Thursday, 14 July 2005

Blogger - editing comments part 2






I explained in a previous post how to edit your template so that you can thereafter, with just one click, edit any comment that's been posted with Blogger's built in commenting system.

However, if you're even lazier than me and just want to edit the occasional comment without having to do anything to your template and without having to type in any long URLs, I've added a form to my previous post so that you can just fill in your blog ID and the comment's post ID (I've explained how to find what those are, in the previous post) in order to edit a particular comment. Feel free to bookmark the form.

Warnings about accidentally deleting comments are repeated again!


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Wednesday, 13 July 2005

Something completely different






A total departure from what I normally blog about these days, but when there is a challenge I usually try to rise to it. Plus it's been a while since Improbulus did anything online which remotely reflects the name (yeah, I know it's meant to be masculine, but hey nothing's perfect!).

And incidentally, this should illustrate that I can, believe it or not, in fact write on more than one thing, in more than one style...

Be warned though - some might consider this a little, shall we say, racy - in more than one sense.

Check it out, if you dare!


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Bloggers' meet 31 July






[Edited 14 July]: OK, I found the link for the meet at the pub on 31 July (organised by Adrian of Sevitz) - here it is. I'm not much of a pub person but I hope to be there, though I'm unlikely to be naked!

I didn't have enough replies to make it worth trying to go ahead with a "conference" style meet even though we had a great offer of a venue, so it's off - sorry.

There is a bloggers' meet going on at the same time in a pub, which people can go to (and I hope to attend too, though I'm not much of a pub person myself!).

This is just a quick post to give people notice, later tonight I'll post more details of the pub meet and send them to the people who'd indicated their interest.

However if anyone is interested in a more formal structured bloggers' conference here in London, BlogHer-style or just more general, with speakers, workshops etc, to take place another time in the future (but with a lot more advance notice to people next time), please let me know (especially if you would like to be involved in setting it up), and I may think about organising one for next year.


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Saturday, 9 July 2005

Blogger - how to edit comments






UPDATE please note that on New Blogger, rolled out fully in May 2007, you can no longer edit comments. I'm leaving this post up just for historical interest.

Editing comments posted using Blogger's own commenting system is impossible, Blogger say.

Well, no. It IS possible.The ingenious idea/insight comes from the one and only Truckspy, and this post is brought to you by the Truckspy/Improbulus Magical Sheep team...

[Edited 17 August 2005] So, to edit comments on Blogger there are three ways:

1. Edit an individual comment on a one off basis, or
2. If you use Firefox, use Browservulsel's Greasemonkey user script (for more information and instructions, please see this post), or
3. Add simple code to your blog template to produce an "Edit" link by every comment, effectively enabling one-click editing of any comment.

I'll start with the last - it's the neatest solution, and works for all browser types.

Finding out your Blog ID

Before you can do either, however, you need first to find out your blog's ID, a number unique to your blog. See this page for how. Note that down, better still copy it for easy pasting.

Adding an Edit link to your template

For this solution you need to take one more preliminary step - find out your blog's admin and PID numbers. See this post for more info on how. (If you have enabled conditional new post links, you already have the info you need and you can just copy it wholesale).

Next, you just add this code to your blog template (changing XXXXXXXXXX to your blog's admin number, YYYYYYYYYY to your PID number and ZZZZZZZZ to your blog's ID number) - you'll notice the first section is what you use for conditional new posts on Blogger:

<span class="item-control admin-XXXXXXXXXX pid-YYYYYYYYYY"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=ZZZZZZZZ&postID=<$BlogCommentNumber<span class="item-control admin-XXXXXXXXXX pid-YYYYYYYYYY"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=ZZZZZZZZ&postID=<$BlogCommentNumber$>">Edit Comment</a></span>
amp;gt;">Edit Comment</a></span>

(Of course you can change the "Edit comment" link text to just "Edit", or "Edit this sucker", or whatever you like!)

That's it. When you are logged in to Blogger and then view your blog, in each individual post (but only on the post page/item page for the post, depending on how you've got your template set up) you will see, against each comment, not only the usual Blogger "Delete" icon, but also a new link "Edit Comment".

