Michael Butler has three blogs. They are:
The MB-Hair Blog - http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/hair/
The MB-Hair blog is for discussions about Hair, its politics, its messages, and other related subjects, such as entertainment issues. It also acts as a bulletin board and allows worldwide Hair Tribe members to stay in touch with each other.
The MB-Civic Blog - http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/civic/
The MB-Civic Blog is about social and political issues.
The MB-Blog - http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/mbutler/
Michael Butler's thoughts
about anything that takes his fancy, both personal and political.
HOW TO REGISTER: In order to participate in any of the above blogs you must register. Each blog must be registered for separately. To register, go to the specific url for the blog you wish to register for (urls listed above). On the far right of the screen you will see links under the heading "NAVIGATION". The first link under that heading is "Register". Click on that. This will take you to the registration page.
On the registration page you will be asked to choose a Username and to enter your email address. Then click on the large button which says "Register". IMPORTANT NOTE: The software that tracks registration is case sensitive, meaning that in order for it to recognize your username when you login later it must be typed exactly as typed when you registered, so make sure you note any capital letters or spaces used in your username.
The system will choose an arbitrary password which will be emailed to you shortly. If you have spam or junk mail filters set on your email program please put the email address wordpress@michaelbutler.com in your email address book. This is the email address that your password will come from. If you do not receive the password email within 24 hours please check your junk mail folder, or your trash for an email from this address. If you do not receive this email please contact the moderator at dayton3@rcn.com
Once you have received the
password you can login to the blog.
HOW TO LOGIN: Go to the main page for the blog you are registered for. Under the "NAVIGATION" toolbar on the right hand side of the screen you will see the word "Login". Click on that. This will take you to the login page.
On the login page enter your user name and the password sent to you. IMPORTANT NOTE: The software is case sensitive, so your user name and password must be written exactly as registered, meaning that all capital letters must be capitalized, all lower case letters must be lower case, any spaces used in your user name or password must be in place, and there can not be any extra spaces or characters. For example, if the username you registered was "Joe Smith" none of the following would work: JoeSmith, joe smith, joesmith, joe Smith, Joe smith", etc. Even an extra space at the end of your username or password will get you an error message.
After you enter your Username and password click on "Login" and this will take you to your dashboard page.
Problems with login: If you
cannot login first make sure that you have written your Username and password
exactly as written when you registered. If this does not work then contact
the moderator at dayton3@rcn.com
THE DASHBOARD PAGE: This page is the central index page of the blog, like the dashboard of a car, giving you links to do any of the things that you might want to do there. It is worth noting that on this page you can see, on the right hand side a little way down, a listing of the most recent posts and comments. This is a good place to check and see what is new since your last visit to the blogs, and to check up on conversations that are active, regardless of their place on the main page of the blog (for instance a conversation that is old enough to be down near the bottom of the main page may have active conversation going on. This is the place to check for that).
There are several other things of note on this page: On the very top left you will see the name of the blog and then in parentheses the words "View site" Click on this to go to the front page of the blog and read posts, comment on them, etc.
Below that is a blue bar with the choices "Dashboard" "Write" "Manage" and "Profile" The "Dashboard" is where you are. "Write" will take you to the page where you can write a new post to the blog. "Manage" is another way of viewing posts to the blog, and is probably best ignored, and replaced with just going to the blog itself, as explained in the above paragraph. "Profile" is where you would change your password, add a web site to link to your name, change your email address, etc. There is more on this page below.
Below this there are several
links. The top two say "Write a post" and "Update your profile or change
your password" These are other ways of going to the same pages that the
blue bar navigational buttons "Write" and "Profile" will take you to.
HOW
TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD OR PROFILE: Go to the blog, click on "Login",
login, and on the Dashboard page go to "Profile". On the profile page you
can change or add to your profile. Under the category "Name" you can change
the name that appears with your posts, although you cannot change your
registered Username. Under "Contact Info" you can change your email address
or add an url of a web site that will be linked to your name on your posts.
