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- Thread starter TaoPhoenix
- Start date
Tao is there a site with all this data publicly or to the hosts accessible or do you keep it to yourself and 'share' what you think is relevant?
I'm getting confused as to what's happening with this collection of information that is solely under your auspicious momentum (you seem to like those types of phrases so I thought I'd throw one in for you).
I doubt I'm the only one that thinks your not a Google algorithm level review and would love to know what your doing with the 'numbers' - not a host but I used to be and call it instinct but I wouldn't be happy about the situation your placing hosts in without a full disclosure of data, couple of text lines doesn't cut it on a web page report.
You said in fact it loves it, so where the hell is it!
Not having a go mate but seriously get some openness involved
One phrase deserves another! I'm publically posting what I believe 10 other people are doing ... but not posting. (I refuse to believe I am so special that no other host wants to know this stuff as an industry ratio.)
As for relevance, it's "all relevant' - it's a direct copy of the ad text followed by attempting to visit the site's homepage. If the host is up everyone cheers and eats cupcakes. If the host died, "they" are not around to care. All I'm doing is unifying already obvious info, that "no one but savants can do in their head".
Now sure, we can have fun later with "% of hosts alive out of total hosts who posted offers". I'm sure it's higher than the free side, but I'm more inclined to give the free guys a break.
Re: "Where is the data" - that's how long it took me to do that many days by hand. Of course it would be smarter as a program - but then much has been remarked upon my celebrated lack of technical skills.
Actually, that is a practice I hope to stop. It is far from documented well - there is no central zone for "This Host has become That Host". In my free host project over on the other side, all the name changes with one glorious exception came from owners whose original host failed (leaving clients in the dust) and then those folks formed/joined new ventures so that they could get a free pass to a fresh slate. I am doing what I can to give the clients the power they have in this Buyer's Industry but are losing through fragmentation.
Per a couple of my editorials elsewhere, while saddening, I don't have any grand stake in free hosts failing. But on the Paid side they get to go all ballistic on you through accounting law ... until they fold and get off scott free!
"With Great Cash comes Great Responsibility!"
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Seraphim
Active Member
I could see a lot of this being automated by script. Use a slow-running spider to browse the ads here and pick up the description, poster, and company name that way it is using clean public-visible data as it's source. If people have a problem with that other than the spider running too fast and stressing it's host or the forum, then they really should consider filing a lawsuit against Google for indexing content and thousands of blogs out there who are filled with data harvested from the forum posts here.
Then try the link, and if it yields a page with keywords that are similar within a set percentage in order to filter out name changers and domain parking, mark the host up. If not, mark it dead.
The dead hosts should then be compiled into a list of their own for human investigation to find out what their fate ultimately was and if they perhaps rebranded without making it obvious.
Doing it that way would yield a framework very friendly towards later on making statistics of host longevity, reliability, and price versus stability. I could probably put something of that nature up in PHP in an afternoon or so with a working search feature- key in the host name you want to look up, and it'll show you everything that is known about them. Kind of like a wiki of hosts past and present.
It wouldn't be foolproof though- a dead host that domain parked in a way that yields the right keyword combination would still be tagged up, while a live host with no keywords or a redirected host that didn't carry over any details would be tagged down.
Then try the link, and if it yields a page with keywords that are similar within a set percentage in order to filter out name changers and domain parking, mark the host up. If not, mark it dead.
The dead hosts should then be compiled into a list of their own for human investigation to find out what their fate ultimately was and if they perhaps rebranded without making it obvious.
Doing it that way would yield a framework very friendly towards later on making statistics of host longevity, reliability, and price versus stability. I could probably put something of that nature up in PHP in an afternoon or so with a working search feature- key in the host name you want to look up, and it'll show you everything that is known about them. Kind of like a wiki of hosts past and present.
It wouldn't be foolproof though- a dead host that domain parked in a way that yields the right keyword combination would still be tagged up, while a live host with no keywords or a redirected host that didn't carry over any details would be tagged down.
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Great! Please talk to JJW who also said he was interested in a prorammed approach. My quick guess is that you add two metrics for finding a page - raw "something there" (because a lot of the dead ones were Not Found), and then Suspected Parked. Keywords alone is dangerous - that's what the whole SEO industry has become. A better way in my view is to spider the dependent links to see if the homepage "goes anywhere".
Could be easier, just static pages that are updated to host status in tabular format, simple scrolly down list.
