Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with blog

"PC load letter?"

damnjezebel — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:00:43 -0800

[igiveupfilter] Trying to export my current wordpress-run blog onto a new wordpress-run blog. I keep getting an XML error that says "XML document must have a top level element. Error processing resource 'file:///C:/Users/damnjezebel/Desktop/wordpress.2008-05-16.xml". I've tried this link which helped me the last time I moved my blog, but that's not working this time. I've tried changing permissions as well and no luck. please help me import my old blog before i pull all of my damn hair out!

Best TV Series Blog?

IZ — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:26:18 -0800

What is the best blog or site on TV Series to find the latest news on things like new season start date, ending of series etc. I'm looking for news on Lost, Grace Anatomy, Desperate Housewives etc (you know, the popular stuff).

Blog Cleveland?

cachondeo45 — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:34:04 -0800

Cleveland filter: New job, new city! Fun, hip, alternative, informative blogs? So I just got a cool job in Cleveland, and I'll be migrating from Austin, Texas. I am SO sad to leave Austin, although I am excited about the new opportunities in Cleveland. I was wondering if you know of any alternative blogs that talk about organic living, indie music (kind of like this one in Columbus), liberal political themes, etc. in and around Cleveland. I found a good food blog, and a neat all-purpose commentary on Cleveland blog, but I'm looking for more.

Help me, Clevelanders!

Best way to deal fairly with non-spam, malicious comments on a personal blog?

gemmy — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:09:05 -0800

Best way to deal fairly with non-spam, malicious comments on a personal blog? Deleting them straight away, or allowing such comments but following up with an answer/reply? I have a pretty boring personal blog (website in profile), where I post occasionally. One old blog post (with my thoughts on the Obama assassination fears) has seen consistent traffic and a few comments over the last few months - some comments to date have been on the "internet crazy" side, but fairly benign. Then today, someone added a comment stating their intention to commit a murder/suicide, should Obama become president. This comment is currently in my moderation queue.

Now, my first instinct was to just delete it. But if I delete this comment, I should probably go back and delete some of the others too - even though they were not quite as bad. I originally decided to post them since it's always fun to get comments, and because I think some of the crazies out there are interesting. Also, what's the point of allowing comments at all if I'm going to uber-moderate them?

The other option would be to allow this comment, and then make a very strong statement against it. A friend suggested that I should say that I have forwarded the commenter's IP address to the appropriate authorities, then address the inappropriate nature of the comment. I don't know, though, maybe that's overkill.

The only substantive discussions I've seen online on allowing/not allowing negative/malicious blog comments have been about business-related blogs. I am very interested to hear about how others deal fairly with this sort of thing. Thanks!

Is there a multi-topic blog that would work for a family?

JintsFan — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:38:54 -0800

Is there a blog that would allow me to blog about my daily activities and my kid within the same blog? Must have:
Single interface to record daily activities for multiple people
Meaning – I don’t want to have to logout and in to do multiple postings
Postings are private by default

Nice to have:
Sharing certain posting with specific (logged-in) users
Adding photos to posting
Posting via text messaging
Uses tags

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Why is my WordPress 404.php not working?

krunk — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:51:36 -0800

Why is my WordPress 404.php not working? If I try to visit a non-existent page, instead of getting the 404 page it gives me a page with all my static pages concatenated. The actual blog is at http://www.theatresmash.com.

If you try going to http://www.theatresmash.com/notarealpage, you'll see the incorrect result.

I have a 404.php file defined in my theme. Deleting the 404.php file makes no difference (i.e. no default server 404 error message).

I'm running WordPress 2.51, hosted on DreamHost. I have another blog on the same host with the same WP version, and its 404 page works just fine.

Turn of dates in iWeb 08

wavejumper — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:54:44 -0800

How do I get rid of the date showing up in iWeb 08 blogs? In iWeb 06 you could easily turn them off, I remember, allowing you to use the "blog" template for all sorts of other kinds of non-dated subdirectory webpages. What I'm talking about just to clarify is that under the title of each blog entry on your main blog page in the '08 version will show up the date or time in some form. You can choose different versions of it (i.e. March 4th, 2008 as opposed to 3/4/08) but I can't seem to turn it off! Any hints or hacks?

Can I Make a Little Money Yet?

miss tea — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:48:29 -0800

What sort of readership for my blog would be enough to start offering advertising? I have a blog which I've maintained for about a year. My readership is continuing to increase, and I'd love to get a little extra cash from it. How do you know when your readership is large enough to warrant adding advertising?

