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EconLog FAQFrequently Asked Questions about EconLog
EconLog is a daily ongoing blog--a collection of short, topical articles and insights on the week's issues in economics. It is written by Bryan Caplan, David Henderson, along with other guest bloggers. Nine to twelve new entries are added each week. Entries take current topics in the news and highlight educational, objective economic analyses for thoughtful readers or for classroom use. Readers are encouraged to add (post) comments. EconLog is one of the Wall Street Journal's Top 25 Economics Blogs. It is also number 2 in the 100 Best Blogs for Econ Students rated by Online Universities. Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who selects and prepares the material for EconLog?
Clicking an article title sends your browser to the Permanent Link for that article. That url will not change, so you may reliably copy the url from your browser address window. Every EconLog article has a Permanent Link (sometimes called a permalink). Any time you see a link to the Permanent Link, you can be sure that clicking it will take you to the one definitive page for that article, a page that includes the complete content of the article, along with up-to-date comments made by readers. To browse complete lists of the permanent links of article titles, go to the EconLog Archives pages. Articles on EconLog are classified into one or more broad topics, called, Categories, when they are first posted. By selecting a particular category, you will get an instant browser page with all the articles within that category. If you have a specific topic in mind, the appropriate category page can be a very fast way to get information and links from lots of related articles at once. Although the Category page URLs are relatively stable, we do not recommend linking to them. If categories get too large over time, they may be split up. New categories are also added periodically, and some articles may be reclassified. To link to a specific article, go the Permanent Link for that article.
Be sure to insert the entire permanent link url. The comment id tags may change if the software is updated or changed, but the permanent links will remain the same. If you see an entry that strikes your fancy, first read the other comments. If comments are allowed, then at the bottom of the page you will find a form to add your own comment. 1. Name Required: Fill in your name or nickname in the space provided.
Pick a unique name! Don't use just a common first name (e.g., Jessica, Matt, dave) without a last name because another person may also use that name to post comments. Your comments could easily be confused with those of people with whom you disagree. Nicknames you may think are creative or even a name that is rightfully yours but common may have been used already. (Examples: Anonymous, Another Bob, Al Smith.) To see if your nickname has been used before, you can check for it by searching for it in EconLog Articles or EconTalk Articles. Put your name or nick in quotation marks for the most accurate results. Anonymous comments are automatically held for review until the email address is validated. 2. Email Address Required: Fill in your correct, working email address. It will not appear online.
3. URL Optional: If you have your own website or blog, you can fill that URL in. It will show online as a link around your name. Check it when you Preview your post. 4. Comment. Type or paste your comments into the text area in the form. Keep your comments brief, polite, and to the point! Edit as much as you like. Nothing you type into the form is ever posted or visible to anyone else unless you select the Submit button (step 5 below).
5. Preview, Edit, Submit, or Cancel your comments.
6. Additional Matters and Followups.
After submitting your comment you will be taken to a response page which will let you know whether your comment has been posted. You can then go to the Permanent Link to see it. Occasionally, comments are held for review. If your comment has been held for review, you will see an explanatory notice. Please do not resubmit your comment. We'll get to it as soon as we can. If you accidentally post something you truly wish to remove or modify, you can try emailing the Econlib Webmaster from the address you filled in in Step 2.
Use the shortcut buttons b, i, or quote above the comment box to format the way your comment looks to the public. The buttons will insert the correct HTML code. The shortcut buttons work in most browsers.
Method 2. Click, Type, Click: Click the appropriate shortcut button above the comment box. Type or paste the words you want to format. Click the shortcut button again to end the formatting (the button will now read /b, /i, or /quote). If you do not end the formatting, the entire rest of your comment will be formatted in the style you chose.
That doesn't work.Mike was right! In some browsers the buttons insert the code at the end of your comment. Cut and paste it if you want it to appear elsewhere. Use the bullet shortcut button above the comment box to create an indented bulleted list. The buttons will insert the correct HTML code.
<ul><li>First, type your list.</li></ul> <ul><li>Second, each item in the list should be surrounded by ul-li code pairs. They will start new lines and insert bullets.</li></ul> <ul><li>Finally, if you want to single-space your list, remove the Returns between the </ul> and <ul> codes within the list after Previewing. The code will run together and be harder to proofread but it may look better in some people's browsers. You may also remove the interior pairs of </ul><ul> codes, but do not remove the initial <ul> and final </ul> codes surrounding the list or your list will not indent at all. The amount of vertical space depends on the browser. Preview till you like the look.</li></ul>
In some browsers the buttons insert the code at the end of your comment. Cut and paste it if you want it to appear elsewhere.
Method 2. Click, Type, Click: Click the link button above the comment box. A pop-up window will open. Enter the URL of the link and select OK. Now paste or type the URL again, or type the words you want to show as a link. Click the shortcut button again to close the link (the button will now read /link). (If you do not close the link, the entire rest of your comment will be linked.)
or See <a href="http://www.econlib.org">this link</a> for ideas. In the Preview and Posted view, it will look like this:
or See this link for ideas. If the code doesn't look like that in your comment box, then just paste the URL into your comment box so readers can see it even if it's not a clickable link. Test any links by examining the Preview and Right-Clicking the link to open it in a new window. Broken links result in lots of complaints about your comment; or people may ignore your comment altogether. Whether or not you create a link, we recommend that you make sure the full URL shows in your comment, so that users can paste it to their browser address windows in a pinch. In some browsers the buttons insert the code at the end of your comment. Cut and paste it if you want it to appear elsewhere. A few other HTML codes are also available. The full available set is: a href, b, i, br, p, strong, em, ul, ol, li, blockquote, pre,
and also the entity codes (beginning with & and ending with ;):
Occasionally, comment threads are closed temporarily or permanently because they have attracted too much spam or have deteriorated into irrelevance or flaming. Some posts that merely announce technical changes do not have a comment box.
