How to Read a Blog for Women over 30…

Most mothers (and grandmothers) do not know how to read a blog like this one. Anyone under 30 will probably not need to read any further.  This article is for anyone and everyone (males included) needing to know how to navigate through a site like this. If you find it helpful, you may want to send it to others who might want to know how to read this new new media format or you might want to print it out to refer to it.  This is a very, very easy, how-to! If you want to print it out or send it to someone else, wait until you read how or you will get confused and frustrated!

The three most important thing to know about a blog:
1) Newest articles –called posts – are at the top so that every time you come to MotherPie's main site it will look different because every day new content is added.  (Only 20% of the 30 million or so blogs out there add new content weekly so know that MotherPie will have more stories more often than probably 90 – 95% of the news and information blog- type sites).  Every article is filed permanently and it's permanent file address is called the permalink address.  MotherPie has one "Main" page address and it is different from www.motherpie.com,  www.motherpie.us, or www.motherpie.org (all of which, when entered into a URL address bar in any browser, will take you to MotherPie's main current daily permanent address page).  When new posts/articles are added, the ones at the bottom of the page are filed and can be accessed through links on the left in the blue column (more later on how to retrieve earlier posts).   To send anyone to this site you can send them via the easy to remember www.motherpie.com! 

More below about permalinks but for the record,
the permalink for this page is:
http://motherpie.typepad.com/
motherpie/2006/03/how_to_read_a_b.html

(note: the permalink address had to be written on two lines to fit the blog column format.  It is one full address with no spaces between any of the letters and symbols).

Blogs are built on new and different kinds of web tools.  Some blogs will have more features than this site and some will have less.  But if you can learn how to find your way around this site, your chances of getting lost on other sites will be reduced!

2) When this page comes up in your browser window (Internet Explorer, for example), you will only see an itsy-bitsy part of the content. Scroll down to read the rest.  You are reading this article from one of two ways: you either came directly to this permanently filed article or you are reading it on the Main page of MotherPie.  If you came to this story/post by clicking from another link, either elsewhere from within the MotherPie site, or from another site, or even from an email link, we will show you later how to read the rest of the MotherPie content.  For now, let's get everyone on the same page, regardless of how you got here!  Scroll down to the end of this article where the light grey horizontal line has the original date of the article, March 9, 2006, on the far left right underneath the line.  Regardless of the other words/links, put your cursor over the word "permalink" and click it (and after you do, scroll right down to this place and continue reading).

The permalink is the permanently filed page for a post/article.  You can tell you are on the permalink page for this post because at the top of the article, right under the green page banner, you will see (usually) three links.  One of them will always be "Main" -- which when you click Main, it will take you to the current daily Main MotherPie page.    Don't click the Main link for now.  The permalink shows up in your browser URL (word for online address) bar, the white bar at the top.  This URL address is the permalink address and refers to this specific article.       

3) Navigating around this site is just like finding your way in a city.  Every site has different ways of finding your way around to get to and interact with the information that is there.  Blogs are conversational and relational and the interaction is part of the unique structure. Like websites, blogs have links.  Links, underlined words on the site that usually change colors when you put your cursor over them (like this link to MotherPie's main page), take you to other places if you click once on them.  Some links take you to other places within this site, some will take you to other sites.   Just like you can explore and wander in a city, you can go deeper into a subject through links,  and if you do, you can come right back to where you were by clicking the "back" button on your browser.  (If you want to make your online reading easier, you can the free Firefox browser.  It has "tabbed browsing" which lets you open up new windows in tabs as you follow links.  Here is MotherPie's article on Firefox to help you.)

If you go off-site, just use your browser back button to get back! Don't get frustrated! Click your browser arrow to get back or put www.motherpie.com (or sometimes just MotherPie.com) in your browser window and hit "enter"!  This article is filed in the category in the left blue bar under "New Media" if you need to find your way back.  If you want to be extra careful to remember the permalink, for a page, you will have to use old tools (handwrite it down),  or computer tools (cut and paste it and file ) or online tools (use a site to tag it).  If you want to bookmark this article, you can bookmark it from the permalink or type in www.motherpie.com and bookmark the main page if you just want to come back to the main site.

The Simple ABCs of navigating MotherPie and working with MotherPie's content:

A) Printing, sharing, or saving content: You need to be sure you are on the permalink for the  post.  Otherwise, you will print out the entire list of the most recent 20 or so stories from the Main page.    #2 above gives you specific directions to get to the permalink.   You can now print the page from the permalink.  You might want to print this and save it to refer to when you come back! (be sure you note down the permalink URL for this article).  To share this article, you share it using the permalink URL address.  Copy the full permalink address that appears in the top window of the browser.  If you copy it into another document (called cut and paste),  and paste it there, it becomes a "link" or address back to the permalink page.  If you cut and paste it into an email, for example, others can “click on” to get to this or copy and paste it into their browser to get to the specific post/article.  Pretty awesome, huh?  Tip:  Easy way to “copy” -- hold down the control button then click the letter “c”.  Then to paste it elsewhere, hold down the control button and click the letter “v”.   EasyPie, isn't it.  Now you are ready to learn your way around the rest of this site!

