I spent the day making a list of Utah Musicians on iTunes.
My thought on this project is that quite a few people are building iTune libraries; Although iTunes may not be God's gift to local musicians, there is nothing wrong with using the tool to encourage awareness of arts in the community.
I am building this page by going through musician names one at a time to see if they show up in the iTunes search. There is probably a more intelligent way to go about the project, but I am not known for taking the intelligent approach to any task.
Anyway, if you know of a musician or band I missed, please tell me. I am rather dense. I am dense, for example, I forgot that the Osmonds were from Utah until someone pointed out my lapse of memory.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Mobile Events
I started making a mobile (.mobi) version of the Community Color directories. Mobi are super scaled down sites for cell phones.
I think mobile will be big in the local entertainment scene as people want to connect with events, venues and restaurants while on the go.
Salt Lake is the community with the most events; so I will use it as a sample. To go mobile, I made a page for the calendar, venues and events. I also started making a directory of mobile sites.
My basic idea at this point is that if you have a mobile site, I will list it in the MOBI section of the main directory, then display all of the items for the MOBI page on the cell phone page.
The first interation of the .mobi stuff is now live. .mobi sites look boring ... but I think it will be useful. The real challenge will come in trying to figure out how to advertise the existence of the mobi pages, and figuring out how to monetize the program.
I think mobile will be big in the local entertainment scene as people want to connect with events, venues and restaurants while on the go.
Salt Lake is the community with the most events; so I will use it as a sample. To go mobile, I made a page for the calendar, venues and events. I also started making a directory of mobile sites.
My basic idea at this point is that if you have a mobile site, I will list it in the MOBI section of the main directory, then display all of the items for the MOBI page on the cell phone page.
The first interation of the .mobi stuff is now live. .mobi sites look boring ... but I think it will be useful. The real challenge will come in trying to figure out how to advertise the existence of the mobi pages, and figuring out how to monetize the program.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Calendar Event Category
I just changed the category list in the Calendar application. The calendars now use the same categories as the main directory structure. I realize that this is a hassle as a calendar really only needs a dozen or so categories, and the directories have hundreds of cateorgies.
In a future update, I will start listing the events in the directory. This will give events greater exposure, and will put dynamic data in the calendar.
I had a complex migration planned where I would map the calendar categories onto the directory categories. I am so far behind on updating the calendar that I decided that it would be prudent just to delete all the old category inforamtion.
Calendar events are time sensitive, and the currently listed events would end up deleting themselves with the passage of time.
I also started gathering geocode information on each of venues and am figuring out how to encode google maps. Here is the map page for the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy.
In a future update, I will start listing the events in the directory. This will give events greater exposure, and will put dynamic data in the calendar.
I had a complex migration planned where I would map the calendar categories onto the directory categories. I am so far behind on updating the calendar that I decided that it would be prudent just to delete all the old category inforamtion.
Calendar events are time sensitive, and the currently listed events would end up deleting themselves with the passage of time.
I also started gathering geocode information on each of venues and am figuring out how to encode google maps. Here is the map page for the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Contact System is Now Live
I guess it is time to come out of hiding.
So, I just added a contact system to the Community Color family of sites. I intend to use the same contact program for more than one site. For that matter, I am considering opening the program up to the community at large.
The program took a embarrassingly long time to write as I just haven't figured out what to do about spam. Spammers will hit any open form on web site with hundreds of thousands of fake hits.
Right now anonymous readers can leave message. If I get hit by spam, I will restrict it to registered users.
The program is in beta. Comments about the comments section are welcome.
So, I just added a contact system to the Community Color family of sites. I intend to use the same contact program for more than one site. For that matter, I am considering opening the program up to the community at large.
The program took a embarrassingly long time to write as I just haven't figured out what to do about spam. Spammers will hit any open form on web site with hundreds of thousands of fake hits.
Right now anonymous readers can leave message. If I get hit by spam, I will restrict it to registered users.