When you click that link it calls up a page which looks just like Blogger's "Create post" form, with the existing comment text in the box where you'd usually write your post. (The comment box even has a "Title" textbox above it but neither Truckspy nor I can figure out what it's for, filling it in doesn't do anything, but (at least in Firefox) if you have the title field cursor active as if you were going to type something in the Title box, and hit enter on the keyboard, it seems to delete the entire comment - so best not to go click in or otherwise go near the Title box!).

Edit the comment to your heart's content, then click Publish Post, and voila - comment duly edited. BUT BE WARNED THAT YOU TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK - IT IS REALLY, REALLY EASY TO ACCIDENTALLY DELETE A COMMENT EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T THINK YOU'VE GONE NEAR THE TITLE FIELD, so if you've clicked "Edit Comment" just to experiment and you have no intention of deleting that comment, publish it with the existing text anyway when you're done, or close that window without doing anything. So don't say I didn't warn you - I've gone and accidentally deleted one comment myself, today (sorry, Otis!).

You'll notice that if you view your blog without being logged in to Blogger, you won't see the Edit Comment link (or Delete link) - and neither will anyone else reading your blog. Which is the point of the admin and PID bits; you don't want other people to see the Edit Comment link (even though they shouldn't be able to do anything with it unless they're logged in with your proper login/password, it's just neater to hide it from those who can't use it).

One-off editing

The manual way, if you want to edit a single comment without tweaking your code, is first to make sure you're logged in to Blogger, then go to the post page with the comment you want to edit, then view source.

Find that comment in the view source. Towards the start or end of the comment, depending on how you've got it set up, there will be a long number hidden in the code, something like <a name="AAAAAAAAAA"> or <a href="#AAAAAAAAAA">. Note that number down or ideally copy it to your clipboard. It's the "Post ID" for that comment.

Next, go to this URL (where ZZZZZZZZ is your blog ID that you already found out earlier, and AAAAAAAAAA is the number you just noted down, the post ID):
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=ZZZZZZZZ&postID=AAAAAAAAAA

Or, you can just fill in the blog ID and post ID in the form below and hit the Edit Comment button:





And it will call up the page I mentioned above, which looks like a Create Post page but actually enables you to edit and save the comment text.

Again try this at your own risk - you have to be really careful you don't accidentally delete the comment, as mentioned before, no comeback on Truckspy or me if you do!

[Edited 17 August 2005] Finally, for the method using a Greasemonkey script for Firefox, which just involves a few clicks to install the script, see this post.

UPDATE please note that on New Blogger, rolled out fully in May 2007, you can no longer edit comments. I'm leaving this post up just for historical interest.


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Technorati - tag creator for multiple word tags (and Technorati problems)






OK, my previous post is not showing up on Technorati's tag pages (again), even though it's on their search page. (Plus posts are showing up all in the wrong order.)

So to help people find my post with info on tag generators/tag creators which can handle multiple word Technorati tags (bookmarklet, Greasemonkey script, online form), here is the link to the post. And this is a shorter simpler post so I hope it at least will appear on Technorati's tag pages.

Technorati have said via Niall Kennedy (see the last para of this comment) that their crawler doesn't like posts with invalid XHTML. I've been trying to validate my template all day using Tidy as built into Firefox with the Web developers' toolbar.

The only problems left are warnings which I can't do anything about (because they're to do with URI encoding which if you use the Blogger template tags to generate permalinks and post titles will appear in the "illicit" format, like it or not) - or else they're to do with stuff I have no clue about like nested emphases whatever that is; or else they seem to reflect an Anglosaxon-centric approach to validation, as it's only the sections with Korean etc characters which throw up a problem.

A couple of the warnings seem to do with Blogger's own suggested way of setting up the template, in their help on comments - e.g. anchor comments already defined; and they suggest using "<a name="<$BlogCommentNumber$>"></a>" in the template, but Tidy seems not to like that ("cannot copy name attribute to id"). How are we supposed to deal with that sort of thing?

It's also hard to know what to do about the content of individual posts. For example in my post about the problems with Technorati tag pages, I put in code to conduct a few polls, and as you know with many free services they require you to include their code as is, without any changes. If their code isn't valid, e.g. input elements aren't closed, what are we supposed to do - break the terms of the free service by altering their code to make them valid XHTML, or risk Technorati not indexing the post on their tag pages? A dilemma, indeed.

Technorati say they are constantly adjusting their crawler behaviour, so hopefully they will make it ever more tolerant, to deal with situations like these.


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Technorati: tag creator for multiple word tags, and more






(I'm amending my intro to Technorati tags to mention the following.)

