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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Chatterbox: In This Month's Issue
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Cricket on iPad!
Yes, in the next few weeks Cricket will release a digital edition of the magazine for iPads. (A version for Kindle Fire is scheduled for the fall.) The digital edition has some cool extra features. There are links that will take you straight from your iPad to the website, where you can post thoughts about the stories and talk to friends on the Chatterbox, ask questions of featured authors and artists, email the Letterbox, and see contest winners. You can also fill out the Crossbird puzzle on your iPad, view short videos and slideshows, and see early sketches for many of the illustrations in the issue.
We’ll let you know when the digital edition becomes available and how you might download it to an iPad or get a digital subscription. The May/June issue (O.K., we're a little late) will be available to everybuggy as a free sample.
We’re hoping that, with the links in the digital editions, more kids will find their way to the Chatterbox. The digital editions will also make it easier for kids all over the world to get Cricket. Cricket has partnered with a global educational Internet company called ePals that has a growing network of children and classrooms in countries around the world. In time, many of these kids should also be drawn to the Chatterbox.
New Stuff on Chatterbox and Coming Redesign!
In order to help new kids using the digital editions to start sharing ideas on the Chatterbox, there are links at the end of many of the stories with a question to prompt an online response. These links go to new threads in the This Month section. You’ll see them there starting today. We hope you’ll post your thoughts on these threads, too.
Finally, in the next few months—perhaps by the fall—we’re going to be redesigning and updating the website and Chatterbox. Among other things, we’re hoping to improve your experience working together to create stories, perhaps with a Gallery for sharing stories and art, and maybe photographs and even video projects.
We know everybuggy wants some kind of search engine, but
we’d also like to hear more about your experience working with the Chatterbox.
1) Do you think the six basic categories of the Chatterbox (Pudding’s Place, Inkwell, Down to Earth, and so on) make sense? Should we keep these? Make more or different ones?
2) What’s it like sharing your stories and role-playing on the Chatterbox? Does it work O.K.? Is it frustrating and disorganized?
3) Is there anything about the Chatterbox that you would add or change?
Thanks so much for giving us your opinions.
Admin
submitted by Admin
(June 25, 2012 - 1:43 pm)
(June 25, 2012 - 1:43 pm)
When you do the redesigning project,will you keep the current threads?
One of the most annoying things, to me, is when the threads go to the bottom of the catagories.
Yes, I'm quite sure we'll keep the current threads. And we agree about threads going to the bottom. We will take all comments and suggestions into consideration. That's why we're asking. Thanks for your input, True!
Admin
(June 25, 2012 - 5:52 pm)
Top
(June 26, 2012 - 10:52 am)
WHEEE! At the same time I got an iPad! WHEEE! Yay, I'm so excited!!!
1) Do you think the six basic categories of the Chatterbox (Pudding’s Place, Inkwell, Down to Earth, and so on) make sense? Should we keep these? Make more or different ones?
I think they make sense, but I'm just wondering: Chirp at Cricket, although people mostly use it for SI's and 'I'm New' threads and things, originally it was meant to talk about Cricket. How is it different from This Month; is it because in CaC you can talk about favorite buggies and Cricket as a whole, and in TM you can't? This isn't really something that I'm complaining about, I'm just wondering. Also, RP's are scattered throughout the categories, and there are very many of them...
2) What’s it like sharing your stories and role-playing on the Chatterbox? Does it work O.K.? Is it frustrating and disorganized?
No, it's great, anything that's disorganized has to do with our own conflicts and not the website itself.
3) Is there anything about the Chatterbox that you would add or change?
Well, hunting for threads is annoying, and so is trying to find a decent way to include a picture... this may be difficult and interfere with security and stuff, but it'd be awesome if you could just attach a file from your documents without doing the copy paste stuff.
Gah, I'm obnoxious. I set out to give good feedback, but criticism just seems to flow from me. I hope I haven't sounded ungrateful, I love the Chatterbox as it is.
This is completely irrelevant, but Spamdragon says rpky and I'm in an RP on Scratch in which one of the characters is named Ky.
(June 26, 2012 - 11:17 am)
I love the idea! Where would we get it?
I think the website is set up perfectly already.:)
(June 27, 2012 - 1:34 pm)
If old threads or whatever have to be deleted, Admin, then please let us know because the Percy Jackson RP Parts are only on here and we're sending it to Rick Riordan so we'd have to copy it all from here.
1) Do you think the six basic categories of the Chatterbox (Pudding’s Place, Inkwell, Down to Earth, and so on) make sense? Should we keep these? Make more or different ones?
