- I’ve been asked to be part of a blog. How do I get started?
- What’s the difference between a comment and a post?
- How do I add hyperlinks, images, videos, and other formatting?
- How do I become a member of an expert team?
- What are the posting guidelines or policies?
- Why doesn’t my post show up in RecentPosts?
- Who owns my content?
- Will the blog be here forever?
I’ve been asked to be part of a blog. How do I get started?
If you are not already a registered NSDL user, the first thing you need to do is get registered, Expert Voices uses the nsdl.org sign in. Once you are registered and signed in, the next step is to get registered at Expert Voices (a one-time, one-click process). The last step is for the blog administrator to give you permission to post in his/her blog. Once you are registered with Expert Voices and signed in, there will be an email link in the right hand menu under Contribute to request posting permission for that specific blog.
When you request permission to post, please provide the email you registered with at nsdl.org if its different than the one you email them with. They’ll use this email to find you in the system. Also, if you have not communicated with the group prior to this, it would be good to give a short explanation of your interest in this blog.
For step-by-step instructions, please see the registration/sign-in tutorial linked on the right.
So you are registered and signed in with permission to post…what next? See the next question about the difference between comments and posts and read through any of the documentation listed on the right that applies to your involvement.
What’s the difference between a post and a comment?
Blog entries or posts are your personal submissions related to the blog topic. In these posts, you present something to the readers – a news item, an argument, an analysis, a photo, a question…anything that is relevant and appropriate. Others then view these posts/entries and comment upon them. In this way, the blog posts foster conversations. To add posts, you need to be registered, logged in, and added as a member of that blog team. Depending on the blog settings, you may be able to add comments without logging in. Your comment may not display right away if the blog team leader requires that the comment be reviewed before it is published to the blog. In that case, the team leader will be emailed about the comment waiting for approval.
Also see the tutorials for Adding Comments, Adding Posts, and Formating Posts/Pages (creating hyperlinks, inserting images, etc).
How do I add hyperlinks, images, video, and other formating?
If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, you can format your post using the rich editor that comes with WordPress. Apple’s Safari does not provide the formating toolbar, so you’ll need to write html tags. Please see the Formating Posts/Pages tutorial for help creating hyperlinks, inserting images, etc, with the rich editor.
How do I become a member of an expert team?Once you are registered and logged in (see registration/sign-in tutorial ) with ExpertVoices, there will be a link in the right hand sidebar called “Request Post Permission”. This will provide you with an email to the blog team leader. Please give a short explanation for your interest in this blog. Once the team leader approves your membership, you’ll be able to start posting. Some blogs have a specific educational mission in mind and may decline your request to join the group . If you have a good idea for a new blog topic or discovery team, please let us know !
What are the posting policies?
Please see the link to our blog use and guidelines on the right. If you are not sure about something, do not hesitate to ask us .
How do I change the category of my post?
You’ll need to log in and go to “Manage” in the light blue bar, and then the “Posts” tab in the dark blue bar. Find the post you want to edit in the list of posts, and click on the “Edit” link for that post. If you take a look at adding posts , you’ll see a section on how to give it a category. Click on the plus sign [+] on the blue box on the right called “Categories” and check or uncheck the one or ones you want to label the post with. You can also add a category if the one you want does not exist.
Why doesn’t my post show up in RecentPosts?
RecentPosts shows only the last five (5) posts for the blogosphere, the older ones rotate off the list. Its a way to give viewers a sense of the blog activity. To see a complete list of posting, readers can get to your blog via the web address (url) you give them or via the link to blogs under WhoSays, if your blog has an audience category.
When you register for ExpertVoices, you are agreeing to comply with the Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0). This means that other people are free to to copy, distribute, and display your contribution. They are also free to use it in derivative work. But in any case, they must attribute that it to you and they must distribute their work under an identical license to this one unless they get permission from you to deviate from this practice.
Will the blog be here forever?
Most blogs will be archived and continue to be available to read. If they have little or no content or have been deemed inappropriate for this blogosphere, we will delete them. When blogs become archived, people will no longer be able to contribute to the blog and it will be labeled as inactive or archived.