(I am thinking the Google text ads.)

What are some good blogs for discovering new blogs? (explanation within)

kingtaj — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:15:24 -0800

What are some good blogs for discovering new blogs? (explanation within) Because great writers come and go in the blogosphere, one must be constantly vigilant to stay abreast of the highest quality blogs (of all genres). Some bloggers have a habit of referring to other good blogs consistently.

Do you know of any? What are the best blogs for discovering new blogs?

Daily Blogger Post of All my Twitters

davidstandaford — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:36:33 -0800

Is there a way to automate a daily post to a blogger blog with all my twitter posts of the last 24 hours? I have searched and found a bunch of ways to install a widget/badge to my blogspot blog that will be constantly updated with all of my daily twitters, but that is not what I am looking for.

I would also like there to be an automatic post to the blog itself each day that includes all of the twitters. Can blogger do this in any sort of automated fashion?

It seems there are plenty of solutions on wordpress, but none for blogger. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Do password protected blogs exist?

Planet F — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:41:04 -0800

I'm going to be doing some pretty extensive travelling next year, and I want to keep my family and friends up to date on my experiences. However, I want to do this in a way that doesn't inform general randoms about my movements... in other words, do password-protected blogs exist? If they do exist, could you recommend me one that would be simple to navigate for me (a very non-tech savy person who only found out what defragging was last year), and that would be easy to understand for my family, some of whom get confused with the latest-post-at-the-top format.

Any recommendation should include video and photo capabilities (another reason I don't really want it open to the public!!!!)

Where can I find a figure for the percentage of blogs that are actively maintained?

davemee — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:34:09 -0800

While I know there can only ever be a woolly answer to this question, can anyone point to state-of-the-web information detailing how many blogs are actively maintained, and what percentage of blogs that is? Technorati's 'state of the blogosphere/liveweb' only tracks how the blogosphere expands, and ignores details about one-post wonders. An interesting look at the half-life of livejournal sites is here and makes me realise decay is the most realistic perspective on understanding the life/death cycle of sites. But even a simple 'poll of 1000 sites, 50% were not updated in the last year' result would be useful.

Code For A Random Blog Post?

Jaybo — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:31:13 -0800

I have a blog and would like to add a "Random Post" button. I'm hosted with a company called Blogware which, unlike Blogger and WordPress, seems to have no no way to add a "random post" button.

I'm not a programmer but suspect this should be fairly easy to do. I'd like advice on how to go about this - do I try to do it in JavaScript? PHP? Something else? Whatever's the easiest solution is best for me. (Major bonus points if someone provides the code itself that would do this, either as a text link or a button I can add.)

All posts on my blog have the basic format of: http://blog.jason.hammond.net/blog/_archives/yyyy/m/dd/

...so if I can define the start date of my blog (Feb 28, 2006) and occasionally update the script with the most recent date of a post as an end point, that would be close enough for what I want. (I try to post daily but don't mind if users end up on a blank day or don't have every single recent post I've made in the range.)

I should also mention that I'm not able to get to the "guts" of the site but can add third-party widgets and other bits of code.

To do this, I think I need to:
- define the start date of the range (2006/2/26)
- define the end date (for now, say 2008/4/26) and be able to easily change this monthly or whenever I get a chance
- generate a random date in the format yyyy/m/dd
- append that to the URL: "http://blog.jason.hammond.net/blog/_archives/"
- go to that URL

Thanks very much in advance for your help!

Education Blogs.

Memo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:26:11 -0800

I'm preparing an exposition (a talk) for a class about blogs in general and their use in education. What should I include on it? Resources and research about the topic would be very helpful. I'm going to begin with a small summary of the origins of the term blog, the evolution that it went through and the different kinds of them that exist at the present. All the time emphasizing the fact that anyone can write about anything on the web.

After that, I want to start talking about how blogs can be used and how they are being used for education purposes. Edublogs and the like. And, while I'm concentrating in what the situation is in my country (Chile), I would like to mention what happens everywhere else. Clever applications of this resource, or even common ones, how they have been integrated into a class curriculum, etc.
Really, any info related to the topic will be helpful.

Thanks!

