(Misc) New Info on Beta Blogger/FBS

There is new information regarding team blogs (i.e., FBS) and Beta Blogger.

Team blogs move when the blog’s original creator moves to the new Blogger. When that happens, team blog members will also have to move to the new Blogger in order to post. Team blog members don’t have to wait, though! If you move to the new Blogger, team blogs you didn’t create will still show up on your beta Dashboard. You’ll be able to post with them as before, though they won’t have the new features of the new Blogger.

Here a link to more info.

Posted by Cate from Sweetnicks.

[FBS] unsubscribing members for blogger beta

It would appear that I no longer need to take any action, according to new info from blogger. Unsubscribe is now cancelled.

I understand that many of you want to unsubscribe from food blog scool so you can sign up your blogs with the new Beta. This is a problem caused by blogger, not by me or the scool, but it is, as I hope you can sympathise, causing me it certain amount of work I am not prepared for.

I would love to be at everyone's beck and call to one at a time unsubscribe anyone who asks me, but because I am so ensconsed in Menu for Hope preparations with barely a second to pee, let alone do anything else, I just can not. I am sorry.

I will unsubscribe in batches, the first on Thursday this week. Anyone who wants to unsubscribe, please email me at the FBS email address with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject and the email address you used to subscribe with in the main body of the post before 6pm PST on Thursday next. If you have already written to ask me at a different email address, or without the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject, then please re submit the request. If you do not follow these instructions, I can not guarantee I will unsubscribe you.

Once that batch is complete, I will set a time for the next batch.

Thanks for your understanding

This Post was written by sam from becks & posh

Tags & Archiving

Can I just ask: who uses Technorati tags either on their blogs or to search for blogs? Ages ago I 'claimed' my blog on Technorati, but don't use the tags on my posts cos it seems a bit labourious, but I'm now wondering if it helps people find my blog, or readers search for specific articles better it might be worth it?

Apart from technorati tags, are there any better ways of archiving posts in blogger? I have so many posts now and would love to be able to sort them into catagories by type of recipe etc rather than just by date!

This Post was written by Fahara from Souperior

Hi, two issues:
First, is there any way to find out who has subscribed to our RSS feeds? (I use Feedblitz and I couldn't find an answer to this in the FAQs.)
Second: If we ever need to establish that a blog is ours (as many of us don't reveal our identities), how do we go about providing proof?



This Post was written by Sra from When My Soup Came Alive

a nifty tool for displaying flickr photos

I found this very nifty tool to display Flickr photos on the blog. It's uses flash but in a very good way.

The tool is called Pictobrowser and this is what it looks like:



You can get your own just by clicking on the Info link on the bottom right corner.
(Thanks to Josh at The Food Section who brought it to my attention.)

This Post was written by Pim from Chez Pim.

(Misc) 2006 Food Blog Awards Coming

I've received quite a few e-mails asking about the Food Blog Awards and yes, they will be done this year, and yes, they will be on Well Fed again. Official announcement going up Monday with the list of categories in a call for nominations, but since this is such a great gathering place of food/wine bloggers, I thought you might want a heads up as well. Some wonderful prizes have been donated, including LeCreuset cookware and Sil-Pins for the winners of the different categories.

Just one question ... below is the list of categories that the FBA had last year. Are there any suggestions for an overlooked category? Want to make sure everything gets included.

Best Food Blog by a Chef
Best City Blog
Best Non Blogging Food Site
Best Group Food Blog
Best Food Blog - Writing
Best Blog Covering Wine, Beer or Spirits
Best Food Blog - Theme
Best Food Blog - Restaurant Reviews
Best Food Blog - Recipes
Best Food Blog - Photography
Best Food Blog - Humor
Best Blog Covering the Food Industry
Best New Food Blog
Best Post - Reader's Choice
Best Overall Food Blog - Reader's Choice

This Post was written by Cate from Sweetnicks and Well Fed.

[Blogger] Beta Issue

So, I was going to make the leap to Beta today (after working out some template issues with my template designer). When I tried to make the switch, I got a message saying one of my blogs was too big. Do you think it's because I am a member of FBS? My blog certainly doesn't have anywhere near even a thousand posts. But FBS has 891 (well, I think 892 now).

I am really eager to switch to the Beta because I can't wait to use the labels function for organizing posts. Anyone have any great ideas? Maybe Sam could remove me as a member and I can rejoin when FBS switches to Beta?

