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To do this you need:- Firefox - the best browser you can get;
- AdBlock Plus - a handy add-on for Firefox;
- AdBlock Plus Element Hiding Helper - an additional extra required for this tutorial.
First, go to your Entrecard Dashboard. The URL will be something like this: http://entrecard.com/user/xxxx/ (where xxxx is your user ID. I have a three digit user ID; you might have more digits.)
Now change the URL so it has inbox on the end. e.g. http://entrecard.com/user/xxxx/inbox
This is a rather handy page where you can see lots of recent drops. Site images with a gold outline are the ones you've also dropped on. Wouldn't it be nice if you could filter out the gold ones so you only saw the ones you haven't dropped on yet?
Well... you can!
You'll have to restart Firefox if you've just installed those add-ons. When it's up and running again, go back to the Inbox page. Then look for the ABP toolbar icon in Firefox. Click on the little arrow beside it, then choose the option "Select element to hide". (Note: if you do not see this option, there's an alternative method at the end of the tutorial.)
Now hover over one of the gold boxes. If you see an outline that shows a popup of "img", that's not right. Move slightly further outside the image but still within the gold box. You should see this:
Now press the S key on your keyboard to select the class. You'll see a dialog:
Click "Add filter rule"... and look what happens:
That's my Inbox with ONLY the non-dropped cards shown!
If you don't see "Select element to hide":
Choose Preferences, Add Filter, then paste the following:
entrecard.com#DIV(class=browse_ecard dropped)
Press Enter to accept the filter, then Apply.
Thanks to:
YouShouldOwn for finding the new Inbox screen in the first place
GeekMom for the tip for those who do not have "Select element to hide"
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Tags: entrecard, tutorial, adblock plus, element hiding helper, firefox
Posted by Ben on February 11, 2008 14:39 / Edited: February 17, 2008 11:06
Comments
Thanks for that Ben, a great help for us droppers.
Cool! Thanks Ben!
Happy to help! Thanks for commenting. :)
Nice. Thanks :D
I don't see "select image to hide" Any ideas?
You're looking for "Select element to hide", not "Select image to hide". If you've definitely installed both add-ons and restarted Firefox but it still doesn't appear, try this.
In the menu that pops up, go to Options - Show in status bar. You should see a small ABP icon appear in the bottom right hand corner. Right-click on that and see if "Select element to hide" appears there.
If you are still having problems, please read this help forum topic and report your issue in the forum there. There may be a bug I don't know about. Let me know if you get it sorted out though in case anyone else asks. :)
Hi, thanks for sharing this. I just went throught it and were up and running after 19 seconds. Thanks! This is so fun!
Thanks for commenting yvind, glad it helped you. :)
This is very very very nice and convenient for entrecarders :) thanx!
and oh, that is my card on the image haha
Thanks for commenting Rome, glad you found it useful. And hey, fame and fortune on Entrecard is yours for being in the screenshot ;)
Great tutorial!!
Great tips to differentiate those two groups of cards. It may not be long before EC introduces this function, but great job in helping the community :)
haha yeah. A lot of people will get to see this. Maybe they'd also like to drop on my blog
Thanks for commenting, Black Zedd. Glad you found it useful!
Very nice tip. Sometimes I've noticed that Entrecard doesn't get it right, though. I dropped on a site, and it does say "1 per day", but there's still no gold box around it. I'll try your technique and see if Firefox can sort it out for me.
And thanks for the perpetual image of my card, along with my URL! I drop here a lot, and I always get a drop from you. Looks like you might have missed me if you hadn't used that technique.
Theda K.
cool. the whole entrecard phenomenon is still puzzling me though. sheeesh. ^.^
Thanks for the tip! Now if only we can find an auto dropper application for entrecard. All this reciprocity can take quite a bit of time. :) But it's still really fun.
Thanks for the latest comments. :)
Theda K - you're right, sometimes it isn't quite right. I've noticed a few sites refuse to budge from the "new inbox" too - if a gold border doesn't show up but you can't drop on the site, try clearing your cookies. If it still doesn't work, just wait for the next day and that site should either disappear from the inbox page or let you drop on it again.
