From the submitter's point of view...

tigermom · 2006-02-24, 04:50 AM

Hooray! I just submitted my 12th freesite today! Having read here and on LL's themselves and still considering myself a newbie to FS, I have a few points that might, hopefully help LL owners see our side of the equations as submitters. And yes, I know many of you guys either started out as submitters, or still do the submitting thing as well...

This isn't a rant about how hard you're making life for the submitters either. Actually, I own quite a few mainstream directories and I happen to sympathize with the woes of having to review dozens, if not hundreds of submissions a day, of total jerks who can't follow the easiest rules, not to mention cheaters.

All that said, I do have a few points (if you're still reading this long post), about things that you might be able to improve to make life for the honest hard-working, manual submitter, a little bit easier. If your LL isn't established yet, you may want to consider the following -

1. Give me simple linking codes. I use my own design on the recips. All I need is a simple HTML code of two lines - <a href="category-url">Category Name</a><br><a href="LL-url">LL Name</a>. Add a title parameter if you like, but no design and style tags please.

Keep the fancy recips with the colors, descriptions, marquees and images if you want, but offer a simple version for us webmasters who try to maintain a clean look in the recip table. It's a pain stripping those unbelievably long codes produced by most LL's into a simple link...

2. Keep your forms short. Please don't add fields unless they are absolutely required. Sure, it's cool to have a big database on your end with all sorts of info (i.e. number of pictures, name of models, which sponsor, or my mom's maiden name) but it's a pain for me as a submitter, and frankly makes me move on to another LL. If you really want to add those fields, please don't make them mandatory.

3. Go easy on visual confirmation codes. Using visual confirmation codes to prevent auto-submissions is ok, but please keep it within reason. It is so frustrating having to stick my face into the screen trying to decide whether I'm seeing a small "o" a capital "O" or a zero... Use a code that has either all numbers, or all letters and no need to mix capital and small ones. Oh, and please keep the background within reason. Yes, you don't want OCR programs reading it, but you do want me reading it, don't you?

2006-02-24, 04:50 AM	#1
tigermom You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 893	From the submitter's point of view... Hooray! I just submitted my 12th freesite today! Having read here and on LL's themselves and still considering myself a newbie to FS, I have a few points that might, hopefully help LL owners see our side of the equations as submitters. And yes, I know many of you guys either started out as submitters, or still do the submitting thing as well... This isn't a rant about how hard you're making life for the submitters either. Actually, I own quite a few mainstream directories and I happen to sympathize with the woes of having to review dozens, if not hundreds of submissions a day, of total jerks who can't follow the easiest rules, not to mention cheaters. All that said, I do have a few points (if you're still reading this long post), about things that you might be able to improve to make life for the honest hard-working, manual submitter, a little bit easier. If your LL isn't established yet, you may want to consider the following - 1. Give me simple linking codes. I use my own design on the recips. All I need is a simple HTML code of two lines - <a href="category-url">Category Name</a><br><a href="LL-url">LL Name</a>. Add a title parameter if you like, but no design and style tags please. Keep the fancy recips with the colors, descriptions, marquees and images if you want, but offer a simple version for us webmasters who try to maintain a clean look in the recip table. It's a pain stripping those unbelievably long codes produced by most LL's into a simple link... 2. Keep your forms short. Please don't add fields unless they are absolutely required. Sure, it's cool to have a big database on your end with all sorts of info (i.e. number of pictures, name of models, which sponsor, or my mom's maiden name) but it's a pain for me as a submitter, and frankly makes me move on to another LL. If you really want to add those fields, please don't make them mandatory. 3. Go easy on visual confirmation codes. Using visual confirmation codes to prevent auto-submissions is ok, but please keep it within reason. It is so frustrating having to stick my face into the screen trying to decide whether I'm seeing a small "o" a capital "O" or a zero... Use a code that has either all numbers, or all letters and no need to mix capital and small ones. Oh, and please keep the background within reason. Yes, you don't want OCR programs reading it, but you do want me reading it, don't you? __________________ XLEF