Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
It’s now a week since Wordpress 2.5 was released. I’ve managed, without any dramas, to upgrade all twelve blogs at www.duncans.tv and www.postkiwi.com.
Dashboard, rather than the first in the menu, is now a small link at the top of the screen.
Menu on the Left
Write, the first item on the new menu, now has the options of post, page, and link.
Manage, the second item on the new menu, has the options of post, pages, links, categories, tags, link categories, media library, import, export, backup.
The best thing about the latest upgrade is that we can access quickly all posts, published posts, and drafts. We can access posts by months and categories.
Design and Widgets
Presentation has changed to Design. We have the option of changing themes, editing themes, and working with sidebar widgets, as in the latest version of 2.3. However now we can name text widgets, cutting out the need for guesswork when editing. However the drag and drop facility has been replaced by an ‘add’ link. Which means that temporarily removing widgets, or moving them from one sidebar to another, is a real pain. Once the widget is on the sidebar the only options are editing or deleting. For some reason my text boxes including Feedburner RSS information cannot be edited or deleted.
Comments
Comments is now a menu in itself. The number appearing above the comments menu refers to the number waiting in the moderation queue. Comments awaiting moderation are now highlighted, but not separated on to another screen.
Menu on the Right
Settings (was Options), Plugins and Users menus have been placed on the right hand side of the dashboard.
Time has to be calculated manually for daylight saving. But here in Queensland we don’t have to worry about that!
Discussion options include the capacity to allow for Gravatars - pictures associated with commenters.
The permalink structure now caters for tags as well as categories.
Miscellaneous includes predetermining the sizes of uploaded thumbnails and medium pictures.
Plugins Settings
The Plugins, as in the latest version of 2.3, inform the user when a more up to date version is available. You have the option of downloading the plugin for yourself and transferring via FTP, or upgrading with one click of the mouse. Clearly if you have customised plugins, you’ll want to ignore the invitation to automatically upgrade.
Technorati Tags or Internal Tags?
The default for Wordpress is internal tags, with a widget for a tag cloud included. To tell the truth, for all my work on including Technorati tags over two years, I have had very very few visits or clicks out as a result. I’ve now chosen instead to use internal tags to increase the searchability of my sites. So, for example, you can now search for all posts referring to Guinness at Duncan’s TV Ad Land. Mind you could do that with the search engine before. However I can now reduce the number of categories on my blogs.
I’ve spent the last week going back through the archives at Duncan’s TV Ad Land, entering tags and tidying up posts. So far I’ve covered everything from 2003 to 2006. Just 2007 and 2008 to go!
Categories
The Categories menu is no longer on the right side of the post as you edit it. It’s below, under Tags. This may say something about the priorities of the Wordpress community. A useful tool here is the ‘most used’ option which shows the top 10 categories in order of usage.
Related Posts
It seems Wordpress 2.5 assumes that Related Posts plugin is installed. No big drama. Just remember to activate the script in the settings to make sure it’s working.
Save, Preview, Publish
The Preview This Post, View This Post, Save, Publish options are all on the right hand side of the post being edited, along with quick links to ‘manage all coments’, ‘manage all posts’, ‘manage all categories’, ‘manage all tags’, and ‘view drafts’. Status includes Published, Unpublished and Pending Review. When editing an already published post or page, as soon as any changes are saved you have the options of continuing to edit, viewing the post/page, or returning to the view from which you started editing (archive or single page).
The Pending Review option is designed for shared blogs - identifying posts that need a look from others before publishing.
More Info at Wordpress
Have a look through the behind-the-scenes explanations by Matt Mullenweg.
Tags: Wordpress
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Brian Bailey, who blogs at leaveitbehind.com, is the web director at Fellowship Church (Texas and Florida) and part of the AlamoFire team who produce social games such as PackRat on Facebook. Together with Terry Storch, terrystorch.com, he has published a book on blogging for church leaders.
Why Blog? Is blogging a toy or a tool? Bailey strongly recommends that churches only invest their leaders’ time in blogging if it is genuinely going to be useful. He suggests that blogging can be used for sharing news, casting vision, reaching out to the community, connecting staff with one another, volunteers and church members, learning from others, spreading the Word.
The book includes practical chapters on getting started, building a better blog, pitfalls to avoid, using RSS feeds, and podcasting.
Bailey intersperses his content with chapters asking five questions with Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church Seattle), Perry Noble (NewSpring Community Church Greenville), Craig Groeschel (Life Church, Oklahoma), Brad Abare and Kevin Hendricks, (Church Marketing Sucks), Tony Morgan (Granger Community Church, Indiana), Greg Surratt (Seacoast Church, Charleston) and Mark Batterson (National Community Church, Washington DC). There’s also a few references to interactions Bailey has had with well known bloggers such as Robert Scoble.
I’d recommend this book highly to any church leaders considering launching a blog or improving the effectiveness of their online work. The tip I picked up and intend to use is including a disclaimer “these opinions are those of Duncan Macleod and not his employer”.
Tags: Blogging, Brian Bailey, Mark Driscoll
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
Welcome to the March 12, 2008 edition of Carnival of Australia.
