Aug 17, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

Don’t forget the sunscreen: it’s time for this week’s Community Pool!

Have you just published a new post and are dying for some feedback? Did you recently start your blog and could use some layout or design advice from your more seasoned peers?

Tap into the wisdom of The Daily Post blogging community and leave your question here in the comments. Others can then click through and offer input either on your site, or in the comments here (feel free to indicate which you’d prefer).

To help us make the Community Pool a productive space for discussion, here are some tips you might find useful:

TIP: To keep from losing your place in the comment thread while you visit others’ blogs, right-click on a link to open it in a new tab or window.

  • While you’re not required to, we encourage everyone who requests feedback to also reply to at least one or two other bloggers who need some help. Spread the love!
  • The Community Pool comments section can get quite big — and starting duplicate threads doesn’t help. Thanks for not posting the same question more than once!
  • If you’re looking for quality feedback, be as specific as you can. Questions about a particular post tend to draw more comments than ones about entire blogs. Questions about specific design elements are more likely to be answered than ones asking for general layout advice.
  • We discourage leaving links without a more substantive message or question. These are often overlooked by other bloggers, and we frequently remove them to make the comment reading experience smoother.
  • Please keep all comments civil and constructive. The idea is to have fun — it’s a pool, after all!
  • If you haven’t looked at our Commenting Guidelines in a while, now might be a good time.
  • No running on the deck.

Photo by Brian Cantoni.

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  1. Hello Everyone! Hope you enjoyed weekend. This is my second post about a website to launch and manage websites from one site. I’ll appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

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  3. I have a poetry blog but one of my categories is “how to’s” where I explain how to apply different literary devises, writing styles and writing techniques. I don’t use this category as much as I would like because I’m not sure what people would like to see. What “how to” should I write next?

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      1. Hi ishaishaisha28 — when responding to others’ questions and feedback requests, please try to stay on topic and address their questions. Plugging your own URL in every response is a sure way to antagonize people who might otherwise be happy to visit and offer feedback on your site, too.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Hello everyone 🙂 I’m new to blogging, but I would like some general feedback on my introductory post. I know it’s kind of scratchy, and hopefully I’ll be better with time, but it would sure be helpful. http://leadingtothecross.wordpress.com/ The overall theme is working towards my religious faith, and I hope that came across well enough. Meanwhile, I have a few questions. 1) how do you change your image, or add media to your posts? I tried to, but the image I chose wouldn’t upload, so perhaps I’m doing something wrong? 2) Out of curiosity, are there any custom options that you don’t have to upgrade your blog to use?

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  10. i am unsure if the daily post do the 365 blog posts ebook on this site. but i just wanted to say Thank You for that.. it has helped in a time that no Muse would offer support 🙂

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  12. Hello everybody! I am a 17 year old Australian student who has just started out on this website. I write mostly about philosophical psychology and critical thinking associated with nihilism!

    http://criticalthoughtsurvives.wordpress.com/

    Above is the link to my blog, with my first piece of writing uploaded! I hope you enjoy reading it (please feel free to like and share, as it promotes my writing and enables me to write one piece per week)

    Thanks everyone!

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  13. Hello everyone! Since I write my posts in polish I just wanted to wish you all great day 🙂 Polish speaking users are always welcome on my blog 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Hi Everyone! I’m Whim, the blogger of Words On A Whim. My blog is all about ‘Living and Surviving my last year of the teen-ages’ because I feel reading other peoples experiences is an important thing, especially when you’re just heading into adult world and you find yourself facing more life struggles than you thought would exist. But there are also positive experiences rather than just struggles, as well as funny moments. Its all about being a teenager and growing up.

    Anyway, I’d really love some feedback on my blog layout, and my ‘Ask Whim’ page, i’m not sure if its working or not as everytime I go on it the page seems to be faulty. So if someone could check for that and let me know that would be great!
    Also, what do you think of ‘Ask Whim?’ If you cant see it, its basically a contact form page where people can email me questions or experiences of their own as i’m keen on learning more about the experiences others may go through in their teen-age lives which I haven’t been through! As for questions, they will be inspiration for blog posts as well as answered honestly.
    How is my blog content?

    Thanks for your time! Adios! Whim xoxo

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Hi all. this is my first dip in the pool. I am relatively new to blogging and do not as of yet, have a specific focus. Mostly it has just been a way to sort stuff out in my head over loss, bereavement and aging. But I’m also trying to find my voice and build my skills as a writer. I’m looking for feedback on this post: http://teaforthetilliemom.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/writing-the-middle-aged-body/ Mostly just general critique.. does it read ok? Does the format work? etc.. Cheers, Heidi

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Heidi – first, I’m really sorry to hear about your sister. You’re right, that’s far too young. Be kind to yourself and know that there’s no ‘acceptable’ length of time to ‘take’ to ‘get over’ things. I’m convinced that it’s more a process of making room in your life for the reality of death, rather than trying to go back to what you were before. Otherwise it’s a bit like women trying to ‘get back’ the body they had before they gave birth to a child. It’s the wrong battle. (Sorry – I just realised that you didn’t ask for my opinions on bereavement. It just struck me as i was writing, so I’ll let it stand)

      I like the way you write and I’m glad I read your post. Yes, it definitely reads more than ‘ok’!

