A suggestion for the ping list, if I may.
Put it in alphabetical order.
I inherited the homeschooling ping lists and they weren’t in alphabetical order and there were a whole bunch of duplicate names. If someone thought they weren’t on when they were, you’d have to read the entire list to see. If they are alphabetical, then it’s FAR easier to find out if someone is on already.
And it’ll be easier to start it that way then to go back and rearrange it later. Trust me on that one.
Another tip for the list: Keep a copy somewhere other than your computer. A google doc will work, or a thumb drive. Just someplace where you’ll remember to keep it updated, but where it’ll be safe if your computer goes kaput. And make sure there’s another FReeper who can get to it if you need them to.
That’s exactly what I just did :-) put them in alphabetical order. I’m a bit compulsive about being organized.
I took the list I had and it was actually pretty easy to put it all into one column in Excel. Then sorted it. And then excel has a function to put that back into a ; delineated list. As a software engineer I love that sort of thing. I started writing my own VBA code to do it, and then I realized excel has functions for everything. A little searching, and there it was!
I was feeling chaotic having to add to the list and not knowing if I already had people on it. It’s getting pretty big. So good idea about the alphabetizing!