Here's the message I got:

Why can't I switch to Blogger in beta?
While the new version of Blogger is still in beta, some users with certain types of blogs will not be able to switch to it. We'll be adding support for these blogs as soon as possible, so everyone can join in the fun. But for now, if you have any of the following on your account, you'll need to hold off for a bit:

A very large blog. (More than a couple thousand posts + comments.)

Note that, even if your blog is eligible to switch, you may not have the link to do so on your dashboard. We are starting out by just switching over a limited number of accounts, but we'll add more and more as time goes on. However, if you still want to try out Blogger in beta, what you can do is to visit beta.blogger.com and create a new account. Later on, you'll be able to merge this account with your original Blogger account.

Thanks for your patience, and we promise it will be worth the wait!

This Post was written by Madeline from Everything Rachael Ray.

UPDATE:In the comments to this post, Trig mentioned that maybe Blogger is not letting group blogs migrate. However, I am a member of another team blog and got this message when migrating it:

Other authors will be invited to move their accounts to the new Blogger when they sign in. They must use the new Blogger in order to post to these blogs.

So, I think it's just the fact that are wonderful community is so big!

TypePad Photo Problems

I couldn't find this exact issue addressed in the archives, but this is causing me a major headache.

I normally upload my photos to Flickr, then have been linking the images into my TypePad blog.

When first using TypePad, I uploaded a few images, then took that HTML. I've been copying that, just replacing the URLs and sizes. I'd show an example, but it keeps showing the picture!

Lately when I do this, I keep receiving error messages saying that my HTML is overly complex or malformed, then it freezes up. I've literally been trying to work on a single post all week long, and can't seem to get anywhere.

If you use TypePad/Flickr, how are you getting your images up? I know you can just upload to the blog, but I'd rather avoid having to upload the pics twice in a row. And really, I'd love to get back into blogging, and not fuss with all of this image placement!!


This Post was written by s'kat from s'kat and the food.

sample code:

[a href="http://static.flickr.com/122/307170116_b4f432b2ef_o.jpg"][img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/307170116_b4f432b2ef_o.jpg" width="200" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" /][/a]

[Blogger Beta] Change is gonna come

I logged into Blogger a moment ago and was greeted with this:

Your new version of Blogger is ready!

The new version of Blogger now has all the original features you're used to, plus new post labels, drag-and-drop template editing, and privacy controls. And, it's a lot more reliable.

After you switch you'll need to sign in with your Google Account, but your blogs will stay the same. Their content and layout will not change.

(And a link to switch me over)

Um, what if I don't want to because I am still not sure if I'll lose my spot in FBS and I like everything just fine, thanks?

I don't recall if we ever decided what would happen if there was a switch, only that folks in Beta can't accept the invite to FBS. Has any existing member switched and retained their membership?

[Apology] From Your Head Mistress

I apologize for the fact that Menu For Hope was beginning to over run our S'cool. As many of you know, I have a policy of not allowing bloggers to use the S'cool to promote their own events. I made an exception for Menu For Hope, because I hope it is an event than can bring the community together, the whole community and for a good cause. But I think we went to far in using the S'cool as a kind of notice board for the event, many of the posts caused by our own iinsufficient organisation skills that we are learning as we go along. This needs to take place elsewhere really, not here.

As a compromise, I have assembled all of the Menu for Hope information in one long post which I will link in the side bar too. If anyone needs to find out information about menu for hope, they can simply look in that post. If anyone wants to add to the information to this post, please email me and I will add it in.

Heartfelt apologies everyone, we all learn by our mistakes, please forgive me.


This Post was written by sam from Becks & Posh

[YouTube] How Do I Delete A Video On My Blog

I was playing around with the You Tube functions and published a video on my blog (Robbie Williams - so go and check it out LOL!) That was the easy part. However I was wondering if I ever wanted to delete it how do I go about doing that. I simply tried to delete the post in Blogger but the video is still there. The problem now is that I cannot go back to the post and make any changes as Blogger has deleted it!

Can anyone help me here?

[Update] I take this back! It has been deleted. After I deleted the post it seems like it actually takes some time for the post/video to disappear. Also just a tip for "YouTube" newbies (yes there are still a few of us out here) do NOT use the "Post Video" function at the bottom of the video. This posts the video immediately and automatically publishes it on your Blog. Use the embedded HTML snippet on the right of the video. Here is more!

Sorry if this was a bit lame!!

This Post was written by Meeta from What's For Lunch, Honey?

My Blog Won't Load for Some People

Recently I replaced the standard Blogger Metadata in my blog template with some more specific data so that when someone picks up the rss feed they are directed to feedburner, not the original blogger feed. I had a very knowledgeable person helping me, so I think it was done correctly.

