Apologies for the yucky green and spooky blog title, I'm afraid I started fiddling about with the tech stuff and have retreated before I do any more damage! Unfortunately I can't find a way of taking my blog offline before carrying out major refurbishment so technical difficulties continue :(
I have restricted the comments to 'members only' for now because quite frankly I need a break! However, I don't want to stop discussion completely in whatever new format I opt for because stimulating discussion keeps the blog live and current. And as can be seen, a lot of people have a lot to say about the subject. The problem lies in the misunderstanding that my blog is a 'hate blog', not the kind of blog any decent person would want to associate themselves with.
Those who read here regularly and those who contribute to the discussions, know that is not the case. The MSM are not telling the truth, I am. Truth does not equal hate, something the angry pro McCanns cannot understand. Sadly, for my sins, I know way too much about this case to keep silent when I see the public being lied to and manipulated, I feel morally obliged to challenge the fake news.
But to return to my conundrum. I compare it to buying a new home or extending and refurbishing the original. Add to that my very basic, almost chimp like, knowledge of computers and technology and you have a very unfortunate mix.
Let me set out my conundrum: I want to receive comments but fully understand why people would rather comment incognito, and that's not just here, it's everywhere, I'm often reluctant to comment on other websites because I do not want to leave my name and get bombarded with even more spam. I need an anonymous or pseudonym option.
I would also like new functions, multiple pages - something I have never been able to figure out on 'Blogger', oh and an outdoor swimming pool with a bar and a waiter called Carlos. I jest, I don't want to go full 'new fangle dangle', I just want to feel as I did when I got a phone with an actual keyboard to send texts! And I feel sure the technology is out there!
On the new house front, Wix seems to be the most popular from my, albeit scant, research. This brings up the question of 'domain', I don't even know what that means, do I need one, should I have one? I am stuck on page one at the moment because it is telling me to download (or is it upload) a new browser and I don't know if it is safe to do that.
At the moment I have my head buried in the sand. Or more accurately buried in Versailles on Amazon which I am binge watching. For some reason watching costume drama wafts me away on a magical cloud. And I have the added joy of being able to google every character and see their real pictures and read their real biographies. In the past it would have meant trekking home with a pile of books from the library!
Returning to the main topic of this blog, I need help. I am going to switch comments on temporarily, in the hope that there may be helpful suggestions on my way forward. Technical advice perhaps or examples of blogs or websites with the kind of format that may work here. I have even considered going to Facebook but I can't say it is an option that instantly appeals. I have always preferred to be a lone wolfess!
I'm not going to publish abuse and rants in case some see this as a last chance to condemn me as a heretic and much, much worse. I am looking for helpful advice.
Hello Rosalinda
ReplyDeleteTake your time
Unfortunately, though I'm surrounded by people working with technology here i Linköping (the University and the Saab industry) I know less than you, but if I get a chance to talk to someone familiar with blogs, secrecy, identities and how to deal with anonymous abusers and so on. I'll let you know.
As it was two or three days ago only those who'd a google account could comment and that will scare off most of the serious posters as well.
I'm reluctant myself to give Google too much of my own privacy, but I've no problem with revealing my full name, address and e-mail address when I comment here, but a google account demands much more from me.
Hopefully, you can find a solution that satisfies all our needs Rosalinda. Whatever happens, keep on writing and give us new perspectives on life.
Hi Rosalinda
ReplyDeleteOn a blind leading the blind note, the big choice in setting up your own website is whether you use an all in one, off the peg service like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace (where like Blogger, you are 'leasing'), or whether you set up your own completely independent site (which you own). Until these website builders came along, it was WordPress software that was the go to instant free website option, with its thousands of excellent design options all customisable, huge flexibility, and lots of plugins, and it absolutely still is if you go the registering your own domain name (like at GoDaddy), and then finding a hosting company (like HostGator). Separating the two for control. Registration/ hosting set up is really easy. Then you install WordPress for free.
