December 01, 2003

Help for the helpless As someone new to this whole posting lark. I don't know how to do all of the fancy stuff when creating a front page post or comment within a post [More inside]
posted by lloyder 20 years ago
  • Apologies for breaking, what I'm sure is the unwritten rule of an fpp appearing without a link. What I'm really looking for is some kind of idiot's guide to posting within monkeyfilter. From the [Post new Link] Page, I can work out how to post a single link as part of a fpp, but how do you do the multiple link posts? Also within a post, when commenting how do I insert additional links? Comments / help / ridicule greatly appreciated. Thanks
  • I'm assuming HTML tagging will do the trick to include multiple URLs in your FPP. If you want to link to www.amazon.com, using the text Amazon, it would go like this: <a href="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon</a>
  • Ya lloyder, you use HTML 'anchor' tags to create the links. GIS an HTML primer (like this one) if you need some background. MetaPhilter will strip most HTML tags, but you can use <a>, <b>, <i>, <u>, and <strike>. You can not use <blink>
  • What if I want to be really annoying?
  • I think that should be Thou shalt not use <blink>.
  • Thanks all. The level of embarrassment of the 1st post appearing twice on the front page has subsided a little.
  • I was also curious though - where do you type the HTML that is your multiple link post? I was guessing that you use the "link description" or "extended description" boxes, leaving the URL one empty except maybe for the first link, but I am enough of a nerd to want to follow the instructions exactly, so as not to get in trouble.
  • I stand in solidarity with you, html-ignorant comrade. And there are undoubtedly a few others of us out there who benefited from this post. Thanks!
  • Actually, extended description is really spiffy. If you write text in there, it automatically creates a "more inside" link and posts the "more" as a comment once the post is open. So you'd write up the text you want to appear in the fpp in the "Link description" box and then put the information you want inside the post in "extended description". Voila! Posting happiness. Incidentally, for the newbies: Title: What appears in the sidebar and in the browser title in the top left of your screen URL: Link URL description: Link text
  • lloyder: Thanks for asking. Da rest of youze: Thanks for answering.
  • Tracicle: Might be a good idea to have a brief explanation on the [Post new Link] page; otherwise this question is going to keep coming up.
  • Thanks for the pointers, and I second languagehat's recommendation.
  • Just one last one before I go to bed.... We've come a long way, baby.
  • And I still can't do it right!
  • *still rushing*