Comments on: The One and Only – All Things LIS Blog

By: Alex Chapin

Alex Chapin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:44:43 +0000

Would be great to have tag clouds scoped to a category, I know there are a few WordPress plugins related to tagging that may already have some of this functionality.

By: Ian McBride

Ian McBride — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:56:48 +0000

Those are good points, Alex. Blog authors who want to use this new Library & Information Services blog will have to weigh the pros of using the central blog (increased visibility and ease of communication) with the giving up some control over presentation.

We are also planning to make it so that when you click on a category you see a tag cloud with just the tags that are on posts in the category you’re viewing and vice-versa with the categories list. This takes a bit of extra programming, but we hope to have something in place soon. This will be an iterative process where we’re continually improving the usability and interaction on this blog. It won’t be perfect on day 1, or even day 1000, but there will be improvements along the way.

By: Alex Chapin

Alex Chapin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:39:38 +0000

This idea of “one and only” blog for LIS is definitely interesting and certainly makes sense for many blogs within LIS.

Here are limitations I worry about:
1. Less focus
Many blogs in one does mean that categorization in individual areas will be less focused. Sub-categories mentioned above will help but any organization within a “sub-blog” by means of tags could get lost in posts from all areas.

2. Less control of context/layout
Sub-blogs will have little control over widgets, appearance and layout. For many blogs this is fine, but some blogs might want to create a particular context (e.g. related RSS feeds, links, tag cloud of posts of only their area… etc).

By: Jess Isler

Jess Isler — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:10:30 +0000

Barbara, I think it does make sense to revisit this briefly. I don’t think you’re breaking the rule because we decided to have the external be the default, and that wasn’t the case when we first discussed this issue.

What if we make our categories hierarchical? (This can be done!) The parent categories could be our bold labels above, and the children could be the indented categories. That way users wouldn’t have to select 5 categories to post an all-LIS staff post (although, all that means is they have to click 5 radio buttons…)

*External TBD (Parent)
Areas and Workgroups (Parent) (<-What you'd choose for an all-LIS post)
-ACS (Children)
-CM
…
Institutions (Parent)
-Middlebury (Children)
-MIIS
…

By: Barbara Merz

Barbara Merz — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:27:21 +0000

To clarify for myself – we’re thinking that the “external” category is the default. So if someone wants to categorize their post as “not external, for all LIS” they would have to add every area. Right? Or I guess they’d remove the default and leave it uncategorized. To me that doesn’t seem user friendly. At risk of disobeying the “only say it once” rule, I guess I’m still leaning to having a “LIS staff” category. The “external” category does include LIS staff too – right?