Featured Member ~KES

1~ Overall, on a scale of 1-10 how important is the Gaia community in your life? 10 !!!!!!!!

What  factors contribute to your score?  

The Gaia Team and all of the hard work they do to make this a very enlightening site.   I like having all of the friends I have made as a result of this amazing team making it easier to  network worldwide spiritually.

2~ What do you most dislike about Gaia/wish would change?  Not knowing how to get others to read some of my blogs. 

How are you helping to change that?  

I have to take the time to write more people individually is my guess. 

3~ What do you most like about Gaia?   I like the people here and the viewpoints expressed.  

How are you helping to maintain/enhance it?  I will continue to contribute to the blogs, pods, grapevines, comments, etc.  I will do my best to continue inviting new people and being an Ambassador by setting a good example and helping new people get orientation to this site.

4~ What features of Gaia have you used: blogs, pods, messages. bookmarks etc. Which would you like to know more about?  I use all of the tools on Gaia and from Help!   Matthew's ThinkTank   and ~C4Chaos'  Gaia Support

What would you advise someone who is joining Gaia today?  Take 40 minutes and invite some new friends, join a couple of pods that I just listed or post something in The Lounge so other's can find you and offer help.  Take the time to follow the prompts and teach yourself to upload pix, post a blog, etc.

5~ How has being on Gaia changed your life?  I can attest to being helped by this community by becoming a better writer, getting more cultured by having two-way communication with people from all over the world and making new friends that I never would have found that I am aware of.  I know there are others on the planet that share my views.  I was happy to be able to start my pod helping Dreams of Artists which is now growing in members that can network and share dreams.  I feel like we will be creating expansions for the future of this site, and it is a responsibility I love sharing.  We have started a pod so I am also learning to moderate better with the help of you.

6~ How does your life offline impact your presence on Gaia?  In running my career and life, I can come back to Gaia and share things or help unburden someone and bring about a lot of good will.

7~ What do you think has been your main contribution to the Gaia Community?  I bring stability and a lot of communication.  I introduce simple techniques on study, assists for health and expansion for artists in any field.  I am by nature a humanitarian and have found this to be the best site for sharing and changing the world.  I bring a lot of sanity to this site and offer others to look at any situation the want to inspect and generate interest in expansion and leadership in their own zone of control.  I filmed the Eco Convention and met some of our players and have discovered the majority are here making this planet a better place.  I attend events when I can in my city and Skype some of my friends.

8~ What's the biggest benefit you have received from the Gaia community?

The Friends and friendly people are amazing.  The opportunities to network and the model to grow in a world community to expand my services and products.  I love exchanging so Gaia is the place filled with amazing talented people.

9~ What do you see as the future of the community?  

People like choices and this website offers something for everyone.  It is safe here and very welcoming and I see the future being one that helps tip the happiness ratio on this planet to over 50% so that we can have more of a golden age; where we are free to grow our ideas confidently into expansion on each individual spiritual path and abundantly flourishing and prospering.  We don't need wars or illiteracy so this site will help others on their waking up to operating their life without so many stoppers. 

10~How has the Gaia Networking [Z-networking] group helped you in your Gaia experience?

 This pod helps by having a safepoint from which to communicate, and help build a new improved Gaia for all of civilization to have good examples and ethical solutions.

11~ How do you feel the Gaia Networking group can enhance new and older members' community experience  

By staying up to date, reading the new posts so that we can maintain and help clean up our sites and expand. 

12~What improvements could you suggest for the Gaia Networking group?  By featuring each member and delivering this same survey - then by tabulating the most wanted results and adding or omitting things that are most needed.

13~Would you invite others into the Gaia Networking group?

  Now that is a good idea!!!  When someone is a new member and they have filled out the intro section, we could have a logo button  like the blue, yellow, green and red one on Gaia Networking, and use that to invite 3-5 other friends or given a way to have us bring someone over to check it out.

14~Is there anything about you that you would like to be known by the Gaia community in general?  

