Posts by Dani - Page 64

Isn't this spammy? It's called click fraud. What advertiser is going to advertise with you knowing that the people clicking their ad most likely are not interested in what they have to offer, but are only in it to potentially win a prize.

Once you leave rep with or without a comment, you can't reverse it. You can only reverse a vote with no rep.

You don't get anything without effort. If you didn't have to put in any effort, everyone would be an Internet millionaire.

Lucky for you, there is an option for you. It's time versus money. If you don't want to spend the time, then you gotta spend the money. You can purchase advertising. Try Google AdWords to buy visitors.

After you vote on a post, the little popup window specifies how much reputation you can add/take away by clicking the "give reputation" button.

Create great, useful, unique content that people will naturally want to link to.

Alexa rating is a third-party company (owned by Amazon) that aims to guess how much traffic you have. Focus on growing your traffic and don't worry about what your Alexa rating is. It's barely accurate anyways.

There was a long discussion about this in Area 51 over the past week, but I forgot to make the public announcement. To copy & paste what was written there:

The main problem that I do have with our reputation system is, as Sanjay put it, that it feeds the rich and buries the poor. All of the regulars have a crazy amount of reputation power. Everyone else can't even affect reputation by one point.

So here's what happens ... The majority of members leave reputation amongst each other, but they never increase their reputation because none of them have any power to affect each other.

They all rely on a top poster who has lots of reputation to affect them. The only chance they have of ever climbing up the reputation ranks is to receive rep from a top poster. Meanwhile, all of the top posters are all friends, and run into each other on the site on a daily basis, and throw reputation at each other left and right. Therefore, the rich get richer.

So here's what I've done ...

Firstly, you may have noticed that your reputation has shifted slightly. I've made some adjustments to prior reputations that some people received, therefore affecting your reputation today.

Firstly, reputation used to be very different back 5, 6, 7 years ago when it was brand new to us. Rep power was crazy back then, and if AD thinks that +30 is crazy, it used to be +150 and …

No, they wouldn't. You would need to use <strong>Some text in here</strong> You can then code that strong tag however you want
You can even do strong { font-weight: normal; } so that it will have SEO weight but it won't look bold to the website visitor.

We have flag bad post. We have infractions. We have rep.

Maybe we need a button for whiner!

It's called the ignore list.

Fixed, but you may need to clear your cache.

You just need to click the little Facebook like button at the top of the thread page or to the right of the quick reply box.

Oh c'mon people ... Only one person 'likes' something on all of DaniWeb today? Step it up :) haha

It's been over a year, but I have finally implemented a solution to this. Now, if you are not logged in, and you try to submit a post, you have the option of either registering OR logging in to complete the submission process.

Keep in mind that you should never hit the back button in your browser b/c, more often than not, you will lose your post contents that way. This is something your browser does, not us.

> Just out of curiosity, was it always available, sort of hidden away somewhere or did this just make a reappearance?
This just made a reappearance, believe it or not. Eyal can attest to how crazy I was coding.

Vernon caught that screenshot while I was in the middle of updating the page. You can now use radio buttons to select which one you want to go with.

It's odd that "web development" would be a word for them to block. What does your company do?

Confirmed that rep/voting don't work: On it!

Let's say you come up with a really crazy algorithm, and you want to put it out there on the web. There are LOTS of places on the Internet to put it. And they are all different. You choose the medium that is most suited to what you want to do with it.

If you want to release it under the GPL, maybe something like Sourceforge.
If you want to sell it, set up an eCommerce website and do so.
If you want to donate it to the DaniWeb community, post it here.

If you choose the latter, it was your prerogative to have chosen to donate it to the DaniWeb community. We're not a monopoly. You're free to do what YOU want with YOUR content that YOU own. Every potential site you can publish to has its own pluses and minuses, and you choose to do what you want with your own content. If you choose to contribute to DaniWeb, you are donating your content to us for use by our community, and giving up your rights to it.

Now let's say that I then saw your really crazy algorithm, and thought, "Oh, I can sell this" and so I took it down from DaniWeb and set up my own eCommerce shop in which to sell it.

I do not claim to know the law, but it my personal opinion that doing so would be akin to the American Red Cross accepting your …

You cannot post your code on a public forum such as DaniWeb, receive help with it, and then request that your code be deleted. The purpose of forums is that your question helps not just you but many more people well into the future, as well.

If you don't want your code to be out on the Internet, you should not use forums as a means of getting help. All forums work this way.

Impressive, yes. But I wouldn't go so far as to call it any type of self-awareness.