The program is in beta. Comments about the comments section are welcome.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Location, Location, Location
I've been working on the Location view. I think that I will make reports on venues a primary focus of the community directories. Here are a few of the changes:
The first change is that I show the location summary and event list side by side. You can view the page for Red Butte Gardens. This was somewhat of a fundamental change. I had designed all of the pages to be long and skinny. That way the directory could exist in a frame of other sites, or as a small box. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a good scalable CSS design for the calendar. So, I've decided to go fixed width. Both the calendar and location pages will be 840 pixels wide.
I've also just started to play with Google Maps. That way I can include a handy link to a Location Map.
What I am doing at this point in time is just indexing events that take place at major venues in the community. My long term hope is that some venues actually decide to use this system as their event calendar.
The first change is that I show the location summary and event list side by side. You can view the page for Red Butte Gardens. This was somewhat of a fundamental change. I had designed all of the pages to be long and skinny. That way the directory could exist in a frame of other sites, or as a small box. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a good scalable CSS design for the calendar. So, I've decided to go fixed width. Both the calendar and location pages will be 840 pixels wide.
I've also just started to play with Google Maps. That way I can include a handy link to a Location Map.
What I am doing at this point in time is just indexing events that take place at major venues in the community. My long term hope is that some venues actually decide to use this system as their event calendar.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Site Maps
FWIW, I added XML site maps to the community directories.
The maps are neither pretty, nor are they useful for humans. The maps are supposed to be useful by search engines. This is an example. This is the Index to the site maps.
The only useful information that the maps contain is an update time stamp. It took me a whole day of programming to figure out how to get the correct information into that timestamp.
The main advantage of the sitemap protocol is for dynamic web sites where the data changes randomly on a regular basis.
It will be interesting to see if the maps have any positive effects on visitors to the site.
BTW, the directory structure has had over 4 million hits. There's about 17,000 listings in the directory. That is about 235 hits per listing. When I put the directories together. The totals are lower than I was hoping to see.
The maps are neither pretty, nor are they useful for humans. The maps are supposed to be useful by search engines. This is an example. This is the Index to the site maps.
The only useful information that the maps contain is an update time stamp. It took me a whole day of programming to figure out how to get the correct information into that timestamp.
The main advantage of the sitemap protocol is for dynamic web sites where the data changes randomly on a regular basis.
It will be interesting to see if the maps have any positive effects on visitors to the site.
BTW, the directory structure has had over 4 million hits. There's about 17,000 listings in the directory. That is about 235 hits per listing. When I put the directories together. The totals are lower than I was hoping to see.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Fixed Location View
I fixed the location view. The add event program lets you select from a list of common public locations in a town. The location view lets you view events for that location.
I thought about letting the community at large add new locations. The problem with that idea is that I would risk getting duplicate locations (we often have different names for the same things). I also have problems with spammers. A spammer might add a thousand locations in whatever spiteful logic drives spammers.
If you there is a location that you think should be in the program, you can drop a reply on this post. The Location Summary page on community color shows the number of defined locations by community.
The location field is part of the calendar program. I create new locations as part of the addEvents program.
The next step in this upgrade process is to fix the addEvents program. I will add a field that lets the event adder suggest a location.
Comments on the program are always appreciate. For that matter, one of the reasons that this upgrade process has taken so long is that I don't get sufficient feedback.
I thought about letting the community at large add new locations. The problem with that idea is that I would risk getting duplicate locations (we often have different names for the same things). I also have problems with spammers. A spammer might add a thousand locations in whatever spiteful logic drives spammers.
If you there is a location that you think should be in the program, you can drop a reply on this post. The Location Summary page on community color shows the number of defined locations by community.
The location field is part of the calendar program. I create new locations as part of the addEvents program.
The next step in this upgrade process is to fix the addEvents program. I will add a field that lets the event adder suggest a location.
Comments on the program are always appreciate. For that matter, one of the reasons that this upgrade process has taken so long is that I don't get sufficient feedback.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Deleting Old Links
I just completed a link deletion frenzy. I checked 1650 links and deleted 285 of the beasties. If your site was down in this last week; it is possible that I deleted it. So you would have to re-add it. NOTE, this directory only serves the Mountain West at the moment. The old link page shows were I am on this project.
Link deletion is an ongoing project. My goal is to check all links in the system at least once a year. The chart below shows the number of link additions to deletions:
Yes, at this point in time, I am deleting things faster than I am adding 'em.
