Earlier this week I got an email from a stitching blog reader who would love to leave comments for all the blogs she follows but is unable to get through the "Prove You Are Not A Robot" authentication no matter how hard she tries. It seems to be something about her account. She asked me to let all blog writers know that thee are plenty of folks like her, who read and enjoy stitching blogs but aren't able to leave messages.
I don't know about other blog software but Blogger allows writers to turn on authentication of comments and I do that. This means I have to OK each and every comment but it also means that automated spam is filtered out and the folks who send selling messages to every blog they can find are eliminated before they get to Blog. I get an average of one spam message a week, but they normally come in clumps of 3-4 one day and then nothing for a week or two until they find Blog again and attempt to post messages. The latest scam they use is a flattering message about how great your blog is with a link to their site. All these are marked as spam and deleted before you ever see them.
The down side is that legit comments don't always get through. That's why when I post a message I know will create a lot of comments I always post my email address so that folks who can't get through Comments can at least email me privately and I can post their message for them. I would encourage other stitching bloggers to do the same. You can even set up a free email account just for these messages which is what I have done. I don't use my private email address, that is for my family to send messages to only.
I promised to mention this problem as it is very frustrating to loyal blog fans. You have readers you don't know about because they are rendered mute. I'm not advocating turning off the authentication, mind. If you do that, you are going to be victimized by spammers and worse. But I can't comment on most (but not all) WordPress blogs myself. I know how frustrating that is!
In other news, I've added a photo of Sherry Bray's Day of the Dead lady (she taught Pocito who has the green background at Queen Anne Stitches in Santa Clarita, CA this summer) to the CH Stitch Guides blog. Sherry is selling the guide for her version if you are interested. To see Sherry's skeleton all dressed up and ready to rock, pleases click on the magic carpet photo on the right side of this page. You will be magically whisked away to the other blog to admire Sherry's work.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Fun Browsing in All the Heat
 |
| Canvas by Barbara Bergsten |
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-trunk-show-time-again-ps-new.html
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/stitch_guides.htm
Too hot to stitch where you are? Then go browse the collection of vintage needlepoint purse sites that the About.com guide has collected. Even if you have no intention of buying, it is fun to browse fashions of yesteryear.
http://needlepoint.about.com/b/2010/07/06/vintage-needlepoint-handbags-on-the-net.htm
Are you looking for a source for the tiny size 15 beads? & More has added photos of the colors they carry to their website. Mill Hill beads are around size 11 in most cases, to give you an idea of how much smaller size 15 beads are.
http://web.me.com/andmorethreads/_%26_more/BEADS_%26_BEADING_THREAD.html
Want to make your own beads? Just cut metal purl into the custom size of your choice and attach like any bead. Mary Corbet's website shows how to use metal purls (and how to fix any problems with the fat little coils).
http://www.needlenthread.com/2010/07/goldwork-thread-metal-purl.html
This morning I substituted a photo of my blooming day lilies for my own portrait on Blog. They are the only thing in CH that likes this hot and humid weather!
By the way, it looks like Blogger has fixed any problems with the Comments now. I suspect that the new Stats system they have added to blogs that use "Blogger in Draft" caused the trouble. If you blog via Blogger and use their "Blogger in Draft" system instead of the more stable standard system, check your Dashboard for the new Stats tab.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, do not worry. I often have no idea what I'm talking about either!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Thursday, May 15, 2008
May 2008 Chilly Hollow Newsletter Article
Labels:
blogging
Brief Introduction to Blogging
Blogs and bloggers are everywhere on the Internet these days. Blogs are essentially diaries, with the latest entry on top. If you are curious about blogging, the best place to start is to find a few blogs you like to read and then keep up with them via an aggregator (also called a reader).
First, you need to find blogs about things that interest you. There are all sorts on many topics, but you can find a list of blogs about needlepoint on either of my blogs, the addresses of which are at the end of this message. If you want to find cooking blogs or dog blogs or political blogs or whatever, use Google which has a search engine that just searches for blogs.
http://blogsearch.google.com/
Ok, now you are addicted and there are 10 blogs you like to read. What next? This is where a reader comes in. A reader is software that checks the blogs you follow and let you know when a new entry is posted to any of them.
