FAQ about our Blogs -- Updated Jan 31, 2012

What are Blogger 
Dynamic Mobile Views?  
Updated 01/31/2012

A:  These interactive views are available on public Blogs when enabled by the owner. Read Blogger's description here. We've completed our test and  incorporated your feedback.

Why is the family web site URL
different on Twitter?

A:  Tweets are limited to 140 characters, and we always use Twitter's link service to shorten. To read how it works, click here. For Twitter help shortening links, click here. Please be careful when clicking on others' URLs. Sometimes URLs can be harmful, so always check to see what web site you're on before giving out your password or downloading any software.

What is "following" on Twitter?

A:   Twitter's explanation is here.

How do I sign-in to Blogger, 
if I forget my password? 

A   If you are unable to Sign-in, you may skip authentication (read definition), and go straight to the Google Blogger Help Forum at http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=contact_policy&rd=1

Why is our blog public?

Updated 1/02/2012

A:  To help meet our family's objectives.

• Whether a blog is public or private, hosting services establish a maximum number of E-mail accounts that may receive administrative access authorities; learn about Blogger limits here. Our blog hosting service limit on authors is roughly half the number of relatives in our family census, however, we're able to have an unlimited number of readers on a public blog.
• We need a public web site to create ("burn") a web feed. Many in our family like subscribing to a web feed to receive regular, automatic updates of web-based content. These tools make it easy to keep up with the latest content from a large number of sites, all on a single reading list. There are even readers that work exclusively on mobile devices. Read more about feeds.
• The online team does not have contact data for every relative.
• We hope relatives will find us because anyone can find our public Blogs in Internet search results. Anyone can post comments (more info), use our Contact Form or send us an E-mail on our public media.

What do I write?

Updated 01/06/2012

Family-friendly content that interests you. Here is our Comments Policy. Sign-up for forum.bigfamilynews.com web feed here.

On LoveNYMusic.com, we've started by curating articles and events posted elsewhere on the Internet about our family's artistic and educational activities (discover more). Sign-up for lovenymusic.com web feed here. 

We are looking for volunteers to create and share their original content on our blogs. You may choose to publish under your own name or an anonymous nickname. Our Privacy Practices are here. To inquire/volunteer, please use our Contact Form.

How does it work?

Links updated 1/2/2012

A:  Without more details from the questioner, and if you're new to Blogger, please  take a tour. If you still have questions about Blogger, read about features. 


For the purpose and scope of this Blog, please click here. You may also wish to browse our FAQ Library and User Tips. To stay on top of new features for Blogger, check out Blogger Buzz. Here are our Blogger settings.

Why Blogger?

A:  The blogs complement our Google Sites, however, they operate a little differently. We chose this blog hosting service because of its flexibility, creative opportunities, and value. Blogger has several mobile and E-mail features, integrates with popular social media (without additional programming), provides automatic Spam detection, and it is free. Since it's owned and used by Google, we have nice integration with our Google Sites. To stay on top of new features for Blogger, check out Blogger Buzz. After receiving your suggestions (read more), we have the opportunity to convert to a new domain name.

What is a Blog?

A: "Blog" is short for web-log or weblog. Depending upon one's perspective, and the purpose and quality of the content, "Blog" will likely mean something different to different individuals.

If you saw Julie and Julia (2009 Columbia Pictures), you'll recall food inspired fledgling writer Julie (Amy Adams) to whip up and blog about 564 Julia Child (Meryl Streep) recipes in 365 days.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines blog (noun): 

a Web site that contains an online personal journal (forgive my example) with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer(s)/author(s); also the contents of such a site. 

This definition is just a beginning. For example, there are Blogs written by experts on a particular topic (e.g., The Oz Blog, Dr. Vino, or Council on Foreign Relations), multimedia original journalism (see Bloomberg Blog, NY Times Blog Directory, or Washington Post Blog Directory), and shared interests and commercial applications that promote, direct traffic, and otherwise market activities (e.g., The Cornell Basketball Blog, Julissa Mora, Martha Stewart or Official Google Enterprise Blog). There's even Blogs about being a better blogger! See Blogger Buzz or 10 Food Blogging Tips.

Didn't find your question here? You might check our Library of FAQ (Who-What-When-Where-Why? format) and/or search entire blog archives for posts tagged FAQ. 

We welcome new questions and updated answers via our Contact Form or in comments below any of our posts.