I've wondered the same thing! Searching the forums has uncovered what was a vibrant and robust community: opinionated, agenda -ized but ultimately helpful. I wondered where they all got to; even to the point of considering some had died! Literally!

Well, they didn't! Die that is they are just ... erm ... somewhere else.

Mr. Planque,

I read your monographs on Cores, Engines and Screws and the "this is not a democracy". I applaud your stick-to-it-iveness, yet that does require a great deal of sticking to it. Otherwise b2evo may itself get forked (if it hasn't already) which is possibly an entropic issue as it itself was Forked!

As a very recent addition to the b2evo platform I will say I like the freedom to customise and add-to. (No make that LOVE! But then I loved MySpace before they got pissy about tweaks and hacks: the nervous nelly attutude which ultimately resulted in them going tits up! How's that for irony?)

But as someone whose expertise is more Front then Back, I do wish that there was more of the open communication and freewheeling of hacks and feature-implements that someone like me could read and perhaps find a solution that pertains to the latest version (4x) and not 2x, 3x, or even 1x!

Heck! I'd like feeling I am not speaking in an empty room when I ask a possibly incredible noobish question!

I am debating whether I can rope in a friend or two to develop the plugins/hacks apparently much requested: Facebook Connect and a better commenting structure and User/Member Management, even something as simple as allowing Users to use their own uploaded Avatars without giving them complete access to the BO and blogs.

From that you can surmise that I think the blogging platform is strong enough to facilitate the writing of blogs, but not the other aspect that makes blogging what it is: reader feedback! Readers are lazy sods and if we can't make it easy and up-to-snuff with other similar experiences employed by "other' platforms. Well, they'll read and leave. Because no one (or very few) can write compelling enough content that will fire up readers to wade through a torturous process to comment!

Cheers,
Susan

P.S. Apologies to eDoc7 for hijacking the thread :(

Is there a "somewhere else" where questions are answered and ideas are contemplated?

Or, is there a commercial model of support and b2evolution users are being "forced" to go there because no open and free forum support is available?

BTW1: It makes more sense to have Forum members put their version into their Sig than to have to enter it for every post (see #4, below).

BTW2: I see a bold field label for the version, which has been imposed on the posts, but that does not show up at the time of writing the post - so one is unable to fill the field.

b2evolution: 4.0.5 released on 03/23/11

I really need to get some answers to some very basic questions:

1. How does one get the Subscribe via E-mail to work?

2. How I add a sidebar with links to other Blogs?

3. In Skin name: pixelgreen I would like to be able to have some Posts with the complete text some only the first few sentences (as a teaser) then to be continued on another page when the reader clicks "more". Can that be done within this skin or do I need to use a different one, please?

4. How do I create a sig for this Forum? (I'd like to put my b2e version there.)

@edoc7 - the "somewhere else" is not a b2evo platform, it's where the disenchanted went and did their own thing. It took a bit of sleuthing and I can't recommend their blogging platform (quam plures) as I haven't implemented it and it is in its infancy.

The BO is pretty non-intuitive, so much so that once I find how to do something, well damn me if I can remember! So this may work it may not.

SIDEBAR LINKS*: You have to use the LINKSBLOG bundled in with the install. It is actually a Blog that can post its content (links) to the sidebar of your main blog(s). You enter in the links as POSTS using the EXPERT mode so you can sync in the URL

Additionally you have to install a widget to the Sidebar Settings ( BLOG SETTINGS - WIDGETS) for the blog you want the links to appear to. WEBLINKS is the widget.

*I'm doing this from memory so I may have missed a step or two.

Alternatively there is a way to implement a BlogRoll but it took a lot of trawling the BO and it wasn't what I wanted. Will go in and see if I can remember how I did it :|

MORE: In the edit mode of the blog, insert the -MORE SEPARATOR- if you are in Simple, in Expert it is the button "!M". CAVEAT: if you don't use the MORE it posts the whole blog to the default landing page but then the comment feature goes into the ether.

I installed the SUBSCRIBE plugin and it worked.

Hope I helped ...

P.S. I think sigs and avatars have been disabled for new Users in the forum.

*EDIT* read http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=21053&highlight=blogroll It will -hopefully- fill in the blanks or mistakes I may have made above.

Sure appreciate the help!

Was my choice of b2evolution not a good one? Is it dying or just suffering growing pains?

When I bring up Linkblog is already has a bunch of entries - are those just samples that I either delete or edit to what I want in there?

EDIT1:

I went in and edited the first Post with the Title and URL of a friend's Blog.

Why is it that when I clicked "Save & edit" I got the following - which I only expected to see if I chose "Publish!", please?

