Tag Archives: Posiel

ReMiX

What happens when you think of remix? Probably a musical track, right? Well guess what?! It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. You all probably know by now that visual art is my thing. So, I decided to create a remix in the art form… How did I decide to do this? Well, I got permission to take a picture of my classmates charcoal abstract sketch. Then, I created a remixed version of it by adding colours and soft edges. I basically took things out, added new details and changed it up a bit, but still recreating some aspect of the sketch. Take a look at how it turned out:

  • Classmates sketch.
    Picture taken by me.
  • My remixed version.
    Picture taken by me.

Community

Building a Community

Building a Community

When was the last time you tried something for the first time?

The first time I heard someone ask me this was two years ago, at the Tough Mudder start line, minutes before the race started. For those who don’t know what this race is, Tough Mudder is a 12 mile obstacle race that was originally designed to test mental and physical strength. Of the 25 obstacles, some include crawling under barbed wire, running through live electric wires, submerging yourself in a pool of ice water, climbing over walls, hanging from monkey bars, and much, much more.

I know what you’re thinking: why would anybody put themselves through that?! I was thinking that too, until I used that fear as fuel to gain a sense of ownership and control. In 2017 I wanted to challenge myself to do something I thought I would never be able to do. For a long time, Tough Mudder was it: I hate cold water (with a passion), I’m not the biggest fan of heights, and I didn’t think I’d be physically able to complete this treacherous course. Despite all of this, I managed to rope my friends into completing it with me in. And not once – but twice – with plans of doing it again in the summer of 2019.

Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can’t put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow. You will never change. You’ll never learn.

Jasno Reynolds

Realistically, my current audience is the small circle of family and friends who relentlessly support me (hi mom!). Ideally, this following will expand to an audience that doesn’t know me personally, yet is still drawn to the content and photographs of this blog. The dream would be for this blog to flourish internationally, growing a community of fellow travellers and adventurers. I want this blog to encourage people to share a desire to get outdoors and try new things; I aspire for these images to inspire the love for travel, adventure, and the outdoors; I hope motivate people into embracing the unknown and challenges. This will take time, no doubt, but I am excited at the opportunity for potential.

Thank you for being a part of this community!

Main St. Development in Photos

Below is a sequence of photos from Vancouver’s False Creek and Main Street area taken from the Google maps database. They date from 2000 to 2018 (excluding ’06 and ’10 – ’12).

It takes a few cycles of the GIF to notice changes. A particular area of interest is south of the water.

The stress associated with the transformation of old neighbourhoods and soaring property values have been felt in many modern cities around the world. Indeed, this problem may come to define era in coming decades.

This stress has a particularly tangible burden on cultural spaces, which tend to pull in less profits than a traditional business, especially if they are presenting alternative forms of media.

As you look at this sequence, consider how Vancouver’s landscape, or the landscape of any modern city, may come to accommodate cultural spaces. Where could those spaces be? What effects will the inclusion or exclusion of these spaces have on your city? Are these the right questions to ask?

I would love to read your answers to these questions in the comments below.

Adam

Live Like Joao

Live Like Joao
Food, Places and Everything About My Life

*Above image taken from Live Like Joao’s Blog

A PEER-REVIEW ON WEBSITE DESIGN

Live like Joao offers a personable and candid approach to food blogging. When it comes to creating his new blog, Joao’s honesty is refreshing; while this may be a daunting new task, Joao invites his audience into his inner thoughts as he navigates the unfamiliar waters of WordPress. According to the screenshots from Amanda‘s first peer review, Joao has implemented a lot of her recommendations and suggestions. Already, Live Like Joao is starting to have synchronicity between the website’s appearance and the content. To properly unpack the different design elements in this blog, I will be focusing on two important design umbrellas: user experience (UX) and User Interface (UI).

User Experience

Travis Gertz’s 2015 Design Machines: How to survive in the digital Apocalypse explains the UX design as how the website works, as opposed to how it looks. A hyper-simplified breakdown of the UX design category would include layout, interaction, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, research, and testing. At first glance, Live Like Joao seems to work pretty cohesively and sensibly. There are subtle cues throughout the blog that indicate where I should look or click. For example, both the BLOG and POSIEL tab on the top righthand menu have a little downwards arrow to indicate a drop-down menu. These exemplify what Victor Kaptelinin describes as affordances in his article The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction.

The search function right above the categories list is a really helpful tool, especially when looking for a certain page or post that I particularly enjoyed, but was unable to retrace my steps. Since this blog is fairly new, I wasn’t lost in the content and it was easy to find my way back; however, once there are more entries and if Joao chooses to continue this blog post-PUB101, I suspect that this search function will become a really handy tool.

While there are affordances that create direction throughout the blog, I still seemed to have encountered some problems with Joao’s BLOG section. Firstly, I noticed that there is a category for “Blog” and “Blog Post”. This seems counter-intuitive, as these categories seem synonymous. Kaptelinin underlines that “Good designs are intuitive“; hence, I would always recommend going through the website fully – as a sort of informal audit – and paying extra attention to what is intuitive to you. What comes up when you click certain links? Does it take you where you would expect it to? This brings me to my second suggestions: make sure that  the information is stored in the right place. For example, when I click the BLOG POST on the drop down menu, the only post that is available is the “Short Essay 1”.

User Interface

In contrast to the former, UI Design encompasses how the website looks as opposed to how it works. Gertz explains that typography, colour, forms, illustration, photography, and detail can all be found within this realm.

Caution: Do not read when hungry!

This blog does a wonderful job at capturing mouth-watering cuisine. From a UI design perspective, there is a great use of white space and visual contrast with images. Blog Post 1 does a good job of separating chunks of text and using different fonts, especially by bolding the Ingredients title. The other blog posts could benefit by following the great example from that first blog. For example, my eyes are yearning for more contrast in the text in the Blog Post 3. There is a beautiful photo of gorgeous cuts of meats – perhaps I should have waited until after dinner to write this review – followed by the restaurant’s information and a short review. To better accompany the bold image, I would make the text larger and create a small text box containing the restaurant’s pertinent information. Currently, the review is the smallest group of text on the image: all these small modifications would allow for the sections of the page to be more proportionate to each other, and allow the important information to stand out.

The beautiful rustic table of food that act as the blog’s cover page sets the tone for a visually-enticing food blog. Keeping this in mind, I would recommend continuing with this theme by adding more images throughout the blog: as we are unable to taste this food with our taste buds, we do so with our eyes. Therefore, it is important to describe or visually show these through images and videos, as is done in the first blog post. If at all possible, ensure that photos and videos are the same size or are complimentary to the overall page layout to allow for synchronicity and fluidity.

