Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Zepfanman.com Blog FAQ

Indeed, "blogging" is something many people aren't aware of. Most people don't even know what a blog is, much less how I've integrated one on my own website. I'll update this post from time to time with the most Frequently Asked Questions about the Zepfanman Blog. See About (also a link at the bottom and right sections of every page) for more about the rest of Zepfanman.com.

What is a blog?

Blog is short for weblog, which is basically an online journal. The great thing about blogs compared to normal journals is that you can integrate photos, videos, and other dynamic online content - the possibilities are virtually endless. The "blogosphere" is a constantly-expanding world, so it takes time to understand the many ways it can be used. For example, many blogs have RSS feeds that you can subscribe to - I'm currently in the middle of testing that on my own site (see the icons ? below). Photoblogs and moblogs are some other ways that blogs are being used. Search Google with these keywords for more info about them. ¶ Edited 04Sep1

Most blog home pages follow the format of showing the full text of the last few posts with links on the side to archives of the blog, categories of the blog (if they exist), and other blogs. Blogger.com is one of the many sites you can go to to create your own blog - I've got a few friends on Xanga, as another example. Blogger has a little "What's a Blog" tour that might explain this FAQ a little better.

Zepfanman.com Blog is a little bit different because I've organized it to mesh well with the rest of my website. Each of my site's main sections (Beliefs, LedZep, Gallery, LINKS, and Blog) have a News link associated with them. These News sections simply point to the corresponding Blog category. It's easier to browse around and visit often to understand what I'm explaining. See the What kind of information? question below, as well. Hope that helps!

Why did you create a blog?

I was tired of having to edit my website in an unorganized fashion. Blogs make it easy to add new content to your website. I'm using Movable Type (MT) which is a nice tool that I've downloaded and configured on my own webspace; it makes it very easy to write new posts and format my blog pages the way I want them to look. MT's popularity allows its users to take advantage of the many MT plugins (extra tools) that people have created (for example, I use GalleryLink to rotate a random Featured Shot on my homepage). See the question below about plugins. My site is far from being finished as I still haven't gotten a lot of these plugins working the way I'd like them to. Plus, I'm in the middle of redesigning my whole website anyway.

What kind of information should I expect to find on the Zepfanman.com Blog?

Like the rest of my life, I have trouble focusing on one thing. My interests are so diverse that I often end up writing about everything and nothing at the same time. Hopefully the content and links about Led Zeppelin, Christianity, movies, music, web design, photography, etc. will keep you coming back to Zepfanman.com for more. The Blog category of the Blog (yeah, sounds redundant) is where you'll find updates that are more personal and journal-like, or related to this blog (like this FAQ post). Feel free to add a comment to this post suggesting how you think I can better utilize my blog.

When should I plan on checking your blog?

I anticipate a post or two a week In order to avoid browsing the web for fascinating content all day, I'll probably have to cut down my content to two or three times a month. The Beliefs Blog is only updated once a month - this is the featured [Month] Words column on my homepage; unless I've been a total bum, you can count on that post showing up within the first few days of each month. ? Edited 04Oct8

What are those "Standards" (RSS 1.0, CSS, etc.) noted throughout the site?

People who are into web standards usually know what these notes mean: the kind of standards the page you're viewing has passed and what kind of syndication the page produces.

The four most popular links people put up for standards verification are CSS, WCAG, Section 508 & XHTML (or HTML). W3.org (W3C) is the driving force behind all these unified technologies. They have documentation for just about everything standards-related. For more details, read my new post dedicated to explaining what web standards are.

One of the coolest things about blogs and news sites is that they can be syndicated. I already mentioned RSS feeds in the first FAQ, but with the right aggregator (aka feed reader), you can also view many Atom, RSD, and FOAF feeds, as well. I use the online Bloglines aggregator (which also serves as a simple blog in itself), but you can also get downloadable feed readers or plugins (I use one on Trillian, as well). Zepfanman.com has Atom, RSD, RSS 1, and RSS 2 feeds, but I only advertize RSS 1 right now since I don't know what the others do! I'll keep this updated as I learn more about syndication technology myself. For more information, read this good RSS intro by FaganFinder. ? Edited '04Dec20

What MT plugins are you using?

As I mentioned above, in addition to the standard MT download, you can go to the MT Plugin Directory if you want to enhance Movable Type. These are simply tools that MT users have made themselves, so they host the files on their own websites. Here are just a few of the ones I am using (links go to users' sites, not MT-Plugins.org):

• Blacklist - This allows me to block unwholesome comments from being posted to my entries.


• Compare - Easily compare different elements, allowing you to customize the way things appear on each page.


• GalleryLink - Hooks up with the Gallery software I'm using so that I can easily post thumbnails on any blog page. I haven't gotten it to work within the posts yet because that requires the Process Tags plugin, which isn't working on my site.


• SQL - Allows you to use the MySQL database (which organizes the blog content) more easily with MT.

By rockofvictory | Tue 2004Aug10 14:44 CST | News | Last edited Mon 2005Mar07 23:07 CST
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