Reader Question: What is a Blog? A Widget?

Q: 1) What is a Blog? Is it the same as the term "Thead" I've seen used on Message Boards?2) Whatis a Widget? How is it used?

Asked by archman

A: Hi Archman. good questions, and I'm by no means the foremost authority on the topics, but I'll offer my layman's definitions below and also point you to some folks who have greater depth on the topic.

Blog is short for Web Log, and it used to mean any form of regular online publishing by individuals (as opposed to estaablished media outlets). The lines have blurred somewhat in recent years as one-time individual publishers have grown into media brands in their own right (e.g., TechCrunch, GigaOm, Huffington Post, etc.). The number of blog formats and platforms has also proliferated, to the point that there are dozens of tools (some free and some paid) for text blogging, photo blogging, "microblogging", "lifecasting", and well, you get the idea.

For the authoritative definition, here's a link to the Wikepdia article on the topic.

In the context of blogging, a Widget is software component that's designed to perform a specific, narrowly-defined function, such as handling reader Q&A, powering blog text search, or displaying photos. Widgets allow non-technical users (which describes most bloggers) to add new features and capabilities to their blog without any coding skills, just by cutting and pasting code snippets into their blog template.

Again, Wikipedia does a much better job than I ever could with the topic here.

I hope that points you in the right direction - thanks for asking!

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Where do your Askablogr Q&A appear and why?

Q: Can I not have my Q&A's show up on your main home site?

Asked by the Stake YW Presidency

A: Hi and welcome to Askablogr. Right now, Askablogr is designed to maximize the visibility of participating blogs and bloggers on the Web. By publishing links to participating blogs and their Q&A on the Askablogr site, we increase the visibility of those URLs and content to the major search engines, boosting their relative "authority" in search results. In this way, the service functions as a cooperative, where each member's contributions add to the authority and visibility of the Askablogr site - which in turn reflects its "link authority" back to the participating members.

Due to this cooperative structure, there currently isn't a way for members to have their Askablogr Q&A appear only on their blog, and not on the Askablogr site. This obviously limits the appeal of the service to members who wish to keep their blog posts confidential, but by their very nature as a public communications tool there are few blogs that fit this description. If yours is one of these and you'd rather not appear on the site, please let us know and we can remove your listing from our membership. Thanks again and best regards, Chris

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Member Question: How To Reinstall Your Askablogr Widget

Q: When I changed my blog format, I accedently lost your widget :o(Where can I find the code to replace it?Thanks,Rachelhttp://rachelsartjournal.blogspot.com/

Asked by artofmyth

A: Hi Rachel, thanks for asking. You can always grab a new copy of your widget code from your member profile page. Here's what you do:

1. Log in
2. Go to your member profile page
3. Click on the "Edit" link
4. On the right side of the Edit page, click on the "Widget" link

Select and copy the widget code on this page, then go to Blogger's Layout menu and use the "Add a Page Element" wizard to reinstall.

Hope that gets you there - let me know if you run into trouble and thanks for using Askablogr!

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Member Question: Is There an "Ask Everyone" Option?

Q: Is there a way to throw a question out to the community at large?

Asked by JonKnight

A: Hey Jon, thanks for the question and interesting idea. We've been pretty wary of leaving the door open for spammers to abuse Askablogr, so this isn't a feature we've considered. Given our controls for ignoring questions and blocking users, I can imagine offering the option to registered members, but it still makes me a little nervous. I'd love to hear how you'd use it, and if there are other members out there who would also like to see this feature come to life. Just comment on this blog post to let me know your thoughts...

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Member Question: Threaded Conversations in Askablogr?

Q: It seems people are using Askablogr to ask follow-up questions to their original question to keep the dialog going. Is there a way to post the related question as a question on the post in my blog?

Asked by Corky

A: Hi Corky, glad to see your Askablogr Q&A activity picking up, and thanks for the question. We've also noticed that our Q&A are creating conversational 'dead ends' and have been noodling on the best way to address that. My current 'hack' for this problem is to include a link in the current post to any previous post(s) it refers to, but that's admittedly not the most elegant solution. Another option we've discussed is to create a "threading" feature allowing readers to post follow-on questions to their original question, with all the related posts presented together. We haven't come up with a clean way to do that yet, but it's an option we like. The final approach we've discussed is to add a comment system similar to the one found on your blog platform, but that's just recreating one of the problems we're trying to solve (i.e., conversation via comment instead of up in the posts themselves).

Your question has increased our focus on this problem, and Craig and I will take a fresh look at alternative approaches when we meet this week. Thanks for bringing it up, and don't be surprised if I circle back to get your feedback on what we're thinking about.

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Member Question: Do We Support Multiple Blogs In One Profile?

Q: Can I have more than one blog added in my profile?

Asked by Catus Lee

A: Hi Cactus, welcome to Askablogr. I'm replying via my Askablogr account as a demo to show you how I've handled this. Right now, we don't support multiple blogs under a single member ID. Because I maintain two blogs - my personal one and the Askablogr product blog, I created two different member accounts, that route questions to two different email addresses.

I'd be interested to hear from other members if this is a popular request. If so, we'll add it to the feature request list and tackle it in a future release. Again, thanks for the question and welcome to the community. 

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More Testing: Anonymous Q&A Autopost to Blog

Q: Craig believes he's worked out the issues with auto-post of anonymous questions. I'm asking another anonymous one to verify that's the case.

Asked by Askablogr QA

A: When I post this answer, here's what I expect to see:

• An answer confirmation screen that includes links to the Q&A on Askablogr, and on the Askablogr blog
  
• The Q&A should be inserted as a post on the Askablogr blog
• That insert should include a footer link to ask another question, so readers who consume the posts via feed reader see the option to ask questions.

Let's see how this goes...

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