blog-post-examples
Blog Post Examples
This page is for documenting real world examples of what people publish in blog posts, what markup they use, and what implied schemas can be inferred from their behaviors. See also: blog-post-formats, blog-post-brainstorming, hAtom.
Introduction
Discussion Participants
Editor
Authors
Contributors
Interested Folks
Specific Examples from the Wild
EntryGroup
Entries are within an EntryGroup block
All entries are within an enclosing 'div' -- the EntryGroup. This is common with weblog home pages (example) or archive with multiple entries.
<div id="content"> <h2 id="home-title"> Latest microformats news <a href="http://www.microformats.org/feed/" title="link to RSS feed" id="feed-link"> <img src="/img/xml.gif" width="23" height="13" alt="XML" /> </a> </h2> <div class="entry"> <h3 id="post-60"> <a href="http://www.microformats.org/blog/2005/...">Wiki Attack</a> </h3> ... </div> <div class="entry"> <h3 id="post-59"> <a href="http://www.microformats.org/blog/2005/...">Web Essentials Audio</a> </h3> ... </div> <div class="entry"> <h3 id="post-57"> <a href="http://www.microformats.org/blog/2005/...">WebZine FollowUp</a> </h3> ... </div> </div>
Note also the header at the top explaining what this feed is. We may want to exploit this also.
Entries are within an explicit EntryGroup
There are multiple entries on a single page but there is no explicit block element for the entries themselves -- though of course, there is at least one block that has the entries: <body>
. This is also a common use case for weblogs and archives also.
Multiple EntryGroups on a page
There may be multiple groups of entries on a single page that are tenously connected (example-2). Also, many weblogs have 'miniblogs' on the side that act much inthe same way.
<div id="fullcol"> <div id="sumcol"> <!-- collection 1 header --> <b> <a href="http://www.truthlaidbear.com/topicpage.php?topic=harrietmiers" class="linktitle">Harriet Miers</a> </b> </div> <div id="commcol"> <img src="http://www.truthlaidbear.com/topics/topic_harrietmiers_sm.png" > </div> <div id="commcol"> <!-- collection 1/entry 1 --> <b> <a href="http://polipundit.com/index.php?p=10420" class="linktitle">Harriet Miers Must...</a> </b> <br> ... </div> <div id="commcol"> <!-- collection 1/entry 2 --> <b> <a href="http://instapundit.com/archives/026104.php" class="linktitle">A MIERS MELTDOWN? </a> </b> <br> ... </div> </div> <div id="fullcol"> <div id="sumcol"> <!-- collection 2 header --> <b> <a href="http://www.truthlaidbear.com/topicpage.php?topic=iraq" class="linktitle">Iraq</a> </b> </div> <div id="commcol"> <img src="http://www.truthlaidbear.com/topics/topic_iraq_sm.png" > </div> <div id="commcol"> <!-- collection 2/entry 1 --> ... </div> <div id="commcol"> <!-- collection 2/entry 2 --> ... </div> </div>
Single entry on a page
This is common with weblogs that archive on a per entry basis (example).
<div id="content"> <h2 id="home-title"> Latest microformats news <a href="http://www.microformats.org/feed/" title="link to RSS feed" id="feed-link"> <img src="/img/xml.gif" width="23" height="13" alt="XML" /> </a> </h2> </div>
Note that's no guarentee that a block (as shown above as the id=content
div) will be around the singleton entry.
EntryGroup Title
EntryGroup Permalink
Individual Entry
Individual entries are within a container
Common.
<div class="entry"> <h3 id="post-60"> <a href="http://www.microformats.org/blog/2005/...">Wiki Attack</a> </h3> ... </div>
Individual entries are not within a container
Common.
<a name="112877372228959075"> </a> <br> <strong>Just one problem, Minister.</strong> Last week, Bill Rammell, <br>
Disjointed entries
That is, not all sub-elements of an individual entry are in the container (for example, the author and date may follow in a separate block)
Entry Titles
Entry Title enclosed in <h#>
block element
<div class="entry single"> <h2 id="post-59">Web Essentials Audio</h2> ... </div>
Entry Title enclosed in a <div>
block element
I've seen this but I can't find an example, hopefully implying this is somewhat rare.
Entry Title enclosed in an inline presentation element, such as <b>
<a name="112877372228959075"> </a> <br> <strong>Just one problem, Minister.</strong> Last week, Bill Rammell, <br>
Entry Title enclosed in a <span>
(inline element)
<a name="112897777851715476"> </a> <br> <SPAN CLASS="inc_subtitle">EMAIL OF THE DAY II: </SPAN>"After years ...
