Privacy is a major concern on Blogs@Baruch, and it is important to realize from the start that the spaces you create here are by default open and accessible to the general public. You can however password protect individual pages and posts, select granular privacy settings for an entire blog or website, or choose to publish under an alias.
- On the Dashboard for your Blogs@Baruch site, scroll down to Settings on the left side menu.
- Click Settings to expand the menu, then click Reading.
- In the Reading Settings area, you’ll see a field for “Site Visibility,” which has five options:
- Allow search engines to index this site
Anyone can visit your blog without needing a password. Search engines will index all pages and posts, meaning your site will show up in search results on Google, Bing and others. Select this option for maximum public visibility. - Discourage search engines from indexing this site
Visitors do not need a password to see your site if they know the URL or are linked from elsewhere, but Google, Bing and other search engines will not index your posts and pages. Choose this option if you want to be able to show the blog to people who are not registered for Blogs@Baruch, but you don’t want people to stumble upon it via search engines. - Visible only to registered users of this network
Users will need to enter a password to see the site, but it is open to all Blogs@Baruch members. Select this option if you’d only like the Baruch community to be able to see the blog. - Visible only to registered users of this site
Only members of your specific blog will be able to visit the site. Choose this option if you are teaching a class and only want those enrolled to be able to see the blog. (Note: You will need to import your students as members or authors and select this option.) - Visible only to administrators users of this site.
Only those registered as admins (meaning they have full access to edit the blog’s design and other components) can visit the blog. Select this option if you’d like a private workspace or are collaborating with other faculty/staff who will need full access to edit the site.
- Once you’ve selected the best option for you, click the blue Save Changes button
It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you restrict your privacy settings to members of the Baruch community, registered users, or administrator only, the RSS feed will be disabled (find out more about RSS feeds and what they do here).
- This is especially important for students: to publish under an alias, click on Your Profile in the Administrative Panel; enter a Nickname; click “Update Profile”; select your nickname from the drop down menu for “Display Name Publicly As”; click “Update Profile” again.
The best way to address privacy concerns are to discuss them openly in your class. All users of Blogs@Baruch should know that unless steps are taken to password protect your work, it will be publicly available.