Mark the last little problem with my Social Bookmarking script solved. I had been chasing my tail on this one for a time, and then when I read through the css file in a bit more detail the answer was obvious, making me feel a bit silly.

I use a fixed width layout for most of my sites. This allows me to design them and have confidence that they will display as I intend. On the problem pages the Pligg developers are using their wide box. Their wide box is the same width as my layout. There was a float left rule applied to the box. Because the box is floated it is out of the normal flow, so is not contained by the wrapper that I installed. My background image is applied to the wrapper div. Because the floated div was floating below the header content there was a gap between the bottom of the header and the content area through which my page background image showed. This problem was only seen on the three pages of the submit new story section of the site.

Had I designed the page I would have had an easier time of it. There was a strong clue that did not ring a bell even though I had noted that the border on the left and right sides did not extend to the bottom of the page. I think that the display problem is there with their design, but they are using white on white on white, so it is not evident. I could confirm that by giving the page a background color or their content div left and right borders. I would imagine that other developers working on themes have run into the same problem, but they may have been more familiar with the css before it gave them a headache.

So NOW I can say, with a straight face, that I Found It! is open for business. Please register, bookmark pages, and get out and vote!! Thanks!

I dug back into the script and found the problem was as I suspected. The css was looking for an images folder in the root directory. The images were in a folder two levels down from the root directory. When I adjusted the file paths the background images were, in fact, available and so the site looks the way that I wish for the most part.

I do know of one problem yet to solve on the submit page, and there may be other pages that have display issues. I am sure that I have not seen all of the pages that are available. I may do a reference install on a test sub-domain that I have set up. (While typing this it occurs to me that I may just be able to switch templates, since I am doing my mods to an alternate template. The default template is there untouched.)

The domain that I used to install the script is heresthesite.com. I am calling the bookmarking site ‘I Found It – Here’s The Site‘. If you have a minute stop by and tell me what you think. If you have suggestions that may make the site better let me know!

I got the new script installed but ran into problems with the css file. I use background images on most of my sites. I wrote the code to do this in my css file. I uploaded the file and opened the page only to find . . . no background images. I checked my code and it all looks good. I checked my images folder and the images are there. I looked for typos in the file names and in the css. I tried adding a background color and it appeared.

There must be a file path problem, although it is not obvious. I compared the file path to the path to the css file and it seems the same. I suspect that the script is building the page in the root directory and that the css is looking in the root directory instead of in the images directory in the template folder. When I finish writing this installment I intend to check out that possibility. I have run into such confusion in the past with other scripts.

The distraction that I mention in the title had to do with my article directory based sites. I have wanted to add a social bookmarking widget to the pages. When I hit the brick wall with the SB script I decided to take care of that situation. I picked up a script from AddThis.com and proceeded to add it to the various sites and sections. This involves pasting the script into the template and making the necessary adjustments to the css file.

On most of the directory sites I put the buttons into the top nav bar. Some of the other sites had too much in the bar already, so I decided on an alternate location. On those sites I put the script at the top of the left nav column. The changes to the css file depend on the location of the buttons, so I had to formulate the appropriate rules for the two locations that I used.

In some ways I like the nav column location better than the nav bar location. In the nav column pages I put the buttons inside a box with a thin red border. This should serve to call attention to the location and to the buttons. Either location should be within the first scan on opening the page, so both should work ok.

I asked my authors opinion in a blog post, so I will see if any of them are paying attention. When I make a new post to the blog I update the subject line on my article approved emails. Most of them probably end up in spam folders or are filtered from the regular emails, but I do see some author traffic to the various sites.

And now, back to the salt mine!

I have just run across a script that I think will add value to several of my sites. It is a Digg Clone social bookmarking script from Pligg.com. There is a SuperCrarged Bookmarks service being offered by the SEO Forum at IMTalk.Org that uses a network of social bookmarking sites based on this script. I was involved in beta testing of the network and became familiar with the script in that way.

I have several article directory and niche sites to which I think the script could add value. I will encourage my authors to bookmark their articles and I will probably add the script on some of the niche sites to attempt to get people involved by pointing out other quality information available on the niche topic.

I have made an initial installation on a domain that I have owned for a couple of years. The installation was smooth and the script looks good. The domain was originally purchased as a host for sub-domain sites, and I have a few of these set up, but the primary domain has been underutilized. If you want to take a look it is at Here’s The Site. The domain name does lend itself to a social bookmarking site. Check it now and follow my progress. It is fairly barren at the moment.

I am beginning to work on a custom template for my installations. This will involve some modifications to the default template files and css. This is a good exercise for the old Hobby WebMaster. I have modded themes for other CMSs, but if this works out additional installations of the script will be much faster. I like to maintain the family look for sites that have several sections, even though the sections are based on different scripts. I may even offer this to the community, including a link to one of my sites.

As I had mentioned this blog has been under a registration siege. The siege seems to have been called or put on hold at midnight last night (Feb 2nd). There was a registration at 11:59PM on the second of February for a total of 27 for the day. During all of the third there was only one registration.

The assault had slowed in recent days from a height of four or five an hour to yesterdays level of just over one per hour. Then today to just one for the day and that is not uncommon. It was probably still a registration bot, but probably a loner and not part of a herd.

I get an email notification each time there is a blog registration. I will know if the attack resumes.