St. Maarten Private Eye

Have you got something to say? - How to write a blog.

"St Maarten is a place of enormous potential. But in order to tap into that potential , it must embrace the values of open debate and self-critique. It cannot afford to do otherwise in a globalizing World economy. No society can, or it runs the risk of being left behind.

The above was taken from Jason Lista's article this week in the Weekender entitled.'What of St. Maarten today?' Please read it and then join me below to learn how you too can help bring 'enlightenment' to SXM.

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As Jason explains, the 'Age of Enlightenment' was a period of history where the values of liberal democracy, tolerance, scientific rationalisation and modern economics were born. It banished the superstition, mysticism and ignorance of the old world by holding all things up to rational and sceptical debate.

The guy is spot on target!!

And this is what SXM PE is all about. Open rational and intelligent debate and discussion of the issues and problems that confront St. Maarten and it's people, and really folks, it's up to you rational and intelligent people out there to stir and start the discussions and debates. SXM PE gives you the platform, it is up to you to make use of it.

I know there are more than a few people out there who want to write here or have promised to do so, this blog post is for you. Below I will give a guide on posting your own blog.

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The idea behind a blog post is to stir up discussion and debate about an issue that you care about or concerns you. A blog post doesn't have to be long, it could even be just a couple or paragraphs, but the better you explain or put across your POV and the more information you give to support it, the better.

To post on SXM PE you first need to have a user name, all you need to get one is an email address. Only the administrators can see this email address, but if you are concerned about that, then it is very easy to go to yahoo and open a new one just for this purpose.

Once you have signed in, you will have the option to submit content, regular users have the options to post pages and images. Posting a blog is not an option at first, but it once you have submitted a few posts and demonstrate your writing abilities then it will be given.

To post your article, select the create a page option.

It's all very straightforward, you put the title and you write your piece, then you click submit. That's it!

If you want to include links in your article, you will need to use HTML code. Below you will find the code needed to post both links and images into your article.

I have them the wrong way round in the image below, let me first explain about putting links.

Where it says web page address, you copy and paste the webpage address of the item or website page you want to link to. Where it says description/words is where you put the words you want to highlight as the link, they will appear in bold green in your article. My method is to have a notepad or word document on my desktop with these codes on them, when I need them I just copy and paste to the article I am writing. Honestly, I couldn't remember them if I had to.

Putting links to information in your articles backs up your POV or opinion and serves to make your case stronger.

Now, about putting images into your posts..........

First of all, the image needs to be online. If it is in your computer, for example photograph/s that you took yourself, then first you need to put it online.

Open a new window and select the create image option. Make a title for the image and then select it. Please make sure that the image you post FITS on the blog page, you can reduce it very easily by selecting it with Paint and then using the sketch and skew option to make it the size you need. (jpg images are best)

Once you have posted the image, put the above code for images into your blog post where you want the image to appear. Then go back to the image, right click on it and select properties, copy and paste the URL address shown into the code where it says to do so.

When you submit your post, the images will appear in it. You can post as many images as you like into your post.

You can also use images you find on the internet. The only problem is that if the image you choose from another website ever gets changed or removed then it will no longer show in your post.

Some time back in the US a politician used images from other websites on their own website. The administrators of the site where the images where taken from were not too happy, so they changed them. These images then appeared on the politicians website causing much embarrassment. Using images from other websites does have an effect on their bandwidth, it is always recommended to right click on the image, save it and then repost it on SXM PE. Giving credit when neccessary to the source.

And thats it.........

It's easy to post on SXM PE if you want to.

If you have questions please ask them below on this post, we will do our best to answer them. And please, don't be afraid or intimidated. SXM needs enlightenment, it needs open and honest discussion and debate.

It's really up to you to make it happen.

Flipper

PS - For more information about the site, what we stand for and posting articles you can check out the old Welcome to SXM PE page that used to appear on the front page.

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