Sky Watch 3: It's All Good.

SandyCarlson writes:
My daughter Adella, who is nine, gave me this photo of a stable in Southbury, Connecticut, USA, for this post. She has been participating in Sky Watch for the past few weeks and enjoying the interaction with so many good people as she travels the world via this site. You who have left her comments have been very gracious and encouraging; in turn, she is becoming more and more excited about digital photography as well as about the simple acts of looking up and sharing what she sees.

This is the magic of Sky Watch. We have a simple agenda: to share a picture of our skies and to spread friendship.

Though Adella may be the youngest Sky Watcher, she is not the only young one. Rachel also brings her youth and exuberance to this weekly event. There are also grandparents and great-grandparents among us. I think it's wonderful that this activity can and does include people from every age group and from around the world. It's all good.

Thanks for being here,
Sandy

Step Right In To Skywatch (2)

My Opening Photo+Poem for Skywatch Blog Week (2) is of QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK - GRANTHAM. ------- Please excuse the quality of the Photo and the Poem. As you can see the Poem was written in 1994 and the photo was taken in around 1990. This Photo won me the competition in 2000 in Germany at Sankt-Augustin -- Grantham's Twin Town -- with my name inscribed on the Silver Plate and a certificate for me to keep(the winner holds the plate for a year).

Well here we are the 2nd Week of Skywatch Blog- -- It seems only yesterday that we were waiting -with bated breath- - at 7.30pm Thurs eve to see how new Skywatch Blog went, and if Posting worked. ( A nail biting 10 minutes) --------- Well it exceeded beyond all hope - with 326 posts. The Team (TOM - SANDY - KLAUS - IMAC) would like to THANK one and all for your posts which made SKYWATCH BLOG a Great success.-----Keep up your good work and most important enjoy yourselves.

Please be aware this is a family site and children will be viewing - also please mention Skywatch as you post your SKY Photos - Thank you.

SO NOW - ON WITH THE SHOW

All 327 Links Now Removed
Starts again tonight
Thursday 31st July
@
07.30pm GMT
Thank you
The Sky Watch Team

Step Right In

Welcome to the 'New' home of Sky Watch Friday.

After I was ill last week I realised that things had to change a little, I needed helpers. While blogging and hosting Sky Watch I have had advice, help and friendship from many... but two people stood out.. Imac and Sandy Carlson. So I was pleased when they excepted the offer to form a Sky Watch team. At the same time I thought a new blog was in order and when I'd mentioned this before I was contacted off another Sky Watcher Klaus who offered to do the design of the blog... how good was that of him. Not just that but at my request he designed it around the above picture taken by Jane on the way back from our resent drive out to Bakewell. There's New Icons to go with the New layout which are in the post below and are free to use. If you want to use your own or keep Dot's original please do so. Nothing else as changed, same fun format, same rules as can be viewed below the header. I want to thank all who post here this week for the support and kindness shown to Jane last week in my absence... Now then ... lets get down to Sky Watching from around the globe :O) Step Right In!

The Sky Watch Team

Tom, Sandy, IMAC & Klaus

Like a rose between two thorns

ENJOY

........................

328 Links have been reset

Starts again tonight

Thursday 24th July

@

07.30pm GMT

Thank you

The Sky Watch Team

Questions?

This is your place to get questions answered that you may have.

Just fire away!

We did away with comments, for the comment section got way too long, to be useful.
With our new form we will get your questions right away and can answer them
directly.

IMPORTANT! If you have a question, that is specific to your site, you need
to add your Website Address in the Message field, so that we can check the
problem!

Thanks - Your Skywatch Team !
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Scroll down and use the text link: "Contact the Skywatch Team" at the bottom of the page.





IMPORTANT! Click the link "Contact the Skywatch Team" below, to open the form!

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SWF Netiquette

Skywatch Friday is there to have fun. It is all about the visitors and their Skywatch Experience.
We - as the team don't really want to put out a bunch of big rules and then go around and police them. Instead we suggest a Netiquette - a voluntary code of conduct - that should provide a comfortable environment for viewers, participants and commenters alike.

Joining:
You're welcome to put your link in at any time during the week. But please - have your Skywatch post posted, BEFORE you do. Note that all links will be taken off, when a new round begins.

You can link several times, if you have several sites with individual (but not identical) SWF posts. Please do not link more than once per site.

Commenting:
Anyone who participates in SWF probably noted an increase in comments. That is a neat and welcomed side effect of SWF's popularity. So return the favor! Go visit other participants and comment on their efforts. The more sites you do visit, the more comments you will probably get. So - the post and run participant will not fare well, while those who get actively involved and contribute their comments to this community, will find a lot of visitors.

Unfortunately there always be some bad apples, that try to take advantage of SWF's success and to harness that to gather link popularity, or to solicit their site, services etc. We're not really happy about that and will remove the obvious attempts - like linking to commercial sites, sites with no SWF content, multiple links to identical sites etc.
Your input is very welcome to identify the black sheep! ;)

UPDATE:
Just to clarify the issue of links being removed.
1. If there is no Skywatch Post - we remove. So please post BEFORE you link.
2. If there is no indication that it is a Skywatch post - even if it shows the sky.
Please mark your post as a Skywatch Post and do link back to the main Skywatch site.
(So that visitors have the chance to see more images by skywatchers or even participate)
3. If the site you post on is not a regular Photo Blog of sorts (basically the skywatch
image is the only Photopost around on several pages), and is clearly a site, that is
commercially oriented (Paid reviews, Sales of Products and Services, Link Exchange,
Traffic Booster etc.) we probably will remove your link, even if the Skywatch post itself might be ok.
While Skywatch usually increases your visitor count - we don't like to send you visitors, if
you try to get them only to show your commercial offerings, up your ratings or things of that
nature.
4. If you as a skywatcher use commenting, to solicit business, chances are, that we will take
down your link. Skywatch is strictly non-commercial, non -profit. Please respect that and the
efforts of all 300+ Skywatch participants and don't try to exploit this meme for commercial gain.

And if you comment - be kind and don't do the copy and past kind of commenting. It's not really polite, we think. Don't solicit visits to your site. Usually people go and visit those who comment on their own posts anyway. Besides - don't you think it looks kind of weird if you see 20 comments and everyone says: "Come visit me!" ?

Again - we're not policing it and aside from obvious misbehaviour are not going to do anything about it.

So go out and visit others and comment!

But if you do encounter problems, we will try to help sort it out.
If you have a content related problem, contact Tom, IMAC, or Sandy, if it's technical, ask Klaus.

We closed the post for comments. Questions can be fielded on the Questions page.

Badges and Images

Feel free to use these images to link to Skywatch!

Because we do not have enough bandwidth available we can not provide gadget code.

Just copy the image(s) of your choice to your computer and upload it to your site,
linking it to http://skyley.blogspot.com