Some browsers like Firefox and Safari have built-in readers and there are a ton of widgets that you can add to Yahoo, etc. that will collect RSS, Atom and other types of feeds but in a less organized form than readers do. Feeds are little programs that collect update information on one blog or website. So you have a new blog entry collected by a feed which can be collected in large groups by a readers (This is very simplified, you understand.) The main readers I’ve used or had recommended are Bloglines, Google Reader and NetVibes.
They all work the same way. You go to their website and set up an account, then copy/paste your favorite blog URL addresses into an area there. As you copy each address, you may need to click that every recent entry from that blog has been read to get yourself up to date for new feeds. Once you are done, then you just check back at the website and log yourself in for your feeds. NetVibes has a widget you can add to your browser home page. The widget (widgets are tiny mini programs you can copy/paste into larger programs like browsers) will make results show up on your home page of your browser so you don’t have to go any place else to check on new blog entries. NetVibes seems to have complex tools that a more tech-oriented audience might enjoy learning to use on hundreds of blogs they follow, but since we have both novices and experts among the needlepoint world, I mention both types.
Here are three reader websites to get started. There are MANY more.
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://www.google.com/reader/view/
http://www.netvibes.com/
None of this is really hard to set up but it all takes some playing around to make it work, and some things don’t work with non-Windows machines or with certain browsers. This article will help some, but the best thing to do is jump in and try some things. If you have a Gmail account already, the Google Reader is really easy to access when you log in to read your emails.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/30/the-state-of-online-feed-readers/
Next time I’ll point you to information about setting up your own blog.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
blogging at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
with mirror blog at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Blogs and bloggers are everywhere on the Internet these days. Blogs are essentially diaries, with the latest entry on top. If you are curious about blogging, the best place to start is to find a few blogs you like to read and then keep up with them via an aggregator (also called a reader).
First, you need to find blogs about things that interest you. There are all sorts on many topics, but you can find a list of blogs about needlepoint on either of my blogs, the addresses of which are at the end of this message. If you want to find cooking blogs or dog blogs or political blogs or whatever, use Google which has a search engine that just searches for blogs.
http://blogsearch.google.com/
Ok, now you are addicted and there are 10 blogs you like to read. What next? This is where a reader comes in. A reader is software that checks the blogs you follow and let you know when a new entry is posted to any of them.
Some browsers like Firefox and Safari have built-in readers and there are a ton of widgets that you can add to Yahoo, etc. that will collect RSS, Atom and other types of feeds but in a less organized form than readers do. Feeds are little programs that collect update information on one blog or website. So you have a new blog entry collected by a feed which can be collected in large groups by a readers (This is very simplified, you understand.) The main readers I’ve used or had recommended are Bloglines, Google Reader and NetVibes.
They all work the same way. You go to their website and set up an account, then copy/paste your favorite blog URL addresses into an area there. As you copy each address, you may need to click that every recent entry from that blog has been read to get yourself up to date for new feeds. Once you are done, then you just check back at the website and log yourself in for your feeds. NetVibes has a widget you can add to your browser home page. The widget (widgets are tiny mini programs you can copy/paste into larger programs like browsers) will make results show up on your home page of your browser so you don’t have to go any place else to check on new blog entries. NetVibes seems to have complex tools that a more tech-oriented audience might enjoy learning to use on hundreds of blogs they follow, but since we have both novices and experts among the needlepoint world, I mention both types.
Here are three reader websites to get started. There are MANY more.
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://www.google.com/reader/view/
http://www.netvibes.com/
None of this is really hard to set up but it all takes some playing around to make it work, and some things don’t work with non-Windows machines or with certain browsers. This article will help some, but the best thing to do is jump in and try some things. If you have a Gmail account already, the Google Reader is really easy to access when you log in to read your emails.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/30/the-state-of-online-feed-readers/
Next time I’ll point you to information about setting up your own blog.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
blogging at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
with mirror blog at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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