Friday, November 10, 2006

Temporary FAQ

How can I start posting to WikiFray?

[If you already have a Gmail Account, skip to number 3 below]

1. Email mailto:wikifray@gmail.com?subject=I, Subject: I'd like to join WikiFray.

2. You will receive a Gmail invitation. Accept it and register an account with Gmail.

If you already have a Google Account, please note this in your initial request to skip step 2.

3. Using your Gmail account, email mailto:wikifray@gmail.com?subject=I, Subject: I have Gmail.

4. In response you will receive a Blogger Invite. Follow the instructions in that email to accept the invitation. Refer questions regarding your profile to Blogger Help.

Other questions? You can peruse the original wagtheslate FAQ, email wikifray@gmail.com, or reply to this post.

Before you post to WikiFray:

RULE:
You must label your posts with your nickname.

Help with post summary:

When you go to create a post you will find the following in the text box of your post:


Type your summary here

Type rest of the post here

If you don’t want to apply the post summary option to your post, simply delete this text. If you do want to summarize your post, replace “Type your summary here” with the summary of your post that you’d like to appear, and replace “Type rest of the post here” with the remainder of your post. Do not delete/overwrite “” or “”. Publish and double-check that you formatted your post correctly.

Feel free to try it even if you’re not sure how to do it. If you mess it up, it’s okay. You can go back and edit your post, either trying again, or deciding not to use post summary and simply deleting the blockquoted text above from your text box.

How can I have my blog included in the network feed?

Send an e-mail with your blog's RSS feed URL to wikifray@gmail.com. If you'd like your comments included as well, you can also send the feed for the comments. If you don't know your feed URL, just send your blog URL and we can probably figure it out.

How can I add something to the recommendations feed?

Two ways:

  1. Bookmark the link at ma.gno.lia.com, and add the tag "wikifray."
  2. Start a "shared links" blog using an RSS aggregator like Google Reader. Then send the URL for the RSS feed of that to wikifray@gmail.com. Everthing you share will then be included.

What is nuponuq?

Nuponuq hosts the forum to dicuss posts on both WikiFray and members of the WikiFray network.

17 comments:

WikiFray said...

FAQ Update:

del.icio.us: If your blogger nickname is not adequately unique, the ...to file link will lead to the del.icio.us page of the person who registered it before you.

To check, add your nickname to the end of this url: http://del.icio.us/______

Example: http://del.icio.us/august

Then copy and paste it into your browser navigation bar. If this pulls up an existing user account, you may want to consider changing your name to one that does not.

Despite this issue, I encourage all contributors to give del.icio.us a try. I believe that it will prove its utility in the long run. Nevertheless, in good time, I’ll check the popularity of this feature with contributors, and if the majority of you chose not to use it, I’ll remove it from the blog.

Lastly, if you’ve followed all the steps to become a contributor only to discover your nickname is not sufficiently unique, but want to remedy the situation, you still can. In your blogger profile, change your nickname. Go back and edit the lable(s) on all your post(s), updating them to reflect your new nickname. And finally, follow the steps above to register with del.icio.us and file your existing and future posts with del.icio.us

twiffer said...

hey, cool...i'm on the sidebar. neato.

august said...

Ender,

Is it okay if I use augustthecat for delicious purposes and august for other stuff?

WikiFray said...

august: Well, the problem is the ...to file link is automated. Meaning, the template inserts your blogger nickname. So, changing your blogger nickname is the only way to change the link that it generates. That said, I don’t want you to feel like you have to change your nic. It’s an option, not a requirement. It looks like the only person with an account so far (I’m guessing) is John. I suspect switters and keifus are in the same boat as you. And no one has availed themselves to it yet (actually filing [still early on however]). So it looks like the feature is a nonstarter (read: absent additional impetus, del.icio.us filing is not a good enough reason to change your nickname, especially if you’re partial to it).

august said...

Well, I've started labeling posts to my own delicious account. Given my history, I don't know how long that will last. I could try changing my nic to august- and seeing if that works.

Thanks.

Dawn Coyote said...

I've signed up for delicious, but haven't bookmarked anything yet. From what I can discern of its applications, the service could be useful particularly if I get to go around and see what you guys bookmarking. I like that the indexing of popular links, digg-like, as it seems to be free of ads - unlike google.

I have to add tags to my posts? huh? No, don't tell me - I'll figure it out.

I'm still trying to figure out if I can get an update on posts and comments without the hit counter showing that I've come to the page 2000 times in a single, compulsive day. Do views register when one is on the "Manage Posts" page? Do they register if I click on the comments link on that page? I know I could test this on my own blog, and perhaps I will.

Further to the idea of cloaking one's presence on the blog - I think people that feel a bit shy about having their IP addresses logged might want some info about applications that will scramble the IP address when one comes to a site. Someone told me about a site provides this service for free, once a day. I don't know anything more about it, but I bet some on BOTF would be interested, if anyone's up for posting about it.