I would like to know if putting in the “insert” where I help the person route to what I am referring to is helpful and is it easy to come back to this pod?  I love quotes so I will add a couple of my favorites 

I found these from my friends at Gaia and found 4,908 of them in search:

“Creativity is one of the greatest medicines ever.  Exercise it in the way you wash dishes, in the way you walk down the street, and in the way you make art. Creativity is essential nourishment.  It is not a cute thing to add to your community, nor a luxury, as our government implies.  It is the very soul of our sense of self worth.” Patch Adams; and 

“Never allow someone to become your priority while you remain their option.”  unknown

Much Love,  

Kathy

Great job and I look forward to reading more featured members!

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

And with that, Ladies and Gentlemen, we inaugurate our Featured Members board!

The moderators will decide on a member of this pod to feature every few weeks. If you would like to be featured, please send a message to one of us : Amber,         OM or me

We will send questions tailored for you, similar to the ones above.

Now the floor is open: ask ~Kes your questions, and give her your tips for her questions!
  

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

I just wanna say Thank You ~KES for your thoughtful and articulate answers, for your sweet Heart and for your vision for the Group, the Community, and the World !!!

You forgot to mention one of your contributions to the community, at least to myself and some others, your offer of help with one of your areas of expertise, graphics and photos on the site here !!!

You are the Featured Member for the whole month, and have given us plenty of points for discussion !!! A great launch for our new feature !!!

Blessings, OM Bastet

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Kathy, loved your energy and enthusiasm in answering the question. Light and joy!

Nicole

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- suggestions for group

 ~KES,: ”What improvements could you suggest for the Gaia Networking group?  By
featuring each member and delivering this same survey - then by
tabulating the most wanted results and adding or omitting things that
are most needed.”

Great idea, ~KES. Potentially, each member can be featured. Except, I guess, ones who haven't been active AT ALL in the group. Which means, not visiting at all.  Of course, we can't know that way whether or not they are on notifications, so if you are a member who only reads the messages through your email notifications; and not through Gaia; AND would like to be featured, please write to one of us mods and let us know!

Let's see how this feature progresses. Right now, I think that the mods will discuss the suggestions that are offered up about our group; and try to incorporate the ones that will improve on the way we are fulfilling our central purpose.

Sometimes even if only one person has given an idea, it is worth adopting!  If you think of any other suggestions, ~KES, don't hesitate to serve them here!

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

I richly commend all of you who can still ceate the time and energy for fostering the Gaia experience for all of us, especially the newer members.

I have been here a while now and although I do not find the time daily to spend the hours I had in previous years at the community, I do still treasure the expereince of membership, and look to those who help keep the 'flow”…

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
PeAcE and deep bows to all y'all - jaB

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

ahhhhhhh!  How refreshing jaBuddha!  Even if someone can only pop in and say hi - that is so valuable.  I have a buddy I met at Gaia who is off writing a book and sends notes on how busy he is.  Just take 5-10 minutes to touch base to all your friends or post a community blog like I do if I am on the run.

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Kathy, you are so very kind. Thanks for your comments here and on my profile…

My ideal scene for a pod is being brought to life in a beautiful way by the very active, vibrant and respectful God pod.

We are in our fourth month, over two hundred members and nearly five thousand posts. But most astonishing, we discuss religion, philosophy, faith and many other contentious topics while honouring each other's perspective and listening to each other with love. I was initially as doubtful as anyone else that this was possible, but I am a believer now, thanks to my wonderful mods and those who post regularly, who are so good at adhering to the one basic law of loving respect of the group.

We have not yet had to ask anyone to leave, though a few have opted to do so of their own volition, and I am glad that we remain open to all who find the environment life giving for them.

Love, light and joy,

Nicole

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES~Creation and group boards

jaBuddha, “create time” is right. I have realized that the more you can slow your breathing down, and stay in a state of moment to moment living, the more elastic time gets!!!! And without that, we could not fulfill our multiple roles on earth.

