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Blogs and how they work

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by jdclyde

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The idea of a blog is still fairly new to me, and before the TR blogs I can honestly say I NEVER went into one before.

Because of this, I have a question.

How are blogs suppose to work? If I have an on going issue or topic, do you make one long blog or do you make more blogs for each time you come back?

Is a blog even intended for anything more than a few entries?

When do we get a hit list of how many people visit the blogs?

33 replies

by jaqui

you looked at it this way:
b-log = broadcast log
a digital diary that is open to public for reading..and now also for writing to.
it's essentially an alternative forum, organised under people more than topic.

by jaqui

the way it's used is more in tune with a journal or diary.

a web log is a log generated by a webserver with site activity data.

the log is a chronological record of all events, a journal diary is a personal record, that only gets what the writer deems important.

all of which boils down to:
the name is not an accurate indication of the usage. ;)

by stress junkie

I originally wrote something but then decided that I shouldn't have written anything.

Please disregard. TR staff please delete this post.

by stress junkie

I have also avoided blogs except a few technical ones where the posts naturally group themselves by subject such as on linuxquestions.org.

It seems to me that entries are limited to being sorted chronologically. This makes the blogs a kind of stream of consciousness log. That might be okay if you only post about one subject or if you never revisit ideas in previous posts. On the other hand if you want to post about three or four subjects of interest then these will not be grouped by subject and you cannot reorder them to improve the progression of your discussion.

And they are listed chronologically by most recent first. If you want people to see your first post on a subject before they see your last post on the same subject then you would have to post your thoughts in reverse order. In other words if you have a three part post you would post part three then part two then part one. This is not being done of course. The result is that you see the final thoughts on a multi-part subject before you see the initial thoughts.

I could go on but my point is that these kinds of structural problems are the reasons that I don't create a blog. The problems about grouping posts by subject could be partially addressed if the blogs were more like personal discussion forums where we could create a new discussion thread and then post subsequent thoughts on the same subject into that thread. That doesn't address the issue of ordering posts chronologically though.

Those are my thoughts on blogging.

LSMFT

by jaqui

that the blog scripts here allow you to have threaded blogs?
the font is the newest at the top, but each front posting can have a number of comments added that show as a second layer, posted in order chronologically, with the first post to last order, not the reversed order of the front page.

by smorty71

By using tags on your blog posts, you can easily group posts together. For example, if you want to post a bunch of stuff on Linux, use the "linux" tag.

Soon we will be adding a little tag cloud (a group of the tags you use most in your blog) to each blog. This will help users quickly see what the blogger usually talks about as well as provide an easy way to get all of the blogger's posts on a particular topic.

I'm glad to see that those of you who aren't regular blog readers or blog posters are willing to give it a shot. I think you'll find it a great way to organize your thoughts and get feedback at the same time.

by stress junkie

... the less I understand how tagging can change the order of blog posts. In your example if I put a "Linux" tag on several posts then that will just display the posts to people who look up that tag. How is that going to put my last entry at the bottom of the blog list when someone looks at my blog? And how is that going to put all of the Linux blog posts together in the listing of my blog?

I don't see how tags solve the problem of chronoligical listing of blog posts when someone looks at a blog.

by smorty71

First, we are working on some tools to allow bloggers to understand how popular/how much traffic their blog gets. Those are a couple of weeks ago, though.

As for the frequency, you should post whenever you feel like it. If you are posting about an ongoing project, post whenever something interesting happens -- whether it is once a day or a few times a week.

When I started blogging, I used to worry about whether I was posting too much or too little. After a while, you just kind of figure out what your comfort level is and it gets easier.

by leobloom

Before you start "blogging" I suggest the following site for guidance: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=banish

Here are a couple of definitions from that site:

"Blogger: Term used to describe anyone with enough time or narcissism to document every tedious bit of minutia filling their uneventful lives."

"Blogging: If minds had anuses, blogging would be what your mind would do when it had to take a dump."

by stress junkie

I swear that web page could have been written by me. At least I'm not the only one who thinks like that.

I figured that the second sign of being old had set in when ALL of the new teen slang started to really irritate me. The first sign was being consistently rejected by college babes ON THE BASIS OF AGE. I have to make that clear because when I was younger I was consistently rejected by college babes for other reasons.

Anyway, the term "blog" really irritates me. Presumably derived from the phrase "web log" it is really a misnomer. Most of us techie types would say that a log is a list of records of events. Blogs are collections of essays. There is no correlation whatsoever between logs and blogs.

I suppose I'll spend the rest of my life being pissed at whatever idiotic new crap that children have thought of next.

LSMFT

by smorty71

I am not a fan of the term blog either and I especially hate to even think of referring to myself as a "blogger." That's part of the reason I took so long to start one.

However, I found that having a place to post my thoughts was very helpful (whether anyone read them or not). I am still surprised at how many comments and e-mails I get from people who have found a particular post helpful.

by dmambo

r u old and 2 cranky 2 be on-line? b kewl!!

(Whew, just writing that much in the hip-hop sytle of my kids was a real effort. I'm going back to a little thing I call "English"!)

by stress junkie

You're practically hijacking my post "Yes, there's that too." which was originally titled "Well, there's that too."

by jaqui

after I'd posted.

( we may need a bigger hammer though, people are not gonna beleive that a log is only a detailed listing of all activity )

by stress junkie

It's all these damned kids running around getting into everything. X-(

There may be no point in complaining but that isn't going to stop me. :-)

What did you think of LeoBloom's post "guidance"? Pretty funny stuff.

by jaqui

but then, once they screw it up so badly they can't fix it, you can make them look and feel like fools by repairing the damage.. publicly.

cause you know they have been bashing the "old guys" as being to old to be of any use.

