?? 
??I've been debating. So many things to do. How do I pick?
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So, OK, I've jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. I'm already spending too much time pinning on my boards at Pinterest. You've probably seen Pinterest talked about in some other blogs, including posts by Erica (Art Project Girl), Mr. E, ArtfulArtsyAmy, Angie (In Art Class) and more. Sorry I'm not going to try to include all their links here.
Anyhow, I'm hooked on Pinterest but it is a time stealer, and not without problems. Have any of you other "pinners" seen this message yet? "UGH - looks like all are servers are busy. Retry after a while." I've gotten it a LOT. Annoying, frustrating! AND - I cannot figure out the following thing. I seem to be following people I've never heard of and I can't seem to get rid of, but I can't find a list of who I follow anywhere. It seems I should automatically be able to see their names without having to search for them, so I can click on them to see their boards. Hmmm. I'm so technologically confused. I also can't seem to find an all-purpose search tool, to look at random pinboards. Plus I tried to put this button
on my sidebar for a link and I just can't seem to make it work (and it won't work here either). It tells me the address is not valid.Those of you more teach savvy than me, any advice to help me on Pinterest would be appreciated. I think it's a lot of fun and I want to get beyond the challenges.
Meanwhile, back to the Sketchbook Project. I had so much fun doing this last year, and even went to Brooklyn to visit the exhibit, and posted about it several times here here. The problem is, they received SO many sketchbooks (I think it was 10,000) that they can't be viewed very often. When people show up to visit the exhibit, unless you are looking for a specific person's book, you are given a random selection based on what has not been viewed much. With the exhibit traveling all around the country February, I think my sketchbook had a total of only 4 views, and one of them was me, visiting it! It kills me that it sits unopened on a shelf after all the TLC that I put into it. I always tell me students that art is meant to be seen, like music is meant to be heard. It is not very meaningful on the shelf.
If you participated last year, are you "in" again this year? I just can't decide. Anyhow, you can find out about the Sketchbook Project here: http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject
Thanks for bearing with me as I rattle on...
I had problems w/pinterest too. Just setting up my account was hard. I emailed the help site and they got back to me right away w/tips to get my account going. Like the automatic username they give you was already used (even though it didn't say that)....So anyways, try to email the help people at pinterest! good luck, i've played around on it and am having troubles too. I'm following people I dont' know, and I dragged the link into the browser and it is not showing.... They said they have been dealing w/bugs so I will try again in a few days!
ReplyDeleteHi Phyl!
ReplyDeleteI have been using pinterest for the last couple of weeks, and if you look at the top right of your screen where it says your name and then lists "add, boards, people, about" and move your mouse over the "boards" button, two things should show up, including "boards you follow" When you click on this link, it will show you all of the boards that you are following. At the bottom of each board is a "unfollow" button that you can click. As for the "follow me on pinterest" button, I was able to add it to my blog by copying and pasting it into the HTML/JavaScript area of my blog layout. Hope this helps!
Janet (of http://msmalonesartroom.blogspot.com/)
Hi Phyl
ReplyDeleteI participated in the Sketchbook Project last year but am undecided about this year. On the plus side, it will be visiting Los Angeles next year and I could go see it. On the con side, it did take a lot of time to do and I don't want to take on something that feels burdensome time-wise. Every time I think about it I do a Scarlett O'Hara and say I'll think about it tomorrow. Regarding, Pinterest, I haven't taken the plunge yet. Sounds like I would have to reactivate my Facebook account, which I JUST deactivated because I was getting annoying e-mails from people I didn't know regarding questionable activities in which I definitely had no interest. I'm doing a "wait and see" on that, too. I do like the site and enjoy looking at other peoples' pages, though (even though it can be a real time consuming practice)!
I had wondered about the whole "is my work visible" aspect of the sketchbook project. Some of my high school students were going to do it last year, but 1) they wanted to keep going and 2)they were loathe to part with a diary of their high school life (especially the seniors). All of which I understood. . .Good to know about how many "views" yours had (and I bet it is awesome, too).