Speaking of creating, ~KES, thank you for the offer. For this group, Gaia Networking, my dream/ideal is to to see a vibrancy of discussion where real tips of community get formulated, shared, discussed and  refined. Revised as need be, used by Gaia community members, so that we can enhance not only our online life, but also our offline enjoyment. For community, whether face to face or not, uses the same basic principles, and this is an ideal forum for finding them.
[and thank you for those kind words]


Nicole, love that new icon. We'll have to not get attached to any one icon from you!

~KES, could you tell us which areas of Gaia you use most often to network? If you could look at the boards of this pod, and the different ways that we can network on Gaia; which do you use and which have you never used? Can you talk a bit about that?

And if you can Reply to Post for this question, it may help to keep different discussions separate, in this featured space of yours!

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES~Creation and group boards

Meenakshi _
I realise I have been slow replying to your emails asking
me these question's so thought I would pop on in
over here in the interim !
It is nice to see the comments of other's in this particular thread ,
also!!

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES~Creation and group boards

That's fine, Sandy. Welcome to the group, and hope it serves you!

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES~Creation and group boards

As a creator _ i have no need for serving -
I only look to share and give you my support too.
My Global Peace Network serves me well-
and the other pods complete that and our existence
here, at Gaia .

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES~Creation and group boards

Re: Featured Member ~KES

How Exciting! I love the way the Featured Member board has started out! For those of us who have not had the privelege of meeting you yet ~Kes this was a great way of getting to know you! Might I suggest that everyone is so interested in your photos that they forget to hop over to your blog page! You have amazing photos and I accidentally started there even though I was intentionally going over to read your blog!  {{{giggle}}}

Okay, now I have read some of your blogs and I have added myself to your blog notifications! Did anyone else realise that you can do that even if you haven't officially become friends? I made a discovery of this just now! ~Kes I would suggest that you put at the top of your profile for all to see, ~Kes is hoping that my friends will add my blog to their notifications! Maybe this will alert some that they haven't taken the time to do so! Why would anyone on your friend list want to miss out on your beautiful photos and refreshing droplets of wisdom that go along with each one?! I believe they might not know that they aren't receiveing your blogs!

Thank you so much for taking the time to introduce yourself so sweetly at Gaia Networking!

amber Smilemaker

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- Photos tips

~KES, speaking of those awesome photos; have you used this tip that we have on this pod? ”The photo that completely made your day”

About indicating a link to the websites from where we get  photos for our posts or blogs. Thoughts?
And could you add your tips to that thread?

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- Photos tips

Thanks Amber and Meenakshi for helping photo posts
”The photo that completely made your day”

and for responding to my blog.  Can we get a URL link
to how you signed up for my blog?  I thank you for commenting
on it.  I haven't quite figured out how to get blogs into the
mainstream.  But when I do, I will post a separate thread on it.

The Photo Freature is fun - I can put picture - even here for fun.

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- Photos tips

~KES, I've pasted a link to your blog on my msg; and I guess Amber will do the same for how she signed on to your blog.

Now as to the photo you have used in this post above; is it your own? When I see a photo in a blog or post where there's no web address on [e.g. see how I link photos to their web address, making the link text small so that it does not interfere with the text] ; then I assume that the writer of the post/blog has taken that picture.

Sometimes, when I praise it,t hey tell me no–it's from elsewhere. That's why I wrote that tip.

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- Photos tips

Thanks for linking.  We help each other by linking.  Here is a cool story that I enjoyed watching – so without the tech of linking, I wouldn't be able to share my enthusiasm for this quick story about the return of the violin to it's player

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES- Photos tips

~KES,

People usually don't realize when they accept an invitation for friendship that they will have a much more meaningful friendship if they immediately go to their new friend's profile page, click on the word blog at the top of the page, go over to subscriptions and click on add to notifications. An email will be sent to their personal email address whenever the new friend blogs!

For those who have been inviting friends and feel that this step is being skipped, just put a note right under your name saying that you miss your friend's comments and ask them to subscribe to your blog by going to your blog page!

Of course, subscribing to a blog is an option some may want to decline and that is alright also. There are some friends that blog about a subject that I find hard to grasp and after some time of struggling to decipher the meaning of their blogs, well, I usually unsubscribe. That has nothing to do with how I feel about them as a friend, I continue to email and add to their grapevine!

