Posted in Tech Support

 

If you get a really weird comment today, know that it doesn't have anything to do with you or your blog personally. Some sick people out there just enjoy spewing filth on blog sites. A few of us have already been visited by the spammer so be on the lookout.

If you get a comment:

• Copy & paste the comment into the comment email notification you were sent along with
•  IP information if you have your Record IP Information turned on for comments
• Any information from your sitemeter or statcounter
• Delete the comment. No need for others to have to read that nonsense.
• Send the email to me and I'll forward it to tech support.

Thanks Y'all!

Nancy Carter
HomesteadBlogger Senior Editor
www.HomesteadBlogger.com/UnlikelyHomesteader

 

 

Posted in Tech Support

Posted in Tech Support

Thank you all for being so patient. I'm happy to be able to tell you that links and photos are working again! Woo Hoo!!!!!

Now, the only thing that is slightly different is IF you are using the html from photobucket or flickr (rather than inserting a photo link), you'll need to push the source button before you add the entry. When you preview your entry, you will only see the code, but it should post just fine in the entry.

Also I'm really happy to tell you that you can now safely edit your templates without using your javascript functions. Yippee! Maybe my template won't be off-center forever after all. Or maybe it will be. I'm starting to get used to it....

However, our webmaster has asked that you all let him know what scripts you all use in your templates so that he can compile a "whitelist" of approved scripts which will give us maximum functionality with minimum risk.  So, if you will, look in your templates and then  email me with your blog url (like www.HomesteadBlogger.com/HSBFrontPorch) and the code for the scripts that you use, I'll pass those along to him.

I know he already has:
- Google Analytics
 - Disable right click (dynamic drive)
 - Disable text selection (dynamic drive)
 - Sitemeter
 - StatCounter
 - Daily Blessing
 - And http://resourceshop.net/corner_banners.html
Just be sure to give us your blog url so that he can *see* how the script works on the blog.

Thanks for all of your patience. We really are doing our best to keep you all informed of what is going on here. But we always need your help to know how the site is functioning with the variances in browsers and programs, sometimes we don't *see* the same things you all do.  If you have trouble, email me and then I'll pass along the information to our webteam so that we can get an answer. Just always remember to give us your blog URL so we can check the problems ourselves.

Also, I tried copy and pasting from a Word document onto my personal blog and it worked just fine no kinks at all.

Here's what our webmaster said about that though. "The Word "clean up box" only works on certain types of Word documents. What you might try doing first is clicking "cancel" in the "do you want
to clean it up?" box. This should allow newer versions of Words' code to be pasted with no problems.
In some situations the code after it's passed throug this "clean up Word code" process is a significant improvement. Sometimes it isn't. If it doesn't work one way, try the other."

Hope this helps answer many of your questions and leads to much more happy homesteadblogging!

Nancy Carter
HomesteadBlogger Senior Editor
www.HomesteadBlogger.com

Posted in Tech Support

Well it was stormy at my house yesterday so my internet kept going in and out so this is my first chance to try out the site. The webmaster asked me to let him know if any features weren't working so I'm just testing things out a bit.

I know that Julia has had trouble. (Nope the link doesn't work) Let's see if this will be clickable: http://www.homesteadblogger.com/BlueAppleFarm/49284

Now let me try and insert a picture:
Nope that doesn't work either.

Smiley's still work.
Insert special character works.©
Insert table doesn't, but I never use that anyway.
There's an eraser up there with remove format, but I don't know what that is.
I can change the font color and the background color too.

That looks pretty ugly, huh?

Whew, I got that fixed.

And I can do strikethrough and bold, and underline, and italic.

This isn't very homesteady is it. Let me try to use the numbers.

1. cows
2. goats
3. chickens
4. ducks
5. horses

And what about the bullets.

• looks
• like
• these
• work
  
• too

Posted in Tech Support

I know that some have struggled on and off with this since the hacker/virus issues. Just wanted to let you know that our webmaster got to the bottom of it today and you should be able to log in/out without any issues now.

Blessings,
~Nancy
(who feels positively light jumping back and forth ~ UnlikelyHomesteader, HSBFrontPorch, UnlikelyHomesteader, HSBFrontPorch, .....)