Overall, I enjoyed joining Joao on his adventures through WordPress and discovering exciting new restaurants around the Lower Mainland through his reviews. I look forward to seeing the progress and reading more content from Joao. The recipes, reviews, and personable tone leaves me  hungry for more!

Check out Live Like Joao here.

Talking to Strangers – Can – Make you Happy.

There are few things I find more frightening than being unlikable. That may sound insecure, yes, but I prefer not to skirt around the truth. Being ‘liked,
‘ whatever that might mean, reaps a bounty of benefits from good eye contact to free cigarettes to job promotions.

When it comes to meeting strangers, likability values a good first impression, so whether I’m at a club or on the bus, I do everything in my power to facilitate positive social experiences. This tends to happen passively when I’m relaxed, but when I’m stressed, I tend to waste time concerned about whether  or not I’ve agitated people.

Recently, I have been more stressed in public, so my interactions with strangers has been limited to stressing out about them in my imagination. However, over the last week, after reading a James Hamblin piece titled “How to Talk to Strangers,” I’ve been determined to have conversations with humans who I’ve never met. As of now (Sunday afternoon), I’ve had two.  

The first didn’t go well. It was with a new classmate, whose name I had forgotten during our round table introductions a half hour earlier. To summarize, we traded names, “how are you’s?”, and he walked away. I was bitter about his lack of tact, and re-entered our classroom, introverted and annoyed. This felt like a lesson on why one should not talk to strangers. I had tried and failed.

The second went perfectly. It was exemplary of my bright, optimistic social ability. While looking for a place to sit in a crowded bar, I greeted a stranger, we traded “how are you’s,” I gave an honest, witty answer, we introduced ourselves, and the rest of the conversation was silk. We were at a drag show, so at least 95% of the people at the venue shared a common cultural interest and, such similarities make for easy bonding. I formed a sense of accomplishment after that, but for no simple reason I think.

In his article, Hamblin asserts that “public-health research has shown improved moods among commuters who chat on the subway, and happiness and creativity among people who talk to strangers.” However, I believe it is an oversimplification to say that stranger chatting causes happiness. I have spent many happy hours engrossed in a book on transit, and being interrupted by a chatty commuter would probably have spoiled that mood. Chatting isn’t for everyone, or for every moment, so don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t strike up conversation with strangers. Occasionally, stranger chatting can be satisfying, sure, and I have a theory as to why.

As people grow and develop, I believe they reinforce certain behaviours and habits, physically and emotionally, that can be described as ‘needs’ when one grows older. I like to think that I have a need for intimacy, and there are many ways to satisfy that. Feeling intimately connected with a book is one way, and meeting a friendly new human is another. It would be selfish to assume that everyone has the same needs as I do, though, so I heed you, dear reader, to be careful with Hamblin’s article. Do not assume that socialization creates happiness, but be open to it having that influence.

The End of Posiel…

As we come to an end in the semester, so do our process posts, mini-assignments and other Posiel content. ReRouted has given me much more than a letter grade or place to vent about what was once thought to be an identity crisis. In looking forward, there are several things I’ve learned from this process to wherever it is I end up.

  • Blogging is cathartic
  • Publishing is a big part of our current society
  • Guest speakers provide opportunities to learn practical information that is really interesting and engaging
  • Blogging is relatively easy to do… I wish I did it earlier
  • WordPress is simple, but when trying to design a particular aesthetic, it can be frustrating
  • The best way to learn about yourself is to put yourself out there
  • Ellen is a great TA
  • Publishing is literally everywhere
  • I actually enjoy seeing my writing in a public space and take some pride in it
  • The world has changed more rapidly than I had thought
  • Weekly tasks make learning easier
  • Journaling is incredibly productive and worthwhile
  • I am more passionate about democracy than I originally believed

This list is obviously not exhaustive; there are so many things that could be added, as well as gleaned from this course. In forging ahead, especially into the blogosphere, I would like to take some of what I’ve learned and apply it to pursuits, interests and passions.

Week 8: Remixing and Choosing

So for the mini assignment this week was about remixing something. At first I was very interested in the smartphone trends. For example, Tik Tok is gaining popularity over here in North America where you can post a video of yourself acting or lipsyncing to a song and someone can add onto yours or remix it. I thought that would be a great idea to do a remix, but it would just be copying someone else.

But just a few days ago, my girlfriend was in an elevator when these 2 dogs were interacting with each other. The Shiba Inu in the picture was very affectionate to the other dog, and the dog was quite hesitant. We exchanged a few edits back and forth then that gave me the inspiration to make my own.

While it was focused primarily on what I feel in studying, I guess I should give some background too. The courses that I’m taking in my last semester are heavily involved in technology. Sending in assignments, writing emails, and writing blogs. Mixed in with what I have to check for things I bought, my work schedule, updates on graduation, etc. it becomes exhausting. The Shiba Inu is representative of that. And I, kind of just taking it. I’m not claiming my remix to be deep, but a better context to how it fits overall!

Experience as an online Publisher

As an online publisher for the first time I have come to realize many things as to having an online presence. To be a successful publisher, there are various aspects to take in to consideration. Before taking publication 101 at Simon Fraser University, I have always thought that a publishers main tasks was to write, write and write some more. Although a lot of what being a publisher requires is writing, I have come to realize how much design, engagement and statistics also come into play. All of these aspects work together for one to have a successful online presence.

My online presence was based through a WordPress blog and Instagram. I mainly focused on food and reviewed it for other readers who would be interested in trying something new. I targeted all of my content towards people in Vancouver, in hopes that they would visit the places I’ve posted about. After reviewing some of my statistics through instagram, most of my followers and engagements do come from people who are from Vancouver. Prior to creating this blog and online presence, I wanted to keep my tone on both platforms the same. Learning from other food bloggers I follow, I’ve noticed that having the persona of a friend and using a playful tone works the best. As I am giving food suggestions, to me, it feels like I am talking to my audience casually which allows for comments and feedback that opens to conversation.

The value I intend to give my audience is simple. I try my best to give honest reviews and answer any questions they have. Aside from the audience who come to my blog/instagram for food suggestions, I tag all the food stall owners into my posts. To my surprise, many of them responded back and appreciated the shoutout.

