- comment and trackback 'junk' folders work similar to those found in an
email client, with optional automatic expiration.

- New anti-spam plugins allow finer control of spam blocking.

- Better weblog settings layout.

- Consolidated plugin management. (Click the 'Plugins' link within
MovableType to manage your plugin configuration)

In addition, there are a few new plugins that you may find useful:

- EmailBlacklist (deny commenters by email address)
- EmailWhitelist (allow commenters by email address)
- Blogroll (add a blogroll or list of links to your blog)

...and more new features to come...

As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, email the blogmaster.

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.

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.

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.

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

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