Feb 3, 2013 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Community Pool

The Community Pool is for those of you looking for input, whether on post ideas, writing, blog design and layout, or anything else. If you have a post, page, or idea you want to bounce off someone, leave a comment. Your fellow bloggers can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

Read on for the ground rules and to leave a comment . . .

  • You’ll get the best feedback if you can be as specific as possible about what you’d like people to respond to or where you’re struggling.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. We’re here to help and support one another, not to beat anyone down.
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • To keep from losing your place in the comment thread, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.
  • No running on the deck.

And a heads-up for next week: we’ll try a focused Community Pool specifically for those of you with theme-related questions (feel free to post here, though — there’s no need to wait).

Photo by t_a_i_s.

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  1. Thanks so much for helping Michelle. I am still learning. Do anyone know what to go so I don’t have to approve every comment coming in? Thanks. Have a great day and new week ahead

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    1. Mabel, go to your Dashboard. Click on Settings, then go to the subpage Discussion. Find where it says “Before a comment appears”, then unclick “An administrator must always approve the comment”. I recommend clicking “Comment author must have a previously approved comment”. Hope this helps!

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    1. Keegan,
      You’ve clearly had a really exciting time, which is a good read for older duffers like me who can live our travel lives vicariously now we have kids to look after.
      You have lots of interesting posts, but I would insert the “read more” tool after the first paragraph that will then make your home page much more digestible.
      Then just work on your opening paragraphs to make them irresistible, with perhaps a photo to accompany them on the main page.
      Hope this helps.

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      1. Thanks for your advice! Is there an easy way to have a thumbnail picture accompany the opening paragraph on my home page without it appearing at the same location in the post?

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    2. Regarding the thumbnail photo, I think some themes can do that, and some can not. I’m not sure if there’s a way of finding out which ones can do it prior to switching themes though.

      Also, I met another ‘Keegan’ about a month ago!

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    3. I use Oxygen, which does have the header image for the summary, but the image does not show up on the post when set as Featured Image. When I use an image in the post and do not set the Featured Image, the post image will be used as a header for the summary.

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  3. My Blog is accessible through magnuswendler.wordpress.com or magnuswendler.com. I have pondered things such as: post length, frequency of posts, the types of things to go along in posts such as videos to draw the reader in with other forms of expression than simple writing. I’ve also wondered if its best to have posts showing on the main page or not. I like the idea of partial posts showing on the main page and I’ve selected that option before on the dashboard. However, full posts still seem to appear. So these are some of my thoughts, and I was looking for general feedback overall on top of what I’ve pondered. I was regularly posting weekly so it was gaining momentum but found myself caught up in views and popularity which wasn’t ever my initial reason for blogging. It helps to have people viewing, but that isn’t something I feel should be the main goal of writing at all.

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  4. Can someone explain to me what this is all about? I mean, who gets to look at these blogs? I’m not concerned with security, but how do people get to? Is there a page or something where you can just go looking at blogs? I just started this and I have no idea as to what I’m doing. 😀

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    1. Hi there, I’ve been doing this for a few months. It seems that you can get people finding your blog by using tags when you create a post. I’ve found blogs through the freshly pressed page on wordpress, and you can click on a person (i.e. the link above this comment will say “magnuswendler” and will take you to my blog) who’s commented on those blogs to go to other blogs if you find the person interesting from their comments on a freshly pressed blog. I’m not sure if there’s anywhere other than the freshly pressed page to browse for blogs. Blogs can be made available by search engines so when people type key words that match your blog, that will bring it up in the search results on google, yahoo or whatever other search engine.

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    2. It can take awhile to figure out, but once you do it’s easy.
      Try going to the ‘Reader’ tab on your WordPress.com home page, should be on the top of the page. Once you’re at the ‘Reader’ menu, on the right side menu click on ‘Recommended Blogs’, you can then check out blogs from a list of specific subjects in the page’s area marked as ‘Show Me the Blogs!’. Or, you can type in a very specific search term in the ‘Explore Topics’ in the right side menu.

      So, for example, you could search for blogs on a general topic like ‘Art & Design’ in the ‘Show Me The Blogs’ area. Or, you could get more specific in the ‘Explore Topics’ option, like ‘Renoir’.

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    1. Very nice! I find the blog visually pleasing, easy to read and navigate, and your content seems quite good and awesome for anyone quickly browsing the blog! You could put a widget on the right side as well as the left possibly but I like it as it is!

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    2. I didn’t notice if you included any info on your About Me page as to where you are located? Since people all over the world can read your blog, I think it can help to add that in to give the reader some perspective and interest in where you are, wether it’s something general like just writing ‘I’m in Canada”, or more specific, like ‘I love my hometown of Toronto!”.

