Hi, I while back, I suggested that I was thinking of building a web directory ( http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2267295 ). I've finished the alpha version and am testing it now. The url is: http://tsswd.net I would like some extra eyes to look it over and test it. Here is a little background to help with the testing and possible gotcha's. First, I am running this on a small server to start. I don't want to go bankrupt before I get all the bugs worked out. Second, I wrote the entire back-end from scratch. MySQL does not handle descending indices and my concept heavily uses mixed ascending and descending indices. Third, this is not a pure or true web directory, but more of a over-sized tag cloud hybrid (soon to be) search directory, hence my notation of it being experimental. Once I have the web directory code bug free, I will be releasing a widget to help enhance traffic from other blogs. The widget won't be required, but front page listing won't be possible without the widget. All forms do work as far as I can tell. Please look it over and let me know your thoughts. Thank you.
Matthias, Appreciate your effort. Here are my inputs. 1) Design - Not impressive. It looks like a 2000 model website. Basic html with no impressive design. 2) Categorization - Nope. Scores less. Where are the categories? How can I see a good category tree and structure? 3) URL - http://tsswd.net/detail.cgi?0SKtUvPpnHpXgjkDWufW7BNdeuDEoKFomXfEQ51CMqj0YRD4MqZT2u4gmHvaZ8N ???? I wouldn't be submitting my site that has URL like this 4) What are these tags all about? I dont understand a bit I want to be honest and upfront. It may upset you, but the site isn't enough. It looks like a 2000 model website and no one is going to be interested unless you provide value. Widget thing wont work unless you give back something to people that really triggers them to be listed on your directory. You have put in hard work by writing your own codes, but it's not the best way to do. There are cheap scripts available and you could create a MSQL db to manage it very efficiently. I am not sure if this will even attract people. Will be blown away in the wind of powerful directories. I am sorry.
To be honest, I was really turned off by the site design and I didn't pursue the matter any further. These days users will only spend more time on aesthetically-pleasing websites, regardless of what they are about. Also, your details pages URL is hardly SEO-friendly and nobody is going to submit to a directory which has gibberish letters in the URL.
Just a heads up. It has been done before... check out alive keywords. Good luck with it but I think if it is eventually going to morph into a directory, you are going to find that you have a lot of information not categorised very well --- which when push comes to shove could be easier to dump than to transform/adapt into categories.
Hi This is good information. I'm going slow on the development and it being in alpha still gives me plenty of opportunity to change and audit sections. 1. In all honesty, I do have a lot of work on the design. Right now, its very flat for development speed. I definitely need to find a good graphics designer to "dress it up"... 2. I am deliberately leaving out the categories. See point 4. 3. This is actually the first time I've seen the url written out... That does need some help... 4. Rather then categories, I'm using keywords to create multiple cross references to each site listed. I know this idea is not new, but hopefully, my approach to list content in a fluid manner will prove new. TagAlly came close, but is now defunct. The keywords create a series of lists providing large numbers of links that relate blogs together. As the directory grows, these lists will start to become more concentrated with higher relation levels. From the SEO standpoint, I'm hoping this will translate to better ranking be Google and the other search engines. My whole concept is up in the air in terms of it succeeding. So far though, the search engines are crawling it like crazy. Google has been doing hundreds of crawls per day. Thanks for the input, it gives my a lot to focus on.
This is very close to what I have in mind, but listing is free in mine. Actually, I'm working towards a hybrid search engine/directory with content on the top page being under 7 days old (which does work). I've got the spider working quite well in getting the "freshness" of each blog. The second aspect where mine differs is I allow user entered reviews or editorials. This is where I believe I'll get a good foothold once I get the problems resolved. I'm sure it will morph into something, just not sure what...
Not sure what I'm going to do with the details site id yet.... That will have to be fixed, maybe site title will work there...
I must not disccourage you, your going pretty well but as samdar said your design looks of 2000 soo its true for that and if you use the now a days popular scipts soo you will get got designs for that and easily managable dir
I think the OP's point was to not use a "popular script". He wants to experiment and do things a little differently (which is always encouraged). I think at this stage (alpha) the design should be the last thing he worries about. Getting it to work, the way he wants it to, in terms of the system itself would be paramount; then on-site SEO cleaning up (like re-writing the URLs and such); then the design prior to launch.