The short version

There are a few ways you can easily create Technorati tags, such as by using a bookmarklet tag creator, or a Greasemonkey script for Firefox.

But they require manual tinkering after the event if you want to have tags which consist of several words (like "A Consuming Experience", which I use as a tag at the end of each of my posts). Now, there are ways to automatically output tags which consist of more than one word, by tweaks to those tag generators. Here's how.

Bookmarklet

To create multiple word Technorati tags easily, use this Technorati Magical Sheep bookmarklet on my separate bookmarklets page. [Edited 13 August 2006: now in a compressed version that works with Internet Explorer, following tweaking after I received a comment by archiver - thanks archiver for condensing the code! I have now given up trying to include any favelets on this page as Blogger messes up favelets on publishing them.]
The previous version of this bookmarklet, which is still available on my bookmarklets page, only worked in Firefox; for IE, which limits the no. of characters you can have in a working favelet, clicking the link on a Webpage direct works - but clicking the favelet in Favorites or the Links bar doesn't.

Entering this in the prompt that pops up when you click the favelet (the second link on the bookmarklets page, now):
magical sheep, Truckspy rawks, shaggy sheep, SUVs

produces this code, which you can copy and paste to the end of your post:
<span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/magical+sheep" rel="tag">magical sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Truckspy+rawks" rel="tag">Truckspy rawks</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/shaggy+sheep" rel="tag">shaggy sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/SUVs" rel="tag">SUVs</a></span>

I also explain in the long version below how you can tweak the bookmarklet further e.g. to output certain tags automatically each time.

Greasemonkey

[Updated 13 August 2006 to link to December 2005 version 1.0 beta:] Or use this Greasemonkey script for Firefox: KRS (Truckspy)'s magical sheep Technorati tag script with multiple word support (updated December 2005, see this post for further info.)

Entering this in the textbox:
magical sheep, Truckspy rawks, shaggy sheep, SUVs

produces this code which is appended to your post with the Greasemonkey version:
<div class="tag_list">Tags: <span ><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/magical+sheep" rel="tag">magical sheep,</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Truckspy+rawks" rel="tag">Truckspy rawks,</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/shaggy+sheep" rel="tag">shaggy sheep,</a> <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SUVs" rel="tag">SUVs,</a> </span></div>

Credits and background

Both bookmarklet and Greasemonkey script are courtesy of that coder extraordinaire, the one and only ...drumroll... Truckspy! (instigation, prodding, coaxing, general bribery - and this attempt at documentation, of course - by Improbulus). Henceforth to be known as the Magical Sheep team - for reasons best left unsaid...

For more background, and on how to rename the favelet, and how to customise/tweak the code further, e.g. to automatically output your blog name or your name as a tag at the end of the tag list without your having to type anything, see the long version below.

Online form

I also found an online form that handles multiple word tags: ICE's tag generators.

Again it's the only one I know of that supports tags consisting of several words. That form even outputs Flickr, Del.icio.us and Furl tags!

Entering the examples above will produce tags in the form:

<span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags:
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/magical+sheep" target="_blank" rel="tag" title="Link to Technorati Tag category for magical sheep">magical sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Truckspy+rawks" target="_blank" rel="tag" title="Link to Technorati Tag category for Truckspy rawks">Truckspy rawks</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/shaggy+sheep" target="_blank" rel="tag" title="Link to Technorati Tag category for shaggy sheep">shaggy sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/SUVs" target="_blank" rel="tag" title="Link to Technorati Tag category for SUVs">SUVs</a></span>

The long version

The first decent Technorati tag generator was Oddiophile's bookmarklet or favelet (warning, the site seems to be offline a lot these days), in my book, as you'll know from my tutorial on Technorati tags. There are other favelet tag creators around, but they don't work at all for me, or not very well.

Now old hands will know this, but others may not: it's actually not too hard to tweak the Oddiophile bookmarklet to suit your preferences.

Why change the tag creator bookmarklet?

In my case I wanted to do three things:

1. Easily use multiple word tags. Oddiophile's original only allows you to create single word tags, whereas Technorati will accept multiple words (like "blogging tools" or "macrame creations") as tags.

