Our Regional NaNoWriMo Hashtag

So, back in September, I posted this on the Regional forums and gave a voting deadline of October 31st, so the newly chosen hashtag could be used in posts starting on November 1st.  The text of the post reads as follows:

"Hello Sockmonkey Writers!

I know, we have our Sockmonkey mascot and we're #PCSockmonkeywriters year round, but, I have seen a number of other regions with NaNo specific regional hashtags and thought it might be fun (and a useful way of telling our regular writing posts from our NaNo posts) to come up with a regional NaNo hashtag.  I know, when it comes to hashtags, short and sweet is the name of the proverbial game, BUT, we want to make it easy for people to find us here on the NaNo site, too, should they choose to do that.  Our region is Tacoma/Pierce County, not just Pierce County, but we can use just Pierce County.  Here are a few ideas - vote for one of these or hit "other" and suggest one.

The choices listed were:
#NaNoPierceCo
#PierceCoNaNo
#NaNoTacoPierceCo
#TacoPierceCoNaNo
Other

(I made it Taco, for short, so it would rhyme with NaNo and Co - plus, if we went with one of those, we could add little tacos to things... hahaha.)

Please vote and leave any suggestions you might have!"

One suggestion was added to the thread:

It reads: "If we are going to be meter about this, we could go NaNoTacoPieCo and then enjoy dessert with our posts."  Which a number of people liked and replied that they agreed with.

The voting was pretty close near the end there, between NaNoPierceCo and Other - for NaNoTacoPieCo - but, in the end, with 55 percent of the 29 votes, the winner was #NaNoPierceCo.

So now, on any of our regional NaNo related social posts, and here on the blog, now that it's being updated with the information, our NaNoWriMo specific posts will be tagged #NaNoPierceCo.

Thank you to everyone who commented and voted!

Introductions Are In Order (The Sockmonkey Saga Continues!)

If you're new to the region, you may not know the story of our mascot, Sockmonkey.  The story, as of the end of last NaNoWriMo, can be found on our About SockMonkey Writers page.  We ended two rounds of voting with a tie.  It was a tie between the same two names - Polly Esther Socks, submitted by notagain and Pierson submitted by missmobtown.

I had announced that, if the second round of voting was a tie, I would just roll a die and randomly choose one to be our mascot's new name.  Unfortunately, I found that I just couldn't let the choice be determined randomly, because I liked both names (one for its humor and the other because it represented our county) and they seemed to fit.  After a bit of searching, I came across another solution that involves both names.

I bought a lovely outfit for Sockmonkey and adopted a Sockdog friend, allowing us to have Polly Esther Socks and Pierson!

My daughter volunteered to draw a graphical icon of the two of them together that I could use on our social sites, which you can see above.  Their images will be gradually replacing the ones already present in our online spaces.  We may also do some regional fundraisers (to help offset the costs of room rental and other event expenses) involving our newly named mascots in the future.

Whether you suggested a name, voted in person or online or any combination of the three, thank you for participating in naming our regional mascots!  If you'd like to meet them and have your picture taken with them (possibly to share on our regional social media), please come to any event I'm hosting this November - they'll be waiting. 

*Whoops!  I guess I posted the wrong link for our About page in the text.  I just edited it to change that.  Sorry for the confusion. 

Dusting off the cobwebs

Those of you who are fairly recent members of the SockMonkey Writer's Group probably had no idea we had a blog.  Heck, most of our somewhat longer term members probably never even saw it when it was active - back in the spring, summer and early fall of 2013.  This inaugural post from April 19th, 2013, explains what the original hope for this blog was, back when it was started by the then current Admins of the Facebook group (and NaNo Municipal Liaisons) Cassandra and Shelly.  [Thank you to both of you for the work you did within the group and getting this blog going!]

As stated in that post, there were many reasons (and hopes) behind its creation.  While Facebook can be a handy place to share a quick link or update or create a group event, not every writer in the area uses it and this leaves them out of much of the group's discussions. Plus, the algorithm being what it is, only about 6% of group members even see new posts, unless they've chosen to always see them or interact with the group a lot.  This, and the way posts quickly scroll out of view, means lots of information and conversation gets missed.  This blog was being used to catalog the links that were shared in the group at the time, to allow people to see what they might have missed - and to be able to discuss it outside of the group by making it easier to find.  Cassandra and Shelly hoped this blog could become a central place to collect information on members' blogs or websites, to share book recommendations, writerly events in the area and so forth.

Unfortunately, they stepped down from their roles and those who stepped in after them didn't end up continuing to update the posts and information on this blog, so it has been dormant for nearly 6 years.  After my first November as a Municipal Liaison and Group Admin, I realized it would be really nice to have a central, non-social media oriented, place to point members so they could learn more about the group, each other and writing, etc.  I didn't have time during NaNo to work on it, but I felt that this blog could end up being that central place.

It has taken me a bit of tweaking, but I have made a number of changes to both the look and function of the blog.  There are links to all of our (currently used) social media platforms, plus a few widgets so you can see what's been posted and shared on them, even if you're not a user of that platform.  There is also now an "About" page with some of the history of our group and our mascot and a "Writerly Resources" page where some of the links that are shared in the Facebook group or on various other sites will be centrally located - so you don't have to scroll through a bunch of old posts! There's also a questions/comments box and a way you can react to posts even if you don't want to leave a longer comment, plus, if you'd like to just get an email when something new is posted, you can sign up for that.

I do hope that this blog will become a place where we can share conversation and ideas with any in our group who choose to join in.  I know it may take some time for people to decide to migrate over and take a look.  That's okay.  I'm just hoping this is the start of something that writers in the Tacoma/Pierce County area will participate in and enjoy.

Please start by letting me know what sort of things you'd like to see on this blog or what you think of the layout.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you!