Help:Blog

This is a help page.
However it may contain statements which the community may wish to discuss in order to achieve a higher level of consensus.

A blog is an educational resource type which you can add to your personal user namespace at Wikiversity. A blog, like a paper, reflects the work and views of a single individual and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. However the blog is usually in the personal User namespace of a particular registered Wikiversity user and conforms to the style of a "blog" (e.g. shorter; lower level of formality; stronger opinions; somewhat journalistic).

Distinguished from related resource types

The following are more formal opinion-pieces, which can be published in the main namespace of Wikiversity.

Essays: an essay (or term paper), like a paper, reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors and may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor. It may be one of the following:
- an opinion piece of writing which is not on a sufficiently "academic" topic to be considered an "academic paper", or where the degree of formality is lower than a paper, or where the author simply prefers the designation "essay";
- a piece of writing set as an assignment in a course.

Papers: a paper is an academic article or academic paper (or draft thereof) which has been published or is being drafted on Wikiversity. A paper typically reflects the work and views of a single individual or of a closed group of authors. A paper may be commented on and discussed by any Wikiversity contributor.

How to create a blog

Your user page (or a subpage of it) should be used as blog's homepage, and your blog posts all created as subpages of it. To set this up, place the {{Blog}} template on your user page—this will create a form like the one below, allowing you to easily add new blog posts. You will also get an RSS feed of your posts.

To create a blog post now, simply enter the post's title in the box below, and a page (such as User:Username/Blog/My first blog post) will be created.

The input box above pre-loads the {{blog post}} template; if you manually create blog pages, you should use this template at the top (it defines certain metadata for the page, such as post date, and will also categorise your posts).

General guidelines relating to opinion pieces on Wikiversity

The author(s) should always be clearly identified at the top.
It should be possible to contact the authors - e.g. Wikiversity username given.
Disclosures:
- Either: the resource should very clearly be of a type in which readers would expect to find views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus (e.g. in an academic field)
- Or: the resource should be clearly tagged at the top with a tag which warns readers that the resource may contain views, opinions or research findings which have not achieved a wide consensus.
If the resource contains multiple pages, the points above (1-3) should be repeated on every page of the resource.
Wikiversity contributors not named as an author should, as a matter of civility, refrain from editing the resource itself. However it should be possible for all Wikiversity contributors to comment and discuss the piece of writing on the page itself (rather than resorting to the talk page). A discussion section at the bottom of the page is recommended. This is effectively an exchange for other contributors refraining from editing the authored section of the resource. Comments and discussions should be signed in the normal wiki manner.

Relevant policies and proposed policies

Example of a 2800-year-old curse. Your username will be attached forever to your blog.

Although a blog may be the most unregulated form of opinion-piece which you can write on Wikiversity, this does not excuse from basic moral and legal restrictions. At one end of the scale, a blog can just be a personal diary of thoughts, or an expression of frustrations. At the other end of the scale, there are blogs which are so well-researched and well-written that they are almost works of literature or almost publishable research articles. Wherever your blog lies on the scale, remember that blogging is a form of publication, and that - unlike graffiti - your (user)name will be attached forever to your words.

Distinguish from related topics

Category:blogging is a category of Wikiversity resources related to the learning about or researching into blogging as a form of internet communication, particular in the context of web learning.