Which way you go depends on issues like customisability, SEO, who owns the content if you want to move, and all that confusing to non-techie people stuff, so a wee bit of consultancy would be really good. WordPress (the software that is, at wordpress.org, it's confusing) is also designed for 'anyone to use', but that said, it depends on the 'anyone'. When I have ever been involved designing sites, I have delegated that to someone else, who may be an amateur too, but way more computer savvy. He/she would always keeps saying 'you could do this yourself', but without understanding, no I really couldn't!
I think Wix is supposedly easiest to use (but once the site is up I don't think you can change it ever, which is odd), Squarespace the best designed. The all in one bundled price can be more than putting the site together yourself.
No idea if you can have people register with your site (through email) with the all in one webbuilder services, I agree with Bjorn that readers would prefer to register with you (who they trust) than Google 'Big Brother'. Having open commenting is really lovely, but once abused the result is very far from the same. I wonder if there can be a sort of 'one off' guest comment option to be accessible, and friendly? Behind the paywall newspaper sites allow limited access to articles before you have to pay, so it must be technically possible.
I really hope someone steps in here who knows a lot more about the subject.
This seems a (relatively) clear explanation:
https://www.shivarweb.com/4796/squarespace-vs-weebly-vs-wix/
https://www.shivarweb.com/website-setup/
A 'full disclosure' too far on your part admitting 'Versailles' binging? Not sure I'm brave enough to confess my guilty TV watching pleasure.
Clemmie
Don't Google have a help desk or the like ? They'll guide you though the widgets. If your worry is about the blog being considered a hate blog, why worry ? Google have their rules laid out clearly regarding the definition of hate speech. If they think you are making any hate speech or publishing hate speech of contributors they'd simply remove your blog. I'm sure they'd warn you first and give you examples of what they didn't consider suitable so you would have an opportunity to lay out new ground rules.Why don't you email them.
ReplyDeleteJo
1. Don't switch blogging platforms - it's not worth the hassle / re-learning.
ReplyDelete2. I may be wrong but all / most blogging platforms restrict one to a single blog page. You can have other pages but they're static rather than the dynamic blog page.
3. Don't publish the posts you don't like! Isn't that one of the purposes of approval before publication?
KM
Rosalinda,
ReplyDeleteI think the trend followers’ ‘hate’ nonsense will blow over and will be replaced by something else.
As for the ‘anonymous’ issue, unlike registered, a commenter cannot delete a comment if she/he posted anonymously. That might actually work in your favour and to the disadvantage of an anonymous poster.
Just a thought.
NL
Set the rules as follows
ReplyDelete1- No expletives
2- No personal insults or abuse
3- No deliberate misinformation
4-No obscenity
5- No hate speech
6- Keep discussions at an adult level of mentality
7- No sniping for the sake of it
8- Admin reserve the right to withhold the publication of any post that ignore any of the above
the 8 commandments
arry
Hi Rosalinda
ReplyDeleteYou risk being bamboozled by choice. It seems to me that one fundamental question is whether you want a platform that supports other subjects as well as the McCann affair, that is multiple blogs, and your writing generally, on one site (leased from Wix, or whoever, or owned by you), or whether you want to continue with a single subject blog as here. Then grappling how to monitor it with tools supplied by Google, without that being a near full-time and depressing, even damaging job. A third option on formatting is starting another separate Blogger blog for writing about other things.
The limitation with rules, which are good in principle, is that only you can enforce them. It really seems that discussion on this subject needs constant chairing not just monitoring. How great that would be, but why would you want to do that? Can that technically be shared on Blogger, so it's not just down to you? Flagging Google with your problem might backfire as I would be concerned that they could just withdraw the account as, in the end, it belongs to them. Amazon and Facebook seem sensitive to this subject, I’m not sure I would share posting problems with Google until I was sure that it was safe to do so, and only do so in the most general terms. There are probably forums where blog owners discuss monitoring and trolling problems on various platforms. If you own your own site then you have a bit more control and choice over registration.
In the end, on this blog, there is no option between locking down this system, which possibly deters the posting you want, or much greater vigilance than you exercised before. The latter is perhaps unfeasible and unhealthy for one person to undertake, particularly when there is much personal attack and undermining. Only you can decide. But there is no automatic or magic solution, circles can't be squared.
