How to Post

Since this is a forum for students, the instructor will not generally post here unless there's some administrative thing to broadcast between classes. However, those who have not blogged before may appreciate some brief instructions.

So, there are two types of entries that will be credited. One is a post; one is a comment. To post, or to edit a post, one has to sign in. (At the top right of the denim-blue field you have a link that reads "Sign in" or "Sign out." If it reads "Sign in," you will need to click on it and provide your email address and your password before you can post.)

Once you're signed in, you can click the link that says "New Post."

You should get a text-box with a field at the top left that says "Title:" and a field at the lower-right that says "Labels for this post:". You should use both.

The title of the post provides the large letters that mark each separate post. They make it easy for readers to spot your post, to have some kind of idea what you're writing about, and to tell where posts stop and start.

The Labels field classifies your post, probably by topic. Labelling may become VERY useful for you and your colleagues as the semester progresses. On the opening screen of the blog, you may notice that there is a list of labels to the right of the column for blog entries. As the semester progresses, these will be listed most-common label towards the top. As the semester progresses, you will be able to get progressively more information by topic just be clicking on the proper label in the labels-list: this will call up the entire list of blog entries for that particular label. So, for everyone's ease and efficiency, please label each post.

A couple of optional hints:

1) You can edit your posts directly onto the text field, or you can edit them in a word processor or text editor. Editing onto a word processor or text editor and saving the file back somewhere else means you have less risk of losing your work, which can happen in the text field either by server communication problems or just by clicking on the wrong icon at the wrong time.

2) The preview link by the upper right of the editing window should prove useful.

I have not yet tested how much play we are allowed in the Edit HTML link, but those tempted to edit their own raw code are encouraged to experiment at will.