December 17, 2002

Random Question

I wasn't sure where else to post this so everyone could see it. I have my own MovableType blog set up at: http://www.neets.com/xml/blog. I am wondering what the new requirements are:

  • Do we still need to post 5 blog entries every week?
  • What's different about this new personal blog that we didn't have with this public one?
  • Are we allowed to / are we supposed to comment on other students' entries in their blogs?
  • Do comments count towards the certain number of posts we have to make every week?

As you can see, I'm not really sure why we switched over to this new system, and I just wanted further clarification on what's expected of us (for grade and general knowledge purposes).

Posted by at December 17, 2002 11:48 PM | TrackBack
Comments

What's different about this new personal blog that we didn't have with this public one?

This single, unified blog seems to have turned into a schizophrenic amalgamation of thirty or so different authors. I'm relieved we'll be switching to individual blogs. It will be much less overwhelming, at least for me.

Posted by: Adam on December 18, 2002 12:47 AM

Adam,

"schizophrenic amalgamation"??

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schizophrenic

adj 1: suffering from some form of schizophrenia; "schizophrenic patients" 2: of or relating to or characteristic of schizophrenia [syn: schizoid] 3: suffering from a form of schizophrenia characterized by foolish mannerisms and senseless laughter along with delusions and regressive behavior [syn: hebephrenic] n : someone who is afflicted with schizophrenia

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amalgamation

The mixing or blending of different elements, races, societies, etc.; also, the result of such combination or blending; a homogeneous union
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Posted by: JamesV on December 18, 2002 10:02 AM

Neeti, the point of the weblog assignment is twofold. First, to allow you to share useful resources with others. Second, to require you to write regularly about technology topics to help refine communication skills.

A group blog works well with a smaller number of students, but with over 30, it does become overwhelming. Too many posts, too much information, everybody's posting but nobody's reading. :-)

With your own personal blogs, you should still be posting ~5x/week, but to your own blog...unless you think there's something really important that you'd like to share with everyone. Jeff and I will continue to use the class blog for informational posts (in lieu of a FirstClass conference).

You are absolutely allowed to comment on other students' entries. The best way to do this would be to post an entry in your blog with a link to the other person's blog. That will implement a "trackback" function in Movable Type that creates a bidirectional link. I"ll explain (and demonstrate) this tomorrow.

Posted by: Liz on December 18, 2002 05:06 PM

Personally, I find message boards ("forums") easier to manage and keep track of - but this system is interesting. Perhaps it'll grow on me over time. :)

Posted by: AdamJ on December 18, 2002 05:17 PM

That's funny about the dictonary definition. I actually laughed out of that "schizophrenic amalgamation"

Posted by: WilliamC on December 19, 2002 12:56 PM