FAQ
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General | MyBlogLog Pro | New with Me | Support | Known Bugs | About MyBlogLog
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Why do I need MyBlogLog?
For some, it's the glory; for others it's the danger. Still for others it's the way members of the opposite sex find them a little more appealing.
MyBlogLog enables you to track that last little bit of information about your website. You probably already know where your users are coming from and you probably already know what pages they're looking at while they're there. However, if you have a blog or any other site where you frequently post new content on the main page, you don't have a good way of tracking what people find interesting. One way is to track when people click on the links you provide. Up until now, outbound link tracking has been a pain in the butt, requiring CGIs and managed links. MyBlogLog makes this process easy.
But why do you need to know what people find interesting on your site? You can use it to tune your content to be even more compelling for your readers. You can use it to determine which stories you should follow up on. Hell, it's just cool to *know* what people find interesting, even if you don't do anything with it.
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Is MyBlogLog a replacement for my existing stats package?
Not at all. MyBlogLog is all about tracking "the missing links" - what makes your readers click to leave your site. (i.e. What really interests them.) Existing stats packages are great for telling you how people found your site and what they looked at while they were there. MyBlogLog tracks where your readers go when they leave your site in a non-obtrusive way. We do not alter link URLs or send the browser through a tracker webpage.
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Can I try MyBlogLog for free?
Totally! Sign up for the free version and take some time to figure out if it's worth spending your hard-earned cash on. You can convert to the Pro version any time and you can always switch back to the free version if you find you're not using the Pro features.
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How Do You Pick Hot or Featured Members?
How it works is a combination of amazing us through stats, being tagged "Hot Member" by your peers and having a particularly interesting story or page. It's a handpicked process, so chances are we miss quite a number of great sites. If you think yours is fab, let us know by leaving a note at www.mybloglog.com/support
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How do I see all the communities I've joined?
To see all the communities you've joined, go to your main profile page.
Scroll down to "New Neighbors In My Communities". At the bottom of that section there is a link that says, "view all my communities." Click this link to see all of the communities you've joined.
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How do I drive traffic to my site?
Most people with large communities have them either because their blog is already popular and they advertise their MyBlogLog community with a link to it on their blog (go to your Community page and check out our Buttons). Another way to raise awareness of your site is to visit other sites and leave your avatar image on their Recent Reader widget. If you are a frequent visitor, others will see your image, click on it, and learn more about your sites.
In the end, there is no substitution to a posting regularly on topics that, because they are interesting to you, are well-written, authoritative, as well as entertaining.
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What should I do to prevent spam?
You'll probably see messages that annoy you on any community site. People have different definitions of spam, and some people choose to message you every time they update their site while others only message to chat.
If you see a particularly annoying avatar on your community page, you can hover over their avatar and click the red x to make them disappear forever.
Note: This only works on the javascript widget and your community page.
Spam Community Messages: Messages that come to you because you joined a community are easy to stop. Simply navigate to the offending community and click the large green button that says "Leave Community".
Best Advice To Stop All Spam: In your profile choose to only allow messages from your contacts. Note that it does hamper your ability to make new friends but it will cut down on the noise.
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How do you determine Mature Content?
Because the avatars that we use on MyBlogLog are viewed all over the web, on a variety of types of sites, the avatars we choose should reflect that situation. Knowing that your avatar may end up on a site that caters to family viewers or business readers should help you understand why certain images, even if they are not porn, are not allowed as publicly viewable avatars.
Not allowed for use as an avatar:
- bathing suit pictures
- cleavage pictures, or images of someone wearing only a bra and panties
- images of sex toys and paraphernalia
- nudity of any kind
- images simulating sexual activity
We tend to be more lenient with screen shots and other images that you upload to MyBlogLog that are not displayed on the Recent Readers widgets. However, we still ask that you keep your images suitable for all ages.• If this did not answer your question, please search again or contact us
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How can I become an uber MyBlogLog member?
1. Reach Profile Zen
2. Read & subscribe to the MyBlogLog blog
3. Join the MyBlogLog Users Helping Users group:
3. Give us your suggestions and vote on best ideas on our Suggestions Board
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How do I cancel a Pro subscription?