Link deletion is an ongoing project. My goal is to check all links in the system at least once a year. The chart below shows the number of link additions to deletions:
Yes, at this point in time, I am deleting things faster than I am adding 'em.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Site of the Day
The site of the day program is now back on line. I made the Site of the Day program to highlight interesting sites. I would appreciate any comments on the program. Right now, I pretty much just take sites at random and call them a SoD. I thought about making the nomination process driven by the ratings engine. I also thought about allowing the public at large write the reviews, or adding comments to the review page.
Comments on the feature are appreciated.
Comments on the feature are appreciated.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Link Rot
The link rot in the community color family of directories had gotten out of hand. I've performed several link purges of the populare pages on the sites. I decided, however, that I needed to do a systematic purge of the site.
So, for my weekend project, I wrote a program that allows me to look through every link in the directory and delete the rot. This project will take several days. The Old Links page summarizes where I am on this project.
Currently there are 17,044 active links in the directory. My records show that I have deleted 2,731 links. It looks like 13% of the sites listed in the directory have met their untimely (in may cases timely) end.
My records are very inaccurate. I deleted several thousand links before it dawned on me that I should keep a record of link deletions. The program I use to add and remove affiliate links deletes things with recording the event.
My goal in this project is to check every link in the directory that is more than a year old. I am checking from oldest to newest. So far, I have checked 802 links. I've deleted 124 of the checked links. Ouch, 15% of the links checked were in need of deletion.
I suspect that this percentage will drop as I move along with the project. Regardless. There were far too many broken links in the directory for my taste.
BTW, if your site was inaccessible at the time I checked it. There is a good chance that I would have deleted it. You can go to the add link page. Enter your domain in the "Check Domain Box" and press the "Check Domain" box. This will show if your site is still in the directory. If I deleted it, you can always re-add it.
So, for my weekend project, I wrote a program that allows me to look through every link in the directory and delete the rot. This project will take several days. The Old Links page summarizes where I am on this project.
Currently there are 17,044 active links in the directory. My records show that I have deleted 2,731 links. It looks like 13% of the sites listed in the directory have met their untimely (in may cases timely) end.
My records are very inaccurate. I deleted several thousand links before it dawned on me that I should keep a record of link deletions. The program I use to add and remove affiliate links deletes things with recording the event.
My goal in this project is to check every link in the directory that is more than a year old. I am checking from oldest to newest. So far, I have checked 802 links. I've deleted 124 of the checked links. Ouch, 15% of the links checked were in need of deletion.
I suspect that this percentage will drop as I move along with the project. Regardless. There were far too many broken links in the directory for my taste.
BTW, if your site was inaccessible at the time I checked it. There is a good chance that I would have deleted it. You can go to the add link page. Enter your domain in the "Check Domain Box" and press the "Check Domain" box. This will show if your site is still in the directory. If I deleted it, you can always re-add it.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Adding Links
Sorry about taking so long on getting Community Color fully functional on the new server. I had decided to update the program from a procedural to object model. The new model is substantially slower than the original design; So, I've been trying to figure out how to recover.
Gradually, programs are coming back on line.
The Add Link program is functioning. The program begins by checking to see if the domain you want to add is already in the directory. I've had serious spam problems; so all changes go into a queue. I approve the things that go into the queue. I check the queue every other day, and approve links that go to quality, relevant sites. Dealing with spam is a big hassle.
The program used to let you modify the links that you owned. Unfortunately, what started to happen is that someone would add a legitimate link, then repoint the link to a porn or gambling site after approval. The editing feature will only let you change the name and description of the link. You can still delete the links you own. If you want to change the URL, you have to delete the link and readd it.
I really wanted the program to use group editing techniques (where the public could change and delete links). A group edited site needs to have a sizeable population that is dedicated to making a quality site.
There is not enough interest in this project to make group editing work.
Comments on the site are always appreciated.
Gradually, programs are coming back on line.
The Add Link program is functioning. The program begins by checking to see if the domain you want to add is already in the directory. I've had serious spam problems; so all changes go into a queue. I approve the things that go into the queue. I check the queue every other day, and approve links that go to quality, relevant sites. Dealing with spam is a big hassle.