The Truth is in Here

Secretariat — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:25:18 -0800

I need a name for my X-files themed blog. Last Christmas, we got the boxed set of all seasons of the X-files. Mr. Secretariat and I have been dutifully watching this show every night, and we're nearing the end. We know we're going to make a blog discussing the merits and failings of each episode-- we just don't know what to call it. Although this blog will be a deadly serious undertaking, I am looking for a light-hearted name. Hopefully it would evoke the purpose of the blog, as well as the X-Files. For example:

Trust NoBlog
Hurf Durf X-files Watcher
The Redux Files

Can't modify - or even find - my Blogger blog.

gottabefunky — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:32:36 -0800

I have a Blogger blog that I set up a while ago but never put anything on. Now I can't modify it at all, even though the URL is "taken" - by me. I set up a blog (juliansmith.blogspot.com) a while ago but never
posted anything to it.

Now I can't do anything to it. I type in that URL and just get the
blogspot top bar ("next blog," "dashboard," etc.) above a blank white screen.

The blog doesn't show up on my dashboard, but when I try to create it, it says "that name is taken." Of course it is - by me! But how do I get to it to modify it?

Blogger without a blog service

jejune — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:31:20 -0800

Is there a blog service that has all the features I need? I've tried Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress.com, but none of them seems like quite the ticket. See inside for the 3 features I'm looking for. I'm trying to start a blog. It seems like every service I try is about 90% of what I need, but missing some key feature.

Here are the features I'm looking for:

1. The ability to have a private blog with well over 100 readers. I could see myself picking up a bunch of readers from my list of Facebook friends, and on top of that I'd like to feel comfortable mentioning the blog to people I meet in the future and casually inviting them to read it without worrying about exceeding the limit. (I'm not willing to have a public blog because I'm paranoid about a prospective employer googling my name one day and being offended by something I say about a controversial issue.)

2. A blogroll that allows well over 50 links. I have over 50 links to put in various categories of my blogroll (not just blogs but also individual articles, favorite Metafilter posts, etc.), and I want to be able to add more as I come across them.

3. Easily customizable templates, or at least a very tasteful default template. I care a lot about the appearance of the blog, and I'd like to have a distinctive combination of greys, blues, and a bit of purple. I don't have programming skills beyond some basic HTML, so I can't create a template from scratch. (I want something sleek and minimal but also with a bit of color and character. Most templates I've seen are either minimal to the point of looking like something from the '90s, or overloaded with color and graphics in a way that seems geared toward 16-year-olds.)

Here's what I've gathered based on trying 3 different services:

- Blogger has nicely customizable templates and plenty of blogroll capacity ... but is limited to 100 private readers.

- Livejournal lets you have 1000 private readers (or more with a paid account) and has so many templates that I can find a palatable one if I really try ... but limits you to 30 with a free account or 50 with a paid account. (I've tried this del.icio.us tool and it doesn't seem to work on LJ)

- Wordpress.com lets you have unlimited private readers for $30 (which I'd gladly pay for), and seems to have good blogroll capabilities ... but there are just a few boringly tasteful templates, they can't be customized at all (nor can you import one from a third party), and the main column is too wide anyway.

I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount of money, but free would be ideal, needless to say.

I've looked through AskMe tags, tried Googling for feature comparisons, and looked at help/FAQ pages from Blogger, Livejournal, and Wordpress. Of course, this turns up tons of information about different features offered by different services, but I'm not seeing a big-picture solution to my problem. (And I'm suspicious of the blog services' official help pages because they seem to try to conceal their limitations.)

Am I missing some way to have everything I want, or is this just not available? If not, then what do you think would be the least-bad option? I realize that the answer might simply be that I'm right -- none of the services work for the above reasons. But I wanted to run this by the hive mind to see if there's either some workaround for the above problems or some other service that offers what I want. I'm honestly on the verge of giving up blogging because there doesn't seem to be a viable service out there.

Where's that cool video documentary blog I found?

Muffpub — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:52:18 -0800

Can anyone help me find a great blog of smart, interesting video links that I had bookmarked and lost? So I found this great blog a few months ago which I had bookmarked - it had embedded videos to documentaries and other interesting full-length features.

Other things I remember about it:
- I think it had "TV" in the title
- All I remember about the page itself, besides the embedded videos, was that it had a little sidebar describing the site as saying something along the lines of "no talking dogs - only intelligent stuff here." (Or something mocking all the dog videos on youtube.)

If it's any help I do remember three things I found linked through this site:
- The documentary Control Room in its entirety on Google Video
- A weird but funny 10-minute mockumentary about CERN
- A documentary about John Lennon's lost jukebox and the way the songs he loved influenced his own music.

This site was real quality and I've been googling and googling with no luck. I have no idea where I found it. Maybe you guys can help me out.

My blog has become a playground for filthy pornmongers!

