It’s been a while since we made mention of The B, our reader-submitted news page here on The Bluegrass Blog. The B features content written by our users, and we hope you will take a look and see what it is all about.

In fact, you might consider taking a look there each time you pay us a visit. You can always get there by clicking the link just under the image at the top of the page.

Any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can submit news items for The B, and registration is quick and free. Posts are moderated prior to publication, but all submissions that are germane to a discussion of bluegrass or acoustic music - and are not profane or abusive - will be approved.

We invite anyone with news to share with our readers to consider submitting it for The B. Event or product announcements, concert/festival reviews, or any bluegrass-related information which isn’t likely to find its way to the main page of The Bluegrass Blog is welcome on The B.

Registered users are also entitled to post comments to any posts, whether on the main page of The Bluegrass Blog or on The B. Just look for the Comment link at the bottom of each post.

Click here to register, or here to visit The B.

Be sure to take a look at The B, our reader-submitted news page here on The Bluegrass Blog. There are a number of new posts that are worthy of your attention.

In fact, you might consider taking a look there each time you pay us a visit.

Any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can submit news items for The B, and registration is quick and free. Posts are moderated prior to publication, but all submissions that are germane to a discussion of bluegrass or acoustic music - and are not profane or abusive - will be approved.

We invite anyone with news to share with our readers to consider submitting it for The B. Event or product announcements, concert/festival reviews, or any bluegrass-related information which isn’t likely to find its way to the main page of The Bluegrass Blog is welcome on The B.

Registered users are also entitled to post comments to any posts, whetehr on the main page of The Bluegrass Blog or on The B.

Click here to register.

We just finished the first round of upgrades to the blog. We modifed some code to make things more effecient and easier to use. Most of the changes are unseen and you won’t even notice them, but there is one major enhancement that you might notice.

Those that have posted in our user contribution section known as The B will notice some modifications to the post writing screen. The interface now sports the upgraded visual editor as well as a tab labeled “Code” for those that would prefer to write html code directly. Spell checking is now available as well. Just click on the spell check icon and it will check your draft for errors.

The other big change is the way submissions are handled. Now when you are writing a draft you can save it and come back later to work on it. You’ll see it listed at the top of the page as “Your Drafts:” and can simply click on the post title to begin editing it again. Once completed, the “Submit” button now more effeciently tags the draft as submitted and it will be taken out of your drafts list and forwarded to John and I for approval. This is a huge advancement over the previous system which, I’ll admit, was somewhat confusing.

If you have never posted in The B before, all that is required is a simple registration and you can then submit your own news/opinion items for inclusion in The B.

Join today and help us blog about bluegrass!

There are a number of new posts on The B - our user-submitted section of The Bluegrass Blog - which are worthy of some attention. This is where any registered user can post news or information that they would like to share, or request information from other readers.

Like all posts here on The Bluegrass Blog, registered users are invited to add their comments - and some discussions have become quite heated, and taken on a life of their own. Registration is quick and free, and required to enable us to prevent spambots from littering the site with junk entries.

Some recent posts on The B have heralded the new web site from mandolin legend Herschel Sizemore, a site dedicated to classic cardboard show posters, some thoughtful comments about the value of regional bluegrass societies, and information about a number of festivals.

We invite you all over to visit The B, and to consider submitting items of your own for publication there. The rules are few, but strictly enforced:

1. You must be a registered user at The Bluegrass Blog.
2. Your post must be germane to bluegrass or acoustic music
3. No profanity or abusive language is tolerated
4. All posts are subject to editorial review before publication, and submissions will not be accepted if they fail to meet the criteria above.

Please have a look at these recent posts on The B, and add your own thoughts as well.

We’ve had a number of new posts recently on The B, our user-directed section of The Bluegrass Blog.

There is information in one post about Eddie & Martha Adcock’s annual homeless benefit concert (on December 10), plus a reader review of the newly released Nickel Creek compilation CD (Reasons Why), info about a band in Spokane, WA (New Horizons Bluegrass Band) and several questions from readers hoping other readers can pass along some information.

You can read these, and all the other reader-submitted posts on The B.

Any registered user of The Bluegrass Blog can submit a post for The B, and registration is quick, painless and free of charge. We invite everyone to register and be a part of it.

Avatars are those small icons that are used to identify users in online discussions, or in more complex form, in many online games. If you frequent such sites, you may have seen them before, though the word, or its use in this setting, may not be familiar.

