The Bicolano Blogs Directory gets a makeover before the year ends

The Bicolano Blogs Directory was first conceived of early in February of 2009, but it wasn't until July of the same year that I managed to get things set on the right track. It first found its home on Enthousiasmos, which eventually became the original Musings of the Midnight Writer website. 

When we moved from Blogger to Wordpress, we maintained the same page layout for the directory, which was but a long roll of aggregated links. As we continue with our development, we found a way to better categorize the links and also generate screenshots for each submitted link.

The directory is an integral aspect of the site, so we kept it running even though it was in alpha and beta modes. Last week, we managed to stabilize the output of the directory, but there was a bug on it and the site was showing a triple link listing on the horizontal of the page. I reloaded the plugin and tweaked the css codes a bit, and tadaa...!






I love the flexibility of modemlooper's BP Columns 1.5.3 Theme, because the directory actually blended with it almost seamlessly, but still, I would want a custom template in dark shades and custom text colors. I was thinking of fixing the current header which I already modded earlier to remove the nav menu, but theme modifications require the creation of a BP child theme (a grandchild would have been more convenient but not-so practical option in case of orphaning) so I'll leave that for later or for if and whenever any of our volunteer designers would be able to find time in between their busy scheds to work on custom template.

Now that the Bicolano Blog Directory is in place, we'll have to work on putting back the social networking sites profile widgets, sharing buttons, and badges for optimized networking and sharing convenience.

The directory is now open for user submission. We welcome all Bicolano owned and maintained blog links, with owner option for a reciprocal link badge for Bicolano Blogger Republic. All link submissions are subject for review and may be deleted from the directory if they do not meet basic criteria of existing blog standards and/or if the blog contains less than 70% original content, and/or appears to be used solely as a link farm or contains blatant advertising which steals away the distinct elements of what makes a blog a blog.

The Midnight Journal | Call for Submissions

Musings of the Midnight Writer's main website, The Midnight Circle (Bicolano artists community site) is temporarily not available, sorry! (Don't worry, we're cooking up something ready to serve soon.) Anyhow, The Midnight Journal will continue to be up every week so please do feel free to check it out always!

If you'd like to join us up with your own story, art feature, or a poem or two, please email it to minagayon _at_ gmail _dot_ com and i'd be glad to include it in the next issue coming out in a week's time.

What's in it for you?

Aside from publishing your works and helping you express your ideas to a wider and more proper audience, you also get links for your blog and profile pages. One keyword link to your blog and maximum of two external links (as needed for the story) are allowed in the body of the article. You also get a link back to your author profile through the byline, with optional icon links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The journal is set for release every midnight of Saturday, following Pacific Standard Time (PST). Deadlines for submission is at least 24-48 hours prior to release date.

Here's more: we are open for free advertising of all community activities organized as non-profit events, meet-ups, gigs, workshops, and the likes. Just feed in the info and we'll run it.

Musings of the Midnight Writer supports several advocacy campaigns, such as Green Albay projects of the local government and the public sector, boosting the local creative economy, strengthening and empowering the local artists community, the scholarly study and promotion of the native language and literature, and sharing the love of God. If you ever find yourself in any or all of these lines, feel free to chat me up or send me a message about your goals and the efforts you are doing to help realize them.

Basic Rules and Guidelines

Regular copyright and principles on social media ethics apply on all considerations for publishing, including comments and reactions from readers. It's not a requirement, but we'd appreciate fresh submissions (not yet published or available in the public domains). We welcome musings, poetry, and stories and artworks which depict or relate to fragments of life in the Bicol region or as a global Bikolano.

Let's see how the regular multilingual issues fare and adjust as we go along. Works in Bicol language will be out by the 3rd week of November via our Albayanong Parasurat's ventures (The working magazine title is "Sawangan", which is to be made available in digital and print formats).Cheers for Bicol culture and arts! ^_^

Conjunctive Project

Also, as there is a current need for it, I am reviving this blog to openly discuss a systems and design study for the artist community site we are developing. If you're adept with codes and visuals, and you are willing to collaborate on the project (gratis), as always, we will be thankful for your involvement and support on this project, so be sure to check back frequently for updates and pitch in your ideas and suggestions as you deem necessary.


P.S. If you are looking for the older blog posts, you can still find them here.