Blogs F.A.Q.

Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is an online journal that can be updated regularly and is intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally reflect the personality of the author or the Web site.

How do I get a blog on the Blogs at UMass Amherst server?

OIT’s blogging service is open to all students, faculty, and staff at UMass Amherst. To log in to your blog, just go to blogs.umass.edu and log in using your OIT Account NetID and password. Your blog is waiting for you!

Your blog’s URL is http://blogs.umass.edu/NetID/ Where NetID is your OIT Account NetID. Note: We cannot change the URL for your blog.

UMass bloggers are each allotted 1 GB of space. If you require more space, we recommend using UDrive, where you can also store up to 1 GB worth of files. Your UDrive files can be accessed from on or off campus.

Instructors who already have a Course OIT Account can log in with their account name and password. Don’t have a Course OIT Account? Use SPIRE to create one for each course that you are teaching. More...

Many departments already have a UMail account they use for departmental functions (e.g., as a contact email address on a department Web site). We recommend that staff members use this account to log in to Blogs at UMass Amherst and to create a blog for their department.

If, for some reason, this account is not appropriate for blogging purposes, please come to the OIT Accounts Desk in A113 LGRC (Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.). For security reasons, you must come in person. Don’t forget your UCard!

Blogs at UMass Amherst use WordPress, an open-source blogging platform used by many other colleges and Universities. For more information, see http://wordpress.org.

To get help, contact the OIT Help Desk (413) 545-9400 or fill out an online Help Request. You can also click the Help link at the top-right corner of every page in your blog's admin interface or visit the WordPress web site.

If you do not want your blog to be included in this directory, on your blog Dashboard, go to Settings > Privacy and select Ask search engines not to index this site.

By changing this setting, your blog will be removed from the directory and will be prevented from being found by Google and other search engines. For more information, see: Restrict Access to your Blog.

WordPress is open-source, so a majority of the themes were created by volunteer developers. While most themes are bug-free, some may have errors we didn’t catch. For more information, see: A Guide to Blog Themes.

If you’re having a lot of trouble with a particular theme, we recommend that you choose another, simpler theme from the list.

We are not allowing people to create and upload their own themes and/or to modify existing WordPress themes. Instead, we suggest that you use the customization options included in almost all of the default themes.

Find a theme you really like? Because WordPress is open-source, volunteer developers from all over the world have developed WordPress themes and offer them for use through an open-source license. If you find one you really want us to install, please contact the OIT Help Desk. We will review your request and respond to it via email.

Please contact the OIT Help Desk and let us know. We will then review your request to ensure it meets our technical requirements and respond via email.

Your UMass Amherst blog is not private. Blogs are public Web sites that can be viewed by anyone with Internet access.

Use caution when posting personal or sensitive information on your UMass blog, as this information can be viewed and shared by the public. Please refer to OIT’s Acceptable Use Policy for more information.

You will be able to update your blog for 6 months after your graduate. When these 6 months have passed, you will no longer be able to write posts, nor will your blog be accessible as a public Web site. We recommend that you export your blog and save it to your computer before these 6 months have passed, otherwise your blog will be deleted permanently.

To back up your blog, log in to your blog and go to Tools > Export > Download Export File. WordPress will create an XML file for you to save to your computer, which will contain all your posts, comments, custom fields and categories.

In order to delete a blog post, log in to your blog, and on the Dashboard toolbar, click Posts. The Posts screen will open with a list of your posts. Move your mouse over the name of the post you wish to delete, and from the links that appear below the post name, click Trash. Note: A deleted post cannot be retrieved.

In order to delete your entire blog account, log in to your blog, go to Tools > Delete Site. On the Delete Site page, select I’m sure I want to permanently disable my site, and I am aware I can never get it back or use blogs.umass.edu again. Then click Delete My Site Permanently. An email will be sent to your UMail account containing a link. Clicking on this link will permanently delete your blog account. Please keep in mind that your UMass Amherst Blog can never be retrieved once you've deleted it permanently.