Grouple creation tips

We're going to use this blog post to store tips for Grouple creation and will update as we discover new tips. Please feel free to share your tips by posting them in the comments.

* Logo searching. These sites are helfpul: SeekLogo.com, Logopedia and Google Images. The higher the original image resolution the better! If the logo is particularly big, you may want to re-size your Grouple image a bit, but please not too much. The point is that the final image looks good as a thumbnail so that the groups can display a thumbnail as a link if they want.

* UPDATED 2/8/11 Capturing Data. The best way to capture data for your Grouple involves Firefox. Visit this grouple.deviantart.com/blog/38… for specifics on how to use Firefox to create a Grouple. To use Chrome, create a folder within the Chrome bookmark toolbar and drag all the group links into it. Then, right-click on the bookmark toolbar and choose "Bookmark manager." There, choose "Export bookmarks." Then, open the exported file in Chrome. This should present a complete list of all of your bookmarks. Copy the ones from the folder you created. Paste them into Notepad to strip out the HTML and then copy/paste them into Word. You can sort them A-Z in Word (or in Chrome prior to the export). The nice thing about this method is that if you dragged the icons to the folder, they will come into the list with :icon and the end colon already in place.

* NEW 1/16/11 Identifying Groups. There are many ways to identify the groups that belong in your Grouple. I usually start with the DA group search (groups.deviantart.com). There, I search not just for the topic but sub-topics. For example, if I am searching for DC Comics, I might also search for Green Lantern or another DC character. After I've identified and bookmarked all the ones I could find in the DA group search, I then visit each group I bookmarked and explore their affiliates. Most often, the affiliate section will contain links to other similar groups. Also, during this process I remove any groups that are not active or actually unrelated.

* NEW 1/16/11 Testing Your Grouple Data. A good way to test your Grouple data and see if the links work and it looks the way you want it to, is to send a note to your own DevID. It's a private note that no one else can see and will display all of the code as HTML.

* Maintenance. Maintain a Microsoft Word file for each Grouple. Only keep the contents of that Grouple in it, so whenever you are ready to update your Grouple, all you have to do is select all, copy and paste. Also, Word gives you the option to sort by paragraph, so you can select the alphabetical version of the list and sort A to Z. There are 3 other reasons I prefer Word: 1.) Editing in the DA field itself is hard because it's small; 2.) You can search; 3.) Sometimes text editors like Notepad add bad line breaks due to bad word wrapping.

* Updating. We recommend updating a specific Grouple no more than once per day. Any more than that and you are likely to miss something. If you want to do it less frequently, once a week is the next best option, but be diligent about it and it's best to include a note to that affect along with the Grouple text. Example: This Grouple is updated weekly on Fridays. Maybe set an Outlook calendar note to remind yourself.

* Keeping Track. Create a folder in your DA mailbox for each Grouple. You can drag the update messages into it until you are ready to update.

If you have any questions, speak up. We're here to help you and each other. Together we can make Grouple great!!!!