Guide to Authoring

General Organization

A blog is one of the content types you can create in your member folder.  A blog is very similar to a folder:  It has some identifying information, but its main function is to hold blog entries, which are pages of content that you create with the Kupu Editor.  For those who are new to blogging, blog entries are like entries in a diary.  The blog is like the diary as a whole.  If you have a  large number of blog entries, it may also be useful to create blog folders within your blog. This allows you, as author, to physically organize a large number of blog entries without disrupting the searching and indexing of blogs by the rest of the site.

Blog entries can be organized by category.  The site has established some initial categories which can be used by all bloggers, but you can also create your own.  When visitors arrive at your blog, categories help them browse.

It is also possible to create multiple blogs.  But this may be more confusing than it is worth.  If you, for example, write about mundane astrology on a regular basis, but also write about your experiences at astrological meetings on an irregular basis, you might easily want to separate the two.  But categories can do this as well as having separate blogs.

Review and Publishing

Unlike comments and discussion posts, blogs go through a review process before they are formally "published".  This process is a little foreign to blogging typically, but exists on this site to help authors present a good impression of themselves and also to make sure that the site indexing and search facilities work well for visitors who want to find information on specific topics.

Once a blog and its entries are made visible, it can be seen be all visitors to the site as long as they know where to look for it.  Any visitor who knows how to get to your Member Folder, for example, will easily be able to read your blog.  But for the blog and its entries to be indexed and searched by the front page tabs, it must be published.  As described in ACGnet Publishing Process, you publish a blog or blog entry by clicking on the submit button.  This will change it from visible to pending.  Pending content is reviewed by site management and then published.  This whole process is actually much harder to explain in words than it is to do.   The main point to remember is that regular visitors to your blog will have no trouble reading a new entry as soon as it is made visible.  Newcomers to the site will have some trouble finding your new entry until it is published.

Cross-posting

Bloggers often refer to each other's blogs.  This happens so frequently, in fact, that numerous mechanisms have been created to make references and allow readers to read a related blog without trouble.  We have a feature called cross-posting which allows you to make a reference to another blog on the site in your blog.

Detailed Directions

Creating Your Blog

First, go to your Member Folder and click add > blog.  This will present you with a form so you can add detailed description about your blog and how it will operate:

Title

The title of your blog will appear in listings of blogs and is important for search engines like Google.

Description

The description will also appear with the title in a listing of blogs.

Maximum number of blog entries to display

This controls how many entries will appear on a single page of listings -- you can safely leave it at 20.

Show warning for unpublished entries

When checked, this will cause a message to appear visitors list your published entries so they can access unpublished entries (as long as you have made them visible).

Allow cross-posting

Allow other bloggers on this site to include selected entries of their own in your listings.

Available entry categories

Allows you to add additional categories for this blog in addition to the site-wide categories.  When you create a blog entry, you will be able to put it into one of these categories. Categories help visitors find blogs by topic.

Be sure sure to click save when you are finished with the form.

Adding Blog Folders

You can add blog folders within your blog in order to create multiple containers or large categories for your blog.  For example, if you were writing a mundane blog every day, you might put it into folders like Aries 2007, Taurus 2007, etc.  And perhaps keep another folder for Meetings and Conventions. You don't need folders, but they can be helpful if you write a lot of blog entries.

Creating a Blog Entry

Now for the main event: creating a blog entry.  From within your blog or one of your blog folders, click add > blog entry.  You will again be presented with an edit form that allows you to put in the details and body text of your blog.

Title

The title will appear at the top of the entry, in listings of your entries, and is most important for search engines to connect search keywords with your entry.

Teaser

The teaser will appear in large type as the introduction to your blog entry, and it will also appear in listings of your entries.

Body

The main body text is entered in the Kupu Editor window.  See Using the Kupu Editor for detailed instructions.

Cross-post in

Select another blog in this site if you want your entry to be listed there.

Always on top

Keep this entry at the top of you listing of blog entries.  Useful for highlighting a blog for a period of time.

Categories

Select the categories that you want this entry to appear in.

 Related items

Create reference links to other items in this site.  These links will be displayed in a table at the bottom of your blog entry.

Once again, whenever you change any of these items, be sure to click save before going on to another page.