I just love the Weekly Photo Challenge from The Daily Post @ WordPress.com. I look forward to the new challenge when it is posted on Friday. This week the challenge is GREEN! My interpretation comes from a trip I shared with my husband to Niagara Falls. The breathtaking views of the falls from Niagara Falls State Park
Some of you asked me to write this one and I thought I’d share from my blog at melissahassard.com. I hope you find it useful and would love your comments and feedback!
Melissa
Many have expressed interest in learning more about using WordPress Categories and Tags, and the difference between the two.
First, let’s take a look at the definitions as they are explained in WordPress’ own documentation:
Categories provide a helpful way to group related posts together, and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. Categories also make it easier for people to find your content. Categories are similar to, but broader than, tags. For more information on the differences between categories and tags please check out this support doc.
SourceTags provide a useful way to group related posts together and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. Tags also make it easier for people to find your content. Tags are similar to, but more specific than, categories. The use of tags is completely optional.
Source
If you read the WordPress documentation on using categories and tags, you’ll notice that in both definitions you’ll find the following: “also make it easier for people to find your content” and “tell readers what your post is about.”
The same verbiage written into both definitions. Confusing. So what’s the deal?
Categories are a useful way we organize our sites for ourselves and our readers. Think in broad terms like navigation.
Tags are essentially the keywords in your article or post. Keywords means the most important topics you are covering. Perhaps a nuanced detail that often gets overlooked but is important. Basically, it is a handful of words that are significant or relevant to what you are trying to say.
Search engines like Google are constantly improving their algorithms (the formulaic way they send their spiders to analyze and catalog every site) to ignore and demote blatant attempts to overshadow other sites by using false tags, unrelated links, and other sketchy means. As a result, tagging your blog and tagging it correctly is essential.
Further in the description of tags, WordPress says this:
[read more here: via WordPress, Google, and Content Tagging — A User Guide | Melissa I. Hassard.]
I have a tech question and hope someone can help me. I’ve been all over the internet trying to figure it out without luck. The problem is that the “Follow this Blog” widget on the sidebar is not up to date with the number of followers I have.
I know for certain that yesterday I got a new follower on my “Chronicles of a Writer” blog. Before she joined, the number of followers was 86. Now it should be 87, but guess what? It remains at 86.
I also suspect that it hasn’t moved and there could be other new followers on both this blog and on “Brainstorms.”
I checked the “Follow this Blog” widget to make sure I still had the counter checked. It was.
So I’m stuck. Can you help me?
Maggie and Anne, as two voices of constant support, dedication to craft, and encouragement here within our community, I appreciate your willingness to step into this new role as a consistent voice of assistance, welcome and encouragement.
This community is such a rich place of personality, craft, and talent. I absolutely love looking in and finding the many interesting and diverse pieces that become a beautiful montage.
I am working behind the scenes to both write and pull together a few more elements and resources for us. I have plans. Oh, yes, I have plans.
New contributors have joined and are joining us soon. Watch for them if you haven’t spotted them already!
And NEW! The 20 Lines Calendar
Coming soon will be writing and photography contest deadlines along with links to the supporting websites for more information. My goal is that we can channel what we are doing into many opportunities for those who seek them. Take a look and forward contests to me as you find them!
Much more fun ahead. Many challenges and opportunities to flex your creative muscle. And as always, if you have ideas or thoughts and would like to share them with me, my door is always open. Mi casa es su casa.
Cheers! And Happy Everything.
Melissa
I’ve checked my stats,
it’s so slow today.
What’s going on?
No one’s reading poetry.
I’ve checked the counter,
and gave it a tap.
I think it is broken -
well… this is crap!
I’ve writ my heart out!
(at least I’ve tried…)
What’s going on?
Have my followers died?
I’m clicking refresh,
and I’ve broken F5!
Still no views -
anyone alive?
I’ll keep a check.
C’mon orange square-
please flash up…
show that someone cares!
© Slow Day 2012
By Alexandra Carr-Malcolm
Stats van http://www.samoera.com (Photo credit: Peter Forret)
… and I would like to welcome all of you, new and founding contributors and followers.
What a beautiful tapestry we create of art, photography and language.
If you haven’t yet, send me a bio to include on the Contributors’ page –
I appreciate each of you and am always blown away when I put the outside world aside and come here.
Thank you for being a part of this amazing project and family.
Happy writing. Happy photography. Happy everything.
Melissa
1. I shared 20 Lines or Less with a friend today and he had some lovely things to say about your work.
2. Wordpress caps me at 50 contributors and if you can believe this, we’re getting close.
Close to fifty!
So write, have fun, enjoy yourselves, photograph, contribute, blog, share, we LOVE it and you inspire me every day.
What a lovely community we have here.
More later this evening and much love,
Melissa
Thank you, Maggie, from the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of our entire community of contributors and readers.
And according to what I read, I’m to give seven facts about myself. I would rather give seven facts about 20 Lines but here goes:
1. This is harder than I thought it would be, given my intense nature to protect my privacy, and along those lines …
2. … I am a closet introvert.
