SSI for recip tables?

[MrYum]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

thanks for the info, I'll give this a try

is there any reason other than organizational to use this for recip tables? I suppose it would lighten up the page a bit too. Any downsides to using it?

Probably the biggest upside is when a link site vanishes, or you discover they've never listed your sites...

You literally change ONE file, upload...boom, all recips are changed on all sites...VERY handy

Potential downsides...

If your server is slow to respond...causing the ssi call to be delayed, it's possible for someone to not see the recips. It's not very likely, but could happen.

That said, out of the few hundred sites I did that way, I never had a single one declined for that reason.

Make sure your server is up to snuff, and you should be fine

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by MrYum

Potential downsides...

If your server is slow to respond...causing the ssi call to be delayed, it's possible for someone to not see the recips. It's not very likely, but could happen.

That said, out of the few hundred sites I did that way, I never had a single one declined for that reason.

Make sure your server is up to snuff, and you should be fine

Yeah, that was the only thing I was thinking, but you'd have to be on a really cheap host to be effected by this.

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

Just thought I'd post that to let all builders know that ssi recip tables aren't a necessity, just something most of the cool kids do.

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

that's the only thing I don't like, I tend to make my recip tables different, shifting them around a bit & whatnot. It's useful to know though, I may use it for other things instead

[ladydesigner]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

Same here. I think I'll just stick with regular html recip code on my free sites though I do use includes on my LL. Like Ponygirl said, it's good to have this info.

[Lemmy]

I'm looking forward to all the submits with messed up or no recip tables at all. From what I understand different server configs require different SSI include specification in the .htaccess file, so make sure you get it right.

What has been said about design limitations is also a very valid point. Varying your recip tables is one way of keeping your templates fresh looking.

[MrYum]

Those last posts above are very valid points about the limitations of using includes for recip tables

It is however an awesome tool to have in ones belt for so many other uses. I use them extensively on my link site...very handy for things like trades, static menus and the like

And Lemmy is right...IF you're going to use them for recips, be sure to double check those pages before submitting.

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Lemmy

I'm looking forward to all the submits with messed up or no recip tables at all.

it would certainly help if people remembered to check their work after uploading. I wonder how many submits that I get now with messed up tables are due to SSI.

Originally Posted by Lemmy

What has been said about design limitations is also a very valid point. Varying your recip tables is one way of keeping your templates fresh looking.

very true. I generally build fresh every time & don't use templates, so my recip tables could be any size depending on how it fits in. Plus, I switch around LLs a lot, which I wouldn't be able to do. It's a nifty little tool, no doubt, but I think I'll use it on more static things than my recip tables.

thanks for this thread, TekAngel - it's been very educational

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

You could make variations of the files easy enough and just save as a slightly different file name like amateur01-3col.txt, amateur01-5col.txt, or different colors, fonts, etc...

I'm not sure about this, but can you have 2 seperate ssi calls on a single page? If you could you could do files like amateur01-left, amateur01-right, and then put your text in between those using a table.

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

[SheepGuy]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

You could make variations of the files easy enough and just save as a slightly different file name like amateur01-3col.txt, amateur01-5col.txt, or different colors, fonts, etc...

I'm not sure about this, but can you have 2 seperate ssi calls on a single page? If you could you could do files like amateur01-left, amateur01-right, and then put your text in between those using a table.

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

Sure, I use two SSI's on quite a few of my AVS sites, one for the recip table, one for a blurb advertising the benefits of the AVS.

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

That's I like about SSI. Once all the reicp tables are made I never have to "fiddle" with them any more. Doing recip tables manually for every site took me forrreeevvvveerrrrrrrrr.