I am pleased to report that my web hoster has restored access for that set of IP addresses in the UK that were suspected of launching attacks on the site. I have also added the remaining Book Reviews to that section. And this site now appears as the seventh in importance in a Google search for ‘coldspur’. What a Thanksgiving! (November 26, 2008)
I have added two years’ worth of Book Reviews from the State Port Pilot. The remainder will be added over the next few weeks. And Google has started to reflect this site in its search engine – not comprehensively, yet, but it is a start! (November 25, 2008)
I have added tables that present the Top Tracks in various sequences, for ease of inspection. I have added a document that displays my running record of instances of Hyperbolic Contrast (see under Articles, Reports), improved the Mencken Chart (thanks, Bill!), and added some comments to that page. (November 23, 2008)
I have added a brief historical essay under Articles, Reports, and cleaned up the Playlists, which contained several errors, duplications, etc. I have also added a Playlist P, which brings the total to a temporary ugly number of 320 tracks. These may be weeded back, but more probably augmented in time to a round 360. I shall have an update on site unavailability early next week; meanwhile, any UK-based visitor who has been able to get here is encouraged to contact me! (November 22, 2008)
I apologize to my mass of UK-based visitors. The site has been unavailable for about ten days now, with inexplicable time-outs occurring. My web hoster has been unable to fix the problem. As I emailed him today: “I didn’t realize that, in the borderless world of 2008, accessibility to a site from all corners of the world had to be monitored by the site creator, relying on his or her intimate acquaintance and contact with individuals in all countries, and on the goodwill of those personnel, who may not be technically savvy, in agreeing to determine their IP addresses (which may not be readily available, especially if those individuals are accessing the Internet from inside security-conscious institutions), and taking the time to document their attempts at access in order for the provider even to investigate the reported problem.” Please email me as soon as you see this message! (November 19, 2008)
I have also been frustrated in my attempts to get Google to add the contents of my site to its indices. Google has not been able to report any problems with my site, but appears to favo(u)r sites that are directly linked to from other sites. To quote: “Your site is new and has few links to it. (Googlebot crawls the web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn’t well linked, it may be hard for us to discover it.)” But if other webmasters can find my site only through search engines such as Google, this sounds like a self-fulfilling prophesy. And I know that my site contains unique content not found anywhere else on the Web (such as the Mencken Chart.). Maybe if I submit something called a Site-Map, it will help. (November 19, 2008)
I have modified the table spaces used as areas for displaying documents. These should be much more easily read by all browsers, now, I believe. As always, I shall appreciate feedback. (November 19, 2008)
One of my objectives in putting up this site was for information to be made available via search engines. It has now been up a week, but Google (and the other major engines) still seem unaware of it. I have informed Google of my dissatisfaction, giving it the url to add to its spider list, but I am still waiting. Google has got this Yahoo business, and the lawsuit, out of its hair, so why doesn’t it get back to basics? A week? This is 2008, brothers! (Or do I have to pay them?!) (November 12, 2008)
I have started some improvement work, as astute visitors will have realized. Better colo(u)rs, and I have started to make the documents appear in narrower frames. Unfortunately, the site has been unavailable – in the UK, only, it seems – during the past twenty-fours. I continue to monitor the situation. (November 12, 2008)