MayDay

Thanks everyone, glad you like them! "MayDay..thanks for the fire truck pic....my friends in the bucket have no idea they are stars because of you!" Are you kidding? There was a row of gals in front of me who were practically ovulating at the whole bunch of 'em :lol:

"The sales staff have big attitudes and people with money don't care. The sales people are just inanamate objects stating boring facts, to them." In larger markets where you're likely to never see a potential client again, I suppose that might work. In Cleveland - it's not good business practice.

Back to Corner Alley - some pics from today (Dec. 12th): New awnings and signage: It was quite busy with the lunch crowd: No one bowling except for this guy - but again, most people were on their lunch hour:

Alright kids... DISCUSS.

Well it seems like I just did one of these "end of the year" threads - time flew in 2006. Here's a sample of all things Cleveland:

Any reason you posted the same article twice?

Well folks - I guess we have enough people interested so it'll definitely be: At Great Lakes Brewing Company http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com 1:00pm on Saturday, December 23rd I don't believe they take reservations for larger groups so we'll probably just try to grab a table or two - no big whoop. If you only have time to grab a drink or make a brief appearance, that's fine. This is a "more the merrier" event, so if you want to bring spouses, friends, offspring, etc., they're all welcome. Just be sure to explain that well, us forumers can be a little odd ;-)

He excels at showing up at things like a steel mill closing, a money-bleeding hospital closing, or any other kind of company closing, blaming the "evil corporations" and promising to hold a "summit". Lots of impassioned after-the-fact mugging for the camera is routine for him. If he's ever proactively recruited a major company to Cleveland, I'm not aware of it. I'm sure he probably has, but his image is not one of being remotely business-friendly.

"In Geauga County (e.g. Bainbridge), they require even larger lot sizes, something like 3 acres. It's how they keep poor people out -- blatant classism, IMO." And not coincidentally, that zoning encourages and perpetuates a car-dependent, lard-@ss lifestyle: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076958/

"Cleveland's lakefront is great in winter, if you can stand the cold wind. I like it when the lake is frozen over and the snow squalls come flying across the ice." Rob, I think you're a great guy, a talented photographer and an all-around cool forumer - but if you really enjoy that, you're a sick puppy! :lol:

I'll dig up some pics later this weekend, but honestly I can only think of maybe one or two buildings that are the least bit remarkable. The structures that used to hold the bars along the river aren't historic for the most part.

It wasn't too bad - 20 books in 2 days - the weather didn't help but there was decent foot traffic. No security cam or tripod, my boyfriend took the photo. :-)

At my book signing at the Arcade:

A beautiful day in downtown Cleveland today :-P

"Their attorney, Terry Gilbert" If there's an ambulance to be chased...

^Already happening (thank god!)

That Sushi 86 is likely to expand, and a Jimmy Johns opened two doors down :-)

Okay folks, caipenar has been doing a lot of work on tweaking the Urban Ohio site. It would really help if we had an idea of what browser everyone is using. I'm presuming that everyone is using the most up-to-date version (Firefox 2.0, IE7, etc.) but if not please clarify which version you are using. This is for your benefit so please take a moment and let us know - help us help you :-)

Before you spend too much time trying to find a workaround for IE5/6, let's find out how many people actually use it. If only 1% of our users are using it then it may not be worth the hassle. My magazine's website is undergoing a rehab and they thought about trying to accomodate the oldest browsers, etc. They found out that 95% of viewers used pretty up-to-date software. I'll post a poll and see what comes up.

caipenar, I hope I emphasized the "appreciate and applaud the effort" portion of my post. I understand conceptually what you're trying to offer - I (and others) are having a hard time seeing the benefits in a tangible way or at least a way where we can visualize how things would be improved. Basically it seems like people find the forum first and it becomes the "base camp" and if enough people in the same area with the same interests join in, a community forms (easiest examples being Ohio's Big 3 cities). If members want to delve deeper, they check out the main site. So when the suggestion comes up of reworking the forum and site so they're more intertwined, it comes across as disruptive to the natural hierarchy that's developed since UO's inception. Right now, the proposals you've put forth seem like a suggestion for change for change's sake, rather than change that would benefit the forum as a whole. I say this as a designer - it helps to step back and put yourself in the mindset of a nominal end-user. Try to remove yourself from the developer mindset and put yourself in, say the shoes of someone who isn't technically savvy, and used to live in Ohio but wants to check up on how things have changed - maybe some photos, and info. Identify the benefits of your proposals to that kind of user and present them - as "real life" examples that non-techie people can clearly understand. Honestly, if you can think of one component of everything that you've proposed that would help - start with that. Explain it as though you're leading us by the hand (because in some cases, mine included, you are) and let it happen one improvement at a time. When you're talking about an established forum with over 1,000 members - change can't happen overnight, but with consensus it'll happen a lot easier. :-)

"Another mindless, impossible-to-prove stat!" There are some subjects about which my knowledge can be questioned - THAT is not one of them! "hold on there -- again, true when first said. can be still true, depends how you look at it. atlanta is the south and toronto to the north. neither are techincally "between" those cities along the direct I-80 path. unless you want to say "Key Tower is the tallest building between NYC and Chicago in the same general longitude region." then that old saw would be dead wrongo. mere semantics? ok." Philadelphia - Comcast Center, currently under construction and when it tops out next year at 975', it'll all be a moot point. :-)

"For example, instead of posting pictures on the forum, you could login and post your pictures to the picture gallery directly so that you can associate keywords, descriptions, etc so that it can indexed and searched more easily" I see one area of concern and that's that ANYone could log in, and upload photos that have no business being there. Access to the galleries absolutely needs to be controlled. Also - I post photos that I don't always want put into the galleries. When I first agreed to be a contributor to UO, the agreement was that I would add images to the gallery that wouldn't be appropriate on clevelandskyscrapers.com. I do NOT want all images I post here to be added to the galleries - I usually send them to Chris to upload them on an as-needed basis. Plus, posting photos is really the best way to alert forumers that "hey, I have some new recent pics for you to check out" - and they should be able to see them without having to click on another link. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely appreciate and applaud your effort. However, the dynamic of this forum - particularly how photos are posted in threads is something that has worked for similar forums (skyscraperpage.com is another) for at least ten years. I really think that one aspect is a case of "if it ain't broke... don't fix it".

But ya are, Blanche - ya are!

I believe it opens tomorrow evening, specifically. Looking forward to seeing you and Mark, KJP! :-)

I'm not a fan of the forum opening within the site. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that take away space for posted photos - in other words, people will have to use some kind of side scroll to view wider photos? I know it happens now but it'll happen more if the viewing area is reduced to accomodate the sidebar.