Interesting.  I think a person's belief of who THEY think they are can different from reality as well.  People can fail to live up to their own self perception.  We will know people like this and they typically have unlikable personalities.

@Troy Thank you for commenting on my first blog post!  

I have a few questions.  Here are few off the top of my head. 

1) Can I add audio files here?  I use voice pro to record this mini podcast but I don't know how to add the file here directly.  I used youtube this time.  

2) Would you please explain the "promote" function.   

3) Are there other ways to populate blog entries?  
4) more to come....

17 hours ago, Troy said:

 I think a person's belief of who THEY think they are can different from reality as well.  People can fail to live up to their own self perception.

How so?  

Isn't this statement confirming what I mentioned in characters?  Assuming we know who people think they are - is akin to writing their story.  
How other people see themselves is a lot different than how they present themselves.  Even when a person reveals themselves we see their behavior viewed through our prism.  

Your prism still gives you a peek at who you are - but not them.  
 

The focus seemed to be on the flaws in how others perceive us.  I wanted to raise the issue of how how flawed our self perceptions can be.  I think I could make a string argument that others perceive us more accurately than we perceived ourselves.  Shoot, Facebook's software knows people better than they know themselves.  But of course I may have misunderstood what you said and stand corrected.

(1) You can use embed code as you have done above.  You may also use standard HTML markup code to insert audio directly, as shown below

<div id="audio" class="audioplayer" style="padding:10px;margin:10px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-radius:5px;"><p>Listen to an Interview of Troy Johnson Interviewed by <a href="https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Lee+E.+Meadows">Lee E. Meadows</a> on Detroit’s WPON’s “Book Beat” February 4, 1999</p>
<audio controls>
  <source src="https://aalbc.com/audio/troy.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
Your browser does not support the audio element.
</audio>
</div>

As demonstrated below:

So while this is possible the issue is where will you host your audio file?  As you can see from the code above.  My audio file is located here: https://aalbc.com/audio/troy.mp3 

If you have a place to store the audio file (your website, maybe google drive, etc) you can use the code I provided above to insert your audio.  Maybe google drive

(2) Promote Feature: is actually pretty powerful.  It allows you to promote a post here across multiple social media platforms.  It is better than most social sharing options in that you can customize the posting across that different platforms

(3) Probably but I'm have to research this.

(4) Cool.  There are many features of this discussion forum software that I'm not familiar with.  A couple of weeks ago I applied a major upgrade that improved the software and added new features including the concept of clubs, which are analogous to groups on Facebook.  The developers of the software appear to be implementing many of the popular features available on social media (without the invasion of privacy)

2 hours ago, Troy said:

Shoot, Facebook's software knows people better than they know themselves.

LOL!  I agree!  

21 hours ago, Troy said:

Cool.  There are many features of this discussion forum software that I'm not familiar with.

@Troy,  Will you do a tutorial on how to blog on AALBC.com.  Of course, AALBC's blog features an intuitive design but there are features such as the "promote" feature that don't seem to be.  

For example,  the "promote" feature seems like it's  WordPress "publicize" feature.   WP "publicize" feature allows the end-user to  log into their social media accounts to give access for automatic post sharing once the SM box is checked.   

Now I'm sure if I take my time I could probably figure it out but I want to spend my time writing posts  not figuring out how to use the blog platform.  

This is not a criticism by the way.   It's about removing the pain-points for writers who aren't interested in maintaining a platform but are looking for a place to post their thoughts. 
 

Mel you may actually know the software as well as I do. Much of what I know is HMTL, which is not specific to the feature of the blogging feature of the software. I'm sure @richardmurray, knows the software better than I, as he uses it more.

It would take me some time to create the tutorial video, one because they take time, and two I'd actually have to get up to speed on the software and I don't know when I'll be able to do that.

What I really need to do is check the vendor's website to see what documentation they have and direct people there.  Here is a link to a description of the blogging software: https://invisioncommunity.com/features/apps#blogs

8 hours ago, Troy said:

Here is a link to a description of the blogging software: https://invisioncommunity.com/features/apps#blogs

I'll check it out...

@Troy i apologize for seeing this late:) I am trying to finish some poetry and see matches... time is squeezing me:) 

@Mel Hopkins I am willing to help you, to be honest, i never saw a promote feature on my blog and i use it more regularly. The only reason i have been inactive recently is i am working on my poetry book and i  reformatted what my weekly blog will be and i am preparing that 

to both of you, a tutorial is great, but perhaps I should start a blog post , and it can be a place where we members can come and learn how to use aalbc blog platform through our debates and I will be willing if i don't know how to help to figure it out aside the query maker?what say you guys? 

@richardmurray, man you replied in less than 24 hours--that is perfectly fine.  No one expects an immediate response.

On the forums I find the "promote" feature to be a lot better than clicking the social sharing button provided.  But I don't know if the feature is available on blogs (I actually don't run one).

15 hours ago, richardmurray said:

a tutorial is great, but perhaps I should start a blog post , and it can be a place where we members can come and learn how to use aalbc blog platform through our debates and I will be willing if i don't know how to help to figure it out aside the query maker?what say you guys? 

Thank you @richardmurray  - I'm writing right now too - maybe we can come up with something together.  Hold off for now and finish your book.   I'll send you a message to check with you on your schedule. I know what it's like to juggle so many projects. 

thanks @TroyImagine if we can get aalbc to grow more:) wouldn't that be great @Mel Hopkins as the online black community, this should be our goal, to make a black owned website more popular:) 

Ok Mel:)  private message me on here, we will work something out. I will say this,  the promote or social share is not present on blogs and i think is not needed. let us be honest. more and more online people, spend their time with photo viewing or tweeting but very few of them spend alot of time with in depth looking at any level. So, social promotion is good but in the end of the day, we have to come up with ways to engender them to us. many people today have filters to their social experience that grooms it. 

56 minutes ago, richardmurray said:

the promote or social share is not present on blogs

Oh it's there... I just don't have a clue how to use it.  I'll be back with a photo.  But I do agree with you - it isn't necessary. 

@Mel HopkinsI don't see that button but I do have social media shares but I share my post myself on various sites as you know. 

@richardmurrayOk. I have those too. I think it's because I started my blog on this site after Troy did an upgrade.  

Hmm it seems Ike I'll have to experiment with the Blog software myself.  I would expect all the Blogs to have the same functionality, regardless of when it was started.  But I'll look into it.

I think so @Mel Hopkins I have been on here through iterations and the blog enhancements have been excellent @Troy

I finally listened, your voice is so sexy, if i ever do a read for a female character, you will be one of the fertile ones:) @Mel Hopkins

One of the fertile ones!  Yep... that's me hahaha:D