Posted in Tech Support

It looks like things are finally all clear here at HomesteadBlogger according to tech support. Apparently there was some type of worm that had worked its way into our system and our tech support folks had to go through each and every blog in our system to remove all traces of it. (BIG JOB!) Apparently the virus could only be seen by people who had an old version of MS Internet Explorer. However at least the virus should not have affected your personal computers, it was just going into the blog templates. Again, I don't know a lot about tech stuff, but keeping your web browser up to date does really help to yourself from online attacks, here's the page to update Internet Explorer and here's the page if you're using Firefox.

Now in order to protect ourselves from further attack, they have installed a feature that will remove any javascript codes that people try to add to their templates so that we cannot be infected like that again.  Javascript that you may currently have on your blog will continue to work though. The key thing is that you CAN NOT go in and make ANY changes to your template or you WILL lose that javascript function. If you go in and save ANY changes to your template, our system's new javascript removal code will disable any javascript that you have in your template.

For some of you, this won't affect you at all. But if you have a counter, blogroll, slideshows, etc.. that use javascript, you could potentially lose them if you just simply went in to change anything in your template. We don't want that to happen.

What does this mean to you?

• Your current javascript is ok. Just don't make any changes or you will lose it.
  
• Right now you should NOT make any changes to your template. This doesn't mean that you can't post entries on your blog as usual. This just means don't go in and change the "look" of your blog right now.
• You will not be able to add any features to your blog that use javascript in the code. Our webmasters will be creating a whitelist of "safe" javascript codes (like counters or no-click scripts) that they will allow us to use. But for now they are erring on the side of caution and just turning off that option.
• You SHOULD go into your template and copy and paste all of it into a word document for safekeeping. To do this: Go into your manager, click on Settings,click on Template, right click in the box and Select All, right click again and Copy, then open a new word document, and right click in it and Paste. Voila! Now just Save that document with a name so you'll know it's your template and click on  SaveBack to My Account, to get out of that section.
  

Thank you all for your patience as we've worked through these issues. All of us at HomesteadBlogger are very dedicated to keeping this a safe family-friendly community. You can always contact tech support through our online form or email your question to me. Just always be sure to include your blog and username in your emails so that we can deal with your specific issue accurately.

If you have any further issues, don't hesitate to contact us. Although it may take a day or two to respond, that is much more reliable than just posting an entry or comment.

Happy Blogging,
~Nancy Carter
SeniorEditor@HomesteadBlogger.com

Posted in Tech Support

As most of you probably know, someone hacked into our site on Saturday. Apparently it happened to numerous Christian sites as well. I'm not a tech person, but from what I gather we had a worm attack (not the helpful garden variety worms) on our javascript. Now, javascript is a sticky thing ~ it gives you lots of fun features like counters, Mr. Linky, and blogrolls, BUT it also makes you more vulnerable to viruses. Bummer, huh?

So for the time being, javascript has been turned off to ensure the safety of our website. However if you have javascript in your template and you leave it alone, the code will still function. You just don't want to go in and make any modifications to your template right now or you will lose the javascript functionality.

If you are still getting any error or virus warning, please send me the exact message you are getting in an email so that I can forward it to tech support.

We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you and are doing our best to resolve the issue promptly.

Happy Blogging,
~Nancy
SeniorEditor@HomesteadBlogger.com

Posted in Tech Support

After reading today's post about Blog Safety, Purewater had some good questions. The answer to them got a little long-winded so I decided to just make a whole new entry. Here's his question and my response.

Privacy Default question

OK, this has got me thinking and your link to the "Rocks In My Dryer" post has me a bit concerned.

What would happen if I go to the settings and change the "Privacy Default for New Entries" to just friends? Would that make all of the past posts private also, or just new ones? What would it look like to someone who is not on my "friend" list when they would try to see my blog?

Would there be any way for a strange person to get to my blog if I did that?

What do you think the major drawbacks of doing such would be?

Thanks for the thought provoking post!

My response

These are all great questions.

• If you change the privacy default for new entries, that would only affect NEW entries. Your archived ones would still be available to anyone.
• If you wanted to change the ones in your archive, you would need to go into your blog manager. Click on edit for each individual entry. Then at the bottom, click on advanced options. You could then click on Only Friends or Only Registered Users (or whatever you choose) and then click on Save Changes.
  

