MT-Blacklist - A Movable Type Anti-spam Plugin
Plug it in, and help the Community battle back against the Blog Spammers.
Creator Jay Allen is responsive: I put a few of my "got spam(med)" particulars into the growing Blacklist database, and within an hour got back a friendly, helpful, personal e-mail (decidely _not_ spam-like) .
Join the club, and also check out the related Clearinghouse site for scoop, comments, updates.
Finally, a useful "How To" link regarding Staying Up-To-Date.
Wm.
Spend enough time looking at blogs, you learn a gazillion things.
Phil Wolff not only actually said something nice about me ;^), but his "a klog apart" is rife with blog-o-stuff I just gotta learn about.
One step at a time.
Here's the "blogchalk" phenomenon:
Slight interpretive services: I speak English (I am American, of Irish descent); I also claim to make my way satisfactorily in Italian (lived and worked there two years). My interests include Technology (web development stuff, XML & so forth), and Literature (including theater).
My first Chalk Searches:
http://bstpierre.org/bc/
"Davis Square" = 0
"Somerville" = 0 (!)
"Massachusetts" = 6
3 were dupes, somebody in Haverhill
1 featured James Bond girls homepage mega-pic (Taunton, Weir neighborhood, wherever that is)
couple were gone/dead
One guy actually lives in Somerville (you'd think he'd come up under Search #2, no?), but his blogchalk isn't part of his page. There you go.
Hmmm.
I thought the point was to drill in geographically, maybe get a "descending count" from some kind of GUI as you narrow in, & Etc. This was just free text search. Ah well.
Over to Google:
"blogchalk Davis Square"
- Gray Davis, (some) Square
- "I used to live in Davis Square, now..." (at least a couple on that theme)
- "blogchalk Wellesley" (boh?)
Meanwhile, out West, "Oakland" (Phil's hometown) yields 32, and narrowing in on "Adam's Point" gets 20 ("a klog apart" correctly coming up under both, natch).
(But then, _quite_ strangely (?), "California" yields 3? (u tell me). And "United States" also yields, three. (But not the same three.) Veddy interesting.)
Well anyway, I like the idea, and who knows maybe with time something will even come of it. Surely there's a blogger or two down the street...
Thanks, Phil! (3,000 miles distant)
Wm.
But the "decoder" brings all that Clarity ringing back, in a jif!
A sort of Whimsical take on how to describe your blogging along thirteen interesting axes:
Mine (for now): B1 d t+ k s- u- f i o x-- e l- c-
Maybe "Subtracting From" isn't fair--a terse cryptic code can be a powerful means to a quick--possibly even useful--description of a complex phenomenon, so, you'd may as well give this one a whirl and let the world sum you/your blog up in a few letters and keystrokes...
(though becoming a skilled _reader_ of those few strokes calls for a tad more investment in system familiarity than ought to be strictly necessary, seemingly (perhaps?) somewhat defeating the appeal of the briefness of the code? Ah, communications.)
At any rate, I'm afraid I can't recall (or re-find) which blog led me to this one. (Things happen so fast, what with all these browsers open!)
Wm.
P.S. Here's the verbose version: (you get more chuckles filling out the form than reading the result)
"I've been blogging for 1-3 months. I own 1 domain and keep my blog and any other content I produce on the same site. I manage my blog with Greymatter, Movable Type, or other management system running on my own web host. I link only to sites I like to read (and sites that I have time to read) on a regular basis. I've looked at my stats reports, but I can't remember the last time I checked them. I don't link to any of the A-list blogs (Megnut, Kottke, Robot Wisdom, etc.)... if I ever want to visit their site, I'll just follow a link from someone else's blog. I try to post once a day, but it doesn't always happen, and that's no big deal. I blog from either home or work, but only after my work is done and when I get some free time. My entries are a mix of some original material, some web links, and links and comments about other blogs. Some people like to get it on with other bloggers, but for me, the last thing I need is to get sexually involved with one of these neurotic blogging pinheads. I have posted at least a photo of my face on my blog, but not much more. Memes and web surveys are, for the most part, pretty stupid, so I don't really participate. There are a few select people I've specifically kept in the dark about my blogging but, for the most part, most people know about it or could easily find it via a web search."
http://travis.kroh.net/blogger_decoder/?code=B1%20d%20t%2B%20k%20s-%20u-%20f%20i%20o%20x--%20e-%20l-%20c-
Well, this is FIXED now, but I thought I'd document the hassle
(while I'm still just chortling away at how much fun it's been)
===========================
Draft (not sent) post to "Tech Help!" at my hosting svc. (hub.org)
Dear Sirs,
I'm having success at getting two things to work (good), BUT I am not having success at getting them both to work at the same time (not so good).
These be SSI and CGI.
Gory annotation notes in my Apache configuration file...