I think they all work out very well! Except like CaC, which (like Tiffany said) was technically meant for talking about Buggies but people usually do SIs and intro threads on there. I think that I would still keep it for that purpose though. :-)
2) What’s it like sharing your stories and role-playing on the Chatterbox? Does it work O.K.? Is it frustrating and disorganized?
It works great and I wouldn't change a thing about it. Even though they can be confusing etc. it's all our fault. We're just a little crazy! :-)
3) Is there anything about the Chatterbox that you would add or change?
No, not that I can think of. I really love it how it is. :-)
(June 27, 2012 - 2:55 pm)
Woot! Development for the Chatterbox!
Come to think of it, we've actually been around for a while. O.o Four years is a long time on the internet.
I think all the Chatterbox sections should be kept except one, the Chirp at Cricket section, which just seems kind of redundant since all the stuff people do on it they also do other places. I just don't know how you would get rid of it, because then what would you do with the threads that were already there?
And thank you so much for thinking of us and our RR's, RP's, and such! These have definitely become an indespensible part of Chatterbox life, so to speak. They are hectic at times certainly, but I can't really think of any design improvements that would fix that.
In general I think we should be able to title all threads, not just the ones in Blab About Books; you've already mentioned the search engine; lessee-
I think people should have a way of deleting their own posts at least for a limited time. I don't know if that's possible without accounts, but maybe. (Maybe you could make accounts that don't require email adresses or full names. Food for thought.)
Maybe we could have a permanently topped General Notices thread, with newer posts at the top, where people could issue notices like calling people for their turn on an RR and such. Maybe it wouldn't even have to be a thread, just a box in the corner or something.
Thanks for your suggestions, Emily. We appreciate your input.
Admin
(June 30, 2012 - 3:19 pm)
I've noticed that people have been talking about a search engine. Well on some other thread someone (I can't remember who) figured out how to look for threads quickly. If you go onto google and type in cricketmagkids.com+(BAB; CAC, Inkwell, PP, DtE...) and then some part of the thread like Percy Jackson RP or Jasmine is a... It really works.
Thanks for reminding us all, Elizabeth!
Admin
(July 1, 2012 - 1:34 am)
You're welcome! :)
(July 1, 2012 - 1:51 am)
1) Do you think the six basic categories of the
Chatterbox (Pudding’s Place, Inkwell, Down to Earth, and so on) make
sense? Should we keep these? Make more or different ones?
Like what other people have been saying, Chirp at Cricket seems a little bit unnecessary. The other ones, though, I think are really good. I have seen some things on, for example, Chatterbox Bookclub on the InkWell, and I think it would go better on BaB. Maybe you could have a thing where someone posts a thing and you think it would get more comments on another catagory and have a little Admin note that says something like: We've duplicated this thread on *Chatterbox Catagory* as we think the idea might be appreciated better there. To avoid confusion *thread creator's name* we would like you to approve this, and after you do, to avoid further confusion, we will delete the thread on the *original Chatterbox Catagory posted in.* We should have a search engine where you can type the name of the thread you want to find (this might be good for people who have been gone for a month or so) and a link to the thread can pop up. It would be easier than typing it on Google. And if the thread does not turn up, people can comment on why they want it and if a certain amount of people want it back, Admin can bring it back.
2) What’s it like sharing your stories and role-playing on the Chatterbox? Does it work O.K.? Is it frustrating and disorganized?
Awesome. We, the Chatterboxers are the only disorganized ones.
3) Is there anything about the Chatterbox that you would add or change?
Nope. Except what I said earlier in response to the first question.
(July 14, 2012 - 8:54 am)
Oh, one quick formatting thing:
When I have posted a comment on a thread, when it goes to the first page of the thread, if the original text is really long, I have to scroll down a lot to get to the "back to the Inkwell" link. If you could put the "make a comment" link and the "back to the ***" links at the top of the page, it would be a lot easier.
(August 17, 2012 - 7:41 am)
I have a Kindle Fire so I can't wait for that version!
1). I like the 6 basic Chatterbox categories, but I think a new one would be cool too. Don't get me wrong the 6 origonal ones are great, but maybe you could put in a new one just to change it up, and start fresh without over 60 pages of dead threads.
2). I think the way it works is fine, the only problem is that after the first person posts on your new thread it goes directly to the back. Sometimes not even to the last page, just a random page and you have to look for it. That is frustrating, but otherwise it's fine.
3). I would definately add a search engine, so you could search for the thread you want to find, or maybe you could search for a name and all the threads on that catagorie that that name was mentioned in would show up. Nothing really needs to be changed though, everything else is fine.
(July 31, 2012 - 12:14 pm)
How could we purchase the iPad version?
(August 19, 2012 - 10:21 pm)