Tag: Kit du blogueur

Flock, extensions, and coComment [en]

[fr] Une adresse de site pour convertir des extensions Firefox pour utilisation avec Flock, qui est un excellent navigateur. J'étais déçue de ne pas pouvoir utiliser l'extension Firefox pour coComment avec Flock -- maintenant je peux!

My ex-collegue and now friend [Gabriel](http://iblog.ch/) introduced me to the [Flock browser](http://flock.com/) quite some time back. I [mentioned it quite a bit](http://steph.wordpress.com/tag/geek/flock/) on my [other blog](http://steph.wordpress.com) but I don’t think I talked about here much.

Anyway, it’s great. It’s [Firefox](http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/), but with all sorts of nice bloggy, flickr-y, del.icio.us-y stuff tied in. I’d like to get [coComment](http://cocomment.com) integrated in there too.
(Disclaimer: I work for coCo.)

One thing that makes coComment really nice to use is the [Firefox extension](http://cocomment.com/tools/extension-install). Once you’ve installed it, you don’t need to do anything, and it automatically records all the comments you make (as long as the blog platform is more or less [compatible](http://cocomment.com/supported “Not sure if the page is 100% up-to-date.”) to show them on your user page. [Here’s mine.](http://cocomment.com/comments/steph)

The thing that bothered me when I started using Flock again sometime back was that I had to revert to using the [bookmarklet](http://cocomment.com/tools/bookmarklet) (which, let’s be honest, is a real pain — who remembers to click on a bookmarklet before posting each comment? not I!) Today, as I was starting on my tour of the blogosphere to see [what people are saying about coComment](http://www.technorati.com/search/cocomment) I came upon [another Flock user who regretted the extension wasn’t compatible](http://www.sparkplug9.com/bizhack/index.php/2006/07/06/cocomment/).

So, I headed to our internal bug-tracker to find out what the status of my request for a Flock extension was, and saw that Nicolas (coComment’s Daddy!) was asking for more information on converting extensions. I googled a little and here’s what I came up with:

– [official instructions on converting Mozilla/Firefox extensions to Flock](http://wiki.flock.com/index.php?title=Modify_Firefox_Extensions)
– [an automatic converter — just stick your .xpi url in there](http://www.outraged-artists.com/flockd/)
– [a converted coComment extension!](http://www.outraged-artists.com/flockd/profile.php?name=coComment) (somebody had already been there June 10)

Well, I installed the extension in Flock, restarted my browser, and after a painful start (wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was because of the extension or just good ol’ Windows acting up) it was up and running. I now have Flock running the coComment Firefox extension!

Let me know how it goes for you if you try it, particularly on other platforms. And if you haven’t tried Flock yet, [you should](http://www.flock.com/download/). It’s really neat!

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Get Listed in Technorati Blog Search [en]

[fr] Technorati est le meilleur moteur de recherche spécialisé dans les blogs. Pour être listé dedans, il est important que votre outil de weblog envoie un ping à  Technorati chaque fois que vous publiez un billet. Ainsi, vos tags seront pris en compte.

Technorati comporte également un répertoire de blogs sur lequel je compte m'appuyer pour la nouvelle version de SwissBlogs. Pour y être listé, il suffit de créer un compte chez Technorati et de déclarer votre blog. N'oubliez pas de lui ajouter des tags! Helvetia, en particulier, si c'est un blog suisse.

Il est aussi facile de faire ajouter son blog dans le répertoire sans faire de compte chez Technorati. Il suffit d'ajouter le code suivant (à  adapter selon vos besoins) pour chaque tag que vous désirez attribuer à  votre blog, dans un billet ou quelque part sur la page principale de votre blog: <a href="http://technorati.com/blogs/helvetia" rel="tag directory">Je suis un blog suisse!</a>

You know [Technorati](http://technorati.com) is just about the best blog search engine out there. If you want the right people to be able to find you, you should be in Technorati.

