Tuesday, October 9, 2007

HELP post ~ for Scamper and others

Scamper said...
"I'm not sure I have this blog thing figured out. I can't seem to figure out how to read things in sequential order - any hints? And I forget to come here, just now see you've picked the first book and I should have already read the first chapters, yikes! So I am behind. My library has the book, but it will take a few days for me to get a copy and start reading, so I guess I'll be a week behind. If anyone has any tips for how I can best keep up with the blog, please let me know. Or email me at scamper at chartertn dot net. Thanks!!"

1. How best to keep up with the blog
Consider it important enough to check in here more often than every ten days or longer ... that's the first thing.

2. How not to forget
Same answer ... if it's important to you, you won't forget it for over a week.

3. Reading in sequential order
It's not going to happen. The closest to reading in sequential order (though backwards) would be if we all only POST and never COMMENT.
[NOTE: See #6 for one way of reading sequentially.]
POST ~ when it's important ... and I think discussing books is important! That's the whole point of this blog, right? So that would include choosing books, answering questions, talking about a character, saying how you felt reading a particular scene or chapter, etc.

COMMENT ~ when it's chit-chat ... not related to books. I agree that it's important for us to know and care about each other, so make comments to share your days. When something MAJOR happens, however, like Shirley telling us her son had died, POST it ... we want to know, we NEED to know, things like that about each other.
4. How to post
When you are signed in ... this is IMPORTANT, so pay attention ... WHEN you are SIGNED IN, you'll see your email address at the top of the blog in that dark blue strip, with NEW POST and SIGN OUT to the right of it. Click on NEW POST.

I really want you to practice this, so CLICK on NEW POST right now and take a look at the screen that comes up. It's the screen to CREATE a new post. Please get to be familiar with this procedure. Now come back to this page by clicking on the BACK ARROW in the top left corner of your screen ... and try it one more time.

When you are on the CREATE a post page, click on the OTHER tab, called EDIT POSTS. Now you are at the heart of blogging. Look down the LIST of posts and notice you can go back and VIEW any post alone. When you click on VIEW, that's the only post that will come up. Then you can read it, copy it, comment on it, or whatever you like ... but you cannot EDIT any posts but your own. If you left out a word or misspelled a word, you can correct your post ... any time, forever. You could even delete your post, but please don't.

5. Choosing labels
On the left of the page where you EDIT POSTS, you'll see the whole list of LABELS. If we use the same labels for similar things, it will be easy to find posts on the same subject. For example, let's all LABEL our first discussion book OSB, for The Other Side of the Bridge.

6. Using labels
You don't have to come to this page or a HELP post to use the labels. On ANY post labeled OSB, for instance, click on the OSB and you will get EVERY post with that label ... so you will be able to read them all SEQUENTIALLY, in reverse order of when the posts were written. For example, by clicking on OSB on the post you are reading, you would be able to read ALL discussion of The Other Side of the Bridge.
__________

I hope this helps. Now let's all start POSTING about the book we are reading: OSB.

1 comment:

Bonnie Jacobs said...

The "practice" was for EVERYBUDDY, not just Scamper. All of you who are new to blogging should read the HELP posts once a week until you know how to do a variety of things here on our blog.