Clemmie
@anon 12 : 16
DeleteNobody suggested 'flagging'Google, only requesting assistance. Why would they pull the blog for that.If asking for help is against the rules they wouldn't have a help desk. With regard to trolling, it's first necessary to understand the definition of an internet troll.Then you can tell readers that anyone who fits that definition won't be published.On the contrary you can block them or report them.With regard to undermining and attacking, they too need to be understood and the same rule of thumb applied once explained to the readers.Less paranoia and over reaction and more honesty and grown up behaviour.It shouldn't need all this debate and distress.It's a blog.
arry
If suggestions meant to be helpful contain neither bad language or offensive remarks, why aren't you publishing them as well ?
ReplyDeleteYou should certainly backup your blog, if you haven't, to safeguard the content. Save to your computer and somewhere else as well. So to a harddrive or Dropbox, iCloud etc.
ReplyDeleteRosalinda dear,if it ain't broke,don't fix it.You're doing a damn fine job,so just keep doing what you do best..
ReplyDeleteWill you join me for tea?
I do hope so..
T
Hi Rosalinda,
ReplyDeleteYou are so brave with your thoughts, don't ever give up on your blog.
Can't think of much to say that hasn't been said already except the one outstanding act of the McCann's which has never been explained or volunteered by the parents.
Why were the couple driving their dead daughter around Portugal and Spain 23 days after her disappearance in their back of their Portuguese rental car.
Why were blood samples of their daughter found in the apartment they rented in Portugal and why was cadaver evidence of their daughter's DNA found on clothing and artifacts belonging to the McCann's.
None of these questions has ever been answered by the parents.
Put another way, how often does any normal person drive around the countryside with a dead body in the boot of their car.
No mention of this in Mrs McCann's book "Madeleine, our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her".
(No mention either of the parent's search - what was the point, - their daughter was dead already on the night of 3rd May 2007.
Let others search
RIP for their daughter.
jc
''RIP for their daughter.
Deletejc''
It's posts like that that ruin any blog.That's a real example of trollng; tying to provoke emotional responses.It's also libelous for the sake of it. The subject is about helping with suggestions with regard to a new direction of the blog. You manage to reduce that to your fixation of a child being dead.There must be something terribly wrong with you, jc.
Ken
@14:52
DeleteJa, voll!
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird.
Fried
Hallo Fried 25 May 2019 at 18:29
DeleteJAWOHL, heißt es mein lieber "Fried"
"Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird"
Stimmt, aber vergiss nicht, dass diejenigen, die die Wahrheit verbergen, sind schon die schlimmsten Ungeheuer, wenigstens meiner Meinung nach.
Fried
DeleteIn which case we are dealing with many monsters.If we'd all avert our gaze from one little corner, we would see them. We just wouldn't see the truth.Maybe lying is the true monster, comrade.
Hi Fried 26 May 2019 at 19:49
Delete"Maybe lying is the true monster, comrade"
Yes, I believe you're right. So let us hope that Rosalinda's blog will persist in the spirit of truth.
The spirit of truth needs to dwell within the investigation, I'm afraid.Without that, no blog, group, forum or page can have any impact whatsoever on it.Truth, it seems evident, suffered a similar fate to that of Madeleine.Both were casualties.Both swallowed by the aforementioned monster.Nobody can slay that monster.It's too powerful and too well trained.It was bred by experts.
DeleteThis is the end of the metaphorecast, comrade.
Anon24 May 2019 at 03:13
ReplyDeleteBegs the question.
Also:
If you have a Blogger account, Google own the content, not you. They can, and have, closed accounts without warning. Any blogger on the Blogger platform should backup their blog or they could lose everything. Google are not 'kindly.
Do you think Ben Thompson's latest blog is giving bloggers a bad name?
ReplyDeleteI think it is much ado about nothing 14:58. I don't understand how bloggers or those who attack bloggers get so personally involved in each other's lives and mortal enemies should they have different opinions. Quite bizarre.
ReplyDelete