What Is a Blog?

A blog is an online journal. You can think of it as a combination of a mini message board and a diary. Blogs are a great way to define your own space, as long as the entries and photos follow the guidelines listed below. Some suggestions are a seasonal diary, ballet memories, essays, a year of ballet side trips, great stages, competitions, festivals are just some of the possibilities, and a single blog can span different "categories." Blogs are self-moderating as well as being moderated by the Ballet Talk board moderators, and you can decide whether or not you want others to comment on your blog itself, or to comment on Ballet Talk.

On Ballet Talk, blogs are in a separate "module" that in many ways works like the board itself, and there is a link to them at the top of each Ballet Talk page, between "Calendar" and "Ballet Talk for Dancers."

Before you blog, here are a list of

Rules and Policies:

1. Blogs topics are limited to ballet and other arts. That doesn't mean that you can't mention that the day you saw La Bayadere in Paris you visited Notre Dame, or that you saw a wonderful production of The Tempest at the new Opera House in Copenhagen, where the Royal Danish will perform large productions. But a blog shouldn't be a travel log or a cooking blog with a little ballet on the side.

2. All of the board policies -- including our policy that all news must be in print or announced officially -- are in force for hosted blogs, which will be moderated.

3. For links to blogs that are hosted externally, those blogs should follow board rules. This is a handshake agreement, as the moderating team will not read every entry of every external blog listed. However, if we are alerted that the link is to an all-purpose blog, a political blog, an "All the Gossip All the Time" blog, or an attack blog, we will delete the link without notice.

>Please remember there are members who are between the ages of 16-18 on this board.

4. You must be a Senior Member in good standing to create a blog on ballet and other arts from the audience point of view. Any other ballet-related topic (teaching, technique) must be pre-approved by a member of the Adminstrator team. You must be a Member in good standing to comment on the blog itself (where the blogger allows comments) or on the Board.

5. All blogs are self moderating, as well as being moderated by Ballet Talk moderators. That means that the blog owner may edit any comment made by another poster on his/her blog, may refuse any comment up front, or may delete any comment from the blog retroactively.

>Bloggers may choose to refuse all comments or any comment for any reason, except where a moderator comments on policy.

6. Please note:: If we need to remove a blog because of policy violations, it may disappear without notice, and there is no archive.

Please click any of the following links to go to the instructions:
How to Set Up and Configure a Blog
After First-time Set-up
How To Manage Your Hosted Blog (includes posting entries and moderating)
How to Notify People of a New Blog Entry
How to Goto a Blog
To Comment on a Blog (on the blog or board)
Additional Options

How to Set Up and Configure a Blog

1. Click the My Controls link from the top right hand side of any page.

2. At the top of the Menu on the left side of My Controls will be a heading called Community Blogs.

Click Your Blog Settings (It's a link, but not underlined.)

3. If you agree with the Blog Terms & Rules,

a. Click the checkbox to the left of the statement "I have read, understood and agree to these terms of the Blog usage" at the bottom of the text.
b. Click the Next button.

4. Enter the name of your blog. The default will be [Username]'s Blog, but you may change this.

5. It is optional to enter a description.

6. Select the type of blog:

Local Blog (default) will set up a blog on the board.

