The fine folks from the US at Disney.com have got in touch with us here at Minti for the launch of U Rock 2, a unique promotion that gives fans the opportunity to create their own music videos set to songs from popular Disney artists and post their original videos on the U Rock site (www.Disney.com/URock).

The most popular U Rock video finalists, voted on by fans, will win the ultimate rock star experience including a trip to Los Angeles, an in-studio “take over” at Radio Disney, a visit to the set of a Disney Channel show, and more...

This is the second annual U Rock event on Disney.com and this year fans will be able to watch and vote for their favorite videos via mobile phone by texting UROCK to DISNEY (347639)

Song selections can be downloaded from the U Rock 2 site. 

Check out this Video about the promo:  CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Fans can upload videos on Disney.com now through July 12, 2009. Finalists in each of the U Rock 2 categories will be announced on July 17, 2009 and fans can then vote for their top video picks through July 31, 2009.

Hope you go take a look at this cool new promotion from Disney that really lets the fans become a part of the entertainment on Disney !  We are big supporters of fan-participation here at Minti J

By the way this is a paid placement ?""]

 Hi everyone,

We have listened to your feedback about our recently introduced advertising banners that include a "scroll-down with sound option".

Unfortunately the "option" does not always work the way it should and for regular users of the site the sounds and interruptions were becoming a bit much.

Advertising is important to ensure we can keep this wonderful website free for all members.

Having said this, we also value our very regular members and would not want any of you annoyed by any of our advertising

..... so we have taken the unusual step of removing the display  of the "interactive" banner advertising for all members who are logged in to the site.

This should dramatically reduce the issues with sound/scroll down on adverts if you keep your "remember me" box checked for returning visits.

Thanks for the feedback and apologies for those who suffered during the time the ads were live, its going to cost us some money but it is well worth it in my humble opinion.

all the best

Matt

PS  we have recently agreed a co-operative deal with DVD Rental delivery business Quickflix which includes a 1 month free trial, do consider it as I have found the service to be excellent in my household   

 Hamish enjoyed his 1st Birthday party, particularly the cake !

 Well I know I am a bit early but here is the chosen photo for our annual Christmas card message to friends and family.

On the left is Hamish (at about 7 months) and on the right is Buster our little maltese-poodle cross.

Have a wonderful Christmas Minti folks !

Matt

Normally I would not comment on speculation about how Minti's founders and member-support staff go about our business but I really feel I must respond to a malicious set of messages which are currently being sent around Minti.  A member has sent me a copy of one of these messages which is why I am writing this.

Firstly we do NOT read your private minti-mails.

A member who was recently removed from our site claims that we did this when in actual fact the message she had sent was forwarded on to us.

For those who have had communications with Clay, Rachel, Izzy or myself over the past 3 years that we have been running this website, I ask you to really carefully consider how we conducted ourselves in each instance and ask yourself whether you think we really are the type of people who would go through other persons private messages - I assure you that we are NOT the type of people who would do this.

It is quite normal for someone who has been removed from this site to be upset and angry at us, but in truth this person had a very great many warnings about her behaviour, and particularly about her actions to undermine the level of respect the team here at Minti work so hard to earn from each of you.

Please do NOT believe these claims if you see them; and please do not perpetuate them.

If you want to move on from Minti we are sorry to lose you, but please do not stay and make false claims about the behaviour of the team who are working very hard to keep this site available and fun for all.

all the best

Matt

PS I hate having to write this kind of stuff   

 We will make a formal announcement next week but for now we are hoping some of you wonderful regulars on Minti might notice there is a new Survey available to earn a bit of extra moolah and help Minti grow as well     Take a look and I hope you decide to fill it out.

All the best

Matt

Hi Folks

There seems to be a bit of a run going on reporting short-articles.

Please be aware that there is no rule regarding the length of an article and being "less than 50 words" is not in breach of any of our Terms of Service or Code of Honor.

If an article is poor quality because of it's length then please vote accordingly rather than going straight for the "report" flag.

Also many pieces of advice will "look" like a blog post BUT so long as there is a hint of advice in the article it should NOT be reported but again voted on accordingly, or it might be good to encourage the author by posting a comment "this is great but could probably serve you better as a post to your personal blog as article pages are generally used for article style writing"

I would really appreciate people taking the time to consider carefully whether reporting an article (which is often a very negative experience for the author) is really required and perhaps taking some alternative approaches.

thanks  

Matt

 

 

We recently returned from a trip to Switzerland to introduce Hamish to his Grandparents and took a train from Bern to see some old friends who live in Milan.

