Blog Rant

[rwidman]

Every blog has a theme and purpose. ...........

One would like to think so .....................

You've go to remember that boaters (like most other groups) come from all walks of life, all educational levels and all levels of intelligence. Some people are capable of writing paragraph after paragraph with no apparent purpose and without saying anything. And with the Internet, there is nobody monitoring these blogs or deciding if they are worth publishing like was done back in the "book" days.

I think it was you who made the point that these blogs are free and you don't have to read the ones that don't interest you. That's the beauty of the Internet. Read what you like, ignore what you don't.

 

[rwidman]

Actually maps are pretty easy to create in Google Earth. You can draw your route on the map using their Ruler/Path function, then move the Ruler box onto the map and it shows the distance of the route.


I use Print Screen to capture it, then Paint to store only the map part to my laptop, then upload it to your third party image hosting site. Here's what the finished product looks like.

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I often use Google Earth with a marker saying "We are here." to post our location.

 

[Shrew]

I don't engage in the typical Social Media venues (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc). I do follow a handful of Vlogs on You Tube. I don't follow any Blogs. I have yet to find a Blog that is entertaining. I find most Blogs very poorly thought out and poorly written.

 

[menzies]

I don't engage in the typical Social Media venues (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc). I do follow a handful of Vlogs on You Tube. I don't follow any Blogs. I have yet to find a Blog that is entertaining. I find most Blogs very poorly thought out and poorly written.

Ca you give some example of those?

 

[Shrew]

Ca you give some example of those?

Why in the world would record names or links to things which I don't enjoy??

If someone posts a link to a Blog in a signature in a forum, I will follow-it to give it a read. I can't recall ever reading an entry to its entirety, or ever digging deeper into other posts in their blog.

As a result, I've never recorded all the various blogs which don't interest me.

 

[menzies]

Fair enough, I just wanted to see if there were any "do nots" which I could evaluate my site for!

BTW. AtAnchor.com | The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew..

 

[twistedtree]

I'm glad to hear you like reading about the boats, projects, improvements, etc. That's what I write about mostly, and catch grief for not writing more about our travels. It just proves there is an audience for pretty much everything, and now I have two readers Just kidding of course. I actually have a fair number of readers, considering the subject matter.

The way I see it, blogging is like Karaoke Anyone can do it, you don't have to be good at it, and you get to write about what interests you. People can tune in or tune out as they choose.

 

[Great Laker]

Here is the Google Map I developed for the Great Loop. It shows the route, the stops and whether they were marinas and city walls, or anchorages and mooring balls. I hope this link works.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...I&ll=36.92666518806051,-83.79951204882815&z=5

 

[boomerang]

We (my wife) started a blog to outline our travels because we find it interesting to live others voyages vicariously through their blogs. I wanted one to detail the work we're doing so as to try to help (or dissuade as the case might be) others that want to undertake repairs of Mainships like ours. Before beginning our daunting task, I researched every blog & website I could find on Mainship 34's & feel they helped me greatly (Chris Pearsons's mainship34.com website being the best & the one that helped me the most).
That said, I don't really care for the format of our blog because I have a hard time following it myself but can't complain to much because, as I said, my lovely wife is the blogger & it's a time consuming thing to get the photos from the phone, camera etc & then write about them!

 

[janice142]

Fair enough, I just wanted to see if there were any "do nots" which I could evaluate my site for!

BTW. AtAnchor.com | The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew..

Excellent and thank you for the heads up. I subscribed.

Your introduction made me feel like you're old friends I'd like to know better. I look forward to reading more. Perhaps we'll meet over on your coast. I like Rusty. Please don't keelhaul him.

 

[Seevee]

Here is the Google Map I developed for the Great Loop. It shows the route, the stops and whether they were marinas and city walls, or anchorages and mooring balls. I hope this link works.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?...I&ll=36.92666518806051,-83.79951204882815&z=5

Great Laker,

Now that's a MAP! Just absolute the best map I've seen for looping. Info for every spot! Great. Wish more folks would do something like that.

Question.... how did you do it? I want one of those.