      Other than that, I like how you’ve added the background photo of Autumn leaves, and it has a nice layout, easy to read!

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    3. SoundEagle finds your blog to be quite commendable in its range of contents as well as appearance, considering that you are relative new, but not so new as to lack knowledge for blogging well.

      All in all, your blog seems to fulfill what you intend to share with your readers about Books (1), Lifestyle (2), Philosophy (3), Productivity (5), Religion (1), World and Writing.

      Keep up the good work and do keep the momentum going!

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  9. I participated in Community Pool last week and made some changes based on the feedback I received. I would like to get more inputs about my blog and it would be nice to get some advice about my writing as English is not my first language and I started writing for the first time on my blog (from Dec 2012). Thank you in advance 🙂

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  11. My blog has a health focus due to my brain surgery last summer, but I want my blog to be more than about my health. I want to share (at times) more about what makes me ME. I write as more of therapy than actual “writing” – I’m not a writer at all. But I am looking for feedback on either focus/direction/content, or anything. Thank you!

    http://hopeforheather.wordpress.com

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  12. I am loving the Community Pool so far, and am receiving some great new input every week, but at the same time discovering other wonderful blogs which are also helping me.

    Please have a look at my blog, and feel free to recommend any good writing or other interesting blogs that you like, as well as ask me to take a look at yours, because I am happy to do so and give my opinions.

    http://mydiffer3nce.wordpress.com/

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  14. hi everyone!! Im just ordinary girl..i love to make some blogging,,i hope i can share mine here…i wanna call it,,MY JOURNEY To MARRIED LIFE…

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  15. My blog is mainly about lessons learnt in life, so I’m sure it’s just an atom in a stadium when it comes to its location in the blogosphere. I would really love to have more readers, but I guess I just need to be satisfied with what I have right now.

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    1. Probably your best bet would be to change themes. I had a similar problem with a previous theme–the page looked very cluttered, and I wanted my posts to appear a little more prominently than the items on the sidebars.

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  21. Hi there, I’m four weeks old at this blogging thing and I’d love any feedback you are willing to part with! It appears my topic is fairly pertinent at this time but any feedback on style or theme would be massively appreciated. It’s been a head first dive for me so far and I’m now ready to take a breath and see what else is out there. Thanks heaps!

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  24. I really like this idea and if anyone fancies looking at my blog it would really help me thank you!

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  25. Looking for readers. The blog is language based, poetic prose, word pictures. My goals: to write observations and by extension create a sense of place, in a style similar to Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book.

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  27. I just have a quick question for you all:

    Do you think frequent theme changes on a blog are detrimental to it? Maybe it’s just because I haven’t found the “right” one yet, but I always get sick of the theme within a few months and want to change it, either because of boredom with the look or the functionality of it.

    I currently have a theme that I really thought was perfect at the beginning, and now I’m thinking of changing again. We’ll see though 😛

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  28. I just discovered the Community Pool. This is great! i would like some feedback on my blog. I post about life, personal growth, and spirituality. My goal is to be educational, give a little advice, but really I want to get people thinking to look within themselves to find the answers they need. I draw from various religious, philosophical, spiritual, and metaphysical backgrounds. How am I doing? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Namaste

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  29. My blog is mostly about my life – parenting, cooking, stories from my past, etc. However, I am starting to focus on blogging about little historical facts…exploring old magazines or obscure people, that type of thing. The problem I am having is with layout. I really don’t like the appearance of my blog at all, but I’m terrible at deciding what will make it look distinctive. I would also love to find a way to visually alert visitors as to the emerging focus of my blog. If anyone is interested in having a look and giving me some feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.

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    1. You can change the tag line of your blog in order to give more detail on the focus. I realize that’s not a visual, but I think it helps a great deal.

      I would try a different theme. The one you’re using is just not an eye catcher at all. There are different themes where you could add an image to the header, so that might solve your problem with the visual.

      Your content looks pretty interesting–looks like you get a lot of interaction.

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      1. Yes, I’ve been thinking about the tagline. I just sort of threw it in when I was constructing the blog. I may change it to “Just Joyce” for now, until I can find something more catchy and descriptive. I’ll look at other blog themes too…I just can never look at something and decide if it would be attractive or not.

        My interaction tends to be with the same core group, but that’s fine. They’re awesome.

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      2. Oh also…I was thinking about making a header of a collage of old photos, vintage cookbook covers, etc. More in keeping with the tone I’m trying to establish.

        And…thank you!

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