A silly idea and a few e-mails later, Allan has designed the iAmoeba and been featured on Seth Godin’s blog. Godin plugs in his usually brilliance, Allan hasn’t just designed an iAmoeba, he’s built one. And again the distance an idea can go, no matter how crazy, is proved.

There’s a massive storm over MaraJoara’s decision to cast, with the help of Rogue Connect amongst others, their models without the assistance of any modelling agency. The result? Australian Fashion Week organisers reputedly saying models size 8 to 12 aren’t good enough for their event, and the whole of the Victorian media rallying on the side of MaraJoara. I’ve even received a phone call from 3AW today simply because I was involved in the casting.

Poor move by the organisers of fashion week.

We’ve partnered with Australian label MaraJoara to help find models for the closing show of the Australian Fashion Week Transeasonal Collection. We’re also looking for Australian guys to help take up the role of Mr. World Australia.

To help the casting process Rogue has created the casting websites (which you can find through the links above).

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Called style spy, the initiative will aim to change the way in which fashion trends are measured and set. We’ve been working on it for some months now and are at a stage where we’re happy with the design (which ties in with Rogue Connect of course).

Expect to see it launched before the year is out.

I’ve put up most of the photos into my Fashion group at Flickr. You can also see them all in ‘Photos from Sabi Lingerie Spring / Summer 06 Collection‘ in the Lifestyle Blog at Rogue Connect.

I came across this today at Seth Godin’s blog. Rogue Connect has been accused of being elitist, but even when applicants aren’t given membership we don’t rub it in their faces like Continental seem to do to paying customers.

There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work put into the new site. Allan, for one, has put together a fantastic design which was an absolute pleasure to implement. Not that it was easy, it was just such a major change that one couldn’t help but be proud of it. We went for a really exclusive feel with the new layout, and I think we got there.

There are plenty of subtle changes in the site, most of which our existing members will only notice. We’ve tried to provide a lot of extra functionality ‘on call’ through the use of scriptaculous.

Subtle changes aside, we’ve also snuck in a new feature; Smart Class. Smart Class is our version of an ‘old boys’ network, and we’ve used it to provide a mini-Facebook environment on Rogue Connect. As with the uses of scriptaculous, we’ve allowed ourselves to be influenced by ‘Web 2.0′ enough to implement AJAX into Smart Class. We achieved this using xajax, which is an awesome project that has earnt the plug!

Finally, we’ve also provided new profiles for the community. I’ll focus on these in more depth later, but we’re building a platform for rising fashion designers, and labels to promote themselves to a fashion loving community.

The first is the usability and ideas behind the site. The changes we’re making at present lend themselves largely to the ‘getting real’ school of thought - something we’ve learnt largely from reading 37 Signals’ design and usability blog. They constantly highlight some really obvious facts, mistakes, and theories behind website and product development. While you don’t have to subscribe to their school of thought (I personally pick and choose), their blog has certainly been good at getting me to look back over what we’ve done for Rogue Connect. As a result, when Rogue relaunches there’ll be a horde of subtle changes, the most important of which I think is the new navigation system.

We’ve also put in place a lot of extra features into many of pages. Anyone who reads the Signals vs. Noise blog will think I’ve gone mad in saying that - surely that’s not “getting real”? Well we’ve provided them on call using Scriptaculous. Our theory behiind it is simple: If you don’t want to use a particular feature, it won’t take up room on your screen. But if you do, just click the down arrow and there it is, and you haven’t even had to leave the page.

The second big change is the story behind the site. Seth Godin has got me thinking about this a lot, in particular his book All Marketers are Liars. I don’t have the chance right now to go largely into detail - but in essence the most important thing is letting your personality come through. Our whole development of Rogue Connect is aimed at that. For one, we’re not some big company so bye-bye to the copyright line down the bottom. We’re also adament that ‘rogue’ is more than a name, but a lifestyle. Hello to ‘What it is to be rogue‘.

