The nifty little widget that you see to the right is free, and you can use it on your own blog or social network site. You can even customize it with appropriate border color for your site and adjust its size to fit perfectly in any space you have.

If you're satisfied with this size, then click the "Options" button to get the code that you can copy to your site.

If you'd like to change colors or size, click "Get this widget" at the bottom of the display. You'll be taken to the SpringWidgets site where you can specify any changes you might want to make and then generate the code to copy onto your site.

And even if you don't have your own blog, you could put it on your Windows desktop to get a quickly updated view of the day's gay news.  Click the Options button and choose the first icon on the top left. (You'll have to download and install a small bit of code from SpringWidgets for it to work on your desktop.)

You can see a narrow example of the widget in a different color that displays only the headlines on any of our blog index pages (at the bottom of the right-side column). Just click "Get this widget" and you'll be able to customize it with the appropriate width and color for your site.

See another version of the wider example with both headlines and summaries on our MySpace page. [no music played] (Typical of MySpace, however, the "Get this widget" link doesn't work because it takes users away from NewsCorp/Fox sites to the actual web. Get the wide code here or click the Options button there.)

And yes, you could change the feed to something else, but we hope you'll give Qnews a try.
---
Thanks to 'N Touch News Network, a very nice website for an LGBT magazine in Arizona, for picking up the widget. Looks great! By the way, we don't really know where the widget might be, but happened to notice that because a few clicks came our way from there. (And we can tell which site clicks come from most of the time.)

Another step toward getting things where I'd like them to be.

A few weeks ago, I added direct links to the source blogs on blog-specific tag pages, like the tag pages for QTicker World, QTicker Seattle, and GaySeattle.

But there's a different way to access site-wide tags and I couldn't figure out how to do the direct link for technical reasons that I'll explain below. While looking for something else, I found a post on the Community Server forum that tells me exactly how to make those links.

The problem arises because the page showing sitewide tags uses CSControl:IndexPostData instead of CSBlog:WeblogPostData  The trick, as explained by Kevin Harder in the forum post is to check for a property available through IndexPostData.

WeblogPostData (and List, I believe) have a property -- AuthorUrl -- that holds the link to the external source post and also expose the property IsExternal that is true for a mirrored blog. (IndexPostData doesn't expose those properties.)

Those properties allowed me to use this code to point the blog headline directly to the external source blog:

<CSBlog:WeblogPostData ID="WeblogPostData3" runat="server" Property="Subject" LinkTo="Post" Tag="h3" CssClass="BlogPostTitle" >
   <DisplayConditions>
         <CSControl:Conditions ID="Conditions1" Operator="Not" runat="server">
             <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ID="WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison1" runat="server" ComparisonProperty="IsExternal" Operator="IsSetOrTrue" />
         </CSControl:Conditions>
     </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>
<CSBlog:WeblogPostData ID="WeblogPostData2" Property="Subject" LinkTo="AuthorUrl" Tag="h3" CssClass="BlogPostTitle" runat="server" >
     <DisplayConditions>
         <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ID="WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison2" runat="server" ComparisonProperty="IsExternal" Operator="IsSetOrTrue" />
     </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>

That method doesn't work, however, on a sitewide listing that depends on IndexPostData, since the IndexPost methods don't have the IsExternal property.

The elegant (for this kind of thing) offered by Dave is to pull data from WeblogPostData after checking that the listing is, indeed, for a blog post. Harder explains:

Blog Mirroring does however set an extended property called "SubmittedUserName" to the blog post that is the name of the feed that it came from. So if you want to display that instead of the username, we'll need to modify the search results page.

It's a complicated round of checking in the two sets of <DisplayConditions>, but it works like a charm.

This is the code he offers for replacing the default "Anonymous" in the site-wide tagslist with the name of the source blog:

<CSControl:IndexPostData Property="UserName" LinkTo="Author" runat="server">
  <DisplayConditions>
    <CSControl:ControlVisibilityCondition ControlId="BlogSubmittedUserName" ControlVisiblilityEquals="false" runat="server" />
  </DisplayConditions>
</CSControl:IndexPostData>
<CSBlog:WeblogPostData Property="SubmittedUserName" LinkTo="authorUrl" ID="BlogSubmittedUserName" runat="server">
  <DisplayConditions>
    <CSControl:IndexPostPropertyValueComparison ComparisonProperty="ApplicationType" ComparisonValue="Weblog" Operator="EqualTo" runat="server" />
    <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ComparisonProperty="SubmittedUserName" Operator="issetortrue" runat="server" />
  </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>

