Web Teacher

Should You Have a Comment Policy?

vdebolt — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:07:08 +0000

Reading blog comments can be painful. For every insightful and well thought out post there are at least 10 spammers, trolls and illiterate shrieking banshees just looking to start a fight. This is hard enough when you are a visitor trying to shift through all the garbage to find the occasional diamond to respond to. But it is an impossibly frustrating task when you are the blog owner or writer, and you are forced to find those that actually offer you something decent to work with.

Worse is when a flame war breaks out, and there are always plenty of offensive, obscenity-filled, bigoted or otherwise negative comments you have to decide to either keep or delete. This isn’t a simple decision when you are trying to keep an open and yet friendly place for visitors to share their thoughts and opinions.

Image Credit: 1

Usually when I give bloggers a rule of thumb on this issue, I tell them this: If it doesn’t contribute anything to the conversation, it isn’t necessary. If you have a bunch of posts only written by spammers to share websites, they don’t add anything to the discussion. If you are reading endless posts by a troll who is insulting the reader base or blog with no specific focus or reason, they are not giving you something to think about. These comments don’t belong there.

But sometimes deleting such things can cause even more havoc as they begin to point it out. Which is why it helps to have guidelines you can direct anyone to prior to the comments being posted. These set of rules should lay out what won’t be tolerated and what you will do in the case of such violations.

Creating a Comment Policy

What Problems Are Obvious?

To start writing this section, you should take a look through your posts and see what things you find that bother you. Make a list of what you won’t allow to continue. This will give you the baselines for the rules.

What Will You Do About It?

Next, come up with a system for mild, moderate and severe violations. For instance, say you have a spammer who is posting genuine comments, but putting keywords into their names and obviously sharing links. Maybe you decide to delete the comments. But if they come back with nothing but copy/paste and irrelevant comments, you ban the IP address.

Another example is for trolls: If you have someone who is causing trouble, you can delete the comment and give a warning for a mild infraction. If they continue give them a temporary ban, and if they still persist or step over a line, ban them permanently.

How Will You Present It?

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For the actual comment policy page you have two options: professional or personable. I have seen both used to great effect. The first requires you to give a dry rundown of your general policy, just stating that you reserve the right to delete comments or bad members for certain offensive acts. The other is a lengthier page explaining why you have chosen to come up with a comment policy in the first place. I prefer the latter.

Should Comments Be Moderated?

If you want to make sure your policy is strictly enforced, you can choose to approve or deny comments prior to publication. Of course, this takes a lot of effort and time. To get around this you can apply a spam filter to aid you. Or, if you have several people working for the site, you could just have them cover the comments on their own pieces.

Conclusion

So, should you have a comment policy? Yes. People have a tendency to push social boundaries online they wouldn’t in person, due to the anonymity and the feeling of protection from behind their keyboard. Most act responsibly, but there are plenty who do not. It is best to filter them out for the sake of pleasant and productive commenting, rational feedback and criticism and lively (levelheaded) debate.

Guest Author Olivia blogs for PsPrint, an online printing company specializing in brochure and poster printing among other popular services. Follow PsPrint on Twitter and Facebook

Komen Can Kiss My Mammagram

vdebolt — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:01:26 +0000

Photo by Tim Waclawski via Flickr

As anyone who pays attention to the social blogosphere and the network news knows, the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening and mammogram program.

I’m a woman and a liberal. It doesn’t take much more information that that for you to know that I think politicized right wing attacks on the rights of women to receive important health care is wrong. But that’s not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about how social media–Twitter, Facebook–and motivated individuals with connections online can change the outcome of an event. The Komen Foundation mishandled this event in social media terms. The supporters of Planned Parenthood used social media to their advantage. The consequences include damange to Komen’s reputation, lots of discussion about what Planned Parenthood really does, and many donations rerouted from The Komen Foundation to Planned Parenthood.

