Sunday, November 13, 2005
Blog features
Because each blog is made up of numbers of individual articles or posts, navigating a blog is somewhat different to navigating a 'non-blog' site.
Posts
As mentioned last time, the most recent post is usually the first post you will see on a blog. The date (and often the time) of posting is also displayed, either at the beginning of a post (next to or near the title of the post), or at the end of the post. You'll usually see the author's name. This is especially relevant if the blog is written by a group of individuals (you'll note that this post was written by CW, so all mistakes are CW's alone).
Comments
If comments are allowed, you will see a link called 'Comments' (or similar), usually at the bottom of a post (although some blogs display the comments link right up top next to the title of a post). The number next to the word 'Comments' indicates the number of comments that have been made by readers.
Query via email 16 November 2005: I tried to make a comment but it asked me to add html tags and had a username and password box and I got scared……
When trying to add a comment to this post, or any post hosted on a blogger.com blog (the blog's URL will have the word blogspot in it), you may see some information about html tags. Ignore this, unless you want to italicise or bold any of your comment - it is just a reminder that you can use such tags to format your text!
You can choose to log in to post using the blogger.com option if you have a blogger.com account - you might want to log in so that you can comment as your blogger 'persona' and leave your blog details for the owner of the blog and other readers to follow up on. The 'other' option is for you to leave your name or pseudonym and the URL of your non-blogger.com blog (or other website). I have also enabled anonymous comments, so you don't have to leave any 'real' name or URL.
Whichever option you choose, you will have to use the 'word verification' option which requires you to fill in the box with the letters you see. This is an attempt to deter so-called 'spambots' - automated programs used by despicable spammers to flood our blogs with spam comments. These spambots cannot read the letters you see, only people can - and because they cannot read these letters and fill in the box, they cannot complete the spam comment. Sometimes the letters aren't as legible as they could be - if you are unsure what the letters are, make your best guess. If the letters you type in the word verification box don't match, you will be given another opportunity to enter a different sequence of letters. (Thanks for asking, DB!)
Permanent links
Each individual post on a blog usually has its own URL or 'permanent' link (this link is as permanent as anything that exists in cyberspace - it should exist as long as the blog exists). The URL or permanent link for each post on a blog can be found either by clicking on or moving your mouse over the title of the post, the time or date of the post, or the hash # symbol at the bottom of the post. So, to tell your friends about this blog, you would use its URL: http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com. To mention a specific post, you would use its permanent link. For example the post I wrote earlier about blogs is at http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogs.html. (Tip: you can usually click on the name of a blog to go back to the main page and most recent post.)
Archives
Each post is automatically stored or archived, so you can see how long a blog has existed (the more venerable ones can be 3, 4, sometimes even 5 years old!), and go and look at previous posts. This blog has been around since June this year.
Archives can list posts one by one (although this would mean the list would get unmanageably long if there are a lot of posts!), week by week, or month by month. It can be interesting to see how a blog develops over time.
Categories
Another feature is categories or tags describing what each post is about. As you write and publish a post, you can describe what the post is about, using keywords or tags. This can be very useful because makes it very easy to sort and find posts on specific topics. It also means you can easily see what each blog is about by looking at its categories. I have not implemented categories properly on this blog, mainly because Blogger doesn't have it as an option, and I haven't bothered. (I did bother on my other blog, using this workaround.) Categories, like comments, are usually displayed at the end of a post.
Trackback
Trackback is another blog feature, although not one I have used much, again because Blogger doesn't seem to have it. A non-technical definition:
Wikipedia notes that TrackBack has been abused by spammers in recent times.
'Blogroll'
I like this term (which always brings me visions of sponge cake and jam!). It refers to the list of links to other blogs that a blogger will place on her/his blog. The blogroll on this blog (on the right of the page) is a list of blogs belonging to other library folk. Other links, to non-blogs, may also be listed. And sometimes a blogger will choose to showcase a favourite post.
I still haven't mentioned RSS! I feel another post coming on...