 

[Great Laker]

I used Google Maps and I think you need a Google account to do this.

Open Google Maps and open the menu by clicking on the 3 horizontal bars on the left. Then pic "Your Places" and then "Maps" and then "Create Map" and a new window will open where you can name the map, ad symbols at locations, and add descriptions etc. Maps are saved in Google Drive.

I added descriptions of each stay and a link to my blog page so you can read about it.

If you Google "How to create a Google Map", there are lots of additional instructions.

Have fun!

 

[Seevee]

I used Google Maps and I think you need a Google account to do this.

Open Google Maps and open the menu by clicking on the 3 horizontal bars on the left. Then pic "Your Places" and then "Maps" and then "Create Map" and a new window will open where you can name the map, ad symbols at locations, and add descriptions etc. Maps are saved in Google Drive.

I added descriptions of each stay and a link to my blog page so you can read about it.

If you Google "How to create a Google Map", there are lots of additional instructions.

Have fun!

Thx much... question... can you add comments about a waypoint?

 

[Great Laker]

Seevee - "Thx much... question... can you add comments about a waypoint?"

Yes.

You can pick from a list of symbols and colors, so a waypoint would look different than a marina. Then you can add a description to the symbol. (To see this click on one of my symbols.) You can also have different layers, so marinas could be in one layer and waypoints another, and displayed together or separately. Lots of flexability.

 

[Shrew]

Fair enough, I just wanted to see if there were any "do nots" which I could evaluate my site for!

BTW. AtAnchor.com | The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew..

So.....I stand corrected. That is a really nice Blog!!

It's well laid out. Great details. Clearly defined and navigable sections. Pictures mixed in with posts (not a wall of text). Great breakdown of the boat, the crew and travels. Posts have a clear them.

Plus, I love the boat. Very nice. i'm bookmarking it so now I can lurk over your shoulder and watch what you're doing. Many thanks!!

 

[Seevee]

The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew is a really good example of a great site. Easy to navigate and read about most everything that is involved in boating, from the boat, people, trips and the dog.

Question..... is this blog set up with a template or a blog service, or a web site from scratch?

 

[BandB]

The Voyages Of Sonas And Her Crew is a really good example of a great site. Easy to navigate and read about most everything that is involved in boating, from the boat, people, trips and the dog.

Question..... is this blog set up with a template or a blog service, or a web site from scratch?

Unfair advantage of a professional.

It doesn't suffer from the limitations of a blog, primarily the ordering of posts. I've been looking at some travel journals and amazed at the functionality some of them have. Can select date order. Mapping. It's disappointing to me that blog software hasn't evolved more than it has and much of that is one company dominating it.

 

[menzies]

Thanks for the comments (and no, I am not a web development professional, just been dickering with it as an amateur for a decade or so!).

Because my family is all overseas I bought the AtAnchor domain over a decade ago. I originally used it to share photos and stories with them, only they knew of the domain.

I also used it to create sub domain for my daughter's basket ball teams.

Even now there is a sub domain for our yacht club hidden under the main domain (Queens Harbour Yacht Club – Living life to the fullest!) which I developed and maintain for them.

B&B is correct. Because I own the domain and have set up a web site structure which has a blog back bone, I can do anything I want design wise. I have decided to use WordPress and their templates. However you can add any of thousands of plug ins, or go into the template code itself. The WordPress code has been developed by enthusiasts for free as are all of the plug ins. The upgrades are all free as well.

It is a very powerful and easy to use platform - and is used by many big companies as well as individuals.

As for my site specifically, it is easy to keep it current while actually on the boat as the experiences are current and I have plenty of time of an evening to update. Right now I need to add the July trips and the details around the current yard work being undertaken, some of which are pretty unique and I think interesting. I also need to pay more attention to updating the more "static" pages, like the About Us page. For example I have now retired rather than going to retire. Upcoming trips is out of date. So some small stuff like that.

I also want to redesign the right had side where I had planned to have a stand alone photo gallery. Because I add the photos to the posts I think that is redundant.

So maybe I need another long trip to get everything up to date!