Blog Changes and Features

I want to let everyone know about some recent changes to Lionel Deimel’s Web Log. I also want to point out some features that may not be obvious but may still be of interest.

New Features

I’ve added a link in the sidebar to Pittsburgh Update, a site of which I am the principal author. More on this below.

I suspect that it has not been obvious to some visitors how to get to the page containing only the post you are interested in. For example, if you go to http://blog.deimel.org/, you may discover that you would like to link to the second post (0n your own blog, perhaps), and you need its address (URL). Heretofore, there has been only one reliable, albeit unintuitive, way to do this, namely to click on the time stamp, which appears below the post. On many blogs, on the other hand, one can click on the title of a post to go to the page containing only that post. You can now do that on this blog as well. Clicking on the time stamp also works. The page of an individual post always shows comments and links from elsewhere to that page, though I have found the latter listing to be less than reliable.

Other Links

Let me begin by listing links whose exact function may be obscure but which have not changed:

• Clicking on the blog title at the top of the page takes you to the blog home page (i.e., to http://blog.deimel.org/.) Clicking on Blog Home, under Links in the sidebar, does so also.
  
• Clicking on links to this post below a post takes you to the links bookmark at the bottom of the page containing only that post. (The URL to which you will be taken is that of the post with “#links” appended. This is where links to the page are displayed.)
• Clicking on n comments below a post—the n is a non-negative integer indicating the number of comments made about the post—takes you to a special Blogger comments page, where existing comments appear along with a form to post a comment of your own. (You must first log in with a Google or other ID.) This page normally does not show the original post, but there is a link at the top left of the page that allows you to display it if you like.

Less obscure in function are other links in the sidebar under Links. I have already discussed Blog Home. Here is a rundown of the others:

• Table of Contents: Unlike most blogs, Lionel Deimel’s Farrago has a complete table of contents on the Site Map page of my Web site, Lionel Deimel’s Farrago. Posts are listed there in chronological order, along with brief—though, alas, sometimes cryptic—descriptions. They are are also categorized as being about language, the church, administrative matters regarding the Web site or blog, or anything else (politics, the weather, etc.). The Table of Contents is helpful if you want to look up a blog title or look for posts around a particular date. For general searches, I recommend using the search box at the left of the Blogger toolbar at the very top of the page.
• Lionel Deimel’s Farrago: This is a link to my Web site, which I invite you to explore if you have never done so. It is, well, eclectic. In theory, what is on my Web site is more polished and of more long-term interest than what appears here, but you shouldn’t actually count on that.
• Pittsburgh Update: This is a site that deserves more attention. Each week, I post, with the help of two other members of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh, a summary of Episcopal Church news, along with links to more information on the Web. A small number of stories do concern the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, but the real intent of the site is to keep Episcopalians updated on the ongoing foreign and domestic church wars. At some point, a site like Pittsburgh Update might be unnecessary, but don’t hold your breath. Don’t look for feel-good stories here, but it is a good place even for church news junkies to check in to see if they’ve missed anything. The weekly news summary is usually posted near midnight on Monday.
  
• St. Paul’s’ Epistle: This is a blog about my own parish, a kind of alternative parish newsletter. It is a relatively new venture still looking for a following. I only expect folks with an actual connection to St. Paul’s, Mt. Lebanon, to read it regularly, but anyone wondering if such a blog makes a positive or negative contribution to parish life might want to have a look. I am the only author of posts at the moment and am not actively looking for help.
• E-mail Me: I probably don’t have to explain this one.

On the home page, and only there, you will find pages of posts by month under Archives in the sidebar. Generally, under Previous Posts, you will find links to posts published before the one being viewed, though, when viewing an archive file, Previous Posts will list the most recent posts instead. (Disclaimer: I didn’t design this feature.)

Keeping in Touch

At the bottom of the sidebar are links to Atom and RSS syndication. (Certain browsers also display syndication icons.) I won’t try to explain syndication here except to say that syndication allows you to read (or at least be notified of) new material on your favorite Web sites in one convenient place. I recommend Google Reader as a means to read syndication feeds, but I don’t pretend to know much about the alternatives, and I’m not going to try to explain Google Reader, either. Mainly, I want people to know how you can subscribe to this blog’s syndication feed. You’ll have to figure out what to do next on your own.

Many of my readers are Episcopalians. Because I suspected that some of these folks might be less interested in my posts on language, say, than in my posts on the Anglican Communion, readers can sign up to receive e-mail when I publish a church-related post. You can get on the e-mail list by clicking on the link after the Atom and RSS links.

Show Your Colors

Below About Me, at the right of the page, the blog sports my No Anglican Covenant logo. I believe that an Anglican covenant is a bad idea generally, and the draft now before Anglican churches well exemplifies this generalization. I encourage others to display my logo on their Web sites, blogs, or elsewhere where it might have an opportunity to influence Anglican opinion. Clicking on the logo takes you to the post, “No Anglican Covenant,” where I first announced the availability of the logo. That post also links to a larger graphic that should satisfy most needs for a higher-resolution image.

Below the No Anglican Covenant logo is a link to my Farrago Gift Shop. Mostly, the gift shop has clothing and other items with the No Anglican Covenant logo. Here are a few samples:

The gift shop also offers merchandise that feature one of my curve-stitch designs, such as this wall clock:

Admittedly, there isn’t a big market for this sort of thing, but, if you’re reading this, you might be part of the small group that is interested. Take a look.

Enjoy

Well, I’ve probably told you more than your really wanted to know, but, if you got this far, you must have learned something of interest. I hope this post will help you get the most out of Lionel Deimel’s Farrago. Happy reading (and commenting)!