**I just tested it and if you make an entry viewable by only friends and a non-friend clicks on it from the last 100 page, they get this message -

Posted in Tech Support

Did you all get the Blog Safety email last week? It was addressed to HomeschoolBloggers, but was intended for you all as well. I just wanted to post it here for any of you who might have missed it, as well as to give you this link to read from Rocks In My Dryer about why she doesn't post pictures of her children on her blog.

Now any of you who frequent my blogs know that I do post pictures of my children, but I don't give our city and am cautious about what types of pictures I post. I would definitely encourage all of you to put a sitemeter on your blog if you don't have one already. Knowing what brings people to your page and how long they are clicking around on your blog is very insightful.

Now without further ado, is Tia's article of important safety tips!

Blog Safety

Hello HomeschoolBloggers,

As Senior Editor for HomeschoolBlogger.com I want to remind you of some basic blog safety rules.

Blog safety is important to us at HSB.  We want all of our bloggers to enjoy their blogging experience and to provide a positive blogging environment.   We cannot, however, read every blog or assume responsibility for the online safety and content of all blogs and bloggers.  We will notify bloggers and the parents of blogging minors of potential issues that come to our attention.

HSB requires parents to monitor their children's blogging activities and ensure compliance with all of the HomeschoolBlogger rules. This is not because the child cannot be trusted, but to ensure that information isn't given out inadvertently and to monitor the online activities of their children.  

Tags are a popular way of getting to know other bloggers better. However, just because a question is put to you, it does not mean you have to answer it!  If you are asked to say what your hometown is, it is perfectly all right to leave it blank or come up with a creative answer like, "I could tell you but then I'd have to move."  It doesn't break some unwritten tag etiquette.

The following is a list of guidelines to help make your blogging experience a safe one:
 
Don't use your full name - There are those of us at HSB who do use our full name, as our blogs are a part of our business.  If you don't have a need to have your name in the public spotlight, don't give it out.  This is especially important for minors!  You may also want to consider using a code such as DD16 or a nickname.  In your blog account you can set your blog so that your real name and e-mail address is not shown on the Profile page.   You can also edit the  e-mail address field out of your template if it shows up in the sidebar.

Don't state where you live - Your state, maybe, your town no.  I would even be leery of telling what town I was born in.  Identity thieves can use that information.

Check your pictures - Does the picture of your house have a street sign in it?  Are your children properly covered?  Yes, those baby bottoms are cute but think about who else might find them more than cute.

Read all comments - This includes your child's.  Set blogs up so that you receive an e-mail notification of every comment that is made on that blog.  If a comment is inappropriate, let us know and then delete it.  To receive e-mail notification log in to the blog account.  Click Settings.  Click Comments.  Scroll down to comment notification and click the "Yes" option.  Be sure the e-mail address goes to you!  Log in and click Profile.  Put the e-mail address you want the comments to go to. 

Use Comment IP Logging - On your Comments  manager page click the "Yes" option for Comment IP Logging.  IP stands for Internet Provider and every computer has its own address.  When a blogger leaves a comment that IP address will then be logged.  You can see it right next to their username, even if it is anonymous.  If a comment is inappropriate you can then ban that IP address by placing that series of numbers in the Banned IP's box at the bottom of your Settings page. 

Don't publish your itinerary - We really don't need to know that you are going, tell us when you get back.  You can still tell readers about your preparations for the trip, just do it once your safe back at home.  You can either draft those ideas and thoughts on your blog or you can write it in Word or Notepad and save for it later if you are worried you'll forget.  There is also no need to state that you go to basketball practice every Tuesday night.  If you want to blog about practice, don't write about it on the same day each week. 

We all enjoy reading each other's blogs.  What we don't want to read is how another blogger fell victim to a predator or identity thief.  Keep your blogging fun. Blog safe!

If you would like to read more about how to blog safely you can read the following:

-    A Mom's Guide to MySpace - http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2007/001/5.30.html
-    BlogSafety.com - http://www.blogsafety.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1100000006

Sincerely,

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor
HomeschoolBlogger.com

Posted in Tech Support

Thought you all might want to check out this great new site, Blogging Basics 101, created by Chilihead @ Don't Try This at Home and Shannon @ Rocks In My Dryer.