I hope this helps! I'm looking forward to reading your blogs ~KES and especially seeing the photos that go with them!

Smiles!
amber

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Ralph,

Thank you so much for posting that video! It is beautiful and I now have it saved in my favorites!

Smiles!
amber

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

There are so many tidbits I am responding to that I am doing a reply to thread not a reply to post….

~KES, I really have been wondering why some Community members use the ~ before their names. What does it mean to you, and why do you think others do it?

Also, the “ideal scene” for a pod depends so much on the nature and purpose of the pod, and those vary a lot from group to group !!! I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all answer, or even just a few sizes answer !!! We have discussed on the Gaia Groups Community Group (The Mod Pod) what makes a group successful in the eyes of its cultivator, and Meenakshi started a discussion about the Ideal Community, in the Gaia Community Group and I'm wondering if you could rephrase your question so we can see how it's different from those. I think it will be worth talking about !!!!

I think every blog entry contains a Subscriptions section upper right of the page, with several options (like Ntofications or RSS Feed) available to anyone, not just Friends. Other than that, I don't think there is a special URL for linking to blog subscription info.

Getting one's blogs read by more people is worthy of a thread all its own. The discussion here in Gaia Networking touches on that matter. Amber's suggestion above can be amplified to your doing a new status report for every new blog entry you do, lots of folks do that, and it works. And you can put hyperlinks in your profile that list or name your blogs, specific ones, recent ones, etc. so people can go from those hyperlinks directly. I have that in preparation for my own profile.

Of course, mention any relevant blogs in your posts and especially in your comments on other people's blogs.

Other than that, I dunno about getting more blog readers. You could indeed email individual friends specifically if you post a blog you think they might be interested in. Oh, and I am sure our resident blogging guru, ~C4Chaos, has written relevant things in the How Tos and FAQs about blogging. [But I just spent 15 minute searching for his info about blogging and can't find it. Maybe in some other pod.] [I have graped to him about not being able to find the info on increasing blog readership, haha.]

When I get that I will create a relevant post in the Blogs section of this pod, Meenakshi with the above and that info.

Namaste, OM Bastet

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

I have this HUGE smile going – almost a silly giggle.  Every day I come to this thread it is like opening a new presence - your posts.

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

i can attest that the best way to have blogs read is to be very active on gaia and in discussion groups, commenting on your friends' blogs, staying in touch with them by notes on their grapevines, responding to people's comments on your blogs and photos, keeping your status line current to what is actually happening with you

and changing my icon, Meenakshi, helps too!  :) keeps people looking at my photos and aware, and then they often drop by my blog too.

no, i don't do all this to get more people to read my blogs! it's just a natural outflow of giving out love and light in every way here.

peace,

nicole

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Oooh, here's a learning opportunity, ~KES, I didn't understand what you said about RSS Feeds. Plz explain !!! I studied those creatures, RSS Feeds, and posted what I had learned here, but there is still a lot which is total mystery to me.

Thanks for your kind words, ~KES !!!

You said “~ means nothing.” Can be interpreted as “it doesn't mean anything,” or “its meaning is 'nothing.' “  I actually asked ~C4Chaos the same question ages ago, about the meaning of the tilde in his name, and he sent me a whole long writeup about it, which is the latter interpretation. He said in logic it is the negation sign, meaning “not” whatever. ~true would mean “not true.”

That didn't match my recollection, that in math that sign means “approximately” and in logic negation is a line over a word, but of course that can't be done on a computer, at least in most fonts !!! But anyway, as I recall he said it kinda had a spiritual meaning, like I am Joe but I am also not-Joe, I am MORE than my embodiment, I am particular and also universal. So it's a reminder in the name, that I am more than what my name denotes. Or haha maybe it means I am approximately Joe !!! LOL !!!!

