Retired but Active

4000 Spammers and counting

webmaster — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:54:57 +0100

4000 spammers and counting - we must be doing something right.

Belief and Disbelief

Join the Retired but Active Team

webmaster — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:15:00 +0100

About Retired but Active

Retired but active is a group of Wiki sites for the over-50s consisting of

Belief and Disbelief

Forward the Greys

webmaster — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:40:06 +0200

Yesterday we were busy with www.retiredbutactive,com, bringing it more in line with this site.

Always we've avoided forming too close a relationship with a major sponsor so that we can maintain our independence. However we do need some income just to pay our outgoings so we added Google Ads

Now Googles up with the time and offers a service that matches the ads shown on a page with its content.

So on our Fitness After 50 page we ended up with a recruiting ad for the marines.

Forward the Greys

Retired but Active

Finding my way round the site.

Old John — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:30:11 +0200

Getting started.

Retired but Active

I used to be a 'has-been'

webmaster — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:58:33 +0200

My career came to an abrupt and unexpected end!

I wondered who I was now I was no longer defined by what I was

I had been 'the boss' to a hundred or so people, and I had been 'the boss' since my early thirties. 'The boss' was part of my persona; I liked it that so many people liked to work for me, that I had moved on so many careers, solved so many questions, moved so many forward and suddenly that was all gone.

I missed it when it went.

Now I am my wife's husband; my children's father, my grandchildren's grandfather.

I used to be a has-been

Retired but Active

July was a frustrating month

webmaster — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:09:00 +0200

July 2008 was a frustrating month

It started out OK, with a decision to split the site into 3 to allow individual sites to be better targetted and more effective. It would also give us the opportunity to upgrade our software before we fell so far behind that it was a huge job to catch up.

To explain

To cut down on cost and remain independent we use splendid 'open source' software called 'Drupal' together with 'Gallery2' for the picture gallery and 'Phpfreechat' for our chat room.

Retired but Active

Which Theme is the Better?

webmaster — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:01:32 +0200

* The 'Ad Novus' theme used for www.RetiredandActive.org * The 'Ubiquity' theme used for www.Retiredbutactive.com and www.Lifes3rdPhase.com

Internet Safety

Somebody's Law

webmaster — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:40:40 +0200

Yesterday I was planning to draw up a page on the use of eBay to go onto the 'Trading on the Internet' section of Lifes3rd phase, then when I watched the 6:00pm news on the box, up came two items on eBay.

eBay had been fined some extra-ordinary sum for allowing fake Diors to be sold on the site
That they were also auctioning discounted credit notes from major stores.

Well, of course, no market that wants to remain reputable can allow illegal trading on its patch - and ignorance is no defence - but what does that tell us, the punters.

Retired but Active

Moving On

webmaster — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:35:07 +0200

Moving on

We saw the setup of Retired but Active going ahead in 3 phases

Retired but Active

Page Content Competition - Entry Form

webmaster — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:33:34 +0200

Use this form to submit your entry to any of our Page Content competitions

No skills required: You can submit your material in two ways

You can type direct into the 'entry' box double spacing your paragraphs by using the 'return' button twice or
You can create your material in your favourite word-processor and then cut and paste it into the 'entry' box.

Submitting Images

Welcoming Max

webmaster — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:09:05 +0200

Max Lewis Joins

Max comes to us as part of the partnering deal with Fitnessfirst

He adds to our 'fitness after 50' section within our Retirement Lifestyle site www.retiredbutactive.com and has written some essential reading On diet for the over 50s and will be adding more over the coming weeks and months.

Retired but Active

Splitting the Site

webmaster — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:54:11 +0200

The Retired but Active suite nears its target: When we set up Retired but Active back in 2005 we believed it would come of age when it attracted 1,000 visitors a day; On Monday 23rd June it attracted 700 visitors with more than 2,000 pages opened. Not there yet!
Splitting the Site: As pat of the process we have split the site into its 3 components to make it more SEO friendly. The parts are:

www.retiredandactive.org our online community site

Retired but Active

Do you, as a member of the over 50 community, believe that

webmaster — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:29:59 +0200

* The world was made in 7 days as per Genisis * The world started with the 'big bang' and all we see about us is the product of 'natural selection' * Genisis is not literally true but some enity has guided evolution to where it is today.

