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Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it.

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Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it.
Sick and tired of broken links? I thought Links 2.0 resolved this problem by checking links, but the ones it said didn't work, actually did. And ones that it never mention were actually broken (ahhhh!). So my and yours still contain mega broken links.

The fix?

A cgi-program that works with Links 2.0 jump program.

The idea:

Link checker: First a person clicks on a link via a Links 2.0 site. A page with an ad and a place to fill in their e-mail address comes up. A user is asked to submit their e-mail address prior to going to a link. Once a user supply us with a valid e-mail address they can continue and won't be bother by e-mail/ad page again. Note: They will still be allowed to go to a link if they don't enter their e-mail address by hitting "not interested.". But they will be reminded that they can avoid seeing that page (with e-mail and ad) if they give us an e-mail address. A cookie can be used to verify if the have submitted their e-mail address.

Once they do give e-mail address a verifying page will pop up. Verifying page is also after they are done seeing the ad and e-mail info (some users may not want to collect e-mail address and place ads, so the program should have an option to do both).

Verifying page (the program somehow pings or "checks" the url to see if it is valid. In case of frames it checks all frames to ensure they are valid). If an images or anything is broken then it tells the user prior to going to the link. The speed of this checks is essential. Ultimately I would like for it to check every image/video on the page. But if that takes to long, I think just ensuring the page is there is good enough.

The results of this program would be:

1. More e-mail addresses.
2. More revenue
3. More credibility cause we eliminated broken links.

A further as on could be to e-mail the admin in the even a dead link is found (I think there should be a certain number of trys before an e-mail is sent). Some sites do go down for mysterious reasons. But definitely no longer than 7 days.

If anyone is interested in working on this I can help with ideas.

I think this would be a great asset to all of us! What do you guys think?

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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
i wouldn't want to type my email address just to go to a link.. plus using Sockets will do it all anyways..

i don't think you'll ever see YAHOO asking for email addresses Smile there are so many ways to check status of a site.. but the way Links 2.0 uses it is just a standard way. there are a bunch of modules that go more into the specifics.. like parsing pages for MOVED or REFRESH tags.. etc

jerry

jerry
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
I take it that you have NOT visited the Resource Center. Almost all you talked about is already available:

Wink

1) There are two LWP Link Checker add-ons. One checks the URL to make sure it is valid before it is submitted. The other checks the URL and also inputs the size, title, and meta description fields into the form.

2) I wrote a Report Dead Link script that allows users the ability to send a message to the Admin by clicking on the "Report Dead Link", which pulls the links ID, URL, and Title. Also, there is a quick drop-down field that allows people to choose the error message they received while attempting to access the link.

3) There is also a new hold.cgi script that will put LINKS in a temporary database if they are in the process of being edited or have moved temporarily.

4) There are also cookie and My LINKS mods being discussed in the Modification Forum.

I would recommend checking out the Resource Center and also submitting your questions in the Modification Forum in existing Threads that address your ideas.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Anthro TECH,L.L.C
www.anthrotech.com
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
i think he's going for automation..

maybe not.. i still don't understand why you'd need someones email to go to a site..

jerry
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
I don't need their e-mail, I prefer it. Why? Cause it helps generate more revenue and interest on my site. And remember the cgi would have options to have or not have the e-mail come up.

My site is specific and most people would have no problem giving their e-mail address in this manner, whereas I can understand how it would be a problem for other sites.

You are correct, I am looking for automation. I want a person to be able to check the link the moment they click on it (not a cron job done once a day). I don't know about you guys but I have sites going up and down all day. So a program that checks the url before a person goes there would be a great thing for all.
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
just think of how many links you'll automatically delete that are down for 5 minutes a day..

jerry
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
I don't want to automatically delete them. I want to check them prior to a person going to the site. If it is unavaialble then they are given an alternate link. That site would go on "hold" and be checked again at a later date. Am I making sense?
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
ok.. i'm not sure what your site is about.. but if i was looking for a ping pong site.. i wouldn't want to end up at a badminton site cause the ping pong site was down.. however.. if your site was.. AHEM.. warez.. then it would make sense to send them to an alternative link that works.. and it keeps looping over and over until a link works Wink

yes.. that is possible.. making links put on "HOLD" is also possible.. you just have to make another database and "steal" the line out of links.db into that db.. and simply have an admin section similiar to validate inside of the admin to put them back..

is that what you want?

of course not only would it be useful for AHEM.. warez.. it would also be useful for.. AHEM.. mp3s.. Smile

jerry
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
ok.. instead of making MULTIPLE links and having a hold database.. i think you can just make a textarea and store all the URLs to that.. AHEM.. file.. in there.. it will start with the first one.. down the list.. you can put links on hold by "marking" the urls so you can parse it and skip putting it into url.db from nph-build.cgi

it's also a good way of getting the AHEM.. internet cops.. from getting the URLS by spidering your pages Wink all of them would be jump.cgi?ID=# even though there could be like 70 URLs stored into one ID..

if your site is *downloads*.. then you'd probably want the URL list listed from fastest to slowest.. so there may need to be an additional script to do that..

jerry
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Re: Broken Links suck - I have an idea to fix it. In reply to
Jerry perhaps you can e-mail me directly and we can discuss this more. You are on the right track (even surpassed the orginal concept in a way I never thought of Smile

Thanks everyone.