What is on your Blogger Wish List?

If you could improve Blogger in any one area, what would it be? I have a few ideas on that subject and it appears that Blogger does also.

The Blogger Wish List page asks us to vote on a feature suggestion. How they came up with the six suggestions on this list, I do not know. But I have seen some of them harped about in zillions of comments spread across many posts.

Of the six suggestions, I really have a passion for two of them. I also have suggestions for what is obviously absent. Could it be that by the omission of certain discussions might suggest that they are not entertaining them? That I do not know either.


No. 1 - I want to show excerpts of my posts, with links to the full text.
This is, and should be, top priority for Blogger.

The use of the so-called "peekaboo posts" hack is only a band-aid. While the hack may hide the remainder of the post from the viewer, it does not hide it from a spider or readers who have javascript disabled. All elements of your Main or Archive page, including images and embedded objects, will still be loaded whether or not the reader wishes them to.

True excerpts will be "what you see, is all you get". Excerpts will cut down on duplicate content -- and thereby reducing the amount of Supplemental Pages in the Google index. This is a win-win for both Blogger and Google Search.

No. 2 - I want to be able to upload other files to my blog besides images.
Other files? That would be nice. How about CSS style sheets (.css), javascript repositories (.js) and Html pages (.html).

Imagine unloading all of the styles and javascript from the template/layout and moving them into linked files. This will go a long way to reduce page sizes which are seriously bloated as it is. There are methods of accomplishing this by using external sources such as Google Pages or your own web server. But why should we have to?

The other four items on the list did not interest me much. The item for Recommending a Blog of Note for instance, who actually cares? I do not frequent the pages that they are "noted" on.

Or suggest a new feature
This was a no-brainer. I had two.

• Provide a setting to Enable/Disable the Nofollow attribute in Comments.
• Provide for "in-post" comment forms

I think it goes without saying that these are probably on the top of everbody's list. Do you have any others to add?

Vote now and get noticed
Vote now. It is easy to do and will only take you a couple of seconds.

Spread the word about the Wish List and let's see if we can get them to notice. It is worth a shot. I will be stickying this post to my sidebar in plain view in the hope that others will notice.

If you create a new post with your vote(s)and/or suggestions and link to this post, I will notice it. I will link back to your voting post by listing it here. Alternatively, you could drop me a comment below and let me know how you voted.

And yes, I voted for more than one suggestion too! =)

I hope nobody sees that =) above and suggests smilies. Yuck!


Technorati Tags: blogspot, blogger, blogspot, suggestions, features, comments, nofollow, dofollow, post excerpts, external files, wishlist

Clarification of NoFollow Hacks on this blog

A recent discussion in the No To Nofollow community at Bumpzee raised concerns over the hacks presented here on this blog. I hope that this post will clear some of air on what the hacks are capable of -- and what they are not.

1. There are no hacks to effectively remove Nofollow from Classic Blogger templates that are hosted at Blogspot. And there never will be, it is impossible.

2. The hack for removing Nofollow on the newer Blogger Layouts (XML) only affects the commenting Author's link. Nofollow cannot be removed from the body of the comment. There are no hacks that can effectively remove it, nor will there ever be.

3. The hack for Classic FTP (self-hosted)Blogger templates require PHP. The hack removes Nofollow from both the commenting Author's link and any link present in the body of the comment. That hack was first published here

There is also an update in regards to the FTP hack. It has come to my attention that
anyone using a double-quote within the comment will break the code. This is due to
the fact that I captured Blogger's CommentBody  variable with double-quotes. The
Author's link is not affected and functions as written.

The portion of the code for stripping Nofollow from the comment body needs to be
revised back to it's original form for the time being. I am working on a fix and will 
post it as soon as I can.

[rant]The policy of Blogger to force Nofollow onto it's users and make them jump through hoops to install hacks like this is ludicrous. That also goes for other Blogging Platforms as well.

