Aalto Blogs

Features

• A free blog for the people at Aalto

The service hosts blogs kept by users in possession of an Aalto ID. The main content of the service comes from blogs and their related posts, pages and comment threads.

A individual blog is made up of blog posts, which are displayed on the blog’s homepage in chronological order, with the newest post first. If there are many blog posts, then they will be divided over several pages. In addition to the posts, a blog may contain content in the form of static pages, which are pages that present permanent information. A typical purpose for these kinds of static pages is, for example, to offer further information about the user. Static pages also enable the blog to be used as a secondary home page. Image files and other media can be attached to blog posts and static pages. Posts can be divided into categories, which can be set freely by the administrator.

Blogs.aalto.fi provides limited scope for modifying the appearance of the blog.

In addition to the standard way of reading, blogs can also be checked with the aid of an RSS feed. Aalto Blogs automatically creates RSS feeds which can be used to monitor a particular blog or the comments made in that blog.

Support

The blogs are available publicly on the Internet and anyone can read and comment on them, but to create new blog entries or maintain a blog requires an Aalto ID. Users can invite other users to view their blogs and can give them additional rights. Only persons in possession of an Aalto ID can be called users (subscriber, contributor, author, editor, administrator).

The individual blog posts and static pages in a blog can be commented on by both logged-in and anonymous users. When anonymous comments are posted, the user will be asked for a CAPTCHA verification, which ensures that the comments section is not abused by spam robots. The blog administrator can remove and edit any of the comments made in the blog.

The blog administrator is able to manage the access rights to the blog flexibly. Individuals with Aalto user IDs can be assigned to different groups affiliated with the blog (subscriber, contributor, author, editor, administrator), which gives users additional access rights to the blog beyond just reading. In this way, other users can be granted authorization to contribute posts to the blog, remove comments and maintain the blog. In the same way, the administrator can define settings for the blog, such as whether comments require prior approval from the administrator, whether old comments are automatically closed, and to what extent content is to be displayed on different pages.

Service provided by Learning Services (LES)

If you have any questions or you are experiencing problems, please send a service request here: servicedesk.aalto.fi