Blog Reading 101

At the risk of sounding condescending, I've decided I need to offer some education to the readers of The Front Porch (both of you!). If you've been reading blogs for a long time, you can skip this post; if not, there may be a few pointers for you.

A blog (short for weblog) is not a web site, at least not in the same way that Morrison Ranch is a web site. A blog is not a news group, where anybody can participate, and everything that is written goes to everyone on the list, via e-mail. A blog is not a personal family web site, like the services that provide the ability to keep Grandma in Ohio up to date on Baby's antics in Arizona, although that is a little bit closer in style. Here is a good explanation, from a book titled, appropriately, "Blog":

Blog is short for weblog. Log means "diary," as in a captain's log on a ship. Weblog means a diary of sorts maintained on the internet by one or more regular contributors. Usually just one, sometimes two or three, rarely more than three.
The first blog appeared in 1999. Give or take a year.
There are now more than 4,000,000 blogs. Think about that. From 1 to 4,000,000 in five years.
Blogs first got noticed when they invaded the realm of politics and journalism in a big way. An entire universe of poliblogs sprang up to do commentary on politics and, necessarily, about media. These blogs raised huge sums of money for candidates, changed the contours of citizen political participation, and altered the course of the 2004 presidential election. Another wave arose after 9/11, generally called warblogs. These bloggers took up their keypads out of the urgency born from rubble of that terrible September morning.

I got hooked on the warblogs (as I posted a few days ago, the Mister and I know a lot of military folks from the days at Williams AFB), and when the Mister got tired of me reading to him over my shoulder, he started looking at some of those blogs as well.

In my short experience in the blogosphere, I've found there are basically two types of blogs: those whose writer seems to read every single thing ever written every day, usually on a specific range of topics, and then points his readers to the most salient articles via a link; and those whose writer does strictly analysis of a certain topic, with a few links thrown in. The Front Porch is a blend of the two, providing links to articles that relate to the Morrison Ranch resident either directly, as in the rise of housing prices, or indirectly, as in the levels of our water reservoirs; and providing analysis and background on the inner workings of Morrison Ranch's office crew. Because blogs are so informal, they often reflect the personality and character of the writers; and though I'll never share the arguments that the Mister and I might have, I do hope to share some of the daily goings-on that are inherent in trying to build a community.

So here are some definitions, and other items of note:

"Blog" means The Front Porch in its entirety; a "blogger" is me, the Mister and Bias for Action; and "post" is each entry that we make at a specific time.

If you really want to know the details about who we are, you can visit the profile section located in the upper right side of the page.

There are three things that you, gentle reader, can do to participate in this blog. First, email me by clicking on the Email me! words right below the profiles; pass on any rumors you hear or questions you have about Morrison Ranch. If I can answer with a post on the blog, I will do so; if it seems inappropriate, I will still answer your email as best I can.

Second, you can leave a comment on a particular post. Underneath each post, after it says who writes it, e.g. "posted by the Missus @ 10:05 am" it says "0 comments". If you click on this phrase, it will allow you to comment on that post; it also allows the next reader to come along and read your comment (which will now read "1 comment"). Comments can be enabled or disabled on a blog; we have chosen to enable comments for the time being.

The third thing is to email a post to somebody you know, by clicking on the envelope with the arrow in it, which shows up right after the comment phrase. We welcome your participation.

I hope this illuminates your understanding of the blogosphere; we are still learning the technical details involved with publishing pictures, going back to prior postings, etc.; so we are trying to become more proficient in the medium day by day.