Improvements to the BookTalk.org Blogs
We've made significant improvements and upgrades to the BookTalk.org blogs recently. Do you own a blog? You can
create a blog here. Actually, you're welcome to create as many blogs as you like.
In an effort to keep spam and senseless blogs from being created we now have a
Blog Rules page. Blogs created just to advertise a book or author are allowed provided the blog is not just one or two quick posts with links to another site. All blogs need to be maintained. Spammy blogs will be deleted.
You'll also find a new
Blogging Basics page where people new to blogging can learn some of the lingo and learn how to use some of the tools and features of WordPress blogs. There are some great videos that will teach you how to handle the back end administration of your BookTalk.org blog.
One project we're working on is the
Blog Directory. As you can see the Blog Directory is currently just a list of all blogs. What we're trying to do is add the username of the owner of each blog directly to the right of each blog name. As of right now there is no way for you to know who owns a blog unless the blog name somehow mirrors the username of the owner. If John Smith owns a blog named "I love plum pudding" all you'll currently see is the blog name, "I love plum pudding." This is frustrating for those of us wanting to check out our friend's blogs. We should have this problem fixed soon.
You'll also notice the
Central Blog has been cleaned up. It now makes much more sense. All of the unnecessary links and information has been removed from the
Central Blog in an effort to not confuse newcomers. Previously, the
Central Blog was handled like a blog. We'd make posts that would push down the older posts. In reality the
Central Blog should simply be a static page or "hub" connecting all of the member blogs and not an actual blog itself. So now you will find a single page when you click on any
Central Blog link and it won't look like a blog anymore. Hopefully this helps everyone especially new people.
One of the best improvements to our blogs is the addition of the admin links across the top of the page. If you're logged into your BookTalk.org account and you go to your own blog you will now see links at the very top of the
Central Blog and all blogs. That bar of links is your own personal blog administration resource. Click on those links and experiment! You can manage your own blog by clicking on the "dashboard" link.
We hope these improvements make blogging on BookTalk.org more enjoyable!
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