Monday, November 16, 2009

Welcome! Have a read and FAQ yourself

What is the point of this website? What are we trying to accomplish? Do we plan to rule the world and if so, will we be good, googly, or evil? The answer to these and other questions, below.

Obviously, since we’re only getting started, not many questions have yet been asked. But they will be asked, and even if not, we shall answer them. For any brand new blog is an answer to a question that is still being conceptualized.

LE: We will soon have an FAQ that answers many common questions as a CC licensed document, to be adopted and used by anybody who might like it or enjoy it.

What R U about?

We are trying to encourage ESL, E3L, E4L and EnL bloggers to express themselves in English. We do not exclude, in the near future, shifting our focus to encouraging all foreign bloggers to express themselves in Chinese or Hindu, if either of those languages will become the lingua franca of the Internet. For the time being however, English appears to be the one language most people have in common. We do not necessarily encourage Shakespearian or British English at the expense of American English. English is a dynamic language and anything goes, except for blatant mistakes or nonsensical, idiosyncratic expressions that the average English speaker cannot understand. Obviously, that is a subjective judgement so we’ll try to exercise it with caution. Criticism is not offered unless actively sought. We will implicitly and undoubtedly make our share of mistakes and we beg of you to correct them if you spot them.

Contact

You can contact us by leaving a comment to any article, including this one. This is meant to be a collective website, so different authors may have different ways to be contacted. You may also contact us by completing our contact form - it is also available on our main site with a link opening within under our Facebook widget and Logo.

Collaborators?

We need them / you. If you think you can help, let us know. For the time being, if your offer is accepted, you will need a Google Account (such as a Gmail account), which can be obtained freely by going to http://www.Blogger.com (or even Gmail). We might be able to provide vanity domain names and email addresses (such as firstname@lastname.something for our collaborators, just ask. If you would rather email, please use admin (at) BlogIdol (dot) ro.

Donations?

We accept donation by PayPal or Bitcoin - please inquire about our current B address.


Advertising?

We are open to advertisements and are working to consolidate our terms in a standalone document, which you can open on the main site by clicking the advertising link under Facebook.

Passwords?

Portions of our articles may be passworded. This password is not visible to our hosting provider, but we might make it available on request - please see the Contact question on this page and complete the form. We explain how it works in one of our "encryption" articles on this very website. Completing our contact form and survey is a necessary but not sufficient condition to obtain our public, monthly-changing password.

Comments?

We try to keep our commenting policy as liberal and tolerant as possible. Comments containing a URL will need to be manually approved. We recommend entering your web address in your Disqus profile, so that anyone clicking your name can see it and optionally navigate there. Since our commenting platform is provided by a third party, please contact them for support. Other reasons your comment does not appear may have to do with a low reputation caused by other site owners marking your comments as spam, or by using foul language (we keep a list of such trigger words that automatically cause your comments to enter moderation. You might be able to comment bypassing our commenting platform, but please be aware that in such an instance, your comment may not be displayed.

Copyright

As a (more or less) collective effort, anything published on this website is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. All content and comments are implicitly assumed to belong their claimed owner. If your content has been used without your consent please let us know and we’ll do our best to remedy the situation. If you use any of the materials published here you have to credit us with a link and visible text. Please also kindly let us know.

What’s in your logo?

BlogIdol4 Logo The background is taken from flickr, more precisely, Together Stand One by Torley. The photo was taken April 21, 2007 and is licensed with a Creative Commons license. The orange feed icon in the background is also licensed with CC, just like everything on the logo. The image was designed put together using Paint.Net, a free software designed by students with some Microsoft help. A few filters were applied. The logo itself is subject to copyright by The Indelible Bonobo and is not CC licensed. You may grab the individual parts used in the making of the logo and create your own toy which would be subject to copyright, however, if you end up with an identical image.. Raised Eyebrow then perhaps you should try againWaiting.

The animated gif with Billy Idol has been circulating on the web - we do not know who it belongs to.

Why on Blogger / Blogspot?

This platform has come a long way. Though we’re working on a separate launch on a different platform, work is progressing slowly, and we decided that in the meantime we’ll let Google host us. When and if the full launch takes place, this blog will most likely continue to exist here, at 3w.blogidol.ro while www.blogidol.ro and blogidol.ro will lead to the new site. We consider this home to be temporary.

I can design a much better logo and graphics!

That’s awesome and we’d like to hear from you, especially if you have previously designed for Drupal! We might not be able to pay in the beginning, but we’ll certainly give you banner and link love.. And if we start drooling upon seeing your work, we’ll fast for a few days so that we can pay you!

4 comments:

  1. Hi.Sorry if I put again my question in a wrong place.I comented yesterday on youre other blog-Zamolxis and you told me to come on this blog 'cause the first one is for now youre personal blog :D.

    I wondering if I can implement on my blog a some "gadget" what shows the most comented articles...like this guy for example.. http://mogamarius.com/

    Thank you
    All the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is the right place to ask general questions - thank you for
    taking the time to navigate :)

    I had a look at that blog, and it's on Wordpress self-hosted. You are
    on Blogger / Blogspot - a completely different platform.

    I had a look at your blog and it turns out you are using IntenseDebate
    for your comments. Luckily, they are providing a commenting widget. To
    get it:
    1. Log in to your ID dashboard
    2. Click on Extras in the top menu.
    3. Under Add-ons (left-hand menu) click on Widgets.
    4. The third widget from the top is what you are looking for - Popular articles.

    Keep in mind, Intense Debate is a pretty good commenting system, but
    unfortunately, they do not allow you to sync comments with Blogger. If
    they go bankrupt (unlikely) or if they stop supporting Blogger, you
    lose all your comments. Disqus offers Blogger sync for free, but only
    about 50% of comments get sync'd due to technical issues. JS-kit also
    sync comments, but they cost money after the first month.

    On the plus side, ID allows CommentLuv, which is a plugin I strongly
    recommend you enable! :)

    --
    Cheers,
    http://inbonobo.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you very much for youre time.

    I think I have chosed a worng platfrom.It was better for me if a I had Wordpress.('cause Wordpress offers more benefits ...I think) I am wondering now if it is a wrong idea if I move my blog on a Wordpress platform...and what consequences will have.

    I found only "Recent Coments" and it is not exactly what I had one thousand.( maybe somehow it is created a cod to put in Javascript...I don't know...or something that it could activate Top Commented )

    About InteseDebate,I think I will implement Disqus,but I don't know what will happen with actually comments(anyway are not so manny comm)

    Have a nice day...

    aa .. I almost forgot.This blog is for now on my Blog List :) :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages. You have to decide
    what is more important to you. Also, you have to distinguish between
    Wordpress self-hosted and Wordpress.com. Many people move to
    wordpress.com thinking they will get the self-hosted advantages, which
    is not true.

    Blogger offers a lot for free - wordpress.com cannot possibly match
    it. They do, however, try harder in other areas and have a better
    relationship with their customers. Most people who use Wordpress don't
    really know what they're getting OR what Blogger is offering and seem
    to exhibit the characteristics of a cult - they blindly believe they
    are getting the best :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting and rest assured that any and all comments are welcome, whether positive or negative, constructive or distructive. Unfortunately, if you comment in this view I might not know about - please use the regular (Desktop) view.
I am using Disqus for commenting, but Blogger is not showing it so your comments may end up not being displayed - tell Google about it!