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F.A.Q.

What is Smith College Blogs hosted on Sophia?

Smith College Blogs is a blogging and web-publishing platform powered by WordPress MU and provided by ITS.

What is a blog?

A blog (short for “web log”) is a website made up of static pages and posts that are sorted chronologically, like a diary or journal. The blogs on Sophia are powered by WordPress Mu.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source web-publishing platform. WordPress Mu (for Multi-User) is the software that drives Smith College Blogs hosted on Sophia!

How do I get a blog hosted on Sophia?

Anyone with a Novell (which is the same as your GroupWise account) account can create a blog account. This includes the students, staff, and faculty of Smith College. To activate your blog, go to http://sophia.smith.edu/blog/wp-login.php and login using your Novell username and password.

Student groups, academic departments, administrative departments, and courses can also have individual blogs. (Student groups must be registered with Student Activities to qualify for a blog.) If you would like to start a blog for your group or class, email blogsupport@smith.edu for more information.

* Please note that Smith College Blogs is supported by ITS but not considered mission-critical. This means that the blogs are maintained and updated during college-business hours.

What is my blog’s URL?

Your blog’s URL is http://sophia.smith.edu/blog/username ; where username is the username you use to login and edit your blog (your Novell username).

Can I change my blog’s URL?

No, your blog URL is determined by your username, which is directly linked to your Novell account. We cannot change your username or your blog’s URL.

But, you can customize how your name is displayed and the name of your blog within WordPress.

Do I need an account to read or comment on blogs?

Anyone can read or comment on blogs hosted on Smith College Blogs unless the owner of the blog changes their privacy settings.

Is my blog private?

Your blog is not private, but you can change your privacy settings for search engines and password-protect individual posts. For more information, read the Managing Blog Privacy How-To.

What web browsers are compatible with WordPress?

You can read or comment on blogs using any web browser, but the editing and administrative aspects of WordPress work best in Firefox (for Mac OS X and Windows).

What will happen to my blog after I graduate or leave the college?

Because your blog account is linked to your Novell account, you will only have access to your blog as long as you have an active Novell account at Smith.

Is my blog permanent?

Blogs that are not updated for 6 months or longer may be deleted. Blog Support will attempt to contact the administrator of the blog via email before the blog is deleted.

How do I backup my blog?

It’s easy to export your blog to an XML file. Login to your blog then go to Manage > Export and click on the Download Export File button.

How do I delete a blog post?

Login to your blog then go to Manage > Posts and you can edit or delete posts on your blog.

How much upload space do I have on my blog

You have 50 MB of upload space. Additionally, you cannot upload a single file that is larger than 20 MB.

If you are uploading large PDF files or images it is best for you to use your personal Sophia account to store the files or images and then link to them from your blog — instead of uploading to your blog.

To setup a personal Sophia account, see this page on TARA: Posting Pages on the Sophia Webserver

For instructions on file transfer (this is how you will get the files onto the Sophia Webserver), see one of these pages, also on TARA: Using Core FTP Lite for File Transfer (for Windows Users) or Using Fetch for File Transfer (for Mac OS X Users)

What’s a plugin?

A plugin is a third-party application that interacts with WordPress to provide a certain, usually very specific, function for your blog or web space. For example, if you have a Flickr account you can use the flickrRSS plugin to bring photos into your blog space.

You can activate available plugins by going to the Manage → Plugins submenu.

How do I make my blog look different?

You can change the look and feel of your blog using the Design tab. From the Design tab, you can choose any of the available themes for your blog.

What are widgets?

“Widget” is a name for the functionality built into WordPress that allows you to customize the sidebar of your WordPress site without knowing HTML or PHP. You can use widgets to add a list of recent posts, comments, flickr photos, links, and much more. You can find your widgets in the Design → Widgets subtab. You may also get access to more widgets as you activate new plugins, for many of the plugins available have an associated widget, such as flickrRSS.

Can you install this theme/widget/plugin that I would like to use?

For security and stability reasons, we cannot allow individual theme and plugin installations. But if there is a theme or plugin that you would like to use, contact the blog administrator by email. Requests for themes, widgets, and plugins will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

How do I get more help for issues not listed here?

If there is an issue or question you have that you don’t see here, then contact us and we’ll be sure to both answer your question as well as update this page or the How-To page so that everyone can benefit from your contribution.