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Rating System for Links
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b -- site is a brochure.
A "brochure site" is the same as the basic handout many firms provide as
a part of their publicity. Many sites are basically brochures and nothing
more.
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c -- site contains content (essays, other
material).
Most sites are extremely light on content. A "c" rating means that
the site has some content that is worth a visit.
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c!-- site contains substantial content.
A "!" rating is given to a site which I think has something
special.
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e -- site contains a search engine (that
is reasonably updated) -- and covers more than just the site (e.g. my site
has a search engine of just the site at
http://adrr.com/cgi-adr/search.cgi
-- which doesn't qualify me for an "e" since the searches are just of
my site).
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f -- site hosts forums/on-line bulletin
boards.
Be aware that most on-line bulletin boards are not used much.
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h -- historic site ("old" site in web
years).
This designation is becoming obsolete as the historic sites are moved and
renovated.
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l -- site contains links of
interest.
This rating specifically means that the site contains links that make it
part of the internet community, not just links to a closed community. An
"l" rating is not given to sites that link only to members.
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l+-- site contains substantial link
collections.
There are a few top notch link collections outside of the search engine sites.
The "+" designates them.
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m -- membership oriented site --
has substantial content for members.
An "m" site will probably read like an advertising brochure to non-members.
Often they have webmasters who are demanding or obnoxious.
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n -- on-line newsletters available
without charge.
Some of these are good, some are in need of a new editor.
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s -- site contains sales information.
It is no coincidence that a brochure site, without links or content, that
also tries to sell something gets a "b s" rating.
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Boldfaced sites support the community
of the web.
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I see three movements on the web in the ADR Community and the web sites about
dispute resolution.
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The first movement is proprietary and attempts to suck
in web surfers and reroute them from the community of the web to a limited,
commercially exploited and created community. Such sites are notable
for either having no links or for having links only to "members" (often not
clearly disclosed).
The first type of site will seek to have links to itself, but will never
offer links outside of itself. (I've gotten a number of requests to
exchange links with sites of that type. They never put up the promised
reciprocal link, but are often very demanding about the links put up to their
site). You can call such sites "black holes" or "rents in the web."
(Two current terms for them).
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The second movement in design and site layout offers itself and nothing
else on the location. Quite frankly, there is absolutely nothing
wrong with a site of this type. The web does not offer sufficient
return to justify the effort it takes to do more than post a simple
page that, like a business card or yellow pages listing, identifies who and
where you are. I generally advise people to start with this type of
site and respect those whose sites are well executed brochures or listings.
These sites are honest, useful and worthy uses of
bandwidth.
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The third movement attempts to build community and links freely to sites
and organizations outside of itself. I recognize those sites in the
third category, that I like (and at my sole discretion) for their good
citizenship by placing their sites in boldface. If you are a good citizen
and I have not yet boldfaced your site, please demonstrate your good citizenship
with your good patience. Like everyone, I've stresses, strains, delays
and the normal business of life diverting me. (cf
if you doubt me.) And, of course,
e-mail me to encourage me to look at your site.
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(btw, if this looks like a description of the selfish/normative/selfless
model of human interaction in action, that is merely a coincidence).
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++ - site has merit, may not have strong esthetics and
may have other weaknesses. A good example is the Syracuse site which
is pretty weak in many ways (they even moved the home page without any forwarding
notice) -- but that has some sort of off-setting virtue.
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- -- Site is static. I tend to remove such
sites, but occasionally will keep a static site on the board.
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? -- Not sure if server/site still exists.
This means that I was once able to connect to the site, but have had serious
trouble getting through since (but that I am not getting DNS look-up
failures).
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