One final thought: we use Basecamp to help manage our development and marketing of Rogue Connect. Up the top of each Basecamp page it now reads “Rogue Connect: Not Just A Site. A Lifestyle”.

It’s still a little rough, but it’s our current attempt to provide a working preview (and hopefully ease our members in to it) while experimenting with Joomla template creation.

We’re emphasising our exclusive take, we’re cuting back on some of the content on the main page that feels like filler (including the picture of the gorgeous Sienna Miller).

While we’re taking out design away from Web 0.9 to something in the field of Web 2.0, all we’re doing is working to drive home what makes Rogue Connect unique.

I’m joining this site (with any luck) because it seems to be damned better than myspace, where the average IQ has to level at around 0.000001, give or take.

boring boring fella … dont know wat to write … just lemme in(please)… i wanna see sexy laydees

It seems that the essence of the site is getting across.

For reference, he didn’t get in. “Boring fella”? Just not rogue enough.

We are looking at ways of making this a process. Only around 45% of people who apply for Rogue Connect accounts end up getting one. That leaves a lot of applicants. Some are dormant and don’t return once they feel they won’t get in, others continue to tweak their profile hoping to get in. As we redevelop the membership and voting feature, it will definetley be the latter applicants (and our existing members) who are the primary focus.

The route I don’t want to go down is that of BeautifulPeople, their site deletes you after so many days (seven I think) which I don’t think is a good enough time to find out if people are ‘Rogue’ enough to get membership.

Tammy’s had her mobile phone stolen you see, and video from it has been loaded onto the internet for everyone to download. I’m sure there’s the run of the mill videos in there, but the main one everyone seems to be after is of Tammy and her boyfriend ‘at it’ shall we say.

So how many people are everyone? Well enough it seems. According to Technorati the most searched things for this hour are Tammy. In fact, the top 6 in the most searched for are the likes of “Tammy”, “Tammy Video”, “NYP”, “Tammy Video Download”, and so on. In fact, it looks like she’s broken Technorati. Only 7 things are appearing in the top 15 (places 8 - 15 being blank) and the only other thing in there are A Level Results. Ho hum.

So does this put her on par with Paris Hilton? Tammy is an instant mini-celeb of some infamy - if people aren’t after the video, they’re after photos and pictures of her! The net is yet again proved to be an awesome marketing and word-of-mouth tool!

Now if Rogue Connect could only get that kind of instant publicity!

The Dykes Family
This family appears to have been at an early period located near the Great Roman Wall, or Dyke, which crossed the country from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway Firth; and from this circumstance they were named Del Dykes, and their abode was called Dykesfield. They are said to have been seated here before the Norman Conquest. A branch of the family at an early period removed into Sussex, and another was settled in Kent.

The earliest portion of the line is lost in the mists of antiquity. A charter without date, but supposed to be of the time of Henry III or Edward II, notifies the fact that Robert Del Dykes conveyed some land which he possessed at Burgh, to one William del Monkys.

The first name on the unbroken genealogical roll is that of William del Dykes, who lived about the time of Edward I.

This family name descended through the six succeeding generations. William del Dykes, the sixth of the name, represented the county in Parliament, in the reign of Henry IV. He received the manor and lands at Wardhall (still in the family) from one Robert Whitehede. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William de Leigh, of Isel, who claimed her descent from Emma, sister to William the Conqueror, and Harlowen de Conteville, or de Burgo, who could trace his pedigree in the direct male line to Charles, Duke of Ingleheim, fifth son of Charlemagne.

He was succeeded by his son, William Dykes, of Wardhall, who married Christiana, daughter of Sir Richard Salkeld, of Corby.

Thomas Dykes, of Wardhall, his son, lived in the reign of Henry VII, and married Isabel, only child and heiress of John Pennington, Esq., of Muncaster Castle, son and heir of Sir John Pennington.

His son, Leonard Dykes, succeeded, and had by his wife, a daughter of John Layton, Esq., of Dalemayne, [presumably Dalemain] a son, Thomas, who succeeded him, and was escheator of Westmorland, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. His wife was Jane, daughter of Lancelot Lancaster, Esq., of Sockbridge, who was descended from Ivo de Tailbois, first baron of Kendal, and uncle of Geoffrey Plantagenet, father of Henry II.