Numerous hacks and plugins have been written, some so shoddily that they confused even me. It simply amazes me how much time has been wasted on just this one facet of blogging. Then there are the evil-doers who want to make a buck off of it (but I am not going there)

Blogger needs to revise it's policy and allow for a new setting in the Dashboard to allow us to choose for ourselves. They can have it set to Nofollow as a default if they wish. Just give us the choice.[/rant]

Remove NoFollow from Classic FTP Blogger

Blogger Style:

Classic FTP Blogger

Working with:

Edit Html

Blogger by default, and other blogging software such as WordPress, automatically adds the "nofollow" microformat extension to all links from user generated content. User generated content is defined as comments or external sources such as linkbacks and trackbacks.

I support the people of the blogging community who have chosen to remove NoFollow for blog comments and linkbacks/trackbacks. If you are reading this right now, you too are probably thinking about joining us yourself. It would be a good move, read on to find out why.

If you are using the New Blogger Layout style on Blogspot, then you will need to use the Remove Nofollow from Blogger Layouts tutorial instead. This tutorial is for Classic FTP Blogger pages only.

Before We Begin

This removal procedure applies to the Classic FTP Blogger only. It is impossible, at this time, to remove NoFollow from Classic Blogger templates that are hosted at Blogspot. This is due to the fact that those templates use the variable <$BlogCommentAuthor$> which encapsulates the anchor link around linking text. Outside of petitioning Blogger to allow us the option for using "NoFollow", there is nothing that can be done.

This article also assumes that you have enabled your Html pages to process PHP script. If you have not done so already, visit the Parsing Html as PHP article before proceeding.

Nofollow Removal Process

The process to remove NoFollow is two-pronged and involves working with your template at Blogger and FTP access to upload a small PHP script.

We will first create an includable PHP script and FTP that to your server. The PHP script will do the actual work of stripping the rel="nofollow" attribute from your links.

In order for your the script to be processed, we will be revising your template to insert a few PHP directives. Also, we will isolate the portion of your code where the <$BlogCommentAuthor$> variable appears in your comments area and capture that variable into one that is recognizable by PHP.

Let's get started.

Creating the PHP Script to Remove NoFollow

I created an includable PHP file named pfblogger_functions.php. Inside of this file is a function named strip_nofollow(). There is another function in the file and more will be added as time progresses. All you need to concern yourself with is just the one function for right now.

Open up the blogger functions script in your browser. Using your favorite Html editor or Notepad, create a new file. Copy and paste the text from your browser screen into the new file, and save it with a name of pfblogger_functions.php

Upload the new PHP file via FTP to your server. I suggest uploading it into your "includes" directory if you have one. If not, then create a new directory on your server with the name of "includes". It keeps things neater this way.

Now that you have your PHP file installed, let's get on to the fun part!

Hacking PHP into your Blogger template

This portion of the tutorial may look a little daunting, but it really isn't. Just take your time and doublecheck your work.

Warning: Before beginning this procedure -- backup your template.

Navigate through your Blogger dashboard to Template > Edit Html

At the very beginning of your template, insert the following code:

<?php 

define('IN_PFBLOGGER', true);

<MainPage>
$site_rootpath = "../";
</MainPage>

<ArchivePage>
$site_rootpath = "../../";
</ArchivePage>

<ItemPage>
$site_rootpath = "../../../";
</ItemPage>

include ( $site_rootpath . "includes/pfblogger_functions.php" );

 ?>

Everything between the <$php ... $> markers will be run through the PHP interpreter on your server. The define statement at the beginning is for hacking security.

The rest of the code uses Blogger Conditional Tags to establish the actual path to your domain root and stores that in a variable. That variable is used with the path to your include file. If the your path to the function file is different, revise this portion of the code accordingly.

We have now properly included our function file, now let's proceed to the good part.

With your template do the following:

Find:
   <$BlogCommentAuthor$>
 
and replace with:
   <?php strip_nofollow( '<$BlogCommentAuthor$>' ) ?>

Find:
   <$BlogCommentBody$>
 
and replace with:
   <?php strip_nofollow( "<$BlogCommentBody$>" ) ?>

UPDATE: The code that acted on the comment body worked fine until somebody used a 'double quote' in their comment. This was due to the fact that I enclosed the variable <$BlogCommentBody$> with double quotes and it broke the code. I am working on a fix. If you have installed this hack, then revert this portion of the code back the way it was.

