Conversations on Commenting

… thoughts on commenting in general and on blogs in particular.

One of the most important tasks of a blogger is to set up a commenting policy. It doesn’t matter whether a person writes for a blog professionally or works on a site for fun and family — a clear statement on comments is necessary. The Props Blog, a good source for blogging information, features this informative post, The 10 Commandments of Commenting. I’ve rewritten these 10 commandments for my students using “Thou shalls” rather than “Thou shall nots,” and I’ve attached this document at the end of the post.

In today’s world, many people do not understand the purpose of commenting, and only recently have many websites started to set limits. Moreover, the rough and tumble, devil-may-care attitude that many people assume as they navigate the web (see newspapers — paper or electronic — for the latest digital scandals) leads to individuals not always thinking before they write, send, and post. I wrote a post, also titled Conversations on Commenting, sharing more of my views on this subject.

Start a Family Blog Class Expectations: Lesson #2

Expectations

I ask everyone to plan to participate in three ways:

1. Subscribe to the class blog after I post the instructions. Once you subscribe you will receive an e-mail each time I post a lesson (I expect to post somewhere between 10-12 lessons, though I have already created eight.)
2. Comment at least a few times (maybe at least five times?) on the class blog. Your comments can be in the form of ideas, discoveries, requests for more info, or just requests for help. One of my posts will introduce a question and answer center where you can post your inquiries. Remember, if you post a question, the chances are that other people need the answer to that question.
3. Share your blog address when you begin constructing your site so other course participants can visit.

For each short unit I will upload a short written piece, called a post, with the content of the lesson.  Each post, at the bottom, has a place where comments can be left (you’ve seen comment sections before, I am sure).

Welcome to the Online Class! Lesson #1

Welcome to the first GDS online technology class for parents.

In this Start a Family Blog course we will begin by learning some basic facts about blogs, move on and learn about the blog for this class, and then — finally — each of you will begin to create and develop your own blogging site. We will spend the month of June working together. This course site will be up and available all summer long for consultation.  At this time we have 28 participants.

For the class, as well as for your blogging assignments, we will be using WordPress.com to create blogs and add free features. WordPress has some excellent options as a part of the free package, but an advantage of this site is that additional features, upgrades, and a privacy upgrade are available for small fees. The WordPress community also has excellent technical support and a more protected environment, though the blog is still easily available to your readers.

To help you understand more about how blogs are structured, I will add explanations, features, and new bells and whistles to the class site as we go along — the class lessons.