scriptygoddess

I'm going to be rearranging things around here (see previous post) so I apologize in advance if things get a little confusing/messy….

Despite it's win of a bloggie in March, I've had the de-fib paddles out on Scriptygoddess for some time. But blogging is not my full-time job, and I can't do this alone. I've added several authors, but many of them have become involved with other sites, other projects, or just their own life in general. I don't blame them, but what still remains is a project I put a lot of effort and love into that is dying a slow painful death (even if it is only visible from this side, at the moment).

Despite my desire to want it to be more, it was not the original intention of scriptygoddess. The original intention was for it to be my personal journal/notebook of things I learned, scripts I wrote as I learned more about scripting – specifically PHP.

Things change – focuses shift – as have mine. Because of my job, I will need to be focusing on ASP scripts (and no, not .NET – don't get me started – we're still supporting NS 4.7 – I can't even use CSS. Until today, I had been running Win98, so you can imagine, they're not upgrading their servers to support .NET anytime soon!!) So what I'll be posting about are ASP script snippets. Not much use for the blog-world.

Trying to run a mutli-author blog is a complicated job – one, that I can't say I've enjoyed. I like scripting – that's what's fun to me.

My first thought was, rather than let this blog dwindle down to nothingness, or something "not worthy" of blog interest, I could take it down completely. Revert it back to it's original intention – Have it be by me, for me, and only visible to me – and only me. (me me me!) 😉

I've been using this site to "give back" to the blogging community – but aside from a few very generous people who have "tipped" – what have I gotten in return? Why exactly am I doing this? And for the emotional toll of trying to make this blog be what I thought was it's potential, to what end?

I posted my emotional issues on the subject on my own blog, and discussed the matter at great length over the phone with Christine (also a scriptygoddess and a good friend). Many of you have emailed me as well. And I've listened…

I'm going to change the format around Scriptygoddess, but I won't take it down. At least not right now. Not unless things improve. I'm leaving it up for the only reason that YOU have told me you find it valuable. But if you want it to stay alive – it needs you. I'm hereby appointing all of you official scriptygoddesses!

Here's the new format (and this will be implemented over the next week):
– Scriptygoddess will be moderated by Christine and myself.
– I will continue on as I planned and post my useless ASP drivel.
– Christine will continue to post her linky-goodness.
Now here's the important part.
– The main heart and sole of scriptygoddess will be from guest authors. (YOU!) I'm going to create an email box to which you can send your suggestions for posts on scriptygoddess. Christine and I will both check that mailbox and act as "copyeditors" for your posts. In return you will get a byline for your post and a link back to your blog if you so desire.

Now, I would just like to say one thing. Some of you have put me and scriptygoddes on some sort of a pedestal. I've heard some of you say something along the lines of "well, someday I'll have something good enough to suggest on scriptygoddess". Fact of the matter is we're all still learning this! There are simple php things I learned a full year ago that I cannot remember for the life of me and have to look up everytime I do them. So PLEASE do not feel intimidated. If you have a post that you find useful – more than likely, there are other people who will find it useful as well. So send it on.

That being said, I won't go so far as to guarantee that everything submitted will be appear on scriptygoddess. But I WILL guarantee that no one will be ridiculed and no one should feel afraid to send a post.

This week I will create a more detailed FAQ type page for submitting posts.

So that's the story. You want Scriptygoddess to stay alive? You need to get involved.

Just picked this up on Friday, and I'd just about finished it by Sunday evening. Its a collection of R. Stallman's lecutures & articles on free software, copyright, copyleft, the GNU license and so on.

Recommended with anyone with even a passing interest in the free software movement. You will be much richer (intellectually) for having done so.

Free Software, Free Society

For my deeper thoughts…
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Have you ever had one of those posts that just won't die? Out of nowhere, months later, people still leave comments? This script will allow you to automatically close comments for entries older than X hours or X days. Written for MT 2.6 or above with MySQL.

Found at Ste's site, Wanderlost.org.

This is specific to MT, but the concent should be applicable to other blogging software.

Back when Statia and I were first skinning her site, Robyn used the sandwich anology(*) to explain how you "piece" out index.php for skinning.

1) the code at the top, up to but not including MTEntries [bread]
2) the MTEntries stuff [the all important sandwich filler]
3) the code after MTEntries to the end [bread]

Section 2 is the code that stays in index.php.
Section 1 is headerN.php (where N is the skin #).
Section 3 is footerN.php (where N is the skin #).

You can get more complicated and leave the javascript and the other code that is global to all of your skins in index.php. Then your header & footer would just contain the code that actually changes per skin, but it's not necessary.

(*) The sandwich analogy has been around for a while. Christine used it to explain skins to Robyn. And it's quite possible that Amy used it to explain it to Christine.
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Another great resource, the MT Wiki is now open! A Wiki is a collaborative site, and works well for a frequently asked questions format, because visitors can add their suggestions and FAQ Answers on the topic, Movable Type. There is already a lot of information in the MT Wiki, so if you are looking for answers or wanting to share your knowledge, make sure you check it out! The site is hosted by the new Virtual Venus site, which will also have other helpful Movable Type related info in the future.

I'm currently in training this week for ASP (and finally we're done with "review" – very long story). While little of this is useful for blogs, I still wanted to document what I'm learning. Here are my notes from class:
(this is a VERY VERY long post.)
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This is not Jennifer's feed. This feed was put together by Brad, .NET Guy.

This feed contains your 10 most recent posts as well as your 20 most recent comments. The difference between this and Jennifer's feed is that if someone comes by and comments on a post that's not one of your 10 most recent, your readers will still get to see the comment.

Please read more on my site. I have 2 variations of this feed available there for download.

Samuel and I were talking the other night. We both use the SimpleComments plugin (combines Comments & Trackbacks in the same area).

We'd both noticed that pings don't show up immediately unless you re-save the entry, so Samuel wrote a patch for it. The patch is written for MT 2.63 and is very easy to install (see his post for instructions).

VERY basic password protection script. It's based off ONE username/password set. Pages that are protected by the password maintain a "session cookie" with the encrypted username and password.

Here's the download
(Requires the use of PHP on all pages that will be password protected)

Testing on this script has been minimal. (Hey, its free!)