First, you want to ping Technorati. Normally, your blogging software does this for you. If it doesn’t, you need to (a) bug your blogging software provider to [implement pinging Technorati](http://technorati.com/developers/ping/ “Developer information.”) and (b) in the meantime, [ping manually each time you post](http://technorati.com/ping “Ping form.”). Not sure if you’re pinging or not? [Do a search](http://technorati.com/ “Search form.”) for your URL. If Technorati shows your blog title, you have pinged at least once.

Second, you want to be in the [Blog Finder Directory](http://technorati.com/blogs). There are [two ways to do this](http://technorati.com/help/blogfinder.html “Straight from the horse’s mouth, reproduced below.”).

1. [Sign up for an account](http://technorati.com/signup/ “It’s easy! Create a Technorati account.”) and once that is done, [claim your blog](http://technorati.com/account/blogs “It’s easy too! Tell Technorati which blogs are yours.”). You can then [configure your blog](http://technorati.com/account/blogs/edit/1 “Direct link to configuring your first claimed blog.”) to add tags and other juicy bits of information (optional). If you have a swiss blog, try adding the tag [helvetia](http://technorati.com/blogs/helvetia “See list of blogs tagged helvetia.”) to your blog. Surprises in store soon.

2. If you don’t want to bother with signing up with Technorati or claiming your blog, it’s easy: just add directory tags to your blog. Directory tags are [like tags](http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/03/01/comment-faire-des-tags/ “How to tag, in French.”), only you need to use the rel="tag directory" attribute on the link instead of just rel="tag". Example? Add the following code anywhere on your blog to be tagged as “helvetia”: <a href="http://technorati.com/blogs/helvetia" rel="tag directory">I'm a swiss blog!</a>. Adapt to any tag you wish to use. You can add upto 20 per blog.

Questions in the comments, please!

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Tracking Keywords: PubSub and Technorati [en]

[fr] Comparaison de PubSub et Technorati pour surveiller des mots-clés dans la blogosphère. Aucun des deux vraiment satisfaisant.

One thing I came back with from LIFT’06 is that what one should monitor is more keyword watchlists, rather than blogs. I used to have a few hundred blogs in an aggregator, but gave up using it ages ago. Too much to sift through, considering it isn’t my day job to do so.

During [his talk](http://www.freestudios.tv/?cdroite=tablo_lift06 “Link to video of Robert Scoble’s talk.”), Robert mentioned that he used [PubSub](http://www.pubsub.com/) to track keywords like “Microsoft” or his name. Of course, it makes sense. Tracking topics that are of interest to you. I created a PubSub account and set up a few subscriptions to try to track things like mentions of my hometown, Lausanne, teenagers and weblogs, and of course my name. Tracking your name makes a lot of sense if you’re looking out for conversations. Think of highlighting in IRC: if everybody tracks their name in blogs, then you can just call out to them. Hi, Robert, by the way!

Now, this name thing. I guess tracking your surname with PubSub is all right if you’re named [Scoble](http://www.google.com/search?q=scoble “Google for Scoble.”), but if you’re named [Booth](http://www.google.com/search?q=booth “Google for Booth.”) it makes things much trickier. I added my first name, but that didn’t help much if I omitted the quotes. And as people are likely to refer to me as “Stephanie Booth”, “Stéphanie Booth”, “Steph Booth” or even “Stéph Booth” that’s a bunch to track, but let’s say it’s manageable. But it rules out people who refer to me as “bunny” or even “Tara” (yeah, and if I start tracking those too, it’s not going to make things less messy).

What I really liked about PubSub is that it offers me an out-of-the-box sidebar for firefox. I can get a list of the recent posts containing my keywords in there, browse them, click, check, move on. It has highlighting too, and that’s really nice — helps me see straight away if the Stephanie Booth on the page is me or some homonym. (For some reason it’s not working anymore, but it was nice while it lasted.)

