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How do I check Topsy service status?

Topsy provides service status updates via http://status.topsy.com

How do I get support?

If you have questions or technical problems, please email support@topsy.com.

How do I turn off the Topsy button on just one category?

You must have more than just the standard "Uncategorized" category for this feature to work.

When you have more than one category, all of your categories will be listed in the "Exclude Categories" section of the Topsy settings page. turn on the check box for any category that you want to suppress buttons on.

How do I turn off the button on a single post?

Give the post a custom field with the key "topsy_button", and the value "suppress". You can do this for as many posts as you want. If you remove the custom field, the button will re-appear on that post.

Note that the [topsy_retweet_small] or [topsy_retweet_big] shortcodes are not affected by this custom field.

Using version 1.2.3 or greater, I see code in my pages that looks like topsyWidgetData({[lots of gibberish here]}).

Certain themes use calls to the PHP strip_tags() function, which conflicts with the plugin's "preload retweet button" feature. The most popular of these themes are Redtime, Thesis, and Arras. If you're using one of those themes -- or if you see topsyWidgetData gibberish code in your posts -- you should turn off preloading. Look under "Visual Appearance" in the Topsy settings page, and uncheck the "Preload static retweet button" feature.

My pages look fine until the first trackback comment, then everything after that is all messed up!

There is a bug in versions 1.2.5 and lower: The trackback comments open three <span> tags, but close only two of them. If your blog theme wraps comments in some other tag, you may not be affected by this problem.

To fix it: Upgrade to the latest version. Then click the "Delete Topsy-Created Trackback Comments" button at the bottom of your Topsy settings page. This will clear out the old trackback comments, and new ones will be created over the next day or so, as users and search engines visit your site.

If I deactivate or remove the plugin, what happens to my trackback comments?

Trackback comments are inserted into the WP comments database after passing moderation. Once they are in the WP database, they exist on their own. Deactivating or removing the plugin will have no effect on them.

If you want to remove all trackback comments, you can use the "Delete Trackback Comments" button. This will not affect comments not posted by the plugin.

When someone links to a post of mine, how quickly will the trackback comment appear?

Each time a blog page is loaded, Topsy checks for new tweets about that page and adds them as comments.

I deleted one of the trackback comments, but it keeps coming back. Help!

While the plugin is activated, it will re-generate trackback comments every time a blog page is loaded.

If you want to block a comment from appearing, you can use the "Unapprove" feature in the WordPress dashboard. An unapproved comment will not be displayed.

My trackback comments don't show up. I just see the author's name, which is a hyperlink to the original tweet... but the tweet text doesn't show up on my blog.

Some WordPress themes omit the text of trackbacks, and if you're using one of those themes, trackbacks may not display properly. In this case, you can turn on full-text trackback comments by enabling the "Display trackback comments as comments" option on the Topsy Widgets Settings page.

After changing the setting for comments, you can remove existing blank trackbacks with the "Delete Trackback Comments" button. When the plugin regenerates the comments, they should appear as full text comments.

I want to put the Topsy buttons into my blog's theme, so they display in places other than at the beginnings and endings of posts.

You can place the Topsy buttons anywhere you want by using the PHP command <?php echo topsy_retweet_small() ?> or <?php echo topsy_retweet_big() ?>. However, if you deactivate or remove the plugin, those commands will fail. To make it so these commands don't mess things up, try using the following versions:

<?php if (function_exists('topsy_retweet_big')) echo topsy_retweet_big(); ?>

to produce a large button, or

<?php if (function_exists('topsy_retweet_small')) echo topsy_retweet_small(); ?>

for a small one. These versions will produce nothing (not even a "Fatal Error" message) if you deactivate or remove the plugin.

I want to use a shortcode button and have my blog text wrap around it. How can I style a shortcode button, like the "Additional CSS" option in the main buttons?

Shortcode buttons will automatically be contained in a DIV with the class "topsy_widget_shortcode". You can modify your blog's CSS file(s) to apply styling to that class. For example, the CSS declaration:

div.topsy_widget_shortcode {
    border: 3px solid #090;
    display: inline
}

...will make your widget sit in amongst the rest of your paragraph text, and give it a green border. (This is not guaranteed to look good. It's just an example.)

I upgraded to plugin version 1.2.x, and all my Topsy buttons went away.

There are two possible problems:

1. You're using an HTML-minifying or -compressing plugin, or a WordPress theme that uses strip_tags() calls

   Version 1.2.0 of the Topsy plugin works adding invisible tags to your blog's code, while by version 1.2.1 uses HTML comments. Some themes strip out tags, and there are a variety of plugins that try to speed up page loads by stripping comments from the HTML.

   These problems are fixed in Topsy plugin version 1.2.2. If you are using 1.2.0 or 1.2.1, please upgrade to the latest version instead. If the buttons still don't show up, clear your browser's cache.

2. Your WordPress theme doesn't include the wp_head() function

   The wp-head() function is required for many, many plugins, including the Topsy Retweet Button. Look in your theme's header.php file. If you don't find the text "wp_head()" anywhere in there, you'll need to either switch to another theme, or try to add the function yourself.

   To add it, just add a new line of text right before the </head> tag. Make it say:

   <? wp_head(); ?>

   Save the header.php file and refresh your blog pages in your browser. The Topsy buttons should now be visible.

I used one of the 0.9.x releases, and have trackback comments in old styles (with "Original tweet" and "Topsy page" links). How can I make my old comments like the new ones?

You can remove old style comments with the "Delete Trackback Comments" button. The plugin will automatically regenerate comments in the new style.