jonesy — Mon, 21 Jun 1999 02:40:00 +0000

Malte Ubl,
I did'nt know if you were still monitoring this discussion, but if you are, Excite has a news and information affiliate program. It doesn't pay any money, but you get free news and information similar to Isyndicate, but in my opinion, a little better. The URL is http://affiliate.excite.com or if you want to see examples, you can go to http://affiliate.excite.com/content_examples.html

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the Op Center
http://www.military-net.com

Sat, 08 May 1999 03:05:00 +0000

I might actually put open in new browser window as default but Im not sure yet.

Right now my page says:
Bookmark this site now - Press CRTL + D
Is that not enough.

I will probably put the two JavaScripts on my site, that make the page the homepage by clicking a link.

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Malte Ubl
http://goKewl.com
Germany

justin — Sat, 08 May 1999 00:33:00 +0000

You're right about SSI - since it's done on the server, the browser doesn't know it's happening. I think Chad is thinking of when you link a Javascript or external CSS page from the document, which is the browser's responsibility.

But with SSI, all the browser sees is one file containing the results, much like when a cgi is executed - it only sees the html output.

Now there is one disadvantage (although quite minor) - if you modify your include pages, for example, a header, when the browser requests index.shtml it gets back the last_modified date of index.shtml. So if it hasn't been modified, it uses the cached version. While browsers don't follow this rule as badly, a caching proxy (like AOL) will follow that rule and serve the cached version, thinking the file hasn't been modified

One way around this is to use a meta http-equiv (I don't recall the exact tag...) included in your header file, and just change that when you modify any of the includes. This will help some, but caching proxies usually ignore the meta tags, going only by what the server tells them (which sucks for dynamic content such as the UBB).

Anyway, the site looks good One thing though - if you want your visitors to return, but don't want to frame external links (I hate when sites do that to me) maybe a target=_blank would be best? Another thing you may want to do is have brief instructions on how to bookmark a page (not everyone knows how...), maybe with a link that just says "Bookmark this site" or "Make this your start page" linking to instructions for the more popular browsers

Just a thought...

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Justin Nelson
www.HostFacts.com

Fri, 07 May 1999 16:51:00 +0000

I have to say about the framing that this only applies only to pages that are listed in the directory.
Recipocral links and advertising, of course, are not framed.

I think its justfiable because its nice from my site to link to a page, and because I dont get anything in return, I should at least be allowed to frame the site.

I guess one can only recommend that every webmaster makes sure to have target=_top in all the links on their site so that if somebody frames them, the frameset disappears as soon as a visitor clicks on one internal link. Another option would be a two line JavaScript.

Thanks for all the input. I still haven't decided whether to use the new design.

I now use 5 files for my homepage that I put together with SSI. That way I dont have 17k of HTML in one big file. It got kinda hard to look over all the stuff.

Does anybody hear know how the SSI affects the load time. I like the affect that the page arrives in steps. Netscape Netcenter uses that effect to emphasize their advertising.

One more question. Somebody told me the black header would have a bad phsychological effect. Any opinions?

Thanx for the input!

Malte

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Malte Ubl
goKewl.com
Germany

[This message has been edited by goKewl (edited May 06, 1999).]

JP Stones — Fri, 07 May 1999 00:47:00 +0000

Wow, missed this thread.
- re CTR rate on design integrated banners, they are lower than if the banner is placed at the top of the page, but by a very small margin.
- why not include sports headlines?
->

quote:I deleted some personal comments. I am trying not to let my personal convictions be expressed unless asked for.

Assuming they will not offend anyone I would be interested in hearing them.
- I have had big arguments whith smaller engines featuring my site and then framing my site.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Site
www.what-next.com
The NEXT step in Designing and Promoting your Website

Thu, 06 May 1999 22:09:00 +0000

SSI = Server Side Includes/Interface/Whatever

As far as I understood that the browser never gets to know that the page is not a simple html file, because the server parses the file upon the browser's request and replaces the SSI tags with the content of the file.
So, isnt there only one http request?
I guess that still should take some time and CPU usage but since its not my own server I dont really care.

I tried out a Java News ticker and I personally hate it. Not only that it leads the user away from my site, it increased my load time by 400%, at the least. So, I guess, I will skip that.

Later,

Malte

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Malte Ubl
http://goKewl.com
Germany

Thu, 06 May 1999 20:52:00 +0000

Hey,
I thought I would answer your SSI question! ... SSI is actually slower to be downloaded for the visitor the first time. After that however, it will make the page MUCH faster.

Heres how it works: All of those little SSI files must be looked at in order to create the page. The browser sends a simple request asking the server if the page has been modified since its last visit. On the first visit, it is new so the server says yes and the browser downloads the file. Now the exchange of this yes or no answer takes time. You do that five times and it takes even more time ... But if you only do that once for the large file, it takes less time. Now when they come back to your site, it sends another request to see if the page has been updated. The server says no and everything is basically loaded from cache. If the server says yes, only that SSI is downloaded thus still saving you time.

In all reality, your reasoning for using SSI is for making updates easier. If you update your site constantly, you are better off using SSI but if you don't update your site often, you shouldn't us SSI.

Make sense or is your head spinning around now?

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Chad Simper
Dynamic Internet Solutions
[ www.dids.com ]
E-Mail [ chad@dids.com ]
ICQ [31723855 ]

cds — Thu, 06 May 1999 20:45:00 +0000

I agree with Carolyn. Some very nice sites use say a black background with a contrasting bright colored text. Want to be careful though if you have an information site that a viewer conceivably might want to print. White text makes for a nice blank sheet of paper and yellow isn't much better.

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Dan
dan@cds-computers.com
ICQ # 373465

JP Stones — Thu, 06 May 1999 20:29:00 +0000

Hey, I remember this stuff, if you spin a disc with all the colours on it it goes white as they all merge.
JP

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The Webmaster Promotion and Resource Site
www.what-next.com
The NEXT step in Designing and Promoting your Website

Carolyn Jones — Thu, 06 May 1999 19:07:00 +0000

Just a comment on the non-color black "I wrote a paper on the psychological effects of color once"
Black is not a color but the "absence of color" (white is a combination of all colors and black is the opposite of that)and a perfect true black will not reflect any light (ie. black holes or R-0, G-0, B-0)

colors have a very dramatic effect on people, the light waves can actually penetrate the skin (can't site my sources right now sorry, but will dig them up if anyone really wants them)and cause physical/emotional changes

Since Black isn't a color (no wavelenght)the effects are all psychological -- Black gets a bad rap, People associate black with: Death, Evil, et......

some black trivia for you:
Black things appear smaller "must be why so many people wear black

Black things appear colder

More people jump off of black bridges then any other color bridge.

I wouldn't worry so much about using black on your web site, some of the nicest sites I've seen use it, it's a great contrast to any color but looks best with color (my opinion only

take care,

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Carolyn Jones