Welcome to the Overlook Estates Post - A community newsletter
What can I do with it?Plenty!
Post news- family news (carnival at school, recital or play, awards and citations -- good ones, not traffic citations!)
- events (HOA meetings, important city council meetings, planning & zoning commission meetings, OEMB, etc.)
- local news items that you spotted and think of interest to the neighborhood
RFI (Request For Information)- Ask for a recommendation (electrician, baby-sitter, pest control, yard maintenance, etc.)
- Ask for help in navigating the local government, school board, property tax appeals, etc.
- Ask for expertise: e.g. "Does anyone know how to get a squirrel out of the attic?"; "Does anyone know how to get wine stains out of carpeting?"; etc.
- Ask for an explanation of the HOA CCRs... for the process for getting on the HOA Board's monthly agenda... etc.
Post a recommendation
- Recommend a service company you have used and pleased with
- Recommend a restaurantRecommend a dentist (I vote for dr-drr!)
- Recommend a pet groomer (hmmmm... anyone know of a good one?)
- Recommend a roofing company (wish I could think of one!)
- Recommend anything that you have used/tried and want to share with your neighbors
Offer a tip
- household
- yard & garden
- travel
- shopping
- commuting
- telecommuting
- internet
- home networking
- whatever!
Start a conversation
- If something you see interests you and you want to comment, simply click on the "comments" link at the bottom of that entry
- If your news item, recommendation, tip, or RFI generates additional thoughts or questions, simply post a comment to it
How do I use it?
Using it is as simple as opening a web page! Go to the blog's URL (you are there now) and see what others in the neighborhood have been posting. Here is a summary of what you will see when you get there:
There is a header with a brief description and two columns of information. The column on the left contains the postings. The column on the right allows you to navigate -- by year, by month, by blog entry, and by category (label).
You will also see on the right, a section called "Hill Country Voice". This is an RSS (Atom, actually, if you want to be technical) feed from another blog I will be maintaining for local and regional news items. Being an RSS feed, all new postings to The Hill Country Voice will automatically appear in this section of the the Overlook Estates Post. At the bottom of the right-hand column, there is a space for my profile as the creator of the blog. That section is currently empty.
You will notice that I have "primed the pump" with a few sample entries.
How do I post a new entry?
This is the really cool part! All you have to do is send an email to the blog email address! It's as easy as that! I recommend that you try a sample email to test it. Whatever you put in the subject line of your email will appear as the headline for your entry. The body of your email will appear as the text of the entry.
Since all entries will show up as "POSTED BY RCA AT " I suggest that you sign your posting with "-- [first name] [lastinitial]." (e.g. -- Rusty A.) so you and everyone else can identify the real source of the posting. If you want to remain anonymous, that's ok, too! But if/when you send a test posting, you will want to sign it so that you can see that it really worked for you. A recommended format for this test is:
Subject: Test post
Body: This is a test -- Rusty A.
I will leave the test postings for a day or so and then delete them so they don't clutter up the newsletter.
CAUTION! Please do not publicize the email address or share it with your friends, children, or acquaintences . If it becomes publicly known we will start getting spam (and worse) in our newsletter. If it becomes apparent that the email address has fallen to the dark side , I will have to set up another one. This is no biggie, but then you all will have to be notified, and that means another email from me!
How do I comment on someone else's post?
There are two ways:
1) If you are on the main page, at the bottom of every post there is a link that says "n comments" (where the 'n' represents a number - e.g. '2 comments'). Simply click on that link and compose your response. You will have the choice of your identity in your comment. You can choose a Blogger Id (if you have a Blogger account), a nickname that you decide, or anonomous. See the post entitled "Replaced Suddenlink With DirecTV and AT&T DSL" for an example of a conversation via comments to a post.
2) If you click on a specific entry from the index on the right of the main page (or if you click on the headline of a post on the main page) you will see that post, and all comments to it on one page. At the bottom of that page there will be a link, "Post a comment." Click on that link to enter the conversation. It works the same as described in the previous paragraph. You will have three choices for your identity.
When you submit a comment you can elect to leave an email address (it is not publicized) so that you will be informed whenever someone else leaves a comment on that topic. This is optional and you may choose not to leave an email address.
How do I receive automatic feeds from the newsletter via RSS?
If you already are familiar with a "newsreader" then simply enter the address below to get the Overlook Estates news feed:
Atom feed URL
RSS feed URL
If you are new to receiving news feeds, you can get a pretty good explanation at wikipedia
More and more software is available for reading feeds. I used to use RSS Owl, but when I upgraded MS Outlook to Outlook 2007, I found that it has a built-in news reader. I now get my news feeds just like I was getting email.
The latest release of Internet Explorer also has a built-in news reader.
Other options include Yahoo (If you have/create a Yahoo account, your MyYahoo allows you to add news feeds to your home page, although I haven't been able to get it to accept the Google Blogger feed URL -- hmmmm... it couldn't be because Yahoo and Google don't like each other, could it?)
Google also has a news reader page that you can customize. Again, you will need to set up a Google account (it's painless).
If anyone knows of other quick and easy ways to get news feeds, perhaps they will post their tip on the newsletter!
Who determines what is allowed?
Ultimately, we all do. Read everything in this FAQ and post according to these guidelines. If you are not sure if your post is appropriate or it seems to be a "gray area", send me an email and we'll discuss it. If I find a post that I consider inappropriate, I will call you and discuss it rather than just remove it. We will try to find a different way to word the post so that it better conforms to what is appropriate. I am not the blog police and will not capriciously remove anything unless it violates one of the 5 guidelines in the next section, below. Even then, I will notify you, and if you like we can discuss alternative wording.
One exception to all of this is: if I find a questionable post which was posted anonymously, it will be removed.
Is anything explicitly NOT allowed?
- Politics and campaigning
- Opinions or gossip about neighbors or any person.
- Solicitations for donations (you can post a link or advise about a worthy cause, but you can't explicitly ask for any donations) Exceptions will be made - eg "Our neighbor xyz's child was hit by a car and we are taking a collection for them", etc. Charitable donations and requests for help which directly benefit one of our neighbors in a time of crisis will be allowed.
- Profanity
- Libelous statements
How long does a post stay on the blog?
Forever (unless it violates one of the no-no's above)! (see the next section)
Can I have a posting of mine removed?
Yes, with the caveat that if others have posted comments to it, it will not be removed, but any attribution to you will be removed. If you want a posting or an attribution removed, just email me.
CAUTION!
Danger, danger, Will Robinson! (sorry if you're not old enough to catch this reference).
This blog is public!
Anything posted to this blog can be viewed by anyone with a web browser! Although I am not going to publicize this blog (and you shouldn't either) that doesn't mean that people won't stumble accross it (even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then). This leads me to my last important guidelines:
- Do NOT publish any personal information like full names, addresses, phone number, email addresses, etc.!
- Do not say anything that you would not want printed in the Austin-American Statesman (no profanity, no libelous statements, no vulgarity, no pornography)
I'm offering this "newsletter" to the neighborhood in the hopes that it becomes self-publishing and self-maintaining. If we all follow the guidelines, it will be. The last thing I need is another chore!
That about covers it. If you have any questions or comments, please send me an email -- or, just for grins, ask it at here, at the Overlook Estates Post!
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