Accounts following my Instagram after posting a food review

Some of the food places who have an Instagram account even followed me back and reposted my pictures. To me, this was a success in the return of value for all three parties — me, my audience, and the food stall owners. Many of them also commented on my posts which increases my engagement. Other readers also comment and some even let me know that they would give my suggestions a try one day. This has influenced me to keep posting as when I see actual feedback from my targeted audience I know my blog is working!

Through comments, I get to express myself and use my online presence as an advantage. The fact that I do not put my identity out to the public allows me to be more expressive with myself. As psychologist John Suler termed the “online disinhibition effect”, he states that as you shed your identity, the usual constraints on your behaviour go too (Konnikova, 2013, para. 2). Although my anonymity allows me to fully express myself, I do not abuse this power. It encourages me to create a sense of community and be more proactive, whereas in real life I am more timid and worry about standing as an individual. Anonymity certainly boosts a certain kind of creative thinking for me as to other people. (Konnikova, 2013, para. 3). This allowed me to comment on other food blogger’s posts and start to make connections online.

One thing I would like to work on is to be more consistent. In the beginning of the term, I was more focused on the blog and uploaded more consistently. While I was doing this, I noticed a jump in followers, engagements and impressions. More people were visiting my blog/Instagram and it was at the peak. Though I tried to pick up my consistency again, it was hard to get back to my peak. I was not sure why this was the case, but I assumed it was because of the algorithm from Instagram. After trying to get back to higher engagements, I started to comment on other blogger’s content and my engagements started to increase as well.

Beginning profile visits vs. profile visits during inconsistent posting

Aside from all the numbers and back-end statistics, I also tried to focus on the aesthetics of my blog/Instagram account. “Good designs are intuitive”  (Kaptelinin, n.d., para. 2), so I tired to make my blog as easy to navigate as possible for my audience. “Great, intuitive designs are those that allow us directly, and correctly, to see what we can do with a thing”  (Kaptelinin, n.d., para. 7). The human attention span when landing on a website is 7 seconds (Bowshier, 2017, para. 1), — that is shorter than a goldfish’s attention span of 9 seconds! Because of this, I tried to use effective affordance strategies on my blog. As Norman, director of The Design Lab at University of California would say, affordances provide strong clues to the operation of things (Norman, 1988). I made sure all my buttons on my blog look like they were clickable and that all my in-text links were underlined. The user will know what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction will be needed to tell them what to click on. (Norman, 1988).

For the Instagram aesthetics, I tried my best to edit the pictures so they look extra appetizing. As mentioned above, some of the pictures have also been featured on the food place’s official instagram pages. I made sure to keep my blog and Instagram as a whole unit by linking my blog in the description, and adding Instagram icons on my WordPress blog. My online presence with this blog has been fun, it was definitely cool to meet new people online. I was able to share my experience while gaining insight from others as well. Past the end of this course, I hope to continue my food blog journey and keep my engagements stable by being more consistent and proactive as a publisher and audience to my peers.

word count: (975)

References

Bowshier, L. (2017). You have 7 seconds: Grab website Visitor’s Attention in Moments. Tribute Media. Retrieved from https://www.tributemedia.com/blog/you-have-7-seconds-what-a-visitor-should-know-about-your-website-within-moments

Hambil, J. ( 2016). How to Talk to Strangers. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/08/civil-inattention/497183/

Kaptelinin, V. (n.d). The Encyclopedia of Human-Cimputer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Interaction Design Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances

Norman, Donald A. (1988): The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York, Basic Books

Self-Assessment 5%

I would give myself an overall score of 4.5/5 for my self assessment. As I learned how to present myself on the online space, I got better as the semester went on. I learned how to engage with my audience through instagram and even made a few connections with official accounts. I have also been featured on their accounts and gotten recognition from them. As to my statistics, I personally think throughout these 3 months, I did get some views (mainly on my Instagram rather than my website). Though there were not many visiting users, it is a start. I would like to continue my journey as a food blogger on instagram but maybe not on an actual website. Another aspect I would like to work on would be to be more consistent. Although I finished the posts in the end and created the content for my food posts, the consistent posts would have kept my statistics higher and kept me relevant. I’ve taken a lot from this course and the guest speakers really open up my perspective on their personal professions. My post and online presence was uniformed throughout the semester and I believe my use of another platform (Instagram) really enhanced my blog. I tried to be more personable and gave off a friendlier vibe to start conversation. People have left comments and even complimented my posts. This has been a great experience, and I am glad everything ran smoothly!

Essay No. 2- My Expirience as an Online Publisher.

All my life I wanted to share the wisdom I had, whether it was when I was 15 years old in high school when I shared with my friends that nothing good ever happens after midnight or to now. When this blog assignment first came to be at the beginning of the semester, I knew exactly what I wanted to write on, life rules. After reading an article by William Kraska, (“What Makes a Good Blog?”), I learned that to have a good and successful blog, “Blogs become successful because of specificity and passion, according to Kevin Donahue, co-creator of Fanblogs, a college football blog described by Forbes.com as the best blog dedicated to a single sport.” (What Makes a Good Blog? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://journalism.nyu.edu/publishing/archives/notablog/story/good_blog/).  After reading this article I knew, I wanted to make my blog about rules that have helped me throughout my short 19 years on earth. It was a specific genre and it was something I knew very well and would write on easily. I have not had too much success so far in building an audience, most of my comments are Russian bots, but I hope someday with more time and effort I will have an audience that will take what I say and use it to benefit their day-to-day lives. If anything Google Analytics has shown me the potential I have, like I previously stated, I do not have much of an audience, but I can have it, with the help of ads and promotions it is entirely possible for my blog to take off. 

Most of the enjoyment I had with this course, was the design aspect. After I got a hand on how to design and how to use WordPress, I enjoyed creating this online space that was the essence of me and what I was trying to convey. I first decided to make my blog more lively after reading the suggested reading ‘Design Machines- How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse’ by Travis Gertz (Author & Gertz, 2018).   I was inspired to make my blog stand out, Gertz explains how as a whole in this digital age it is so easy to get swept away with security and what we know will work, that all of our pages end up looking the same; and how it is so important to have design. He also explains how important it is that our content does not exceed our design or that our design does not surpass our content.  This article inspired me to continue to work on the creativity of my blog, yet also keep up the substance to an acceptable level.