I used that to do exactly what he's suggesting, but also used it to make a direct link for the post title with this:

<CSControl:IndexPostData runat="server" LinkTo="Post" Property="Title" Tag="H5" CssClass="CommonSearchResultName" >
  <DisplayConditions runat="server">
    <CSControl:ControlVisibilityCondition ControlId="BlogSubmittedUserName1" ControlVisiblilityEquals="false" runat="server" />
  </DisplayConditions>
</CSControl:IndexPostData>
<CSBlog:WeblogPostData Property="Subject" LinkTo="authorUrl" Tag="H5" CssClass="CommonSearchResultName" ID="BlogSubmittedUserName1" runat="server">
  <DisplayConditions>
    <CSControl:IndexPostPropertyValueComparison ComparisonProperty="ApplicationType" ComparisonValue="Weblog" Operator="EqualTo" runat="server" />
    <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ComparisonProperty="SubmittedUserName" Operator="issetortrue" runat="server" />
  </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>

The other great thing about this bit of code is that it shows how to use values from WeblogPostData even when most of the list is running from IndexPostData. The trick is to do the double comparison that verifies WeblogPostData will be used only if the ApplicationType is "weblog".

What surprised me is that it also shows how to use a value -- in this case the controlID "BlogSubmittedUserName1" from a control that appears later on the page as a condition.

Since I was up late doing that (and other things related to the new photo pages), I'm not sure I understand why that works, but it strikes me as somehow significant that it works.

Now, back to working on the photos sidebar.

I guess it was the flu that's had me totally knocked out for most of the past two weeks.

The site has certainly suffered while I wandered through that odd feverish state.

Today, for the first time in almost two weeks, I'm finally starting to feel like getting back to normal is at least possible.

Even now, though, I'm a bit reluctant to post even this note. It's not just physical strength that I have to get back, but also concentration.

I think what you'll see here for the next couple of days is a slow rebuilding of the sections of the site.

And yes... It's all come along far more slowly than I would have liked.

Now that all the move-out/move-in stuff is mostly behind me, I'm able to address a few beta issues that have been on my mind for all-too long.

A change just implemented should give users an easier link to the various "ticker" posts that are included here. On the front page, you'd see them under "Qdo" or "Qticker" showing only a headline that links directly to the source blog.

But a surprisingly large number of folks get directed by search engines to one of our internal pages that are mostly there just to supply the data for those home page headlines. Oddly, the search engines seem to like those internal pages and send users to them.

Unfortunately for the searcher, our pages include only a minor little excerpt from the original post. It used to be tricky to get from our pages to the source post. No longer. The headline above the "ticker" excerpt will now point directly to the source blog whether the user arrives at the single-post page or the post listing page.

This might help increase the click-through rate to the source blog. (Except, of course, users are extraordinarily wary about any kind of clicking and probably just back up to the search engine even the click would be easier.)

And for fellow Community Server geeks interested in implementing the same kind of thing, here's the conditional I use on the postlist.aspx page to make it happen there. (Essentially the same code is used on the "post" page, but without a link attribute added to the "subject" for internal posts.)

<CSBlog:WeblogPostData ID="WeblogPostData1" runat="server" Property="Subject" LinkTo="Post" Tag="h3" CssClass="BlogPostTitle" >
    <DisplayConditions>
        <CSControl:Conditions ID="Conditions1" Operator="Not" runat="server">
            <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ID="WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison1" runat="server" ComparisonProperty="IsExternal" Operator="IsSetOrTrue" />
        </CSControl:Conditions>
    </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>
<CSBlog:WeblogPostData ID="WeblogPostData2" Property="Subject" LinkTo="AuthorUrl" Tag="h3" CssClass="BlogPostTitle" runat="server" >
    <DisplayConditions>
        <CSBlog:WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison ID="WeblogPostPropertyValueComparison2" runat="server" ComparisonProperty="IsExternal" Operator="IsSetOrTrue" />
    </DisplayConditions>
</CSBlog:WeblogPostData>

A note about the delay that close readers of this site might have noticed.

As I hinted in my last post here, I've been going through apartment issues. I essentially had to move out of my apartment in late November and stay away from it through much of December. All that to give the landlord an opportunity to do about four days' worth of work in the place to repair some issues that they'd refused to fix when it happened.