Leonard Dykes married Elizabeth Ann, heiress of Thomas Radcliffe, Esq., of Mayland and Bishopton, in Durham, for which he was arraigned for treason, she being at the time a minor and a ward in Chancery. He received a pardon, under the great seal, which is still preserved among the family papers. He was sheriff of Cumberland, and held the office of treasurer to the king’s forces for the county. He married a second time Margaret, daughter and co-heir of John Frecheville, of Staveley.

His son, Thomas, by the first wife, succeeded. He was a devoted Royalist. He married Joyce Frecheville, daughter and co-heir of John Frecheville. This lady was descended in a direct line from the Conqueror. His second wife was Jane, daughter of Ralph de la Vale, Esq.

Leonard Dykes succeeded his father, in the reign of Charles II, and married Grace, daughter of John Salkeld, of Threapland, who also traced her descent from the Conqueror. He was twice sheriff of the county, and rebuilt his mansion with an ornamental stone front, designed by Inigo Jones, architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.[This is wrong - St. Paul’s was designed by Sir Christopher Wren].

Frecheville Dykes, his son and heir, married, in 1697, Jane, sister of Gilfrid Lawson, and was succeeded in the estates by his son, Leonard Dykes, who married, in 1728, Susannah, only surviving child of the Rev. Thomas Capstack, vicar of Newburn.

Their eldest son, Frecheville Dykes, of Wardhall, companion in arms of General Wolfe, married, in 1763, Mary, daughter of John Brougham, Esq., of Cockermouth, and also heiress of her brother, Peter Brougham, of Dovenby, who assumed the name and arms of Lamplugh. There was only one surviving child of this marriage, Mary, consequently her uncle, the younger brother of her father, inherited the estates. His wife, Jane, was the daughter and heiress of John Ballantine, Esq., of Crookdake Hall, and he took the name and arms of Ballantine, in addition to his own, by sign manual.

Their eldest son and successor, Joseph Dykes Ballantine, Esq., married his cousin, Mary, only surviving child of Frecheville Dykes, as before mentioned, and assumed again the name of Dykes by sign manual. The Trustees of L.F.B. Dykes, Esq., of Dovenby Hall, are now the representatives.

Source: Steve Bulman’s Images of Cumbria - Famous Sons and Daughters most likely sourced from Bulmer’s History & Directory Of Cumberland, 1901.

Really, it’s a stroke of genius for Playboy. With a multitude of initiatives, particularly their clothing and accessory line, they’ve done a lot to reinvent themselves over the past few years. It’s mostly an attempt to lose the tacky image and reinvent themselves as ‘cool’. Making themselves appear coupled with MySpace is going to do just that. Inevitably a lot of guys are going to buy that issue, particularly male MySpace users. But how many girls are also going to buy it? I’d say a few more than usual. Afterall, MySpace is a social network - who wouldn’t buy a copy of a magazine because one of their ‘friends’ is in it.

It’s also a natural line extension for a lot of MySpace users. As UNEASYSilence put it, MySpace is “already overflowing with countless women wearing little to nothing”. Want to see the proof? Just take a look at MySpace Babes and The Net’s Hottest Guys and Girls. Sure, MySpace has its share of fake profiles, but it also has its share of some very real girls wearing close to nothing. Playboy is simply going to monetise that fact to their own benefit.

Of course, MySpace will also benefit from it. Great exposure, more people signing up after they see the issue (and no doubt trying to find these girls on the site). But at the end of the day Playboy is likely to be the biggest winner from it.

Is this something I’d want for Rogue Connect? Probably not. I don’t think Playboy’s image has come far enough (yet) for the association to keep with our image. GQ on the otherhand…

Over the past few weeks we’ve steadily snuck tagging into Rogue Connect, first implementing it into the fashion blog and later applying it to member profiles. In developing our tagging system we were mindful that they had to be useful. There was no point in putting in tags because we could or because they’re a hot concept right now, we had to implement tags because they would be useful to our members; they had to mean something.

