Dec 15, 2014 / Community Pool

Community Pool

The place for feedback, advice, and friendly blogging chatter.

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.
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  • 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.
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Photo by Brian Cantoni.

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  4. Hi,

    I’m hoping you can help. I just set up a WordPress account and have done my first post. While logged into my personal Facebook account, I also created a new separate Page for the blog.

    If I publicize the blog posts on FB, I want the notification to come from the blog page, not my personal account.

    I tried to configure Facebook share settings, but it brought up my personal account profile pic and asked for access to my friend list. As yet I haven’t uploaded a photo for my blog page, so I don’t know if this is why WordPress brought up my personal account FB photo.

    Please advise how I go about keeping my personal account and blog page separate. I created the Facebook page for more privacy.

    Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Morning everyone, I was hoping for some feedback on my writing style and topic choice. Any thoughts are very welcome:

    http://nondescriptchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/creation/ – This post is a little more quirky and how I would like my feature pieces to go like with more of a hidden theme/message.

    http://nondescriptchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/memory/ – This and my other post was a bit more direct and for a straight to the point more concise read.

    Do you think that varying the writing style allows for a larger reader base and fundamentally do you think the styles work at getting along thoughts/messages?

    Many thanks,
    Cem

    Like

  9. I recently have made many changes to my blog, such as it’s domain, and the new Museum theme! I’d love some feedback about the layout, whether navigation around the site is appropriate…thank you!

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    1. Excellent choice of the Museum theme. I like it a lot since it showcases the photos/paintings you upload. I like what you write and the way you write it. I definitely see a style/signature (though, you didn’t ask about that. Just thought I’d mention it). Would you consider creating a home page? Otherwise your non-WP visitors would have to click the back button after going through your site.

      Like

    1. Matt, Poetry lives inside you, its who you are and the things that move you. I remember my daughter’s teacher once tasked her class with a project to come up with 3 containers that represent emotions or feelings that move you. We came up with a casket = mourning, bowl = hunger, box of chocolate = love. Try making a list of things that move you or those things you are passionate about. The words will begin to flow. Cheers!

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      1. Thank you for the comment, I like the idea of the 3 containers. However I’ve never been the kind to write a list. The majority, of what I consider to be, my best pieces of writing are always spontaneous and improvised, nothing is ever planned, like the most recent poem I wrote came from nothing more than 3 words one of my friends happened to post on Twitter. I’m open to new ideas though, so I’ll give it a try sometime. Thanks again

        Like

    1. Solid list…. A Christmas Carol has one of the best messages and would like to suggest The Bible Luke 2 1-7 for your list. Can’t forget the oldest and original story of His birth. Cheers!

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  20. Good morning Daily Post, last night I set up an account with wordpress. I thought I followed all the steps, but realized I somehow failed to create a theme on my page. Any suggestions on how I can get back theme page to correct this? Thank you.

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    1. You can always change themes by clicking on Themes from your dashboard’s sidebar. You’ll be able to look up themes by many different paramteres — layout, features, colors, etc. — and to activate your chosen theme directly from that page. You can do this as many times as you wish, until you’ve found the theme you’re happy with most.

      Like

  22. Hi guys! This is my second time doing this as I cottoned on a bit late last week! I post “On this day…” posts, giving my readers an insight into every day’s science history! Recent topics have included the lethal injection, far off galaxies and Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Please have a look and tell me what you think, and I’ll be sure to do the same in return! Thanks! 🙂

    http://simplescienceforall.wordpress.com/

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey there,
      I have a suggestion for you. Perhaps focusing on ” feature” and ” why” on your blog will be more interesting.

      I guess ” today in science history” is a good idea but focusing on above two ideas will give your blog a unique touch. I am also a learner but I have learned that writing on daily basis is a tough job . Further, your reader wants something interesting and unique from you. So, we need to maintain a balance in writing.

      It’s just my thought
      I must appreciate your blog and your writing idea
      Best of Luck with your future endeavor:)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you very much for your feedback,

        I’d really love to get my Features and Why posts off the ground, which I’m going to have a go at over the Christmas holidays – as it is I have no free time! This probably is because I’m trying to Daily Post, but in all honesty it is a hobby and not a difficult task. Especially because if I know I’m going to be busy I simply schedule posts for the coming days.
        I like to think my idea is somewhat unique as I haven’t seen anyone else doing it, but the content is not as broad as I envisaged when I started the project, so I take your point!
        Thanks again for your honest opinion.

        Liked by 1 person

  23. Hi, my name is Will Aguero and I’m a 21st Century Integrated Technology and Careers teacher at John Adams Middle School. One of our quarterly projects is to create a simple website. We’ve been using Weebly and I’m not the biggest fan. I do however love WordPress. Is there a solution for classrooms? I’d like to have my kids work on a site but I don’t want them to publish it. Thanks everyone.

    Like

    1. Hey there! I found most aspects of your blog really good, except the theme. I suggest you select one where everything like text and images are organised well. I always have a hard time selecting themes, too, though.

      Please check out mine too!

      Like

    1. I liked your post. I guess a blog is the perfect place to get information out such as miner bees. I was wondering if they don’t produce honey, do they have a beneficial purpose for humans? Not that they need to, I’m just curious.

      If you get a chance could you take a glimpse at my post? I’m new to blogging and would love your input. Thanks if you do and be blessed if you aren’t able to.

      Jeff

      theboyfromchildhood.com

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Hi Jeff, in response to your question “if they don’t produce honey, do they have a beneficial purpose for humans” the simple answer is YES. All bees pollinate something. Some only eat one kind of pollen, which makes them a specialist bee. Others (like miner bees) are generalists – which means that they take pollen from a variety of sources. They’re a lot like we are (in that they like a variety for their diet).
        Anyhow, you want to know the benefit of the miner bee – it’s simple – it pollinates, not just one thing but many things, but particularly early flowering fruit trees and berry vines/bushes. If you like eating fruit of any kind, well, then, it’s to your benefit to make sure that there is habitat for these bees, if they exist in your area (and they probably do).
        While honey bees and colony collapse disorder is getting all the big press, the wild pollinators are being impacted by the way that we are living now. Does that help?
        Maude

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      2. Hi Jeff, I just finished reading your post and I just wanted to say “nice job”. You had quite a few spelling errors – so you might want to correct those (and no, they’re not the type that might get confused depending on what side of the 49th parallel that you live on). I liked the pace of the story, and the ending left me wondering what will happen next…

        Like

    2. I think your site is great. I new nothing about miner bees and learned a few things on the post about social bees, and left a comment on ‘When people care ..’

      I have no suggestions on the site itself, but you might want to check your Gravatar link. When I clicked on thebeemama (not the site, but your name next to your gravatar image) the link opened in a window that has an empty about page and does not link to your site.

      As you go through the community pool, that makes it more difficult for people trying to give your blog a reciprocal look. They may not find your comment here and give up, assuming that your site is not up and running yet.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Did you use fewer tags on this post than others? The “nature” tag might have helped.

      Also, remember that traffic is a measure of how many people clicked the link to view the post. It is not a measure of how good the post is unless your traffic depends on people recommending individual posts to their social media connections.

      Like