How Do I?

Things a little confusing and not sure where to start? Here’s the basic users guide to using this site.

The Three Page Types

There are basically three types of pages that you will see – the Home Page, the Article Page and Static Pages. All pages have the same menu items as well as items on the right side of the page, called the Sidebar. The only thing different between each of these pages is the content in the body.

Home Page

This is the screen you will see when you first enter The Stranded Starfish. It provides an overview of the most recent articles posted along with a more button that takes you to the Article Page where you can read the full text.

Each article contains its title along with an icon to the left indicating the category of the article (Learning, Leadership, Higher Ground, etc.). On the following line you will see the date the article was published, a link to comments posted by other readers and a link that allows you to post this link to your Facebook account.

Article Page

This is where you land when you select the more button on the Home Page. This is where you can read the full article as well as read and post comments. The comments are contained at the end of the article. You can go directly to the comments section or post one of your own by selecting the Goto Comments or Leave a Comment in the banner just under the title. You can also enter comments later in the comments section as will be demonstrated in a bit.

Under each article are two sets of links, highlighted in blue. The first set contains the category for this article. Every article belongs to either Leadership, Learning or Higher Ground. By selecting this link, you will get a Home Page consisitng of the other articles that belong to this category.

The next link contains one or more tags. These are words used to describe the article. While an article can only belong to one category, it can have many tags. Selecting on one of these words will take you to a home page with other articles that share this tag.

The comment section is next. Comments can be nested meaning that you can post a comment to the article or post one in response to another person’s comment. To post one to the article just start typing your comment in the white text box at the bottom of the page and hit submit. To post in response to another comment, just select the reply link under the comment to which you would like to respond.

Following the comment box is the notification section. Here you can elect to have an email sent to you when someone posts a comment to this article. Each article has a separate notification status so that you only get responses to the article you are interested in. Use the checkbox Notify me of followup comments via e-mail when you post a comment. If you want to follow the comments without submitting one yourself, enter your username and select the Subscribe button.

Static Pages

These pages are articles that are outside the scope of the blog and are usually presented as background information for you. The page you are reading now is a Static Page. These pages are listed horizontally across the top of the Home Page.

The Sidebar

The sidebar is the vertical strip located on the right side of the pages that contains several items that are useful for navigating through the site or adding subscriptions to the material on the site.

Connecting

In the first section of the sidebar are links to help you keep up with new articles or the author. If you use a news reader (RSS) and would like to get a feed indicating when new articles are posted, select Articles on RSS. If you wish to track whenever comments are posted, select Comments on RSS. If you have a twitter account and want to follow me, select Joe on Twitter.

Comments

This section contains a list of the last 10 comments that have been posted to articles. If the person commenting has a web page associated with their name, selecting their name will bring up that web page. Selecting the article name will bring up the related Article Page and move you to that user’s comment.

Favorites

This section contains links to other blogs and places that I think you might be interested in reading.

Older Posts

Since the Main Page only lists the last 10 articles not all articles are displayed. This drop down listbox allows you to find those articles based on their month of publication.

Categories

This selector allows you to list all of the articles in a given category. Currently there are three categories – Leadership, Learning and Higher Ground.