I've been insanely busy at the office lately and on top of that, I caught a damn cold (in summer!!!).

Here goes :

Yes, the session ID could indeed be stripped away. I'm not sure which version Useless Warrior installed but mine definitely didn't work without modifications to the code. A word of warning, by default, the admin section of phplinks has no protection by the way. (do a simple google search and you'll be able to access the admin panel on many)

Even if it would work, I wouldn't use it as a core for reasons I've stated before : a core is something that must be well-designed. :)

Entreri.

Note : If you want to look further into PHPLinks, this guy has branched the code and added a bunch of features (including recip checking) : http://www.dew-code.com/modules/mydownloads/

Here is a minor update on the lack of progress I have made. PHPlinks ran without bugs on my webserver, but I installed on my home machine and it is glitchy as all hell. It has to be run with globals on, which is no-no for many hosts. Plus there are tons of other 'minor' errors. If you turn off some of the error reporting in PHP, it works. But how many hosts run PHP with all error reporting off?

Here is the golden question? Would a dumbed down free link list script serve this community well, or would it just steal business from those who work hard to create good scripts? There are several free TGP scripts, which is why there are thousands of TGPs with 50 hits a day. At least those free TGP scripts go for the upsell with a more adorned version.

I'm sure I can eek out something by manipulating a few os scripts, but it certainly won't have the functionality of a purchased ll script. And frankly, I'm beginning to believe that it shouldn't. Don't get me wrong, I am all for open source. But I'm not sure the adult community would like to see a hundred new link lists day, each one slowly thinning out the the good traffic currently held by the big guys.

What are you opinions?

Interesting to hear that phplinks is buggy as shit, because that was the impression I had already gotten from studying it without installing it.

Now, as far as your other questions go:

"Free" is not an issue for me, I've got money and don't mind paying for good tools. A good tool will make you profit years after you've forgotten what it cost you.

But, as far as I can tell, every single linklist software out there has significant flaws. I hate spending money on a tool that doesn't do what I need it to do. Then I feel ripped off and pissed on. I've bought too many pieces of useless software to want to be screwed yet again.

Linkadmin is fine software, but it's barely supported anymore, if at all, and it's a bitch to modify or get modified.

Links2 costs $150, very reasonable, but out of the box it's a useless piece of shit, and you have to add mod after mod to get it to work the way an adult LL needs to work.

Haven't tried LinksSQL, but I'll bet it's in exactly the same shape as links2, it has to be modded to the max to get it to work as an adult linklist.

Xpowerlinks looks okay out of the box, at least what I've seen of it, but will it be secure and will it be supported? Who knows? All I know is that nobody I trust is using it now.

Money is so much not the issue that it's not even funny.

All I want is a trustable piece of software that is flexible, easily modified, supported, and which does what I want it to do out of the box.

Between $100 and $200 is the amount I think such a soft should cost. I mean, get serious, we aren't talking about programming a Photoshop here, it's a web script.

I don't particularly care about proliferation. There are already 500 little linklists and a thousand abandoned or extinct LLs. Proliferation is happening no matter what the soft costs.

I think it's a bad idea. I can't see how this benefits the LL community at all, or even what you stand to gain by doing this for free.

I'm sure most LL owners here have spent a *lot* of time and money on their sites and scripts. This is their main income source. Do you think they want this sector flooded by thousands of new LL, that anyone can create at no cost? Look at TGP's, like you said.

If a webmaster isn't willing to invest some money into their business then they aren't serious. They are probably doing this "on the side" for beer money. Your free script would appeal greatly to that crowd.

I know your intentions are good, but I think the results would be unfavorable in the long run.

|goodnight