Retired but Active

The Advantages of Age

rogerwebb — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:09:35 +0200

Sometimes it's difficult to appreciate the advantages of age

When your joints creak, more tablets than food pass your lips and your short-term memory starts to fade, it's hard to imagine that 'maturing' is supposed to be a positive process. As a friend said over the weekend, you know you're getting old when you don't have to run to the gents; because it simply and gently seeps out.

Moans and groans

The World gets by Without My Input

rogerwebb — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:44:50 +0200

Its all very strange...

that I'm up with the lark every morning, eager to turn the radio on and suck in all the misery that the world can generate.

... and just of late it has much on offer

What with earthquakes, African Dictators, droughts and floods, every morning I can find enough to get me worked up for a day or more. Bush or Brown has only to open his mouth, another celebrity get arrested for drugs, some guy in Austria lock up his daughter.......

Then I go on holiday and the world is denied my input

...and it didn't seem to notice.

Moans and groans

No-Talents

Wilde — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:16:21 +0200

I've got no talents - make me a star

I watched a programme on the box last night which explained that TV companies find it cheaper and easier to elevate 'no talents' to stardom than to pay real talents to produce real entertainment. The evedence of my eyes says you don't have to be good looking, and that of my ears says intellegence isn't a pre-requisit.

Well I've got no talents so why did they leave me out? I'm only moderately ugly and my family frequently comment on my dimness. I qualify!

Creative Writing

The Retired but Active Chat Room

rogerwebb — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:13:22 +0200

Chat Rooms put you in touch with the world

Chat Rooms are for teenagers: True: many Chat Rooms are designed for teenagers and others are dominated by them; Retired but Active Chat Rooms are for members only, and we don't have teenage members.

Group Leadership

rogerwebb — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:31:08 +0200

The success or otherwise of Retired but Active

... in its mission to improve our retirement experience depends on our ability to attract Group Leaders with the time and inclination to explain their own area of interest to others.

Retired but Active

Software 'for free'

rogerwebb — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:00:07 +0200

I use the expression 'for free' deliberately as it's one of my pet hates and like a man with toothache I can't resist giving the offending clause a tweak every now and then.

The real expression for software like drupal is 'opensource' either as one word or two. It is living proof of the generosity and weaknesses of much of mankind: a sort of active anti-globalisation that prevents the big software houses from running off with even more of our hard-earned.

Retired but Active

After the Clyde

rogerwebb — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:52:06 +0200

My trip to the Clyde resulted in a complete rebuild of Retired but Active, away went Frontpage and in came CSS. Kevin worked round the clock to remake some of the of the original stuff whilst i worked on new copy to widen the scope of the site.

But the basic problem of giving members real access remained. The only way we could do that involved asking for e-mails, then cutting and pasting. Kevin realised that this involved more work than seemed reasonable for someone who had a living to earn as well and dropped out.

Retired but Active

Days on the Clyde

rogerwebb — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:49:06 +0200

Of course it didn't work. It was mounted on the wrong software (software that resided on the home computer whereas Drupal stands on the server where anyone with the right passwords can access it), aimed at the wrong audience, and it was as boring and static as hell.

Otherwise it was fine.

Retired but Active

Getting Started

rogerwebb — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:42:12 +0200

Getting a website of this complexity up is a great challenge especially as, with limited funds, it has to be done using free open-source software. The software is great, but the guys who write are much more interested in new concepts and facilities than in documenting their stuff properly or in solving 'bugs' that users find.

Nevertheless it is amazing to think that this stuff is available for nothing (if not 'for free')

We often get stuck on the really technical stuff because the software writers assume we're all as up-to-speed as the are - fat chance.

Retired but Active