To change your password use the box labeled "Update Your Password" You
are asked to enter your new password twice. IMPORTANT
NOTE: After making any changes to this page be sure to click
on the button in the lower right hand corner of this page, which says "Update
Profile". This will take you to the updated version of your profile page,
but you will see a colored bar across the top of your profile which says
"! Profile Updated" If you do not see this acknowledgment then your changes
did not go through.
HOW TO POST TO THE BLOG: In order to post to the blog you must be registered and logged in. After logging in, on the Dashboard page click on either "Write" on the blue toolbar on the upper right, or on the link "Write a post" also on the right.
On the Write page you will see a lot of stuff, but the only two things that matter are the two boxes under the words "Write Post" The first one, labeled "Title" is where you write the title that you would like to accompany your post on the blog. The Second box, labeled "Post" is where you write the text or put the photos that you would like to have appear with your post. This box also has a row of icons along the top of it that allow you to alter your post in various ways. Placing your curser on one will cause a label to pop up telling you what each button does: A few are discussed in more detail below. When you are finished writing your post you have several options. There are three buttons below the posting box on the right - "Save and Continue Editing", "Save" and "Publish". "Save and Continue Editing" saves your work, but returns you to the editing page to continue working. It is like the save feature in a word processing program. "Save" allows you to stop working on your post, but save it for later work. "Publish" posts your post to the blog.
IMPORTANT
NOTE: If you do not see these boxes or the icon you may
need to update your browser. The software works best with newer browsers,
and in the case of some older browsers does not work at all.
ACTIVATING A LINK WITHIN
A POST: On the MB-Civic list we ask the editors to post links to
the stories they share with us on the blog, so as not to infringe on copyrights.
These and other posters may need to know how to make an active link to
another site. To activate a link in a post highlight the text you wish
to link. On the toolbar at the top of the "post" box you will see a small
picture of a chain with two links connected, or a tab marked "link" (Different
images appear in different operating systems). Click on this. It will open
a small dialog box labeled "Inset/Edit Link" In the line marked "Link URL"
enter the URL of the web page that you wish your link to go to. Click on
the button "Insert" To unlink text click on the text to unlink and then
on the picture of the broken chain.
TO INSERT A PHOTO IN A POST: The easiest way to place a photo in a post is to copy (from wherever on your computer the photo is) and paste it into the posting box.
Alternatively, go to the
box below the posting box labeled "Upload Files To Server" Type in the
location of the file on your computer, or click on the button marked "browse"
and locate the photo you want to upload that way, highlight it, click "Open"
in the dialog box, and then click on the button labeled "Upload" in the
lower right hand corner of the "Upload Files To Server" window. When it
has finished uploading place your cursor back in the posting box where
you want the photo to be, click on the "Insert/Edit Image" button (a small
picture of a tree or a tab, depending on operating system) on the posting
box toolbar. When the Insert/Edit Image dialog box opens select the photo
that you just uploaded, and click "Insert in the lower left hand corner
of the small dialog box. We ask that you do not upload photos any
larger than 100K without permission from the moderator or Michael Butler.
Large photos will eventually be taken off the server, so will not remain
in archived posts indefinitely.
HOW TO COMMENT ON EXISTING
POSTS: To comment on someone else's post you must first be logged
in. After reading the post you want to respond to, scroll down to the bottom
of the page where you will see a gray box. Above it are the words "Leave
a reply" and your name if you are logged in. If not logged in you will
see a reminder, and can click on that to log in. Type your reply in the
gray box. Click on the button below the box labeled "Submit".
BEHAVIOR: It is to be expected that in discussions people will not always agree with each other. Discussion of differing opinions is encouraged on the blogs, and one is always free to state one's position, and go into reasons and explanations for holding that opinion. However, it is expected that people will express their opinions in a way that does not insult the person with whom they are disagreeing. No personal insults will be tolerated on the blogs. If a member's conduct does not live up to these standards in the opinion of the list owner or moderator, they will be given an official warning. If any member accumulates a third warning their registration will be revoked.
Members are encouraged to acknowledge that their posts are their opinions only, and to not state their opinion as fact.
The owner and moderator
reserve the right to remove any posts or comments that do not meet the
behavior standards listed above.
If you have any questions or problems please contact the moderator at dayton3@rcn.com