WikiFray said...

Dawn:

del.icio.us: You may have signed up, but the “…to file” link at the foot of your posts still leads to a dead-end. Be sure your del.icio.us user name and blogger nickname are the same. I don’t know how del.icio.us handles spaces, but that might be the problem.

I’m not sure why you’d want to avoid being counted. Fact of the matter is, if you’re here, you should be counted. It’s useful and true information. The only person who isn’t counted is me. The initial reason for this is I’m often here not to read posts, but to handle the technical side, which also translates into a lot of page views. That said, if we ever reach the level of averaging over 200 visits a day, I’ll unblock my isp’s since the percentage of my visits at that point will become insignificant.

As for people not wanting to be counted, I’m not sure what planet they’re from, but short of throwing away your computer and never using the internet again, there’s really no way to avoid it. Literally every website you visit collects information on you. That’s how commerce is measured, and has been since virtually the beginning. I guess I have zero sympathy for that argument.

Dawn Coyote said...

Regarding those who don't want to be tracked: I'm thinking of people who guard their anonymity more closely than some of us. They might post on Slate because the techs who're reading the stats there don't know them as posters, whereas in this sort of environment, it's easy to pair the poster with the IP info.

Regardless of your level of sympathy for the argument, I just wanted to note that there are options available (I've heard) to obscure one's IP address (and therefore one's location, place of employment, etc.) if one wishes to do that.

I'll figure out the delicious thing when I've got some spare attention to give it.

JohnMcG said...

FYI -- My handle is taken in del.icio.us, so my login there is "JohnJMcG," which probably throws a monkeywrench in the whole works.

Also, I haven't been given the icon to move MBB over to beta yet, so it's still over on the original one. I'd rather not start a new one from scratch.

WikiFray said...

John:

-You haven’t been given the option to switch over to beta yet? Strange. Wag the Slate was given the option on the day we moved over here (figures). I just checked my remnant3936 blog (logged into blogger) and again, I was greeted with:

"Your new version of Blogger is ready!
The new version of Blogger now has all the original features you're used to, plus new post labels, drag-and-drop template editing, and privacy controls. And, it's a lot more reliable.

After you switch you'll need to sign in with your Google Account, but your blogs will stay the same. Their content and layout will not change.

Switch to the new version
"

-Thanks for the del.icio.us clarification. I think the jury is in. I wonder what I can put down there in its place…?

MsZilla said...

I'm confuzzled.

Why do I have to have a gmail account to contribute? Or is having the Blogger account sufficient?

WikiFray said...

Well, you don’t have to have a gmail account, but it is recommended. However, I do believe you will be prompted, absent a gmail account, to register for a “Google Account”, which is akin to Microsoft Passport as far as I can tell. Either way is fine by me, my recommendation that you create a gmail account was just that, a recommendation. However your choose, you do still need to drop me a line at wikifray@gmail.com so I can send you a blogger invitation.

MsZilla said...

Okay - it's no problem then. I have a Google account as well.

The mail is on it's way.

Dawn Coyote said...

How about switching the order in the right column so that the comment feed is at the bottom and the posts on member's blogs appear at the top of the column. I dunno why you've got the comments beside the comments. Seems a little, er, redundant.

WikiFray said...

One part redundancy, one part curiosity.

The comment feed on the right is blogger based. It’s a beta.blogger improvement. But I’ve been playing with it nearly from the start, and I noticed it’s sporadic (has been, is, will be). So I’ve put it up where it is so I can get a better feel for how well/consistently it works.

The full text comment feed in the center is jury-rigged. It has been working perfectly, but I wasn’t always sure it would. So it’s been useful to have the blogger comment feed next to it so I can judge its performance at a glance. I’ve also been making subtle changes to threeninethreesix. These changes have the potential to interrupt the full text comment feed, so it’s been doubly useful to have something to compare it to.

So, there was a reason for the redundancy. But I’m pretty secure in our jury-rigged feed now. One of the nice things about it is I recently changed the settings on threeninethreesix to notify weblogs when it publishes. This translates into a bit more exposure for us and doesn’t seem to have triggered any red flags with blogger (if you remember, threeninethreesix was labeled a splog there for a day or two).

Anyway, there is the logic. Both sidebars are still very much works in progress. I’ll be improving both, and on the list is rearranging the blogger comments feed.

Dawn Coyote said...

Thanks for the explanation. My question was motivated by self-interest, because if I'm going to put posts on my blog that I don't put here, I have the hope that people will come and read them. Otherwise, I'll just post all of 'em here.

Also: my deleted comment ended up in the comment feed anyway. I suppose I'll just be more careful before I post them from now on.

You were pretty quick to cancel the delicious thing. I might try playing with it for awile. Seems promising.

Also, again - nice work.

JohnMcG said...

It's also quite handy that 3936 has its own RSS feed, so I can see that in my aggregator, which is handier for me than e-mail.