No Entry Title
Entry Content
Entry without content
That is, the entry has just a link and the title pointing to a different URI (which may actually have content). This is something frequently seen on news sites (which after all, can generate feeds)
<ul> <li> <a href="/story/.../ndp-libs051016.html">NDP sets conditions for backing Liberals</a> </li> <li> <a href="/story/.../teachers-bc051016.html">Go back to work, B.C. ...</a> </li> <li> <a href="/story/.../alberta-strike2_051015.html">Plant managers charged ...</a> </li> <li> <a href="/story/.../bc-mystery-illness051015.html">B.C. seniors' home reports...</a> </li> </ul>
Entry contains summary content only
This is common on media sites. MovableType also provides this as a default option, so it's often seen on MT blogs,
<div class="inlineBlog"> <h3 id="a003068"> <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/h.../xfolk_vegomatic.html" class="taggedlink">xFolk Veg-o-matic Alpha</a> </h3> <p class="abstract extended"> We provide a way to surf the web and slice and dice information you find there into your own custom output stream. </p> <p class="categorylist"> Sections: <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/tools_and_analytics" rel="tag">Tools and Analytics</a> </p> <p class="taglist">Topics: <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/tags/greasemonkey" rel="tag">greasemonkey</a> <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/tags/microformats" rel="tag">microformats</a> <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/tags/xfolk" rel="tag">xFolk</a> </p> <p> The folks at ... the rest of the content </p> <p class="extended"> <a href="http://thecommunityengine.com/.../xfolk_vegomatic.html#more">Continue reading "xFolk Veg-o-matic Alpha"</a> </p> ... </div>
Notes:
- there's a lot of things going on in this example
- there's an "abstract" at the top
- there's sections for "categories" and "tags"
- there's a summary section "The folks at ... the rest of the content"
- there's a link to the full content at the bottom
Entry contains complete content
<div class="entry single"> <h2 id="post-61">Class attributes are about more than styling</h2> <p>When people talk about microformats, ... </p> <blockquote cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html#h-7.5.2"> ... quoted text from elsewhere </blockquote> <p>There’s a couple of points I’d like to highlight here:</p> ... more content ... <h4 class="tags">Technorati Tags:</h4> <ul class="tags"> <li><a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/css" rel="tag">css</a></li> ... </ul> <ul class="post-info"> ... footer stuff ... </ul> </div>
Entry breaks content into multiple sections
- example
- we also identify this as 'Split Content'
<div class="blogbody"> <a name="008148"></a> <div class="title"> Face to face: why places will continue to exist </div> <div class="posted"> <strong>Brian Micklethwait (London)</strong> <a href="...">Science & Technology</a> </div> <p>It is not just that I dislike filling in forms....</p> ... the first section of the content ... ... this link makes the extended section show ... <span id="varP8148"> <img src="http://www.samizdata.net/blog/img/bullet_tri.gif" width="16" height="10" alt="" /> <a href="..." onclick="showMore(8148,'...');return false;"> Read more. </a> </span> <div id="varXYZ8148" style="display: none"> <p>The very gadgets – computers linked...</p> ... the rest of the extended content ... ... this link makes the extended section hide ... <img src="..." width="16" height="10" alt="" /> <a href="#008148" onclick="showMore(8148,0);return true;"> Read less. </a> </div> </div> </div>
Entry Datetimes
Datetimes are rarely expressed in consistent formats on weblogs. Weblogs generally express the creation date of the posting, not the modified time.
Dates between weblog entries
This is a common pattern but by no means universal pattern seen on weblogs -- a header or div inserted between weblog entries indicating that the date has changed. I cannot find an example where this header is systematically linked to the entries using that data (i.e. a common enclosing div)
<div class="post"> <h3 class="storytitle" id="post-3151"><a href="http://dannyayers.com/...">...</a></h3> ... </div> <div class="date">2005-10-07</div> <div class="post"> <h3 class="storytitle" id="post-3150"><a href="http://dannyayers.com/...">...</a></h3> ... </div>
Most weblogs follow this pattern. Dates or datetimes are in human readable format in varying fashions. Often only the time is indicated, as the date is implied. The date or datetime is sometimes also used an indication of the 'permalink' for a post.
<div class="entry single"> <h2 id="post-59">Web Essentials Audio</h2> <p>...</p> <ul class="post-info"> <li><a href="...">Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 12:31 pm</a></li> </ul> </div>
Entry Permalinks
Note that not only do some examples fit multiple categories, sometimes weblog posts place the multiple links to the permalink within a single post (for example, in the header and footer).
Entry Permalink is around or inside title
see immediate following example
Entry Permalink is in header of post
see immediate following example
Entry Permalink uses absolute URI
<div class="entry"> <h3 id="post-45"> <a href="http://www.microformats.org/blog/2005/08/21/foobar-microformats/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to FooBar Microformats">FooBar Microformats</a> </h3> ... </div>
<h3>YET ANOTHER INSTANCE OF THE WORLD FINALLY CATCHING UP TO THE BLOG</h3> <p>Today's news: Neuticles win ... award.</p> <p class="posted"> Posted by judi on October 7, 2005 at 05:00 PM | <a href="http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2005/10/yet_another_ins.html">Permalink</a> </p>
Entry Permalink uses relative URI
see immediate following example
Entry Permalink includes fragment
This is used when a weblog archives posts as a group (say, by month or week) rather than as individual posts. This is very common on older blogspot weblogs.