We'd love to do it for you, but for security reasons, Paypal does not want us messing around inside your account. To cancel a MyBlogLog Pro subscription payment, you'll have to do it via PayPal.
1. Log into Paypal.
2. Click the My Account tab.
3. Click the History subtab.
4. Choose the Subscriptions field from the Show dropdown menu.
5. Check the From box and change the date back 2 years.
6. Click Search.
7. To view the details of a specific Subscription Creation, click Details in the Details column.
8. At the bottom of this page, click Cancel Subscription.
9. On the confirmation page, click Cancel Subscription again.
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Someone creepy has added me as a friend
If the creepy person is showing up in your Followers section, rest assured that the only person that can see that section is you. If you wish, you have the option of Blocking that person to prevent them from reaching out to you again.
However, on the pages for your blog (community) and on your Recent Readers widget, you can easily removed a visitor by hovering over their picture and clicking the red x. And, remember, you can delete any message by clicking the delete link.
Of course, if creepy turns into harassment, please let us know, as harassment is illegal.
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Tags Are Totally Confusing! Help!!!
Check out our 'All About Tags' blog post on our blog. All About Tags
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Do I need MyBlogLog Pro?
Honestly, many people do not need MyBlogLog Pro. The Pro version gives you real-time stats and the ability to download stat logs to analyze on your own. This is really useful if you have a lot of links on your site or if you have a lot of traffic. Otherwise, try out the site for free and if you feel your Type-A personality urging you to get real-time data; by all means, go PRO!
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How can I pay for MyBlogLog Pro?
Currently, we offer two ways to purchase MyBlogLog Pro: a monthly subscription fee ($3/month) through PayPal and an annual fee ($25/year) by PayPal or Credit Card. The monthly fee will continue until you cancel the service. The annual fee must be renewed by you each year.
You can upgrade your account to MyBlogLog Pro via the Edit Settings area of any of your blogs (scroll down to the bottom).
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How do I cancel my MyBlogLog Pro service?
We make it easy. If you use the monthly subscription to MyBlogLog Pro, just click the "Cancel Subscription" link in Account Settings and login to PayPal to cancel your service. Note: If you do not log into PayPal and change it there, the service will continue charging you each month. PayPal does not give us access to your account, so any subscriptions need to be canceled within PayPal.
If you paid the MyBlogLog annual fee, just wait for your year to run out and you will be automatically converted to the standard (free) MyBlogLog service.
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I have updated the wrong blog to Pro
Please note that the upgrade to Pro is per blog.
If you find that you have upgraded to Pro but don't see the upgrade on the blog that you wanted to upgrade, you can leave a message on the Contact page describing which blog has the PRO status in error and where you want to apply it and we'll swap it out for you.
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What is "New with Me?"
New with Me is a quick and easy way to bring together your various internet identities together into one place. It gives more depth to your profile on MyBlogLog, making it more dynamic and is a quick way for people to keep up with what you're up to. Along with "New with Me" we've added "New with my Neighborhood" that is a collective view of what all your contacts on MyBlogLog have been up to as well as "New with My World" which are updates from everyone at MyBlogLog on items that match the Tags you have applied to your profile.
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How does it work?
We use the screen name you've given us in the Services tab of your profile to crawl RSS feeds available from these services. Where possible, we use APIs to make pulling in your data more efficient.
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Which services are part of "New with Me"?
- Bebo
Post a blog entry
- Deli.cio.us
Add a bookmark
- Digg
Digg a story, submit a story
- Flickr
Upload a photo, comment on a photo, add a photo to favorites
- FriendFeed
Likes, Comments, Links, Posts. We also bring along additional services that FriendFeed carries if you don't already have them in MyBlogLog.
- Google Reader
Share items
- Jumpcut
Post a movie
- Last.FM
Listen to a track
- Mag.nolia
Adds a Bookmarks
- MyBlogLog
Post a blog entry, comment on a blog, add a contact, join a community, tag a member or community, leave a message for a member
- Netflix
Add a DVD to queue
- Seesmic
Post a video
- Stumbleupon
Add a website to favorites, submit a website
- ThisNext
Recommends an item
- Twitter
Post a tweet
- Yahoo Answers
Post a question
- Yelp
Submit a review
- YouTube
Add a video to favorites
- Upcoming
Watch an event, attend an event
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How do I add my favorite service to your list?