We tried to achieve this is a pretty simple way; categorising the tags. Now I know that part of the appeal of tags is that they’re fluid, but that doesn’t always serve to make them useful. As we’re applying the tags to different content, and intend to allow members to apply them to more areas of the site in future, the separation had to be there. So if you visit the tagging page you’ll notice that for any given tag, sexy for instance, you can choose to view members tagged sexy and fashion entries tagged sexy. These two things are totally different and we’re hoping that the categorisation of the two bring our members something useful, as opposed to just a horde of information that they have to get their heads around. On a side note the ‘just membrs’ and ‘just fashion’ buttons used to display the different tags are our first implementation/experimentation with the AJAX mindset.

About a week ago I made a mention of Rogue Connect’s tagging system and mentioned our members reaction to it; “our logs have showed that the average time on the site has raised considerably in the areas that feature tagging. For instance, members are no longer just reading style entries, they’re now tagging them as well. What was initially a brief perusal of (and sometimes a comment on) a fashion entry has become a quest to tag it.” This is still true. In fact, I’d like to further it by saying that more members are using the tagging feature than the search of browse tools, admittedly though, both of these need a rework to keep up to speed with our changing community.
There has been another great advantage to us; it takes us well away from the online dating space, somewhere we don’t want to be. Sure, people are going to use Rogue Connect to try and find dates (interestingly a lot of the guys who apply for account and state this as their aim don’t end up approved by our members), but that’s not what the site is about. Replacing the search on the main page with ‘fashionising tags’ has really taken us away from the look that’s common to online dating sites such as Match.com and Lavalife.

It also makes us one of the first into the space of a pure social networking with tagging. The only other that springs to mind is Consumating, and they differ as they’re pure online dating and have implemented their tagging system differently.

Like all things on Rogue Connect, the tagging tool is a work in progress. Not because we’re not happy with it, but because there are always things that can be tweaked and improved. But so far, so good!

It’s been less than a fortnight of testing it by tagging fashion blog entries and, more recently, member profiles. But already there are some trends developing on the site. I hadn’t really given them much thought until reading a social analysis of tagging today.

The thing that stuck me the most was that some of the ideas and concepts that Rashmi (the author) touched upon after analysis of services such as Flickr and del.icio.us are already appearing at Rogue Connect.

For instance (and only quoting from the introduction in both of these instances);

A behaviorist would say that the I get reinforcement the moment after I tag. The social experience is pleasurable. It gets me hooked, it keeps me coming back.

Getting hooked (along with the simple benefits of having the tagging tool) is one of the reasons we introduced it into Rogue Connect. And it’s paid off, after two weeks our logs have showed that the average time on the site has raised considerably in the areas that feature tagging. For instance, members are no longer just reading style entries, they’re now tagging them as well. What was initially a brief perusal of (and sometimes a comment on) a fashion entry has become a quest to tag it. It could be sexy for instance.

Alternatively, on tagging the article, I might learn that I am the only one interested in that item, the one person who cared to tag that resource. Perhaps I am simply the first one. Perhaps I will become a trendsetter - my act of tagging will enable others to follow behind, discovering my footsteps. I can always imagine…

Okay, this one I’m going to use out of context but I’ve already noted trends appearing on the site. Not in the sense that we’re influencing the next season of fashion to the extent that Sienna Miller and Kate Moss are, but in the way that the tagging tool is being used. At first members were tagging style entries and profiles with single words (the sexy example for instance), but I tried to extend that by using condensed ‘terms’. For instance, I would tag the often blogged “I’m in my PJ’s” or “I’m only wearing a towel” with ‘nakedunderneath‘. Within a few days others had picked up on this tag and begun using it themselves. Hardly trendsetting, but at least trend-encouraging.

I’ll have more on tagging on Rogue Connect’s tagging tool and its implications in the near future, after all, it’s included in the site but we haven’t even announced it to our members.