Welcome to the Bas Bleu Salon!

2006-10-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

In the grand salon tradition, Bas Bleu Salon is an online space designed to cultivate introspection, thoughtful creativity and intellectual musings.

Grab a cup of tea, coffee or a glass of wine and pull up a chair. Join us in conversation and thoughtful exploration of the arts, literature, politics, philosophy and life.

Expect to initiate salon dialog with any post, and welcome varying viewpoints on similar topics. Imagine the ongoing conversation as an intimate gathering where all parties are genuinely interested in hearing and exploring alternate points of view and honestly supportive of artistic expression.

Membership Guidelines

2006-10-09T17:51:00.000-05:00

The following are membership prerequisites:

1) Members should be willing to engage in thoughtful introspection and respectful dialog;

2) Members need to maintain their salon blog with regular posting—weekly or so, but hey, sometimes life gets busy!;

3) Members must display the Blogring icon with the "next" and "previous" functions in an easily navigable place on their blog. This promotes smoother movement through the ring as well as fulfilling the agreement with ringsurf.com, powering this blog ring.

The following are membership preferences:

1) A blog with an active Comments section to foster dialog and community;

2) A blog that features photos as well as text—let's face it, photos are so inspirational!

That's it. Pretty easy, eh?

FAQs

2006-10-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

What's a "bas bleu"?

Originating in the 18th century, the term "bas bleu" or "bluestocking" referred to a circle of British women interested in literature, arts, politics and power. Following the established French salon tradition, which nurtured literary figures such as Voltaire and Rousseau, British notables like Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and Hannah More gathered together for intellectual evenings with political thinkers like Samuel Johnson and Edmund Burke.

The salon itself represented a feminine space, an entry into the masculine world of politics and the public sphere—a transgression and assertion of feminine power, intellectual and creative value.

Who can join?

Anyone interested in respectful intellectual introspection.

How do I join Bas Bleu Salon?

It's easy! You can click here or at the "join" link in the sidebar, which will take you to the ringsurf membership page. Once you fill out and submit the form, your blog will be added to the Homesteadin' Unschoolers queue for approval. Once you've added the Bas Bleu Salon icon to your blog, you'll be approved for full membership and added to the Blogring List for Bas Bleu Salon.

How do I put the ring icon on my blog?

The ringsurf page will provide you with the ring code to copy and paste into your blog template. Where you choose to display the icon is at your discretion, but it must appear somewhere on your blog. We do ask that you display it in a place that allows readers to navigate easily from one blog to the other without having to scroll or search for the icon.

If you use blogger and want to place the icon in the sidebar, as it is displayed on this page, simply go to your template, scroll all the way down until you get to your sidebar content in the same way you add links, and paste the ring code there. You'll need to save changes and republish your blog to see the icon on your blog page. It should include the icon and two small links below it, as part of the ringsurf.com agreement.

How do I put the Bas Bleu favicon next to my url?

A favicon is that little picture next to the web address (url)—that little B you see next to the Bas Bleu url. Any Bas Bleu member is welcome to email the ring owners for the favicon code, which gets pasted directly after the /title tag of the blog template.

Why do I need the words under the ring code?

By activating the "next" and "previous" links, you will enable readers to navigate through the blog ring without having to deal with the list page and all its advertisements each time, making for smoother and more seamless reading.

I've pasted the ring code, but the links aren't working. How do I get the "next" and "previous" links to work?

Find the part of the ring code where you see "id=***SITE ID***". That id number needs to correspond to your blog site id number, given to you upon sign up. Be sure to replace the whole ****SITE ID**** with just your id number, replacing all the asterisks as well as the letters between the equal sign and the semi-colon, like this "id=1;" where 1 is your blog site id.

Ringsurf should provide the ring code upon sign up, and this is the part that needs to be changed:

a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=basbleusalon;id=***SITE ID***; action="prev"">Previous
a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=basbleusalon;id=***SITE ID***; action="next"">Next

How do I leave the ring?

Simply remove the code from your template, and your blog will be automatically removed from Bas Bleu Salon.