DISCUSSION: Moderating comments and feedback

Blogs are usually articles with discussion enabled. Once you have created a Blogspot blog and added content such as a blog post with text and a picture, and published the post, others can come and comment on your article. You already commented on an article called How To Blog on my blog called SilkCharm this morning, remember? (read this for a refresher)
Comments on main or home page

Another way is to click on the blog post TITLE

and then click on Post A Comment link.

So that is the two ways people will find the comment section on your blog.

Also for discussion: Do you want to create a post called "Code of Conduct" or "Rules of Engagement" and place that prominently on your site? If you think the subject matter might cause fights, it could be worthwhile.
The decision you have to make now is: what and how can they comment? Let's do that as an activity.

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DISCUSSION: How to create a blog post

Click POSTING
TITLE: What is the title of your blog post?
TIP: In general use major keywords in the Title. The keywords will help the search engine find you and may increase readership.
COMPOSE MODE: easiest to use (but if you know HTML, feel free to use EDIT HTML mode)
The next bar down is a menu bar for font and layout, with a PREVIEW menu.
Clicking POST OPTIONS gives another menu


You can change date and time here, Allow reader comments ,
Backlinks shows the people who are linking to you (you should generally allow them)

LABELS: Are like the chapter headings in a book. For example, in this blog, we use ADMINISTRATION for general blog posts, DISCUSSION for specific information on how to blog, ACTIVITY for the "to do"activities.

SAVE NOW - save but don't publish it for people to see.
PUBLISH POST - save and show it to the world (publish)

Technorati Tags: create a blog post, blog, course, centre for continuing education, university of sydney, laurel papworth, how to blog, blogger, blogspot

Discussion: Privacy and Identity on the Internet

AIM: Brief discussion to highlight and question what individuals feel comfortable/uncomfortable about revealing on their blog. Points for discussion:

• Photographs of family and friends
• Naming family and friends particularly children
• Full name - are you a consultant? a hobbyist?
  
• Email address - spam protection use (at)
  
• Location - if you go on holidays are you in the white pages?
• Hi, my name is XYZ and I am going on holidays on Saturday and I live at Flat 123, xyz road, suburb and my children are 6 and 7 and they go to this school and ...
  
• birthdates and mother's maiden name
  

What would you never reveal about yourself? What is very important, semi-important and not important at all? How does identity theft occur?

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DISCUSSION: About Blogging

What is a blog? (from the user generated encyclopedia, wikipedia):

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

I prefer to simply call it a website with articles, normally with the ability for the reader to leave a comment, normally like a diary (datestamped, reverse order). A blog normally has links to other blogs or media).

What types are there?
Most people think that blogs are text - like this one, which is article based. However YouTube could be considered a video blog, and Flickr a photoblog. Twitter is microblogging (140 characters or less) and moblogging is blogging (writing articles) from a mobile or cell phone.

Subject Matter?
Anything you want - fashion, studies, professional, beer, sports, hobbies, family, erotic writings, science, lifestyle, biography. Some (ok, a lot) are boring, and some are brilliant.
Have a flick through this powerpoint presentation:

| View | Upload your own

It's from Slideshare.net.

Tips: write with passion and conviction, be knowledgeable, allow debate, be consistent, be humble (or else have an interesting attitude), write regularly, link to friends or other bloggers, inform people that you blog so they can come and read it, don't write anything you don't want on the front page of the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald, don't blog when angry, don't blog when drunk, don't give your password to an angry drunk friend or ex-partner, develop your voice, listen to other people, don't listen to other people, make mistakes and learn, read other blogs, keep doing it, find bloggers who will link back, ...

Any other tips?

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DISCUSSION: How to find (important) blogs

AIM: Understand the importance of other writers (bloggers or the "blogosphere"), find interesting blogs to read and comment and link to. No linking at this stage.

DISCUSSION:
An intrisic part of blogging is joining in with other people who blog. You can learn a lot from them - their writing style, what sort of pictures and movies they include in their blog articles and how wide or narrow their range of topics are.

If you are determined to become the industry leader blogger or subject matter expert, it's well worthwhile finding out who else blogs on similar subjects.

Blogsearch: One way is to use blogsearch.google.com - put in some keywords, pick a timeline (blog articles posted in the last hour or day or week) and you will see blog articles on your favourite topic.

Top 100 lists: In Australia, Meg Tsiamis of Blogpond keeps a list of Top 100 Australian Bloggers. You may find some leading blogs there that you like. The Top 50 Australian Female Bloggers is on AllForWomen.

Blogroll: A blogroll is a list on either the left or right hand side of a blog. The blogger puts the name and link to other bloggers that he or she thinks is important and relevant to the topic. In the case of this blog, I keep a list of bloggers who teach blogging, and a separate list of links to student's new blogs. Love fashion? Go to The Bargain Queen's blog, and see the Websites We Love list on the right hand side. If you love fashion, you can click through the list and find other great fashion websites!

What are other ways of finding blogs for your sector/interest?

Please note: This course takes place on Google's Blogger. Blogger is the software, Blogspot is the web site (you create the blog on Blogger, but read it on Blogspot). Other well known blog software include WordPress, Movable Type or TypePad from Six Apart or LiveJournal,

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