MiG Blog Talk: For the Technical/Administrative Stuff

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  • Never mind. The problem was the software. It came out much better when I got it into a proper graphics program.
  • Right now I am kind of aesthetically frustrated with Bandcamp embed code. I want to embed this album: http://sebastianplano.bandcamp.com/ and I want the track list to show. The only two options that include the tracklist are in a vertical format that does not allow the album title to show properly. It just shows "The Arrhythmical P..." because the box is too narrow.

    In Wordpress, resizing the box in the bandcamp code to a greater width makes no difference to how it displays. Centering it doesn't seem to work either. And I can't figure out how to make text flow alongside it, so that at least the full column width is used where the player is.

    Am I missing something? (The post is the Plano interview)
  • I'd contact Bandcamp support, see what they say. I played around with it, but nothing changed.
  • edited March 2012
    NEW OPTIONAL YOUTUBE CODE FOR EMBEDDED PLAYERS:

    Okay, something's changed with embedded youtube players. It used to be I could change the dimensions on an embedded player to 460 x 35, and that would only show the player bar, and no video and comments.

    HOWEVER...

    They did something so now when it's shrunk down to those dimensions, a URL title link (typically artist and song name) hover over the Play button, so that you have to expand the dimensions of the player in order to get the Play button out from under that URL. AND the URL link is still there.

    Fuck that noise. I like my seamless player without anything other than a play button and the progress scroll. I found some language to get rid of that URL link.

    Here's a sample embed code. I'll put in bold the additional language to add in HTML view to the embedded youtube player...

    <iframe width="460" height="35" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_vjNg_aqzVM?rel=0?&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    By adding the ?&showinfo=0 language immedately at the end of the url address, it gets rid of that link and you can keep your old "thin" player dimensions and the Play button goes back to being front and center without that crappy url link back to youtube hanging over it.

    I'm not sure how long ago they changed this, but I'm might have to go back and make a lot of edits to old players. I'll report back to see what the entire damage is.

    Cheers.


    EDIT: About fifteen minutes after originally posting this, I realized I had incorrectly bolded the additional code language. I doubt anybody actually acted on my post since then, but just an fyi, I edited my above post a bit.

    Cheers.
  • Beware: I embedded three vimeo videos in my last post. They all worked fine when it was posted. Today I noticed that one of them had been replaced with a notice saying that 'sharing this video here is a vimeo plus feature that has not been enabled'. I don't mind them finding ways to make money, but offering embed code and then disabling it a few days later is not a very friendly way to do it. I've removed that video for now. I'll see if it's posted anywhere else.
  • kezkez
    edited March 2012
    @GP - did you ever find a solution to the Bancamp audio embed problem you were having where the box was too narrow to display the album title correctly? I'm working on a draft now where I'm including an audio embed from Bandcamp and am having the same problem.

    EDIT// I should add, I'm also having a problem with a big white space underneath the embed before the next paragraph of text. In HTML mode, it looks like there's no space, but on preview a bunch of blank lines are inserted before the rest of the article continues.
  • edited March 2012
    @kez, no, I never got any further with that, I just went with one of their defaults.
    ETA: I had the white space issue too - the box as defined in the bandcamp code includes white space below the track list.
  • @Craig - there's a couple of Grooveshark links in the Valentine piece that don't work now. It can be fixed as follows:

    Under #8, Side B: The Tennessee Waltz - Remove the Grooveshark link and replace it with this sentence: Sample it [here]. Hyperlink to the sample is this:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S50V0G/ref=dm_dp_trk5?ie=UTF8&qid=1333639425&sr=1-1

    Under #10, Side B: That’s All, Amen, Close the Door - Remove the Grooveshark link and replace it with this sentence: Sample it [here]. Hyperlink to the sample is this:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TE4ZBW/ref=dm_dp_trk11?ie=UTF8&qid=1333639952&sr=1-1
  • Dr Mutex - Any idea what's up with the site?

    Craig
  • And a related question: do any of the folk closest to making the blog actually exist have each other's contact information outside of this forum, precisely for instances like this?
  • I thought I had Mutex's email, but now I can't find it.

    Craig
  • edited April 2012
    Should be back up soon. There was a problem with the automatic payment for the hosting.
  • edited April 2012
    Good news. Was starting to wonder if a Navy jet hit your server or something :-)
  • @Dr. M - are you having to pay a monthly fee to keep the blog up? I don't know anything about how such things work, but I only contributed $5 when we first got started and that doesn't amount to much if there's a recurring monthly charge. I'll be happy to contribute more. Can I pay you through PayPal?
  • I pay yearly. It's a lot cheaper that way. In this case the credit card info they had was expired. I was on a short vacation and as I try to avoid looking at email while I'm on vacation, I didn't see the notice in time.
  • I got an email notifying me of a broken link in the L'Arpeggiata piece, but when I checked it, the link is not broken. Just fyi, this is the 2nd notice I've received of a broken link that's not really broken.

