ClarionCall Blogs Help & FAQWe realize that many former Clarion newspaper readers may be first time users of a blog. We're new at this too, so it's going to be a joint learning experience. Below we've answered some of what we expect will be frequently asked questions. If you don't get the answers you need, please contact us at webmaster@clarionmail.com Happy blogging! 1. What is a blog?According to Wikipedia, “A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order." The most important part of this definition is the word "user." A blog is intended to create a community of users who comment on issues of mutual interest. Bill Lofquist and Corrin Strong are continuing their former print columns online, but for these blogs to succeed, you the reader, must decide to join in the discussion. Our web counters tell us that we have over 1,000 visitors a week to the blog pages (O.K. maybe some of you have visited more than once!) We invite the hundreds of you who are interested in the future of Geneseo to take advantage of the interactive features (as explained below) to make these your blogs. Post new information, disagree with us or ask a question, but please participate! We know you're out there! 2. How do I make a comment?We have made the blogs so that you do not have to register to comment, and if you want, you can blog anonymously or under a pseudonym, even if your name is Greg Lamb. Simply click on the word comment at the bottom of each posting and a separate screen will pop up where you can read previous comments and add your own. Please be aware, however, that all comments are moderated to avoid libel, flaming and spamming, so there will be a small delay before your comment is posted. This does not mean that we will censor contrary opinions. If you think PDDG and this site are full of baloney, we will still post your comments, as long as they are well reasoned and civil. As former newspaper publisher, however, I do have a bias for people using their real names. 3. Why won't the clarioncall.com home page display correctly?The home page is designed to display correctly on monitors set to a minimum width of 1024 pixels. This is only roughly related to the actual width of your screen. As one wag put it, "Trying to understand Pixels Per Inch is easier than spit-roasting a jellyfish - but only marginally." For our purposes all you really need to understand is that most computers, no matter how big the monitor, can be set a different resolutions. Typically you need to open up something called a monitor control panel and muck about until you find a button that allows for "higher resolution." If you can change the resolution to a number 1024 or higher, you should be able to read the page just fine. Here's a caution, however: Sometimes changing the resolution may cause the fonts on your machine to become smaller. If this is a problem you will need to find another control panel that allows you to increase the size of your fonts. If the whole idea of making all these changes makes you break out in a cold sweat, and you don't have access to a computer guru to help, we have an easier solution. All the blogs on clarioncall.com can be brought up in their own page, one at a time, at the following links: 4. How can I keep up with the latest posts?Corrin's Clarion Call column is generally posted every Tuesday night, Bill's Preserving Small Towns on Thursday night. Corrin is a little better at making his deadline, but then he's been doing this for 17 years! The Clarion News Blog is posted more frequently as events require (currently about 3 times a week, but that could become daily when the Newman PDD project heats up again.) We have provided links to index pages with the first lines of the latest columns and stories on the home page (click on most recent column or recent stories links.)You can bookmark these index pages or bookmark the blogs themselves. 5. What about news feeds?News feeds are a hot new way to keep up with blogs, but we can't pretend to be experts in the technology. You can either subscribe to a so-called news aggregator or in some cases you can read the news feed directly through your browser and bookmark it. We have placed links to two common news aggregators, Google Reader and My Yahoo on the two column blogs, but there are dozens of others available. If you have a modern browser you will see a feed symbol in your url window (to the right of where the web address appears). It will either be an orange symbol with wavy lines or the initials RSS (which stands for Real Simple Syndication). If you click on either of those, the feed will either come up or you will be given a list of options on how you would like to use the feed. Another way to see the feed is to simply type /feed after the words wordpress.com in the url window. If your browser can not read feeds, however, this will only bring up gibberish. On some browsers, however, if you bookmark the feed properly, you can see if there is a new blog entry simply by pulling down on the bookmark link. How cool! 4. How about a google news alert?Google has a great free service that notifies you when a item that you might be interested in appears anywhere on the web. You just enter the search term that you are interested in and google will inform you when a web page is posted that matches your search criteria. You can sign up for the service here. Please notice that you can choose to search just news items, or just blogs, or do a comprehensive search. This service can also be used to inform you when a new item has been posted on your favorite blog, regardless of the subject. For your convenience I have collected the links to subscribe to each of the blogs below. If you sign up you will receive an e-mail every time a new entry is posted on the blog, although there may be a delay before Google finds it. If you select "as-it-happens" on the google site, instead of "once a day" it will probably find it quicker. Note: So far I've found this later feature less than reliable. I created google news alerts for all of my blogs and have only been notified of new entries somewhat randomly. Google does warn that the service is in "beta" so perhaps iot wil get better. In the meantime, I will look for a better way to notify readers of new entries. To subscribe to The Clarion News Blog click here. For Preserving Small Towns click here. And for The Clarion Call click here. If you have any other questions please contact us at webmaster@clarionmail.com |