We are constantly adding new services. Please submit your favorite service on our suggestion board.
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Why isn't something I updated appearing?
We limit the number of items we pull from each service. For example, if you uploaded 20 photos into flickr, we only will only show the last five uploaded. If anyone wants to see more, we provide links to click through to your flickr page.
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Why don't you archive all my updates?
New with Me is a moving river of updates. We are not trying to re-create the internet. We store the last 100 items and up to 25 "clusters" of events. If you're interested in looking at older updates, we direct you to the original service provider for the full archive.
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How are you handling privacy?
New with Me only pulls data that is public. For example, if you have flickr photos marked private or a a twitter account with protected updates, these will not be available via New with Me. If you are uncomfortable with any of your updates being aggregated by New with Me, simply go to the Services tab of your Profile and remove your screen name.
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Is there a way to remove items from my New with Me page?
Yes. At the bottom of your New with Me page click the link for [manage my new with me]. On that page, there is a small grey box [x] that will allow you to clear an item for your New with Me page. This action will remove this item from appearing anywhere on MyBlogLog.com.
Please note that this does not necessarily mean the item has been removed from a third party that may have accessed your New with Me feed via the RSS link on your New with Me page and the MyBlogLog API.
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What happens when I delete a screen name off my Profile?
We collect your public data only for the services which are in your profile. Upon removing a screen name, we will stop collecting data for that service. Also, all your previously collected data will be no longer available through MyBlogLog, untill you again add your screen name.
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How do I report bugs found in MyBlogLog?
Leave a note on the Contact page with as much detail as possible and we will check it out ASAP. Thanks for your help making MyBlogLog better.
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What if I have a cool idea for MyBlogLog?
Send it to us! We're all about making MyBlogLog the best site that it can be, and that starts by listening when our members have something to say. Anything from a simple tweak to a brand new feature, add it to our Suggestion Board and let other members vote on your suggestion.
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Why is my blog only tracking page views, not clicks?
This usually happens because the JavaScript tracking code was not inserted into the correct spot in your blog's HTML template. Optimally, the line of code should be placed directly after the OPEN body tag (< body >). If your blogging service does not allow you to place the link in this location, try to place it as high as possible on the page while staying between the body tags (after < body > and before < / body >).
If you believe your code is in the correct location and the clicks are still not tracking, drop us a line on our Contact page and we will do everything we can to help you out.
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How do I add MyBlogLog to my TypePad-hosted blog?
MyBlogLog's Recent Reader widget is available via the TypePad Widget Gallery.
If you are interested in any of the other widgets, TypePad lets you to add html and Javascript using their Link TypeLists. Create a new TypeList to house your MyBlogLog code.
For more information, look here : http://help.typepad.com/typelists/tips.html#additional_uses_for_link_typelists
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How do I add MyBlogLog to my self-hosted Wordpress blog?
If you are using WordPress 2.2 or above, download and install the Recent Reader widget.
For earlier versions of WordPress, please see WordPress Widget Configuration page.
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Can I add multiple blogs to a single MyBlogLog account?
To add additional blogs, login and click "settings". Click the "Add a New Blog to My Account" and fill-out the form. You will be given a new code to add to your blog. Once it is added, you will be able to access the new stats using a select box at the top of your admin page.
(Note: If you wish to use MyBlogLog Pro on your additional blogs, they will each require a separate subscription. Of course, you can use any mix of free and Pro MyBlogLog service that you wish.)
Double Super Bonus: You can add as many blogs as you want to each account!
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I Lost My Password!!!
You can get a new password, a Yahoo! ID reminder, or both. Visit the Sign-in Problems page and supply some basic verification information, such as your birthday and the ZIP or postal code you provided when you registered.
Make sure to provide the same information you gave during registration or when you last updated your account. Without the correct verification information, you will not be able to obtain a new password.
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Can I change my screen name?
Go to your profile and click 'Edit Profile'. Go to the Change Name and click that, it's right under your picture. Then choose 'use nickname' and type in whatever you would like to use.
Click OK. That should do it :)
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I got the Slow Down Rockstar message. Help!
That message means you sent all of your allotted messages (15) in a 24-hour period. We use this limitation to cut down on spam at MyBlogLog.