Save Template Changes, but do not replish just yet. We want to test that everything went as planned first.

Navigate to Posting > Create and enter a Test Post. Publish the post and view your blog in your browser.

Enter a comment for the post. Go back to view the post and verify that your Comment Author link is now free of the NoFollow attribute. You can verify this by several means -- one is View > Page Source from your browser menu. If you are using Firefox, there are extensions and other menu options for viewing/identifying links that have Nofollow attributes.

One last step

In order for this change to have any effect, you will have to republish your entire blog. This will rewrite all of the Main, Item and Archive pages with your new code. If your blog is large, a few hundred posts or more, this could take quite a while to process.

If you choose to delay republishing, any new comments made to your posts (existing posts included) will have the NoFollow removed from now on.

Optional NoFollow Recommendations

Now that you are a card carrying member of the Anti-NoFollow community, would you like to hook up with other blogs that share this belief? Then join us over at BUMPzee in the No Nofollow I Follow | DoFollow community.

This NoFollow community is headed up by Andy Beard and is growing everyday. The response has been phenomenol. With hundreds of participating blogs, odds are you will link up with many blogs who share in your particular interests.

Removing NoFollow from Blogger styled layouts

Blogger by default, and other blogging software such as WordPress, automatically adds the "nofollow" microformat extension to all links from user generated content. User generated content is defined as comments or external sources such as linkbacks and trackbacks.

I support the people of the blogging community who have chosen to remove NoFollow for blog comments and linkbacks/trackbacks. If you are reading this right now, you too are probably thinking about joining us yourself. It would be a good move, read on to find out why.

Before we begin

First, this removal procedure applies to the New Blogger styled layout. It is impossible, at this time, to remove NoFollow from Classic styled Blogger templates. This is due to the fact that those templates use the variable {$CommentAuthorName$} which encapsulates the anchor link around linking text. I am working on getting around this, because I have another blog using this style.

There are a number of tip sites out there explaining how to accomplish the removal of NoFollow -- and every one of them did not get it completely right. I have not found one yet who has addressed the issue of backlinks which also have the NoFollow extension added to it.

I have seen numerous comments left by readers of the tutorials stating that they could not find the NoFollow referenced in their layout template. Two reasons for this. They either are using the Classic template or more probably it is the same problem I encountered when I first went looking for it. I will explain why below, and it will be very clear as to why they missed it too.

Properly removing NoFollow from the template

Warning: Before beginning this procedure -- backup your template
.

Login to your dashboard and click on the Layout Link. If you are already managing your blog, then click on the Template Tab. Confused, don't be -- there really is a reason for that.

Click on the Edit Html Sub-tab for Templates.

Here is the important part. On the upper right of the template edit area, there is a checkbox labeled Expand Widgets. Make sure it is checked.

[ Click for larger version ]

Every tutorial I have read failed to mention the checkbox. The items we will be deleting are inside of sections, which in turn are inside of a widget. If the widget is collapsed, then we will not be able to see anything inside of the widget.

Now do a search for nofollow in your expanded template. You can either use your browser menu by clicking on Edit>Find in page or via the keyboard Ctrl-F. When the dialog box comes up, type in nofollow, and enter.

You should come across a line of code that looks something like this:

          <dt class='comment-author' expr:id='"comment-" + data:comment.id'>
            <a expr:name='"comment-" + data:comment.id'/>
            <b:if cond='data:comment.authorUrl'>
              <a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl'  rel='nofollow'><data:comment.author/></a>
            <b:else/>
              <data:comment.author/>
            </b:if>
            <data:commentPostedByMsg/>
          </dt>

Delete the portion of the code that says rel='nofollow' and Save Your Template.

Optionally remove Nofollow from backlinks

By doing another search for nofollow in your expanded template, you will find another one for your backlinks. You can choose to delete this as outlined above -- or not.

If you do delete the reference, do at your own risk. Backlinks are outside of your control and cannot be moderated. You can turn them off altogether via your Settings>Comments Tab. It is up to you.