I have good news and I have bad news as far as creating a script for the AW Chain blogrolls is concerned. But first, I think I’ll provide a bit of an explanation.
A script such as I’m talking about would look something like this:
<script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.lmashton.com/fff/fff2.php”></script>
To be used, it would need to be placed on a user’s blog or website.
When that page is accessed, the script sends a command to the location mentioned, ie http://www.lmashton.com/fff/ to access the script called fff2.php.
That script will (depending on what’s in the script, of course, but we’re going with this for an example) then fetch the contents and display them on the page where the script exists, ie your page. It displays a blogroll of all participants in Flash Fiction Friday 2. People are added to that blogroll, ie to the script, as they sign up with their completed flash fiction piece. They’re added by the person in charge of the script – me. As each person in the chain does their post and provides a permalink, the person in command of the script, me, updates the script to reflect the permalink. You, the one who’s using that script, can watch the blogroll update itself with no further intervention on your part. You pasted the script on your page once, and that’s all you had to do.
Every time that page is accessed, the script accesses the information and provides an up to date blogroll.
Scripts can do other things as well, but those are beyond the scope of this discussion.
The script for FFF was an attempt to make it easier for our less tech savvy participants to painlessly keep the blogroll listing for each FFF they participated in up todate.
The good news is that the script works,and very well.
The bad news is that, if your blog is hosted by a blog hosting company, such as blogspot or WordPress or LiveJournal, then you can’t add the script to the body of a blog entry.
The good news is that you could add it to your sidebar.
The bad news is that if you participate in 20 such events, you’ve got a very very very long sidebar.
The possibly good news is that I might be able to figure out how to do a compact scrollable list. In reality, this probably involves bribing Fahim, but that’s doable.
To me, a simple solution is for those of you who are on hosted blogs to move those blogs to your own domain. But hey, I’m biased.
The more I learn about the limitations within the hosted blogs, the more irritated I am by them. OTOH, I don’t actually blog with any of them, so I won’t be pulling out the knife any time soon. 
But I do feel really really bad for those of you who are using blogging solutions that restrict you so much.
Another solution is for me to provide both the script and the .html code for those of you who have to do it manually, ie, can’t use the script. The bad news for you is that, in that situation, you would have to keep updating that list.
That’s the longer version of why the script isn’t working for many of you.
Similar Posts:
- Flash Fiction Rules of Participation
- the new flash fiction friday script code
- Flash Fiction Friday #1
- Flash Fiction Friday 2
- Flash Fiction Friday 5
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Laurie thank you for all of your hard work. I’m sorry for the headaches it is probably causing you
. I did place the FFF#1 in my sidebar, however the pic still wasn’t as visable. At least for blogger the script we were using in the body of the post was working, minus the desired result of it feeding back to you page 
I think the scroll bar is an awesome idea, I hope your able to get a copy of the script.
…the bad news for ME is that I don’t know how to put things in my sidebar. *is technically challenged*
You have a gift for making techie stuff completely hilarious, while actually making sense at the same time.
By the way, I’m converting to WordPress soon, so the gizmos you suggest may work for me;)
And thank you for your post on my 30 days of nothing entry. A very sobering reminder, which we, in my family, are having a hard time hearing. I’m planning to refer to it on my update at the end of the week.
Wow, I think the easy part is the writing! I’ve always figured that web design was tricky, which is why I’ve never learned more than the basics. I’m very impressed by the work you’ve put into the contest and the web design already!
Sabaidee – me again!
I got the new script to work on blogger. When I edited the entry and pressed the button to post, it gave me an error message and I checked the box to not see any more error messages and – lo and behold – it posted correctly! I guess it’s the IT equivalent of hitting the side of the TV to make it work. So my entry is at the Mekong River Tributaries at http://chanphengjournal.blogspot.com/2006/09/dark-night-stormadly.html
chanpheng is correct. I got the javascript to work on Blogger also the way s/he did. It even works in IE. However, the picture did not show up.
Ok, the picture is now showing up.