2. Automatically add standard tags to every post. I tag all my posts with the name of my blog and my own nickname (so that all my posts can be found listed on one set of Technorati tag pages with one click ("meblogging"). (A great byproduct: if Googling for my blog name or for my name, the Technorati tag page for that name appears on the first page of the search results. Wicked). So I've set up the bookmarklet to automatically append the appropriate standard tags to the end of the new tags I enter for individual posts, without my having to type them in for each post.
Warning: meblogging only works if Technorati pick up and display on their tag pages all the posts which have been given that tag. But it doesn't pick up some posts (you can find them on searching Technorati, they're just not displayed on their tag pages), so for instance the Improbulus tag page is missing a few of my posts. See this post about the problems. I'm still pursuing this.


3. Tweak some aspects of the standard favelet. I wanted to change the prompt text, and automatically add a horizontal line before my tags list to clearly separate them from the post body. Formatting/presentation stuff like that.

How to edit a bookmarklet

I mention first that Oddiophile said it was OK for me to post this - I wouldn't want to mess with stuff without permission if it's copyrighted to someone else, especially as there's nothing on his site about licensing. (I mean to write about blogging and copyright sometime, but that's another post...).

Many will know that bookmarklets just use Javascript. To see what's behind a bookmarklet, rightclick it in your toolbar and choose Properties. It's the bit in the Location line in Firefox (or URL line in IE) which does the clever stuff. (And the Name line is where you change the bookmarklet's name, if you don't want "Technorati Magical Sheep" on your toolbar! Just don't forget to hit OK after you edit it.)

The script is too long to view in the box but you can just copy it from the Location or URL line and paste it into a text editor e.g. Notepad, to see it in full. You can then edit it there, and paste it back into the Location or URL line of the bookmarklet's Properties and hit OK. (But before you paste in your edited version, first make sure you save a backup of the original, e.g. in a text file, in case your tweaks don't work - though you can always get the original again from Oddiophile. Certainly once you've got it the way you like it, you should save a backup of your own version).

So here's what's behind the original Oddiophile version:
javascript:(function(){var a='';var t=prompt('Enter Tags:','');var tr=t.split(' ');a+='<span class='+unescape('%22')+'technoratitag'+unescape('%22')+'>Technorati Tags: ';for(var i=0;i<tr.length;i++){if(i > 0){a+=', ';}a+='<a href='+unescape('%22')+'http://www.technorati.com/tags/'+tr[i]+unescape('%22')+' rel='+unescape('%22')+'tag'+unescape('%22')+'>'+tr[i]+'</a>';}a+='</span>';prompt('Copy this code, press OK, then paste to your blog entry:',a);})()


Now this is the (original) Truckspy version with multiple word support:
javascript:(function(){var a='';var t=prompt('Enter Tags:','');var theSplit=/\W?,\W?/g;var tr=t.split(theSplit);a+='<span class='+unescape('%22')+'technoratitag'+unescape('%22')+'>Technorati Tags: ';for(var i=0;i<tr.length;i++){var checkplus=tr[i].indexOf(' ');if(i > 0){a+=', ';}if (checkplus=='-1'){a+='<a href='+unescape('%22')+'http://www.technorati.com/tags/'+tr[i]+unescape('%22')+' rel='+unescape('%22')+'tag'+unescape('%22')+'>'+tr[i]+'</a>';}else {var chat='';var plus=tr[i].split(' ');for(var q=0;q<plus.length;q++){chat+=plus[q];if (q<plus.length-1){chat+='+';}}a+='<a href='+unescape('%22')+'http://www.technorati.com/tags/'+chat+unescape('%22')+' rel='+unescape('%22')+'tag'+unescape('%22')+'>'+tr[i]+'</a>';}}a+='</span>';prompt('Copy this code, press OK, then paste to your blog entry:',a);})()


