Users of WordPress for Toastmasters and the Toastmost.org service are encouraged to join our new Facebook Group, facebook.com/groups/wp4toastmasters

There is also a brand page for marketing and announcements (facebook.com/wp4toastmasters), but the group invites more participation. Members can start their own message threads, answer each other’s questions, share ideas, and generally enjoy more autonomy. Thanks to my friend Carole McCulloch for the suggestion, which is based on her experience with the active support group for easySpeak.

I’m trying to make this less of a one-man-show over time, with participation from others who can share tips or make contributions of documentation and training materials.

Update on the Online Timer

Some features of the online timer function I was so proud of are disabled in the latest software update. It still works fine for the person acting as Timer (or a speaker who wants to use it as a self timer). However, the audience view of the changing colors — meant to make it easier for speakers to keep track of the timing signals in an online meeting — had to be turned off.

I hope this will be a temporary measure while I work on a new design.

Background for the techies in the audience: having a JavaScript function check the server for updates every second or so looked like a distributed denial of service attack to the security software my web host uses because that traffic was coming from many different sources. The WordPress for Toastmasters website got knocked offline briefly because they thought it was “under attack.” I think it should be possible to redesign it so it doesn’t set off those alarms, but meanwhile I’ve had to take that feature offline.