Posting a comment, 101
I’ve been told this whole entering comments business can be a little confusing for those who aren’t so familiar with blogs, so hopefully this little primer will help you out if this your first time commenting. As with anything new, it hurts just a little the first time, but after that it can be fun to the point of addictive. We here at the Mad Poets encourage you to practice safe commenting. Do it often, for sure. But always do it with forethought & caution.
Here’s how it works:
Below this post, where it says “Post a Comment,” enter your name as you’d like it to appear (can be your full name, first name, nickname, alias, pet’s name, whatever…), enter a valid email address (we will NOT publish this), enter your website if you’ve got one that you’d like people to visit (if you don’t have your very own site, you can enter your MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or whatever other social networking page you might have), and then enter your comment.
Be sure to give us all the essential information. If it’s a reading, tell us the date, time, venue, type of performance, and anything else we need to know (is there any open mic following your featured reading?). If you’ve got something published, tell us where we can buy it. Add the url to the website of the publisher or link to the book’s page on Amazon. You pretty much want to hold our hand to the check out. If we can read your poem/story/article online, give us the link & tell us the name of the piece and the publication. We don’t just want these details. We *crave* them! (P.S. You can use HTML in the comments, or not. It’s up to you. Don’t sweat it if you don’t know HTML, it’s really no biggie one way or the other.)
If you want to receive emails with all the other comments, click that box. This means you don’t have to keep checking back to the site to see what other comments have been added. On Shameless Monday, its a great way to keep up with what else is going on. It’s also an easy way to immediately know if someone has responded to something you commented, which is always nice to see. But if you don’t want to get the emails, that’s cool too. Just be sure to check back regularly to see if anyone’s responded to you.
Finally, when you’re done, click “Submit comment.” If this is your first time, your comment will not appear on the site immediately. It will be emailed to the web czar for approval (this keeps us from getting inundated with spam). Approval usually happens within a few hours. After you’ve had one comment approved, all future comments post to the site immediately since we know you’re a real, live person and not a spam-bot.
Once your comment is approved and posted, your name will appear at the top of the comment. If you’ve entered a website, your name will link to the website. The comments will show up in a list below the post, in the order they are entered. To see what it looks like, check out last week’s Shameless Monday.
Good luck & happy commenting.
4 Comments
Ladies & Gents:
Here’s my contribution to “Shameless Monday”:
On September 13th @ 5:30p, Philadelphia Poets announces book launch (Vol. 15), reading and signing @ Giovanni’s Room, 12th & Pine Streets, Phila. 215-923-0813. I’ll be reading along with Mel Brake, Maria Fama, Janet Mason and others — come out and show your support for Giovanni’s Room-the oldest GLBT bookstore in the country.
Okay, how about some shameless self-promotion (aka bragging): I recently learned I won the Poets’ Pause Poetry Contest and will read on BCTV (Berks County Cable TV) hosted by Doug Arnold (date not yet established); and two of my manuscripts were finalists in chapbook comps (Plan B & Gertrude Press). Oh, and my poem, “The Tree of Life” was chosen to be set to music by a composer as part of the “Dialogues with Darwin” exhibit at the American Philosophical Society Museum.
How’s that for shameless?
Love & peace to all.
Joseph, King Shame
I would like to know of any center city or near readings like the blue grotto and also opportunities for publicaation.
Thanks, Eileen and God speed.
what’s going on?
My chapbook, “Loopholes”, won the 7th Annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, presented at the annual John Milton Poetry Festival in Milton, DE (near Rehobeth) on December 5, 2009. The contest was open to residents of the Delmarva Peninsula and I’m told there were about 60 entrants. The prize included some cash, ten copies of the chapbook and two cases of Dogfish Head Ale.
Funny thing is, I don’t drink – I filled my quota for several lifetimes in my extravagantly ill-spent youth! Apparently, Dogfish makes very good brews and I’ve had plenty of volunteers to help me make certain that this part of the prize doesn’t go to waste.
The book is available through The Broadkill Press, 104 Federal Street, Milton, DE 19968. Send $8.00 for one copy or go wild and send $13.75 for two. Prices include S&H. Jamie Brown is the publisher of the Broadkill Press, as well as The Broadkill Review, an online publication open to submissions. TBR published a dozen of my poems in January, 2009 and seven more in the last of their six yearly issues, which just came out at year’s end. Subscription and submission information is available from Mr. Brown. Send him an e-mail at the_broadkill_review@earthlink.net.
I am scheduled to be one of two featured poets in the Second Saturday Poets reading series – February 13, 2010, at 5:00 PM. They meet at “Over Coffee Cafe”, 144 Lantana Drive, Hockessin, DE 19707. It’s in the Lantana Shopping Center. I suggest using Google Maps’ directions – they got me there. I’d be happy to sign books afterwards. There’s an open mic reading, so bring a couple of poems to read. It’s a friendly, low-keyed group.
So much for tooting my horn, this 2nd day of the new year. Not quite up to P.T. Barnum standards, perhaps, but I’m tooting as loudly as I can. May 2010 bring you good health and happiness, peace and prosperity and lots of good poetry to read!
-David
Post a Comment