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Maintain
website in Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver.
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Keep
website looking like The Bluebird Box in style (so it doesn't
appear to be a separate site.) Include links on every page
to the Home Page for ASO and The Bluebird Box.
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Use
Secure FTP or Dreamweaver MX to publish (because I am unable
to publish from FrontPage for some reason). Be sure
to load to bestof/wwwroot. When includes are changed, all
pages with includes must be republished.
- Update "includes posts through digest #...." on index page.
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Do
not use shared borders or themes (to keep the website loading
fast, and also because FrontPage extensions can be corrupted
when FTPing.)
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Use
CSS. Use header 1 for title, header 2 for link to next Part,
font size 3 for main text. Use font size 2 in index listing
to save space.
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Use
template for all new pages created (aatemplatebbl.htm).
Use white background for e-mail text for readability.
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Use
includes for header, nav bar, and footer. Name include files:
include*.htm. Do not edit includes in anything but FrontPage.
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When
naming files, keep them short but identifiable, avoid
underscores, and use all lower case. Don't forget
to add new files to index and the table of contents, and
advise Tina Phillips of Cornell.
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Include
a page title (can add description in paren)
on every page.
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When
starting a follow-on part to a discussion, do not rename
the first file (e.g., eggs.htm does not become eggs1.htm)
because this could interfere with links in pages outside
the web/favorites). Name the files that follow as
eggs2.htm, egg3.htm, and so on. Start a new page before
existing page load time exceeds 60 minutes at 28.8.
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When starting
a Part 2, rename the title (not the file itself) for the
first page as XXX (Part 1). Put a link to the next part
at the bottom of page 1 (heading style 2). Put Part within
Paren (e.g., Monitoring Equipment (Part 2). Use title case
for page titles.
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All
links to other pages within the best of web should be _self
(not opening a new browser window.)
- Do a global replace of "at" symbol with "at" in
text and source code to avoid having spiders/robots add listserv
members to spam lists.
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To
defeat spammers, when putting links to e-mail addresses,
enter as following: contactme#624web.net.
- When cutting and pasting, paste as HTML to remove fonts
etc.
- Remove < and > symbols from text to improve readability.
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Use
... to delete irrelevant/unnecessary text, such as lengthy
signatures.
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Use
no more than one line of blank space between items.
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Delete
"TO: Bluebird_" in header to each e-mail to save
space.
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Delete links to
other sites from e-mail dialogue, because if they change,
they will show up in the broken links report.
- Delete lengthy signatures that have links to commercial websites etc.
- Delete derogatory text (e.g., attacking another list member.)
- Insert a line inbetween each e-mail.
- Put e-mail in chronological order (so discussion flows clearly)
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Update the Digest
number in the footer each time the site is updated.
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Optimize all photos
(e.g. to 60) and include size (do not resize photos in FP.)
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Use
Dreamweaver MX to clean up HTML.
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When
going through a new digest (use one with e-mail attachments),
remove Messages that are O/T, use reply (to get addressing),
copy, and paste as HTML into appropriate page, or a blank
placeholder page. Then remove that Message from
the e-mail digest (to keep track of which ones were posted).
- Use a placeholder page for Messages that are not easily
classified/not sure what to do with them.
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If
for some reason the e-mail dialogue box moves down on the
page when new text is added, change height for that td table
to 100% in code view.
- Insert a blank line between each post.
- If digests get split up, include a note "[note from
webmaster: parts of this thread are found on (give page with
link.)]
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Save
copies of digest for reference for 1 year.
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Use
standard grey bar to separate e-mail Messages from each
other, and at the bottom of the e-mail content table.
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Periodically
compare remote and local site to clean up files on remote
that are no longer needed.
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Periodically
run a check for broken links. Links within e-mail threads
are not maintained.
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search.htm uses
free AtomZ indexing service. Reindexing is automatically
scheduled to occur once/week. The function used to
search the Internet is in Flash.
- Try to include all Messages. Every person has a perspective
on things. The position taken
does not have to be new, as a type of "voting" might indicate
to a reader what method might work best for them. Instead
of not including the Message I voice my two cents and include
all perspectives.
- Don't include Messages that have
no value - e.g., nothing more than a flame or a "me
too". However, don't exclude
a Message just because a portion of the Message containsinflammatory
comments - just delete flame.
- If you get behind, only add Messages that were
of high value. When Jim first started Best of..., it was
his intent to only include Messages of high value. He drifted
from that for two reasons. The first, he found that he was
being too subjective - he would include Messages that were
of high value to him. Second, he kept seeing the same questions
posted to the list over and over again - answers to questions
that he did not deem "high value".
- Start
a new subject at every opportunity. As necessary,
go back and re-classify old Messages to gain added readability.
