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naz
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
# Posts: 76
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Posted: 2003-Dec-30 19:36
Aunt_Pittypat my site is in my profile and I just found it in illumirate when I did a search for Haiti
thanks take care
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JQ
Staff
Joined: Mar 11, 2001
# Posts: 2755
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 02:53
Aunt_Pittypat, I didn't mean to come across as cranky.
I do appreciate that you've put a tremendous amount of effort into the site. Your dedication and enthusiasm for what is obviously a labor of love is a pretty rare commodity in this day and age of most sites just being out to make a buck. 
But my point was why go to the effort of hand coding in dead links when that means you have to go back and "fix" them later? (BTW, you might want to look into server side includes for link nav like that... one text file to update instead of hard coding on every page.)
You only get one chance to make a first impression. When I visit a site and some of the functionality is broken, I'm not usually likely to return. Yeah, I'm a nitpicker, but to me it strikes me as unprofessional if the site hasn't been "proofed" for errors. If I see a contact link and it doesn't work, I'm not going to dig to try to find that info elsewhere on the site. I'm not interested in advertising, therefore I would not think to try that as a means of finding contact info.
Two things I'd like to see on illumirate:
- When you search for your own site and come up with the result, it'd be nice to see what category(ies) it's listed under.
- When you submit a site, I'd like to be able to select what I think is the correct category(ies) for it (a la yahoo). Also, to be able to suggest a new category if there isn't an appropriate one. For example, I have a site dedicated to a certain breed of cat. I found pets breeds and then various breeds listed, but no category for Scottish Folds.
And as far as your editors getting spammed for having contact info listed, I'd think using a form to contact them would prevent this. Then if the editor wishes to contact them back, they can use a non-primary addy like editorsuzy@illumirate.com that could forward to their ISP or be web-based and easily squashed/changed if it gets spammed.
Sending you a PM about my currently listed site.
I do wish you all the best of luck with illumirate. And I'm sorry if I came across as negative before. I tend to be blunt, if not always tactful.
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Aunt_Pittypat
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 05:27
Apology accepted, Jerome, and thank you for the clarification.
This template was made up by the designer that works with my programmer. The only input I've had is on how it looks (colors and placement). I don't like the Add & Member boxes or the text in them myself. 
So, let me ask you: Would you rather the links were hooked up to a page that said coming soon than to get a non-clickable link? As you can see, I am out here in the vast wasteland looking for a cool drink. 
I have asked Mike to add in the category downpath names & link under the description a few times. I am in hopes that it will be part of what I see on Monday when the opinion link at the end of the descriptions is added back in.
Hooray, he did add in the next, previous, and page numbers at the bottom today.
Your other requests are probably far down the road, unfortunately. They are all reasonable requests; however, the money just isn't budgeted to refine the Add Your Site function right now.
There would also be a problem from the editorial side in submitting a site directly to your chosen category because, unlike other directories, IllumiRate does not require an editor to work in only one specific topic or area of the directory. With the exception of our Level 5 editors who lead the supercategories, no one is formally attached to any area of the directory. Of course, there are plenty of people who are only interested in working in certain areas, but that is their choice.
Now I *would* like to get it refined to the point that the submitter could choose the supercategory placement. This would enable the sites to be separated into 10 waiting lists instead of just one which would make it easier to process the sites. But, I will have to wait until the programmer finishes all the original requirements before we move on to upgrading. I don't think either of us knew the complexities involved with programming something like this when we started working together.
I wouldn't know where to begin to devise a form that could figure out how to direct email to a specific editor when entered through a General formbox. So this will take some time to research.
In any event, I will keep your suggestions on hand for the IllumiRate V2. 
Thanks again for your input and for comprehending my goals and aims (not that I am against profit, mind you - heh heh).
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JQ
Staff
Joined: Mar 11, 2001
# Posts: 2755
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 06:14
So, let me ask you: Would you rather the links were hooked up to a page that said coming soon than to get a non-clickable link?
As much as I hate "under construction" notices, I do think that's preferable to a dead/non-working link.
Your other requests are probably far down the road, unfortunately. They are all reasonable requests; however, the money just isn't budgeted to refine the Add Your Site function right now.
It shouldn't be so hard to add a comments field where one could suggest a category or whatever. Since submissions are reviewed by real editors and not bots, a field where a human can read comments doesn't have to affect your algorithms or anything.
But like the example I mentioned, say I'd like to submit my cat site about Scottish Folds. You don't have a category for it under breeds and it's actually a pretty popular breed. I think 90%+ of my referalls come from people searching on the phrase "scottish fold" but illumirate doesn't give any results for that. How can I suggest adding "Scottish Fold" to your cat breed category?
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Aunt_Pittypat
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 08:26
I did three searches on this -- "scottish fold", scottish +fold, fold +cat -- we don't have any Scottish Fold sites listed currently although there is a site where fold was apparently entered as a keyword. This means either: (1) There were Scottish Fold sites at one time but the sites went dead and were removed; (2) No one has ever added a Scottish Fold site (since 1999?).
I have to admit that until tonight I had never heard of the breed. Now it's got me wondering if the cat we lost this summer didn't have a bit of fold in her. She made no noise except to purr like a locomotive when rubbed, happy, or eating, and she had those buddha and on the back with all fours spread out positions down to a science.
I also am surmising from our statistics that we have had a lot more dog enthusiasts than cat ones since our dog sites outnumber our cat sites by close to 7:1.
Our current rules require that there be at least 10 sites to suggest creation of a separate subcat. Additionally, there are a variety of subcategories under Cats so that would mean 10 breeder sites, 10 breed information sites, 10 personal cat pages sites, etc., if you wanted a Scottish Fold category added in each area.
As an enthusiast in any area, there are basically two choices. Either become an editor and add sites in your area of interest or submit them through the Add Your URL link on the main page.
Of course, if you saw an area that had 10 like sites that you would like to see categorized, then you could always email info@illumirate.com and suggest the category you would like to see.
As far as submitter's suggesting a supercategory or more particular placement, I'll see what the programmer can accomplish on that in the near future.
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unreviewed
Joined: Dec 07, 2000
# Posts: 6776
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 10:53
I tried to sign up as editor, was told my user name is in use, "Unreviewed" and then tried to search for password lookup was told I didn't exist.
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Aunt_Pittypat
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2003-Dec-31 11:33
We don't release names for reuse until at least a year after the account is closed. We did have an editor named "unreviewed", last online date we're showing is February 12, 2003, the account was probably closed around that time since that was when we were preparing to change hosts.
So, the name is still on hold at this time.
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skiguide
Joined: Feb 02, 2001
# Posts: 761
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Posted: 2004-Jan-01 21:11
Aunt_Pittypat, sorry I'm so late to the party, but thanks so much for taking the time to post here about Illumirate, and introducing it to all of us. I'm going to go spend some more time over there checking it out, but so far, it looks like pretty high quality to me.
also glad you've gotten some useful feedback here. We all appreciate your hard work on this.
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Aunt_Pittypat
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2004-Jan-02 07:42
Thanks, skiguide -- Hey, aren't you just making a fashionably late appearance?
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