Day 4 of the Challenge

image: University of Salford and Peel Park

Today I had to ask a question on a blog comment. I found it difficult to think of what I wanted to do at first and read a number of blog posts before returning to a post I had previously commented on and had a response from the blog author Sarah who is also taking the challenge. The post was a reflection on Day 2's task and I had written that I was enjoying her blog as a fellow health care professional (Sarah is a midwife in New Zealand). Further comments were added by others that spoke of the need to be more discussional and emotive in the response to blogs in order to generate real debate and stop the "love fest". My comment left for today's task agreed with the need to become more critical - but my question focused on why - if it was imperative that we engage in clear and honest discussion - that those same commenters felt the need to post anonymously - and raised the question of issues of netiquette when commenting on blog posts! I wait to see what - if any- response is generated.
This has a similar flavour to a post by one of our team (another Sarah) last year which looked at boundaries of sharing personal information. You may be interested to have another look at this?
What do you think? Do you think we should clearly own what we are writing on blogs - or does a level of anonymity allow for more frank and open debate. I would be interested to know what you think.

About this blog

This blog aims to share and discuss issues surrounding education and development for occupational therapists.

Leaving comments on our blog

• We have been "blogging" for almost a year now. As you enter the blog the most recent post will be on the page. On the right hand side of the page you will see a section titled "blog archive". In here you will find all our posts. Feel free to click on these - we have tried to make the titles reflect the content to make it easier to navigate through the posts.
• There is also a section on the right entitled "Hot Topics on the blog" these are posts that are currently generating discussions that you may want to read and maybe engage with.
  
• Feedback or comments are really important to us so feel free to say anything from a short 'I agree' or longer 'I totally disagree" etc'. and to add your own experiences and reflections
  
• Look at the end of a post and click onto the small 'comment' label. A new window will open where you can read other comments as well as leave your own comment. Write what you want to say in the box. Be anonymous if you wish.
• You do not have to have a 'blogger' account to be able to comment on this blog.
• Once you are happy with what you have written, click onto 'publish'.
• If you want your comment to be private, please email us.
  
• We respond to all comments and emails.
• You can keep a track of your comments on blogs using coComment
• Finally, any comments people leave should be reasonably civil and productive. We reserve the right to moderate or remove comments if there's a problem, although we're pleased to say that there's never been an issue. .

with thanks to Michelle for her blog post on comments policy
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Day 3 of the challenge

image:the imperial war museum - salford
Well, today's task is to sign up to a tracker that will help me keep a handle on where I have left comments and the posts where I may be involved in discussion. The recommended sign up is to coComment - which I found straight forward to install and sign up to. This means that as long as I put comment08 in the "tag" box at the end of where I write my comment on a blog post I can go to my page in coComment and see where I have been and what discussions I have engaged in. Great - day 3's activity completed! I have already had comments on my first two days postings and have had responses from comments written on other's blogs - it's working!!

Day 2 of the challenge

image:healthcare building at frederick road campus

OK, those eagle eyed amongst you will realise that this took place on the same day as Day 1 of the challenge - but I only signed up today so had to catch up!
The task for "today" was to post a comment on a blog I had not visited before. After searching through numerous blogs, getting frequently sidetracked, occasionally lost and slightly disheartened as I read other's posts that were very informative and stimulating. I came across this post that I found extremely helpful in begining to develop my blogging style and gave tips on how to make things more of a conversation etc. So I posted a comment - and thus completed my task for day 2. It then inspired me to post a few more too - now just have to remember where I've been so I can see if they generate further discussion.
Please feel free to comment on this post or what I'm doing - or even to ask a question about why we blog and what we gain from it. Just click the "comment" button below and type in the box that comes up then press "publish comment". Would really be keen to hear from you.