I've purchased the brand-new blogging product for vBulletin, so now any EF member can start their own blog.

It's easy - all you have to do is click the "Blogs" option in the navigation bar above. If for some reason you can't see "Blogs", you are probably hanging around on the front portal page, so click the "Forum" option first and you'll see it. Alternatively you can find them here:

If you don't know what a blog is then you can read info on it here: Blog. Blogs are a great chance to record more personal stories about your life - things which aren't always appropriate on a discussion thread.

Some of you may ask what are the guidelines for the blogs - well there aren't that many really, it's your blog, you can write whatever you like. EF staff will not get involved unless we receive complaints, you are using it to make personal attacks on other members, you post copyrighted or questionable / offensive material, or you do anything silly that could get EF into trouble. But apart from that - it's your blog, so tell your story.

The only real request that we have is that your blog should somehow have a focus about your life in Switzerland (or your preparations to come to Switzerland). Not every blog entry has to be Swiss-related, but bear in mind the overall theme of this site.

I hope you will enjoy this feature, and I'm sure we are all looking forward to reading some interesting blogs from our fellow EF members.

Good lord! There are so many bells and whistles on this forum it's becoming like I don't even have to go out of my house anymore. I can do it all online!

http://clipmarks.com/learn-more/#cliptoblog might be a useful app; allows you to 'clip' info / pages from other sites directly to your blog. Have not tried it yet but it looks interesting

Nice idea - but you can't cut and paste HTML code into blog entries, so there's a good chance this application won't work.

People should also be aware that cutting and pasting large blocks (whether into blogs or posts) is generally discouraged (policy and explanation here). Of course that's not to say that your blog can't contain a snippet to something else on the internet along with a commentary or opinion piece, but what we are looking for is new, original content.

So come on guys - anyone have anything interesting to share with us in their blog? Don't be shy!

As Lob's entry was a sample, technically I'm the first EF blogger!

Nice simple interface, no complications. I love it!

Excellent idea about the blogs, Mark! Just a question, though... How do we make use of setting the blog categories?

Any answer to this question? Inquiring bloggers need to know

Just discovered the blog FAQ, and the answer is:

Just wanted to post an update on this blog announcement.

Unfortunately many new users were going to the blog section and posting questions - in other words questions that should really have gone in the forum and not as a blog.

Of course I could plaster messages everywhere to explain to people who click on blog what a blog is - but they probably wouldn't read it anyway.

Since I got tired of going in there and deleting all the blog entries which weren't really blog entries I'm going to change the settings. From now on only people with a post count higher than 5 who have been here longer than a week will be able to post blogs.

Another thing I noticed is that almost exclusively the newbies had designated their blogs as private, which seemed kind of self defeating. So please remember not to do that!

I notice things have slowed down in the blog section (possibly because there was no much rubbish that shouldn't be there), so please give it a breath of fresh air.

As always - if you see something there that isn't a blog - use the "Report this blog" function so I am made aware of it and can delete it.

breath of fresh air coming up!!