They are discussing all kinds of basic blogging how-to and etiquette. So far they've answered questions like:

• What is a blogroll, and how does it work?
• What is a blogring and should I join one?
• (and my personal favorite) If I'm quoting a blogger, should I link to them?
  

They've got all kinds of great categories listed there and I'm really looking forward to reading more. If you've got questions about blogging, Blogging Basics 101 is a great place to start! As they say, there are no stupid questions!

Nancy Carter
HomesteadBlogger Senior Editor
www.HomesteadBlogger.com

Posted in Tech Support

Have you ever found a blog that you really liked, but then lost it? Well our tech support person Jodi, posted an entry over at HomeschoolBlogger (which is set up like us now) that I thought might be helpful to you all here too.

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When you are logged in, you can do a more comprehensive search of the users on our site based on their username, age, gender, interests, and other variables.

I took some screenshots to illustrate this.  I apologize that they are a bit small, I'll make bigger ones the next time I do this.  Hopefully you can see enough detail to find everything on your own.

When you first login you are on the user manager page.  In the group of links at the top is one called "Search".  See the shot below where the blue arrow is pointing.


Click on that link and it will take you to the search page.  It looks like this:



As you can see, this gives you several fields to search on: Username,  Name,  Email Address,  Gender, Location, Age Range, Website, IM Screenname or Interest.  You can fill in partial information, like your town, a first or last name, or part of a username.  If you want to narrow things down more, you can fill in more than one field (i.e., bloggers named Linda in Atlanta who enjoy skiing).  This can come in pretty handy for finding other bloggers with similarities to you or if you can't quite remember the full name of that blog you were interested in reading again but forgot to bookmark. 

From the results screen (reached after clicking on the 'Continue' button) you will get all of the matching blogs with links for each one to their profile page, to add them to your friends list and to send them a private message.  Pretty cool, huh?

Make sure you also update all of your own Profile information (that link is also at the top of the user manager pages) so other users can find you when they search.  The more complete everyone's profiles are, the better the search will work  for all. ( from Nancy - Especially the interest section, just think of all the things you could list - chickens, quilting, making soap, homeschooling, pastured poultry, organic gardening, living off-grid, etc... Likewise, don't be too specific in the location box if you don't want people to be able to track you down. )

Go ahead and try it out.  You never know what interesting blogs and bloggers you might find!

Jodi

Posted in Tech Support

HomesteadBlogger has a great feature. One can keep track of their favorite blogs via their 'Friends List'.  It is very easy to make friends.

 

If you find a blog you would like to add to your list click User Profile from the sidebar menu.

 

 

In the right hand corner of their profile, where their Avatar is, click Add to Friends.

 

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Please Note: If Add to Friends is not on the list:

A:  You are not logged into your account.

B:  They are already on your friends list.

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When you click Add to Friends, you will see a Confirmation Screen.

 

 

 

Click Return and this will take you to your Friends Menu. 

 

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Please Note:  You may also access the friends menu from the dashboard.  When you view your Account, click on the Friends link from the menu.

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Fellow Friends  are those who have added you to their friends list.  To add them to yours, simply click add friend.

 

Your Friends are those you have added to your friends list. 

 

The icon before their username indicates whether the user is a Male (blue icon) or Female (green icon).  If the icon is grayed out, then they have not specified a gender in their profile.

 

Mutual tells whether or not they have you listed as a friend.

 

Remove allows you to remove that person from your friends list.

 

 

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Viewing Your Friends Most Recent Posts

 

To view your friends most recent posts, simply click on the Friends link under the Links section on the sidebar of your blog.  Now you can see your friends' most recent entries in YOUR BLOG TEMPLATE.

 

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Friends Link Does Not Appear In Links Section Of Sidebar

 

If the friends link is not in the Links section of your sidebar, you will need to add this link yourself:

 

http://www.homesteadblogger.com/~yourusername~/friends

 

For step-by-step instructions on adding links, check out the post Adding Links.

 

Entry first posted at HSB2Tutor.
Nancy Carter
HomesteadBlogger Senior Editor
www.HomesteadBlogger.com