January 2006 - Posts
We should be going ahead with an upgrade on this blogging software from today.
If there are any changes you should know about, I'll keep you posted here.
Registering with ClusterBlog does not automatically provide you with a blog/gallery, nor the ability to set one up yourself. At the moment, as the user base of ClusterBlog is small, I am setting up new blogs/galleries purely by request from colleagues. Once you have registered, if you require a new blog and have not previously spoken to me or one of my colleagues, please send me an e-mail so that I can clarify a few details. This will most likely not remain the procedure when we adopt ClusterBlog permanently and start opening up the user base to a wider group - but for now it's easiest.
It may interest keen bloggers to know that your blogs are included in ClusterWeb's site statistics program and I should therefore be able to furnish you with some facts and figures at some stage.
- E-mail Notification of Comments posted to your Blog
I've noticed that this function doesn't seem to be working, having tested it. If anyone has successfully received an e-mail notification of a comment made on their blog, I'd be delighted to hear it! I am looking into a few possible reasons/solutions to this issue.
Today I'm working on getting to grips with blog permissions, but this shouldn't have any impact on your being able to blog. Justin has been having some issues with comments posted to his blog disappearing: if anyone else has encountered this problem, please tell me as it may give me a better understanding of why this is happening.
Alan has also raised an interesting point: searching for blogs via the web (for example http://blogsearch.com/ ) still isn't picking up the new ClusterBlogs. I did a little investigation into this, and it seems that the version of Community Server software we are currently running (1.1) does not support "pinging" - sending notifications out of new blogs and blog posts to search engine servers - but the next version (2.0) does. 2.0 has the capability to automatically ping Ping-O-Matic with new content. If after we finish beta-testing we decide to upgrade Community Server to the next edition, a pinging service should be available. I'm still looking into whether there is any way to manually "ping" the blogs on the version we currently have.
I'm just making this list as an aide-memoire for myself and to perhaps answer a few of your queries that have been cropping up over the past couple of weeks about ClusterBlog.
When I set up a blog for you, the URL of that blog will reflect the username (alias) that you chose when you registered to join ClusterBlog. (for example: /blogs/blogs/peter_banbury/default.aspx) ClusterBlog is for the use of Kent schools and education professionals ONLY. When joining, please choose a username that I can understand, as I will need to use it to recognise you and check that you are eligible for access. If you have a kent.gov.uk or a kent.sch.uk e-mail address, please use it when joining. Once a blog is set up, I can't change the blog name for you: changing the name would mean the blog software would lose the unique identifier of your blog and cause a whole lot of "blog not found" type errors. If you want a blog for your particular project, group, department, cluster or school, it's more sensible to register a username (alias) like "Ashford One" or "School Finance" than to use your own name.
If you do sign up for a new blog here, please be aware that ClusterBlog is still very much in its infancy and we are still beta-testing blog software. I will do all I can to support new users: but please be patient, as I am learning alongside you! We are not currently publicising our new blogging capability widely and it's easier to keep the blog user-testing group small at this stage so I can respond to user's queries more efficiently.
- Emoticons in Blog Posts and Comments
The version of Community Server we are currently running does not support the use of emoticons ("smilies") in either your blog posts or comments made on someone else's blog.
Just as you wouldn't consider sending out a letter containing your opinions to be published in the national press without proof-reading it and thinking about it carefully, you shouldn't blog unwisely! We're going to produce a set of blogging guidelines to give you some advice - watch this space for details.
After a little consultation with Peter and Jill, it seems I'm not going to be tackling the task of writing a ClusterBlog user manual alone! I'm going to be working with Francois to hopefully produce a guide that can cater for all levels of user from complete beginner to more advanced. Watch this blog for more details: as soon as I have anything new to offer I will post it here.
While we write, please do keep asking me if you find you have any problems with using the software. It's vitally important that I give you as much support as I can and that I learn where users are experiencing the most difficulties. E-mail me or leave a comment for me here.
I'm also aware that I have 5 new applications to join ClusterBlog waiting for me to approve them. Please be patient with me and rest assured you have not been ignored or forgotten! Before ClusterBlog is fully opened and advertised across Kent and across ClusterWeb, I will need to have put a system in place to deal with what will probably be quite a large amount of new applicants. While I work out the quickest, easiest system, there may be a slight delay in approving new applicants.
My first piece of guidance for new blog users: How to add images to your blog is now available for you to read! I also have some image sizing guidance that should be useful for you and that's available here.
It's likely that other users may have found an easier way of adding images than the one I've described in the document above: if that's you, let me know your method and I can add it to my developing blog user manual. If you find any errors in my guidance document, again, please let me know.
EDIT: IMPORTANT. (28/02/06) Since the upgrade there have been several changes to how this image system works. I will be updating this guidance as soon as I have investigated.
I am developing a user's guide to Clusterblogging and would appreciate input from all current users to help me create the most useful and effective guide possible.
Information I would be very glad to have from you would include:
- Experience of using the software: do you find it user-friendly and if not, please specify areas you have found problemmatic
- Reports of any errors you may have encountered while using the software
- Differences between this system of blogging and any personal experience you may have of different blogging systems
- Hints and tips for more effective use (gathered from your experiences using the software!)
You can leave me a message here with your input or send me an e-mail. I am learning all the idiosyncracies of this particular blogging software as I encounter them so please be patient while I develop some basic guidance!
IMPORTANT: This version of ClusterBlog software is currently being beta-tested. Please do not publicise your blog or ClusterBlog itself widely until the testing period is over.