* 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

You may be right.
But if you look at what David did, he was able to implement nice things (pdfs, social network tabs, lines in the posts and down under, centering titles...)
But maybe I should apply permaculture principles and do more with what I have already.
Thanks for your kind advices.
And I will definitely look at other instances😉

@globcoco

Before I forget -- I have a good page for you. Honest. This one :

https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/is-it-important-which-instance-you-are-in

@angedestenebres @DavidBlue

@design_RG @angedestenebres @DavidBlue
I will definitely have a look.
My cat is saying that it is time for me to feed her and go to bed.
So I have to listen to her ❤️ .

Bonne nuit 🌜

@globcoco
Bonne nuit, I am back to digging the garden, was a nice break. Loved talking to you. 😺

@angedestenebres @DavidBlue

@design_RG @angedestenebres @DavidBlue
So cool to have a garden. Have you tried the no-dig method?

@globcoco

No, not yet. I was working there and breaking up the soil, it hasn't been dug for some years and it was clumpy in places. This morning there's some light rain and will help to break some of those, I cut into them with a spade to help. Didn't go deep, but the first 15 to 20 cm or so really needed a bit of work and aeration.

@angedestenebres @DavidBlue

@design_RG @angedestenebres @DavidBlue
Another thing is maybe you know of some permaculture principles. Aeration could be made by the plants itself.
https://permaculture.com.au/the-living-soil-ethylene-oxygen-cycle/

@globcoco
Thank you, I have heard about Permaculture but don;t know much yet, maybe it's time to start reading. 😺

I took off Ange's tag since she might not be interested in our chat. She's a nice lady and admin at TeDomum.

@DavidBlue

@design_RG @DavidBlue
If you're interested I could give you some links and books to get into...
Funny though I've always been attracted to it (since my trip of 5 years down under) but never had a garden. I Time to change that!

@globcoco

I think the links would be a good start, I love books and have lots of them, but haven't been reading much of them since I am so active online.

It also changes our attention span, it becomes harder to tune out and lay down for hours ti enjoy a book, unfortunately. But it's one of life's pleasures, and I am quite happy when I get into one and it takes me away from some stressful moment, there's so many sad news lately.

@DavidBlue

@design_RG @DavidBlue
I feel the same way but people who create - design and align themselves to who they are and the environment around them gives me some hope.

@globcoco
It is good and bad, at the same time, it's part of living in a society with such abundance of inputs and info that we need to find ways to keep focus, or to cut off and work offline sometimes if that helps.

I like to have some clipboards around, and jot down ideas on paper, little notes.

And when I am too agitated, finding a good book is really good, takes our minds away and into a quieter inner world; then we can appreciate and enjoy a good book better.

Managing our attention and time is important, and many people get distracted and absorbed by unimportant, commercialized networks, etc.

There are a lot of positives, but we have to work and try to find our paths and what is good and what to ignore, stay away from.

I will give you an article here for reference -- read it when you have a chance. I keep referring to it. 😃

Pass it on to someone when you talk about those ideas above.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

By the way, it's wonderful to be chatting with you. 😉

@DavidBlue