how-to-blog
Image captions
I added a feature that would allow us to add a caption for an image, check this out:
enjoy.
I fixed the e-mail subscription
so if you want to get your nmrs fix by email, now you can…
enjoy…
A tour-de-formatting
Continuing what we discussed today, here’s a tour-de-formatting, so you know what’s available for you to use to better write your posts.
By the way, this introduction paragraph is styled as H6 (it’s a new formatting I added for that purpose exactly. You can choose it from the formatting drop-down menu available by expanding the editor link, or by wrapping your tags with <h6> and </h6> in the HTML mode.
Sub Titles
I’m using <h3> for subtitles (like here above), they are very useful to screen through a post and as we discussed in class, to make sure that even if you haven’t read the whole thing, you still know what the post is about and where in it you might find the content you’re interested in.
Block-Quotes
This is something you’ve all been using and is proving itself. From time to time it suffers an over use. If you want to quote someone, please choose the actual part worth quoting. Otherwise, either link to it or include it in a paragraph. It is hard to read long text in a block quote format as you are probably starting to noticed towards the end of this segment.
Here are some bullet points, look how useful they can be:
- Use the titles wisely they are the most likely elements of your posts to detemine if the reader will continue reading it.
- Use videos wisely, they are time consuming and we will not necessarily watch them.
- Use images wisely and size them responsively. You don’t want your post to become heavy on images and hard to read. You can change the size of images either using an image editor before uploading (preferable) or after, through the image dialog box. The size of our post column is 530 pixels.
- Bloggers tend to use the Strikethrough just for fun to correct text they posted earlier. This is mainly used when updating a post after it was already published.
- When writing a long post it is polite to use the ‘more’ tag to break the post from the main page. In general though, you are loosing readers for doing that, so just try to keep your posts short and sweet, or well formatted enough to be accessible.
- Clean formatting - When pasting text from an external source (mainly text editors) try to make sure you don’t have some formatting leftovers that you don’t like. There are a couple of pasting options like the:
- Paste As Plain Text - gets rid of formatting and just pasts the text
- Paste from Word - safely maintains the formatting of Microsoft Word documents and some other word processors, without including junk tags
- Remove Formatting - gets rid of formatting after you’ve already pasted them. select the text you want to clean first.
- Use Bold when it makes sense.
Tags
Tags are super useful both to identify the post and to make connections. I would recommend each one of you chooses a unique tag for your travelogue so each post in the series contains links to other relevant posts. If you use the tags correctly these posts will indeed be relevant. Try to be consistent with the tags. Remember travelogu3 is not the same tag as travelogue 3 or travelogue-3.
That’s all for now. Enjoy.
Blogging on Wordpress 2.5 (-5 teeth)
Things are looking slicker (but probably less familiar) in the backend. Wordpress came up with a new version (which I LOVE!) (I hope you do to). Here’s a screencast that might help you adjust:
*Please don’t use the gallery feature in your posts, what we have (with the lightbox effect) is better.
Brief on Common Based Peer Production and Virtue
Hey class let me just apologize in advance for the late post i didnt realize till just now that I am responsible for the discussion of the reading today in class so here is my brief.
The article explores and talks about a system that is emerging especially through the web, the system is this type of open source forum that allows mass amounts of people to contribute to the creation of free software or information. Its a system that is not owned by anyone and is a collective effort; collaborative project.
One of the arguments made in the text is that this type of collaboration fosters virtue in its participants. Because participants are free to participate as little or as much as theyd like and control the content that they share or contribute, the virtue that essentially comes out of this is that of liberation.
When I first read this article my first thought was about Wikipedia which the article does talk about how it has grown over the years and one of the more well known open forums. However, this entire article raised the question for me about authenticity? While it may be considered a great phenomena that so many people can come together and contribute information and ideas to create a “whole”, with no owner or manager how can the information presented on something such as wikipedia be trusted. I feel as though the information found on wikipedia can not be used or taken as truth unless further research is done to back it up, in which case what is the point of wikipedia?
Fueled by Ramen: Online Music Community
As previously mentioned, for my third travel log Im going to investigate the online music community. More specifically the website www.fueledbyramen.com. When you first bring up the site there is always an advertisement for a band, either for a new album that may be coming out or an upcoming tour etc. There are usually two advertisements for bands or band related material before you actually get to the site.
I found the opening page of the website slightly daunting because there is so much going on, there is a news update that lists whats going on with certain bands. The site seems to promote alternative rock bands that may not necessarily be considered mainstream. First things first I registered for their text list service, I would assume that I’ll be getting texts about upcoming concerts and album releases. I also joined what they call the “street team”. According to the site, by joining the street team I will receive:
- Access exclusive downloads and files
- Receive news and updates before it is posted anywhere else
- Gain access to flyers and promotional material
According to the site Fueled By Ramen is an independent record label that is based in Tampa Florida.
For my next post Id like to research more information on how the label got started and launched or discovered some of the bands found on the website. Hopefully with my new membership to the “street team” ill be able to gain some insider information.
CutX
Dear All,
I installed CutX for the google-free week before and now have problem uninstalling it from my laptop…I took it to the NYU computer store and they didn’t know how to uninstall it either…The CutX is so annoying in my laptop…I have to click on Safari twice to open it….
Please help if you know!
Thanks a lot!
Fueled By Ramen
For my third travel log Id like to explore the online music scene. More specifically the website www.fueledbyramen.com. The website is all about alternative rock bands, well most of the bands featured on the website I wouldn’t consider mainstream. There seems to be a lot going on on this site from news updates on favorite bands, blogs from different members of different bands, an online store to buy apparel with the logo of your favorite band, music videos etc.
I think the web has really helped independant artists and bands get recognized especially through sites such as myspace and fueledbyramen. I dont know where exactly I want my search to go but I think thats part of the fun.
SEX DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL!
help
I just wrote a really long post and by accident hit the keyboard and took me elsewhere on the site. Is there ANY way to get it back? I notice when I am typing sometimes it will say at the bottom of my screen it saved what I was typing.
AHHHHH. Please help.
The Truth about the Queen of Mean (all about perez hilton).
For my next blog I was really interested in digging a little deeper into the past of Perez Hilton. How did he come to be the reigning celebrity blogger? How did his site, www.perezhilton.com, come to be?
I started my search with google by searching his name and I came upon an article from rollingstone.com. According to the article Perez was a chubby kid growing up who often got picked on at school because of his weight. He spent most of his childhood in bed watching his favorite television shows.
Much to my surprise I found out that Perez is one of our own. He moved to NYC when he graduated from high school and attended NYU as a theater major on a full scholarship. After NYU he moved to LA, where things didn’t seem to be working out so he moved back to the city where he started writing for the well known gossip magazine Star. While working at Star he created a gossip blog that started out as just a hobby, the name of the site was Pagesixsixsix (After the page in the New York Post). Well the New York Post ended up suing him which is what prompted him to change the name of the site to Perez Hilton.
However, being the operator of “Hollywood’s Most Hated Website” is not all fun and games. Currently:
“He’s being sued by DJ Samantha Ronson for $20 million, for calling her a “toxic,” no-good friend to Lindsay Lohan — a true sign of arrival. Also, he’s been banned from the Chateau Marmont for no reason other than on general principle.”
*** Coming up on the next post****
The business side of Perezhilton.com. Just how Much does this celebrity blogger make a year? How much does it cost to advertise on his site?
