Lawley's Web Design Class

One thing to keep in mind with a personal blog is that you never who's going to see it. Last quarter, I had a student in IMM who posted a comment on his personal blog about how he's slept through the first half of the IMM midterm, but that it was no big deal because it was a "mickey mouse" course. He probably didn't expect me to stumble on that, let alone before I'd assigned participation grades.

After the fact, we talked about it, and I pointed out that it's important to keep the public nature of web page clearly in mind when you're posting blog entries. It wasn't that big a deal for me to see it...but when you're looking for a job in this increasingly competitive job market, or trying to make a new relationship work, you may want to think about what a google search on your name might turn up. :-)

That's not intended to discourage anyone from keeping a personal blog--far from it. It's just a reminder that it's far more public than e-mail (which itself is less private than most people think), and with a degree of permanence and accessibility that should be a factor when you're thinking about what to write.

Good Point. :)

That is precisely the reason I do not really care for weblogging. I worry about grammatical errors, and whether I’m saying the right thing. However, weblog can be a useful tool to promote your personality, give others an idea of how you think, share ideas, and so forth.

I often debate with myself about posting. I think, “Why bother posting if I don't want to make people think negatively of me.” Then I think, “How can I make a difference if I don’t give my opinion?” I get into a never-ending argument about whether I should post something. I end up either posting something or not post anything at all.

My main dig is to make people laugh. There is a ton of funny/unusual stuff that happens to me every day, and it's nice to see someone I know have a laugh.

I do slip a little personal update, or opinion, in once in a while, but typically it's goofy.

I got into blogging mainly because I love to design/update designs on my web page. Blogging is a fun way to update content w/out redoing the page.

Jenny, blogging does involve risk-taking. You're putting your thoughts, your words in a place (there's that word again. :-) where anybody can see them...and comment on them...and criticize them.

But there's lots to gain as a result of the risk. The people who choose to blog, I think, do so because the gains outweigh the risks for them. That's a personal calculation that each of us makes for ourselves.

On the plus side is the fact that the more you write, the better you get at it. And for many people, the more they write, the better they understand and work out the details of their own ideas.

I do think it's true, however, that blogging is easier/more attractive for those who already feel comfortable with written expression--authors, journalists, writers generally.

Whenever you voice your opinions you open yourself and those thoughts to criticism. People don't like being criticized but with an open mind sometimes criticism actually benefits you.

On the other hand, if you are going to post something like sleeping through a midterm, I'd be more careful about where that was posted and who had access to it. Granted that's somewhat minor but think about anything else you'd say in a casual conversion and ask yourself if it is appropriate for a post. Professor Lawley mentions a very good point about professionalism and no matter where I post, whether it be on a blog, a message board, or a chat room, I try to be careful with the words I use. Some things can be taken so out of context.

Before I go I do have some questions. I was wondering... is there any way to edit or delete a post when using blogs? I haven't been able to find that feature and to me that's kind of disabling. In reference to what Jenny said... if delete and edit features were available, you would always have an option to rephrase what you first said, to fix spelling errors, or to delete a post all together (if it was being taken out of context or something like that). I use message boards frequently, and most have delete and edit post features. If blogs don't have these features why don't they? Anyone else think they are necessary?

Also, I was wondering Professor Lawley, if you consider blogs to be better tools than message boards and if so why you prefer blogs to regular message boards. I was talking with some friends the other day and we were trying to compare blogs to some other widely known tools, and blogs compared more to LiveJournals than to message boards. In a way, even though this blog is starting to form a classroom community, I think message boards have more structure to them and more features. Anyway, just looking for some simple opinions... don't want this to turn into a huge debate or anything. Before this class I never heard of blogging before, so I'm open to trying it out and seeing how it sizes up to message boards.

-Christine

After reading the articles that were assigned... I think I've found answers to some of the questions I asked before. Considering I'm new to blogging, I guess I just need to do more blogging to truly understand why and how blogs are different and have more potential than mediocre message boards.

-Christine

A group blog is probably more like a message board than an individual blog is, so the lines are a little blurrier.

As to editing/deleting posts, you can do that for your own posts quite easily. The main blog management window has an "edit entry" option in the left menu (just below "new entry"). If you're an owner of a blog, you can edit/delete everything (posts, comments, etc). Once you post a comment as a user, however, you can't undo it.

Christine,

I agree completely with you. I actually never heard of blogging until Prof. Lawley mentioned it. My response to what I think a blog was, was just an updated message board. But after seeing some of the features of blogging, especially traceback, it seems a lot better. You will be able to know if people are finding your blogs useful and referencing them. I think that's a very cool feature.

Stephanie

Thanks Professor Lawley. I saw the edit feature after I posted but I didn't realize that only applied to posts and not comments. It would be nice if it applied to comments as well though.

Stephanie, I agree... that does seem like a very useful feature.... like I said before... I guess I just need to use blogs more often to understand their full potential.

-Christine

Hi, I am not too into this blogging thing mainly because I do not have time. Its another story when we are talking about blogging for this class. I can make time for that because it is homework. But once I am done with my homework, I have other things to do like work.

On top of that I don't really have anything to say that other people would be interested in reading. My life is not that exciting, I go to school, then go to work, then go to bed, and then do it all over again the next day.

I wish I had more time so that I could enjoy other peoples blogs and make and continuelly update my own.

I agree with what some of you have said about blogs. I personally use a livejournal. I like their format because you can make any entry public, friends only (it will only show to logged on users that you list as friends), friends groups (only certain friends) and private. So, depending on what type of information you are posting, you can decide who sees it. You can also disable annoymous posting. If anyone wants to see the public part of my journal, the url is http://chikiedoll.livejournal.com

Just like several others have said, I've also never used blogs before and I'm slowly starting to realize some of the advantages of them. I like how you can use the trackback feature and see how many people have viewed and linked to your blog.

I still think message boards are easy to use and navigate through, only because the entries are grouped together in categories and not by date, but I'm slowly learning to get used to not having them.

I personally don't have a blog, or a live journal only because I'm usually sure that I want everyone to be able to see what I have to say, because I dont want them to think I'm not open-minded. But I'm still hoping someday to become more familiar with blogs and hopefully update mine regularly.

I feel like I'm missing part of the Blog experience. I don't find I have too much use for my own blog other than class. Similar to Matt's situation. I'm pretty busy and I don't really find the need to put up jokes or pics or anything like that. I do think that Blogs are useful. It's just that I dont find I'm overly excited to have my own. Maybe I'll find more use in my blog in time.

-Jeff

I wouldn't call the 'blog experience' anything too entertaining. To me, it's comparable to a quiet phone call. :)

I also wouldn't say that blogs are for everyone. We have a ton of technically inclined people here at RIT, but blogs aren't for everyone. If you think you're missing out on anything, there is a chance that you really aren't. If you aren't interested by now, then you may never be.