Mister Linky’s Blog

Got spam? Here’s a quick note about what you can do about it.

• log in at www.blenza.com
• click Options and then under “Functional Options” is the filtering list
• click to add a new filter
• on the screen that follows, select Host if you want to block based on part of a url or Name if you want to block based on part of the name
• then type in the text
• for example, to block links from this blog, you would select “Host” and type “misterlinky” into the text box
• click Enter

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new kind of widget, and I need a URL in here to link to.

There may be days when you are posting multiple linkies. Or there may be days when you’re just getting the code for more than one widget. In either case, you’ll want to take care to keep them separate from each other. No, they won’t fight — on the contrary, they’re so nice they’ll just want so share each other’s links! Know what I mean? OK.

Here’s the problem. When you use the Widget Wizard to create the code for a linky widget, it takes the current date and uses that as an identifier, to distinguish it from other widgets. And back when people did one, maybe two memes a week, that was just fine. But let’s say you’re setting up today’s widget and tomorrow’s at the same time, they’re both going to have the same code. Let’s look at an example:

<img border=”0″
src=”http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/graphic.php?owner=whiskeytalking&postid=02Jul2009“>

And then you run the wizard again and you get the same code. What can you do? Simply add a letter to the postid= part that will make it different from the first one. Like this:

<img border=”0″
src=”http://www2.blenza.com/linkies/graphic.php?owner=whiskeytalking&postid=02Jul2009A“>

Now each widget will keep its links to itself. Hope this helps!

You’re not going to believe this… especially after all the trouble I’ve had with my hosting company…

The server where the Help Desk lives, it’s separate from blenza.com for obvious reasons. Well it was time recently for it to move to a new physical hardware system. What could possibly go wrong, right? Anyway, to make a long story short, they have lost a few hours of Help Desk data. It could have been worse. For a little while this afternoon, there was several days worth of data missing, which has been restored.

SO… if you’ve submitted a Help Desk ticket and you haven’t gotten a response, or if you try to click on a link and your ticket is missing, this is why. If any of this rings a bell, please submit a new ticket, so we can fix whatever’s broke.

Finally posting this message about what to do once you’ve been moved to the new server. Don’t do any of this until that’s done and Mister Linky has sent you this link.

For new widgets, all you need to do is use the Widget Wizard and you’ll get widget code that goes directly to the new server.

For existing widgets, where it says “www.blenza.com” all you need to do is change the “www” to “www2″ — now that widget will load directly from the new server. And in the case of existing auto-linky widgets, it means they’re not broken anymore!

NOTE: if you have the old header scripts, i.e. containing www.blenza.com/linkies/header.js or www.blenza.com/linkies/platinum.js — do NOT change these, but please remove them according to the directions you can find here.

ALSO NOTE: if you’re using a bookmark to create your widget scripts, you may be able to edit that bookmark and change “www.blenza.com” to “www2.blenza.com” but if you find you can’t, simply delete that bookmark and get a new one from the widget wizard.

Of course you shouldn’t do any of this until you’ve been moved to the new server, and to request that, simply file a ticket at the help desk — use the category “NEW SERVER” and please use the medium priority.

A few people have asked me over the past couple days how to get started with Mister Linky’s widgets. Here’s something quick I’ll expand on when I get a chance…

easiest way to start is to jump right in with a test post.

if you log in at www.blenza.com and click Wizard, select the type of blog that you have and then select one of the wizard types — original auto-linky, for example.

when you click the Generate Code button, it will give you some script tag code that you select and copy.

then you go over to your blog, write your test post, and then at the end, click the HTML tab (if you have one) and paste in the script tag code.

when you publish you’ll have a linky widget on your post.

that’s the basics — it can get a little more complicated, but not much, if you are creating a meme or playing a blog game, but just getting a widget is a good first step to start with

It’s bigger, faster, and it’s not bogged down by all those users who won’t take out the header script.

Drop me a help desk ticket, use category NEW SERVER (or just tell me you want the new server) and don’t forget to tell me your Mister Linky user id and your blog’s url. It will be quicker if you also mention which type of widget you use.

After I’ve migrated you, you’ll switch your widget scripts to the new server, and in the future the widget wizard will give you the new server, of course.

P.S. be sure to remove the old header script before contacting the help desk.

I’ve temporarily disabled the comment-linky wizard. If you need the script for the comment-linky widget, please submit a help desk ticket.

As many of you already know, the original auto-linky widget is currently disabled. If you have a gold membership, locate any script that says “autolink.php” and replace “auto” with “easy” to use the easy-linky widget, which is not affected.

Thank you for your patience while we work out the performance issues and towards bringing back the original auto-linky widget.

Update: the original auto-linky can only be offered on the new server at the present time.

This all started out so innocently. Mister Linky wanted to add links to his own personal blog. And then other bloggers wanted to use it. And it grew and it grew and it grew. And now it’s grown too much. I’ve made the code as lean as I possibly can and still we’re overloading our server. I don’t know what else to do. I know there are a lot of disappointed users out there. I’m one of them. I don’t know where we’ll go from here. Stay tuned.