A problem and a fix.
This morning, while experimenting with a Digg link on my personal blog, I got an unusual message from Digg saying:
This link does not appear to be a working link. Please check the URL and try again.
Huh?
The link, of course, was fine. It was a link to the home page of my site.
Why is this a big deal? Well, being “dugg” can increase the amount of attention your Web site gets among blog readers. A well-dugg post can attract many, many hits. Some of those people might turn into regular readers.
(You can read my experiences with being dugg here and here. Although things can get a bit out of control when you end up on Digg’s home page, I lived through it without any permanent damage.)
Since I was on Digg, I decided to do a Digg search for the error message. The article I found, “Bad Behavior 2.0.11 Wordpress Plugin Blocking Digg Submission” on GeekTeks.com answered my question and provided a fix.
Apparently, when the author of Bad Behavior updated his plugin and spam site references, Digg was blocked as a legitimate site. The solution is to add Digg’s IP address to Bad Behavior’s whitelist. I just did this on all sites running Bad Behavior and the problem has gone away.
Miraz and I highly recommend Bad Behavior in our WordPress book. It not only helps prevent spam comments from being posted to your WordPress blog, but it also reduces the amount of hits to your MySQL database, thus reducing site congestion and theoretically speeding up access to your site.
Do you use Bad Behavior 2.0.11? If so, read the above-referenced article and follow its instructions to fix the problem.
Links worth following.
Here are the links of interest to readers of my books for the week ending January 12:
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Excellent advice for people trying to implement GTD to be more productive — and not succeeding. On the Cranking Widgets blog.
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Good article about switching from partial to full RSS feeds. On PlagiarismToday.com.
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For Mac OS X Tiger; should work in Leopard, too. On MacOSXHints.com.
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Link to EXCELLENT article, in PDF format, that explains exactly how colors work together. From Before & After magazine.
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An anti-Word, pro Scrivener piece (of all things!) in the New York Times. By Virginia Heffernan. Thanks to @ev on Twitter for sharing the link.
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Steven Poole no longer uses Microsoft Word. Here’s why.
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Steven Poole lists the features an ebook reader SHOULD have. I think they sound rather familiar, don’t you?
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More rumors of what might be in store for us at Macworld Expo next week. On ReadWriteWeb.
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Some tips for getting more followers on Twitter, which can boost your profile on other Social Networking sites. On ReadWriteWeb.
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Interesting article about using Kindle to publish a book and entice readers to provide feedback to the author. On ReadWriteWeb.
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A how-to piece with suggestions on how you can participate in Twitter when you don’t have access to the Twitter.com Web site. On Twitter Facts.
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Workaround for problem using video chat feature of iChat with Mac OS X 10.5. On the Apple Support Web site.
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Great post by Miraz Jordan that summarizes her must-have WordPress plugins. I’ll have to do a similar post soon. On the WordPress Visual QuickStart Guide support web site.
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John Scalzi’s take on why the Sony BMG plan to release non-DRM protected music won’t work. I tend to agree with him.
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According to this story on Forbes.com, the U.S. Army is adopting Macs to help thwart hackers. Not exactly good news for Mac users — we don’t need to give hackers a reason to go after us — but good for Apple.
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John Gruber’s take on the Kindle. On Daring Fireball.
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Sony drops DRM. On MacUser.com. Thanks to @dmoren on Twitter for the link.
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Humorous photo of a recycled iMac. On I Can Has Cheezburger?
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Excellent article about the secret history of iPhone development. On Wired.com.
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A great tip for helping to protect an image posted on a Web page from being stolen and used by others. By Derek Powazek.
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