Drohan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:54:37 -0800

How can I restore my totally disgustingly porn-hacked Wordpress blog to its former pristine state? Ugh. My Wordpress blog, hosted by phpwebhosting, has been invaded by the grossest spammer on earth.

Every individual post has been altered, with hundreds of lines unspeakably filthy links, enclosed in div tags.

In addition, comments are continuously being posted to every post, which appear to be coming from me (the blog name as the commenter).

I am locked out Wordpress, insofar as I cannot edit posts, post new ones, or make any security changes (I tried turning off comments, putting my spam blockers at their highest security levels, etc.

I have been using MarsEdit (as once recommended to me by AskMe users--thank you!) to make new posts and go in to each post and delete the horrifying spam. But there are hundreds if not thousands of posts.

1. Help!
2. Is there a way to batch edit all the affected posts? It seems that there are a handful every 10 or 12 or so that have not been touched.
3. How do I get back into Wordpress and regain control of my blog?
4. Has this happened before? What is going on?

I am using Wordpress 2.04 but cannot update. I emailed the abuse line of the spammer's IP address but that won't help me with the situation on my end, but might get the spammer(s) to stop the madness.

Thank you so much.

Is there anything I can do? I contacted Wordpress & phpwebhosting and posted on the Wordpress support forums.

Help be the best darn midwestern music blogger

carefulmonkey — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:32:55 -0800

I want to be a music blogger, except that I don't much about actual blogging and hosting of music I love music and I love to write, I want to have a little music so I can present artists I like that others might as well. However I have a few obstacles in the way.

1. I don't which blog service to use.
2. I don't know how to host music.
3. I don't know how I would market the blog.
4. I don't know what device I should use to record the concert snippets.

These are big obstacles but If you have any information or practical advice that can help me with these I would be super jazzed.

Wordpress/website/internet novice seeks bailout.

sneakin — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:35:12 -0800

Can I get some basic Wordpress help? So out of my depth here. I'm in way over my head here. I am helping a friend set up her organization's website. I have Wordpress all installed. Is there any way I can make the homepage not be a blog? I know I've seen other "Wordpress-powered" sites that don't have blogs as the main page. Am I seriously mistaken? How the heck can I do this? I looked through WP's documentation and couldn't make heads or tails of it. I'm using BlueHost, if it matters. If Wordpress isn't the thing for me, what is? I'm an utter novice, in case you haven't noticed.

Anyone who cares to walk me through it, shoot me a MeMail! Thanks a million.

Timely, comprehensive, accurate blog-searching website?

WCityMike — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:21:43 -0800

What's the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date blog-searching site? I've looked around and not really been very impressed with what I've found. I would've once upon a time thought Technorati, but now that site seems layered with so much crud that it really doesn't appear useful anymore. They've "lost the mission," so to speak.

Although I've usually been impressed with Google's offerings, Google Blog Search really doesn't seem to be anywhere near as frequently updated as a blog search tool should be.

What site do you use to do a broad sweep through coverage of a topic on the blogosphere?

(Extra karma for a site that has bookmarkable search URLs so that I could construct a Firefox keyword for same.)

All the lovely ladies who haven't gone to porn

reenum — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:34:43 -0800

Looking for sites with non-nude pictures of beautiful women I have long admired female beauty. So, I decided to try and find some non-nude photoblogs or sites with pictures of everyday beautiful women.

Unfortunately, porn has overtaken this realm and I can't seem to find too many good sites with pictures of non-celeb and non-porn beautiful women.

I've tried Flickr, but I'm looking for a site that might aggregate the content from sites such as Flickr, Webshots, etc. or has people submit pictures of beautiful women. If they're wearing skimpy clothes, that is fine. But, the pictures need to be of women who are fully attired. So, topless shots are out.

I know beauty is subjective, so please give me links to sites of women you think are beautiful. I can take it from there.

Thanks, MeFi!

Livejournal replacement?

Arturus — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:53:05 -0800

What's a good replacement for livejournal? Desired features: a modicum of privacy controls and openID authentication for readers. So in light of the ongoing fiasco that is SUP's ownership of livejournal, I'm considering jumping ship. The problem is, my blog there has mostly been of the kind that works best with the livejournal setup and community. In particular, I'd like to continue to make use of privacy controls, preferably with the ability to authenticate my allowed readers through openID. The idea here being that such a setup would make it easy for my friends on livejournal to continue using that identity to read my blog. Wordpress lets you password protect individual posts, or create an non-openID authentication list for your entire journal; what else is out there? Is there any platform besides livejournal that has this sort of feature set?