ReplyDeleteI'm liking pinterest a lot, but also am finding it to be very glitchy. I have downloaded the free app for my iphone. . .And it is almost like 2 different concepts between the pc and iphone. And, I agree with you about the boards. Sometimes it seems boards I followed have disappeared. . .And one time, as I scrolled down the same six or seven boards just kept repeating. . .Random. So, I'm enjoying it in terms of keeping track of projects I like. . .but am finding it to have a lot of glitches. At this point, I'm chalking that up to the "newness" of it, and am hoping it will smooth out in time. . .
Oh, also, when I view the "popular" pins (the items that have been the most "repinned") I've noticed A LOT of extremely conservative/political quotes posted about and that really turns me off. I don't like the idea of using pinterest and viewing uppity quotes. Of course, I could just not look:)
The other weird thing I've noticed is how some companies are getting on the pinterest bandwagon and are using popular search terms to tag their wares. This practice bogs down the search filter with items that are for-sale in a catalog sense (not in a oh-this-is-cool-so-i'll-pin-it-sense). And, that does concern me, as I'm not interested in pinteresting if I'm going to have more ads thrown at me.
Thanks, ladies. Unfortunately, Janet, I know how to find where it says "boards I follow" but when I click it I just get a whole bunch that I have no idea where they came from, and not the measly 4 people I actually HAVE chosen to follow. So I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteJenny, I will try the help tomorrow. I'd hate to ditch the whole project after just one day...
Hopefully they'll straighten out their glitches soon. Meanwhile, I wish there was a "browse boards" button, but so far I don't see anything like that.
Pinterest IS really glitchy and there's nothing it seems we can do about it. I think/guess that there has been an overwhelming interest and it overloads their servers? OR they realize the interest and eventually want to make it a $$$ making site so they're making it glitchy then going to ask for a subscription to a better Pinterest. IS that too cynical? I have this gut feeling that they are going to start asking for a subscription fee soon or something else to make money (maybe selling our interests). I guess time will tell. As for the time of this post, the baby is up and I'm warming a bottle (I stay up late but not THIS late!)
ReplyDeleteAs for the sketchbook. . . hmmm I have no idea. . . do you feel inspired to make another one? It was a ton of work AND you did it last year. I think you'd have to be really inspired to do it again.
ReplyDeleteHey, phly
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about the Pins yet. I don't have an account yet, but it pretty neat.
As for the sketchbook project I was going through the same thing a few months ago, and you told me only a few people looked at your sketchbook.
So with that I didn't do it..
I did go get a new sketchbook and I joined the sketchbook challenge blog. They have a monthly theme...
You post your drawings on flickr. And if you want to do your own theme then go for it....
I hope this helps
Over and out
I am loving Pinterest!!! It's addictive! Love that I can "bookmark" cool ideas and see them in a category! I have the App on my ipod touch and also on my laptop. I'm very happy with it!
ReplyDeleteI am participating in the Sketchbook project again. I just got my sketchbook in the mail. It's smaller but seems to be a better quality. I still might adhere pages together to make them thicker like I did last time and I might add in more elements. I can't remember my theme right now and it's all the way in the other room buried on my table. I loved doing it last year and made color copies of the pages so I could have a copy of the book. I will probably start soon. hope you are having a good summer!
Hi Phyl!
ReplyDeleteI have my "pinterest" button on my blogger blog so I'm going to try to explain how I got it there.
On blogger, go to design then page elements. Then click on "add gadget" and a window pops up. Scroll down to add a "html/java script" (click the plus button) then another window opens. Add a title such as "follow me on Pinterest" and then add the html code that is on the pinterest site that corresponds to the button you like. click "save" and the window will close...then "save" your change to your template and it should now be on your site. You can also "preview" your template first to see if it is there before you save it forever.
I hope this helps...I've redone my art blog as well this summer and have it directly linked to my name, www.jacquelinecassidy.com
Jackie