I did a lot of research on different blogs to see how they used specific tools that benefited them with their audience. One night as I was going deep down the rabbit hole of blogs, I came across serval various blogs and websites that all featured a more personal side. I had the idea to post more photos of what made me, well… me, pictures and videos of my life coincided with the theme of my blog as well.  I also came across a website titled ‘Vandelay design’ (“Vandelay Design”), a design blog; an article struck a chord with me about design written by Steven Snell. It is called ‘Blog Design: Does Design Impact Your Success?'(“How Important is Design to a Blog’s Success?”, 2016), the article states that “The blog design can also seriously help or hurt the level of success of the blog by how it emphasizes or de-emphasizes the content. Readability is key. For visitors to appreciate the content, the design should emphasize it and not distract visitors away from it.” (How Important is Design to a Blog’s Success? (2016, May 23). Retrieved from https://www.vandelaydesign.com/impact-of-design/ ). I found that this article similar to ‘Design Machines- How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse’ by Travis Gertz, in the sense that, yes the design is very, but it should never take away from the actual content. 

Growing up I never had any interest in the traditional sense of publication. I believed my opinion was not worthy of being heard in such a public space (on the internet), as I have not had much life experience nor have I had much exposure to writing, I thought I would be heavily judged. During this past semester, I have uncovered many valuable lessons from Google Analytics and WordPress; the main takeaway I had was that even if nobody views your blog or website, we are all publishers. I realized more than anything that I grew as a personal author, my confidence grew, my writing skills improved, and my view on publication arose. Now that we end this course, I am left with the desire to continue to create and to find that sense of self within the publication.

Reflecting on this course, I have learned a lot, about myself, my personal views on life and my views on the publication of self. Moving forward I want to continue my online presence; I would love to make another blog or format my blog now into more advice while travelling solo. I have recently travelled solo, and I have so many tips and tricks that I would love to share, and I think people would like to listen. The main thing I have lesrned from this course and that I will take with me through my future endeavours in life is that everything good comes with time. Working with a blog your online presence could take months or even years to develop, to quote my favourite movie, ‘Field of Dreams’- “Build it, and they will come.” 

Process Post Week 12

Does privacy matter anymore? This is a question that can be very controversial and is more irrelevant than ever with society being in the state it is as a result of technology. Technology has lead the way of a more public society and now more than ever things are less private. For example, 50 years ago, if someone did something out of the ordinary in public they would maybe have a few people give them a glance but nothing much would change. Nowadays with almost everyone having access to a camera on their phone, the person who did something out of the ordinary is now a Youtube viral sensation and is getting booked on The Ellen Show for the following week. Technology has been a big component of the decrease of privacy in the world as with the click of a button anything can be sent to millions of people, thus there being little privacy. Privacy should still matter in this world because that person someone is taking a photo or video of might not want to be put on the internet and they should have that right to privacy and not have to be thrown into the spotlight. Now I believe, that if you got nothing to hide, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about privacy as there is nothing wrong your doing. However, this does not give anyone the right to take our privacy away from people as we don’t know if someone wants what they did shot in to the media. Overall, we still need privacy in this world as if we didn’t people would lose the basics of keeping something to themselves.

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Essay #2

Throughout my months in Publication 101, I learned so many new tips and tricks, and as a result my website got better while I gained more knowledge. So many components go into creating a website, and I had no clue what it was like maintaining an up to date website. I do have a fair amount of publishing background as I’ve created two yearbooks in highschool, but this was a lot different as it was all online. I can admit I am not the strongest writer, so when I first found out how much I would have to write each week it was a bit daunting and I wondered how I would fair. However, I found out that when writing about something you are really passionate about, such as college football, it makes it really easy to write and more fun.

 

When first got my website and I was deciding on what wordpress theme to choose for my blog, it was super difficult to decide which one to choose. There were literally thousands to choose from and it took a long time to find the right one. In the end I decided to go with one of the most basic themes called Aakriti Personal Blog, since I wanted my blog to focus mainly on the content and not have the theme distract the reader from my writing. I eventually introduced some color into my website after getting the suggestion from Jennifer’s peer review of my website. I then turned my website a neon yellow color. I choose a very unique color because I wanted to make my website stand out as I’ve never seen any website use yellow as their background and it helps set my website apart from all others and makes it distinct. One thing I did learn about the process while creating a website is that you must have a really good theme that allows you to manipulate it. The biggest regret of my website was actually the choice of theme. If I were to start over and make a new website, I would not use this theme again. I was very constricted on what changes I could make and I didn’t like how the sidebar was tucked away behind a three bar line on the top right which you had to click to get to the CFB standings and the archives. I wanted the standings to be on the homepage going down right hand side, but was not able to do that as I didn’t choose the right theme to get that. Overall, the theme I choose wasn’t right for me, but for the time it did its job and made my website very clean.

 

For the actual content I was producing, I looked to get inspiration from the leading producers in college football news. ESPN, Bleacher Report and theScore are just 3 of the biggest companies that write about college football. I used the general layout from Bleacher Reports articles on mine as I thought it might give my website more credibility if it resembles a well known sports writing website. These big companies didn’t get this big on luck so they must be doing something right so I decided to take a page out of their books. I also took suggestions from peer reviews to help improve my website. I implemented many great suggestions from Tessa’s peer review of my website. I switched the name of the author writing the posts from “admin”, to my name to make it more personal. I started using hyperlinks to make my posts look more professional Furthermore, I spread out the writing in to multiple paragraphs instead of just one long paragraph to make it easier to read. Getting suggestions for my website through peer reviews helped improve my website and every suggestion I really thankful for. Going forward, if I was to continue my blog I would want to figure out how to put videos directly in my posts so readers won’t have to click away in order to watch the video I am referencing. In the end, very happy about how my posts turned out and the way they looked in the end.

 

When I had to consider my audience for what I was writing about I had to do some research on who I was writing for. What I learned was that I was writing for all demographics. College football reaches over such a wide spectrum of people and after reading an article by nielsen.com on the reach of college football, I finally realized how big college football actually is. I learned that over  155 million Americans watch college football and it is split 50-50 by gender which makes college football a massive market. Also all ethnicities are shown to watch college football which really shows it covers everywhere in America. With this new knowledge, I had to make sure that what I was writing was very neutral and it wasn’t to difficult or to easy to read so it could appeal to everyone. Also if anyone has read many of my articles you might notice it follows the basic pattern of talking about the best teams in the nation. This is done with a purpose because typically the best teams are the most popular and have the biggest fan bases. For example, I would rather write about Ohio State, who has the #1 fan base of 3,167,263 than Maryland whos fan base is 474,059, according to a report done from the New York Times on where the fans lie. I want to attract as many people to my blog as I can and talking about the big teams was a tactic I used in order to get people here. This didn’t really work as my website had minimal viewership and almost no one went on my website. Hopefully, if I were to continue writing on my blog viewership would go up as that is one of my major goals of this website.

