---
title: "Linkblog begun"
date: 2003-10-12
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2003"
    url: "/tag/2003.md"
---

# Linkblog begun

I’ve been playing around with some linkblog solutions. Firstly, on [Phil Pearson’s](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://www.myelin.co.nz/post/) advice I tried [del.icio.us](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://del.icio.us/). Once I negotiated my way around the minimalist design and even more minimalist documentation, I liked del.icio.us. However the problem is that it’s a 3rd party hosted service and I want to host my linkblog on my own server. So I had to nix it. Next I tried [Erik Benson’s Morale-o-Meter](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://erikbenson.com/index.cgi?node=morale-o-meter). This is a linkblog script that Erik has kindly made available to people [ from his website](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://erikbenson.com/index.cgi?node=shared%20scripts&ref=Morale-O-Meter&t=hl). It looked like what I wanted, but unfortunately for me I ran into some server issues with the CGI. I’m afraid I don’t have much patience for CGI errors, they are very nit-picky and it’s like hunting for a needle in a haystack to fix them. I should add that there is nothing wrong with Erik’s script, the fly in the ointment was somewhere in my web server’s configuration.

Today a simple solution presented itself to me. While browsing around reading up on linkblogs, in particular [Cameron Marlow’s overview](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://overstated.net/03/08/030813low_threshold_links.asp) (found via [Seb](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/2003/10/06.html#a1160)), I discovered that Movable Type has a bookmarklet option. [I have a Movable Type weblog](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://ideas.readwriteweb.com/) that has been sitting around doing little, so I’ve now converted it into a linkblog. The bookmarklet is a piece of Javascript that I saved to my browser Favorites (there is also a right-click menu option for IE browsers). Whenever I read a webpage that interests me, I simply click on the bookmarklet in my browser and up pops up a Movable Type box with the page link pre-populated. A neat extra is that if I highlight something on the page, like a choice quote, then that too is pre-populated in the MT pop-up box. I also like that the page title is added to the link tag, which adds more metadata grist to the mill.

So, the end result is I have [started my linkblog](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://ideas.readwriteweb.com/). It is called **Web of Ideas**, even though it’s just the beginning of what I’d like to include in an Ideas Database. But the best applications start off as simple ones. Or as [Lawrence Lessig](https://web.archive.org/web/20031207092931/http://www.lessig.org/blog/) memorably put it in his book *Code*: “Keep the elements simple, and the compounds will astound”. He was talking about the TCP/IP protocols, but the principle should apply for all Web applications.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/2003/10/12.html#a128))*