Ever since then my brother has been unable to get my blog to load on his computer, using Firefox 2.0 on a Mac. When he tries to load the blog, it either gets to a certain stage and then gets "stuck" or it says it is loaded but the screen is blank. (When he uses safari it looks just fine, so it's not his internet connection or his computer.)

Other people who use Firefox 2.0 on PC are fine. I can load it fine with PC using old firefox and several versions of IE. We have looked at the code again and can't spot any errors.

If anyone has a Mac with Firefox 2.0 I'd greatly appreciate if you would check to see if you have any problems loading my site, Kalyn's Kitchen. Also any of you experts who might be willing to look at the code and see if you spot anything I'd be so grateful. It's driving me a little cuckoo.


This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

A Great Article on Food Blogs in Sauce Magazine

There's a great article on Food Blogs in the latest issue of Sauce, a St. Louis based food magazine. Written by our own Alanna, this should be required reading for any food editor contemplating taking on this topic. In fact, if your own local newspaper has a food editor, consider forwarding them the link!

Here's Alanna's announcement about the article and the online version of Gather Round the Computer: Foodies Come Together in the Blogosphere from Sauce. Be sure to scroll down all the way to see what a great job she did compiling a very comprehensive list of food blogs by category.

(Please don't be upset with Alanna or take it personally in any way if you don't see your blog listed. She asked me several times for feedback about blogs to feature, and I know she agonized over trying to decide who to include. Ultimately she came to realize that there are simply so many good blogs that any list that was created would always be leaving out some worthwhile, high-quality blogs.)

This Post was written by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

Beta Codes for hiding the top nav bar and spaces

I posted a code for old Blogger here.

Here is the code for new Blogger Beta users. I had to create me a Beta account for this. Maybe a certain person will even thank me for my efforts this time. :)

To hide the navbar, insert the code that is highlighted in red in between the codes highlighted in blue (this is located at the bottom of the template).

< /div >< /div > < !-- end outer-wrapper -- >

< type="'text/css'">

#navbar-iframe {

height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}

< /style >

< /body >
< /html >

...

To take the blank space out of the top of the header and make the header flush to the top, insert the codes highlighted in red as shown below within the codes highlighted in blue (that is located on top of your template).

body {

background:$bgcolor;
margin-top:0px;
color:$textcolor;
font:x-small Georgia Serif;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
text-align: center;

position: relative;
top: -10px;

}

...

Enjoy!

This Post was written by Mae from riceandnoodles.

[copyrights] How much for that kitty on the website?

At Sam's suggestion, I'm moving my query regarding photo rights to a new post so it doesn't get lost within a longer comment thread.

Here's the semi-short version: A photo I posted last February on Belly Timber appeared in the Friday edition of my local paper. I'd uploaded the photo onto Flickr, and up until quite recently all my photos on my Flickr were listed as "all rights reserved." Just this past week or so, I changed that to a Creative Commons license that allows only for non-commercial, non-derivative use with attribution. Needless to say, the Oregonian didn't ask, didn't attribute, and didn't pay.

I'm now trying to figure out just how much to ask of them along with my request for a printed attribution/correction in next Friday's A&E -- as the Friday A&E is where the photo appeared, and it is one of the most popular sections of the paper.

Further information: The paper's weekday circulation is, I believe, about 350,000. The photo is in B&W and is just under a quarter page. (There's a scan of it up on Belly Timber now -- it's a cat picture and I couldn't resist a snarky response from my cat for Weekend Cat Blogging.)

In the Serious Eats comments thread, Nika mentioned a useful resource: the Stock Photo Price Calculator at photographersindex.com. This gives me a good ballpark to start with, but I'm also interested in hearing if anyone else has gone through the same thing and how their, ehmm, "negotiations" with clueless print media types fared -- because, frankly, it stuns me that staff members at a paper this large should still not get something so basic as the utter wrongness of stealing photos off the web for a for-profit publication.


This Post was written by MizD from Belly Timber

Hiding the blogger navbar and taking the space out on the top of the page

Trig [Aidan Brooks?] posted a question here about hiding the navbar button which is on top of the blogger page. I thought instead of answering his question on the comment, i thought it would be more useful for anyone else who might want to apply this code to their blogger account.

Here it is... (works on firefox and safari - i haven't tested it on ie and beta [i haven't got a beta account])

To find out how it looks, i've used my old blogger account as a dummy - check it out here.

...

To hide the navbar, insert the code that is highlighted in red in between the codes highlighted in blue (this is located at the bottom of the template).