Don't fret though, you will be able to send another 15 messages tomorrow.
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How Do I Add My Blog To MyBlogLog?
It's easy to add a blog or site to your MyBlogLog profile. On your profile page, click Add Blog/Site I Author.
You will be taken to a page on which you can add the details of your blog or website. Fill out the details and your blog will be added. No need to add a screenshot manually, as our servers will add one quickly.
Common Questions:
What should I put in the box that says http://mybloglog.com/buzz/community/_________?
This is the url (web address) for your community on MyBlogLog. It will pre-fill automatically, but if you want to change it, it's easy to erase what is there and put in another word or phrase (no spaces) that is relevant to your blog. If you blog about celebrities, you might add celebritynews or celebphotos to this box. If an error that the url is taken occurs, that means another MyBlogLog member already has his MyBlogLog community at that url. Try another keyword phrase in that case.
I keep getting the error "Invalid Characters". What gives?
Make sure that you are not using a space or other characters that are not allowed. Letters, Numbers and Underscores (_) are the only characters allowed in the fields.
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How do I add my picture/avatar?
An avatar is a picture that you use to represent yourself online. To upload an avatar for your account, first you'll need to choose a picture that you like and save it as a file to your desktop.
Login to MyBlogLog, click on 'My Account' click 'Change Image'. Browse and Upload your image file and save and choose if you want to use this image only on MyBlogLog or make it your default avatar for all of Yahoo.
Click OK. That should do it :)
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How do I turn off community auto-join?
To help you determine which communities you visit most, MyBlogLog auto-joins you to communities you visit frequently. If you don't want to use this feature, you can change the setting or turn off all together.
Go to your Profile and click Edit Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and either change the number of pageviews required or choose 'Never' from the drop down menu to turn it off.
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How Many Communities Can Be Joined Per Day?
In an effort to keep a handle on spam, we've limited the number of communities you can join per day to 15. We'll let you know when you reach your limit. Good news though, your auto-join communities do not count towards your limit.
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My site is incorrectly labeled as adult content
Only sites with porn (defined as full frontal nudity posted with a sexual connotation) receive the adult tag. If your site is incorrectly labeled as adult, then you can change the setting yourself by going here:
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/t_adultupdate.php
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Someone Else Has Claimed My Blog/Site
Sometimes fans create 'fan communities' for blogs or sites that they enjoy. As well, sometimes people create communities around sites that do not belong to them as a way of profiting off of the blog's reputation online.
If you are a blog owner and you want to claim ownership of your blog that is currently claimed by another, please leave us a note on the Contact page to asserting your claim. There are two ways to prove that you are the owner of a blog.
1. Email us from your blog's domain.
2. Write an assertion of your claim on a page on your site and send us the url. This can be removed as soon as we take action on your claim.
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My stats stopped tracking
Step 1) This sounds crazy, but are you sure you have the widget or tracking script on your page? Have you changed your blog's theme recently and republished?
Step 2) Are you a free user? If you add your stats after the three day Pro Trial period, you'll need to wait until tomorrow to verify that your stats are working.
Step 3) If your code is on your site, you've waited a day and you're still not seeing stats, please leave us a note on the Contact page and we'll get it sorted.
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I just got a warning for spam. What does that mean?
Every time a user reports another user for spam, someone from MyBlogLog reviews the user's account to see if the spam report is a true spam report. If we determine that the user does appear to be mass-messaging other users with self-promotional messages, then we send a polite warning to the would-be spammer.
If this has happened to you, this doesn't mean we don't want you around anymore and we've not put any limitations on your account. We just want you to make sure your messages aren't annoying people by being too promotional or by messaging the same people over and over when they have no connection to you.
Of course, if you don't understand why your message was considered spam, contact us via our Contact page and we'll be glad to explain it to you.
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What happens when I report spam?
The process is pretty simple. When we receive the email, we first investigate the complaint by looking at the message that the user sent to you. if you have already deleted it, then we cannot see that message.
The next step is to look at all the messages the user has sent. If there are no other messages and your message is gone as well, then we have no way to help you block this user. If you do not want to keep the message on your profile, you can always include the message from the user in the email you send us.