      I hope you keep writing. It’s important for women, of all ages, to read words like yours.

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      1. Thank you so much for the feedback. No need at all to apologize over the bereavement element — in my own case a lot of what I’ve written in the past, and this post as well, concerns working through loss whether it be youth, voice or the people, places, pets etc.. that have touched my life — so it’s totally relevant. Thanks too for the encouragement. It means a lot. 🙂 keep well.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m usually not into reading blogs that are just peoples stream of consciousness, but I really enjoy your ranty style, it gives the posts a nice humor! I myself am trying am trying to incorporate more humor into my posts, but I find it difficult, as I am trying to write about social or political issues without forcing too much of my opinion on people. Any advice?
      http://geezyerpatter.wordpress.com/

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      1. Thanks! I really appreciate it:)
        And I think your blog is beautiful! Very unique and intriguing:)
        Now, let me just go and read some more…

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      2. I think I replied to you by mistake because of the new comment feed on the dashboard page. Makes it look like you replied to me. You blog is interesting and I commented on it.

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  18. I’m looking to start a blog about books and cities. “Books in Lisbon” is going to be about my sweet addiction to books. Do you think this is a good title? I also registered Books and Cities.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi – I enjoyed reading your post.

      If you keep going I can imagine you being credited with making Ancient History accessible and interesting to modern day humans. You’re very good at bringing your knowledge close to your reader by saying things like: “That’s like being so ancient, you have a suburb named after you.” Which makes me think you’re in the US? here in the UK we don’t have room to build whole suburbs all at once!

      I’d say – make sure that you don’t leave Latin words like ‘gens’ unexplained – or unlinked to a definition (if you don’t want to patronise your knowledgeable readers). It’s the kind of word that stops you in your tracks if you’re beginning to know about Ancient History.

      I like your links to Plutarch etc. Would it be possible to give actual quotes or link to Google books so that people don’t have to leave your post and make their way to the bookshelf or library? I found a Plutarch’s life of Fabius here (don’t know if it’s the translation you were thinking of: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Fabius_Maximus*.html
      It would be easy to highlight the passages you’re directing your readers to and leave them in the capable hands of Plutarch if they wanted to read around the subject.

      What does “old as balls” mean?

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      1. Just read that over and I wasn’t very clear – I meant to say – a link to a definition of ‘gens’ might be helpful to readers who don’t have much knowledge of Latin. It’s always rewarding to feel that you’ve learnt something concrete when you read a post – whether it’s DIY or ancient History!

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      2. Thanks for the kind words,
        I’ll definitely keep in mind the need to throw a definition onto the more fiddly latin bits, perhaps in the footnotes.
        As regards the references, I was actually thinking I may make a page dedicated to the translations that I use most frequently, and the convenient online sources for them.
        I am actually also from the UK, but currently live in New Zealand, where there is more of an abundance of space!
        Old as balls is just a general expression of something being very old, but is also a reference to a particular Kate Beaton (Hark a Vagrant) comic that became popular as a meme.
        Cheers again!

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    2. I am one of those ancient history fans and I did not know most of it. But anyone who quotes Pultarch deserves a follow from me.
      I’m also going to agree with Sing Better English, you made this really accessible, and really rather funny. I look forward to reading more, though all the white on your site is a little glarish on the eyes.

      Like

    1. It looks great, but it could maybe do with a few more navigational options. For instance a menu at the top with post categories or an archive widget near the top at the side.

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  24. Hi – I’ve just started a new blog and as my life is somewhat is a state of recreation I’m finding I’m not exactly sure of my voice and what I will write about (previously it was about living in Beijing as a foreigner)- so for this one I tagged it ‘art, writing and life journey’ – as that is what I’m interested in now, but found I wanted to write more about my exploration in spirituality and consciousness. Does anyone have any advice on how you find the ‘voice’ of your blog-site and the focus? I actually don’t want to write about art, but to write artfully/ poetically about any of my interests. How should I describe my blog is my main question….? http://dragonflydancing.wordpress.com

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  27. Dear bloggers and everyone interested in giving me some feedback! I would be so thankful for any advices about my writing – I am not native english, so it would be great to know what should I improve to make my blogposts better. What kinds of feelings do you have while reading the blogpost? Is it easy to understand? And what do you think about the whole look of my blog?

    I’ve started only few weeks ago, so it’s better to know what to improve and work on it from the beginning. Thanks to you all! 🙂

    https://solsikkereiser.wordpress.com/

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    1. Hi – lovely photos and videos. All very colourful.

      I’m impressed by your English. The mistakes you make are tiny ones and nothing interferes with your readers’ understanding of your enthusiasm for Porto.

      You might want to say something like “My new home for the next six months” instead of “My another living spot for minimum 6 months.”

      I hope you enjoy Porto. It’s a lovely place.

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    2. It depends on what you want to blog about. Daily Post do a series of prompts, and then you have creative writing prompts such as Friday Fictioneers, Free Write Friday, Five Sentence Fiction, Visdare and numerous others. Chuck Wendig is very entertaining to read and writes advice posts by the bucket full, pulling in other writers from all over the place. You just have to be willing to do a bit of trawling.

      Like