* Write.freely blog - a guide for new users *

@angedestenebres made a nice and illustrated guide for new users of Write.freely blogs, but it's all in French.

Goal is to help people interested in using the write.freely instance at TeDomum.net — which has been my blog's home. This morning I took some time and translated her guide to English.

Now the page is on my blog: https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/write-freely-wiki-documentation

[ Repost of Release announcement, December 2019. ]

#WriteFreely #Blogs #NewUsers #Writers #Tools #QotoJournal worthy

@design_RG @angedestenebres
Thanks to both of you for this work. I was looking for such help to make the most of my blog...
So happy 😀!

Merci à vous 2 pour ce travail.
Je cherchais une aide de ce type pour tirer le meilleur de mon blog.
Super contente 😀 !

@globcoco

Ah, thank you so much, Coralie. The work is mostly Ange's -- she created a full and logical Guide which is sorely missing for Write.Freely.

I just posted at their own Mastodon server today, hopefully it will be seen and used. I am glad you liked it, I loved it too.

I could make another translation, to Portuguese, fairly easily as I am fluent in the language (and now I have the text from Ange's Wiki cleaned up and easily manipulated and copied to Translation software.)

Merci a vous. 😺

@angedestenebres

@design_RG @angedestenebres
Yes she did a great job!
I'm searching for ways to make the most of it and i posted a toot on it to @DavidBlue who does an amazing job on his blog. I think I'd need to learn more on CSS and JS to make my blog look great.
Of course the content is king and I do have major work to do on it for sure!!!

You are very welcome. 🐸

@globcoco

I just went and visited your profile here, and saw the link and followed to the Blog.

Will tell you one thing, and this is personal option, of course -- but I haven't touched the CSS controls or looked at the suggested pages they offer.

I find there's so much to do, with the provided framework and format, right off the box.

Always work on my PCs and laptops, and try to make it work really well - and then I was surprised by how nice the pages (default theme untouched) look on mobile device.

They look lovely, use the screen appropriately and I am afraid of touching something and breaking it. You need to make sure the finished pages look good in both PCs and mobiles, as so many people use mobile those days.

Things that were and are important to me :

* to have a functional and efficient tool set to work with, so it flows nicely. Got it, and I plan to write a guide for new users sometime, explaining those (text editor, image editor, image host and uploading tool, etc).

* to have a good working knowledge of MarkDown, which I absolutely love. I learned it just as I started my very first blog in December 2019.

Used the wonderful tutorial at https://markdowntutorial.com/ -- which is interactive, so you learn the concept, and type the code to see if you can match the example.

I have worked in Education for many years and this tutorial is Top Notch ,an amazing tool. Kudos!

* and then -- what to write, we need inspiration.

I am currently back on the Groove, after a dry spell, and publishing pretty frequently. I did also start a totally different, themed blog -- as my main one is heavily Tech and Fediverse oriented, and people would be confused if I started blending in other themed posts.

So -- a new one, focused, and whoever visits is there for that theme.

My personal goal is to create one page per day, doable, but for my Long Form style, that means hours of work, research and preparing to get it done.

Then, we have to spread the word -- in Fediverse, on Twitter, or any other network you find useful.

But you know what -- it's SO fulfilling, when I see and read my pages, I like and am proud of them. I am very picky and demanding of my own work (INTJ, no surprise). LOL...

Nice talking to you and to Devid.

Suggestion -- really consider finding a mastodon instance that allows more than 500 characters maximum. My post here is at about 2,400 atm, but our instance allows 65,500 max.

Writers like space... 😛

@angedestenebres @DavidBlue

@design_RG @angedestenebres @DavidBlue
I was going to ask you how in the hell you were able to write as much as you do and... you answered it right at the end😋

@globcoco @angedestenebres @DavidBlue

LOL.... 😛 It is a personal Crusade of mine. I cant's stand the 500 chars limit and avoid instances that insist on it.

Check out my snapshot of this post, as I started...

I have 65,500 here at Qoto, 5,000 at Munsterland.social, and other places with at least 1 thousand. 500, nope, not for me. Find a better home.

@globcoco

Plus -- did you notice the size of that Reply Editor ? 😃

I have a custom desktop layout that is really good for Writers and Readers. Lots of room and no wasted space.

I am preparing a proposal, and it shows screnshots and explains it. Here : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/mastodon-screen-use-in-wide-screen-displays-a-search-for-better-results/280
@angedestenebres @DavidBlue

@design_RG @angedestenebres @DavidBlue
You are absolutely right about custom desktop layout. It feels better the way you conceive it.
I wanted to show you how it looks on my computer but it seems that my "Impcr Syst" doesn't want to work today 😩.

@globcoco
I am glad you like that layout -- I think it is so much better.

There's also the Pinafore client, which is simple, will not do double panes ever (I asked, declined) but is so light and FAST. A delight really. Pinafore is for me an essential tool, and a very enjoyable way to use the Fediverse.

If you are used to the standard Mastodon Web client, you will feel at home very quick, I think -- and certainly appreciate the fluidity and speed as you get to know its features. It's really nice.

Not much documentation for it (a project for me, in my list of ideas) but you can get a first look with this article : https://nolanlawson.com/2019/06/02/one-year-of-pinafore/

And ask any questions, I love to talk about things that I am interested in. 😃

@angedestenebres @DavidBlue