There are 25 posts to check out here. Your challenge is to take a look through them all, leaving friendly and helpful comments. Would you like to join this happy team of contributors? Read my earlier post on the ins and outs of the Carnival of Australia. The next edition will be in two weeks time,
Animals
Kay presents Having fun with digiscrap posted at Moggie Madness.
Naomi presents Diary From England: FAREWELL CROCODILE HUNTER posted at Diary From England.
Business
Ross Hill presents David Greiner from Freshview (hatchthat.com) posted at Hatch That.
Noric Dilanchian presents Australia’s first 11 in performance and valuation - Dilanchian Lawyers posted at Lightbulb, saying, “The vast majority of books on business success are either humdrum, American or fail to recognise that in many respects Australia is different. In this respect one standout, now in its second edition, is The First XI: Winning Organisations in Australia (John Wiley & Sons Australia, Sydney, 2007). However, its chapter titled “Comparing our findings with other studies” provides reasons why it is a good thing that the book’s discoveries are not startling.”
Megan Bayliss presents What we do at Imaginif posted at Imaginif…, saying, “Attending a professional network recently I was faced with how out of touch I have become with a non computer based audience. Several colleagues mused around not knowing what it is I do anymore because I do a lot of that weird computer stuff. Point taken. But conversely, do you know what the talk doctors of Imaginif do off line? This is who we are and what we do in the office of Imaginif:”
Current Affairs
char presents Back it Up Colleagues! posted at Psych Matters.
Gavin R. Putland presents 100 words for the Australia 2020 Summit posted at The World According to GRP.
Megt presents Things that make you go hmmm posted at Dipping into the Blogpond, saying, “Just a few random stories that make me think “WTF?”"
Micellaneous Mum presents A poem for World Women’s Day posted at Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum, saying, “A poem by an Aussie Poet in honour of International Women’s Day”
Environment
Suzie Cheel presents Random Acts Of Kindness posted at The Abundance Highway, saying, “Last Sunday was Clean up Australia Day, so one might expect that there would be less litter around. I have continued on with my randon act of kindness each day we go to the beach. Mondays we usally go with a plastic bag as there is always more cans, paper cups, and often half full water bottles on the beach.”
Family
Carole Fogarty presents The Emotional Cost of Clutter: posted at THE HEALTHY LIVING LOUNGE, saying, “We all have an emotional attachment to our stuff. Sometimes healthy and sometimes very unhealthy. The trick is to take an honest look at everything t”
Food
Gillian Polack presents Explaining food posted at Gillian Polack.
Health
Sue presents World Voice Day 16th April 2008 - 6 PM until the fat lady sings! posted at Spasmodic Dysphonia, saying, “Come and join us giving voice to neurological movement disorders.”
Helping a mate
Two from Craig - as his first submission just missed the last deadline.
Craig Harper presents Just Another Life. posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, “Have you ever thought about your funeral? I have. Mine that is, not yours. Sometimes I wonder what it will be like. Who will be there, what they will say. Good stuff or bad? Will it be a sad or happy occasion? Will there be three people or three thousand? Or fifty perhaps? It’s certainly not something that I dwell on (that would be creepy), but from time to time (usually when I’m at a funeral myself) I let my mind wander and consider what that day might be like.”
Craig Harper presents Mind of a Teacher, Heart of a Student. posted at Renovate your life with Craig, saying, “To say that Bobby Cappuccio came from a background of adversity is like saying that Bill Gates has a few dollars in the bank.”
History
Jason presents 1902: Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock, “scapegoats for Empire” posted at Executed Today.
Literature
Duncan Macleod presents One thing leads to another at Borders posted at Duncan’s Print, saying, “Borders Asia Pacific is helping customers make the connections between genres with a print advertising campaign, “One Thing Leads to Another”. Asia is connected with design and sculpture in an impressive hairdo. Travel is connected with D.I.Y. on the back of a motorbike. Automotive is connected with House and Home and Baby Names in the back of a Volkswagen Kombi.”
Politics
Gavin R. Putland presents Mark my words, Mr Rudd posted at Gavonomics.
Sport
Anne K presents A Funny (Yet Sad) Thing Happened At The Range Today posted at Doug Kercher Golf.
Technology
Duncan Macleod presents Schweppervescence Burst in Slow Motion posted at Duncan’s TV Ad Land, saying, “Schweppes has launched a campaign in Australia bringing new life to the branding concept of Schweppervescence. The ‘Burst’ campaign consists of five videos using slow motion cameras at 10,000 frames per second to capture the final moments in the trajectories of water balloons.”
Travel
poetloverrebelspy presents The Art of Being a Gracious Houseguest posted at Less Than a Shoestring, saying, “Travel on a Shoestring Carnivals highlight budget travel tips and destinations around the U.S. and the world. We would love to feature your posts on Oz hotels, restaurants, museums, churches, hikes, daytrips, parks, whatever! Submit by the third Wednesday of each month.”
——————–
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Australia using our carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Tags: Blogging, Carnival of Australia
Posted in Australia, Blogging | 7 Comments »
