Session Data, Referrer-Specific Content, etc.
 

Greetings.

I'm working on some new "site management" software for some of my free sites. In the past, I've used offline scripts to build totally static sites. I've been thinking about moving to a system of dynamic sites[0]. I'd like some input from the point of view of:

• general ethics
• link list operators
• user experience

Specifically, here are some thoughts:

• Cookies - (Good | Bad | Evil)
• Referrer-Based Behavior (I could build a site that would, say, only do popups if the user was coming from a site that agreed to link to sites with popups[2], offer 3 galleries if the referrer requires 3, 2 if not, mouseover where allowed, etc.)
• Track the # of actual click-throughs based on the referrer
• Referrer-Based Behavior Extended - Actually alter things like the list of recips based on the referrer[3]
• Session Strings - URLs that look like this: http://www.foo.bar/mysite?session=123532432&pic=123
• Bogus File Extensions - There's no real technical reason to send JPG's out as http://www.foo.bar/picture.jpg ... there might be reasons to send it out as http://www.foo.bar/picture

What do y'all think?

Note: On any site like this, I would expect to setup a webmaster resource page to explain to curious folks exactly how the site worked. While I might not tell link lists in my submission about the system, I wouldn't plan to be secretive about it.

-jbn

[0] - I'm aware of the server load and responsiveness issues often associated with dynamic sites. If you'd like to discuss those, let's do so in another thread, probably in the scripting forum.
[1] - Yes, this could arguably go in the link list forum, the scripting forum or ___.
[2] - Just an example. Personally, I don't ever use popups.
[3] - I think this is probably unethical, but I'm curious about opinions

Part of the problem of dynamic sites like this is in the viewing: Link list operators, search engine bots, and end users will all probably see different versions of the site.

Your biggest longterm concern is the bots. If you are going to go through the process to create the equivelant of five sites, well, why not just build the five sites? The SE bots will only index one of them (whatever the default is for the region the bot is in, if you are IP filtering). That means all your work on the other four will go unnoticed.

Secondary to that is link sites. Dynamic sites are a pain in the ass because there is no way to see if you are offering the same experience to all the surfers. I would be thinking "Is he sending some to dailers, some to console hell, some to disney?"... when I am not sure what the content of the site really is going to be, I have less interest in listing the site.

Unless you site(s) are going to be 100% self create traffic (using traffic pumps and other redirectors to the site) you will have a hard time capitalizing on all your work to get it done right.

I would suggest that you might want a "third level" solution - make your www. site "american english" and then make version of "spanish." and "japanese." and "nocreditcardpeople." whatever... then have the index page on WWW allow people to choose an alternate entrance, perhaps even detect and offer them the entrance in their correct language. Done right, you can even get the bots to actually go and see ALL of the sites, which means you benefit the most from all your work.

Just stream of though here... enjoy :-)

Alex

Random Luser Hell
 

Good Point, RawAlex.

Of course, BOFH side of me thinks, "Hmm... wouldn't a great feature be to send a random user into a popup hell like no one's ever seen before... just for giggles?" Okay ... so that's mean and I should probably be blacklisted just for thinking it ... but still. :-)

-jbn