>Once you select this option and click Finish, a number of configurable options will appear onscreen.
Please note:
* This is going to look very complicated, but much of it will make sense once you're in blog set-up -- these details are a reference, in case something isn't immediately clear.
> If you accept the default settings,
+ Your entries will default to draft/unposted and you can publish them when you're ready, and all comments will be posted/published automatically.
+ You can always change your settings later from My Controls/Your Blog Settings
> We strongly suggest that you select the "Friendly URL" option.
* You can print this post as a reference while you set up your blog.
* If a feature is not enabled, this will be noted to the right of the option in brown type. Your selection won't change board behavior.
a. Friendly URLs
i. Clicking this selection will create the following link to your blog: www.ballettalk.invisionzone.com/blog/yourname
ii. "Yourname" defaults to your username, but this may be changed in the input box.
b. Your local Blog settings
i. Do you want guests (people who are not logged in) to view your blog?
ii. Do you want to receive email notification if you allow comments?
c. Customize the look of your Blog Here you can determine:
i. Default behaviors
(a) Default status of new entries?:
(i) "Draft": All of your entries are entered in "draft" mode, which means they must be "published" in a second step. This allows you to "save" a copy of your entry and work on it later.
(ii) "Published": All of your entries will be published immediately when you post them.
(b) Entry options:
(i) These are displayed as:
(1) An Entry Options button, that may be clicked to display the list of options.
(2) A list of the following options, that may be "closed" by clicking the left arrow to the right of the Edit button:
(I) "Make Draft" or "Publish": If your default is "Draft," this option will default to "Publish" and vice versa. This allows you to publish and "unpublish" entries (i.e., set them to draft mode, even if they were published directly.)
(II) "Lock" or "Unlock": This closes a given entry from further comments or opens a locked entry for further comments.
(III) "Delete": To delete an entry and all comments to that entry. (You be asked if you want to continue the deletion, and choosing "No" will cancel the command.)
(IV) "Edit": This works the same as the edit function in posts.
(ii) These are visible to you and Moderators only, and this selection is a default that can be changed for the entry.
ii. The Look of Your Site:
(a) View mode of Your Blog:
(i) "List": Lists posts in reverse order, by date/timestamp of creation.
(ii) "List per date": Groups posts by date, most recent date first, with date displayed, and within date, in reverse order by date/timestamp of creation.
(iii) "List per month": Groups posts by month, most recent month first, with month and year displayed, and within date, in reverse order by date/timestamp of creation.
(b) Number of Entries per page: 5/10/15/20
© Number of Comments per page: 5/10/15/20/25/30
(d) Limit the entry size on main Blog page: In characters, or "0" for no limit.
* If you write long entries, you may wish to set a limit, to condense the "home page."
* 1000 characters of a solid paragraph is about 2 screen inches high.
* If you put in a character limit, a more link appears in the bottom left of the entry. When clicked, the entry opens up in full.
iii. Entry Permissions:
(a) Approve comments posted on your blog?
(i) "no approve": all comments are posted directly to the blog.
(ii) "approve guest comments only" is the same as because guests don't have permission to post.
(iii) "approve all comments": all replies appear in draft mode and must be approved by you to be posted.
d. Your Blog Categories
i. You may create categories by listing each category title as a separate line (separated by a carriage return/enter) in the input box provided.
Please note:
(a) You have the option of adding an entry to a category or no category when you post.
(b) The category option lets you and the viewers filter your entries by subject.

External Link will allow you to link to an external site.

a. Please note: if you choose "Link to external blog," the external blog must follow the site rules. If it does not, the Moderators will delete your blog.
b. If you click Finish,
You will be prompted for the URL to your Blog's page.
It must be a full, standalone link, beginning with "http://" or "www".

7. Click the Submit button to store the link to your page.

Please note: These settings may be changed at any time by clicking My Controls/Your Blog Settings from any page or Your Blog Settings from your blog.

After First-time Set-up

As soon as you create your blog, three new links will appear in My Controls/Community Blogs:

1. Content Block Settings

a. Custom Content Block Settings and Content Blocks:
Custom content is not enabled.

b. Current Content Blocks
For the following content block options, you may turn display on and off, position them right or left, and choose the display order:
i. Your Blog Options
ii. Last 10 Entries
iii. Your Blog Links
iv. Last 10 Comments

2. About Me Settings

a. You may enter a text block that will display from the "About Me" link
i. You may format this text by typing in the formatting symbols for bold, italic, color, etc.
ii. You may add smilies by typing in the smilie syntax.
(a). Text Formatting Syntax: [open tag name]text to be formatted[close tag name]
b /b=bold
i /i=italic
u /u=underline
size=size number /size = size. (1=small, 7=large, 14=larger, and numbers in between may be used.)
color=color name /color = color (blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, gray, green)
font=font name /font = font (arial, times, courier, impact, geneva, optima)
list /list = indent
(b). Smilie Syntax: :smilie name: (colon, smiliename, colon)
b. You may disable "about me" text by unclicking the checkbox.

3. Your Blog

This will navigate you to your blog page.

The Your Blog Options section will show:

Number of published entries: counter
Add Entry (command link)
Number of draft entries: counter
Hide draft entries (command link) which toggles to Show draft entries
Settings
Your Blog Settings
Your Content Blocks Settings
Your About Me Settings

The links in Settings are identical to the links in My Controls/Community Blog

How To Manage Your Hosted Blog

1. When you click on Your Blog from My Controls, or if you bookmark your URL,

a. The default category will be "all."
To change this, select a category from the "Filter by category" drop-down box in the upper left corner.
b. Any drafts will show, with a pink background, in contrast to the standard light blue background.

c. Last Entries and Last Comments will be updated, if there's been activity.

d. Unread posts will show a little orange square with a tiny white bottom right corner to the left of the entry.