Posts
As mentioned last time, the most recent post is usually the first post you will see on a blog. The date (and often the time) of posting is also displayed, either at the beginning of a post (next to or near the title of the post), or at the end of the post. You'll usually see the author's name. This is especially relevant if the blog is written by a group of individuals (you'll note that this post was written by CW, so all mistakes are CW's alone).
Comments
If comments are allowed, you will see a link called 'Comments' (or similar), usually at the bottom of a post (although some blogs display the comments link right up top next to the title of a post). The number next to the word 'Comments' indicates the number of comments that have been made by readers.
Query via email 16 November 2005: I tried to make a comment but it asked me to add html tags and had a username and password box and I got scared……
When trying to add a comment to this post, or any post hosted on a blogger.com blog (the blog's URL will have the word blogspot in it), you may see some information about html tags. Ignore this, unless you want to italicise or bold any of your comment - it is just a reminder that you can use such tags to format your text!
You can choose to log in to post using the blogger.com option if you have a blogger.com account - you might want to log in so that you can comment as your blogger 'persona' and leave your blog details for the owner of the blog and other readers to follow up on. The 'other' option is for you to leave your name or pseudonym and the URL of your non-blogger.com blog (or other website). I have also enabled anonymous comments, so you don't have to leave any 'real' name or URL.
Whichever option you choose, you will have to use the 'word verification' option which requires you to fill in the box with the letters you see. This is an attempt to deter so-called 'spambots' - automated programs used by despicable spammers to flood our blogs with spam comments. These spambots cannot read the letters you see, only people can - and because they cannot read these letters and fill in the box, they cannot complete the spam comment. Sometimes the letters aren't as legible as they could be - if you are unsure what the letters are, make your best guess. If the letters you type in the word verification box don't match, you will be given another opportunity to enter a different sequence of letters. (Thanks for asking, DB!)
Permanent links
Each individual post on a blog usually has its own URL or 'permanent' link (this link is as permanent as anything that exists in cyberspace - it should exist as long as the blog exists). The URL or permanent link for each post on a blog can be found either by clicking on or moving your mouse over the title of the post, the time or date of the post, or the hash # symbol at the bottom of the post. So, to tell your friends about this blog, you would use its URL: http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com. To mention a specific post, you would use its permanent link. For example the post I wrote earlier about blogs is at http://curtincolloquy.blogspot.com/2005/11/blogs.html. (Tip: you can usually click on the name of a blog to go back to the main page and most recent post.)
Archives
Each post is automatically stored or archived, so you can see how long a blog has existed (the more venerable ones can be 3, 4, sometimes even 5 years old!), and go and look at previous posts. This blog has been around since June this year.
Archives can list posts one by one (although this would mean the list would get unmanageably long if there are a lot of posts!), week by week, or month by month. It can be interesting to see how a blog develops over time.
Categories
Another feature is categories or tags describing what each post is about. As you write and publish a post, you can describe what the post is about, using keywords or tags. This can be very useful because makes it very easy to sort and find posts on specific topics. It also means you can easily see what each blog is about by looking at its categories. I have not implemented categories properly on this blog, mainly because Blogger doesn't have it as an option, and I haven't bothered. (I did bother on my other blog, using this workaround.) Categories, like comments, are usually displayed at the end of a post.
Trackback
Trackback is another blog feature, although not one I have used much, again because Blogger doesn't seem to have it. A non-technical definition:
TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, "This is something you may be interested in." To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B. [A ping in this context refers to "a small message sent from one webserver to another."]Basically, TrackBack lets you know if someone has linked to a post on your blog. Usually the TrackBack appears as a comment.
Wikipedia notes that TrackBack has been abused by spammers in recent times.
'Blogroll'
I like this term (which always brings me visions of sponge cake and jam!). It refers to the list of links to other blogs that a blogger will place on her/his blog. The blogroll on this blog (on the right of the page) is a list of blogs belonging to other library folk. Other links, to non-blogs, may also be listed. And sometimes a blogger will choose to showcase a favourite post.
I still haven't mentioned RSS! I feel another post coming on...
# posted by CW : 1:04 PM