>:)

never saw that one?
where do I find leobloom's post guidance?

by stress junkie

There is certainly a lot of good work being done in the TR blogs. I've seen a few that are becoming valuable technical resources. jmgarvin's blog is one of a handful that I've seen that are really interesting.

A little explanation of some of my posts are probably in order. If you had been reading all of my posts regularly you would see a theme developing. I've been in a sort of "old fart against the propeller heads" kind of mood for a few weeks. I try to put a humorous spin on it such as when I spoke of being rejected by college babes on the basis of age vs. other reasons in the past. It makes me chuckle.

So since "blogging" is something new it just happens to appear on my target radar along with MP3s and iPods and rap/hippity-hoppity music and, well, just generally being under 30 years old. So I refer to people under 30 years old as children and try to have fun at their expense. It's just so damned easy to do I can't resist.

And now you know the rest of the story. (Adopted signature phrase invented by Paul Harvey.)

LSMFT (Adopted signature mystery acronym.)

:-)

by stress junkie

OK you found it. The natural question is why would I want to adopt that? It's like this.

Back in the 1960s when cigarette companies advertised on television the LSMFT slogan was widely known. Once the television advertising stopped the slogan was only found on magazine ad pages. I figure that people don't notice the details of those as much as they would notice the details of television ads. The result is that the meaning of LSMFT has (in my mind) become ancient knowledge. I think of myself as a repository of ancient knowledge as far as IT is concerned.

I smoke cigarettes so a cigarette slogan is appropriate for me.

I use LSMFT as an example of an axiomatic truth. :-)

It's also an example of the subtilty and obscurity of my sense of humor.

Amazing isn't it?

Thanks for asking. I was beginning to think that nobody ever would. :-)

by tomsal

Its weblog as in WEBsite, not WEBserver.

The term comes from what it originally started as -- folks scouring the 'net grabbing news stories from various WEBsites then compiling them on their own website with their own commentary/editiorals/opinions on each thing.

Thus the birth of the term weblog.

Of course in all reality I don't give a stinky rats arse what you call it -- as this society we live in has to create new damn terms for everything.

its a friggin journal..."ooooh check out my blog..." you mean check out your journal?

;)

by stress junkie

Dear Diary,

I started a public diary today on the Internet. Don't get jealous. I'll save all of my super special secrets for you. Hidden under my bed you will always be my special secret friend.

=================

OH MY GOD!!!

Hmmm. Looks like I forgot my meds today. :-)

by smorty71

not a problem (IMHO). After all, this is a journal. And because of that, the most recent things tend to be the most relevant for the people who are trying to keep up with you via your blog.

As for the tag sorting, if someone did want to find all of your blog posts on a topic like "Linux," then clicking that tag would display only the Linux posts.

You're right, though, it wouldn't allow you to change the order of those posts to anything over than chronological.

I'm not sure that there is an easy fix for the sorting issue, though. If you don't sort the posts chronologically, what would you sort it on?

sm

by stress junkie

... is that I really want a full featured book editing application. Naturally I know that isn't realistic. Give me a piece of kite string and I'll want use it to lift a battleship.

When I start thinking about doing something I tend to go really big with my vision of how I'd want to do it. I'll have to apply my substantial intellectual gifts to finding a way to use the system as it is implemented. :-)

by jaqui

in php scripts.
with the sql create file to set up the mysql db.

full multistage article writing application, designed for multiple levels of access by multiple people.

by stress junkie

I almost made a suggestion to have the blog entries organised by a database. I decided to try to appreciate the simple serial notebook for what it is. Then I turned around and made a really vicious joke about having an on line diary. I laughed and laughed.

I'm sure you already know that I'm not usually one to complain. :-)

by stress junkie

I don't think it's just that teens are creating slang as they've done since humans first appeared on the planet. It's only those parts that are just plain stupid that get under my skin.

Yeah I guess I be cranky. :-)

by charliespencer

I thought you were making some sarcastic comment on the use of initials and acronyms by all the chatroom kids.

by charliespencer

I've regarded blogs as the frothy scum that washes up on the shores of the cybersea. This is due to my initial experiences looking at the form three or four years ago. All I found was adolescent angst and Dave Winer's apparently random babblings. "Blog" sounds like something Capt. Kirk would zap with a phaser. And no, I don't have a blog of my own.

I'm sure the form must have matured by now. I'm soliciting recommendations for blogs worth reading. I'm defining "worth reading" as:

- IT-related with a minimum of personal, non-IT postings.
- Non-hostile position toward Microsoft and proprietary software. The author doesn't have to approve of these entities, just realize there is a place in the world for them.

I'm also looking for a blog written by someone whose company is replacing MS on the desktop with Linux and open source apps.

If you've got a recommendation, please post it. It would be useful if you included a couple of sentences about why you recommend the particular blog, and what criteria you use for adding a new blog on your "must-read" list.

Thanks!

by neil higgins

Frothy scum? That's something I get in a pint of beer.Capt.Kirk rocks ok.Non-hostile position towards $microsoft.You gota be kiddin me.Maturity..me?...Ha,ha.

by gunnar klevedal

8 million Web Logs in USA only. I guess they have similarities and differences, just like people. And there are over 6 billion people, only on this planet.

Problem is to find and be found.

Regards
Gunnar Klevedal

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