26 August 2004

Two lost alumni sites

Overlooked in the recent TKG Alumni Resource Page update, it has been discovered that Find a SchoolMate and the Keep in Touch Network have succumbed to competition. These alumni sites were unique in their approach to keeping former classmates in touch with one another in that they did not organize by institution. Rather, visitors entered their names into a massive database and searched by name alone. Neither were particularly effective at attracting registrants as, during the three years surveyed, only one TKG alumnus registered at either.

The former administrators of the Keep in Touch Network have opted to keep their domain (for the time being at least) and are recommending registration with Reunion.com. The Find a SchoolMate domain simply no longer exists.

19 August 2004

TKG Alumni Resource updates

The quarterly updates of sites referenced within the TKG Alumni Resource Page has slipped a little this time around, falling to a six month interval. Nevertheless, there were a few updates and discovery of a new resource for Class of 1984 alumni. Another notable change is the apparent dissolution of the ClassReunion.com site. All that remains is a notice of the domains availlability for purchase. This is not too terribly significant a loss as there were only seven registered alumni at the site during the last survey.

For the Class of 1984, Robert Jewett has established a private, moderated mailing list. Hosted through the services offered by Yahoo! Groups, TKG_Class_of_1984 is designed to serve as a virtual meeting and planning space for members of this graduating class.

The ubiquitous ClassMates.com saw a net decrease of three registered alumni bringing the sum total down to 519. Two disparate groups still represent the former students of Thomas K. Gorman, though now with a roughly equal population. It is hard to believe that the admins of this site have not received feedback describing this situation. Yet, it still persists.

There was no change whatsoever at GradFinder.com, SchoolBuddies.com or the "Cyber Directory" located at TKG. Meanwhile, Alumni.net and SchoolNews.com both showed an increase of one registrant each bringing their totals to eleven and seven, respectively.

Reunion.com saw a net increase of twenty-four registered graduates bringing its total to 193. A new interface change now allows the registrant to pull up a list of all currently registered alumni for any given institution. This is a change from the previous need to recursively search the database for each and every year, individually. That is a step in the correct direction. However, one is still required to become a paid subscriber in order to contact a classmate or post to the message board.

14 August 2004

Surviving Charley

Fred reports that he and Carmen, the house, and Astrea have survived the onslaught of Hurricane Charley:

"We made it. Orlando was badly hit but we only got high winds. No damage to Astrea!! (I made four trips to the marina to keep adjusting lines and lashings as I thought of new vulnerabilities.)"

This is exceptionally good news given that Astrea had just undergone a significant overhaul. She was recently given new hull paint, new varnish, new dock lines and is in the process of having a fuel tank replacement.

04 August 2004

Recent canine adoptions

Margaret recently posted a message to her M$N Communities site announcing the newest member of their household. Samantha is a three month old Rottweiler and is named in memory of Theodore's canine companion who died of cancer almost four years ago. The adoption celebrates Margaret's retirement from teaching.

Elizabeth and Herman have recently announced that they have adopted a second retired greyhound. Catalina joins Oberon as the newest members of the May household.

continue to the July 2004 archive ⇒