Please show your support by reading and posting in this thread: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=6546710fb55bd11b&hl=en

I have started a forum thread on the official Google Support Forums here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=6546710fb55bd11b&hl=en

It seems like Google is starting to publicly take responsibility for the 'Farmer' algorithm negatively affecting innocent sites. Google started a thread in their support forums entitled 'Think you're affected by the recent algorithm change? Post here.' => http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=76830633df82fd8e&hl=en

Here's an article I just read about how so many people got caught in the crossfire on this one: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-farmer-update-harmed-codependent-site-owners/28248/

Tell me about it :(

I would have to definitely say that a Computer Science degree is much more prestigious than an IT degree. I, personally, associate a Comp Sci degree with someone with excellent math skills, logic skills, who is good at theoretical issues, thinking abstractly, and an excellent problem solver. I associate a Comp Sci degree with someone who has the fundamental mental tools to be an engineer, a programmer, etc.

When I think of IT, I think more of someone who is taught current computing technologies, architecture, and some modern programming. I associate an IT degree with either web development or something that is more business focused.

I graduated in 2005 with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Business Computer Information Systems (which my university renamed/simplified to Information Systems a year after graduated).

Yes, Google officially planned this algorithm change against content farms like answers.com and ehow.com, and "Made for AdSense" sites that just have billions of pages of crappy content.

Unfortunately, DaniWeb somehow got grouped into the same category. All of the search terms that we used to rank #1 for got replaced in the search results with sites like Wikipedia and other long, more elaborate, in depth analyses and articles.

Help us prove to Google that we aren't just full of low quality, broken English Indian students asking for free homework help! The best way you can help right now is to contribute great content to DaniWeb, tell your friends, and keep coming back.

Hi everyone,

I just found out (a few hours ago) that DaniWeb was *seriously* hurt by the new Google algorithm update that took place yesterday. The algorithm change was only rolled out to US visitors, and it reduced the amount of US-based traffic to DaniWeb by over 50%!

Google plans on rolling out the change to the rest of the world systematically, which means that by the time this update propagates worldwide, we will end up with HALF the amount of traffic we started out with.

I'm not sure what this means for DaniWeb's future ... As it stands right now, we won't be able to afford our carrying costs. I am petitioning you for your help ... All we can use right now is more traffic and great content. Please ... Revisit a lot. Tell your friends. Posts more. Contribute. Help us stay alive :)

I agree that the more experienced programmers tend to rely less on forums than the newbies do. I also agree with doing other types of articles and tutorials geared towards the more experienced dev, which is why we have content such as this recent product review: http://www.daniweb.com/reviews/review349689.html

Hi,

Check out PayPal's API. It should have instructions on how to do this, depending on the language you are using (PHP, etc).

I don't believe they will, especially since what you're proposing is a common way of rewriting URLs nowadays. However, for the absolute best navigation hierarchy (for both seo and usability, of course), it's a really good idea to actually create default pages for the two folders as part of your site's structure.

I think that's just the nature of online communities. People lose interest over time. Move on. Come back after awhile, etc. Things in people's lives change (career change to something they don't need DaniWeb for anymore, graduating school, lack of time, etc)

Hi CodeWord,

Thanks SOOOO MUCH for those kind words! It is very much appreciated. I assume you are the person who is irritated no longer? ;) Sorry for the bad first taste.

I think there are definitely more C++ and Java people than there used to be. Definitely.

Hi,

We do not permanently remove IDs from the database for two reasons:

1 - User IDs are associated with posts, and we have a policy of not deleting posts (unless they violate our rules)
2 - We are required (based on anti-spam regulations) to always maintain a database of everyone who we have EVER sent ANY email to (anonymous, non-personal information such as join date and time, etc) to prove that we didn't just buy the email address, but that they actually signed up with us directly at some point in time.

We don't keep any personal information on record. You are able to change your email address and password at any time. Additionally, you can contact Davey (aka happygeek) if you wish to change your username.

Unless you were rather personal in your posts (in which case, you should be more careful about what you write on the Internet), it is rather easy to make sure that your member profile with DaniWeb is anonymous.

So much for my new lil text blurb on the New Thread page that says "General titles such as 'Help Me' or 'Urgent' are not only unuseful, but can be considered a turn off by other community members, and will often result in fewer replies." :-P

Guess you were right about it being hard to notice. ;)

Last night, towards the end of my work day, I added some additional information to the New Thread page to hopefully guide people in the right direction towards the best way to post on DaniWeb.

AndreRet:
> I tend to go back to a thread when I need to confirm some code etc.
He was referring to the list of people currently viewing a thread being displayed while in advanced editor mode. Currently, the advanced editor already includes a quick view of all of the posts in the thread, so you shouldn't have to go back to a thread while advanced replying.

> Enable the reading of the "go to last post" in a new browser window. At the moment you can only open it in the current window, a bit frustrating when you need to only read the last post and then have to use the back button to go back to the forum you were in.
Just right click and select "Open in new window / new tab / etc".

