November 30th, 2006
What is “blogging”?
I have been receiving a lot of responses like, I don’t know what a blog is, how does a blog work or I don’t want others to read what I write. I plan to answer all these concerns and hopefully make you less afraid to leave a comment. I have put together a short but thorough reference for blogging and at the end have included an anonymous survey so you can tell me how I can make this blog interesting enough for you so I don’t keep writing to myself. Please take the time to complete the survey at the end (your responses will be anonymous and greatly appreciated!!)
The history
A blog is just simply an online journal. The word itself derives from “Web log.” A blogger leaves posts that are listed in a reverse chronological order. The idea really came during the 1990s from the idea of the Internet Forum software or just simply called a forum. Forums created running conversation with “threads.” A user would start a thread and others would join the thread and leave comments creating a discussion. Forums are still used today but from there they evolved to an online diary where people would keep running accounts of their personal lives. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers.
Early bloggers just updated their blogs manually but with the popularity growing newer technology was created to make it easier. it is now easier for a less technical population to have their own blogs. back in the day before Amy and I started dating we where using an account based blog called Wordpress, a web application created just for blogging and is the same setup for most bloggers. Even Myspace has its own blogging features for their teen users.
Nowadays everyone has a blog. In 2004 they became increasingly mainstream and because they are so cost effective to maintain and easy to update most people have their whole website built into blog software. Now they are used more for news and opinions instead of personal journaling. As of November 2006, blog search engine Technorati was tracking nearly 60 million blogs (yes I a registered with Technorati). Most bloggers see it as a way to getting around filtered media and being able to push what they want to be heard. This is starting to obscure the dividing line between fact and fiction because more and more people are using blogs as viable evidence when in fact, in most cases, its just someone’s opinion. I am saving that argument for another blog post though. But but it does have its uses. When Dan Rather presented documents on CBS about President Bush’s military service, bloggers declared them forgeries and presented evidence causing CBS to apologize.
Anatomy of a blog
The best example of a blog is what you are staring at right now (and it is a pretty good one let me tell you). With dedicated web application, i.e. WordPress, bloggers can manage their blog from anywhere on the internet. I even have my blog setup to post new blogs by just sending an email to it. A blog can also have subscribers, private posts for registered users or just an open ended discussion about peoples views and opinions of a particular subject.
A blog entry typically consists of the following:
- Title, the main title, or headline, of the post.
- Body, main content of the post.
- Permalink, the URL of the full, individual article.
- Post Date, date and time the post was published.
A blog entry optionally includes the following:
- Comments
- Categories (or tags) - subjects that the entry discusses
- Trackback and or pingback - links to other sites that refer to the entry
Comments
Now the cool thing about a blog is the commenting features. This is my favorite because I like to get people’s opinions on certain things. I tried to setup my blog in a way that would allow my readers to leave comments as easy as possible. If someone disagrees, leave a comment. If you want to give them kudos or encouragement for the post, leave a comment. If you are bored, leave a comment. Its simple: name, comment, send. A user can leave as many comments as they want for any post and most readers leave comments for other comments.
What does all this mean for you
When I setup my blog about a year ago I had plans to use it as a communication device. A lot of people where calling me or emailing me asking why I don’t keep in contact. This was the solution. I had two goals: 1) to keep friends and family up to date if they were ever curious and 2) create a place for discussions of opinions and ideas. You know I am opinionated but I also like it when others disagree with me. It tells me that they are thinking human beings. I get a lot of responses about people who are afraid of other people reading their comments. If that is the case just leave your name out of the comment area and when you submit you will be listed as anonymous. If you think someone is going to disagree with you, you can argue or explain yourself in another comment. That is what they are there for. It is a feature that practically lets you write your own posts for my blog. But my blog remains silents and I still continue to get emails that ask me how am I doing or why have I not contacted them?
So what can I do that will make you want to continue to read my blog is the question I have for you. Lately I have not been inspired to update it because nobody cares. Writing to myself is no fun. I am not asking for sympathy, I just hate having a blog and doing anything with it. Amy helped me compose a survey to help me collect people’s ideas and opinions of the blog. Say whatever you want, its anonymous. Just answer it seriously please. On the next page you will be able to take the survey and since Amy made it you have to take it.
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December 4th, 2006
Steve and I were recently discussing the annoyance of politically correct issues. At the gym on Saturday, I was speaking with a woman who wrote a restaurant review for the local paper. While I appreciated her article, it stirred up angry responses from others and the restaurant was threatening to pull their advertising. This worman previously owned a successful and popular restaurant in S.I. so I valued her input. While I have not been to the restaurant in question, a co-worker of mine agreed with the author’s assessment. The review included the positive as well as the less positive and was based on several visits so I viewed it as balanced. I would hope that if I had been the chef, I would have accepted the article as a way to improve business.
Then a front page cover story of the same local rag had a story that the nativity scene was being pulled from the holiday decoration at the local mall and replaced with a banner honoring Christmas, Hannukah and Kwansa - give me a bleeding break!!!!! Steve claimed that he would not give them his business and would travel to the Woodbridge mall - but I believe they’re managed by the same company so who cares?
I don’t want to sound like a screaming conservative, but it annoys me.
December 4th, 2006
I just read all about blogs, and I’ll tell you what, it was very informative. With you being so far away i know that people wonder what you are doing and want to keep in touch with you. That would explain all of the phone calls and e-mails. I am sure that it gets really old answering the same questions in e-mail after e-mail, but don’t forget that we still need to hear from you once in a while. We love you and care about what is going on. So, as a cousin who loves you to death, i will try and blog you more often. But know that I still suck at this thing and phone calls rock too.
I have a silly question. If I respond to your blog and you get my message, do I have to have a blog for you to talk back to me or can I just keep looking at your blog and we can both use the same one?
December 4th, 2006
The answer is yes I can communicate with you through just my blog. I see everything that comes in and goes out so if you leave a response I see it. In the meantime though you have to keep checking back to see if someone has responded to your comment. In the very new future I will install an option that allows you to receive a notification every time someone responds to your comment.
But I have to see more comments before I can install that.