    There are a couple of grooveshark samples that don't work anymore, though, in the Valentine piece. I posted how to correct it in an earlier message on this thread.

    I have a quick question about those broken link email notifications - if I click on the link in the email to the article, it pulls up an edit page to the piece. Can I edit directly myself instead of bugging the editors? I haven't done so because I was afraid it might kick back the published piece to pending review status, since I don't have full administrative rights.
  • No, editing the article won't change the status. If you make a change, where normally you'd see a "Publish" button would instead be an "Update Post" button (or something like that). Just hit that and you'll be fine.

    Sometimes with those broken links, they won't necessarily be broken. The system basically runs an occasional search on every link on MiG and tries to "touch" the destination of those links. Depending on the state of things, it may just be a temporary hiccup (soundcloud wasn't loading properly at that very moment, the artist site is on a server that occasionally has problems of its own, etc). Check the link, if it's okay, then move on. You can click the "not broken" button if you want, but I recommend not doing that right away. Keep track to see if the same links keep popping up as broken. If they are, then there is a problem, but if it's one that only shows as broken every now and then, you can dismiss it as not broken.

    Cheers.
  • P.S. I'm behind on my MiG tweeting, will rectify that at the end of the week, maybe sooner.
  • I almost want to approve this spam comment just for the fact it is the greatest spam comment ever:
    I want something meaningful. Something sprititual. Something other than crosses and jesus.the reason i say no cross is because i have a butterfly with a cross in the middle as its body on my lower back.Excuse you but i go to church every wednesday night and every sunday morning/night.. its not just for decoration. My tattoo has meaning behind it. Not just a because tattoo.

    Ummm....what?

    Craig
  • @craig, yeah I puzzled over that one, trying to figure out if it was unusually deranged spam or an unusually dissociative real comment.
  • Y'know, I could take a look at that butterfly comment, see what kind of spam guts it has to spill, clean all that up, and then just accept the post as simple harmless fun. The only thing I'm unsure of is if the MiG security system allows me to either ban or turn off the editing capabilities of the spammer, because I wouldn't want them going back in later and adding spam comment to their post in edit mode.
  • edited April 2012
    I need help fixing my RSS Feed. It currently doesn't work. This is the error message...

    XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
    Location: http://www.birdistheworm[dot]com/?feed=rss2
    Line Number 3, Column 1:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8?>

    I've searched online and other people have had this problem. Solutions are given, and the problems are considered Resolved. Unfortunately, I don't understand where to look to fix the problem. If anybody has access to the backroom of MiG and can tell me where it's RSS feed language displays in the editor, that would be appreciated.

    It's like I recognize the ingredients and understand what the final dish will look like, but I don't know where to find the pantry to get started.
  • Could somebody(s) out there try subscribing to my BitW RSS Feed and tell me if I fixed it? I think the answer is 'no', but others are telling me 'yes.' I'm especially interested in responses from Firefox users.

    http://www.birdistheworm.com/

    All I really need you to do is his the "Entries RSS" link in the Meta menu at the right hand bottom corner of the screen. If you get an error message lemme know; if you get a page full of posts, lemme know. You don't actually have to complete the subscription.

    Cheers.
  • @jonahpwll, when I click there in firefox I get no errors; I see a form for completing the subscription then a list of posts.
  • I got posts. Using Chromium 6.0.472.63 (59945) (Debian version of Chrome®).
  • Thank you.

    I'm getting it a-ok now, too. I think I just needed to wait a bit for the server to reset and register my fixes.

    Cheers.
  • I just made a small financial contribution to help fund Tim Gearan's new album through a website I never heard of. It's Pledgemusic (link).

    I mention it because looks like it would be a really good website that would be a nice addition to our MiG Blogroll (?).
  • There's a new version of wordpress... 3.3.2. The only real change is for security updates. I'm running it on my site with no problems.

    Also, I killed a whole bunch of spam.
  • edited May 2012
    Spam on MiG or BitW? I haven't seen many mails to moderate comments. If there's a lot I can turn on Akismet.
  • edited May 2012
    No, they were in the spam queue, which I've subsequently learned, Askimet sweeps it out automatically every something like 15 days, or maybe it's once a month. It works differently than what I'm used to with AAJ.
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