Update: Have you ever tried to comment or trackback to LBC, and wondered why it never showed up? If you aren’t a troll, your comment was most likely blacklisted. Certain words and IP addresses are stored for protection against spam and trolls, and you probably used at least one of the words or part of it. I know it’s drastic, but the alternative is deleting hundreds of spam comments a day.
Thanks to a cool comment plugin, I can retrieve blacklisted comments from the database and approve legitimate ones (which also means I need to delete spam from the database). I just approved dozens from months ago, weeks ago, and today.
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Update II: The ultimate goal is strict XHTML compliance. If you’ve got the talent, I’ve got the need. Contact me.
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I’m supposed to be working, but once I start fiddling around with WordPress code, I can’t stop!
Last year when I moved to WP, I asked several users to critique my blog. The first template I had used tables. If you’re up on the latest web standards (and W3Schools), you know that tables are passé. Tables are great for data, bad for layout. Designing a site with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the way to go. Wikipedia has a helpful entry about CSS. The current template is stylesheet-based, more flexible, and loads easier in most browsers, including tiny browsers on personal digital organizers.
Back to the critique. I got so much feedback about the tables and how sloppy the coding was, I spent two days learning about XHTML and how to clean up the code. I also learned that WP geeks are serious about their code. I use the word “geek” in a good way, especially now that I’m becoming one. I’m even citing Wikipedia, another geek paradise. The more I understand how my blog functions behind the scenes, the more I want to learn about WP in general, PHP, and how to find better and more dynamic plugin for added features. (Also see the WordPress wiki)
I’ve spent the last two hours tinkering with code and downloading plugins from Tempus Fugit, run by freelance coder Mark Jaquith, and Cold Forged. Every now and then readers ask if I plan to install a comment spell checker. Well, I uploaded the plugin and couldn’t get it to work properly. Maybe I’ll try again later. I also want to add comment preview.
If you want to talk about WP, CSS, PHP, Movable Type, XHTML, the web in general — whatever — this is the thread to do it. Also see Why Should I Avoid Tables (for Layout)?
The tables vs. stylesheets discussion has been going on for years. I found a 2002 article by blogger Dave Winer, inventor of RSS. To find out if your site is constructed with tables (and you care), go under “View” in the toolbar if you’re using IE and select “Source.” In Firefox, select “Page Source.” Firefox gives you a color-coded view, much easier to understand. If you see “table” and a bunch of “td” tags, the page is made with tables.
About XHTML, you’re probably more familiar with it than you think. For example, if you’ve noticed that more sites are replacing the bold tag (b) with strong (strong) and the italics (i) with emphasis (em), you’ve seen XHTML. The new standards are one reason I used to disable hypertext and most HTML tags in comments. I couldn’t assume commenters knew XHTML. Now WP 1.5 supposedly fixes invalid code automatically.
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Just bought me a book on CSS and it is extremely interesting. I’m turning into a web geek. Who would have known?
LaShawn,
I admire your ability to learn this stuff! I’m still trying to figure out some of the WP stuff. I can’t get the posting by e-mail thing to work, and that’s after readking the wiki, and using their forum too!
You must be brighter than I am!
Good the hear from you, Solomon! It’s been awhile. By the way, I see from your source code that you use tables. Are you reading the book to learn about stylesheets?
Louie: That’s not the case. I just want to learn enough to be able to control and/or fix something when it goes wrong. I don’t like being dependent on others, not knowing how to fix something or even how to define the problem.
Yeah, I was messing with plugins on my blog, and on one template theme switcher when I initiated it, it took out my blog
. On the new one, I had to learn to fiddle around to get the colors I like, but before I really start putting it out there, I want to improve the functionality of it, inlcuding a recent comments post section like you have in here, and some other bells and whistles.
Check http://donsingleton.blogspot.com/2005/05/spring-into-html-and-css.html for a very good book on CSS
I love FireFox! I set up in FF and found out that I was having the same problem you were with my sidebar being shoved below the main body of the page for users of Internet Explorer. I resolved it by making the body thinner.
Anyway, here is a fantastic CSS help site.
http://www.mandarindesign.com/style.html#joyofcss
I just need the time to sit down and really learn this stuff. Can’t wait for my vacation!
Glad you fixed it by decreasing width, but you could also fix it by adding the “overflow: hidden;” descriptor to the sidebar info in your CSS. The sidebar sometimes jumps like that when a link won’t wrap. It tries to extend beyond the layout, and apparently, sidebars don’t like that.
That’s what happened to mine yesterday.