 

Having a blog and talking about something I’m passionate about each week has been an amazing experience and it was super fun. Going forward I will probably not keep posting on my blog as the college football season ends in just over a month and once its over there is almost nothing to talk about. I had a really fun time writing about topics I’m interested in and I might want to do something like this again next season. Likely I will not use a blog next season but rather I will create an Instagram account to post on, which will be a lot easier for me. What I learned most from this course is that I really enjoy creating content and whether it is on Instagram or a website I will try to always keep publishing something.

 

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Essay 2: Reflecting as A Blogger

When reflecting on my own blog, I see a stark difference on what I expected and what the course has taught me. In the beginning, I had an innocent idea of blogs. It’s an online space to express yourself and connect with people who have the same ideas. I still keep that idea when I write on my blog. However, throughout the course, I have changed my perspectives because I am more conscious on how it affects cultures, individuals, and workers. As ‘neutral’ as my content is, I don’t feel ‘safe’ because I am vulnerable with my content. Anybody can find my information and turn it against me or misuse my words to feed their own narratives. I want to explore this ‘fear’ and how the course has made me more careful about what I post and what I share online. It doesn’t necessarily discourage me from using the internet and social media. But my awareness has allowed me to be more appreciative of the people who create ‘controversial’ content that can endanger them or the people around them just because one person on the internet does not agree with it. My goal is to express my self-awareness in an active role. It’s not enough that I consume media writing about someone’s demise to the pitchforks of the internet. I want to be aware of that in my daily conversation online and offline.

Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis writes about media manipulation and the dissemination of disinformation online (2017). They discuss the events revolving around Wikileaks’ distribution of the hacked emails of John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s campaign chairman (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p. 2). Users from the message board 4chan quickly spread misinformation about the emails and how subcultural groups such as the alt-right groups who have given this scandal greater media attention than Trump’s own allegations (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p.2). These groups leverage their online presence and take advantage of the ‘vulnerabilities in the news’ and increase the coverage of their messages (Marwick & Lewis, 2017, p.3). This topical example has impacted U.S. politics today and in my opinion, gave voice to the hateful and divisive groups in America. I am reflective of how this affects my own online presence. It’s good to be knowledgeable and aware of the power of these groups, and I want to be more conscious about that in my own online interactions. In my blog, I speak about productivity and the impacts of smartphones on our day to day lives. I address the conflict between our attachment to our phones and this growing dependency to it. I think part of this conversation that I learned from the course is also the responsibility of the user. I cannot mindlessly use my devices and ignore what exists in the same spaces I connect in. I try to have ‘conscious’ content and express that throughout my blog.

Mike Caulfield writes a thought provoking piece on Digital Literacy and what we should follow (2016). What I found relevant to my reflection is his example of the Tree Octopus. These digital literacy acronyms and rules that are commonly shared to schools are useless in determining what is real or fake on the internet (Caulfield, 2016). The tree octopus is a fake cephalopod with a fake creature page that shows it has evolved into an amphibian and survives on land (Caulfield, 2016). What Caulfield found was they did not distinguish this by using acronyms to detect fake news, but just by knowing and learning that it’s impossible (2016). This leads to his proposal that to be digitally literate, you must know the web (Caulfield, 2016). What I think he means by this is that we must be aware and critical online as we are in our day to day lives. There are going to be groups and individuals who will misguide users because they don’t know anything better. Dissemination will be used for political gain or to harm minorities. I want to continue practicing these conscious ideas online. My blog is as vulnerable as anyone else’s. But I try my best to learn more and carry that knowledge with me.

I am reminded of UCL’s social media discoveries and why it’s important to be conscious of how it is affecting our day to day lives (2018). Discovery #12 writes that social media has a profound impact on gender relations (2018). This is a small example on this bigger picture of bettering myself in the online space. They find that users have benefits in using real or fake accounts to express sensitive topics and coming out against heteronormative relationships (UCL, 2018). Even though I am still cautious of my own personal information, I think there will be ways in which I can express myself. Knowledge and discussion will better me as a blog writer or an internet user. While I still carry this fear, I want to play an active role and this course helped me prepare for it.

References

Caulfield, M. (December 19, 2016). Yes, digital literacy. But which one? Hapgood. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from https://hapgood.us/2016/12/19/yes-digital-literacy-but-which-one/.

Marwick, A. & Lewis, R. (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online. Data & Society. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from http://posiel.com/outline/full-semester-outline/.

UCL (2018). Social media can have a profound impact through gender relations, sometimes through using fake accounts. University College London. Accessed on November 26, 2018. Retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-post/discoveries/12-social-media-can-have-a-profound-impact-on-gender-relations-sometimes-through-using-fake-accounts.

PUB 101- Essay 2

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

Before I get a chance to understand publishing, I thought it was merely publishing a book, sell it to somewhere, people read it and done. I never thought about the actual work and story behind every process until I get a chance to started writing my blog, publishing my work and sharing content to the audience. In the past 12 weeks, fortunately, I have an opportunity to experience how is it to be an online publisher. It might I need to overrate my self, online publisher, but I did have a chance to understand more details regarding editorial, design, marketing and content. After the brief online publisher career, I realized that publish good content. A successful model is much more complicated than I imagine. There are so much more than I could imagine before, lots of affording and work behind every process.


In this semester, I get a chance to experience to open my blog lift for live. I created my blog and shared my idea and through to other people. I created a fitness-focused blog to share my workout ideas and recommendation to other people so as to motivate people who are new to workout or want to know more about it. Everything started from sketching on my sketchbook, I drew the outline of the blog, considered the focus of the content and what was my purpose of creating a blog. Throughout the semester, I constantly change and improve my blog editorial concept, design layout and content. At first, I was using a big cover picture with a link at the middle. I thought that was a good idea that matches the current trend of blog design until I read Travis Gertz “Design Machines. How to survive in the digital Apocalypse.” In the article, Travis explained that all the webpage design are the same right now. All of them are sharing the same elements, and he asked a question to the audience “Without the logos, could you tell which companies own which screenshots?”(Gertz, 2015, para 7). I realized that If I put my page in one of the design, I could not tell which website is mine. Travis indicated that digital design is a human assembly line, designers are like a designer machine, they use the same elements over and over again to fulfill the trend of the world. As a design student, it was a wakeup call of mine. Therefore, I started to search other themes on the template. Although I can not do much configure on the webpage, I tried to find the theme that produces a different atmosphere but meanwhile match up with my theme. I ended up using the theme right now which is a slideshow post along with posts content below.