And finally, below is the version where I added my own formatting/meblogging tweaks (I've put my additions in bold):
javascript:(function(){var a='';var t=prompt('Enter Tags Separated by Comma and Space, Multiple Word Tags are A-OK!:','');var theSplit=/\W?,\W?/g;var tr=t.split(theSplit);a+='<hr /><span class='+unescape('%22')+'technoratitag'+unescape('%22')+'>Technorati Tags: ';for(var i=0;i<tr.length;i++){var checkplus=tr[i].indexOf(' ');if(i > 0){a+=', ';}if (checkplus=='-1'){a+='<a href='+unescape('%22')+'http://www.technorati.com/tags/'+tr[i]+unescape('%22')+' rel='+unescape('%22')+'tag'+unescape('%22')+'>'+tr[i]+'</a>';}else {var chat='';var plus=tr[i].split(' ');for(var q=0;q<plus.length;q++){chat+=plus[q];if (q<plus.length-1){chat+='+';}}a+='<a href='+unescape('%22')+'http://www.technorati.com/tags/'+chat+unescape('%22')+' rel='+unescape('%22')+'tag'+unescape('%22')+'>'+tr[i]+'</a>';}}a+=', <a href=%22http://technorati.com/tag/Improbulus%22 rel=%22tag%22>Improbulus</a>, <a href=%22http://technorati.com/tag/A+Consuming+Experience%22 rel=%22tag%22>A Consuming Experience</a>, <a href=%22http://technorati.com/tag/Consuming+Experience%22 rel=%22tag%22>Consuming Experience</a></span>';prompt('Copy this code, press OK, then paste to your blog entry:',a);})()

And when I enter:
magical sheep, Truckspy rawks, shaggy sheep, SUVs

it outputs this code, without my having to type my name or the blog name:
<hr /><span class="technoratitag">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/magical+sheep" rel="tag">magical sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/Truckspy+rawks" rel="tag">Truckspy rawks</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/shaggy+sheep" rel="tag">shaggy sheep</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tags/SUVs" rel="tag">SUVs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Improbulus" rel="tag">Improbulus</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/A+Consuming+Experience" rel="tag">A Consuming Experience</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Consuming+Experience" rel="tag">Consuming Experience</a></span>

As you can see from bold bits of the code, I added the <hr /> and the Improbulus/Consuming Experience stuff, which means that when I use the bookmarklet it automatically includes a horizontal line before my tags list, plus the last 3 tags you see at the end of each of my posts, without my having to do any extra typing.

For your own blog, if you want meblogging tags too just change the "Improbulus" bits (twice, in the "rel" bit and in the link text) to your own name, and the "A Consuming Experience" bits to your blog's title, always making sure you use "+" instead of a space in the "http" sections if your name or blog title has spaces in it, and use %22 for the double quotes.

Or you can of course delete any extra bits like "<hr />" or "<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Consuming+Experience" rel="tag">Consuming Experience</a>" if you don't want them, or add even more tags if you like - but just make sure you insert them between the correct single quotes in the script.

You can of course also change the label preceding the tags list from "Technorati Tags"" to just "Tags:" etc if you wish (but make sure you don't delete the single quotes or the > symbol or semicolon).

To make it easier for you to customise, a bookmarklet set up in advance, so you just have to save it and then change YOURNAME and YOURBLOGNAME, is here.

The Greasemonkey user script can be tweaked similarly - so you see, like me you don't have to know much about Javascript just to figure out which bits do what, and change just the bits you need. In fact now with version 1.0 of the script you don't have to do anything behind the scenes to tweak it - see this post.

As for styling the look of the tags, if you don't know CSS and are happy with something that looks like mine (i.e. a small size font for the tags), just add something like this to your blog template between the <head> and </head> tags:

.technoratitag {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif;
font-size: 0.9em;
line-height: 1.5em;
color: #777;
}


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Friday, 8 July 2005

London bombings






I am OK; thanks to those who asked after me and expressed their concern.

I work close to one of the Tubes hit, but I was lucky - I don't tend to leave home very early as it doesn't take me too long to get to work, and by the time I reached my local Tube station they had shut the system down (it was just after the first or perhaps second bombing), although at that point they didn't say why. So I went home, thinking I'd try again later, and then I heard the news.

I am sorry I didn't post earlier. To be honest it wasn't my first priority yesterday. I have been checking that friends are OK (so far, touch wood, all the ones I've contacted are) and just getting on with life, trying to do my work from home, not very successfully as I had half an ear on the news.

If you don't work for the emergency services, who I think have excelled themselves and could not have done a better job, then I believe the best thing we can do is try to carry on as usual and not let ourselves be intimidated. That would be giving the terrorists what they want.

My heart goes out to those who have been directly affected so tragically, and to those who have had loved ones killed or injured. As for the perpetrators, I can't even begin to understand how they could bring themselves to do such terrible things, how they could possibly think it is justifiable in the name of God, or whatever it is they choose to use as an excuse for what is simply senseless murder.

