Things I Hate About The Internet

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

Bandwidth Theft - Please don't like directly to my pictures, videos, sound files and other similar objects. You can link to my pages, but not torepparttar other things. This is called bandwidth theft, and it basically means you are stealing from me.

Changing my Browsers controls - Webmasters, please don't change my back key to back up to anything exceptrepparttar 118902 previous page. Please don't disablerepparttar 118903 right click function and don't do anything torepparttar 118904 size ofrepparttar 118905 browser window. It's rude and you can pretty much bet that I won't be back.

Free Hosts that Disable use - A new trend is free hosts which allow a certain amount of bandwidth to be used by each site per month. Once that limit is exceededrepparttar 118906 site is shut down until repparttar 118907 next month. This makes it really difficult for these free sites to survive, as they will drop from search engines and be removed from webrings because for a week or two they don't exist. Worse yet, most of these free hosts staterepparttar 118908 bandwidth is a certain amount (say 2gb/month) butrepparttar 118909 sites they shut down most certainly do not get anywhere near that much traffic.

Paid hosts that go to hell - Every single paid hosting service that I've used (about a dozen of them) started good and quickly went downhill. Inrepparttar 118910 hosting world, poor customer service, poor performance and rudeness to customers seems to berepparttar 118911 rule. Perhaps this is why they seem to be failing right and left.

Sites that include a statement like "Best viewed with" - A good webmaster makes sure that his site can be viewed (at least at a crude level) in any browser. Older browsers may only display text and text links, butrepparttar 118912 site should still work.

Sites without site maps - This is like trying to read a book without a table of contents. Please takerepparttar 118913 time to make a decent site map so I can get around your site.

Large Sites Without Site Search Engines - Sites with thousands of pages need to include site specific search engines. Why? Because it is not possible to have a navigation system that foresees everything I might want to find out. If you want me to use your site and it's large, then please include a good search capability.

Informational Sites with too much advertising - Look, I know some sites want to remain "free" and must payrepparttar 118914 bills somehow. And I understand thatrepparttar 118915 chosen dogma is that advertisers will pay for exposure. But do you have to include a half dozen banners, twenty links, three pop-ups, a pop-under and those silly monitors which fall fromrepparttar 118916 top ofrepparttar 118917 screen? Sites which do this would be better just charging people for access - if their content is good people will pay.

Sites which do not respect my privacy - I'm sorry, but you don't need my address, phone number or social security number unless I am doing specific kinds of business with you. And I am not going to tell you all about myself to fill out your silly survey. Just give me good content, a good shopping experience or good entertainment (whatever you are selling) and I will be happy.

And, oh yes, I do monitor where my information goes. If I find out my personal data has been given or sold to another company, you will NOT get my business again.



Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


Some Comments About Webrings

Written by Richard Lowe


Continued from page 1

Webrings fill in this gap extraordinarily well. You see, webrings are created and maintained by individuals called Ringmasters. These people usually have no monetary interests at all. What they want to do is create pathways throughrepparttar internet which give surfers an experience.

Ideally, webrings are a way for individual webmasters to create and control their own destiny onrepparttar 118901 web by forming little golden paths allowing surfers to navigate from site to site. The ringmaster is in control ofrepparttar 118902 ring's style, format and promotion, while member sites are expected to adhere torepparttar 118903 ring's criteria. This provides a unique surfing experience for surfers.

A well run webring is a incredibly joy to surf. You can proceed from site to site, enjoyingrepparttar 118904 differences between individuals while admiringrepparttar 118905 theme which ties them all together. These rings are much like some pixie had walked before you, exploring repparttar 118906 internet and carefully marking those sites which might interest you.

Thus, a webring has nothing to do with PR or search engines or any other of that nonsense. What a webring does is enhance communication between sites in a coordinated way which gives value to surfers. This, in turn, makes them want to explorerepparttar 118907 whole ring, and to come back occasionally to see what changes have occurred.

Inrepparttar 118908 best rings, you can sign up for a newsletter which keeps you informed of new sites and changes torepparttar 118909 ring. These rings often have extremely active message boards and use egroups (and other methods) to communicate regularly. These rings are not about crass moneymaking - they are about friendship, caring, discussion, and sharing.

Rings are about targeted traffic. Surfers arriving on a well managed, tightly themed ring are interested inrepparttar 118910 subject and want to visit a member site.

As rings get larger,repparttar 118911 amount of traffic to each individual site increases. This is directly related torepparttar 118912 attractiveness ofrepparttar 118913 rig fragment and how wellrepparttar 118914 ring is maintained. Quality rings are indeed extremely good traffic builders; low quality rings are a waste of time and effort.

Webrings were created in 1995, and were almost destroyed by Yahoo in 2000 during their euphoric yet bumbling expansion in those heady times. That traumatic event led torepparttar 118915 creation of a new type of ring - that of Ringlink. This is a self-hosted system, extremely powerful, open-source and run by a group of highly dedicated, selfless and ethical people. Ringlink has savedrepparttar 118916 concept of webrings from destruction and isrepparttar 118917 single hope ofrepparttar 118918 future of this navigation system.

Other systems include Webring, since divorced from Yahoo; Ringsurf, a decent and full-featured ring host; Siterings by Bravenet, very well managed ring hosting company and some other home-grown alternatives.



Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.


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