If you got an error message about an "invalid request," your IP address may have been banned. We do sometimes ban some service providers and IP addresses for submitting spam. In that case, we may be able to restore your access. Email us at webmaster@econlib.org. Alternatively, if you violate our comment policies you may be banned, either temporarily or permanently. Read about our comment policies.
We try to review both Moderated comments and comments designated as spam once every few hours during the daytime (U.S. time). Occasionally it can take 12-24 hours. If you think your comment is taking unduly long to get posted, you can email us webmaster@econlib.org. We do not put anyone into Moderate mode or remove comments without first issuing a warning and explanation. If you have not received an email warning or email validation request, your comment probably just triggered one of our spam filters. Although we cannot give out the details of our spam filters (because avoiding spam filters is an ongoing game played by spammers), we can offer a few hints. The main spam filter is based on a point system. Both positive and negative points are assigned to each comment. For example, regular commenters using valid email addresses get a few extra positive points. Points are subtracted for such things as using keywords currently flagged by our spam filter, supplying too many URLs, or supplying a URL that is listed by an outside service as a spam source (which can happen even if it is perfectly legitimate). Comments with final scores below our point threshold are held for review. EconLog and EconTalk are committed to providing a civilized space for rational debate and discussion. Dissent is welcomed. No one is banned for relevant content or point of view. Commenters are not banned without notification. We send explanatory email and post notices in place of comments that violate our policies. Did you give a functioning email address with your comment? If you gave a mistyped or nonfunctional email address, or if your spam filter removed our test email to you before you saw it, you may be banned. Check your spam mail to see if you received email from us, or email us at webmaster@econlib.org from your functioning email address to validate your email address and request restoring your access. Your email address is not used to send you any mass mailings or sold to any outside sources. See our Privacy Policy and why we require valid email addresses. Is your comment relevant to the topic? Comments are required to address the substantive content of the original posts and the discussion thread on the table. Comments that focus on the personal characteristics of individuals are usually not focused on the substantive economic points of the discussion, and thus are generally disallowed. A good rule of thumb is: Discuss or critique the argument, not the person making the argument. Did you paste or re-post a comment that appears online elsewhere? Material that appears elsewhere and is repeated or pasted in its entirety to EconLog or EconTalk is deemed to be spam and is a bannable offense. We expect commenters to engage in discussion that is unique and relevant to the thread at hand. Rudeness, crude language, name-calling, ad hominem remarks, engaging in flame wars, or posting angry rants devoid of relevant discussion may result in your having your comment removed, delayed, receiving a warning email, or being banned. EconLog and EconTalk both follow the same rules. Our policies for warning and banning commenters are discussed in greater detail in these posts and comment sections: Q: Trackbacks and Pings: What are the "Trackback" links about?
Many blogs linking to EconLog use automatic software that pings us when they link to us. (We similarly ping other blogs when we link to them.) Pinging is a behind-the-scenes, site-to-site electronic notification that a link to your site has been published elsewhere on the web. These notifications are available through Moveable Type (MT) and various other types of blogging software. Pinging can be done by hand or set up to occur automatically. Automated pinging. If you use MT, Typepad, or a few other blogging software packages, you can automate pinging. See your blogging software's instructions. You may need to set Auto-Discovery to ON in your preferences or options. Hand-pinging: If you prefer not to do automated pings or for some reason your software didn't do it for you on previous entries, you can hand-ping a recent EconLog entry. Find the Trackback URL to hand-ping by looking at the horizontal Trackback bar for the Permanent Link to which you are linking. It is located directly below the post, above the comments. Why is there sometimes no Trackback bar? Trackbacks remain open for several days after an entry is posted. Trackbacks are closed after a few days because they become the targets of spam attacks. Once trackbacks are closed for a particular entry, new trackbacks to the post will not be registered, even if the Trackback bar and Trackback URL are visible. If there are zero trackbacks at the time trackbacks are closed, the Trackback bar will not show up any more in the entry. Otherwise, the Trackback bar and existing trackbacks will show up, but pinging the Trackback url will have no effect. Help! My ping didn't show up.
Trackbacks that merely parrot EconLog posts or list a series of links with no thoughtful independent content or commentary are usually disallowed. We do not want our readers to spend their valuable time clicking links that only lead to material they have already read or lists of links that may not be related. If your trackback still has not showed up after 24 hours, you may want to write a comment that includes a link to your post and a brief description of why readers of that thread may be interested in it. Trackbacks in languages other than English are sometimes permitted. They must meet the same independent-content requirements as English-language trackbacks. We check for legitimacy using our own language skills plus online translation software. If you submit a trackback in a language we cannot easily parse, unfortunately we cannot post it.
Subscribing to EconLog is free. The full list of optional subscription links is available in the left column of every EconLog page. Click the link to which you want to subscribe and follow the directions in your browser or available through your Newsreader to add or remove RSS feeds. See also: How to pick a subscription link.
Newsreaders locate the RSS feeds and reformat them to make them appealing to read. Newsreaders are usually provided free with your browser or portal site. A quality Newsreader lets you customize your options. It may let you specify an update-schedule (first thing in the morning? once every hour?), how much of each post you see without having to click for more material, the ability to alphabetize by blog author or remove posts you've already read, etc. Q: Why do you offer many different RSS feeds? How do I pick a feed or subscription link? Can I follow only one blogger instead of all three?
The EconLog xml file includes headlines and full articles.
David Henderson's EconLog posts |
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The cuneiform inscription in the Liberty Fund logo is the earliest-known written appearance of the word "freedom" (amagi), or "liberty." It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.
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