Don't consider this much of a diary but more of a request to any of you Kossacks out there to find ANY site out there that has an accurate, up-to-date, embeddable Congressional District Maps that can be used for Daily Kos diaries.
Unfortunately, the best embedding options of truly accurate Congressional district maps that I know of exist on Govtrack and Daily Kos diary formats do not allow Govtrack embedded maps to show up on the diary. I have tried MANY times to get an embedded map on Govtrack to show up on any Kos diary I've published and it has not showed up even once.
Below is an exchange between me and the technical support of Govtrack:
Re: [govtrack.us-web] Embedding of Congressional Maps Doesn't Work (#30)
GOVTRACK: Hi. Where do you host your blog? WordPress.com doesn't allow you to embed other content, for instance.
Me:
Hello,
Daily Kos is where my blog posts are made. I'm able to embed to the blogs all the time but can't seem to do it for some strange reason from the coding format that Govtrack has provided. Maybe I'm just not understanding embedding enough.
GOVTRACK: Can you link me to an example page where it is not working?
Me:
Here's an example page where I've tried to use the embed code. I've included the link to the Congressional district map on Govtrack as well:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Here's how I originally wrote the blog diary before it was published. Embed code is included at the very top of the written content:
http://www.govtrack.us/...
Hello,
I'd like to reach out to any of you Kossacks from Utah's 3rd Congressional District or at least in the Eastern part of Utah for information. If any of you not from the area but in Utah and know the 3rd Congressional District well, feel free to add your understanding of the communities, issues, etc.
This isn't going to be much of a diary. You can add anything you want about the 3rd Congressional District. Keep in mind this diary is just for information purposes.
What issues directly affect people in Eastern Utah and Utah in general, and in the 3rd district specifically? My colleague Augustin and I are working on the Knowledge Democrats project and I've started working on a wiki page for Utah's 3rd congressional district in order to assist in our long term efforts to promote progressive candidates in that district, whether at the local, state or federal level. We understand Utah's 3rd Congressional District may be conservative but we're still looking to reach out to any Kossacks, Democrats or progressives in the area. It helps for long-term planning.
We do know for now that Jason Chaffetz is Rep. Darrell Issa's wingman with regards to the manufactured Benghazi investigation done by Issa and others in the GOP.
Also, taking politics out of the equation, let others know if you've been to the 3rd Congressional District and can point out some good restaurants, venues and places to spend time in there.
So far, I only have the basic information. What issues should be documented? What important links / articles / information should be added to the wiki page?
GOVTRACK:
Hi,
I don't think the problem is specific to our widget. When you publish the story, you should see the same embed code in the HTML source of the page. When I look at the source of the page now, most of the embed code isn't showing up. That's got something to do with how DailyKos publishes content.
I wish I could be more help. Thanks for trying!
Josh
If any of you Kossacks have any insight on how I can make Govtrack work better on my Kos diaries I'd appreciate feedback. I've already contacted the Kos helpdesk but haven't had a reply back to my post. Perhaps I need to contact tech support on Kos elsewhere?
Also, if you know of another site besides Govtrack that allows embedding options for up-to-date Congressional district maps then point me into that direction as well.