The program used to let you modify the links that you owned. Unfortunately, what started to happen is that someone would add a legitimate link, then repoint the link to a porn or gambling site after approval. The editing feature will only let you change the name and description of the link. You can still delete the links you own. If you want to change the URL, you have to delete the link and readd it.
I really wanted the program to use group editing techniques (where the public could change and delete links). A group edited site needs to have a sizeable population that is dedicated to making a quality site.
There is not enough interest in this project to make group editing work.
Comments on the site are always appreciated.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Moved to a New Domain
Community Color has changed web hosts. It is now hosted at WestHost.com located in Logan (West Host Ad).
My initial thoughts on this project was to pound out a prototype site in PHP to test the market. If the market proved fertile, I would rewrite in Java Servlets and host the site on dedicated servers. I have yet to find that lucrative market that can fund the site. However, with new high quality shared hosting facilities like WestHost in place, I feel confident that a shared faciliate could handle the site for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, during this move, there are a substantial number of broken links. That is the fault of me, the owner. I decided to rewrite the project using an OO design, and failed to give myself sufficient time to develop and test the new code. (My fear of having untested code on the server is greater than my fear of broken links.)
I apologize for all of the inconveniences related to this move. Of course, when you don't have any resources, you just muddle through.
My initial thoughts on this project was to pound out a prototype site in PHP to test the market. If the market proved fertile, I would rewrite in Java Servlets and host the site on dedicated servers. I have yet to find that lucrative market that can fund the site. However, with new high quality shared hosting facilities like WestHost in place, I feel confident that a shared faciliate could handle the site for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, during this move, there are a substantial number of broken links. That is the fault of me, the owner. I decided to rewrite the project using an OO design, and failed to give myself sufficient time to develop and test the new code. (My fear of having untested code on the server is greater than my fear of broken links.)
I apologize for all of the inconveniences related to this move. Of course, when you don't have any resources, you just muddle through.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Forum Function Disabled
In the upcoming days, I will remove the forum function from the Community Color family of sites. The basic idea was to put a forum up and see if people would use it. That did not happen. I am thinking of replacing the forum with either a local news feed or perhaps a blog/podcast indexer.
Feel free to drop comments on what you would like to see in a community directory
Feel free to drop comments on what you would like to see in a community directory
Friday, December 09, 2005
Boring Meaningless Statistics
I decided that community color should have a press release (dagnabbit). The little hit counter I put on Salt Lake Sites just clicked passed a million. I figured that was as good as any to have a press release. Of course the counter is wildly inaccurate. Due to a programming glitch it missed about 6 months of activity, and it only shows the activity on the directory structure. Anyway here goes:
Community Color Press Release 12/9/2005: The Salt Lake Sites open directory officially passed the 1 million directory hit today. Salt Lake Sites in an open directory in the Community Color family of sites. The directory currently lists 4697 links to 4054 unique domains. The most popular categories on the site are Salt Lake Night Life, Salt Lake Radio and Shopping.
The second most popular directory in the family is Provo Utah dot US. This directory covers the Utah Valley area. It lists 1282 links to 1060 distinct domains. The most popular categories in Provo are crafts and apartments. Provo is a college town where people like to do crafty things. The Provo directory shows 254,000 hits. Missoula.ws shows 174,000 hits and gjct.com (Grand Junction) shows 155,000 hits. A new comer in the line up is Denver Color which past the 100,000 hit mark earlier this month.
The purpose of the Community Color family of sites is to promote local web development in the mountain west. The directory includes one of the most complete collections of links to local artists, cultural institutions and businesses in the area. The site allows free listings for all residents in the areas served by the directories. The entire Community Color directory structure averages 2700 hits a day.
NOTE, the directory is only one component of the site. In November, 2005, the Community Color Sites reported 49,638 sessions and 414,233 page views. The directory accounts for about 20% of the site's traffic.
The web sites are funded by a small number of clearly marked advertisers (affiliates). 2.7% of the links in Salt Lake Sites go to affiliated sites. 3.1% of the sites in Grand Junction go to affiliates, 3.3% of the sites in Missoula go to affiliates and 5.8% of the links in Provo go to affiliates.
