That is correct.  And it appears that that has now been added on the right
hand pane area - thank you for that.

I'm trying - hard - to make the UVM product make sense as a general use
product.  It isn't particularly easy.

Let me lay it out there.  Use of a blog can be a helpful tool.  When I
compare the widely available tools out there (I've now used all three -
yes, I know, there are more - that's not the point here), it looks like
this:

Feature->	Create		Log in		Add		Manage
 		New 		Ease		Second		Access
 		Blog				Blog		(control
 								list of
 								those
Host								allowed to comment)
----
UVM:		2+ days		Convoluted	Very tricky	VERY complex
Blogger:	2 minutes	on home pg	2 minutes	Relatively simple
Live Journal:	2 minutes	on home pg	Different -	Relatively simple
 						'communities'

There are of course pitfalls to all of the systems, and there are many
other features I could compare (pictures, editing etc.).  I look at them
from several perspectives:

- As a 'simple' user, someone who wants to have a worldwide accessible
system for keeping a journal or multiple journals.  This must be easy to
access (i.e. login to add/edit entries cannot be a challenging URL;
limiting access must be simple; adding a second or sub-blog must be
simple to do)

- As an occasional teacher, I've used blogger with great success.  Here, I
have to be able to control who can see and edit and I have to minimize the
"techno-factor" - not all students can or will do this if it gets hairy.
Blogger was really good - only 2 students really had a tricky time.  I
cannot imagine doing this with the current UVM blogging system!  It would
border on the impossible.

So in the end, my real question is: is the UVM blogging product ever going
to move out of early alpha and be beta and hopefully, to a final, easily
used product?  At the moment, it appears to me to be early alpha, and
certainly not something I will find wide use for.  I would love for that
to change, and to have all new registering students automatically have the
blog ready to use, just as public_html is now.

I recognize that we are all doing more with less, and so my query is posed
in that spirit, and not as a "bitch bitch bitch" commentary :)

In order to be accepted and used by more than a tiny number of wireheads,
this tool has to be clean, simple, almost intuitive to use, and not
require massive handholding or subscription to geek-o-list to figure out
"How do I..." problems.  We are certainly not there yet at all.  I would
venture to guess that Live Journal is the runaway fave on this (and
probably other) campus(es).  If we are ok with that, then so be it.  If
not, there is much to do.

 	David Houston
 	CIT Client Services Coordinator
 	University of Vermont

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005, Rob Maurizi intoned:

RM:David- Would this be a login pane to log into YOUR blog, or
RM:blog.uvm.edu's blog? And you want to see it on blog.uvm.edu and not
RM:www.uvm.edu/~blogging, correct?
RM:
RM:
RM:Thanks!
RM:-Rob
RM:
RM:
RM:On Oct 19, 2005, at 9:22 AM, David Houston wrote:
RM:
RM:> Is there any chance that a login pane can be added to the main web
RM:> entry
RM:> area for the UVM blog project (i.e. blog.uvm.edu)?  Remembering the
RM:> convoluted url needed to log in as owner is a royal nuisance.
RM:>
RM:>     David Houston
RM:>     CIT Client Services Coordinator
RM:>     University of Vermont
RM:>