Setting Up A Directory: My Adventures

[Simon]

Hiya Kristian

Nice to see you've made a lot of progress!

I met and had a nice talk with Matt online a week or so ago during a chat (on another network) that was nearly empty due to the time change. After talking with him awhile, I bookmarked his site for future LL projects where I want help instead of taking the do it myself approach. Nice to see that I made a good move there.

I also wanted to say thanks for reminding me of something I always used to do, but had forgotten about with the new XRT project. You and UW talked about it here:

Originally Posted by kristian

...there will be no advertising at the start. ...boomarkers, trades and content are priceless... and surfers will get clean pages to encourage bookmarking.

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

...something MML... and... GG do when they work a new project. First gain the love of the surfers, then work on marketing to them.

I couldn't agree more with what you're talking about regarding the value of bookmarkers. There are sites I built where I didn't add any promotions for months, sometimes many months. Letting things age and season a bit has worked well for things here too.

On a side note, I saying thanks since I just spent several days going back through all the templates I built when I set up XRT and have now moved the design back to where I first had it, with no banners or button graphics except those of the site itself.

One last thing and then I'm out of here...

Originally Posted by kristian

...encouraging bookmarkers has been...a driving force in my design of the site. ... I think you (GG) agree that the fewer outbound links per page, the better. If we can agree on that, then my argument is this : I don't think surfers will be all that bothered about 50 links per page.

I like the clean design you're using. I like how you're trying to encourage bookmarkers by giving them a clean, well-designed interface that they can use to pull content from your database.

I know you've looked at LOR.

Sorry, but I got a big grin when you said to GG, "I think you agree that the fewer outbound links per page, the better." I just checked the "hardcore" category page at LOR. Not counting links to other category pages, I believe there are around 550 outbound links on that page.

I think GG's using that same basic idea with www.pornmovielinks.com too. I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the intent there is to keep making those pages longer and longer until they're just too long (then invent another sub-sub-category).

So --- one thing I'd love to see discussed here are what I'm referring to as the two opposing camps of LL design:

1. Put all the links you can on one long page, using categories and sub-categories to split thing up when you eventually have too many listings on some page(s).

2. Use a "fixed" page size, with "Next Page" style links to move to more content, instead of scrolling down to see more.

Getting a better understanding of "why" someone would choose one design strategy over another could be a very important part of starting a new link list. IMHO

For any LL owners reading this...

Do you think either design has some inherent advantage over the other that you talk about here?

Do you think one design is more surfer-friendly than the other (and why)?


Simon

[kristian]

Hey Simon

I'll say one more thing about design on this subject. Have you ever been to one of those tgps that has a million tiny links on their main page? We all have I guess. I fucking hate them with a passion! When I'm looking for porn I don't want to have to SQUINT to find it or spend minutes scrolling down the page to find it.

One of Matt's biggest jobs was modding the directory structure. I have gone to great lengths to make it easy for surfers to find the porn. You will see when I post up the links. I have also made the links and headings bigger than usual for the same reasons. I could be entirely wrong (surfer -wise) but I'm designing a link list that appeals to my own surfing habits : easy to FIND and easy to SEE porn.

Regarding Matt. Honestly, you have made a great choice. As you can see I am as quick to document poor service (Dickman Design) as I am to document good service, so you can trust my opinion. Without his involvement my little project would still have been in the land of the fucked up.

Righto, I'm off to shower and peddle some more porno. I always look forward to your posts dude. I hope we get some feed back on the issues you raised.