[Karen]

I need some basic questions answered in regards to creating a blog. I have created one but cannot get into it to post. I can view it but can't do anything with it. The system keeps asking me for my username and password which has not changed since I created it. It is simply beyond me and I'm too tired to deal with it tonight. In otherwords: why can I find my blog but can't log in to it? If anyone replies, please keep it as simple as possible. Should I just start over? Or .... if I did that, what would be the easiest site to create a blog? I don't mind starting over. Thank you, Karen

[marta]

Karen, where do you have your blog? Blogger? I am guessing that you have forgotten either your user name or your password you used when you signed up for your blog. I always forget my user name since some sites use a name and others use an email. Many of the blogging sites will use cookies to remember your username and password. Something may have happened to the cookie for the site. If you do use blogger, here is a link where you can enter your email and they will send you a special link to access your blog. You will have to change your password to log in. Once you have logged back in, you can go to Edit Profile and you can see your user id. Here is the Login help page for Blogger which has additional help.l You can also have blogger to remember your login so you can go back to blogger and automatically be logged in. Remember to check the box to remember you.

[reststep]

Do you have cookies enabled? Some sites like cascadeclimbers for example will not let you log in unless you have cookies enabled.

[Karen]

Marta and reststep, Reststep, I don't understand "cookies". I've heard the term but don't know what it means. Marta, I can get into my blog but I am not sure anyone else can. I think I just need to go back and get another look because I don't think anyone can reply to it and that's due to my settings. Those of you who do blog -- what do you use for settings? Do you open it up to the public or just friends? I don't care if strangers reply because I also don't want to deal with hate mail or viagra ads. Mostly I want to use a blog to share photos and talk about hiking, no "soul" stuff. Perhaps later on I might get more serious about it. I also wouldn't mind using my blog to work on "writing" in addition to hiking. As a formerly-published poet I wouldn't mind using the blog for creative purpose, too -- open to the public but not to taunts or weirdos. Perhaps I am asking too much. Karen Also, I started another blog with www.mindsay.com but can't seem to figure out how to post photos. It's working fine except for that. It asks for my URL but I'm not quite sure what to put in the box for that. When a site asks for an URL (to publish a photo) what do you put in? Your email address? What? I tried to use www.flickr.com but nothing happened. Thanks, no rush.

[reststep]

Karen, I don't really understand cookies either but according to what I have read it is a small amount of information that a website places on your computer. For example on this website I think if you have cookies enabled then you don't have to log in everytime you visit the site but it logs you in automatically. As far as the URL I think what they might be looking for is the URL of the picture. Go to the picture at flickr and the URL for the picture should be in the Address Line of your browser. You could copy the URL and post it where they want it at the blog website and see if it works. Another way you can find the URL for a photo on the web is to right click anywhere on the picture and click on properties and the URL will appear in the Address line in the box that opens up. Hope this helps.

[marta]

When it asks for a url, it wants the address directly to the photo displayed on a webpage. If you use Firefox, it is really easy to get. Right click directly on the picture in Flickr and select "Copy Image Location". Then in the Url field, paste in the link. If you are using IE, it is much more difficult. The 'easiest' way that I know is to right click on the picture, select "Properties". The url directly to the picture is displayed. You can highlight it and copy it from the Property pages. Regarding comment, I've restricted comments on my blog. I was getting a tremendous amount of spam comments every day. You should definitely limit comments by either requiring registration or some type of word verification so automated comments can't be posted. Edited after orignal post - I see reststep gave very similar instructions for getting the url of the picture.

[Karen]

Marta & Reststep, Thanks, I'll try all your methods in the morning when I'm fresh. I'm brain dead right now (well, actually, I'm that way most of the time). Karen