Here are some commonly encountered situations and Frequently Asked Questions.
If none of the following are of help, please contact Kenneth Pinto at 
General
What is Blog.nus?
Blog.nus is the new blogging service for the NUS community. Blogs can be created by staff and students for teaching, learning, research and administrative purposes.
The service is hosted by Edublogs Campus and powered by WordPress.
What are the benefits of Blog.nus?
Plenty! Here are some of them:
- A widely-used and established blog engine
- Easy sidebar customization using widgets
- Lots of themes – over 90 – to choose from
- Ability to import from WordPress, Blogger and others
- Privacy controls at your fingertips
- Ability to assign user roles
- Embed content from popular services such as YouTube, Google Video, Slideshare and others
- Ability to set up a static front page instead of displaying latest posts
- Various plugins to enhance your blog
Starting a blog
How do I start a blog?
Click here to start a blog.
What are the Terms of Service?
- Blogs in Blog.nus should be used for academic, educational, research or administrative use only. Please use a free blog service provider such as WordPress or Blogger for personal blogs.
- By creating a blog in Blog.nus, you agree to adhere to Singapore’s laws and the NUS Acceptable Use Policy for IT Resources.
- As a service provider, the Centre for Instructional Technology (and the National University of Singapore) is not liable for any legal or financial issues which may arise as a result of your use of Blog.nus.
Can I have more than one blog?
Yes, you can. If you are logged in, you can click the Click to create link on the Blog.nus front page. You will be prompted to enter a new blog name and title.
Can I add other users to the blog?
Yes, you can add other users to your blog. Ask the users who you want to add to go to the blog creation page. Fill in the relevant information, choose Just a username, please, then click Next. Once they have done that, go to your Dashboard. Click Users (top right), then Add Users. Fill in the emails of the users you want to add and choose their user roles. Click Next, and wait for the process to finish.
If this does not work, you can email the Blog.nus administrator to add users to your blog:
I have not received the email with my password.
It takes up to half an hour for the email to be sent. If it is past half an hour, please check your spam folder for the email. If it is not there, please contact .
I want to have a private blog, which only my students can access. Can this be done?
Yes, you can set up a blog just for your module or class. Once you have done this, please contact and we will help your students get set up.
I am a student. Can I start a blog?
Definitely. We only ask that you keep to the Terms of Service, particularly that your blog should be for teaching, learning, research or admin (perhaps your CCA) purposes only.
If you wish to start a primarily personal blog, there are lots of free blog platforms like WordPress, Blogger or LiveJournal.
Embeds & Attachments
Why does my embedded YouTube video say “Sorry video no longer available”?
There seems to be an intermittent issue affecting all WordPress blogs with YouTube embeds when viewed in Internet Explorer 6.
You can… switch to another browser, like Firefox. There is no known fix from any of the three parties.
My embeds keep on getting stripped out when I publish. How do I embed a YouTube video or other embeds?
In order to embed a YouTube video, Slideshare presentation or other embeds, you need to be in HTML editing mode when writing a post. (Click HTML, next to Visual on the top right of the text field.)
You can… write your post as per normal first, then switch to HTML mode, paste the embed code where you want it to appear in the post, then publish.
What file types can be uploaded?
You can… embed jpg, png, gif, bmp, mp3, mov, avi, wmv, midi, mid, pdf, ppt, pptx, doc, docx, xls, xlsx and zip files. In most cases, these will appear as a link. Please note that the maximum attachment size is 20MB and you have a total of 500MB. It might be better to use external hosting services which allow embeds.
The file uploader doesn’t seem to work?
If the default file uploader does not work, please use the browser uploader instead. (You will see the link on the file upload page.)
Where can I host various media?
Photos: Flickr, Photobucket
Videos: YouTube, TeacherTube
Presentations: Slideshare, Google Docs
Office Documents: Scribd’s iPaper
These are external services (some of which offer paid subscriptions). CIT makes no claims regarding the reliability of third-party services and is not responsible for any undesirable circumstances resulting from your use of these.
User Accounts
Can I display a name other than my User ID?
Yes, you can. In the Dashboard, click the User tab. Click your username, Fill in your First name, Last name and Nickname. Click Update Profile. The Display name publicly as drop-down list will now have several variations based on the information you entered. Select your new display name and Update Profile again. Voila!
Why does the avatar cropping tool behave strangely?
There is a known issue with the avatar cropping tool in Internet Explorer.
You can… Use the Alternative Upload button on the Your Avatar page or you can switch to another browser, like Firefox.
Blog Deletion
I want to delete my blog but there is a message which says “I’m sure… and I am aware I can never get it back or use blog.nus.edu.sg again.” Will I still be able to use Blog.nus?
Rest assured that you will still be able to use Blog.nus. Only your chosen blog will be deleted. Your account will remain. If you have other blogs on Blog.nus, you will still be able to access and use them with your existing account.