However, if we do find many messages where the user appears to be mass-messaging self-promotional messages, we warn the user to stop spamming our users. If he/she does not stop, then we ban the user from the site.
Fraud-related messages, Nigerian spam, porn spam, get-rich-quick scam messages, and promises of cold fusion are deleted immediately and the user is blocked from sending any more messages.
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How do I remove a site from my profile?
To remove your blog from your MyBlogLog profile, go to your profile page and choose 'Edit Site Settings' under the blog that you want to remove. Scroll down until you see 'Remove Site/Blog From My Profile" and click the button to remove.
Note: This does not remove a site from our system. If you want to delete a site completely, leave us a note on the Contact page with the URL of the Community page you wish us to delete.
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How do I change the name or url of my blog?
To change the settings on your blog, go to your profile page. Under the blog that you want to edit, click 'Edit Settings' and change the name of your blog.
If you need to change the URL of a blog, leave us a note on the Contact page and we'll verify that the old URL is forwarding to the requested URL and we'll update it for you.
If you have a new site all together, please create a new community page so that members can decide for themselves if they want to join your new site.
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I want to leave MyBlogLog
Please delete my profile.
Step 1) Log into MyBlogLog
Step 2) Click "Edit Profile" on the top of the page
Step 3) Click "Delete Account"
Step 4) Click the button labeled "Delete My Account Completely"
If you have a MyBlogLog Pro account, paid for with a PayPal subscription, you will have to cancel your subscription within PayPal, as we have no access to your PayPal account.
Of course, if you can not login to MyBlogLog, please contact us via the Contact page and we'll remove your account.
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How do I remove a co-author?
Hover over their picture and click the Red X. It will take you to a page where you confirm that you want to delete them as an author. Confirm and they are removed.'
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How do I add the Recent Reader widget to my blog?
Scroll down to find instructions for your specific blog platform. These instructions assume that you've already added a blog to your profile. Each blog has it's own MyBlogLog community page.
Wordpress.com:
1. Login to Wordpress.com and click on the 'Design' tab then the 'Widgets' subtab.
2. In a another browser tab or window, go to your MyBlogLog community page for your blog, click on the link for 'Widgets' and grab the widget code for the image-based widget (wordpress.com does not support javascript widgets). If you're having trouble finding the code for the image-based widget, look at the links in the red box at the top of the page.
3. Back on wordpress.com, add the 'Text' widget to your template's sidebar and paste the widget code for the image-based widget
4. Save Changes for the wordpress.com widget and you're done!
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Self-hosted WordPress blogs:
For self-hosted WordPress blogs with version 2.2 or above, please download our WordPress plug-in
For older versions (self-hosted), since they don't work with the Sidebar Widgets, you will need to add it straight to the sidebar template. This requires a little understanding of HTML editing. Follow the steps below:
1. Login to your WP admin, click on "Presentation", "Theme Editor", then "Sidebar Template".
2. Looking at the HTML code of your sidebar, you will see a lot of <ul> and </ul> tags. Each tag basically displays one of the items listing on the sidebar. You would want to create one like that for your MyBlogLog widget. So first, go grab your MyBlogLog widget code, enclose it with <li> and </li> tags, pick a spot and paste the code there (see screenshot).
3. Click the "Update File" button to save. That's all!
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Blogger:
You will need to add it straight to the sidebar template. This requires a little understanding of HTML editing. Follow the steps below.
1. Login to Blogger.com. from the Dashboard choose 'Template'.
2. Looking at the HTML code of your sidebar, you will see a lot of <ul> and </ul> tags. Each tag basically displays one of the items listing on the sidebar. You would want to create one like that for your MyBlogLog widget. So first, go grab your MyBlogLog widget code, enclose it with <li> and </li> tags, pick a spot and paste the code there. 3. Click the "Save Template Changes" button to save. That's all!
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Typepad:
Click on the 'Widgets' link on your blog's MyBlogLog community page and look for the "TypePad Blogger: ..." links on the page for each widget. Click the link to add the widget directly to your blog.
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MySpace:
Login to MySpace.com. Click 'Edit Profile'. Paste the code for the image-based widget (see link in Red Box on the Widgets tab on your community page) into any of the sections (other than Headline). Save changes and you're done.
