It’s really easy and quick to browse the blog posts.  Despite hundreds of articles for you to read and comment on checking them out is a breeze.  The simplest way to go about browsing is simply to go through the pages.  You’ll find ten posts displayed at once and you can easily view a post per page by clicking on the post you want to view.  You can also comment on the post by clicking on it to be taken to its own page.  At the bottom of every page you’ll find links to either the previous and next ten posts if you are viewing a page with ten posts, or links to the previous and next article in chronological order if you are viewing a post on its own page.

Another more interesting and often eye-opening way to browse blog posts is to check out the ‘Blog Overview’ page which you can access from the top of any page. This page features an interactive mosaic of pictures and post excerpts that you can view all on this page.  You can scroll through the months by clicking the arrow buttons above the mosaic.  When you see a post that interests you just click on it and you’ll be taken to its page.

The blog posts all refer to different topics and there will be posts that have a common topic between them.  To enable easy searching for the posts on topics that interest you every post has been placed in a relevant category and assigned a number of tag words that describe in general the theme of the post.  Learn how to take advantage of these post attributes as follows.

Search by category – This is the simplest way to pick out blog posts that match one of the categories of post that you will find listed in a dropdown box in the sidebar. Look under ‘Posts by Category’ and click on the dropdown box to reveal the categories along with the number of posts under each category (in parentheses). Click on a category and you will be given a page with blog posts filtered by your chosen category.  As with viewing all posts you can browse through posts using the previous and next links at the bottom of each page.

Search by tag – This is similar to searching by category except tags are usually more specific than categories and allow you to filter blog posts more precisely based on a keyword that you can more easily associate with blog posts you want to see.  To view posts by tag is slightly different to the method for categories and uses both a Tag Cloud and a ‘Get Lucky!’ component which you’ll find in the sidebar. The Tag Cloud is a list of the most commonly assigned tags (and hence the tags with the most blog posts assigned to it).  The larger the font size of the tag the more posts there are associated with that tag.  To filter posts by tag simply click the tag.  The ‘Get Lucky!’ component shows an interactive ‘sphere’ of tags that revolve randomly as you hover your mouse over it.  You can bring a tag closer to the front of the ‘sphere’ by passing your mouse over it and waiting for it to appear.  When it becomes surrounded by a box click the tag to find posts associated with it. Because the tags revolve randomly this is a great and fun way to check out a tag near to random hence ‘getting lucky’ with finding a tag.

Search by date – Each post is time-stamped so that you can easily filter posts by date.  There are two methods to do so: By date and by month.  Use the calendar on the sidebar to find dates where posts are available.  These dates are highlighted and can be clicked on.  Doing so opens a page featuring blog posts from that particular date.  You can also browse through months using the calendar. ¬†The other method by month uses the dropdown box you’ll find under ‘Posts by Month’ in the sidebar.  Click the dropdown box and select a month.  You’ll notice that next to each month are the number of posts that month in parentheses.

Freeform search – For the most flexible means of searching for content use the Search box at the top of any page.  Simply type in any word or phrase and you will have any blog posts that contain the word or phrases you typed filtered and listed on a search results page.  If you fail to obtain any results you can try more general words or phrases.  This search facility is able to look for content within categories, tags, titles of blog posts, the actual blog post itself and associated comments.

Comment on blog posts
We welcome any opinions, queries or discussion that you may wish to contribute to any blog post you read and it’s quick and simple to add your comments to a blog post.  You don’t even have to register with the blog (but doing so will ensure you have a regular username and avatar to accompany your posts).  To comment simply navigate to the page for that particular blog post and below the entry you’ll find a ‘Leave a Comment’ form.  Complete the form and ensure you type in the two words you see (or if you decide to use the audio sample, the eight numbers you hear) into the verification box.

The verification is performed by reCAPTCHA which ensures genuine comment submission and helps in the fightback against spamming.

Furthermore, in order to ensure the blog is kept clean, accurate and relevant all comments are moderated by the Lewminesce Web Team and the comment is filtered for spam using Akismet.  You will find that once you have posted your comment it will appear under the blog entry but it will be marked as ‘pending moderation’.  Do expect to have your comment moderated within a few hours to days of submitting it.  Once moderated and approved it will be publicly visible.

Complete online forms
To help assist in getting feedback from you certain posts will feature their own online forms that have questions related to the post and which you have the option of completing.  The forms are simple to complete and as with commenting you need to verify your submission by typing in the letters and/or numbers you see in the blue box before clicking ‘Submit’. ¬†The information your provide will only be used for the purposes outlined in the post.

Rate blog posts
You have another way to feedback to us and other visitors by rating blog posts. Every post has a set of five stars below it.  If the post has never been rated all the stars will be grey.  If the post has been previously rated you’ll see some statistics related to previous ratings and the stars will be ‘lit’ according to the average rating for that post.  To rate a blog post simply drag your mouse pointer over the stars with 1 star ‘lit’ as the poorest rating and 5 stars being the top rating.

Save and share blog posts with friends
If you come across a blog post that really interests you then you have the options of saving it and even sharing it with friends via e-mail or popular social networking websites.  It’s very easy and intuitive.  To save or share a blog post click on ‘Share/Save’ at the bottom of the blog post.  A pop-up panel will appear which features tabs for ‘Share/Save’, ‘E-mail’ and ‘Bookmark’.

To share/save- You can add access to the blog post through any of a large number of personal web services, social networking sites, e-mail services and more! ¬†The list includes Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Twitter, MySpace, Hotmail, Gmail, AIM, Yahoo! Instant Messenger and lots more.  Simply click on the relevant service to save or share the post.  If you can’t find the required service immediately try searching for it in the search box provided.  Remember you can expand the list of services by clicking the arrow at the bottom of the panel.

To e-mail – You can e-mail the blog post conveniently to yourself or anyone by clicking the E-mail tab on the pop-up panel. You can choose between popular e-mail service providers such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, popular e-mail software installed on your computer such as Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail and Mac OS X Mail, or for the greatest flexibility any other e-mail client.

To bookmark – You can add a link to your Favourites/Bookmarks list in your web browser by clicking the Bookmark tab and following the instructions displayed.