Is a blog open to anyone?

The muddiest points [ explanation ] from our special session on blogs and blogging, in which -- among other things -- we set up our own blogs...

Is a blog open to anyone? Can anyone post on a blog?
Well, that depends on what "settings" you choose for it.... Is your blog a private diary, perhaps one in which you reflect on your teaching? Is it intended for other people? Do you want those other people to be limited to your friends and family -- or is it for absolutely anyone out there in cyberspace...?

Likewise, if it is a blog you are using with a class, you might want to consider whether or not you want to protect their privacy or not (especially if they are youngish children).

If you have set your blog up at blogger.com (as we did today), you've got the "Basic" tab under "Settings" (shown above). Answering "No" to the question "Add your blog to our listings" gives you a certain amount of privacy. Someone would then need to know the address of your blog (you could give it to them), in order to be able to access it.

One of the other settings you might want to change is who can write comments on your blog. The "Comments" tab under "Settings" allows you three choices there (as shown above), and if you "enable comment moderation" (shown below), all comments will come to you first for approval, before they get published.

You might want to enable comment moderation, by the way, as otherwise -- especially on a public blog -- you will end up with "spam" (junk) comments.

Note that "only registered users" means anyone with a Blogger.com account. Personally, I choose "Anyone" for "Who can comment?" but then enable moderation.

More "muddiest points" from today's session...

• What's a permalink?
• Editing the links on a blog
• The difference between a blog and a discussion board

The answers to these three questions are in separate posts, below...