What I didn’t like is that it didn’t seem to be returning as many results as Technorati. Also, I wasn’t always sure if it was responding or not (I guess the current conversation around my name isn’t very busy ;-)). And the “Latest Messages” option only gave me the last three posts in each subscription. It gave me the impression of being a little incomplete in the results it returned. I suspect it isn’t really incomplete, but I can’t really nail what gives me the impression. In any case, [PubSub and Technorati give different results for a search on “cocomment”](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/97340694/ “View screenshot on Flickr.”)

The slight unsatisfaction with PubSub made me go back to Technorati watchlists, which I had never really used. I like the idea of tracking URLs in posts. If somebody links to me, then it doesn’t matter if the person called me “Stéph Booth” or “Tara” or “[la Mère Denis](http://pascalrossini.blogspot.com/2005/12/advertising-20.html)”, I’ll see it. I can also track [links to my Flickr account](http://technorati.com/search.php?s=flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fbunny) and [other blogs](http://technorati.com/search.php?s=steph.wordpress.com) and [stuff](http://technorati.com/search.php?s=dailymotion.com/Steph/) easily. Keyword searches work too. So, neat, I now have a [watchlist page on Technorati](http://www.technorati.com/watchlist/ “See yours.”) with all my monitoring material. I can subscribe to each of them by RSS.

Gripes, however. And for the sake of it, let’s assume I’m hoping my watchlists will replace my NewsReader, and not go and live in it:

– I can only expand one watchlist at a time.
– Expanding a watchlist shows only the three last results.
– I don’t have a compilation page with the latest results from all/any of my watchlists.
– I’d like a sidebar!
– Blogroll links keep showing up in Technorati search results. It’s nice to know you’ve been blogrolled, but you don’t need to be reminded of it each time you do a search.
– No highlighting!

What it boils down to: I’d like a Technorati Watchlist sidebar for FireFox and highlighting of search terms or URL in the pages which are loaded from it.

Do you monitor keywords, URLs or search terms? Do you use PubSub or Technorati? Do you stick the results in your feed reader to keep track of them?

Update: of course, I’m much more familiar with Technorati, so there might be something about PubSub I’m missing completely. Feel free to educate me.

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Kit d'installation de WordPress en français [fr]

Quelques liens et instructions très sommaires (un pense-bête, plutôt) pour installer Wordpress en français.

[en] A few links and very brief instructions to install WordPress in French "my way".

Avertissement: WordPress 2.0 sort bientôt, et la suggestion présentée ici sera très certainement caduque à  ce moment-là .

Il vous faut:

– le “pack” [Wordpress en français (1.5.1.3)](http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-i18n/fr_FR/branches/1.5.1.3/wordpress-1.5.1.3-strayhorn-fr_FR.zip) ([instructions](http://xavier.borderie.net/wp-fr/installation-de-wordpress-en-francais/))
– [Spam Karma 2](http://wp-plugins.net/sk2/sk2_final.zip) ([instructions](http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/))
– [Bad Behavior](http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/bad-behavior-download/) ([instructions](http://www.ioerror.us/software/bad-behavior/installing-and-using-bad-behavior/on-wordpress/))
– la documentation française sur la [syntaxe Markdown](http://www.michelf.com/projets/php-markdown/syntaxe/)
– un [joli thème](http://themes.wordpress.net/) (qu’il faudra peut-être [traduire](http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes/Theme_List#Localized_Themes “Un petit nombre le sont déjà …”)) — ou au moins le [Kubrick header generator](http://www.skeltoac.com/kubrickheader.php) si vous décidez de garder le thème par défaut
– [Un plugin pour les tags](http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/BunnysTechnoratiTags)

Côté réglages:

– chmod 775 (ou 777, j’ai un doute) sur le répertoire wp-content/plugins ainsi que wp-content/themes
– uploader un .htaccess vide, chmod 777
– dans les options, copier-coller l’exemple donné pour les permaliens
– activer le plugin Markdown (et les autres plugins qu’on a installés)

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