What is a blog? And where did that word come from?

A blog is really a website.  The difference between a blog and the type of website we are more accustomed to is that a blog is updated frequently, like a diary or a log.  The word blog is a combination of the words “web” and “log”.  It’s a weblog; or a ‘blog’ for short.

One of my first impressions of blogs was that they were ‘messy’.  I hope mine isn’t, but I know they are all somewhat disorienting to look at in the beginning.

So let’s take a look, and see if I can help sort it out a bit. First, the latest post (or log entry) will be on the front ‘page’ when you go to Big Binder.  It will have a title, and the date is is posted.

Off to the right is an option to subscribe by email.  That way, anytime I post something you will get an email of it. The next thing is RSS feed; this is another way to get updates but if you don’t use RSS feeds don’t worry about this one.

Same for Technorati; it’s blog blah blah. Great stuff; but that will be in our upper level blogging classes.  Oh yes; I have big plans for you all

Going down the page is the search function.  It’s like Google, but just for Big Binder.

Categories are the way I, well, categorize things.  You can click on any category to see all the posts I have designated to be in that category.

Going down the page further, recent posts are just that; the past few days’ worth of posts. You can click on any of them to go to that post.

Recent comments are the things people have said about specific posts. You can click on the posts to read what they wrote.

Archives are just posts broken down by months. 

A blogroll is like a list of my blogging buddies.  You can click on the links if you want to check out their blogs and see what they are all about.

Links I like are local resources I think folks might be interested in.

Blog stats is the total number of views since my blog started.

Is that enough for one day? I think it is.  Time for a break. Enjoy your Saturday.  And if you have questions you can email me at BigBinderBlog@gmail.com. 

OK. Let me start by saying that I didn’t know what a blog was about 4 months ago. I had some friends who were getting interested in ‘blogging’, and I got curious.

Believe me; I understood completely when several people asked me 1) what is a blog and 2) how do I comment on it?

So here you go!

First, if you are reading this in an email you need to click on the post and come to the Big Binder site.  Here is a little interesting thing you might not know; any time there is an underlined word it means there is a ‘clickable’ link.  Meaning; you can click on it and another website will open up.  Here, click on Big Binder.  See?

Now, at the end of the post (you can scroll down) you want to comment on, it will say “Filed under (whatever) ! Comments”.

Click on ‘comments’.  It will kind of refresh the page, and you will have to scroll down to the end again.  This time, there will be three boxes for you to fill in.

First, it will say ‘name’.  You can just use your first name, or use a ‘screen’ name.  This will be visible for the world to see.

Second, you need to put your email address in.  This only comes to me; and is not visible to anyone else. 

Third, if you have your own website you can put it here.  If not, you can leave it blank.

Now you can type your comment in the white box.  When you are done, click the ‘submit’ button below the box.

If you are a first time commenter, you will probably get a message that it needs to be approved by the moderator. That is me. What happens is I get an email and can read the comment before it is published.  This is just to prevent spam.  After a few times, it will ‘trust’ you and you won’t get that message.

Now that is all there is to it! If you have any questions, you can email me.  If you need an email address for me and don’t already have one; use BigBinderBlog@Gmail.com.

OK now here is your assignment!  Leave a comment after this post.  Don’t be shy. Tee hee! Feel silly? We all did at first. You’ll get the hang of it.

I think that is enough Big Binder Blog School for today.  Good work, students! Thank you all so much for reading my blog.  Big Binder loves you.