Pukman @ WinK: the community that time didn't forget

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As we learned in class, it's good to have Comments and a LibraryThing widget in the sidebar. You should also be using labels in your posts.

Next, let's add a Labels item.

Here's a good example.

Mr B. has explained how to add a comment feed to your blog. Please check out his post, and try it on your blog. The basic formula you need to add to your feed widget is:

• [YourBlogURL]/feeds/comments/default/?alt=rss

Add a page element at the top of your sidebar, being sure to choose the Feed element.

If for any reason it's difficult for you to use Blogger, it is possible to use email to post to your blog. You just create an address as shown in the picture, then remember the address, and use it to send new posts to your blog.

N.B. The address shown is not a real one.

In the 2nd class, the first task is to customize our blog. You may like to change your template, or change some of the colours. You can also add things to the side of your page, such as links to sites or other blogs.

We're going to use Blogger beta. Go to www.blogger.com and choose the Blogger beta command at the top of the page.
Then choose "Create a blog".
You will be taken to Stage 2, which is naming your blog. The blog title is the words you want to appear at the top of your page. You can use any letters (upper or lower case), spaces, etc. Use your imagination!
But the blog address (URL) is not so free. Please DON'T use SPACES, UPPERCASE LETTERS, !, ?, commas, or any other unusual symbols. Just use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. (Only lowercase letters is easiest to remember.) But remember that there are already millions of blogs. If you write something very simple and short, that URL probably won't be available.
After you have input your URL, click "Check availability". If that URL is already taken, choose one from the list of suggestions, or try a new one. Be patient!
When you have a blog title and URL, type the word verification code and press continue.
Choose a template. Don't spend too long deciding because you can choose from a wider selection later.
Then write your first post! The purpose is to test your blog, so make the post very short. (You can edit it later.) Press "Publish".
Choose "View Blog in a new window". Can you see your blog? Write down the URL that you can see in the address bar. This is your blog address to tell me and your friends.

The service we will use for blogging in this course is Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com). Blogger.com is owned by Google, and is very popular worldwide. If possible we will use Blogger beta, because this is much better than the original Blogger.com.

Before we use any kind of web service like Blogger.com, we have to sign up. This means we tell Blogger.com who we are. The most important thing we need for this is an email address. Your university email address is not ideal for this, because you may not be able to use it when you are outside the university. So we will use a webmail service called GMail, also owned by Google. You will use this email address when you sign up for Blogger.com, and when you sign up for any other web service.

The most important thing to remember is:

• You must write down your GMail username and password! You need this to check your mail and to use Blogger. If you forget other passwords, you can usually get a new one through GMail. But if you can't use GMail, things will be very difficult.

And two more things to remember: sign up means to become a member; sign in means to log in as a member to use the service. So you only sign up once, but you sign in every time you want to use the service.