It never really took off as a community forum but served quite nicely as a way to authenticate people for myPL, events, downloads etc. O’yeah, and it loves spam, like it’s its job. I finally upgraded it to the latest release so hopefully the fine folks of SMF have figured that part out.

http://planetlotus.org/forum/

As always, enjoy!

PS other updates can be found at this shinny new blog… 
http://planetlotus.org/blog/change-log/

I’ve spent the last week reading everything I could and don’t believe the action warrants removal from this site.

I will go ahead and remove the 2 blogs that requested to be removed if said blog wasn’t removed.

The two blogs involved in the boycott of this site will be missed and I beseech both of you to reconsider.

The investigation is ongoing.

The complaints went beyond the single post, mentioning that the blog had become very negative for some time.

This negativity combined with the post mentioned above lead some bloggers to request their blogs be removed from PlanetLotus in protest.

I want to do what is best for the community and in the process establish some guidelines that will work in the future.

Please give me some time to read through the blog and get a feel for the extent of the negativity.

Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. If you feel this blog should be removed please take a stab at writing up that rule so that i may add it to the site for future possible occurrences.

10/16/2012 – Fixed many areas that were still showing unpublished blogs, there is still work to be done there, but i’ll get there. Fixed Front Page, Search, Top Blogs so far.

8/21/2012 – Inflation, the ad at row 50 has moved up to row 35.

8/8/2012 – All myPL authentication will be moving from the forum to the blog, so become a subscriber today.

8/8/2012 – Deprecation of the forum has begone. All mention of it navigation has been removed.

8/7/2012 – Created this blog. The forum will be closing down soon and this will take it’s place.

Preview it in action here.

Options are as follows:

Parameter	Available Values
show Based on the keyword filter.example: show=”lotus_relevant”;	all not_lotus_related_only lotus_related_and_relevant lotus_relevant asdf
postsexample: posts=”4″;	1-50

Things considered in posting blogs, taken from Planet Eclipse.org:
* Is the blog new? If so get an informal referral from an existing blogger.
* Is the feed written by a real person?
* Is the ratio of off-topic postings not too high?
* Does the feed promote a company or a commercial product?
* Does the feed add more value to Planet Lotus and the Lotus community than it does for the feed owner?
* Is there more than just a welcome posting?
* Does the feed contain advertisements?

IBM / Lotus Partner Blogs:
The following criteria will be applied to categorizing partner blogs. Partner blogs will show up at the bottom of the front page. They will also be added to the planetlotus.org/partners/ page.
* Blogs that are owned by a product company
* Blogs that are on the product companies domain
* Blogs that have product branding on them
* If your company is only you, that’s ok.
* This list is subject to change without notice… as people get creative.

PLEASE NOTE:
1. I WILL NOT post your email address!
2. Blog Title and Description from the feed.
3. Before submitting, please test your blog feed here: http://feedvalidator.org
4. Consider sending a full post feed to increase your keyword score and search results.
5. Feedburner: Please know that PL can not receive posts from Feedburner during the day.

To submit a blog simply copy the text below into an email and send it to planetlotus@collaborancy.com.

————————————————————-
* First Name:
* Last Name:
* Blog Name: Only if there is more then one author to this blog, and there is a 21 character limit.
* Blog URL: http://
* RSS Feed: http://
* Blog Type: Choose the number from below that best represents this blog:
1. Community: An individual/single person blog.
2. Aggregate: A blog with more than one author.
3. Employee: An individual/single person blog and an employees of IBM.
4. Official: A blog with more than one author published by IBM.
* Location: Example: Austin, Texas, USA
* Primary Language:
* Are you an IBM Employee? (used for categorization):
————————————————————-

The Front Page Top Right Banner - 30 days for $399 – Available for Immediate posting.
The availability of this ad is first come, first served. Purchase, or add yourself ad to the queue by emailing advertising@collaborancy.com.

Other Ads…

• The front page ad at row 35 for 30 days $200 – Available Immediately. This spot is open to multiple ads. New ads start at the bottom and work their way up over time as others expire.
• The front page ad at row 100 for 30 days $100 – Available Immediately.
• The front page left side navigation 125px / 125px for 30 days $100 – Available Noon EST 1/8/13.
• The top right banner on every page but the main page 30 days for $125 – Available 5PM EST on 12/1/2012.

Ad Terms…

• Image must measure 468 x 60.
• Image must be PNG, GIF or JPG (Subtle animation is OK.)
• Image size must be limited to 60k. (It will be served from the PL server.)
• Include a static URL back to your site.
• The change of an ad’s image or URL, after the ad has gone live, can be done for a $25 processing fee (International payees don’t have to pay an additional $13 USD transfer fee).
• If the ad is up for auction, you can only bid for the next available 30 day window otherwise everything works first come first serve. All auctions are blind/private.
• Ad purchaser pays all costs of international wire transfers to USA; plus a $13 USD fee my bank charges. Pay by PayPal is also available for an added 4.9% fee to cover the payee charge. Checks are ideal. W9′s and New Vendor forms must be disclosed upfront.

Your ad will receive hundreds of thousands of impressions for the full month from an UBER niche demographic. If you are interested, send me an email for first come first server ads or a bid if an ad is up for auction. I will let everyone know where they stand at the end of the bidding period.