Instead of retelling the story of how this happened, I’ll send you to Beth’s Blog, where she’s already recounted it. Go see what social media can do to help a cause, or to slam a social media clueless organization.

Useful Links: WCAG, by the numbers, mobile development

vdebolt — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:40:18 +0000

WCAG Next from WebAIM offers ideas that Jared Smith explained, “we have identified areas of the guidelines that could be improved or clarified.” Jared should know, he’s been helping people comply with WCAG since day one.

The plain numbers about women in tech – the VCs is from Pleasure and Pain. Take a look at the numbers in venture capital firms and draw your own conclusions.

On Mobile Web Development argues for letting the dust settle on the specs before implementing the new shiny. And to remember that there’s more than iOS in the mobile sphere.

Facebook IPO – Infographic

vdebolt — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:15:55 +0000

Does that make you nervous? I’ve recently been reading about how large corporations manage to influence government, elections, lawmakers, and even laws with their vast corporate money. Now Facebook, with its huge database of information about each of its users, is going to join the ranks of corporate influencers. Privacy and ad targeting remain a concern to me.

Useful links: Responsive bookmarklet, JAWS11, Sony Bloggie, Fluid Grid, Twitter in HS

vdebolt — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:45:16 +0000

There’s a tool for a simple responsive design test that works in your browser. It’s also available in a bookmarklet.

JAWS 11 and IE 9. Tests by DingoAccess.

Sony Bloggie Live. Take your video and broadcast it live via wifi. Imagine what we will see coming from tech conferences now . . .

If your fluid grid was 1000px, the math for a responsive design would be a whole lot easier. You can download the PSD file.

20 Innovative Ways High Schools are Using Twitter. Some of these ideas are very interesting.

HTML5 News Resource

vdebolt — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:40:51 +0000

I invite you to follow HTML5 News on Scoop.it! You’ll find tutorials, discussions, books, videos, and more. Everything of interest that relates specifically to HTML5 will show up here. You can use this resource for learning, teaching, or keeping up with what’s happening in the web design world.

Browser Support for new HTML5 Structural Elements

vdebolt — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:01:19 +0000

The new structural elements in HTML5 include section, article, aside, hgroup, header, footer, nav, figure, figcaption, time, and mark.

First, let’s look at support in Internet Explorer. Starting in version 9 of IE, there is support for all the new elements. Versions prior to that provided no support, not even partial.

Other browsers have been supporting these elements for some time. Firefox support extends back to version 6. Firefox is currently at version 9. Chrome, now at version 16, has supported these HTML5 elements since version 13. Safari provided partial support before version 5. Full support began in version 5. Safari’s current version is 5.1. As for Opera, partial support began in version 11, full support in 11.1. Opera is currently at 11.6.

On the mobile side, iOS has supported everything since iOS4. iOS is currently at version 5. Even iOS3 had partial support. Opera Mini is providing partial support in the current version 6. However, Opera Mobile has offered full support since version 11.0. Opera Mobile is currently at 11.5. Android versions 2.2 and above, including the current 2.3/3.0, have full support.

When only partial support is provided, you can use CSS to declare a display:block rule for all the new elements and workaround the problem.

Check out HTML5 Please for information about current support (and workarounds) for everything in HTML5.

Useful links: Video, Access U, WordPress widgets

vdebolt — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:07:49 +0000

Video for Everybody! “Video for Everybody is simply a chunk of HTML code that embeds a video into a website using the HTML5 element, falling back to Flash automatically without the use of JavaScript or browser-sniffing. It therefore works in RSS readers (no JavaScript), on the iPhone / iPad (don’t support Flash) and on many browsers and platforms.”

A Knowbility conference is coming up on the West Coast. It’s Access U @ CSUN, toward the end of February. Learn from accessibility experts such as Shawn Henry, Jennison Asuncion, Denis Boudreau, Molly Holzschlag, Derek Featherstone and others.

