A key step in getting a Blogs@Baruch site up and running involves adjusting the site settings. The Settings are located towards the bottom of the Dashboard menu in the left sidebar. There are several Settings pages with different options, detailed below.
General Settings
The General settings contain some site basics including the site title and tagline, the administrator email, and time and date settings. When setting up a Blogs@Baruch site, you chose a URL and site title. The URL (the web address) cannot be changed but the site title, which appears at the top of your home page, can be changed here. All sites come with the default tagline “A Blogs@Baruch site” which will appear under the site title. However, this can be edited or deleted here. Both the Site Title and Tagline can also be changed in the Appearance > Customize section of the Dashboard.
Administrator email options and time and date settings can also be found here. The email should be the professor’s or site administrator’s email address. Time and date settings can be adjusted to your preferences though it is suggested to set your time zone to New York City (UTC-5).
Writing Settings
Under the Writing settings you will find a few default options. Most importantly, you will see the “Default Post Category”. On all blogs the default category is “uncategorized”. Once you have created a few of your own categories, you change the default post category to one of your own if desired.
For example, you might want all posts to feed to a special section of the site called “Class Posts”. You could make a category called “Class Posts” and set it as the default category here. This way, if anyone forgets to categorize the post on their own, it will still be automatically fed to the “Class Posts” section of the site.
Reading Settings
The Reading settings contain important Front Page Display options and Site Visibility/Privacy settings. For the front page display options you can choose between a static home page or your latest posts. This determines what people see when they visit your home page (blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/yoursite).
Selecting your latest posts will allow people to see the most recent post entries, making your site’s home page more like a blogroll. Selecting a static front page allows you to choose which page acts as your home landing page. You can create a custom home page with a welcome and basic course information or you could make your home page any other page (such as the syllabus). The front page display can also be changed in the Appearance > Customize section of the Dashboard.
Below the Front Page Display options you will find the Site Visibility settings, which act as your site’s privacy settings. The first option, “Allow search engines to index this site”, is considered public: anyone can see the site and search engines will list it if it is searched. The second option, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”, is still public: anyone can see the site but search engines are “discouraged” from listing it in their results. As stated on the site, neither of these options block access to the site. Selecting either of these first two settings means that the site will be public and visible to everyone and it is up to search engines to honor your request to not list it in their results.
The last 3 choices limit public visibility. The third option, “
Discussion Settings
The Discussion settings have several default selections that usually do not need to be changed. However, depending on how you envision users engaging on your site, there may be some additional settings you may want to select.
You may want to close down the ability to add comments to a post after a certain amount of time. This can be done under the Other Comment Settings by selecting the “Automatically Close comments after — days”. By indicating the number of days comments remain open, you can control how long comments can be added to posts.
If your site is publicly visible, all comments from non-site users will need to be approved. Additionally, you may want to moderate user comments before they are visible on the site. This can be done under the “Before a Comment Appears” section. By selecting either of these two options, you will be required to moderate user comments before they appear on the site. The first option requires you to approve all user comments. The second option requires you to approve only the user’s first comment and, from then on, the user becomes an approved commenter. If neither of these options are selected users’ comments will appear immediately on the site.
Permalinks
Whenever a post is created a new URL link is created to access that post. The link that is created is known as a permalink. It is best if a permalink clearly delineates the post it links to For example, the permalink for this post is, “http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/hybridtemplate3/adjusting-settings/ ”.
Several Permalink options are provided in the Settings. The default permalink structure is not very clear and should be changed. The other options allow you to select a permalink structure based on time and date, number, or post name. You can also create a custom permalink structure which may be helpful if there are going to be various categories used on the site.
*Adding Users*
This last step in setting up your site isn’t located under Settings but it is a vital step in getting your site up and running. Many professors will want to add students to the course site so they can see (if you have your visibility settings adjusted) and participate on the site. In order to allow others to participate on the site, you will have to add them to the site as users. This can be done through the Users option, above Settings in the Dashboard menu.
The easiest way to add students to the site is through the Import Users option on the Users menu. On the Import Users screen you will see directions for how to add users to the site. Be sure to add only one Baruch email per line with no spaces before or after the email. Students can also be added one-by-one though the “Add Existing” feature at the top of the All Users screen.
Once students have been added and they accept the invitation to join the site, they will appear in the list of users on the All Users screen. On this screen you will be able to adjust their role on the site.
A user’s role on the site determines their capabilities for participating on the site. The most basic role is a ‘subscriber’ and the ‘administrator’ role retains the most privileges. Each role designates increasing privileges.
- A subscriber cannot add posts, they can only see the site and comment on posts.
- A contributor can add posts but their posts must be approved by an administrator.
- An author can add and edit their own posts. Their posts will appear on the site and do not need to be approved by an administrator.
- An editor can add and edit their own posts. Like ‘authors’, ‘editors’ posts do not need to be approved by an administrator. Additionally, an editor can can edit any other user’s posts.
- The administrator role should be reserved for the Professor or anyone else who needs to have full capabilities to edit all posts and pages and change the site menu structure and architecture.