Unfortunately, there is a very high turn over in local web sites. Salt Lake Sites has 4697 links. In the last three years, I’ve deleted 770 broken links. 14% of the total links have been removed! I greatly appreciate people who mark broken links. I apologize for the large number of broken links still on the directory...especially broken links that go to unsavory sites.
System wide, the community color family of sites lists 14181 links. 990 of the links go to "affiliates." I believe that this is a good balance. The take from the advertisers has been averaging about $650 a month. Hopefully the use of the directory will grow with time.
The entire directory structure shows over 2.37 million hits. This figure is actually an undercount. I have a tendency to delete data.
This concludes the press release. I have another one planned in about a month.
Community Color Press Release 12/9/2005: The Salt Lake Sites open directory officially passed the 1 million directory hit today. Salt Lake Sites in an open directory in the Community Color family of sites. The directory currently lists 4697 links to 4054 unique domains. The most popular categories on the site are Salt Lake Night Life, Salt Lake Radio and Shopping.
The second most popular directory in the family is Provo Utah dot US. This directory covers the Utah Valley area. It lists 1282 links to 1060 distinct domains. The most popular categories in Provo are crafts and apartments. Provo is a college town where people like to do crafty things. The Provo directory shows 254,000 hits. Missoula.ws shows 174,000 hits and gjct.com (Grand Junction) shows 155,000 hits. A new comer in the line up is Denver Color which past the 100,000 hit mark earlier this month.
The purpose of the Community Color family of sites is to promote local web development in the mountain west. The directory includes one of the most complete collections of links to local artists, cultural institutions and businesses in the area. The site allows free listings for all residents in the areas served by the directories. The entire Community Color directory structure averages 2700 hits a day.
NOTE, the directory is only one component of the site. In November, 2005, the Community Color Sites reported 49,638 sessions and 414,233 page views. The directory accounts for about 20% of the site's traffic.
The web sites are funded by a small number of clearly marked advertisers (affiliates). 2.7% of the links in Salt Lake Sites go to affiliated sites. 3.1% of the sites in Grand Junction go to affiliates, 3.3% of the sites in Missoula go to affiliates and 5.8% of the links in Provo go to affiliates.
Unfortunately, there is a very high turn over in local web sites. Salt Lake Sites has 4697 links. In the last three years, I’ve deleted 770 broken links. 14% of the total links have been removed! I greatly appreciate people who mark broken links. I apologize for the large number of broken links still on the directory...especially broken links that go to unsavory sites.
System wide, the community color family of sites lists 14181 links. 990 of the links go to "affiliates." I believe that this is a good balance. The take from the advertisers has been averaging about $650 a month. Hopefully the use of the directory will grow with time.
The entire directory structure shows over 2.37 million hits. This figure is actually an undercount. I have a tendency to delete data.
This concludes the press release. I have another one planned in about a month.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Announcing CC News Blog
One of the items in my "to do" list for the Community Color family of sites was to create a "news" program. The news program would list informal press releases in reverse chronological order. It would allow for comments and expose itself to the world with an RSS feed.
This really is not that big of a program. But why re-invent the wheel? Blogs are the perfect tool for issuing news releases. Blogs also happen to be plugged into an exciting and dynamic community of bloggers. So, I decided to create a blog called Community Color News which will list new developments to the Community Color sites.
So, the first news release is (ta da) the addition of a news blog to the community color family of web sites. These sites include open directories for a select number of cities in the Mountain West.
This blog will only have periodic posts. Feel free to leave comments. You can request features on community forum.
This really is not that big of a program. But why re-invent the wheel? Blogs are the perfect tool for issuing news releases. Blogs also happen to be plugged into an exciting and dynamic community of bloggers. So, I decided to create a blog called Community Color News which will list new developments to the Community Color sites.
So, the first news release is (ta da) the addition of a news blog to the community color family of web sites. These sites include open directories for a select number of cities in the Mountain West.
This blog will only have periodic posts. Feel free to leave comments. You can request features on community forum.
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