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[Motd] MOTD / VariousANN.lu
Posted on 04-Mar-2001 22:09 GMT by Christian Kemp16 comments
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Depending on a number of factors, ANN will soon be moved over to a new Dreamhost backend/server. I'm not sure if that means there will be downtime, but I just thought I'd let you know. / On an unrelated subject, I applied and was accepted for an evening/weekend job in a helpdesk-related position, since I need a way to pay for my living expenses. / Answers to the current poll question are pretty unconclusive, and I'd appreciate more votes. / Visitor numbers are stagnating around 2000/day, perhaps because I don't update as often, perhaps because more and more people are leaving. / I still hope to get back to daily updates one day.
MOTD / Various : Comment 1 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by John Block on 03-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Remember it is a graphics counter and loads of people keep their graphics switched off until needed. What des your log file say?
MOTD / Various : Comment 2 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 03-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Perhaps it's time to post a message on all the amiga newsgroups advertising your site. I'm amazed by the number of enthusiastic Amiga users (new and old) who don't even realise that Amiga Inc own the company and that you can still buy new hardware for the 'miggy. A visit to a excellent site like yours is just what they need.
Besides, don't measure your success by the number of visitors to your site - measure us by our quality :)
MOTD / Various : Comment 3 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
I have to add that the way I originally found ANN was via AMIGA.ORG. Once upon a time they had some links on their home page pointing to other Amiga sites (just like ANN), but now they are gone (unless I've gone blind). Perhaps you should return the favour and remove your link to them.
MOTD / Various : Comment 4 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
you're gonna work at a helpdesk? good luck, when I did it drove me nuts.... :)
MOTD / Various : Comment 5 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Anonymous):
If it's a PC help desk it's easy:
OK, now press CTRL/ALT/DEL twice, has that fixed your problem? No?
OK, get your Master Restore Disk and a six pack of beer...
MOTD / Various : Comment 6 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Well, considering that Boingworld´s daily visits are growing every day, maybe it´s an indication that the problem is in your site, and not that more Amigans are leaving...
MOTD / Various : Comment 7 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Christian Kemp on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Anonymous):
Boingworld only has xxx daily visits, where xxx is a number below a thousand. They could still improve their position, but in a shrinking market.
But I have to admit that ANN isn't running as well as I'd like it to.
MOTD / Various : Comment 8 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Christian Kemp on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 5 (Darrin):
It's not a computer helpdesk, but rather a company that takes calls for a number of companies where either there's no full-time secretary, or for individuals (veterinaries (sp?), etc.) who don't want to get phonecalls while on duty. The part about it that makes it more demanding is that the person who calls doesn't know that they're being forwarded, and still thinks the call is answered in-house, so you have to adopt to a number of different situations (and as always in Luxembourg, four different languages) very quickly.
MOTD / Various : Comment 9 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Christian Kemp on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 3 (Darrin):
I once read an article on webmastering that said a link section isn't a favour you do to other website owners, but a way to increase your own site's quality: by every quality link you provide, you are offering your visitors some information, some advantage that they otherwise wouldn't have.
I greatly regret Amiga.org's decision to remove all outside Amiga links, they did send about 100 visitors to ANN every day, but it's nothing I can really influence short of begging, which I don't want.
MOTD / Various : Comment 10 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Spudley on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Just to let you know - I use Dreamhost's free guestbook service DreamBook for a couple of web sites - I've would rate their servers as being pretty reliable. They're certainly more reliable than a couple of other services I've used (free and otherwise), so I think you've made a good choice.
:-)
Spudley.
http://BadPuns.com/
MOTD / Various : Comment 11 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (Christian Kemp):
Spoken like a true gentleman :)
You're right, it is a shame that they removed the links. I used to think that the Amiga community was close knit, but it seems everyone is splintering into different factions. I hope Amiga Inc's next statement pulls us all closer together.
Good luck with the job.
MOTD / Various : Comment 12 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Kevin orme on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
as to home page links, the main issue is that like many popular sites (ANN, Amiga.org, Boingworld, Amiga-news.de, Czech Amiga news, etc.) the webmaster is probably constantly getting requests from less-traffiked sites (like ours) to include their site as a link off the 'main' site's home page (which Christian has kindly done for us and we have returned the favor with a fat ANN graphic on ours). But home pages can only be so big (or only have such small typefaces) so there are limits. I think in Amiga.org's case, as they probably have been put into the slot formerly occupied by the Amiga Web Directory (R.I.P) they probably heard many people hassling them for such placement and can't please everyone. ANN's layout seems to provide better for this stuff, as does AmigArt, etc. whereas the new Amiga.org has chosen to go with a fundamentally different approach than before - I like it, and I think it works fine, but it does have the effect of lessening referrals off their home page as a result.
One reason why we (AmigaU) don't do news is that it's already being done better by sites like ANN, Amiga.org and others, so why reinvent the wheel, as well as why steal their viewers? We prefer to concentrate anyway on providing tutorial and usage information instead - And we aren't gifted Perl Programmers like CKemp, so it makes it easier to update the site on a less-frequent basis (because our content is a little more static than news).
To Christian K, I say - great job! It's not completely your job to provide all the news and postings yourself, that's why you have an 'unmoderated' section, which I think works great! Thanks for all your hard work to date and in the future. :)
Kevin Orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
amigau@oz.net
MOTD / Various : Comment 13 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by AmigaPower on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Ann is THE Amiga newspage where I check my Amiga news
MOTD / Various : Comment 14 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by AmigaPower on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
Ann is THE Amiga newspage where I check my Amiga news
Quality == Excellent!
MOTD / Various : Comment 15 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 04-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Darrin):
Well, now I understand the logic behind 'org's removal of the links thanks to them answering an email. Here is a section "lifted" from their site:
>>
Can you put back the 'recommended links' box back on the main page?
Answer:
Technically? Yes. Actually? No. The "recommended links" has been purposely removed from the new site for three reasons (in order of importance):
There has been a rash recently of new and existing Amiga webmasters making furious demands that they WILL be included on that list (which, as you can imagine would lead to a huge list) The only way to be fair to all is to remove the hard-coded list entirely...
Each registered user can now add their own personalized menu of links/whatnot to each page. This would tend to make each user happier as they can track what sites they wanted, not what we force on them. To enable your own personalized menu:
Go to "my Amiga.org",
click "Change the Home",
then select "enable personal menu" and enter in (in HTML) whatever links you feel should be there.
We're at a point where we must begin making concessions in order for the site to survive which means (very unfortunately) that we have NO alternative but to back up and address the profitability of the site. We simply can't begin to be profitable if we keep passing off our visitors to other sites. You have simply no idea how much I regret this third reason, but with Amiga Inc stammering and stuttering along with no real goal or deadline for the future releases, and the rest of the market completely closing down, we simply cannot afford to keep the site live and no one wants to volunteer their efforts forever.
<<
MOTD / Various : Comment 16 of 16ANN.lu
Posted by HammerD on 05-Mar-2001 23:00 GMT
I haven't been coming to ANN much lately because the site hasn't been as
interesting lately--which is not really your fault :) You only report on the news...you don't make it :)
. It also isn't updated as much as it used to be.
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