/usr/local/etc/apache/virtual_host/www.reilly2001.info.conf
<VirtualHost>
# WR_ 20030828. As noted at TOP of httpd.conf file...
# Adding SSI to root (home) dir.
# RH7.3 Bible, p. 805 etc.
# (The intent is _not_ to have SSI on all sub-directories!) (Here's hoping!)
# This is so Movable Type 'recent.html' can be SSI'-ed into 'index.html'
## WR_ 20030829 SUMMARY
# O.K., I had trouble trying to get SSI to work, without
# it also taking down my CGI (!).
# That is, for SSI, I had 'Options Includes' for
# the home (web root) dir, and then (to avoid the
# dreaded ".shtml" way) I set 'XBitHack' to 'on'.
# O.K., SSI kicked in (on the single page I needed: /index.html)
# but my Movable Type CGI complained:
# "Forbidden, you don't have permission to access..."
# (All CGI, actually. /cgi-bin/wiki/wiki.cgi did the same)
# I Googled a bit to see about 'XBitHack' affecting CGI, "Forbidden" etc.
# Best I found were these, but they still didn't address my need.
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html.html#configuringyourservertoperm\
itssi
# http://www.apacheweek.com/features/ssi
# Then, the Apache FAQ has:
# http://www.surreyinstitute.org.uk/manual/misc/FAQ.html#forbidden
# which can only offer the general help of:
# "The Apache configuration has some access restrictions in place which forbid\ access to the files"
# Still, I realized it was prob. going to be this sort of .htaccess thing.
# So, I followed some ideas I'd seen in Apache books at the QuantumBooks store\ today...
# 1. Working only on my <Virtual_Host> file (rather than httpd.conf) was a goo\d idea... (I'd sorta figured that out...)
# 2. Understanding that yes, these <Directory> directives were for all sub-dir\s was important (!)
# 3. So putting a more exclusive <Files> directive, within the broader
# <Directory> directive seemed a good idea.
# 4. Finally, some mucking about with trying XBitHack on, then commented out, \then back on again, finally led me to getting it all to work.
# Hallelujah.
<Directory "/usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www">
<Files "index.html">
Options Includes
</Files>
</Directory>
XBitHack on
</VirtualHost>
NOW FIXED. (See Comment)
============================
Hmmm. I added a simple edit, per the O'Reilly Blogging book, to get a "...posted in category..." listing for each entry.
The site got built, and the new category info is there, but I did get an error (repeated 9 times):
Is it the $MTEntryLink, perhaps?
(Note: At time this occurred, every entry did have a Category - all 18.)
-----------------------
All of your files have been rebuilt. View your site.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
----------------------
==== (9 times, on 18 entries. Hmmmmm....) ==========================
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
MT::App::CMS=HASH(0x82bdbc0) Use of uninitialized value at /usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 928.
==============================
Perl
=============================================
/usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm
sub _hdlr_entry_link {
my $args = $_[1];
my $e = $_[0]->stash('entry')
or return $_[0]->_no_entry_error('MTEntryLink');
my $arch = $_[0]->stash('blog')->archive_url;
$arch .= '/' unless $arch =~ m!/$!;
$arch . $e->archive_file($args ? $args->{archive_type} : ()); = Line 928
}
=============================================
Template Edit (from O'Reilly Blogging book)
=============================================
Just added this:
in category: <a href="<$MTEntryLink archive_type="category"$>"><$MTEntryCategory$></a>
ORIG
<div class="posted">Posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> at <a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryDate format="%X"$></a>
NEW
<div class="posted">Posted by <$MTEntryAuthor$> in category: <a href="<$MTEntryLink archive_type="category"$>"><$MTEntryCategory$></a> at <a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryDate format="%X"$></a>
=============================================
NOW FIXED (See "Comments")
===============================
Oh me oh my.
Movable Type Error Message: "No entry_id" when I go to "Comment" on an entry! Hmmmm.
The "Comment" link brings up the window to write in O.K.,
and the URL _does_ have an "entry_id=4 value:
http://reilly2001.info/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=4
but then clicking either Preview or Post yields this error:
==========
An error occurred:
No entry_id
Now why would that be, I wonder???
MT online help doesn't really help:
docs/mtmanual_comments.html#comment%20previewing
docs/mtmanual_comments.html#comment%20submission%20errors
in that
1) I'm seeing a different problem than described in the manual ("no entry_id")
2) I'm using completely vanilla out-of-the-box templates, forms, etc. That is, the recommended form etc. I believe is what I have in place, and so forth. Hmmm.
That is, these "Comment Preview" and "Comment Error" are advanced, optional things--I'm not even there yet (!):
http://www.movabletype.org/default_templates.shtml#comment_preview_template
http://www.movabletype.org/default_templates.shtml#comment_error_template
And yes, this problem exists for both Weblogs I'm running (on the same server, same MT). So it would seem more global than a particular template issue (?). Though again, I haven't edited anything in these templates. Hmm.
I've looked into the script mt-comments.cgi, and don't know my Perl well enough (bummer!) to know just what went amiss to get me into the error bit here:
if ($@) {
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print "An error occurred: $@";
}
And as for the form itself, I'm puzzled.
Is it in this '/tmpl/cms' directory somewhere?
(doesn't seem to be this one (?)):
= /usr/local/www/reilly2001/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/tmpl/cms/edit_comment.tmpl
Is it this search related one (doesn't seem to be ?) :
= /usr/local/www/reilly2001/www/movabletype/MT-2.64-full-lib/search_templates/comments.tmpl
Other ?
Hmmm Hmmm Double-hmmm.
And yes, my configuration is set to permit Comments, of course!
Any ideas, anyone? Many thanks...
william@reilly2001.info