<a name="112876103554732697"> </a><br> <strong>The ceremony of Explaining the Joke</strong> <br> <span class="byline">posted by Natalie at <a href="2005_10_02_nataliesolent_archive.html#112876103554732697">8:18 AM</a></span> <br>
No Entry Permalink
This is common on single article archive pages, some social weblogs (example) and most big media webpages (i.e. non-blogs)
<a name="026056"></a> <p>ACCORDING TO THE WHITE HOUSE, ... hadn't we?</p> <div class="footer">posted at 11:35 PM by <b>Glenn Reynolds</b></div>
Entry Author
Other Stock Examples
Example of blog posts in unmodified weblog software installations.
Stock Wordpress 1.5 Installation
<div class="post"> <h2 id="post-237"> <a href="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/?p=237" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to More election maps">More election maps</a> </h2> <small>November 9th, 2004 <!-- by site admin --></small> <div class="entry"> <p>via <a href="http://www.markme.com/jd/archives/006288.cfm">John Dowdell of JD on MX:</a></p> <blockquote> <p>More election maps: Ben Metcalfe, a software engineer at the BBC, has his own list here… includes some not in that “Flash the only winner” item from The Inquirer, which Kevin also elaborated upon. Additionally, Andrew Lucking pointed to the…</p> </blockquote> </div> <p class="postmetadata"> Posted in <a href="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/index.php?cat=1" title="View all posts in General" rel="category tag">General</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/?p=237#comments"> No Comments »</a> </p> <!-- <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"> <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/?p=237" dc:identifier="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/?p=237" dc:title="More election maps" trackback:ping="http://192.168.1.113/~migurski/wordpress/wp-trackback.php?p=237" /> </rdf:RDF> --> </div>
Stock MoveableType 3.15 Installation
<h3 id="a000002">Example Entry</h3> <p>This is the entry body.</p> <p class="extended"><a href="http://localhost/archives/2005/08/example_entry_1.html#more">Continue reading "Example Entry"</a></p> <p class="posted">Posted by migurski at <a href="http://localhost/archives/2005/08/example_entry_1.html">03:49 </a> | <a href="http://localhost/archives/2005/08/example_entry_1.html#comments">Comments (0)</a></p>
Stock Blosxom Installation, with "Blosxom Flavour Sampler"
<p> <a name="post-identifier"><b>Post Title</b></a> <br /> Post body text. </p> <p align="right"> <i>[<a href="/permalink/post-identifier">post-identifier</a>] <a href="/permalink/2005/08/15#post-identifier">permanent link</a></i> </p>
Stock Textpattern 4.0.3 Installation
<div id="content"> <h3><a href="http://txpdefault/article/2/second-post" title="Permanent link to this article">Second Post</a> · a few seconds ago by chris</h3> <p>This is a short second post for illistration.</p> <p class="comments_invite"><a href="http://txpdefault/article/2/second-post#comment" class="comments_invite">Comment</a></p> <div align="center"><img src="http://txpdefault/images/1.gif" style="height:1px;width:400px" class="divider" alt="" /></div><h3><a href="http://txpdefault/article/1/first-post" title="Permanent link to this article">First Post</a> · 4 minutes ago by textpattern</h3> <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec rutrum est eu mauris. In volutpat blandit felis. Suspendisse eget pede. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Quisque sed arcu. Aenean purus nulla, condimentum ac, pretium at, commodo sit amet, turpis. Aenean lacus. Ut in justo. Ut viverra dui vel ante. Duis imperdiet porttitor mi. Maecenas at lectus eu justo porta tempus. Cras fermentum ligula non purus. Duis id orci non magna rutrum bibendum. Mauris tincidunt, massa in rhoncus consectetuer, lectus dui ornare enim, ut egestas ipsum purus id urna. Vestibulum volutpat porttitor metus. Donec congue vehicula ante.</p> <p class="comments_invite"><a href="http://txpdefault/article/1/first-post#comment" class="comments_invite">Comment</a> [1]</p> <div align="center"><img src="http://txpdefault/images/1.gif" style="height:1px;width:400px" class="divider" alt="" /></div> </div>
Rough Examples
Moved here from blog-description-format for documentation purposes.
Existing practice
Entry Wrappers
<div class="entry"></div>
The entry wrapper format has widespread usage, but seems to show up in slightly different contexts.
Some blogs (ala Wordpress) use the entry div as a wrapper to the actual post body, and wrap the whole thing in an additional div:
<div class="post"> <div class="entry"> </div> </div>
A vast number of sites, including many blogs contain the main page content within a id="content" div:
<div id="content"></div>
Metadata
Wordpress uses class="postmetadata" to contain meta information, date, others use their own syntax - class="topics", class="description".
Basic Elements
Titles are usually denoted with an H2 or H3 heading. Use of class="title" seems rare, but some sites do use this explicit markup.
class="summary" is used to denote an item summary, usually in a paragraph element.
Permalinks
rel="bookmark" and rel="permalink" are both used in various places to denote a permalink to the specified entry.
See Also
- blog-post-examples
- blog-post-formats
- blog-post-brainstorming
- hAtom - the draft proposal based on this information
- blog-description-format - how to describe a blog (as opposed to the individual entries, which is what we're doing here)