The term is borrowed from Hindu philosophy, and is taken from the word Avatāra, a Sanskrit term meaning “descent,” used to refer to the various incarnations on earth of divine beings.

Gravatar.com is a site that regulates gravatars (globally recognized avatars), icons that can be used to identify a user with the same image on different bulletin boards and discussion sites. We chose to use Gravatar.com when we launched The B, our user-driven section of The Bluegrass Blog, because it was so widely used, and integrated their system into ours.

Unfortunately, just at the time when we launched The B - and enabled commenting on all posts - Gravatar.com stopped accepting new submissions to allow them to update their system. What had been initially promised as a process of a few weeks dragged into months, but everything is back up and running now, and we urge our registered users to submit a gravatar.

Every registered user here at The Bluegrass Blog is automatically assigned our default gravatar, shown here to the right. It is a simple thing to upload your own custom icon via gravatar.com, and once your icon is approved (obscene, profane or pornographic images are not allowed), it will appear alongside any posts you make on The B, and any comments you add there, or to posts on the front page of The Bluegrass Blog.

Your custom gravatar can be a small image of yourself, your favorite musical instrument, your pet, or a graphic of your own design.

There is no fee to register and submit a gravatar, and we hope that our readers and commenters will visit Gravatar.com and do so soon.

There are two detailed festival reports recently posted in The B.

The first comes from a user who goes by Lynyrd Banjovy, describing the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration in Kentucky. The other is from Ted Lehmann, and it’s about the Farmpark Bluegrass Festival in Denton, NC.

Find both posts in The B, where any of our registered users can submit a post to be considered for publication.

A great many of the folks who have stopped by to visit with us this week in the IBMA Exhibit Hall have asked variants of this same question: “What is The B?“ or “How can I post something in The B?”

It seems that a recap is in order.

In a nutshell, The B is a section of The Bluegrass Blog where our readers get to select the topics. You are also encouraged to comment - both on the posts in The B, and any subsequent reader comments. You must be registered to contribute, but registration is quick, painless and costs you nothing.

Submissions to The B are moderated, so they don’t appear immediately, only after Brance or I have a chance to look them over. We want to ensure that the contributions are germane to the interests of our readers, and be able to prevent any spam or indelicate material from getting through.

Brance posted in some detail about all this a few weeks ago, so a read through of that post may answer a lot of questions about The B, and how you can be a part of it.

Please join in!

The B. It’s here. Let me tell you about it.

The Bluegrass Blog will continue to be your source for bluegrass news. John and I will bring you the news daily here on The Bluegrass Blog as always. But while you’re here you might as well check out what other bluegrassers have to say about things. Instead of trying to keep up with a bunch of sites, just come in and sit down. You’re a Bluegrasser. You belong here.

The B is a new addition to The Bluegrass Blog that will allow you to read what others are saying, and contribute yourself. You see, The B is YOUR blog. That’s right, you get to blog in The B. If you are a registered user here at The Bluegrass Blog you can just login and start blogging. When you write a new post and submit it, John and I will read it over, add keyword tags as needed, and then publish it - unless we feel that it is not germane to bluegrass or acoustic music, or would be offensive to our readers.

Once we publish your post, it’ll show up in The B, with your picture next to it if you’ve registered for a gravatar. Other people will then be able to comment on what you wrote, and of course, you can respond to them.

We’ve also added a prominent link to The B in the header navigation at the top of every page on The Bluegrass Blog, so you should have no problems getting there. The Home link will always take you back to the front page - where you are now.

A word about comments. (more…)

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes and we’ve got something new for you today. The B is now live. Let me tell you about it.

The B is a dedicated section of The Bluegrass Blog where you can contribute. All users are now Contributors with the ability to draft posts for The B. You can write about anything you want to talk about in the bluegrass world. John and I will review all the submissions, take care of some back end stuff like adding keywords, and then publish them. If a submission is especially well written and thoughtful we may even upgrade it to the front page of The Bluegrass Blog.

All new posts from this point forward, including posts on both The Bluegrass Blog and The B, are now open to comments. Comments are no longer moderated, you can say whatever you want. There is only one rule. No obcenities. Your first comment will be moderated, to make sure you’re a real person, and after that they will be published as soon as you hit the submit button.

This is a new approach to blogging and discussion in the Bluegrass world. All you have to do is login to The Bluegrass Blog and you’ll be right where you need to be. There are some more details and instructions for drafting posts available once you login. Let’s hear what you have to say…