Directory Maintenance

I am just posting to see if my thoughts are totally out of line on the topic of maintenance for a directory.

I personally feel that when an issue comes up affecting the function of a directory it should be addressed and corrected as quickly as possible. To me it is a sign of professionalism and dedication on the owners part.

As we all know and are probably tired of seeing threads on, there was an issue about 5 or 6 weeks ago that affected thumbnails on directories that used Giraffa.

It affected mine also. In my case it was fixed in under 24 hours. I asked my programmer about it and he said lets switch it. It took all of about 2 minutes and they were running again.

Now as I submit my site to directories, I use this as one bench mark for submission there. If the thumbs are still down after six weeks why am I bothering?

So as I search today I notice two additional examples of highly regarded sites that still have not corrected the thumbnail issue here and here. It can be clearly seen on the main page.

I know that there are things that are somewhat out of our control, like when a problem develops with a host. I don't feel this issue qualifies as one of them and certainly should be fixed by now imo.

So am I wrong? Am I out of line? Should I quit letting this bother me? Or do you use things like this also in deciding to submit there or not?

 

Regarding the recent thumbnail issue, i did wait a few days before making changes and tested an alternative then passed the changes through my other directories.

A while back i had a submission from someone and he pointed out to me that something wasn't correct, and either that day or the following i already had someone from here coding a solution to sort it as quickly as possible.

There are still things that need to be done, but are not absolute emergencies, but i try and see to something immediately if i can, especially if its something a visitor/submitter can see.

An issue left for too long makes almost any site look abandoned, or neglected at least, still i need to see to a few of my own on my directories before i can say everything is fine.

 

hello....

i had leopard1 do the changes on 3 off ours and used Deebees code

will get to the rest after silkysmooth gets biz-giant up and running...

thx
malcolm

 

Good point John,

I also think it is the responsibility of directory owners to make sure their directory is up and running; with no errors what so ever. As for the thumbnails, that is a very minor issue and take minutes to fix and, I have to admit it looks very unproffesional to see that there are web directories that haven't bothered to look into this issue.

It may disattract users, especially as both of the directories represented above offer "Site of the Day" and having this empty block, may disattract a user. Yet, I have to say many web directory owners (you know who you are..) got this issue fixed very fast, and that is how a directory should work.

Meti

 

Only problem is that we dont know if the issue will be resolved and when you have 75-100 with 5-6 files to edit each it takes time, so we figured fix a few now and see what happens,then if not fixed will run deebees code in all and hope this problem doesnt happen again with new fix...

thx
malcolm

 

I agree that it is a small issue depending on the site. Those that have thumbs represented on the main page like mine I believe have a more pressing need to make fixes.

Thing is even though it does not affect function, it can be very noticeable to visitors.

 

I don't think there's any excuse on this one. After Alexa went paid, someone figured out how to use Giraffa for free despite it not being a free service. Did all of you think that Giraffa was going to let this go on forever?

Using Giraffa should have been nothing more than a temporary solution.

 

I have been using this as a deciding submission factor since flagging it when Girafa first pulled the plug...

 

No, you're right. It's a good way to identify abandoned and neglected directories, for the moment.

 

swedal, you are right. There are cases and cases, but when a well known PR7 dir is abandoned like those examples, something smellz fishy. I mean..it is ridiculous !

and by the way...your authority dir rocks
Keep up the good work.

 

Some people don't bother brushing their hair o doing up their shoes before they step out in public they sort of give up caring for some reason the web site is our interney clothing some choose to also stop caring how they look on line for whatever reason

 

Yea Downunder, probably is just a question of personal standards.... There are some nights I can't sleep cause some little thing is not working quite the way I want it to.

btw - thanks hyper

 

That usually happens to me aswell, I cannot sleep, all I think about is that tiny, little thing. I like to get things working, and if something is down, I am doing the best I can to fix it. I hate having unfunctional features.

Meti

 

sorry to sound dumb,but i am having problems finding this code to replace with another..any tips?Im running v.3.1
http://msnsearch.srv.girafa.com/srv/i?s=MSNSEARCH&r={$link.URL}

 

I did a search here is another thread http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=582006 with a solution.

Search for girafa and there are more.

 

If someone careful see's the network of those ex highly promoted directories, you will find out that many of them are totally ignorant about their network directories.

The list is endless.....

 

Talking of features not working correctly, are you guys aware of the issue where when you receive a payed submission i think, that none of the emails reach the submitter, even though they have provided their email.

There is a fix for it over at phpld forums, i will find the thread if anyone cant find it, it just involves a tiny edit and the problem is then fixed.

If you dont know what im talking about il be happy to explain further.

Edit: Heres the http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15388 you may have fixed it long ago, but just incase you need it.

 

Uncle pipes, I didn't knew about it..can you please explain, or guide me through that tiny edit ?

 

Lol, uncle pipes basically when someone submits to your directory with a paid submission, say just for example a featured listing, they dont receive an email from your directory (if you have your email templates setup of course) to say that you the directory received payment.

For some it may not be a big deal, but if you want your submitters who have paid, to get the email acknowledging then its worth making that small edit.

Please note, this is for phpld directories, i did it on 3.1 and 3.2, and the thread at that link tells you what to edit and where.

 

Good call. I've been meaning to track down this fix for a while now.

For those who can't access the link, you do need to be a paid member of the phpLD support forum. $10 to join (from memory) and worth every cent.