B) Navigating and finding your way around MotherPie: First, click one of the links at the top of this page.  The Main link will take you to the Main page for today of MotherPie.  The link to the left of Main will take you to the post that was written just prior to this one. The link to the right takes you to the one after this one.  Rarely will it look different.  If you get lost, just go back to this permalink - click here -- ( or type this in your browser address bar: http://motherpie.typepad.com/motherpie/2006/03/how_to_read_a_b.htm l ). 

C) Comments: What you will love about MotherPie is that you can interact and we can have conversations. Not all blogs do this.  You can see the comment link at the bottom of every post on the Main page and in the parenthesis right after it, you can see how many comments are posted for that story/post.   Permalink posts do not have comment links because the comment space is already there (scroll down if you don't see it in your window).  You have to click on either the comment or permalink link at the bottom of a post/article and you'll see the comments and place to add a comment at the bottom of the permalinked page.

• You can comment and you can do so using a moniker - like Saratoga Sally or Dallas Debbie or Harried Mom – but you must put your email address in.  Your email address will not be published.  There is a time-lag before your comment will appear under the post (they are screened and edited first).  When you comment, you will be asked to type in letters in the box after you see them after you have finished your comment.  This is to cut down on spam comments to this site. Your comments can add a lot to a post:  give your opinion, let you put in other information (like links or books that give more information to the topic), or you can give feedback like “I wish you would write more posts like this” or “I don’t know how to use the archives,”  or "this was confusing" or correct the facts (or even grammar and spelling).   In fact, that is how blogs  can correct information faster than the dead tree media like paper newspapers can.  Information can be edited faster and more easily.  
• All comments are reviewed and most receive a response.  You can read what others have added to the "conversation" about the issue in the post, too, even if you don't care to add a comment.   This is the unique way that blogs are interactive and can be conversational!

D) How to Navigate the Blue Column on the left :

• Read down and you will find these links, from top-to-bottom: 
• About – that is about MotherPie and lists contact information and other more permanent information.
• Recent Posts, going back only 10 articles or so.   
• Categories – MotherPie has a focus on new media and motherhood.  But other categories are covered, too.  Go through whatever categories you find interesting to see what has been covered in that area.
• Archives –  where all the posts go to be filed by week.
• Blogroll - These are other blogs that for whatever reasons or another I find interesting to read.  You might, too.  The top list is the master list that I keep of all blogs and online reading which goes into much greater depth than the small blogroll.
• MotherPie Recommend - These are lists of links I have compiled -- Online/Blogroll Reading Recommends -- (check it out for all of my regular reading links)  and MotherPie Breast Cancer Board (my mom had bc so this is a service to women who need it).
• Flickr Pics -- These photos take you to MotherPie's Flickr site.  A great way to share photos!
• Recomended Sources -- MotherPie's list for the literati among you.
• Other stuff: If you are reading this far, don't worry about the "feed" buttons and such to get this by RSS feeds.  It will be way over your head.  But if you want more and this isn't over your head: How to Get News and Information is a good article on how to read online news; Top Online Media Sources tells you what major mainstream media outlets you can get online; and Old Way to Get Your News is a little more about the shift taking place.

Has this been helpful? Click on the comment on the permalink for this article and give us your feedback, or email hapage@motherpie.com and I'll do my best to help you!

Welcome to the new new media!

Cheers!
www.MotherPie.com, blogging on new media, culture, art, tech and motherhood hapage@motherpie.com

Comments

[Sandy Wheeler]

Hi-as a 60-year-old who is very familiar with computers, I have not gotten into blogs. I appreciated your comments on how to read one. While it is all pretty rational, there ARE niceties that all teenagers know but that us grannies might not! Thanks!
(great site, Ann)

[Overwhelmed!]

Okay, I must say that I find it a bit offensive that you think people 30 or older are completely illiterate when it comes to reading a blog.

I'm 37, a Systems Analyst, and have never had problems reading a blog, or creating and maintaining one of my own.

I'm sure this is helpful for some, but I'm not sure why you think people over 30 are incapable of having the intelligence to figure this stuff out on their own.

What possessed you to create this post? Did you suddenly discover that many 30+ year old's were struggling to maneuver through your blog?

[H.A. Page]

My own research studies last spring for a graduate media studies research course focusing on online news readership indicated that the huge majority of blog readers were men (confirmed by other published studies, as well).

Where to draw the line age-wise for a "how-to" was an assumption by the author based on feedback from my classmates in the new new media course this year as well as pilot feedback this blog has received in its first week 1/2 of existence.
Glad to hear there are pros out there -- appreciate the feedback...