This page contains alternative ring code for ring members.
Alternate Ring Code (1)
Bravenet sends a snippet of code to new members of their hosted rings. The default can be seen at the bottom of this page. I don't like the default. First, it's boring. Second, it's a problem for many blogs that are vertically-oriented. The new code I've come up with should hopefully be of better use to most bloggers, allowing them to include the ring code in a sidebar without messing up their templates.
An example can be seen to the right - just look for the black box with the links poppy flower.
Here's the code (NB: follow the notes immediately below or this "custom" code snippet will not work properly!).
The entirety of the code in the above text box, with a few notable changes (I'll get to that in a moment), will need to be put into your blog's template or your website's code. Paste it in the appropriate place on your blog/site. As this will vary based on your blogging service, template, and where you want the code, I can't help you here; don't ask! Ask customer service at your blogging service if you are unsure.
Next, a preliminary note: Bravenet does not allow "hotlinking" so you will need to host the image somewhere else! If you don't currently have a place to host images, I suggest Photobucket - it's free, quick to register, easy to use, and has reasonable bandwidth/traffic allowances that should be sufficient for most blogs.
That said, you'll need to change the image's referring URL. Replace the spot that says IMAGELOCATION with the full URL of your hosted image. Leave everything else in the vicinity, including the quotations, intact.
Next, you will need to replace all the references to YOURSITEID with your actual site ID. This should have been included in the email you were sent after your application to join the sitering was approved.
If you lost or deleted the e-mail (which you shouldn't have done!), you can go to the Ring Index, look for your site, and use the number just to the right of the link to your site). For example, the Site ID of the homepage of this ring (you're looking at it) is 78347. Don't use that number. Use your own!
After you've changed those values drop the code with the new image location and your site ID, save your changes, republish as your blogging service necessitates, and then you should be done.
I think I've covered everything. If you catch anything that I did wrong (HTML experts), or if your ring hub doesn't work right, let me know.
Images for Linking:
I've come up with a few options for the image in the ring hub. The alternative version has the stereotypically iconic cannabis leaf. I've included three different sizes in both the poppy flower and cannabis leaf, if you need or want a smaller image for an even narrower ring hub. There are three sizes - 150px (that's what you see above), 100px, and 50px:| Poppy |
Leaf |
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| 150px |  |
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| 100px |  |
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| 50px |  |
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Alternate Ring Code (2)
Mark Draughn, of Windypundit
fame, has been nice enough to submit some more ring code. He writes:...I decided to create a different logo. I don't use illegal drugs and I'm not into drug culture, so I don't want pot leaves or other drugs stuff on my blog. I oppose the drug war because I favor freedom. So I wanted a logo that means freedom rather than drugs. I decided to use an opened pair of handcuffs...If you're in the same boat as Mark, and don't want images on your site that might seem to some folks to be an endorsement of drug use per se, feel free to use the handcuff ring code instead. It has a white background and some lighter colors for those members who have lighter blogs. Here's what Mark's ring code looks like:
Get the code for this style here:
| White BG |
Black BG |
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| 150px |  |
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| 100px |  |
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| 50px |  |
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Also, if you use this ring code, and go with the dark image, and want the background of the rest of the table to be black as well, you'll need to change it manually. Do this: find where it says bgcolor="#ffffff". Then, change the bgcolor="#ffffff" to bgcolor="#000000", leaving the quotations intact. That will yield this:
And, one final thing related to Mark's code. Mark tells me that the code I provided (1) will break the W3C validation, but his own (under the heading (2)) will not. For most people, this will not matter, but for a few it might. If you have no idea what the W3C is in the first place, then in your case it probably isn't much to worry about. See the Wikipedia article on the W3C for the low-down if you're curious.
Crude Banner
A banner is also available. It's not the greatest, but it will probably do for now:
| Drug Liberalization Blogosphere Ring Owner: Thomas Van Wyk Site: Drug Liberalization Blogosphere | ||||
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