Your updating things manually anyway, so why not have one place where you collate the info into one list, so at least everyone knows what the hell's going on
If you want I could do a real simple to edit set of pages for you, no programming no spidering techniques, although if you can get html responding/not responding data that would be good as an indicator for you to visit and see if the hosts still there.
I can see good things on long term monitor/report but I can't see that anyone gets any benefit if it's not visible, and the hosts are kind of jumping through hoops to try and be in the top list.
As for a comment that it only takes a minute to update with a post while we go into meltdown, if I was a client of theirs I'd tell them to stuff the posting and get my site working again minute or not (oops there goes another sale/client scenario (as in that minute a really good one looked and you weren't there, so they went elsewhere)
Hope you appreciate it's all meant as constructive crit
Your updating things manually anyway, so why not have one place where you collate the info into one list, so at least everyone knows what the hell's going on
If you want I could do a real simple to edit set of pages for you, no programming no spidering techniques, although if you can get html responding/not responding data that would be good as an indicator for you to visit and see if the hosts still there.
I can see good things on long term monitor/report but I can't see that anyone gets any benefit if it's not visible, and the hosts are kind of jumping through hoops to try and be in the top list.
As for a comment that it only takes a minute to update with a post while we go into meltdown, if I was a client of theirs I'd tell them to stuff the posting and get my site working again
minute or not (oops there goes another sale/client scenario (as in that minute a really good one looked and you weren't there, so they went elsewhere)Hope you appreciate it's all meant as constructive crit
Could be easier, just static pages that are updated to host status in tabular format, simple scrolly down list.
Your updating things manually anyway, so why not have one place where you collate the info into one list, so at least everyone knows what the hell's going on
If you want I could do a real simple to edit set of pages for you, no programming no spidering techniques, although if you can get html responding/not responding data that would be good as an indicator for you to visit and see if the hosts still there.
I can see good things on long term monitor/report but I can't see that anyone gets any benefit if it's not visible, and the hosts are kind of jumping through hoops to try and be in the top list.
As for a comment that it only takes a minute to update with a post while we go into meltdown, if I was a client of theirs I'd tell them to stuff the posting and get my site working again
Hope you appreciate it's all meant as constructive crit
Well I'll take any help I can get on this one, so let's chat. I was doing text pages because they are not only simple to begin gathering data but all kinds of programs can import text. Before I knew any help was coming I was reducing my goals to just do July as a sampler because of the sheer amount of data. When you mention "simple edit of pages" that's an FYI that it's more work than it looks!
If we had the whole set from JJW or Seraphim or you etc, one obvious presentation is a spreadsheet because then you can play with filters and do calcs.
Now your looking at more complex pages with scripts involved
Simple to edit means you know how to use FTP and some basic HTML freebie, then you change the numbers and any text.
If you want the whole set then you might as well go the whole hog and have full blown sheets with pivot tables and dynamic updating through trend changes.
But if you still want the simple one you can handle after I simply hand it over then let me know no phone support included :lol:
Simple to edit means you know how to use FTP and some basic HTML freebie, then you change the numbers and any text.
If you want the whole set then you might as well go the whole hog and have full blown sheets with pivot tables and dynamic updating through trend changes.
But if you still want the simple one you can handle after I simply hand it over then let me know
no phone support included :lol:"Beggars can't be choosers!" Heh I initially was just thinking of posting manual downloadable spreadsheets, not ultra fancy pages. I'd settle for a scraper tool that can just read the ad board, and output info much like my text files that can then just be pasted into the ongoing spreadsheet. That's why I started humble and low tech, and help received is entirely dependent upon y'all's enthusiasm!
Anyone thinking over the high-tech methods have any progress, or should I just be content with a one or two month snapshot of manual data?
jennyjackson
New Member
well if any person needed help about programming i am willing to help.
If you can get me the details as to how your getting the info now I should be able to work it in, again depends on how it's being done, and conversions for downloadable formats whether to a human being with notepad or a spreadsheet or most other things really should be easy enough, even to 'get' from a server for automated updates to something or other.
Now you've got me thinking you git - yes it does hurt, a lot!!!
Now you've got me thinking you git
- yes it does hurt, a lot!!!If you can get me the details as to how your getting the info now I should be able to work it in, again depends on how it's being done, and conversions for downloadable formats whether to a human being with notepad or a spreadsheet or most other things really should be easy enough, even to 'get' from a server for automated updates to something or other.
Now you've got me thinking you git
I'm gathering the admins didn't want to get involved in a data dump, so the next item below talks about scraping.
Did I get the great Decker thinking!? Maybe whatever Familiar is after Fluffy Bunny week might be able to help you think!