But I still don't believe ID cards will help and indeed may be divisive, and I heard a similar view expressed on TV yesterday. As I have said before, I believe the money would be far better spent on more and better trained, better equipped police, security and emergency services - and, even more importantly, on education and the fostering of mutual understanding, to bring communities together, not drive them apart, to focus on their common humanity, not their differences.

And today, I shall be getting on the Tube and going to work as normal.

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Tuesday, 5 July 2005

London bloggers' meet, Sunday 31 July






I posted before about the idea of having a bloggers' meet in London on Sunday 31 July just after the Blogher conference in California.

Now, with very many thanks to Cory Doctorow and Gwendolyn Carpenter of the Stanhope Center, we have the possible offer of a venue in Central London. Probably late morning/early afternoon.

However it's not worth going ahead if not enough people are interested. So if you're a UK blogger and would like to attend, can you please let me know ASAP by posting a comment or emailing me?

Ideas for topics are welcome too but I thought if nothing else we could mirror some of the topics to be discussed at Blogher.

As with the Blogher conference all would be welcome, female or male, newbies or long-time bloggers.

Hope to hear from people soon!

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Sunday, 3 July 2005

Help others bookmark your posts on Del.icio.us - part 2






You know I posted a while back about some template hacks to enable users of the social bookmarks managers Delicious or Furl to bookmark your blog or an individual post with one click?

The problem with the Delicious hack was that even if the reader was already logged in to Delicious when they clicked that link, they had to login yet again.

Well Joshua the lovely man behind Delicious has kindly explained how you can fix it so that someone who's already logged in can just bookmark your blog or post without having to login again. It just took me a while to come across that post of his...

It just involves a simple tweak. If you've already implemented my hack, change "/login/index.html" to "post" in the Delicious links, and that's it. If you haven't, I've just updated my original post to show the complete code, with Joshua's version. Much better!


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Saturday, 2 July 2005

Who's bookmarked you or your blog posts on Delicious?






Here's another possible bloggers' ego tool, in case you haven't come across this cool feature of the social bookmarking service Del.icio.us.

Searching for who's bookmarked your blog or posts on Delicious

The search form below will find all the people who've bookmarked a particular URL on Delicious, and what comments they made about it. It won't find all the people who've bookmarked all your individual blog posts - just those who've bookmarked your main page, if you enter its URL (like http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/ in my case), or who's bookmarked a particular post, if you enter its permalink instead.

Enter your blog URL or post permalink below to find out who's bookmarked it on Delicious, and what they said about it (opens in a new window):
IMPORTANT - if you enter the main page of your blog rather than the URL for a particular post, you MUST put a "/index.html" at the end if you don't normally, or it won't work (e.g. in my case I mustn't use http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com but should enter http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/)


Blog templates hack

You can use this feature of Delicious to add a clickable link so that people (or just you!) can easily see who's bookmarked your blog or a particular post.

Here's the code to add to your blog template to produce a link to find who's bookmarked your blog on Delicious (opens in the same page):

<a href="http://del.icio.us/url?v=2&amp;url=<$BlogURL$>">Who's bookmarked this blog on Delicious?</a>


That code's for Blogger. If you don't use Blogger just change "<$BlogURL$>" to whatever represents your blog's URL on your platform, or you can just hardcode your blog URL in there e.g. use http://del.icio.us/url?v=2&url=http://consumingexperience.blogspot.com/ in my case. Obviously you can change the link text to anything you want.

And this may be more useful - when you're viewing a particular post you can just click one link to find out who's bookmarked that post on Delicious. The code to insert in your template to produce that link just needs a tweak to use the tag for your post's permalink:

<a href="http://del.icio.us/url?v=2&amp;url=<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>">Who's bookmarked this post on Delicious?</a>


Again if you don't use Blogger change "<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>" to whatever represents a post's permalink on your platform e.g. <$MTEntryPermalink$> for Movable Type or (correct me if I'm wrong on this! still learning Wordpress) <?php the_permalink() ?> for Wordpress.

As an example here's who has bookmarked my greatest (well, only!) hit, my tutorial on Technorati tags...

And finally, if don't want to clutter up your blog page for readers, or if you're a bit shy and want the link available for your own curiosity/statistical purposes but don't actually want the world and their husband to see that you've included that tool on your blog, for Blogger users you can always wrap that code in special tags to make it invisible to everyone else but you - see this for more info on how.


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