The problem when you make something different is when it is not entirely intuitive. I looked over several pages and read your about page and I still have no idea what I'm looking at (even allowing for your explanation here). The CS Lewis reference is not truly pulled around full circle to explain the design of your site. My suggestion would be to put more text on your homepage to explain what your site is. By calling it a 'directory', there's a general expectation by people who view your site. They're looking for a category list. You have what looks more like a Technorati or Blog Log sort of thing where you list the latest posts of people's blogs - I think. That in itself isn't a bad idea. When I click on one of the tag cloud words, it's hard to tell that 'category' designation from the listing. You might want to put more text in those boxes to make it more clear what I'm looking at. I wish you well but you still have a lot of work to do in explaining your concept on the site itself. And the paranoid part of me...'traffic sharing system'? Definitely sounds like something that Google might frown upon. It doesn't look like your site does anything on the dark side but the name might make people leery.
Exactly... I actually wrote the entire thing in C. Yes, I know I'm crazy. I suppose that's one of the benefits of being a 30+ year retired veteran programmer. I love to see how far I can push insanity at times
The site descriptions actually are controlled by the sites mostly through meta tags. My concept here is to give blog owners a quick and easy way to update their blog information without having to worry about modifying their listing. The C.S. Lewis part is from the 1.0 version of AFTR, see below.. I think you and Silencer have an idea in the direction I'm trying to go in. My ultimate goal is to land in the middle of a search engine and a web directory, a hybrid search directory by the time I'm done. I'll have to work on that while trying to maintain the consistent flow... AFTR is 3 years old. The web directory is a new addition. Google has been very positive to my traffic sharing system. Its user driven with no incentives. That's where the widget comes in. My traffic sharing concept allowed guest blogs to go "along for the ride" with the host blog. That is, when a visitor went to an AFTR blog, the guest blog would appear in a mini-window after the visitor interacted with the widget. 2.0 is an expansion of my concept with the web directory and a whole new widget, soon to be a hybrid directory. The widget itself is the traffic sharing part. Like the main page, it only lists blogs with content less then 7 days old. As it grows, the content will migrate to blogs that are related to the host. Its unique format will, hopefully, draw more attention to the web directory.
Sounds like this is where you really are trying to create something different. I'm not sure I understand how the guest post and widget work. Does this mean that participating blogs will have their posts automatically posted to related blogs as 'guest posts'?
You've got the idea, but more of a virtual tour whereby you see the guest blog through a window, like looking out the kitchen window where you can see the guest blog, not just a post.
Hi, I've got the unholy details URL to look much better... Here's the old style: http://tsswd.net/detail.cgi?gC4Ltzo52RmMOT4h3usHrJ2Wva87jN2PZ5kR2W5vGRJjVznNp2C95g2do9MA9lh Now for the same site under the new method: http://tsswd.net/detail.cgi?155 Will this work well? Title is out because I've already ran into duplicate with just 250 blogs. Thanks in advance.
Hi, Since announcing my web directory 12 days ago, I have done a lot of work on it and would like everyone to take a second look. The url is: http://tsswd.net Changes include: 1. Unholy details URL fixed 2. Many, many bugs fixed. 3. Minor cosmetic changes made. 4. Roughly 650+ blogs have been added. 5. Google PR went from unranked to PR0. Thins that still need work: 1. Documentation, esp the about page, needs work. 2. The layout. Although the minimalist RGB template seems to be doing well. 3. Putting the advertising in place. Please take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks.
Congratulation for the directory. There are many free directory scripts are available. If you are developing code for yourself, my suggestion is, make them like the normal web directories, categories in the home page. Most used categories in the left sidebar instead of tags you have used which are too messy. Take care of the layouts like header, sidebars and footer.
Hi, Thanks. I built all my code from scratch with many experimental ideas to try. Going with the tags is part of that to see if dynamicly updating the tags leads to more relevant content. Also the tags work into the widget for site promotion. I'm hoping that by being so "out of character" with traditional web directories will give me an advantage in the directory market. I know its a big gamble and risk, but early results look promising.
Wow, it looks like a page full of spam! Try using a free directory script with a free template. phpLD is good.