Nicole, I think it matters whether the object of the game is to get blogs read by more people for the aggrandizement of the immature narrow ego-self, or to get blogs read by more people because the contents are of potential benefit to people and the world. The “natural outflow of giving light and love in every way” as you so beautifully put it, can include the desire to have one's blogs be part of that outflow “in every way.” I think that was the perspective held by everyone in our discussion here. Thanks for bringing up the issue.

Blessings, OM Bastet

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES: RSS feeds

Here's the latest article from my Internet marketing newsletter.

An Introduction to RSS
by John Eberhard

Recently a client asked me to explain what RSS was. I realized that probably many people are curious about RSS but are very confused by it. An ”RSS Feed” is a way to syndicate content out broadly. RSS stands for “really simple syndication.”

From the Reader Viewpoint

I think the best way to start explaining RSS is to take it from the viewpoint of the reader – what he wants to accomplish and how RSS helps him.

Let's say that a person is interested in politics. He goes to various web sites and reads articles written by various authors that he likes. He wants to keep up on these various favorite authors, and he'd like to see their articles as soon as they come out. But he doesn't like the fact that he has to go around to all these web sites to find his favorite content.

RSS can make this easier for him. First of all, our reader gets a piece of software called an RSS reader. This is a piece of software that is similar to email software such as Outlook. This page gives links to various readers:
http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm

Basically an RSS reader allows you to subscribe to what is called an RSS feed. Our political junkie mentioned above might subscribe to 5-6 or more feeds. Each one would appear in his reader software, usually in a column to the left. He would click on the refresh button, and the reader software would get the latest content from all the feeds. Then he would click on one of the feeds in the left column, and a list of articles would appear on the upper right. Then he will click on one of the articles on the upper right, and that article appears on the lower right, below the article list.

So you see that an RSS feed is basically a list of articles written by someone, that is accessible by using RSS reader software. So our political junkie has all his favorite political commentators right there in his RSS reader, and whenever he hits refresh, he has all their latest articles, all easily accessible in one place.

Of course you can use this for any topic that interests you, for your work or for hobbies.

From the Writer or Company Viewpoint

So my client asked me why my putting material on his company up on an RSS feed benefited him. A good question.

There are several benefits:

a. It is another avenue of disseminating material on a company

b. Once we put information up on an RSS feed, we notify RSS search engines (this is called ”pinging”)

c. People who write or are interested in blogs go to RSS search engines looking for material to write about

d. Blog writers will reproduce material from the RSS feed or write about it in their blogs

e. This creates high quality links to your web site from the RSS search engines and from the blogs

The way this works is that you put together several articles or press releases, put them up in pages on your web site, then put a summary of these articles, their titles and descriptions, into a special type of file called an XML file.

For a company putting out an RSS feed, it's a great way to put out information and get it to people who are interested in your information quickly. Plus, putting out information in an RSS feed and then notifying the RSS search engines means that your information will also end up in the regular search engines. Then people in the blog universe who go to the RSS search engines like www.technorati.com will tend to read your stuff and quote it or reprint it in blogs and other web sites. This makes for high quality links. Of course you have to write stuff that is interesting and worthy of being quoted.

You can put articles on an RSS feed, or you can put optimized press releases (press releases that are written with your targeted keywords in mind) on an RSS feed. If you want to do both, you should start two feeds, one for the articles and one for the releases. With press releases, there is an added benefit, which is that you can put them in the RSS feed and also submit them to online PR sites that submit their content to big news sites like Google News.

The overall purpose for a company in doing an RSS feed is to disseminate their information on another channel, and to create more links to their site that will raise their search engine rankings.

Copyright © 1996 - 2008 RealWebMarketing.Net

P.S. OM …Thanks for the explanation on the tilda.  It is just artsy for me but I do understand there are more precise definitions as to its origination and use in proper language syntax.  I am still searching out more RSS but John gave us a place to start from.

:-)

Kathy

     permalink

Re: Featured Member ~KES

Wow, Kathy, this is GREAT !!! The permalink URL to your post is already on my clipboard on its way over to be an update post to my How To on RSS Feeds !!!

This is almost a Dummy explanation, very close. Very useful !!!!! Thanks so much for sharing i