April 26, 2005

How do I add photos to my blog?

1. First make sure your image is a manageable size. This can be done either on your digital camera, or using photo software such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Photo Editor, and others. There is a 500kb limit on image size for Willamette blogs.
2. On the Create Entry page in Movable Type, select Upload File from the tool bar on the left. This opens a new window.
3. Select “Choose a File” and browse for the image file you want, then click Upload. A new window will open.
4. In this final window, you can choose to display your image in several ways. The easiest and most straightforward is to choose “Show me the HTML,” which should already be clicked. Then select “Embedded Image.” You will have to then copy and paste the HTML code from a window into your entry. Do so, finish writing your entry, and that should be that.

Posted by nshevche at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2005

Blog Comment Spam Measures

Anyone whom has used a blog for any period of time knows how irritating comment spam can be. Comment spam is yet another way (aside from email) that spammers can try to get their advertisements to you. Comment spammers use the MovableType comment feature to try to post their spam to your blog as a comment, so when others read your blog, they see the advertisements listed on the page along with your blog entry.

While it is impossible to block all spam while simultaneously leaving the comments feature open, Willamette University has taken the following measures to try to quell blog comment spam:

• We subscribe to a blacklist to block well-known spammers from posting comment spam to your blog. The blacklist is updated daily with information designed to stop top spammers from posting comments to your blog.
• By default comments are moderated, requiring the author's approval before a comment is posted to your blog. You may receive some spam here, but you can delete it before it is actually posted to your blog and viewable by the world.
• We have a hard limit on comments posted to blog.willamette.edu per-hour, so if a large volume of spam comes in all at once, it can be stopped.
• We use the "nofollow" plugin for Movable Type, which makes blog comments unrankable by search engines. Theoretically this makes blog spamming less valuable to spammers, but may not have any effect as to how much spam is received.
• We use an additional plugin called "Conversation Killer", which can be used to automatically close comments on blog entries after a specified number of days. Normally, articles are usually commented on shortly after they are written, and then comments die down. By closing comments after some number of days, you can limit the amount of spam your blog receives.

These techniques should help reduce blog comment spam, but cannot remove it entirely. There are two major things you can do to reduce the amount of spam your blog receives:

• Disable comments for your blog if you do not find them necessary. Disallowing comments completely is the only foolproof way to stop comment spam. You can disable comments for your blog inside the "Weblog Config" section of Movable Type.
• If you do allow comments, consider using the ConversationKiller plugin to close comments after some number of days. After you log into Movable Type, you should see a link to the ConversationKiller plugin toward the bottom of the page. Closing comments as soon as you can afford to reduces the window of time during which your blog can be spammed.

Doing the above listed things and moderating comments for your blogs, along with the measures the University is taking to block what spam it can, should reduce the time spent dealing with comment spam and it's consequences.

Posted by cfeskens at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

How do I add other authors to my Willamette MovableType blog?

After you log in to MovableType, you should be on the Main Menu page. In the right side panel is a button called "Add/edit weblog authors". You can search for a name from the Willamette community database, and add them to any blog you own, with a variety of possible permissions.

Posted by jmeyerto at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

How do I configure my Willamette MovableType blog?

In the MovableType control panel, click on "Weblog Config" in the left side menu.

The first dialog box you are presented with is the "Core Setup" window. Most users will want to click on the "Preferences" tab, where you can configure several important features of your blog, including:

• Change your archive choice from chronological (default) to category
• Select a Creative Commons license for your blog
• Choose the language in which you'd like your blog to appear
• Configure your comments

NOTE: Your changes may not be visible until you choose "Rebuild Site" from the left side bar.

Posted by jmeyerto at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

How do I create entries in my Willamette MovableType blog?

Just visit your MovableType blog control panel. Your default screen should be the "Create New Entry" screen. You are provided with several self-explanatory text boxes, along with some simple buttons for bold, italics, and underline. You are also provided with icons you can click to add hypertext links or email links or to upload files. You can use the "Upload File" feature to add single images to your blog entries.

You can choose to save your entries as "drafts" or you can choose to make them visible immediately but selecting the "publish" option. You can also go back and edit your entries at any time.

NOTE: There is a 500 kb limit on image size.

MovableType has extended documentation on creating entries which may answer any further questions.

Posted by jmeyerto at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

How do I get a Willamette MovableType blog of my own?

For individuals interested in creating a personal blog, this process is automated. Visit http://blog.willamette.edu/mt/mt.cgi and log in using your Willamette user name and password. You will be presented with the MovableType "create new entry" interface, which consists of text boxes in which you can add content. Just add content and save to post your entries.

Everyone can create a personal journal. Staff and Faculty can create additional blogs if they wish.

Posted by jmeyerto at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

Who can have a Willamette MovableType blog?

Every faculty, staff and student may have a Willamette MovableType blog for as long as they are members of the Willamette community.

As with web pages, email access and so on, blogs will be removed at some point after the faculty, staff or student leaves. Note that blog contents can be exported to a file which can then be imported elsewhere.

Groups may request a blog that is not tied to any one particular person. Groups would include things like university departments, offices, or ongoing clubs or organizations for which membership may change regularly. Such requests should be made to blogmaster@willamette.edu.

Should it become necessary to add a guest user who is external to the Willamette community to our blog system, a request must be made to blogmaster@willamette.edu. Usually such requests will be made by faculty or staff members.

See: Weblog Service Guidelines and Description

Posted by jmeyerto at 11:44 AM | Comments (1)

April 06, 2005

Welcome to blog.willamette.edu

Willamette University has released MovableType blog software to the campus community. Creating a blog is as simple as logging in, here at Blogland (http://blog.willamette.edu). If you are on campus, you need only type "blog" in your browser's address bar and you'll be taken to Blogland. Happy blogging!

Posted by cfeskens at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)