Pushing blog posts

Anita said that to be useful, the blog would have to push posts out, rather than the user having to log-in to see if there is anything new. I agree.

There are a few ways of doing this, depending on your choice of browser and personal preference.

I have added two ways to receive pushed posts

Via your browser:

• If you use Firefox, then clicking on the small orange square (with a dot and 2 circle quadrants) will add a feed to your bookmarks. Each time a new Post is made, the title of the Post is fed automatically to your favorites list. Clicking on the blog title in your drop-down favorites list will display all post titles, without having to go to the Lincoln Write Stuff blog site. This works almost identically for Windows explorer (at least from IE 5 onwards). I don't know how the Mac handles this - but I suspect it is superior.

By your email:

• I have added an email subscription facility provided by Feedburner (now a part of Google). Simply click the link on the left hand side of the blog page that says Subscribe to blog and fill in your email address on the page provided. Verify your subscription when you get an email from Feedburner and you will receive one email per day of all posts made on that day. If there are no Posts then there will be no email.
  

I hope this helps users get the most out of our group.

Let me know if anything else is missing.

Aha!

Neil, in the top right hand corner of the page when you're on the blog, right next to your email address, is "New Post". Click on it and let fly! (Also--sign your post before you preview it. I couldn't find a way to get back to it and re-edit, as I can with the Writers Plot blog.) Jeanne

An experiment in labels

Tim asked the other night if we could arrange Posts in folders?
As far as I know this is not possible. Posts are archived by dates. However searching can be made simpler by adding labels for Posts. In this way Posts can then be searched or sorted by these labels (sometimes called tags by other blog software).
So what is a label?
Simply put it is a one word descriptor that describes the category that the Post fits in (think of it like a folder name).
This post might be labeled instructions. A Post can have more than one label, but then it will turn up under searches or sorts for each label.

I suggest the following labels for this blog:

• grammar - for posts on grammar (e.g. sneaked v snuck)
• craft - for posts on plotting or outlining, dialogue, descriptions, character development (e.g. are dead dogs ok)
  
• tools - for software, computing problems, hints or tips (Mac v PC, word v rtf, etc)
• non-fiction - for posts on journalism, essays, memoir (e.g. voice, flashback and truth)
  

Feel free to suggest others, but remember too many will get confusing and unwieldy.

You will find the box to add Labels for this post at the bottom left of the input page on each new post.

The other thing to remember is to use short meaningful titles for the original post, so that there is a chance of guessing the likely content.

Comments are kept with Posts, so make sure the comment is relevant to the topic posted and try to keep each post to one topic.

One final thought. On the top right hand side you will see a search blog. This will find the post(s) that contain that key word searched on.


Geoff

First Post

I had one glitch in signing up to post - I have my computer remember my gmail password, which means I didn't remember it. However, I took a best guess, and it was right (but I won't tell you what it was).

I look forward to more informative posting than the above.
Tim

Invitation to commenters

I would like to conduct a pipe cleaning exercise by inviting those who posted comments to post a blog. I have sent out invitations to you to sign up as authors
You could blog about how easy (or difficult) it was to sign up and post or blog on a writing topic.
At least one person already has a Gmail account, two others do not - so that should result in a fair test.
If all works well I will send out invitations to others on our distribution list.

See you all Wednesday for our discussion.

Fellow Writers

Lend me your thoughts.

I set up this blog in the euphoric haze that followed the public reading on Wednesday 17 October 2007 caused I think by fudge brownie overload, strong cheese and a glass (or two) of red wine at home (afterwards I might add).

I would like to thank everyone who came, listened and applauded, Jeanne for organizing it and standing in for Neil (some work is required on the accent Jeanne) and those who provided the facilities and refreshments.

Perhaps most of all I would like to thank my fellow writers whose comments and input beat my piece into shape.

I applaud you all.

Now that you have perhaps read this blog, please feel free to comment.(click on the word comments)

We can add members to to this blog and thus create a team blog, but each of you will need to create a Google account to add new entries to the Lincoln Write Stuff blog.

This is a simple process and begins with the administrator (aka me) sending an invitation to your email address. (I won't do this until we have had our discussion, in case we decide not to pursue a group blog).

When you reply you will be taken to a Google page to create an account and have full access to add posts.

Once everyone is a member we can restrict viewing access to members only, but for now I have left it open to the public to enable you to comment.