As someone who has been blogging (writing a blog) for almost five years, it is easy to forget that this is some folks' first experience with them (all you whippersnappers quit your giggling, its not polite to laugh at those not as techo-savvy as you.). I'm going to devote this post to telling you about blogging and how to get the most from this blog.
The term "blog" is short for weblog. A weblog is a website that is designed to be updated frequently. While some blogs have adopted complex layouts, the most basic, and still most-used format is reverse chronological. In short, when you go to a blog's homepage, you see the most recent content at the top, and as you scroll down, you see older content. A blog post can consist of text and/or pictures and/or videos and/or some other gadgets.
To become the owner/author of a blog takes no money and less than ten minutes. You can write about anything -- and people do. If there is a topic in which you are interested, chances are there are blogs about it. Some people use them to share childhood milestones with far-off family and friends; others use them as integral parts of small businesses. MFAeA uses its blog to circulate good news about MUW and its alums and to build a sense of community.
So, now you are here. You love our blog, you love the content, and you'll be sure to come back, at least sometimes, if you remember--but good grief, how many websites are you supposed to check daily? Your email, your facebook, this blog, the blog you just found about your hobby, your kids' blog, your best friend's blog.... That's where a feature called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) comes in handy. RSS allows the content of this blog (and other blogs too) to be "pushed" to some central location so that you only have to check one website rather than multiple ones. If you are a facebook junkie, you know that this blog feeds through to facebook, so that by checking your facebook account, you will know if new content has been posted here, and if so, you can read it there. Not all blogs offer that feature however.
What about those that do not? Well, that's where RSS feed readers come in handy. Go to google.com and click on "more" and then on "reader". If you have a google account already, sign in. If not, create one. This is where you can read feeds from multiple blogs all in one place. Now, look on the right hand side of this page (assuming you are reading it at our site, rather than on facebook--if you are on facebook, just double click on the post title and it should take you to our blog) and scroll down until you see the box with followers pictures in it. Above it is a button that says "follow". Push it, and follow the directions. Now, go check your Google reader. You'll see we are there. Now, for fun, take a look at the blogs on our sidebar. They are all written by alums. Click on one. Look at it. Think you want to read it regularly? Well look for the follow widget, and do the same thing. No follow widget? Look for a button that says "subscribe" and push it. Google also has another handy way to keep track of RSS feeds--their iGoogle homepage. If you use that as your homepage, you can subscribe to RSS fees through it. Feedmyinbox is a service that emails RSS feeds to you. They allow you five subscriptions on the no-fee account. I've never used them, but if you do, and like it, leave a comment and tell us about it.
Speaking of comments, blogs can be interactive sites. Under each post you'll see a link that says "comments". You don't see this from a feed reader, but for this blog, and most blogs, its always there on the original post (and to get to the original post from the feed reader, just double click on the post title). If you like a post, say so. If you have a question or a related comment, speak up. Blog writers LOVE comments--they reassure us that someone is actually reading all this stuff we write. So, did I clear things up, or just muddle the water some more? How do you usually read blogs, if you are a regular blog reader?
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