Besides the design elements, editorial and content design are also crucial in online publishing. Choose of words and tones are essential to content design, what do you want to build up the relationship. Friendly? Inform? Alternatively, Educate? Based on the tone we choose, the blog purpose may shift. In my blog, I decided to use a relatively friendly tone to my audience, and I intended to share my personal experience rather than teach them how to do it. I wanted to shorten the distance between me and the audience. Befriend with them rather than be a teacher of them.


Marketing strategies are one of the parts that I feel interested the most. From Shelby Carpenter essay “The Toast Is Toast: Literary Humor Site Shuts Down Over Ad Revenue Woes,” it gave me a brief concept of the current online publishing industry. Absorb the failure of the Toast, and I understand that as a publisher, it is necessary to set up the mission statement and ensure the niche of the topic. It will be challenging if the purpose is unclear throughout the publishing process. Also, proper marketing is crucial in a successfulness of business. In other words, you need to make sure your company earn money and make a balance in your business, increase the sustainability of the publishing of the business. In peer review 3, Joanna Kim gave me some ideas about what should I do to make my blog profitable. She points out that my blog should more closely relate to my training. She suggested that I should post a blog about my transformation to let the audience pay close attention to me so as to increase the publicity.


Looking back the semester, I learned many concepts from the course. It expanded my vision, publishing is not only in paperback and e-book, but the online trend is also taking over the publishing industry. Online publishing and marketing is the new benchmark in the publishing industry. No doubt printed publishing is still playing an important role in publishing, but the trend of online publishing is also arising.

Montreal Canadiens Rebuild Part 6

All images are from NHL 19.

Welcome to part six of the Montreal Canadiens rebuild in NHL 19’s Franchise Mode. Click here to catch up on part one, part two, part three, part four and part five. As mentioned last week, this week’s post will entail the remainder of the season simulation and hopefully a long playoff run.

 

Season Simulation

Upon simulating the remainder of the season, the Montreal Canadiens finished second in the division and conference, and fifth in the league with 102 points. E. Pettersson and F. Forsberg led the way offensively with 84 and 83 points respectively.

 

Playoffs Round 1

In the first round of the playoffs, the Canadiens faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game results were as follows:

Game 1: 3-2 OTW

Game 2: 2-1 W

Game 3: 2-1 OTW

Game 4: 4-2 W

This was a tight series as the score in the first three games only differed by one-goal. It could have gone either way, especially in the two games which went into overtime. Hopefully, our squad will take advantage of this quick series by resting and preparing for the next round.

 

Playoffs Round 2

In the second round of the playoffs, the Canadiens played against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The game results were as follows:

Game 1: 5-1 L

Game 2: 4-0 W

Game 3: 4-0 L

Game 4: 7-2 L

Game 5: 2-0 W

Game 6: 5-2 W

Game 7: 5-2 W

This was a long series where our team struggled in three of the first four games. However, they persevered and came through in game seven.

 

Playoffs Conference Finals

In the Conference Finals, the Canadiens played against the New Jersey Devils. The game results were as follows:

Game 1: 5-4 OTW

Game 2: 2-1 W

Game 3: 2-1 W

Game 4: 3-1 W

Similar to the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, this was a close series where the first three games only differed by one-goal. But the Canadiens were able to hang on and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

Playoffs Stanley Cup Finals

In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Canadiens played against the San Jose Sharks. The results are below.

This series went the distance, but the Canadiens were able to bring the Stanley Cup to Canada for the second year in a row in this simulation. Furthermore, T. Demko won the Conn Smythe Trophy while E. Pettersson posted 21-points in 22-games.

 

As promised in part one, The Hockey Singh has led the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup. Part six concludes the Montreal Canadiens Rebuild series. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did playing and writing about it. Please share your comments and/or suggestions.

Essay Two

ShhhKrystal is the handle I created for my blog as it is an abstract way of describing my personality. However, only I and people who have read my biography know the real meaning behind the name. As I did not want to use my real name for my blog, I opted for a handle that included my name but had an abstract beginning. Shhh is a sound people make when they want others to be quiet. Being an introvert, I prefer being alone most of the time but I do enjoy company once in a while. When I am in a group of people, I tend to be the quiet one. I prefer listening over speaking. My blog is an outlet for me to share my style with the public. Thus, requiring me to “speak” but through a blog as a medium. ShhhKrystal is a girl who prefers to not speak but speaks in another medium.

My blog was originally for myself. To keep track of how I have changed and how my style has developed throughout the semester. I realized that through this blog I am able to share my experiences and my style at the same time. Although my blog posts are solely on clothing pieces, I include brief explanations on how I decided what to wear and some random facts about what I encountered if something interesting arises. I also try exploring design trends I find and use them as my featured image instead of posting a picture of myself in different clothes (which readers will end up seeing inside the post anyway). My audience is those who are linked specifically to my website through Instagram. I imagine that most of my audience is interested in fashion and are interested in specific pieces I wear, which brings them to my blog.

Designing my blog took me the longest as I had no experience with creating a platform about myself. I had a few Tumblr accounts in the past and was actively posting and reblogging for a few years. Since the blog was not about me but about interests that I had at the time, I had more freedom with how I could design my page. I did not have to introduce myself, show my followers what I looked like, or share specific details about myself. The disinhibition effect worked well for me; I had the choice to conceal my identity and live a separate life (Suler, 2004, para. 5). I also used a very minimalistic theme with a navigation bar aligned to the left, and a one or two column post area; no images whatsoever that related back to my true identity.

I started with a similar theme when I first created this blog and I realized it was not working. Following conventions, most fashion bloggers have an about page and share details with their readers to build a connection and earn their trust. With ShhhKrystal, however, I included an about me page to introduce myself to my readers. As I show my face in my posts, it seemed like an introduction was necessary. I did not include a full close-up image of my face to “draw [a] boundary between [myself] and others” as “managing the shifting public/private continuum is also an important part of a blogger’s experience” (Chittenden, 2010, para. 26).