< !-- End #footer -- >

< type="text/css">

#b-navbar {

height:0px;

visibility:hidden;

display:none

}

< /style >


< /body >
< /html >

...

To take the blank space out of the top of the header and make the header flush to the top, insert the codes highlighted in red as shown below within the codes highlighted in blue (that is located on top of your template).

body {
background:#fff;
margin-top:0px;
padding:40px 20px;
font:x-small Arial;
text-align:center;
color:#333;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;

position: relative;
top: -50px;
}

...

I hope this helps. If you are not tech savvy and find it a little tricky to make changes to your template, i can offer some help by way of letting me get to your account and i will make the changes. Email me on maegabriel at googlemail dot com. You have to disclose your password to me to do this changes. I will treat them with strictest confidence and you may change your password later. This offer is only valid til 13th December as i will be away for a long well deserved holiday.

Sorry, this post is a little short and abrupt, i have 2 chocolate truffles in the fridge that is ready for rolling and photoshoot to be posted on my blog and to be boxed ready for demanding friends... :)

This Post was written by Mae from riceandnoodles.

Farm dinner tomorrow: I have tix, am sicks, need to nix

I hope this is okay for me to post: it's an opportunity for someone in the SF Bay area to buy my seats at the last Outstanding in the Field farm dinner for the 2006 season tomorrow. I am really sick with bronchitis and laryngitis, and it's kept me from working for over a week. So I am selling the tickets, hoping someone will want to go to a ranch in the Santa Cruz mountains, take a tour with a couple of local foragers, eat a five-course dinner made by a gifted chef from many foraged (and locally farmed) foods, and drink six kinds of wine from Bonny Doon Vineyard. (All this in the afternoon: the weather is supposed to be lovely.)

Details—including some of the dishes and all of the wines—are on my blog, which is at www.iheartfarms.com.

I'm not trying to make a killing: my husband's been sick and worked less this month, too, and we're scrambling to pay boring bills. Thanks in advance for letting me post here: I know we all don't read all the blogs, and this is a very limited window of opportunity. I only decided today that I am too sick to go, and can't think of a better group of people than food bloggers who'd be interested in going.

Thanks.

Serious Eats

Has anyone seen Serious Eats? I just went there for the first time, was going to register an account and went to look at the TOS. At first glance, it seems rather heavy-handed in some ways.

There are lines like:
"Images published on Flickr or other public photo sites, with an implied license for use under the Creative Commons license associated with such sites"

Which is all fine and dandy, except that flickr lets you choose your copyright terms and you can choose NOT to use CC licensing. So it's not implied, it's explicitly chosen.

and

"Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that any material on our sites is infringing your copyrights."

They go on to say that someone had to pay $100,000 for such a claim and then note that "a copy of each legal notice we receive will be sent (with your personal information removed) to Chilling Effects for publication."

Talk about chilling effects!

I am going to register and lurk a while to see what the site is actually like, but I am unlikely to post anything there unless they lighten up a bit. (and I wouldn't be surprised if they did, so much shakes out at the start of this sort of venture) Protection is one thing, but geez!

Besides, I couldn't find an answer to the question that led me to the TOS to begin with: Do they claim copyright over the content of comments? Does anyone know?

This Post was written by kitchenMage from kitchenMage

One more go at the Blogger beta navbar issue

Thought I'd try again for a techie to solve my problem, as I got no responses at all to my posting of November 18th. I won't repeat it all.

Some time ago I searched out some code that I put into my Blogger template to hide the navbar at the top. Recently I've been looking at migrating from Blogger to Blogger beta and a search of the web quickly turned up the new code needed to hide the navbar in beta. It came with an add-on that gets rid of the space left at the top of screen.

The code can be found at http://tinyurl.com/yl6p3g - Technique 1, with the extra bit that you will find after Technique 3.

Testing the code on someone else's blog that has just migrated, I was very pleased with the result. That was until I realised that the code works properly in Firefox, but in IE it hides the bar but does not remove the white space at the top.

So does anyone have code that works properly in both browsers?

Cheers.

This Post was written by Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef.

What is Stumbleupon?

I'm a new blogger with only 3 months of posts under my belt. Last night I got over 700 hits and it appears that much of that traffic is being driven by something called Stumbleupon. I googled it and it seems to be a Firefox extension. I could sink some time I don't have into further research of this but I thought I would first ask here if anyone has any knowledge or experience with Stumbleupon.

Cheers!


This Post was written by Vanessa from What geeks eat...