* Pinging Ping-O-Matic...
* Response: [] [Pings being forwarded to 11 services!]
* Pinging b2evolution.net...
* Response: This is the first time you ping us for this blog. Allow a few days for validation before your blog appears on b2evolution.net .
* Pinging twitter.com...
* You must configure a twitter username/password before you can post to twitter.

EDIT2:

I chose "Add Widget" in the "Sidebar" section of "Widgets".

In there I found and added "Linkblog (Simple Linkblog Links List)".

This resulted in archives of my prior posts being listed (which is nice but one would expect that to come from activating the "Archives" widget in Sidebar, rather than the expected list of links to other blogs and websites, which I had started to create in Linkblog.

I am confused ...

I can't answer the question as to whether or not b2evo is a good choice for you. Especially as I haven't quite answered that for myself :) I do like the freedom it gives me for some things but am equally frustrated by the lack of intuitive admin controls.

That said,

The Pings are sent out to select services that you've posted a blog. Powerful in getting the word out but not necessary for your link blog. Deactivate that in the LinkBlog dashboard by going to

LinkBlog / Blog Settings / Advanced and unchecking the boxes for the pings.

I'm not sure why that's happening to you in Draft mode.

What should happen when you create a Post in the Linksblog is it should then post that link to your default (main) blog. The thing to remember is that you need to install the widget on that main blog NOT on the LinksBlog to set up the relationship between the two.

I wish there was someone more experienced with b2evo to help you as I have only had it up for over a week. So, forgive me if I get it wrong. But I also know how frustrating it can be to hear the stunning sound of ... silence ... when you ask for help :(

*EDIT* I went to look at your blog and I see what you mean about the archive list posting as opposed to the linkblog links which I also checked out to see and you only have links on there! Weird!

But I wonder why you chose not to use Blog A as the blogging identity for "middlepeople" ? I have not set up multiple blogs yet so I don't know if there is some conflict that's causing these issues. Just a thought :idea:

P.S. If you go look at Blog A you will see that your linkblog is now active and posting correctly on the sidebar. So maybe it is the fact that you have set up your blog as a blog that is not the default. Try setting up Blog A or maybe try changing the default to blog 5 which is where you have MP.

you can do that in the dashboard

GLOBAL SETTINGS / General -- it's the first option.

if that doesn't work you can always default it back to Blog A

I changed the defailt to mpblog but no joy.

I looked at Blog A and see that Linkblog is working properly there.

Do I need to rename Blog A to "mp-Blog" and Blog B to "N-SEA-Bog"?

What if I want a third one?

Also, does this mean that everyone listed as a Link in Linkblog for mp-Blog will be the same as for N-SEA-Blog or is there a unique Linkblog for each blog?

I think you may have to :(

I know it's frustrating to have spent all that time setting up posts and a skin but if you look at the default posts included as examples on Blog A you'll see that it says Linkblog is set up to work as the default linkblog for Blog A and B.

Start first with configuring the skin. Then the appropriate Blog and Global Settings for A and B

You may want to disable the Pings when you start testing the Post function. Once you know the blogs are where you feel comfortable you can re-enable the Pings.

Once you've got A and B working and doing what you want you may be such an advanced User that setting up multiple blogs will be a breeze and I'll ask you for help :))

I'm off to bed (am in UK) best of luck and if you hit any more snags, post in this thread and if I can help, I will!

P.S. Don't delete the example posts (like I did) before having a chance to study them. If I had RTFM I would have followed the one logical suggestion: to Deprecate them rather then delete as that keeps them in the BO and visible only to you.

I sure appreciate the help!

I suppose I could always include the mp-Blog (renamed, perhaps "mp-Blog-old") in my Links so that people could view it as archival.

Then I could build a new one under Blog A (renamed mp-Blog), and use Blog B (renamed, N-SEA-Blog).

I'll let you know how that all works out ...

I have created a Techno-Life Blog:
http://kd4e.com/blogs/blog1.php

I used Blog A and have Linkblog working ... am converting the others as well ... thanks!

I cannot see where to plug in the URLs of XML RSS/ATOM feeds I would like to add in the sidebar, e.g.

http://feeds.foxnews.com/foxnews/scitech

I looked through the various screens and could not find it.

WDYT?

I had a look at your blog eDoc. Looking much better! And timely too. We're getting the news over here and hope the devastation will be minimal!

When it comes to RSS feeds I am a complete blank! I've never used them though I know that they are powerful tools.

If I come across something that will help, will let you know!

*EDIT* I don't know if this will help, but it may give you some ideas on how to use the widget that's installed http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=13793&highlight=rss+widget

I just wanted to link a news tech feed to my Tech blog and maybe other types of feeds to my other blogs.

I just read through the 4 rss+widget pages, didn't find anything helpful.

I am also exploring Quam Plures in case the solutions are more readily found there.

Do you know of any good blogs based on that app?