Welcome to the club Miss Barber! If you want more in depth info on html or xhtml or any scripting language for that matter I like to use the following:
http://www.w3schools.com/ and
http://www.pixel2life.com/
both have great FREE tutorials on just about everything web and beyond.
Thanks, Jerry. I’m familiar with the w3schools site.
La Shawn,
Speaking of XHTML, CSS and PHP:
I see you fixed your footer display problem. What caused it’s being dropped?
Just curious.
Jeff
My designer re-coded the whole template so that the footer sits outside the page wrap and below the sidebars, no matter how long they get. Apparently it was inside the wrap and stuck in an absolute position before.
Just implemented the “overflow: hidden;” code in both my sidebars and main column. That’s a great catchall. Thanks for the tip.
I’m running wordpress on my blog http://www.projectnothing.com
I actually managed to get the spell checker working, and I had a load of trouble with it. Let me know if I can help.
I’ve always maintained that “real men code in HTML” rather than the WYSIWYG editors DreamWeaver and FrontPage. You’re a tinkerer, too? Cool!
I recently bought “More Eric Meyer on CSS”, but have yet to find the time to delve into it. Guess I’d better find the time, since I recently started my own WordPress blog, The Right Track (www.righttrack.us, input appreciated). I want to customize it a little, but am afraid to at the moment. I’m competent in HTML, a little less competent in CSS, and totally clueless in XHTML and the like.
La Shawn, if I remember right you use a PC, but you might consider getting a Mac mini and reading this article on how to set it up to get in touch with your geekiness side.
Sorry, the address did not show up for some reason. It is:
http://mundy.org/blog/index.php?p=40
It’s been a long time, Jim! Thanks for stopping by. I still use a PC, and I’ve heard about the Mac’s geekery.
I tried using pMachine Free a few months ago and got so caught up in the coding I wasn’t doing much writing. However, coding is very addicting and I don’t regret learning-or trying to learn!-CSS. I have yet to find a tutorial that makes it easy–maybe someone should write a CSS for Dummies book!
Being Geeky is cool!
Louie: After you fill out your email information in the admin section and send an email for posting, make sure you run the “process emails” php page (can’t think of the exact name offhand, but is in in the main directory) from your browser. It is the mechanism that actually connects to the email server, downloads the message and posts it.
LaShawn: A musician has to learn how to play the instrument before making music with it…you are just learning your publishing “instrument”.
I have not yet officially published a blog but, I have played with various blogging software (including WordPress). I have actually become a fan of Content Management Systems (CMS) like PostNuke, PHPNuke, Mambo, and my favorite Drupal.
LaShawn,
If you have influence on anyone in school through college, tell them you need to be a geek. The number of people in the Pentagon with secretaries is very small. It has turned around 95% in the last forty years. IBM Selectric typewriters are in museums or on the floor in this computer room.
James M. Barber
I’ve been reading you alot, LaShawn. Just thinking about your writings in silence. That’s not a bad thing.
Yes, I want to get rid of all the tables on my blog. All CSS is the way to go. I’m approaching this like I’m getting a degree in it.
Helen, I’d say 80% of what I learned about coding came from seeing something I liked and getting under the hood to see what made it go, aka reverse engineer.
My tools of choice are 1st Page 2000 – a freeware WYSIWYG editor that includes HTML Tidy & W3C reference guide (good for dummies, as it’s full of examples) and Firefox’s WebDeveloper extension.
The cool thing about 1st2K is that you can make a change and immediately see the effect when in split-view mode. You can also create/edit CSS, javascript and other text files. But since most file types aren’t “recognized” by default, you just have to tell it to do so.
The application is so customizeable, I regularly back up the template, ini & config files so that if I move to a new machine or whatever, I don’t have to go thru the whole rigamole of recustomizing. And yes, even when standards change, you can stay in step by changing the validation standard, ie XHTML.
As you might guess, it is several years old and the creators have gone on to bigger and better things. The proof in how good it is is that many still use it as their editor of choice. You can google around to see what others say about it. All I can say it’s great for ramping up your geek factor.
Download 1stPage at
http://download.yohost.com/1stpage.htm
Now if you want to get into JavaScript and/or Dynamic HTML for making eyecandy, counters, polls etc, try
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
http://www.dhtmlcentral.com
http://www.webreference.com
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/
You realize that just like blogging is frequently a refuge from “other” writing, tinkering with one’s blog is virtually guaranteed to be a successful (and addictive) time-waster? Enjoy.
Wow, La Shawn, this is very timely for me, as I’m in the process of doing a Decision ‘08 redesign, and I’ve decided on WordPress. Many, many good tips here – thanks so much…
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