2. To Create an Entry in Your Own Blog:

a. Click the Add Entry link from Your Blog Options.

b. A screen will open that looks very similar to a standard post screen through the Enter Your Post section.

c. There is are two additional options
i. Under the Entry Title, there is an option to select the category (Post Entry in Category)
(a) The default is "none."
(b) If you've set up categories, you may select one.
© If you click the Preview Post button, the category entry will be retained.
(d) The category can be re-set later using the Edit function.
ii. At the bottom of the screen in the Options section, there is an option to set the way the entry will be published (Add this entry as... drop-down box),
(a) The default is to "Draft" or "Published," based on your default option in Your Blog Settings.
(b) You may change the selection before you click the Post New Entry button.
© If you change the selection and click the Preview Entry button, the selection will revert to the default.
d. Click the Post New Comment button to post.

e. If you've saved as "Draft" and want to publish the entry,
i. Make the Entry Options visible if they are not already so by clicking the button.
ii. Click the Publish button

3. To Moderate Your Own Blog

Bloggers may choose to apply stricter standards to their blogs than the board does. If these standards/rules are published, they may not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, or sexual preference.

a. If you choose to "approve all comments," comments will appear on a pink background, and won't be visible until/unless you "Publish" them.
b. You may edit or delete comments before or after they are published.
c. The Entry Options allow you to Edit or Delete the corresponding entry (yours) or comment (other posters').
d. If the entry or comment is in "draft" mode, use the Publish button to post to the board.
e. You may toggle between "published" and "draft" for entries or comments.
f. You may lock an entry "thread."

4. To Add Photos to Your Blog Entry

a. Under the entry post box is an Attachments section, from which photos can be added.
b. Adding a photo is a three-step process:
i. Enter the path and name of the file in the input box or click the Browse button to browse through your files and select one.
ii. Click the Add This Attachment button.
> The name of the file will appear under the input box.
iii. Click the Add into Post button.
> In the entry input box, the code [attachmentid=[x]] will appear.
c. When the entry is submitted, the photos will appear as thumbnails, with "CLICK TO ENLARGE" in small type across the top.
When this text is clicked, the photo appears full size.
d. Removing a photo is a two-step process:
Delete the correct [attachmentid=[x]] from the post.
Click the Remove button.

How to Notify People of a New Blog Entry

In this software, there's no way to subscribe to someone else's blog (if it's hosted on this site), to receive notification when there's an entry or comment posted. Unless you blog daily, you'll need to notify people when you've added an entry. You may choose to do this in one of two ways:

1. Start a thread in the appropriate forum either

a. On the subject of the entry: Ex: "Margot Fonteyn's New York Performances" in the Dancers forum.
>Please note that the discussion may expand on the subject beyond your blog entry.
b. As a blog announcement: Ex: "New Post in John's Blog" in Heads Up!/BLOGS.

2. Add a post to an existing thread: Ex: "I posted a review to last night's performance in my blog [link to blog]" in the "Week 3 Reviews" thread in the NYCB forum.

Please remember to link back to the thread from you blog entry if you choose this option

How to Goto a Blog

1. Click the Blogs link at the top right hand side of any page to get to the list of blogs.

2. If the blogger has chosen "Friendly URL" option and his/her username for the "Friendly URL," the link to his/her blog will be:

www.ballettalk.invisionzone.com/blog/[username]

Once you find a blog, you can bookmark it/add it to your favorites.

How to Comment on a Blog

In the current version of the blog software, there's no way to turn off comments on the blog itself. The work around is for the blogger to set commenting permissions to always hold comments until they are approved, and then to ignore or delete the comments. This isn't ideal, but it's what we've got right now.

We've asked bloggers to indicate on their blog if comments should be made on the Ballet Talk site instead of the blog. If the blog accepts comments on the blog, please note that blogs are self-moderating, and that the blogger may not get to your comment immediately (or even quickly).

If you prefer to comment directly on the blog (and the blogger allows this), please:

1. Click the Comments: [n] link underneath the entry to trigger the Add Reply and Fast Reply buttons.

2. Click the Add Reply or Fast Reply button. The options are nearly identical to the same options to post on the board.

3. Type the entry into the input box and Preview or Submit.

If you prefer to comment on the Ballet Talk site, please:

1. Click the Permalink link under the entry.

a. A pop-up box with the link to the entry will appear.
b. Please copy the link into memory (control+"C," Mac function+"C," or right-click/Copy)

2. Start a new thread in the appropriate forum or start at new thread.
3. Attribute the idea/quote to the blogger and the blog in a thread on Ballet Talk.
4. Copy and past (control+"V," Mac function+"V," or right-click/Paste) into the post.

Additional Options

1. Email this Entry (upper right of each entry)

a. When you select this, a form will appear, in which you must enter:
i. Send to (Person's Name):
ii. Send to (Email Address):
iii. Subject
iv. Message
b. Click Send Email when you've completed the form.

2. Print this Entry (upper right of each entry)

a. Clicking this link will display a printable version of the entry.
b. Use your browser's "print" function to print.

3. Permalink (bottom right of each entry)
This is the URL to the entry. It is static, and isn't based on the "Friendly" URL.

4. Trackbacks (bottom right of each entry)
This lists the trackback URLs, which can be set by the blog owner to tie to external blogs.