A blogging primer for my less tech-savvy friends

Blog is short for web log. A blog is a website that a person creates to publish articles, short or long, called blog posts. This person is called a blogger. The subculture of bloggers in the world has been labelled the blogosphere. Blogs generally have a facility for readers of the blog to write comments that can be viewed along with the blog post.

You can read a blog just by visiting the blog's website, http://ironicallytitled.blogspot.com in my case. People who read multiple blogs often use a blog reader. In the blog reader, you subscribe to the blogs you are interested in, and when you open the blog reader, it shows you the new blog posts on the blogs to which you have subscribed. I use the http://bloglines.com blog reader. At bloglines, you can also download a notifier program that sits in the corner of your screen and lets you know when one of the blogs you have subscribed to has a new post.

To read the comments that have been written about a blog post, click the link labelled "comments" below the article you are interested in. You can also add your own comment. If you clicked on the "comments" link, you should see a text window titled "Leave your comment." Type your comment in this text box. Where it asks you to Choose an Identity, pick either Other, if you want to leave your name, or Anonymous, if you don't. Then press the "Publish Your Comment" button, and your comment should appear!