So... In November, with very little notice, I had to move out. I spent the first two weeks of December in Montana. I've been back in Seattle since December 14, but had to do a massive amount of cleaning and rearrangement in the apartment. I was essentially moving into a new place that hadn't been cleaned up beforehand.

But Monday, I was finally able to start the last stage of this odd process. A friend helped me -- in three trips -- to move back into this place all the boxes of stuff that I'd had to oh-so-quickly move to a storage area in November. Because I'd had to move it out so quickly, I didn't have the chance to cull out any of the old papers and old photos that I no longer want. So that's what I'll be doing for the next couple of days, but then it will all be done and I'll be able to devote my full attention to this site.

And so I thank you for your patience with this. And please stick with us as we move to beta 1.1 of this site this weekend, and look toward beta 2.0 by February.

I hope it hasn't been too obvious from the site's contents that I've been busy with things for a couple of weeks that have forced my focus away from this site. Just in case, I posted a cryptic note on the home page:

Notice: Updates to this site will continue to be somewhat sporadic for the next several days because of an unanticipated non-web requirement.

The non-web requirement? After months of negotiation about what the management of the building I've lived in for 23 years was going to do about several items of neglected maintenance (Like, say, big cracks above windows from the Nisqually quake), I was told two weeks ago that they'd fix things in here and I could stay, but only if I removed much of my stuff and put the rest into a small stack in the center of the floor.

I've lived in the building for 23 years. I've lived in this unit for 19 years. And, uhhh... so... I have stuff -- not necessary or even useful stuff. Just stuff. A lot of it.

During the long negotiation, management had told me they'd give me two weeks notice when they decided to come in and fix things.

Two weeks ago Monday, I was given notice -- but not the two weeks notice they'd promised. They told me I had to be out with my stuff by the following Monday. I almost made it.

But not close enough.

The building manager called moments after the work crew left Monday with this pleasant greeting: "Mr. Evans, you'll have to find a new apartment."

She told me that I hadn't done enough to make the work environment (i.e. my apartment) conducive for their crew to fix the problems caused by the structural instability of their building. She went on to explain that since I hadn't gotten enough stuff out of the apartment, the building managers would refuse to fix it until I move out.

Now, of course, there are so many things wrong with this, but I decided to see if we couldn't come to some better solution. I called a negotiator into the situation who knows much more than I about these sorts of things. After a bit of hand-wringing, it was agreed that they'd be able to start work on the following Monday. That has given me the past extra week to shrink everything into a tiny square in the center of my studio apartment.

And now I'm leaving. I won't be here Monday to hear what their new excuse is for why they won't fix what it is their responsibility to fix. I'll be in Montana, visiting family while they (hopefully) work on the unit.

While I'm there, I hope to keep the blogs here up to date. I should even be able to get back to tackling the long-list of technical to-dos that have accumulated. (I've had to completely stop dev. work on the site while working through this mess.)

And on Monday, I'll go hear Montana activists talk as only activists can about a very serious issue -- hate crimes.

So... See you all soon from the cold side of the Cascades.

The great resource BrowserShots tells me that there's a rendering problem with these pages in IE 6 (that last one is a link to the screenshots, but I'm not sure how long they'll stay). 

Sigh.

It looks like a box-model issue with the center column running too wide. I'll see if I can tweak it into position tomorrow -- hopefully without doing rendering conditionals for IE 6.

It's odd, though, that it seems to work fine in IE 5.5, so it was some odd bug added just in 6.0.

All of the others Windows browsers that they show work fine except for the "Partners" box that slips to the top of the page on any of them that don't know what min-height means. (But I knew that would happen and it's not all that bad.)

BrowserShots isn't showing what things look like on Mac, but I've just downloaded the Windows version of Safari, so I can now be more confident that what works in IE7 and FireFox 2 is also working in Safari.

But whatever it looks like elsewhere, IE 6 is still the third most popular browser on the site after FireFox 2 and IE 7, so I must deal with this oddity.

[Update -- 11/11:] Looking at the screen shots more closely, I see that IE 5.5's expected box-model problems cause the three images in the feature boxes (under "now in Q" header to wrap. Not many users of that browser any more, but I'll try to fix it with a hidden overflow.

IE 6 issue is fixed by cutting two px off each side of the padding. That puts things a bit too close on the left, however, so I'll see if it works by cutting only two total.

