Glow blogs can be set to have three different privacy settings:
- Private, this is the default for newly created blogs, only members of the blog can view it.
- Glow only, these blogs can only be viewed by authenticated (logged on) glow users. If the blog is in another LA from their own they may need to have the tile for that LA activated in RM Unify (It does not need to be on their Launchpad).
- Public, these blogs are open for anyone with an internet connection to view.
Accessing the settings
After you log onto glow and visit the Dashboard of your blog the Settings menu is at the bottom of the left hand navigation menu.
If the Setting menu is collapsed you can expand it by clicking on the disclosure arrow [1]
Then Click Reading [2]
Privacy Settings
The settings screen is very straightforward, you just choose the radio button for the setting you want and click Save Changes,
NB: Staff are the only user who will be able to make a blog public. Pupils cannot make a blog public.
If a pupil has a blog and want to make it public they would have to add a teacher to the blogs users with an Admin role.
A pupil can make a blog that they have an Admin role private or glow only. If they have a blog where a teacher has made the blog public they can make that blog private or glow only. They cannot revert it to public, they will again need a staff user to make the blog public again.
Media
When you change the privacy of a blog the media on the site needs to be moved. You will see this message at the top of the page:
Media is currently being moved to/from the public area, so Blog Visibility cannot be changed at the moment.
You need to wait until all the media is moved before you change the privacy again.
Hi, I have created our new school website/blog. I have managed to change the settings to public but when I ‘google’ our school the new web page doesn’t show up. How do I share our new website with parents?
Hi Erin,
At first you will have to share the URL with parents. After a while google will find your site and it will go up the ratings.
If you find the url too long you could make a shortened url with tinyurl.com or bit.ly
Hi, I am wondering how to get my blog to show up on search engines?
Thanks
Hi Sean,
If your blog is public google with eventually crawl it and it will show up in searches. Links from other sites will speed up the process.
Cheers
John
Hi there,
I have a blog as a reflective journal for my of my university modules. I’m pretty sure that when I made the blog I said no to search engines being able to index the site. Although my privacy setting for reading is public it still doesn’t come up when I google it. Is there any way that i could go back and change the no to a yes for the indexing of the site on search engines. Thanks in advance, Chloe.
Hi Chloe,
I checked with the developers. They say the choice will not affect the indexing by google, it is a legacy setting for glow blogs. It may take a while for google to index your site. I googled “mcneill glowblogs” and it came up with https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/chloemcneillpdp/ which I guess might be your site.