( Synopsis for those who skim/skip picture-less posts: (1) Always start your website address with "http://" when you fill out forms. (2) You should totally consider having an email address where other crafters could contact you. )This is a Public Service Announcement about filling in forms that ask for your website address (a.k.a. url).
Keep in mind, I only know this because I've made the same mistake, so I'm not trying to be a smarty-pants-know-it-all.
When a form asks for your url, especially when you are leaving a comment, be sure to start from the http:// For example, I enter http://www.futuregirl.com/craft_blog
I won't bore you with the details*, but if you just put "www.futuregirl.com" or "futuregirl.blogspot.com" or "futuregirl.typepad.com" the link to your website won't work when the comment is published. There are some blog platforms that fix it for you, but most of them don't, so why chance it?
Well, while I'm at it, I might as well also suggest that you put an email address on your blog and in your profile (especially if you are on Blogger) so people can say "Hi!" We're a friendly bunch, and I can't be the only one that gets disappointed when I get an awesome comment on my blog, and I have no way to write back.
I totally understand if you don't want to put your 'real' email address up, but why not sign up for a throw-away, free hotmail address or yahoo address that you use just for your blog? That way, if your spam shoots through the roof, you can just shut that one down and start a new one.
You should do what you want to do (and what you feel comfortable doing), but I love saying "thanks" for comments, and it's sad when I just have to let them go. I also sometimes would like to say something to another blogger that isn't something I want immortalized in their comments, so it's nice when they have an email address available.
I love it when you guys email me out of the blue. That's why I have my email address up. Comments are great, but so are personal emails. :)
OK, you can go back to your regularly scheduled, beautifully be-pictured blog surfing now. :)
*Well, maybe I *will* bore you with the details of why the links don't work without the "http" ... if you really want to know.
The HTML tag used to make links is the anchor tag. This is what it looks like:
<a href="http://www.futuregirl.com">futuregirl</a>
Which shows up like this in your browser --> futuregirl
The value of the href attribute tells your browser where to go when you click on the link. My example above is an absolute url, because it starts from the "http."
If your browser doesn't see the "http" it assumes your link is a relative url, which means the browser decides where to go in relation to the page the browser is currently displaying. For example, if you are at http://www.futuregirl.com/folder1/thispage.htm and you click on a link and the href is "anotherpage.htm" then your browser will take you to http://www.futuregirl.com/folder1/anotherpage.htm. Notice how you stayed in the folder named folder1?
So, when someone only types "www.futuregirl.com" in the url field of a comment form, the link that gets created for the comment has the href of "www.futuregirl.com" When someone clicks that link, the browser keeps them right where they are and just adds that on the end For example, if you are on Green Kitchen's blog on the page http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2007/09/detail.html and you click my comment's link (where I only put www.futuregirl.com) the browser will try to take you to http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/2007/09/www.futuregirl.com. See how it kept us in the same folders and just added my href on the end?
Make sense? Hey, wake up! :)