The padding for the center (main content) column was 10px on both sides. I've now changed it to 10px on the left and 7px on the right, which fixes the IE 6 issue on the home page. (I haven't yet tried interior pages, but they all inherit the padding values even when they change the width of that column. I'll have to make sure they're working, however.

The IE 5.5 wrapping issue isn't worth worrying about at this point. Trying to fix it with overflow:hidden and an explicit width on the containing element causes a cascade of issues in IE 7. So, basically, I'll leave it alone. I suspect that those who still use IE 5.5 are accustomed to weird-looking pages.

The lesson here is that subtlety doesn't play in the blog-cosmos.  The lesson (which I've known after years of doing this, but sometimes forget) comes from a link (always welcome even if it's made for all the wrong reasons) to a story in Qnews.

This is the Qnews story: Cops nab nine in major tea-room sex-sting; Paper prints pictures; Chief scared

This is an uncommon story for Qnews because there is no source link to a news site on the first line. Instead, it says "Source: seaQwa Qnews from media reports". Subtle distinction, but what it means is that I wrote at least a major part of the story. It is not, like most items in Qnews, a simple digest of someone else's story.

The reason I did that on this story is because I thought the original newspaper's story was outrageous and wholly inappropriate. Qnews isn't a place for me to say that, but I had hoped it would be obvious to readers that the coverage by Daytona Beach News-Journal was over-the-top.

My lede, which is completely different than the lede in the News-Journal is:

Daytona Beach News-Journal on Friday printed photographs and names of nine men arrested on misdemeanor charges  by a large police team that ran a sting to find men who were coughing, sneezing, and tapping their feet in a local mall restroom.

Although I'll admit the three-part headline didn't do a good job of conveying this, my lede is not about the arrests. It is about the paper's decision to print the pictures of men the arrested for misdemeanors. The secondary lede is about the size of the police force used to effect the nine petty arrests.

The incredibly homophobic comments of the Daytona Beach police chief are quoted extensively.

I did my best within constraints of a news story to convey the utter ridiculousness of the arrests themselves and of the paper's coverage of the arrests.

But a blogger whose name, I assume, is "Mike" since his blog is called "Mike says" chooses to link to that Qnews story in order to make a point that has little to do with that particular story. What apparently worries Mike is that the I didn't mention that the minor local politician arrested in the tea-room sting is a Democrat.

Mike thinks this is a naughty thing and -- I suppose some sort of sign of liberal bias. Maybe it is. But I didn't see the affiliation in the News-Journal story. That doesn't surprise me because I come from a place where local races are non-partisan. Maybe it was there, but I wasn't looking for it. 

While the original story in the News-Journal goes on at length about the tea-room 9, giving personal details as well as names and photographs, all that the Qnews story says about them is this:

A former Daytona Beach city commissioner and a local high school teacher were among those arrested in the sting and pictured in the paper. The teacher resigned, after posting $1000 bail.

I didn't mention the name of the arrested politician or teacher or the names of any of the other men arrested because I think it was inappropriate for the original story to mention those names and print their pictures. I doubt that they often print front-page stories on misdemeanor arrests, or that they print the names and pictures of the scofflaws when they do such stories.

That was the too-subtle point of the story and the reason it was framed as it was.

Mike the blogger is also upset about this 'graph in the story:

Snaring a minor local politician in the sting echoes the scandal involving Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, who was arrested at a Minnesota airport restroom in June after investigators said he made suggestive signals to an undercover cop in an adjoining stall.

That's almost a direct quotation from the News-Journal except that they included the name of the "minor local politician". The reference to Craig does use the party designation, but that is the common way of identifying members of Congress and (here, at least) the state legislature.

And yes, I could have left it out. (It was, in fact, a late addition to the story along with the next graph about reader response to the News-Journal story.)

I don't mind that he linked to the Qnews post even if Mike grossly misinterprets the story in order to make a silly point, but he could have found several posts including gaynews.blogspot.com that hewed more closely to the homophobic News-Journal coverage of the arrests and that included the name of the minor local politician who was caught up in the arrest.

Oh, and Mike doesn't seem to think much of Qnews in general, since he uses scare quotes when he calls it 'a gay-theme “news” site'.

No Mike, you may not be jaded, but you read like most of us on the web and miss the point in cases like this because of it.

(I tried to comment about this on Mike's blog, but the software he uses to run it -- Wordpress -- would not accept my new registration.)