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Xanga:
Login to Xanga.com. Go to "Look and Feel" in your left sidebar. Scroll down until you see a heading "JavaScript Module". Title the module however you want (MyBlogLog Readers or something like that). Paste the javascript into the large box below and save the settings by clicking 'Save Changes'.
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ActiveRain blogs:
See this helpful tutorial
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SquareSpace blogs:
1. Click Administration to configure website
2. Go to the About Me area and click "Add Widget"
3. Select Text/HTML widget and click "Configure"
4. Give the widget a name, be sure to check the option to "Enable Concurrent Script Loading"
5. Once you saved the widget, your new widget is ready to configure. Return to the website and as an author, you should see the option to "edit section html"
6. Click on "edit section html" and paste your widget code into the text box. Make sure to select "Raw HTML" from the dropdown box that defaults to WYSIWYG in the upper right
7. Click "Save and Close"
8. If it's too wide, you can change the width of the widget manually by changing the "ww=" value to something smaller.
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Yahoo 360: Unfortunately Yahoo 360 does not support the MyBlogLog widget code.
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How Do I Hide Someone's Picture and Messages From My Community and My Blog?
Hover over their picture and click the Red X that appears. It will take you to a place where you will confirm that you want to add them to your Hide List.
Note: If you change your mind later, your Hide List is in the top section of your Edit Settings area in your community.
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I can't register
It could be that your browser is blocking our cookies. In order to prevent that, you should make sure your browser is set to 'accept cookies'. For directions for common browsers, see below.
Firefox: Tools -> Preferences -> Privacy -> Check Allow cookies and save
Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Options -> Privacy -> Drag slider to lowest setting that allows you to save cookies.
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Clicks are not counted in Firefox when "Ad Blocking" is turned off.
Firefox enables users to turn off third-party images, which is one of the ingredients in MyBlogLog's special sauce. There are currently no quick solutions for this but we are looking for a long-term fix. For now, console yourself knowing that very few people surf with third-party images blocked.
We'll update this entry when me have more information.
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MyBlogLog reports fewer page views than my other stats package.
This is a key reason why we're a supplement to existing web stats companies. MyBlogLog, while completely standards-compliant, does not work on really older browsers (Netscape and early IE, for instance). This means that we do miss some small percentage of the surfing public.
We are constantly refining the service so that we can track across a greater selection of browsers. For now, be heartened that according to several different tracking sites, we are effective across more than 95% of all web surfers.
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My Avatar doesnt appear
The way that feature works is that it finds you based on the email address and blog address you input when you leave the comment. If those are the same as what you have on file at MyBlogLog, then the system will match your avatar and profile to your comment. If they are different, then it won't find you in the system and no avatar will appear.
For most people, the reason their avatar doesn't show up is because their email/web address doesn't match our records.
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My Feed Does not Update in the Recent Content Section
If you are using a redirection feed, like Feedburner, try replacing it with the originating feed instead. If you are not using a redirection feed and your feed still won't update, try validating your feed at feedvalidator.org.
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New Recent Readers Widget
Iframe Blocks Flyouts
If you're displaying the widget code in an iframe, set your flyouts value "none". Alternatively, you can add the following line to your CSS for the iFrame that displays the widget body .module {overflow:visible}
Mac Firefox - Flyouts vs Flash
This is a Firefox bug w/ CSS transparency and absolute positioning.
Flickr, MySpace, and WordPress.com do not support the new Recent Reader widget. Please use the image-based Recent Reader widget. A link to the code for this widget can be found in the red box on top of the widget configuration page for your community.
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What's the story behind MyBlogLog?
Todd and Eric grew up together in Florida. Now Todd makes web sites and Eric makes video games. Every year or two Eric has a wacky web site idea and Todd (and his team at cloudspace) makes it happen, like the Metal Gear Solid Name Generator or Buzzsite, an early content aggregator.
During the winter holiday in 2004, Eric started a link blog (marcoullier.com), inspired by BoingBoing, Waxy and Kottke, among others. Even though he only had three visitors a day (his wife, his mother and Todd) he really wanted to know which links they clicked on; what they found interesting. Finding no simple solution, Eric instant messaged Todd and two months later MyBlogLog was launched.
If you cannot find the answer to your question, please contact us.
