MTW goes to Finland

The first week went fast, didn't it? After visiting US we go forward and now it is time researh Finnish mini phenomena. As a Finn myself the area should be pretty familiar to me but let's see if even I can find something new. :) So study what Finland has to offer and be inspired of Finnish projects.
Ps. Next week we do Canada so be prepared!

MTW goes to USA

Everything is big in US they say but what is small there? On Monday 24 May we are starting a theme week in Mini treasures wiki to find everything out from American miniature projects. See the pages with American tag and join the fun - add your favorite tips and links and see what others have found. Who did find America? We will!

New concept - Theme weeks starting

It's time to launch a new activity in Mini treasures: theme weeks. For every week we have a theme for which we are concentrating. The first ten weeks, starting from tomorrow we will focus to countries and nationaties. They are chosen with help of Google Analytics: the ten countries with most visitors. After the ten country weeks we are taking a new topic. Perhaps 5 animal weeks followed by 8 food weeks, 3 Christmas weeks and one new year week. Maybe we want to have book weeks or tv-show weeks? Let me hear your thoughts!

But we start from countries and nationaties. They are:
1. USA
2. Finland
3. Canada
4. UK
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Spain
8. Australia
9. Italy
10. France

Check our calendar to find out what the theme weeks are.

Interviewing Debbie, our new Facebook moderator

The other day I told you about our new Facebook page moderators, Debbie and Linda and I realized I had not interviewed her yet so it was about the time to do it. Debbie is not only promoting MTW at Facebook but in her site and she has been among the biggest traffic sources since the beginning of the wiki which I am very thankful :). So let's start the interview...
Hi Debbie! How does it feel to be a new moderator in our Facebook page? It was an honour to be asked. I'm always looking for Mini Links, to share with everyone and I also have a Mini Link Blog, where I share all the links I find.

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures?
My names Debbie, I originate from Greenwich, London. Lived in Kent for 18 years and moved to Wales 5 years ago. Married to my Hubby for 21 years and have two teenage sons. I make Dolls House Miniatures and breed Miniature Shetland Ponies. You can see I am obsessed with all things Mini.

Haha :). When and how did you start doing miniatures?
I started making Miniatures in 1989, after my Parent's presented me with a large hand built Georgian House for Christmas. I didn't have a Dolls House as a Child and was more of a Tom Boy, climbing trees and playing with a Train set.

What is your latest / next mini-project?
I am currently working on a Diagon Alley Street Scene, which includes The Apothecary, Flourish & Blotts and Eeylops Owl Emporium and a separate Room Box of "Honeydukes" Sweet Shop. My next project is going to be a Witches Hat Shop. Pictures can be seen on my blog page.

Very personal projects :). How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I've been a member of the Mini Wiki since it was first set up. I don't have a favourite page as the Wiki is being added to all the time.
Thanks for the interview and thanks for boosting Mini treasures wiki!

Icon hunting: Roomboxes

This is going well - I found another icon for the wiki. I asked help in Flickr and Lola said that I can use her images (it is funny that I can understand her messages even though I never studied Spanish) and so I did. I chose one of her nursery roomboxes. If you click that you will end up to page of roomboxes which is full of cool tips and links. Have fun and congrats to Lola whose picture is now shown in every page of the wiki. :) Who is the next happy one? :)

Mini treasures @ Facebook

Improving a website is about learning from your mistakes. The more mistakes you correct the better the site will be.

5 days ago I made one of the right decisions - I chose two new moderators to our Facebook page to make it more active. Debbie Wright is one of the most active Facebookers I know and as she has been actively pushing miniaturists to network with me I thought she would do wonderful job at Facebook too. My other co-moderator is Linda, the most active person in Mini treasures wiki (we are SO FORTUNATE that she found us). I am very pleased to have these ladies on board helping me :). And just look what they did for the amount of Facebook fans (officially people who "like" MTW) - look at the peak! Amazing!

Speaking of Facebook I am not very active in networking with people there. I am accepting there only people I have met in real life or who I have learnt to know in Internet. Lately I have got a lot of friend invites and it makes me sad not to accept them but I try to keep up with my policy. The amounts of contacts in other services (Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter) are much bigger, network with me in them if you want.

But now I would be interested to hear your personal Facebook policy :).

Ps. BTW we have a short url for our page: http://www.facebook.com/minitreasures

Icon hunting: Animals

In the earlier blog post today (ok, yesterday, it is past midnight :P) I told you I am hunting cool icons for our wiki to make it user friendly. I have found the first one and I think it is just perfect. :)
The Playmobil cat photo taken by Bumblesweet is simple, clear, colorful. Congrats Bumblesweet for this honor, from now on your cat is seen on every page of the wiki (my cat is there too, the Lego on in the top left corner - that will lead you to the main page).

In a picture this small we can't have too many details (I think but go ahead and challenge me). The icon will lead you the animals page where you can find miniature projects related to animals. I will remove those projects from the projects page as it has grown too long. Yesterday I was removing already country projects from that page as they can be find from countries page.

Icons needed - help!

Today I got feedback from a web pro (thanks Arto!) about the usability of Mini treasures wiki and I realized something important. It is studied that normally 1% of the people are updating a wiki freaquently and 9% of the people do it sometimes. The rest, 90% are only reading the content. At the moment the look and feel in the wiki is planned for this 1%! Does this make sense? No. So I am about to change the main page soon.

To do it more usable I need icons for these words:

Animals, Blogs, Books, Calendar, Collectables, Countries, Dioramas, DIY, Dollhouses, Dolls, FAQ, Forums, Home pages, Kids´ corner, Magazines, Museums, Photos, Printables,
Projects, Roomboxes, Scales, Shops, Swaps, Tags, Template, Trash to treasure miniatures, Wanted pages, Wiki FAQ, Wiki members

and since it is a wiki about miniatures I think the icons should be pictures about miniatures too.

Is there anyone out there who would like to help me with this project, to find the suitable icons? Pleeease :).

Flickr group one year today!

Wohoo, a birthday again! During the first year Mini treasures Flickr group has not only grown big (231 members) but also beautiful (2364 cool photos of treasured minis). What I like in our group is the big variation, we have dolls, miniatures, roomboxes, dollhouses and dioramas and the scale varies from micro minis of 1:144 to big fashion dolls of 1:4. And yet we are sharing the same hobby and passion for small things, we have kept the child inside us while we play with our treasures. Thanks for sharing them with us and keep sending them - it is always so nice to find new photos and new members in the group. Happy birthday to you all my friends! Open the present by clicking the play button in the slideshow. :)

Another birthday coming: Flickr group 1 year

We just had our first birthday for the wiki. On Friday our Flickr group will be one year old :). I will post some highlights and stats on weekend. Help us to make the group even richer - tell your friends about it and add pictures of all your mini treasures. If you don't have an account in Flickr yet, get one to join all the fun :).