Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes! (and some videos)

[Amber]

Hello, fellow Nerdfighters!

For those of you who don't know me yet, I'm Amber. :)
I've been put in charge of Nerdfighter projects, as well as reorganizing the forum. I don't want to waste time here talking about myself, sooooo, you can check out my profile to learn a little bit more about me. I love meeting new Nerdfighters, so don't hesitate to say hello! :)

Now on to business!
This blog post comes in three parts:
Part One: The Forum
Part Two: Nerdfighter Projects
Part Three: Featured Videos


Part One: The Forum

After taking all of your suggestions into consideration, and brainstorming with the other Ningmasters, I've made some preliminary changes by adding new categories in the forum. It's still a work in progress, and we'd love any feedback from all of you!

Check out the new layout of the forum, which we will continue to adjust as time goes on, and as we get feedback from everyone.
I started a forum discussion where you can ask questions, leave comments, and otherwise discuss the proposed new categories:
New forum Categories.
Please read the discussion and leave your feedback there! :)



Part Two: Nerdfighter Projects

The old list of Nerdfighter Projects on the front page of the Nerdfighter Ning was incredibly outdated. Some of the projects on the list had long since been abandoned, and others had never even begun at all!
The list has now been updated to include some of the current and ongoing projects that have been inspired by Brotherhood2.0.
You can check out the updated list on the left-hand side of the main page!

That list is one way to introduce everyone to some of the great Nerdfighter projects that are currently going strong, but it's not the only way! You can also make blog posts and upload videos to the ning.
Starting this week, new videos will be featured in the videos section every week on Monday. Hopefully, this will encourage more people to start uploading their videos to the ning, and it wil give all of us the opportunity to see some of the quality videos that we might otherwise be missing out on.

Which brings me to...


Part Three: Featured Videos!

To kick things off this week, I've featured a few videos that Nerdfighters have posted on the Ning in the video section. A couple of these are fun, entertaining videos, and a few others involve good causes that Nerdfighters are supporting.
You can check them out at the top of the page in the videos section, but here's a quick rundown of the videos currently being featured:

-A video from Belen and Julian of It Takes II titled "Watchman", in which Belen feels like someone has been watching her! ;)

-A video by Nerdfighter Jeni, in which she and a friend perform a song called "Nerdfighting Puppy Like" for Willy!

-A video by Barry Aldridge, in which he performs some knock knock jokes to participate in Red Nose Day sponsored by Comic Relief!
After you check out his video, you can check out more Red Nose Day videos on YouTube, and the Youtube Community Donation page.

-A video by Cassandra Hamilton, in which she talks about her experience living with Multiple Sclerosis and her participation in The National MS Society's Walk for a Cure to MS.

-A video by Bobby Jones, in which you get to see some of the wonderful volunteer work that he is involved in. This particular video shows the progression of a house being built through the efforts of Bobby and other volunteers of the Christian Appalachian Project.




I also wanted to share some videos that weren't uploaded to the Ning, but can be found on YouTube.
So, here are a few videos from some awesome Nerdfighters (indcluding some Nerdfighters that you're most likely already familiar with).
If you haven't checked out all of their channels, I suggest that you do so! :)


A hilarious video in which Bill Martin (aka Dr. Noise) teams up with Monica, of Shortsisters756, and introduces a new intro for Monica and Chellie's channel. Most of you probably already know that Monica and Chellie vlog back and forth, Brotherhood 2.0 style, and consistently put out quality videos.




A music video for Hank's version of "Nerdfighterlike" (original by Lauren Fairweather), made by Dave of Nerdfightastic. It was posted on their collab channel as a bonus Valentine's Day video, but it can be enjoyed anytime of the year! The members of Nerdfightastic decided to not only vlog, but to also set up a website, on which they communicate and sometimes post blogs in lieu of videos. Check out their channel for more incredibly NERDFIGHTASTIC videos!




Last video is from another collab channel called A Great Perhaps. Allie and her boyfriend Chris post highly enjoyable videos, and in addition to vlogging, they showcase their poetic and musical talent in many of them, including "A Great Perhaps", in which Chris plays the music to an original poem that he wrote, while Allie sings the lyrics.
Allie performs both wonderful covers, as well as original songs. I highly recommend checking out her covers of Rihanna's "Disturbia" and Ben Folds' "You Don't Know Me".

In the video below, Allie talks about the scholarship contest that she's participating in, and sings a song that she wrote about it, to the tune of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl."
Check out the video and their channel, and if you can spare a couple of minutes, help Allie out by following the quick and simple steps in the sidebar.
It literally only takes a couple of minutes and it would help her out so much!


I know that there may be other Nerdfighters participating in the same scholarship contest, so if any of you are doing this too, you should make a blog post and/or upload videos about it!


Again, I'm hoping that more Nerdfighters will start uploading their videos to the Ning now that new videos are going to be featured every week.
If you see a video that you think other Nerdfighters would enjoy, send me a message and let me know, so that I can check it out!

Hope you all enjoyed this first round of videos, and I'm looking forward to continuing to help contribute to the Ning!

DFTBA!
-Amber

[Elise]

Great job setting this up so eloquently. I look forward to the new lay out and the updated projects!

[Jenny]

I'm part of a Nerdfighter-collabchannel called twonerdygirls, but we are actually more than two ;) We are 5 girls from Germany, USA and Australia all united trough our Nerdfighterness :)
It would be awesome if we were on the list of Nerdfighterprojects!

[Beth]

This is great, Amber! I'm one of the culprits who don't upload videos on the Ning (or really use the ning all that much, period) but I'm working on it. I'm impressed by the things you and the other Ningmasters have been working on.

[Elise]

Great job setting this up so eloquently. I look forward to the new lay out and the updated projects!

[Barry Aldridge]

Hey Amber

Thanks very much for the feature for my Red Nose Day video.

Brillant blog I look forward to more of these.

- Barry

[James]

great first blog, you are very articulate.... and of course major kudos for using bowie references... looks like all the ch-ch-changes are for the better... awesome... and the obligatory OMFBowie

[ItTakesII]

Sweet, thanks for the feature, Amber :)

-Julian

[Chip, A Former Ningmaster]

Just telling everyone (although I guess most will never read this) I am working on sorting the uncategorized threads, so don't be surprised if your thread disappears and magically reappears somewhere else.

[Meaghan]

Awesome job, and thanks for linking the Strangers on the Ning page! It made me sooo happy :D

[Kerri]

Could 5awesomemaritimers be added to the list of projects? We just started today and it would be great if nerdfighters knew :)