O'Harass someone else!

This page is for my parents and for other members of my family who may not know what to do when they’re faced with a web log, or blog.

This page might be considered a Frequently Asked Question page, abbreviated to FAQ.

On any page in the blog, if you click on the blog name (O’Hara’s Piece) it will take you to the very basic page of the blog, which shows the most recent posts, in in descending order as one scrolls down the page.

C licking on the title of a post, also known as a blog entry, will take you to a page which displays only the post, and at the bottom of the post, any comments that others may have made about it. After you click the title, you’ll notice that the address changed, it now has ?p=xxx something. This is the web address of that specific post, or in internet terms, this is the ‘permalink’ short for, “I really just want to use the link to this post, not the whole blog.”

Each post is a combination of text, pictures, possibly video, and links to other interesting places on the internet.

• Text might be colored, highlighted, bold, crossed out, or any of a number of manipulations. This is to add meaning to the post.
• Pictures will be either a small size (called ‘thumbnail’) or a large size, and some pictures will link to a larger version of the picture or link to another web page. You can tell if the picture is a link by putting your mouse over it. If your mouse changes to a tiny hand ‘L’ shape, it is a link.
• Video is self explanatory. So far we’ve only posted YouTube videos which you can play directly in the blog.
• Links to other interesting places in the internet also add meaning to the blog. You can tell when text is a link by putting your mouse over it, and seeing if it changes to a tiny hand ‘L’ shape. For example: I might take a word of dubious meaning, and link to an online definition to a word, or I might link one or two words to a page that talks more about the same topic. Note: If I have included a link to something that is potentially off-color or offensive (which I don’t plan to do), I will add some words of warning.

At the bottom of each post, the category and tags are explicitly stated. Category is the ‘category’ in which this post belongs, such as “The Kids.” Tags are words that can be associated with the post, for ease in finding similar posts later. The concept is similar to ‘category’ in that it groups posts, but is more specific, because it points to specific subjects or persons involved.

Also at the bottom is a Comment link. In most, if not all blogs, almost anyone with an internet connection, who has found your post, can make a comment. There are different settings for comments which control what comments are allowed and which comments will not show up. This blog is set up so that each comment will be approved by the admin (short for ‘administrator,’ which is short for ‘almighty ruler,’ which is short for ‘tip of the top one stop shop’) before being displayed to the world. The comment link will show how many comments have been approved and displayed on a given post.

Along the right side is all the ‘other’ stuff. If you found this page, you might have glanced at the right side already.

• About: This is a short list of us, with links to more detail about each person. The kids do not have their own yet.
• Last 5 Posts: self explanatory. Clicking on one of these will take you to that specific post, see ‘permalink’ above.
• Categories: Clicking one of these will bring up all the posts in that category. So if you wanna only read about ‘Aches and Pains,’ this is how.
• Tags: This is a tag ‘cloud’ which is an internet innovation which displays all the tags of all the posts we have done so far. The larger words are big because they have the most posts with that tag.
• Recent Comments: Cisplayed with a link to the post that contains that comment. This is a good gauge of how compelling this blog is.
• Old Posts: This allows you to go back to a specific month of posts, if you’re trying to find one or just want to wander randomly.
• I also have a ‘feed’ (more about feeds next) which shows Emily’s and Ellen’s last 3 posts.
• The next section has links to other websites or other blogs, in categories.

What is a ‘feed?’ It is a small piece of the webpage that is kept in a special file and is available to a ‘feed reader.’ When you make a new feed in your feed reader, it will go to the special file, which contains just that specific info, and display a short list of links or a short blurb for each post. This allows you to watch, in your feed reader, whether a new post pops up, and then clicking on the link in your feed reader takes you to the post so you can read and enjoy.

Now, after all that, you can email me, the webmaster firstname.lastname at gmail dog com.