The goal for the overall appearance of my blog was to incorporate the use of grids. I always enjoyed grids with pictures as I found it really enjoyable to look at and it “gives [audiences] a hint about what’s inside [the post] and teases out [their] emotion” (Gertz, 2015, para. 64). The landing of my blog is a statement introducing exactly what my blog is about. I particularly like how it teases readers and pushes them to scroll down to view more. I made sure to incorporate affordances in my blog to guide readers through my site as “designers should be concerned about informing users about the outcomes of users’ actions (Kaptelinin, 2013). This gave me an opportunity to incorporate more colour into my blog as the background colour is white, the headings are black, and body text is grey; too minimal for my liking. The affordances are displayed when links are hovered to indicate to readers that it is a clickable entity.

My definition of publication has changed drastically after this course. Courses I have taken at Simon Fraser University and working at SFU’s school newspaper gave me the perception that publication was mostly on print materials. The publishing course I have enrolled in prior to this course required us to print out everything for submission, and the school newspaper is printed as well. I never knew publication included the online spectrum; I thought there was another category for it. I have learned that publishing is a lot more than just words. The secret behind a successful publication is the collaboration and harmony between text and design simultaneously (Gertz, 2015, para. 63).

Moving forward from here, I do not plan on continuing this blog as posting consistently is extremely difficult for me. If I do try my best to post consistently, the quality of the posts would not be where I want them to be. Instead, I will try incorporating what I have done on my blog to my Instagram account. Being extremely wary of how others perceive me, I do not post as much as I would like due to insecurities. However, after this course and gaining more experience with being photographed and pushing out style content, I am a bit more confident.

 

References

Chittenden, T. (2010). Digital dressing up: modelling female teen identity in the discursive spaces of the fashion blogosphere. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676260903520902

Gertz, T. (2015). Designing Machines: How to survive the digital apocalypse. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines

Kaptelinin, V. (2013). Affordances. In The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/affordances

Suler, J. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. Retrieved from http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Week 12: Online Shaming

In our second to the last week, we got to watch Jon Ronson’s TED talk When online shaming goes too far. He gave plenty examples of people who got affected by people who take the original post’s context or message out of proportion. The talk was compelling because it’s telling of how mob mentality can be dangerous in social media. I’ve seen many examples where even sharing from one account to another already leads to problems. It can ruin people’s lives. This is the world we live in. Information feels infinite and we take these small, consumable tidbits of information and blow it out. Jon Ronson did a great job presenting the helplessness that these people feel. Justine Sacco intended to mimic Americans who were ignorant of Africa as a whole and tweeted this:

In context, it makes sense. It makes sense to her friends and the people who know her but once it was shared by strangers, she was part of a social media crucifixion. They were ready to see what happens to her when she gets off the plane. She received the most unbelievable hate speech despite not knowing who she is. Her life has changed because people held on to this small piece of the Internet and created their own narrative. Online shaming reveals the human nature of being a part of something, but for the wrong reasons.

Essay 2

Ever since I could remember, I’ve loved gaming. Not just video gaming, but also board games and various other recreational games. On September 18th 2018, I made my first blog post. This was the Encounter With a Stranger post, it wasn’t particularly exciting nor accomplishing, but it was a step in the right direction. After 12 weeks of posting on my blog, I feel that I’d discovered an interest into content creation in the gaming genre.

The Online Self

Through all my process posts, there is a consistent theme of my bringing up of “The Online Self”. The online self is s persona that one creates or invents when they create content, such as Youtubers like Pewdiepie. The mannerisms and personality help the content creator engage with their audience, creating a coherent and loyal fanbase. I’ve had issues with developing an online persona around the first 3-4 weeks of the course, thinking that it’s awkward to be someone else. This led to the narrative of the blog being slightly dull, and my post introducing the game Overwatch perfectly illustrates a bland persona. There was no greeting to my audience at the introduction, I only focused on the technical analysis of the game, instead of cracking a few jokes, eliciting emotion or making connections to my real life. It was after I read John Suler’s The Online Disinhibition Effect, where I started to realize how I can develop my persona on my platform. Suler mentions seven different effects the online platform has on one’s personality, and the Dissociative Anonymity (Suler, 2004) effect resonated with me the most. Dissociative anonymity is the phenomena such that, a lot of times people interact with stranger on the internet, not knowing their true identity, and this anonymity empowers one to speak their true thoughts (Suler, 2004). This had taught me that I could display an even more “real” personality online, than I would with strangers in real life. From the post Infamous Second Son (PS4), I’ve started to incorporate greetings, and a few weeks later through Puzzles & Dragons (Mobile), I’ve integrated some of my real-life events like talking about my midterms. It is evident through my posts, that I was growing as a content creator, taking baby steps to engage with my audience.

The Design

At around week 10 of developing my blog, I started being more mindful on my Google Analytics, reflecting upon what the data tells me about my audience. According to my analytics by Monster Insights – a widget that I downloaded as an alternative to Google – there was a 62.96% bounce rate on my site. This means that around 63% of the sessions, the viewer leaves the site without going further than the homepage. My course of action against that was to drastically change the design of my webpage. The initial design of the banner, as I’ve been told by my peers, had too busy of a background which took the attention away from the navigation menu, which was integrated within the banner. This might have caused the user experience to lack in affordance. Affordance, according to Victor Kaptelinin in The Encyclopedia of Human Interaction, is design based on human intuitiveness (Kaptelinin, 2013). In order to create a more intuitive user experience, I changed the theme of my blog into having the banner on the left side of the page, taking up about 30% of the homepage. I feel that this puts more focus on the navigation menu, which helps the user explore my blog posts in a more robust manner. Furthermore, Mauve Page, a guest speaker from week 5 had given a presentation on web design and user experience. According to Page, contrast in the color and general content is critical in creating a point of focus for the audience (Page, 2018). This is also reflected on the change of banner on my blog, I chose a mostly white background for the banner, to create a contrast with the dark font of the navigation menu. This helps create a focal point for my audience, and ultimately develop an affordance in the navigation of my blog.

Final Thoughts

Over the course of the 12 weeks of this course, I feel that how my blog has evolved in terms of the Online Self and the Design and what I’ve learnt in this process is a skill that I will continue to explore. Blogging every week about gaming has been an eye-opening experience, as this is my first time creating content and a presence online. I’d like to continue this journey, expanding it to streaming games, creating Youtube commentaries or even podcasts. Developing an online persona has taught me how to engage with my audience, to create a coherent fan base.

