ll also be adding all of the Thursday Thirteen header graphics in one location, so if you’ve made some and would like them included for use by everyone, drop me a note through the contact form and I’ll get your images uploaded!

What will be happening here is going to go something like this:

1. We’ll select the new featured Thirteener every week, and a screenshot of the blog will be in the left hand column. We’d like to see everyone get featured, and may add a couple more slots for this. We encourage everyone to go visit the featured blog(s) and say hello during your Thursday 13 visits!

2. We’ll have a post every week for all participants to “check in”. Drop a comment if you’re participating that week, and check back in the comments section for new T-13′ers that you haven’t met before!

3. Announcements about new headers, etc. will all happen here, so when you see the yellow exclamation point on the blogroll, stop over and see what’s cookin’!

Nicole, Lindsey and I will all have a hand in hostessing and maintaining this site, so make yourself at home!

Questions? Comments? We’d love to know what you think!

~Leanne

Technorati Tags: Thursday Thirteeners, Thursday Thirteen, T-13, Technorati Tags, Thursday Thirteen header graphics, Thursday 13