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About PlugRug

PlugRug, is a collection of all the latest and greatest ministry articles, stories and resources on the Internet as voted by people like you. It was started in March of 2008 by Tim Schmoyer to be a resource of learning, encouagement and inspiration for ministry workers as maintained by that very same community of Christ followers.

How It Works

As a user, you participate in determining all site content by discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the stories, news, videos, podcasts, and articles that appeal to you.

1. Discover.

   Submit your favorites. Find an article, video, or podcast online and submit it to PlugRug.com. Your submission will immediately appear in "Upcoming Stories," where other members can find it and, if they like it, Plug it.
   
   Become popular. Once a submission has earned a critical mass of Plugs, it becomes "popular" and jumps to the homepage in its category. If it becomes one of the most popular, it qualifies as a "Top 10." If a submission doesn't receive enough Plugs within a certain time period, it eventually falls out of the "Upcoming" section.
   
   Discover media on PlugRug. Visit the "Upcoming" section to discover recently added articles, videos, and podcasts.
   
   Of course, you can always check the topic homepages to see what's newly popular. And you can subscribe to RSS feeds of particular categories, published/upcoming sections and even individual users.
   
   

2. Select

   Plug. Participate in the collaborative editorial process by Plugging the stuff that you like best. As you Plug, you contribute to the popularity of any given item. You also build a history of Plugging that you or your friends can view.
   
   Bury. If you find stories with bad links, off-topic content, or duplicate entries, click "Bury" to sweep it under the "rug." That's how we get the junk out of the system and let the good stuff rise to the top.
   
   The system only works when users actively participate on a large scale, so make sure to do your part and Plug and Bury content that matters to you!
   
   

3. Share

   Build a network. Invite your friends or find them on PlugRug and add them to your friends list. Then your friends can track what you're Plugging and you can see what they Plug as well, enabling you to collectively find stories together.
   
   Email. Send your friends (Pluggers or non-Pluggers) the stories that you Plug.
   
   

4. Discuss

   Comment. Share your opinions by commenting on stories, videos, and podcasts as well as Plugging and Burying comments by other users.
   
   

Add the "Plug This" Button to Your Site

The "Plug This" button is for website and blog publishers that want to encourage their audience to submit or plug their content on PlugRug. Check out a blog post at Life in Student Ministry for an example.

There's several reasons why this can be helpful for your site:

It encourage your visitors to submit new content from your site to PlugRug.

It displays in real-time the Plug count for content already on PlugRug.

It makes it easy for people to Plug your article. The more Plugs you get, the more traffic your site receives.

Simple Code

Display one instance of the vote box on a single page:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://plugrug.com/evb/button.php"></script>

WordPress

Drop this code into your index.php and/or single.php Wordpress template files wherever you want the vote box to appear.

<script type="text/javascript">submit_url = '<?php the_permalink() ?>';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://plugrug.com/evb/button.php"></script>

Blogger

This code goes in your template either before or after <p><data:post.body/></p>, depending on if you want it to show at the beginning or end of the post. (NOTE: Under "Settings" -> "Archiving," set "Enable Post Pages?" to "Yes" and save the settings. Also, when editing your template/layout HTML, check the "Expand Widget Templates" box to show the "data:post.body" code.)

<script type='text/javascript'>submit_url = '<data:post.url/>';</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://plugrug.com/evb/button.php"></script>

TypePad

Here's the code for displaying the vote button in TypePad templates.

<script type="text/javascript">submit_url = '<$MTEntryPermalink$>';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://plugrug.com/evb/button.php"></script>

Static web pages and everything else

Use the Simple Code above if only one vote box will be displayed on the page. Otherwise, use the code below, replacing URL_OF_THE_PAGE_TO_PLUG with the full URL of the web page to be Plugged.

<script type="text/javascript">submit_url = 'URL_OF_THE_PAGE_TO_PLUG';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://plugrug.com/evb/button.php"></script>

Formatting and layout

If you'd like to display the Plug box in-line with your text, but are not sure how, try wrapping the appropriate code above with the following:

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>COPY_WP-Blogger-TypePad_CODE_HERE</div>