Custom NaNoWriMo Images - Instructions
Do you have a website? Livejournal? Blog? MySpace? Another forum you visit? Do you want a word count ticker that updates when you update your word count on the NaNo site? Well now you can! Here's what it looks like:
But, how do I go about using that, and putting it on my own page and having my own name and word count, you might ask.
That's a good question! Here's how you do it. First, find out your NaNo profile ID number. You can find that by looking at the address bar when you click on the "View Profile" link at the NaNo site. It's that number after all those other letters. Example:
So, now that you have that, you need to add it to the signature url. That url is here: http://write.aftermatheffect.com/nanosig.php?uid=
Now you'll need to post that URL, along with your User ID, into your blog, website, livejournal, or forum signature. It'll come out as an image, so however you would normal post an image is how you can post this. Two common ways are with HTML (blogs, websites), and BBCode (forums). Select from the code below, and remember to change YOUR ID into your actual id number, or it won't work:
HTML: <img src="http://write.aftermatheffect.com/nanosig.php?uid=YOUR ID"/>
BBCode: [img]http://write.aftermatheffect.com/sig_YOUR ID.png[/img]
Now works everywhere!
FAQ
Question: So, what's this for again?
Answer: So you can have a word counter that updates whenever you update your word count on the NaNo site. You can post it on other websites (it'd be useless on NaNo, because everyone has a word count meter there).
Question: Who would use this?
Answer: No one. It's pointless.
Actually, if you've got a livejournal or something similiar, this is a good way to show off your writing skills without having to use the silly, non-personal "participant icons".
Question: I still can't get it working!
Answer: Read the instructions again. If you still can't figure it out, send me a NaNoMail. I'll try to help you out as much as I can, but the instructions should be enough for most people to figure it out.
Question: This is awesome. Where can I lavish you with praise, gifts, or money?
Answer: If you like this, and use it, feel free to NaNoMail me, so that I know this is getting used. If you want to donate anything other than praise, donate money or buy something from the NaNo Store. They need it more than I do (and it goes to a good cause).
Question: How long will this stay around?
Answer: At least until March or so, but hopefully it'll stick around for even longer. With luck, it'll be here til October 1st, 2007 (then be updated for the new NaNo). Currently, I have 2,000 Gigabytes of bandwidth available. I'm using 38 MB per day. The end result is that I'm still using less than 1% of my bandwidth. We'll see how the numbers progress during October.
Question: Can I have the source code?
Answer: YES! If you're technical enough to handle it, and have some hosting available, you can download the source code here. It's pretty undocumented, however, so don't expect anything special. It runs on my server, which is running php5, so you'll need at least that (it is untested on other servers, and might or might not require editing. Sorry, but I will not provide support for setting it up on your own server). Also, to get the code working correctly you either need to edit line 23 (the $fileLoc variable), or create a directory called "nanoimg", to store the XML files. Note: the source has been updated to NOT pull from the NaNo xml all the time. You can change the length of time before a new update of the file by changing the HOURS define. Please update your source code to prevent strain on the NaNo server.
Online Progress Calender - Instructions
The Online Progress Calender is exactly as it says, an online progress calender that gets the word count information directly from the NaNo site (so you can be lazy and only update your NaNo word count, and not have to deal with those icky Excel spreadsheets). It's currently a simple tool, designed to show the progress on your novel, and not much else. In other words, it's not all that useful for other projects. It's mostly designed for personal use, but there's a few nifty tricks.
How to use
Simply enter your user ID into the box and press "Go!" For best results, click the "Save my ID" checkbox, though this requires that you accept cookies, and it can only save your ID on your own computer.
Accessing the calender from public computers
You can access the calender with your own id from public computers (or show it off to friends and family) by using this format: http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender/YOUR ID
HTML link: <a href="http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender/YOUR ID">My Calender </a>
BBCode Link (for forums): [url=http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender/YOUR ID]My Calender[/url]
Setting Wordcount Goal
Now featuring, by popular (and by popular, I mean one person wanted it) demand, word count goals! To set a word count goal, simply add /WORD GOAL to the end of the url. For example, if you wanted a 75,000 word count goal, you'd just use a url like this: http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender.html/75000.
You can also combine it with your user ID, and do this: http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender/YOUR ID/WORD GOAL. For example, my own calander with 75,000 word goal would be this: http://write.aftermatheffect.com/calender/124570/75000