13thWitch - you're puzzled as to what it's all about, or you don't understand why it's so popular?
Jasmine - happy to help! However, in my opinion, an auto-dropper would completely kill Entrecard. The main reason why I prefer Entrecard over other blog networking sites (MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog in particular) is that you have to go to the site to drop a card. If you could do this automatically or you could drop a card from the Entrecard site - i.e. without actually going to the blog - then I think Entrecard would be a lot less appealing.
Hi Ben! Thanks for the tip. I had trouble getting it to work on my Mac, because there was no "select element to hide" anywhere in any of the drop-downs or preferences. However, I was able to manually type in a filter, and now I have no gold border cards in my inbox, so I think it's working. If others are having this problem, they can try "add filter" and type in this:
entrecard.com#DIV(class=browse_ecard dropped)
Cheers!
Actually, copy/paste is the quickest. Duh. :-)
This is so cool! Can't wait to try this. Thank you so much for the information!
Wow.. thanks for that Ben! I got it going, it did filter out most of the one's I dropped on, but left several hanging around! I will clear the cache and see what happens! Thanks for 'da help!
Thanks for the comments, glad it helped you all!
GeekMom - thank you, I've added a note about that and credited you. :)
Now this is a very cool idea. Thanks for sharing. However, I am curious about the ultimate result. Would this mean that those cards that you are filtering out will no longer show at all? Or is this based on a setting that shows when they are new, and therefore will show up as new until you click on them?
Thanks for the comment, Mark. The "dropped" status resets at midnight, Entrecard time, and then the filtering will reset too. This means the last 98 sites will show up on the inbox once more. You can either drop back on all of them to clear the page or just wait for new sites to appear.
Cheers for this post! I now can happily reciprocate people that dropped their cards to mine!
No worries Michael, thanks for commenting. :)
Thank you so much for this!
Happy to help!
F A B O! I luv this! Works like magic! ...and I thought I had dropped on everyone that dropped on me today.
Looks like I need to return the favor to several more!
Glad you found it useful, madWAHM!
This page now has the most comments on the whole site. Thanks everyone for the support, keep the comments coming!
Great guide - I'm using it myself. If anyone wants a guaranteed dropback, hit me up :)
(I drop just after midnight pacific time on most nights)
Thanks, Popular Wealth! :)
Now that's what I cal helpfull tips! Thanks alot Ben!
No worries, shearyadi!
This post is just going to run and run... lol...
Freakin' brilliant! This is exactly the kind of time-saving tip I can use! Thanks, Ben.
Thanks Tim! :)
Brilliant tip Ben! But I should ask you, and I don't mean to sound like an ass, if all the people on entrecard did this, would it drastically defeat the whole purpose of Entercard? I believe this comes in handy when you are in need of some quick ECs, but otherwise?
Thanks for the comment, Mindblogger. No, I don't think it would defeat the purpose of Entrecard if everyone uses this method. It's simply a way to keep up with the sites that drop on you.
I know plenty of people who use this method and still read blogs, leave comments and subscribe (including me). You still have to visit each site to drop your card, and I'd suggest reading the latest post while you're there. Nothing's changed in that respect. :)
Very nice indeed! Works great and very helpful. Thanks for sharing this link, Ben!
Thanks for commenting, Chilly - glad you found it useful. :)
I finally got around to doing this... and what a great help! No more squinting to see what has a gold box and what doesn't: very helpful, and very easy to do. Thanks.
Glad you found it useful, Jen!
Hi again Ben! I have "fallen in love" with the Safari version for Windows. Have you tried it? Its pretty fast then dropping and having tens of tabs open. But no adblock and element hiding. Any tips?
Hi Oyvind - unfortunately I have no suggestions for Safari, as this relies heavily on the add-ons. Sorry! :(
Ben, does it still work with the new Drops inbox? I did the original block element thingy but I still seem to be seeing cards of sites I have already dropped on. Any ideas?
THANKS!
Hi Sweet Mummy, there is no need to use this method anymore. The new Drops Inbox contains a drop down list where you can choose to show the sites you've dropped on, or those you haven't. No need for a Firefox add-on. :)
Oh, DUH! I didn't even see that. Thanks a bunch!
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.