PDF support
Have a document that you want to share with your blog audience directly without having to copy, paste and reformat everything in it? Your MLB.com Blog supports Scribd — a free publishing service that allows you to upload a wide range of documents (including Microsoft Office docs, PDFs, and text files). You can then embed Scribd documents directly into your blog posts, keeping readers on your blog instead of having them click a link to an external file. Here’s an example.
It’s easy to get started. The full instructions (and many other helpful blogging resources) are available at WordPress.com Support.
Around the MLB.com Blogs
We’re waiting on a sunny day, just like the author of Blue Batting Helmet. Pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Arizona and Florida shortly; MLB.com & top blogger Jonathan Mayo just released our 2012 Prospect Watch; the Super Bowl will lead right into our Fantasy rankings; Prince Fielder is joining the Tigers; there are no obvious favorites for the 2012 World Series; and there is more to blog about than ever as a Major League Baseball fan.
How’s everyone doing out here in MLB.com Blogs country? I wanted to check in before heading down to Florida later today for a vaca including my second Miami Marathon on Sunday (a very sunny day, hopefully not too much humidity!). We’ll be back midweek to present you with the first monthly installment of Latest Leaders. It has been great to see so many people apply the MLB.com Blogs Top 100 badge to their own MLBlogs after such hard work in 2011, and we have already seen some great new blogs start up that are sure to make the 2012 list. I just expanded the Comments list to the right and as you can see I hope you will always leave your full URL within any comment — use this technique to get people like me to your blog, and please go through their comments and look for other blogs.
Want to see a Tim Lincecum-Prince Fielder matchup in late October? Our friend Emily of Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend just posted a what-if about a Giants-Tigers World Series, so tell her what you think. Kevin of WestSide Culture vows in those comments that he “will be atop that list in 2012, starting now.” He just made the switch to an MLB theme (thanks!), which is necessary to be tallied for Latest Leaders page view search. We plan to update our themes soon and I’ll give a headsup whenever that date gets closer.
Jenn is coming up on her fourth anniversary of blogging at Phillies Phollowers and you can get some nice widget tips from her, such as incorporating your own Facebook page. It’s easy to drag the Facebook Like widget from your Dashboard, like I also did here to the right and below. Just go to Appearance –> Widgets. Another Top 100 Phillies blog is from Michael at The Phanatic Addict and you can see how he set up a favorite blogs Link set, including Jenn, which is what reminded us to check in on Phillies Phollowers. Be nice to others and you will benefit.
From the Corner of Edgar & Dave is the brand-new blog of the Seattle Mariners PR department, and despite launching in mid-month it is tracking as the No. 5 PRO blog right now and has a pretty good chance to go on to become the top overall blog into the season at MLB.com Blogs. Why? Check it out if you haven’t. It has been fun working with Jeff and the crew there as they take it very seriously and seek out feedback on what people like. Copy their widget techniques — the best I have seen since we switched to WordPress.com! Think of From the Corner of Edgar & Dave as a part of Mariners.com — a great club site.
March is my 10th anniversary with Major League Baseball Advanced Media, and probably my favorite photog in the business through that time has been Jon SooHoo — the official photographer of the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is a joy viewing his photo galleries on Dodgers.com, and his Top 100 blog known as Dodgers Photog Blog is back better than ever. Check out his posts from the past week and consider subscribing to his blog so you see whenever he posts. These are great shots — even worth a Pinterest board. Jon appreciates feedback very much and I encourage you to please leave comments there on what you’d like to see from him.
MLB.com has the only traveling network of 30 beat reporters and there are some ongoing changes in beat assignments that you’ll want to know about. The list is to the right here and all the writers involved have used their blogs to discuss their moves for 2012. Alden Gonzalez now covers the Angels, Jen Langosch is moving over to the Cardinals to replace our first-ever MLB.com beat reporter/blogger, Matthew Leach, who has a new MLB.com gig coming up. Longtime MLB national writer Tom Singer is returning to his roots in Pittsburgh to replace Jen on the Pirates beat. We wish them all the best in their new roles and look forward to more great blogging!
In 2012, you will see more really cool changes as we continue to advance with the times. Part of that will be a way to find a lot of MLB.com Blogs through shares, likes and popularity. We’re discussing a number of aggregators we like — Punchfork, for example — and I would really love to hear from YOU in the comments here. How should MLB.com surface and showcase our MLBlogs? Included would be (only) any blogs started at MLB.com/blogs and any of the millions of WordPress.com bloggers who choose our MLB themes. Hey, we all have Facebook and Twitter, but you need a baseball blog for more long-form thoughts. Our widgets allow you to integrate it all.
For anyone who has joined us since last May, here was the relaunch post after our MLBAM deal with WordPress.com. Reminder that WP handles support for our MLB.com Blogs community, so you may use this community blog for anything you wish but use their support link for fast action on any issues or questions. Have fun blogging and look for the next installment of Latest Leaders right here after we test out an IT Band issue over 26.2 miles of South Beach, Coconut Grove and other great places.
Dealing with problem comments
A lively comments section is every blogger’s dream. But what about when unwanted comments from unwelcome guests become a problem? Fear not! MLBlogs is powered by WordPress.com, who provide bloggers with all the tools you need to make your comments a troll-free zone.
A first layer of defense comes from WordPress.com’s spam filter. Should any spam messages make it through, you can mark them as spam to remove them from your visible comments and add them to the spam filter. Additionally, every blogger has the ability via your blog dashboard to customize comment approval under Settings > Discussion. You can open things up and automatically publish all comments in real time, require all comments to be approved by you before they appear on your blog, or choose from a wide variety of customizable options in between. Should you encounter an unwelcome commenter, you can blacklist both by email address and IP address — preventing them from returning to the blog under a new account.
Make sure to mark posts as “Spam” as that helps our system learn and catch similar spam posts better in the future.
Finally, consider is closing comments for old posts; WordPress can do this automatticially after a certain number days, under Settings > Discussion.
As always, WordPress.com’s Support section is a great resource. Here’s a link to their support page on this topic for more information.