An excellent presentation from Kathy Gill on using widgets in WordPress.

Useful Links: Microformats are Hot, Accessibility Infographics, Nerd Words, Structure and Presentation

vdebolt — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:45:53 +0000

Web Data Commons Launches has data showing that about 89% of all structured data on the web is in the form of microformats.

5 Infographics on Web Accessibility for Designers is a nice compilation.

6 Made up Nerd Words that Made it to Common Usage, and 8 that Should.

The Separation of structure, presentation and behavior is dead. Must reading for anyone teaching anything in web education.

Going to An Event Apart? 5 Tips to Help You Get Ready

vdebolt — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:30:25 +0000

The latest iteration of An Event Apart is nearly upon us, to be held in Atlanta next month with subsequent sessions upcoming in Seattle, Boston, Austin and Washington, DC later in the year. Widely recognized as the most important conference of the year for web site designers and developers, An Event Apart offers a series of educational workshops and seminars aimed at helping you, quite simply, to become even better at everything that you do online.

With topics ranging from content creation to raw design and web standards, all with an innovative focus on the future, An Event Apart boasts the very best minds and voices in the industry with speakers and presenters who have been and continue to be behind some of the most popular spots on the interweb.

If you’re a web designer or developer and have the time and means to attend then your first decision has been made for you! Once your initial plans have been made, it’s time to focus on how exactly you can best prepare to get the most out of your An Event Apart experience. Check out the tips below to effectively utilize social media in helping you to create a personal itinerary:

1. Get to Know Your Fellow Attendees

There is one thing you can be sure of when considering the people you’ll meet and converse with at An Event Apart: they are all utilizing social media of some sort to stay in touch with clients and colleagues. Leading up to the conference, learn more about the speakers, guests and presenters by following their social feeds; you’re sure to meet many of the colleagues you’ll soon be rubbing shoulders with via the same method!

2. Stay Active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+

An Event Apart attendees will seek each other out not generally by face, but by online reputation. Utilize your social media presence to let the world know that you are an innovative thinker with good ideas and give your colleagues a reason to seek you out! There is no better place in the world to network and build contacts with both potential clients and potential partners than An Event Apart; make the most of it!

3. Update Your Site

When duty calls and you’ve spent the last few weeks or months thinking and dreaming code and design, it can be easy to allow your personal site and portfolio to lapse. Take the time to update your “About” page and add fresh content to your site and blog in order to give those you’re connecting with a reason to stay and chat. Also, if you plan to leave An Event Apart with wads of your business cards having been handed out, the same folks that you impressed with your ideas at the conference can also be impressed by your personal home on the web.

4. Prepare Your Review

Attending An Event Apart gives you the immediate ability to act as a qualified reviewer after the fact, letting your clients, colleagues and visitors in on the intimate details of your experience and the new knowledge and strategies that you walked away with. While the review itself will obviously have to wait until after the conference is over, you can get started now by preparing your review template, planning the outline and letting your social followers know that your blog is the place to look for a thorough and enjoyable overview of the latest iteration of An Event Apart!

5. Enjoy the Preparation and Conference

Image Credit: Peter Hart.

An Event Apart is not only an intense educational experience for web professionals but also an event focused on the fun that springs naturally from bringing so many like-minded people together in one place. In preparing for the conference, be sure to enjoy every minute of online shoulder rubbing with the knowledge that you will walk away from An Event Apart having learned so much from your colleagues, all applicable to your profitability as a web designer or developer.

The more you take away from the event, the more you have to offer your clients once you’re back behind your desk!

Convinced? Here are traveling tips to get you started planning the trip:

Flights: Here’s the official site of Atlanta International Airport for travel tips and flight information
Living there: Bookmark Atlantahotels.org for lodging help.

Guest Author Jessy Troy is a social media enthusiast and tech blogger. She blogs in many places – follow her articles via her Twitter feed @jessytroy.