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§ What is Pro-Life Unity?

To achieve Pro-Life Unity we will establish standards that we all agree upon, and efforts that we all regularly participate in. By working together we can challenge the culture of death and the apathy which is pervasive in our society.

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I will be speaking today about blogging and blogging technologies at the Blogs for Life Conference in Washington D.C. at the Family Research Council.  When I came up with the idea for this conference 6 years ago, the idea was to have a place for us bloggers to get together and talk about the life issues, how we can use our blogs to work together to end abortion and human killing research and how we can challenge the culture of death.  The event has blossomed, thanks in large part to the prestige and promotional efforts of the Family Research Council, and now there are speakers of the highest caliber joining in this conversation.  This year, joining us will be folks like:

Joseph Farah, CEO of WorldNetDaily at wnd.com, the largest Independent Internet news source in the world
Kristen Day, Democrats for Life
Kristin Hansen, VP of Communications, Care Net
Marjorie Dannenfelser, President,Susan B. Anthony List
Rep. Todd Akin, R-MO

and many more.

Go to blogs4life.com for more information and to tune into the live broadcast from 8:30 - 11:30 am.

In this blog, I will discuss why we blog and then follow it with tips on blogging security.

So, why do we blog?

For those of you who don’t know, “blog” stands for weblog.  What is a weblog?  A weblog is simply the average schmoe putting his or her thoughts onto a web site using any one of the many free or paid Internet blogging applications.  How does a blogger differ from a columnist?  Well nowadays, there really isn’t a difference.  In the early days a typical blogger used whatever was available, like blogger or moveable type, and cobbled everything together himself.  By everything, I mean we decided the colors of the blog, the links, the layout and presentation.  So many things had to be figured out that lots of us still have “Link” on the side of our sites.

Today, many people pay for their “blog” sites to be created and maintained.  It is then syndicated and paid for, and they also have proof-readers.  Technically, they are falling far from the “blog” tree and what they are doing is more identifiable as a column.  Just because we write words which appear on the Internet, it doesn’t mean we are “blogging”.

There are still millions of everyday bloggers who are old-school, creating their own blogs and ranting about whatever ticks them off, or just talking about whatever flips their skirt, like collecting cans or cooking.

Which brings us to, why do we blog? 

We blog to talk about whatever we want, whenever we want, without worrying about how it will effect us.  (which is why so many people are fired from their jobs or get sued)  We like to believe that what we have to say is that incredible gem everybody in the world is looking for, causing our site to go down from the millions of “unique” visitors we get that day.  We put up site traffic analysis tools, hit counters and check our webalizers, wondering which article got the most attention so that we might reproduce that word of wisdom.

Do we blog for money?  I’ve never heard of anyone blogging for money, how selfish do people think we are?!

Just kidding.  :)

There’s nothing wrong with making a buck with our digital words of wisdom, so if you can do it or have done it, more power to you.  Becoming a syndicated columnist isn’t a bad thing either!

How many of us are looking for that unique thought that nobody has added to the digital stream of consciousness we call the Internet?  We want to believe we are just as good as that other person, you know, the one who gets a million hits a day.  Come on, the only difference between what that person is writing and my witty and intelligent prose is that they “got lucky”. Or are they really better writers, attracting many more readers who are interested in what they have to say?

What about the pro-life issue?  Is it possible for us to affect change?  Can we make a difference?  I believe we can, and I believe we do.  That’s why I blog.  Okay, I do it to rant too.  Everybody wants to rant sometimes, don’t we?!

Let’s look at some of the modern blogging applications out there.  Some of them include:

WordPress.org
Blogger.com
Movable Type
Expression Engine
TypePad
WordPress.com
Drupal

There are tons more, but those are the most popular.  I’ve been using Expression engine for years, and I believe it’s the most powerful, but you will struggle to find help with it.  No matter which one you choose, you will likely be hacked someday, especially if you are a pro-life or Christian blogger.  You are less likely to have major hacking problems if you are using a hosted tool, like blogger, because they maintain their own servers and have strict restrictions on access to the root of the site, where a hacker is most likely to get in and inflict the most damage.  If you created your own structure on your own domain name though, your doors will be wide open unless you follow some basic security rules.

1) Limit “God” access to those you completely trust - If you give administrative access to everybody, expect to have problems, lots of problems
2) Create strong passwords - Using password just won’t do it anymore.  Make sure to include numbers.
3) Use a Linux or Unix server for your blogs or websites - Why?  They are more secure, possibly just because they aren’t as popular.
4) Update your software frequently - If there’s a new patch out, install it.  Most likely they have plugged some holes.
5) Use Captchas - Captchas are graphic representations of data a person has to type in order to submit a form.
6) Make sure your site is backed up every night - I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a hacked site easily restored from a backup.
7) Back up your structure/layout - What good is developing that incredible site if you aren’t able to restore it in the event of a total server failure?

Well, that’s all folks.  That’s my digital gem for the day.  I hope you found something that you are interested in, and that you will come back for more.  More importantly, if you are a pro-life person, I pray that will you join us in our fight for the defenseless.  Go to http://prolifeunity.com and fill out the volunteer form in the top-right of the site.

Peter Shinn
President
Pro-Life Unity
http://prolifeunity.com

United We stand - Divided they die