Whilst there Hamish got into the spirit of the fashion capital of the world and decided to do his bext Karl Lagerfeld impersonation.  It is one of my favourite photos of him and I thought it would be nice to share with you folks at Minti.

Hamish is doing well but not quite sleeping through the night yet (3am wake-up) and he is very large for his age.

All the best to my Minti mates !

Matt

 

Hi Minti Folks

Recently there have been a number of new articles appearing with some highly relevant and well written parenting advice which also have links back to the originating author's website/business.

We have a very strict policy about "purely" promotional use of the article area of the website and if someone ONLY wants to sell something we ask that they post it into their blog,  HOWEVER...

...we are very welcoming to authors whose primary focus is on "parenting advice" and who also wish to make some complementary promotional comments at the end of their article. 

In fact we actively SEEK OUT professional writers or organisations who would like to add their well thought out content to Minti and only wish to have a paragraph at the end linking back to their own website.  The reason for this is that most members are looking for good advice, if the final paragraph (generally less than 10-15% of the advice page) happens to link to the author's site then the parenting reader is still happy to have read the good advice.

So I would ask that people please refrain from reporting authors who add a small paragraph/promotional link back to their own site at the end of a good article...  if the majority of an article is promotional then go ahead and report it !

thanks for this opportunity for clarification

Matt

 

New competition to help promote World Vision Child Sponsorship!

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago we were approached by World Vision Australia with a great idea to help promote their Child Sponsorship program. They're in the middle of a big promotional campaign at the moment and you may have heard something about that on radio, seen a poster at a bus shelter, or something on TV.

Anyway, World Vision have suggested that our blogs and articles would be a great place to run a competition, as a way to help promote this really worthy cause, and everyone stands a chance to win some cool stuff (more on that in a moment!).

About World Vision Child Sponsorship

In light of the tough economic conditions that all Australians are facing right now, World Vision staff explained that it is becoming more challenging than ever for them to find sponsors for children in desperate need.

Children whose families are struggling to survive chronic food shortages and skyrocketing global food prices.

Basically, Child Sponsorship is about transforming the life of a child in desperate poverty. Sponsoring a child allows World Vision to work with the child's community on long-term community development projects. The sponsor helps change the future of the child by changing the world they will grow up in, to create an environment where there's enough food, clean water, healthcare and the chance for an education.

Some of the reasons why these kids need sponsors are startling:

• 30,000 children worldwide die every day from preventable diseases
• More than 300 million children go to bed hungry each day
• Over 1 billion children and adults have no clean drinking water

World Vision's founder Bob Pierce said, “I can't do everything for everybody, but I can do something for somebody.”

For less than the cost of your daily café latte, you can not only change the life of a child, but of their entire community.

How our competition is helping the cause

Our competition is going to run over the next four weeks, with a random prize draw at the end of the period where three winners are chosen. In that time, we're hoping as many of our members as possible will choose to take part, so we can get maximum impact for World Vision. At the end of the four weeks, everything will return to normal(!). The more of us taking part, the more exposure for Child Sponsorship, and the more people that are likely to go over and visit World Vision's webpage to enquire about sponsoring a child. Simple!

(Of course, this competition is entirely optional, and you are more than welcome not to participate.)

How the competition works

Every member on Minti has a Personal Member Blog and every member can also write articles.

To enter this competition, all you need to do is write a short blog post or a parenting advice article about your experience or interest in the World Vision Sponsor a Child program.

If your experience with sponsoring a child (or a friend sponsoring a child) helped you be a better parent then tell us about it and write a Minti advice article (it is about parenting)...  If your experience is personal and not necessarily something you would consider parenting "advice" oriented then just post to your member Blog.

There are three requirements to be a part of the competition:

1.  Write about Child Sponsorship

2.  Post a link within the article to the following address: 

http://www.worldvision.com.au/childsponsorship/sponsorachild.aspx?souce=1168

(so more people can learn about sponsoring a child)

3.  Post a reply to this blog post so I know you have entered !

At the end of the competition, we will select one random and two merit based winning entries to receive a prize pack!

Every reasonable entry will also receive a 500 moolah bonus from the team here at Minti for supporting this good cause !

Winners will be required to provide a mailing address for their prize, if that information is not currently available to us.

What's the prize?

The promotional team over at World Vision have put together a bundle of goodies for each of our three winners, including generous quantities of Fair Trade coffee and premium chocolate, a World Vision t-shirt, and some other stuff they raided out of Tim Costello's office (*joking*)! They're still finding more goodies to add, apparently, so it will be a great surprise for each of our winners.

How to enter

To enter this competition, take the three steps above and let me know you are in it to win by replying to thie blog !  Please also keep this competition information alive in the "Latest Activity" list if you can !