UK Thereminisation! (Brits - do you fancy a get-together?)

Gordon,

Sounds like a sensible first step - gather the people that are interested without bothering the Worldwide community, other than an initial invitation post to LevNet, Theremin World and Spellbound-L as well as anyone who is clearly UK-based with an online presence.

In some ways it could be perceived as a splintering of an already specialist area of interest, but on the other hand it would also provide us with a focus. I did wonder about 'Theremin UK', perhaps as an off-shoot of TW, but www.thereminhispano.com has shown that there is a valid reason for more specialist sites in addition to the Worldwide ones.

There are a number of 'free' hosting options. As you suggest, blogspot would do for a simple start. There are also free forum hosts like forumer.com and forumforfree.com, though I'm not sure if we really need another forum. Personally I prefer e-mail and RSS, but I know plenty of people like the web-based forum concept more.

... some time later...

I've just set up a quick 'fit-for-purpose' trial on blogspot - http://thereminuk.blogspot.com - see what you think. It's certainly worked well for MusicThing.
From this we can always add and link to a forum should the need arise, or a UK-specific Yahoo group for discussing possible meetings/workshops. Maybe even one day have a Lulu.com page to sell a compilation CD or similar.

If you think this meets our needs, let me know and I'll make it a bit more attractive and relevant. If not, then at least it's a starting point for discussion... If you have a blogger account, then let me know your user name and I'll give you access to the blog too.

J_D - you are brilliant! That is [i]exactly[/i] what I was thinking of.

Did spot a little typo in the headline - ethusiast - no 'n'.

Few suggestions...

Not keen on "post a comment and we'll add you to the register" - how about a link on the sidebar - "contact an admin with your blogger id and we'll sign you up so you can post your own announcements."

I like the [gig] [thereminist] naming convention - we could have some links in the sidebar - Find UK Gigs, Find UK Thereminists - that act like typing "[Gig]" into the Search This Blog field at the top.

I see no problem in announcing gigs and other news items without asking the thereminist in question, but I think we should let people do their own profiles.

I don't think we need to moderate comments - theremins are not really flame-bait.

Can't think of anything else at the moment - basically I love it, and so quick as well. Hope I didn't give you a sleepless night working at it. :-)

Thanks :)

I'm surprised there weren't more mistooks - I bashed my hand off the ground last night playing catch with my son and 1 finger is swollen like a balloon, so I look like I'm typing with ariel fingering, trying to keep the sore finger out of the way!

I'm with you on allowing people to set up their own posts/profiles (unless they're not comfortable with blogger or want other help), but blogger doesn't work with invites based on blogger IDs. We need their e-mail address, then we invite them and they respond, either logging in to an existing blogger account or creating a new one. I had hoped that the profile display would allow us to be e-mailed, but if you switch on e-mail display it just creates a plain e-mail link which can be grabbed by spammers. I had hoped it would be an ebay-like system which would mail us without revealing our address. I'll work a way round it, though...

I just left the default moderation options on - I'll try switching to no moderation. If we get spammed I'll just switch it back.

It may be worthwhile having 2 blogs linked together - 1 for profiles and 1 for gigs - to make things a bit more organised. I like the idea of the search facility - I'll have a look at tweaking it for us.

Better get back to work....

Gordon & J_D disappear into a brief email huddle to sort out a few details about the website.

They will reappear shortly to announce it is ready. Watch this space..

J_D briefly appears in a misty haze to seek constructive criticism

We now have a working (incomplete) site: http://www.theremin.org.uk

Please pop along and have a quick look - we'd be glad of any feedback anybody can offer. I'm hoping that we can do a full launch in the next day or two.

In particular I'm concerned that with numerous thereminist profiles and live gig dates the page could get cluttered and awkward to read.

An alternative would be to have a page for UK theremin news (e.g. workshops, demos, etc.), one for gigs and another for profiles. I think this would be more readable and usable, but it would mean that people would have to be 'invited' to join two separate blogs in order to post their profile AND gig details, which could potentially cause confusion. A separate page would look something like http://thereminuk-artists.blogspot.com/

I'd welcome any comments in support of either option (or suggestions for alternatives).

Gordon's head appears over the parapet

And when you've had a good look at the website and formed some opinions to share, take a glance at the draft announcement and edit it or leave a comment.

http://123.writeboard.com/e7f09dd8e28dca5ee

The password is theremania

Jason - no peeping! We'll submit it as a news item when we are all ready. :-)

Gordon's head descends below the parapet again

edit - double posting - oops!

A few bits of related news, with thanks to Miss Hypnotique and Ninki V for the pointers...

Apparently the folk at thereminhispano.com (http://www.thereminhispano.com/) are organising a get-together. Oscar, if you're following this thread, it would be good to hear a little about that.

Pammy is coming! Pamelia Kurstin's myspace site (here (http://www.myspace.com/pameliakurstin)) confirms she will be touring the UK from September 11. Venues include London and Manchester. No further details at the moment.

Songbird - at which Ninki V will be performing - have a myspace site here (http://www.myspace.com/songbirdclub). Not much on it, but there are posters for previous songbird events which include directions to the Russian Club Bomonti. Once the poster for the event with Ninki V is posted we'll know who else (non-theremin) will be participating.

I really, really want to go and see Pamelia in London. Miss. H dropped me an e-mail a while ago about it, and said that I should go.

The only thing that bugs me about Pamelia's pitch-perfect playing is that she brings in practically every note with this sudden weird sort of crescendo thing, the result of which is quite disconcerting to my ear - the notes sound sort of jolting and sudden, like someone quicKLY GETTI-N-G L-O-U-D-E-R whilst talking. I suppose it fits with the jazzy style of her repertoire though. :)

It would be awesome to see someone with as much talent as her perform.

We're getting closer to going live with the website.

I've drafted a FAQ for the site - here - http://123.writeboard.com/07157ba18560e9e23. If you're not too busy watching grown men kick a ball around (Hi, Sinno!) I'd appreciate your giving it the once-over and leaving a comment.

As before, the password is "theremania".

(You might benefit from paying particular attention to the very last question in the FAQ ;-)