Gah, you people are really disappointing. I was getting all excited when I first saw this thread and it was all about what people wanted for DaniWeb in 2011. I was all pumped to get some great feedback and ... you disappoint.

The feature is purposely hidden because the search algorithm doesn't work very well, to be honest. I want to fix a bunch of bugs first.

It's always been clickable. It was a regular link in the old DaniWeb version. Then, when the new DaniWeb version came, it was still clickable, but I was using JavaScript to make it so.

Some of the regulars and mods complained that, because it was using JavaScript, you could no longer right click the link to open in a new window or new tab. Therefore, they couldn't go down the list of threads, opening a dozen of them up in lots of new tabs, and it ruined their workflow.

I just fixed this for them.

Playing devil's advocate here ...

If it has no niche, then WHY would someone join your social network, over say Facebook? Does it have super unique features that you can't possibly find anywhere else? Are there people talking on it right now? What reason would someone like me have for signing up to an empty site about randomness where there's no one else to talk to? When I can instead spend my time interacting on a social network with millions of users who are going to read what I have to say and respond to me right away for instant gratification?

In short ...
Step one: Give people a reason why yours is better. There has to be SOMETHING different that can't be found anywhere else. DaniWeb, for example, is unique in that we encompass everything IT under one roof, and we group content together (news, discussions, tutorials, etc) within a single timeline.

Step two: Give people a reason to stay. DaniWeb gained popularity because myself and my friends constantly posted on the site day and night for a very long time. Slowly, other people chimed in, because they saw that there were people to talk to. And anytime anyone new joined, we all instantly started talking to them, giving them the instant gratification they wanted, even if we weren't big. Fake it till u make it -- We gave people the communication and answers they wanted just as detailed and just as fast as if …

I used to be able to code for 2 days straight, back when DaniWeb was first starting out and I was adding all the features. I also pulled an all nighter or two when we upgraded DaniWeb to this style back earlier this year, but that was the first time in years.

Long story short ... I used to do all nighters a *lot* when I was working from home. Days and nights just always mushed together. As soon as I got an office, I got into a really good schedule of working in the office only. It's really been AMAZING for my health ... and my social life! :)

I just went to the FusionCharts contact page to report this to them as a bug, and discovered this:

FusionCharts Technologies LLP.
Infinity Think Tank #1, 11th Floor
Plot A3, Block GP, Sector V,
Salt Lake City,
Kolkata - 700091, India

Apparently it is an Indian-based company. People from India tend to write broken English with the phrase 'the same' a lot. I will let Sanjay (our super moderator) explain why since he's from India and does it too :)

Tracking the number of hits that a logo or such gets is the only way I know of to track email opens. However, with images disabled by default with so many email clients these days, the numbers are FAR from accurate.

You can't do this through Google Analytics, as far as I know, because GA has no way of tracking hits to your own image. You would have to use your own server logs, or a tracker that tracks image hits.

It definitely was back in the day. However, I agree with vitminl that a listing is not nearly as important as it once was.

Also, when reading marketing/seo articles online, always be conscious of the date they were posted. Techniques tend to be trendy and then go by the wayside.

If you change your forum signature, it affects all of the posts which you have already contributed. So, yes, it *is* retroactive.

If you are using Signature A for awhile, and then you switch to Signature B, all of your posts will now display Signature B. However, it is possible that some of your older posts will still be indexed in the search engines with your original signature, and Google may not update this, especially if they are older posts on pages that have long been forgotten about.

DMOZ is entirely volunteer edited. Depending upon the popularity of the category you submitted to, and the time dedication of the volunteer running that section, it could take anywhere from a few hours to an eternity :)

Try reaching out on resource-zone.com, a forum dedicated to DMOZ editors. That's what I did a couple of years ago, and it worked for me.

Does it really need to rotate like that or can you just send 33% of visitors to site one, 33% to site two, and 33% to site three.

Because then you can just use php's RAND() function to randomly pick a number between 1 and 3, and depending upon which it chooses, it sends the user to the appropriate site. Super quick way of doing it without making it keep track of 'state'.

The random number generator, between 1 and 3, will average out to about 33% each. Of course, it's random, so not exact ;)

There are two reasons why we nofollow our forum posts. The first is to combat spam. Hopefully fewer spammers will want to post on DaniWeb since they are nofollowed. The second is because we are constantly being told by Google that the "right" and "ethical" and "best SEO practice" is to nofollow links that the website owner cannot personally vouch for (aka any user-generated content), and to not nofollow all other links. Therefore, we employ this policy in that we nofollow member posts but we do not nofollow links within our editorial content.

Oh stop being mean :) Congrats!

Besides, I find it quite amusing that everyone else who commented has WAY more posts ;)