3. I have two dogs and a cat, and they are all rescues. An Aussie mix, a cocker spaniel, and a great big silver tabby.
4. I’m a mom. I try to do well.
5. Tonight was breakfast for dinner.
6. I play music in the house constantly and recently mounted speakers, and am most happy with them.
7. In the course of the last six years, I have lost 85 lbs., started a new career, run a triathlon, and gone on stage several times to sing, dance, act, or make people laugh, and resumed writing- something I hadn’t done since college. These are all things I never thought I could do, until I decided I wasn’t going to be held back by that attitude any longer.
And I’m on a journey. I feel like if you follow your heart and your dreams and are true to who and what you are, you find the right path.
The blogs I’d nominate for this award are as follows:
beebeesworld: http://beebeesworld.wordpress.com
Poet’s Corner: http://poetscornerblog.wordpress.com
Timzauto: http://timzauto.wordpress.com
Sorrows, in a serenade: http://sorrowsinaserenade.wordpress.com
Howie’s Blog: http://howanxious.wordpress.com
Gary’s blog: http://www.swittersb.wordpress.com
And I could go on and on, honestly. I’ll make myself stop right there. It’s getting late and I’m not quite clear on the number I’m supposed to elect — but I am exploring many, many blogs, slowly — as time permits. Whether you are contributor or follower, I try and take a look at everyone.
Come and write with us!
Maggie … Thanks again, so very much. You are indeed a treasured writer … and real friend.
Much love to all,
Melissa
Please check the Contributors’ page and if I do not have a bio for you or if you wish to tweak yours, please let me know. And if I somehow have your bio and have not yet included it, let me know that, too. With thirty contributors it’s easy to get a bit behind and I don’t want to miss anyone.
This page is a tool to lead people directly to your work, and its role will become even more visible so let me know! Thank you all!
Best,
Melissa
Hello everyone,
This is my 100th post here on 20 lines and I’m really feeling elated. I joined the community with no motive other than practicing my writings. Now, I think this community has started playing a very vivid role in my life. I always look forward to coming back here, reading, writing, just relaxing with a glorious peek into others’ lives and of course, their imaginations. Whenever I’m here, life seems easy. It is sort of my way of escape from reality.
Blogging is good, it is indeed wonderful. I have even not yet completed 100 posts in my primary blog- hence, I think that shows how much I’m in love with this community- with the authors- with the readers- all of you.
I think I’m still the youngest one here(by age and by experience) and I feel good that I’m being encouraged to write- to hone my skills by my lovely fellows over here. I want to thank Melissa in particular for allowing me to be a part of it. And yes, thanks for the nick name- Howie! And I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being with me, reading some of my self-absorbed and foolish posts, helping me even when I wasn’t ready to help myself.
Thank You!
Love,
HA
Well, these are the photographs I would like to submit for Tim’s Weekly Photo Challenge.
I hope you’ll like them.
:-)
Have A Glorious Sunday!
If you have expressed an interest in joining 20 Lines (specifically if you have left word on the page “Join Us“) you will receive an automatically generated e-mail from WordPress that invites you to accept an invitation as an author.
Click “Accept Invitation” and you are ready to go!
I’ve had lots of requests recently that are still pending that last acknowledgment from you. Accept! Accept!
If you have not yet received your invitation and have expressed interest, one will be coming! Watch for it!
If, for some reason, none of this is working, please e-mail me directly at melissa.hassard@yahoo.com and within your message please include: the name of your WordPress blog, your e-mail address connected to WordPress, and a brief bio that I can include on the Our Contributors page.
A huge thank you and welcome! We’re glad you’ve joined us!
Thanks, everyone!
Cheers,
Melissa
Hello,
Here forth, I bring to you a writing challenge in which you have to write a poem on any theme with any type of verse or any poetic style. What I mean is you just have to write what comes from within your heart. The only thing you have to do is involve a simple plain line but this line which still leaves me shivering when I think about it, just a simple plain line- that is what you have to include in your poem. And that is actually taken from a very beautiful poem- yes, of course you know about it. The poem is- Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats and the line/phrase I have had talked about earlier is- “Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird!”.
Have fun! Don’t forget to add the links to your poems in your comments or you can even include your poems within your comments.
Sorry but I haven’t got any badge or token of honor to give.. there would be no voting as such. This is just for fun and not necessarily a “real challenge” type of challenge with a “clear winner”.
Tada! :-)
–30– has been traditionally used by journalists to indicate the end of a story. There are many theories about how the usage came into being,[1]e.g. from that number’s use in the 92 Code of telegraphic shorthand to signify the end of a transmission in the American Civil War era.[2] In another theory, the “-30-” originated when stories were written in longhand; X marked the end of a sentence, XX the end of a paragraph, and XXX meant the end of a story. The Roman numerals XXX translate to 30.
Source: Wikipedia
***
But for us, 30 means something else.
Thirty is a milestone.
Thirty contributors on our roster.
30.
Three Oh.
I am sitting here with Macbook on lap, a little stunned and a lot of thrilled.
I think we are creating an amazing body of work along with a wonderful community.
Let’s see what happens next.
Go. Write. Photograph.
And share your story with us, in 20 Lines a Day or less. One just one photograph.
Craft your art among us.