Works Cited

  1. Soegaard, Mads & Friis Dam, Rikke. (2013). The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed..
  2. Suler, J. (2002). The basic psychological features of cyberspace. In The Psychology of Cyberspace, www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/basicfeat.html (article orig. pub. 1996)
  3. Page, M. (2018). Some Considerations On Web Design And Type On Screens

 

 

 

Essay 2: Online Publishing in Practice (A Reflective Essay)

Simon Fraser University’s course Publication of Self in Everyday Life provides an opportunity for students to explore what it means to be an online publisher and encourages students to create a place on the internet to write about their interests. I have been a movie fanatic for years, but I had never considered making a blog. I assumed no one was interested in hearing my thoughts, and also saw no benefit in making a website that may only have one viewer (presumably myself). As I began creating content, learning more about design, and thinking about online audiences, my fear of screaming into the void subsided. Even if I have a low number of readers, I discovered that my blog had other value. I discovered this blog could act as a portfolio (demonstrating my design and writing capabilities), and this blog could act as an inventory (a personal space for me to keep track of all the wonderful and horrible movies I watch). I see benefits beyond readership. The POSIEL course offered at SFU expanded my understanding of what it means to be an online publisher by forcing me to consider audience, design, and confidence in the online world.

In order to create a target audience, I considered my own experience with cinema and the quality of information I can relay to readers. My imagined audience is average movie-goers, ages eighteen to twenty-five, who are interested in film but are not professionals working in the field. I focused on the “average” movie-goer because I have no formal education or training in cinematography; I am an average movie-goer myself. I watch more movies than many people my age because I work at my local cinema, but I am a fanatic not a professional. I also targeted this audience because I find critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to be more critical than user reviews. The more positive user reviews suggest average movie-goers are more optimistic about the films they are seeing, and I wanted to contribute to this positive outlook on movies.

The professional yet personal design of my blog is an attempt to better attract my desired audience. Mauvé Page suggested that rhythm “helps create predictability and order in your design,” and rhythm can be achieved through repetition of elements (Page). All of my movie reviews have the movie poster, movie name, a brief comment on the film, and a score (displayed as a percentage). The articles also have a repetitious feel by having the written review followed by the movie trailer. Mauvé also suggested people respond well to faces (Page), so I included an image of myself on my “About” page that seems friendly and approachable (and also indirectly tells my viewers I am around the same age as them). I also used contrast to make my homepage exciting and unique to me. Contrast can be achieved through colour, texture, size, and shapes (Page). My header image is the largest item on the page, and I used vibrant colours to make this image stand out further. Based on my Google Analytics, I can tell my readership is quite small and mostly comes from people in our class. On a positive note, the people in our class are a part of my target audience, so my imagined audience is my current audience.

One of the greatest challenges I encountered throughout this entire process was gaining confidence in my work. In high school, I won several creative writing contests within the school but few people read my pieces. Putting both my movie reviews and academic posts online made me feel vulnerable. There are real studies that show the severity of online harassment: “A Pew Research Center survey published two years ago found that 70% of 18-to-24-year-olds who use the Internet had experienced harassment, and 26% of women that age said they’d been stalked online” (Stein). It was nerve-racking posting a picture of myself on my “About” page along with posts that express my thoughts and emotions (especially in my process posts). I did not want to reveal my age or gender. Fortunately, I have only received one comment on my website and it was positive. To my surprise, a user commented on the post I felt most self-conscious about making public: my essay. My first and only comment was as follows: “Only wanna tell that this is very useful, thanks for taking your time to write this.” The comment surprised me because I thought no one would be interested in reading my essay. This single comment managed to increase my confidence and make me reflect more seriously about why I am afraid of posting my academic writing online. Erin Glass’ article “Why We Need Social Paper” looks critically at academic writing and asks readers to consider “what we learn about the practical power of speech when we practice speaking to nobody” (Glass). Glass emphasizes that “a public must not die every semester” (Glass), but that is exactly what happens as students simply hand in papers and never look at them again. As an English major, I have written many thoughtful essays about literature that may be of interest to my peers or others studying the novel under analysis, but those essays cannot benefit anyone if they remain a buried file on my laptop.

After spending many hours working on the design and content on my blog, I have no desire to stop writing. I finally feel like the design is complete and I can focus on just writing posts. I hope to expand on my blog to include more television shows and special features posts (which will likely include a “Best Holiday Movies” post shortly). At the beginning of the semester, I felt overwhelmed, frustrated and confused, but now I finally see the value of having this space of my own. Audrey Watters discusses the importance for students to have a “domain of one’s own” in her article “The Web We Need to Give Students.” Watters explains how personalized domains provide students with an opportunity to “build their own digital portfolio” (Watters). My blog is a piece of academic work I can take with me and continue to explore. It is a piece of my academic work that demonstrates my passion, writing, and understanding of design more thoroughly than any other essay or project I have created in the past four years. Online publishing does not necessarily require writing for a large public; online publishing can simply be a way of discussing your passions, demonstrating your knowledge, or creating something that is of interest to you.

 

 

Works cited

Developing Guidelines

As my site revolves around fashion, appropriate community guidelines should allow my audience to comment on my post to share their opinions and ideas. Of course, I would expect trolls on my site. There really is no way to prevent trolls from surfacing unless interaction was cut off completely. I will allow trolls to express how they feel about me, however, it has a high possibility of being deleted by myself as I do not want to promote argument on my blog. I want to create a platform where others interested in fashion can share their own opinions on my outfits and how they would alter it to suit their style. Although my self-esteem will be hurt by trolls, my main goal is for my audience to connect with myself and each other. I wish to create a safe platform for those interested in fashion can connect. For that to happen, comments must be open; which also opens the doors for trolls. However, I knew these are the correct guidelines for myself as receiving messages from trolls can help me grow into a stronger individual and learn and completely understand that the only people I need to please are those I care about. There really isn’t anything to implement for this to take place. All there needs to be is discourse in the comments of my blog posts.

 

featured image retrieved from https://i-h1.pinimg.com/564x/42/3e/e6/423ee66105bb21adce4db73e64e49f7f.jpg

Community Guidelines

I think my guidelines are pretty similar to bookriot’s guidelines 

“To support these goals, the following rules will be enforced. Users can be banned on the first offense for any of the following behaviors:

  • Name-calling, insulting, or otherwise attacking a contributor or another site user.
  • Posting irrelevant, abusive, or otherwise inappropriate content or comments.
  • Posting comments that question or denigrate the value of marginalized voices.
  • Posting self-promotional content.”

I would also include — guidelines which state:

  1. no reposting material/photos without proper credits
  2. do not impersonate someone else and comment/interact with account
  3. help report any unacceptable behaviour when present

 

These will be regulated by me and hopefully with the help of my followers. Users who do not follow guidelines will be warned and then blocked if no changes are implemented.