Plans are coming together beautifully for the next WordCamp Victoria, being held January 14th (only 2 months away) at at the University of Victoria, Social Sciences & Mathematics (SSM) building. Here’s my idea:

Wild About Weaver: A (nearly) WYSYWYG CSS Wrangler

Do you want to make some tweaks to your WordPress site, but pale at the thought of editing the CSS stylesheet? Try using Weaver as your basic template. Based on the current basic theme (right now, Twenty Eleven) it then layers its own child pages onto the base, and gives you literally hundreds of ways to customize the appearance. Using its easy-to-understand administration tabs, you can make big or small changes, add snippets of code, and never have to worry about what the curly brackets { } mean… unless you want to. You may even find using Weaver helps you to understand CSS better!

A couple of days ago at the gym, a business owner, whom I know and respect for her great blog posts and use of Facebook, confessed to me “I’m a Twitter dropout. I hate all of its rules, and the conversation there is so stupid! I don’t want to know about the new pants people are buying.”

My first reaction was, “Drop out, then. Nobody says you have to use Twitter, and if it isn’t fun, it isn’t worth doing.” I’ve certainly had days where I felt like I’ve had nothing to say to Twitter, and vice versa. In fact, I had a whole burn-out year where I rarely went near Twitter, and basically stepped back from all social media activities except some personal use of Facebook.

Ultimately, however, I’ve decided that there is much in Twitter that is worth keeping, and there are some simple ways to get rid of the parts that annoy you. Here are a few things you can do on a Sunday afternoon to make Twitter suck less, 7 days a week.

1. Use lists to improve the “Noise to Signal” ratio
If the tweets in your twitter stream are more annoying than edifying, you need a way to filter out the junk. I’ve classified people into lists through third-party Twitter management decks (like TweetDeck, HootSuite and Seesmic) and Twitter started this function a couple of years ago, as well. With lists, you can group the tweeps you follow into whatever works for you – close friends, news sources, music, fitness – and just look at Twitter through those filters. Much better than trying to wade through hundreds of tweets, some from people you followed back months ago and you can’t even remember why. That brings me to my next point.

2. Unfollow annoying twits.
If you aren’t getting value from the tweets that show up in your stream, turn down the volume. “Unfollow” is just a click away. If you take the first step, above, and put your favourite Twitterers into a list, you might get so used to the customized view that you never have to unfollow because you don’t look at that home stream anymore. But frankly, I still look at my “main” stream often, so it’s nice to just not have to deal with incessant marketing messages or self-centred drivel.

3. Spend less time on Twitter – while still posting to Twitter.
I’m thinking of the terrific, engaging posts this friend puts onto Facebook, and how they would work equally well on Twitter. Linking the two is only a step away, in her Facebook account settings. Better yet, she can choose which Facebook updates to share with Twitter by using one of those management tools I mentioned above. I like the ones with multiple columns for your favourite lists and search terms, with scheduled tweets so you can have a creative thought at 2 am that people might see at 8:30.

4. Don’t try to stay on top of it all
One of the most potentially annoying things about Twitter is when you try to read everything that comes across your screen. Can’t. Be. Done. What’s more, it’s way more input than anyone needs. Cut back to a couple of times a day, for just long enough to see if there are any good posts to your lists, and to respond to any mentions. If Twitter only takes 5- 10 minutes a day, it’s far less likely to annoy you. And on those days where the communication is better than you expected, you can take longer, much as you would an important email or phone call.

That’s not so bad, is it?

What if, for 30 days in November, you experimented with a new look? One that goes against the current fashions, and sets you a little bit apart? What if, for doing this, you raised money for a good cause? Does it sound like Movember? Exactly – but what if you, like most women, are challenged in the facial hair department? Then how about going without makeup?

This is actually Janis Lacouvee‘s idea, but I think it’s a good one. Like the guys with their moustaches, you can put the money toward charities working on men’s cancers – it could even be the money you save because you haven’t had to replace that colour-match foundation or the extend-a-curly-lash mascara. That’s my plan, since my father won a battle with cancer last year. (Actually, I’ll give more than the money I save – I only occasionally wear makeup at the best of times!)

So many women can’t imagine facing the day without their “face”. This is a challenge to present yourself as you are – perhaps professional, well-groomed – but unadorned. And if anyone asks what you are up to, you can always use “November – no makeup” as the reason.

With only days to go until November, I don’t expect that this idea will cause a groundswell of women to pack away their MAC and Mary Kay. In fact, now might be considered a “pilot project”, to be tweaked and rolled out in style next year. Maybe it would be best coupled with a different charitable focus. I think the idea is worth consideration.

So please, comment, share, and tell me if you plan to take up the November/No Makeup challenge.